Concerned citizens organized the Save The St. Croix Association in 1964 to protect the St. Croix River's scenic valley and excellent water quality from encroaching development. In 1972, the United States Congress designated 27 miles of the St. Croix River, from its confluence with the Mississippi to Taylors Falls, as part of the National Wild and Scenic Rivers system. Because the public that supported protection of the St. Croix should have access to it, citizens led by Carl Pemble, president of Save The St. Croix, and Jim Harrison, executive director of the Minnesota-Wisconsin Boundary Area Commission, urged the Wisconsin Natural Resources Board to designate this land as a Wisconsin state park. Kinnickinnic State Park was established in 1972 with support from the landowners Arthur and Evelyn Anderson, Homer and Mildred Creswell, Clarence and Bertha Kuschel, George and Wilma Richter, and Carl and Alice Pemble, assuring future generations access to the beautiful scenery and clean waters of the Kinnickinnic and St. Croix Rivers.