The gathering drew a diverse group, from the son of the biologist who 50 years ago conceived of a system of federally protected rivers to the wife of the late U.S. senator who introduced the bill that now guards 388 miles of Snake River headwaters. Whitewater paddlers, anglers, oarsmen, biologists, businessmen, politicians and wildlife and wilderness lovers heard U.S. Sen. John Barrasso, of Wyoming, hail their coalition as critical to the bill he forged into law.

“This whole community made all the right moves,” Barrasso said, outlining how residents from all walks joined to support the designation. “What an honor it has been for me.”

Barrasso, appointed in 2007 to fill the seat of Sen. Craig Thomas who died that June, vowed to carry Thomas’ Snake River Headwaters bill forward and make it law. Barrasso renamed the legislation the Craig Thomas Snake Rivers Headwaters Legacy Act.

He gave credit to Thomas’ wife, Susan, for politicking to ensure the bill’s passage, which finally occurred this spring after a five-year campaign. She was persistent in calling key senators when the bill’s fate was threatened by former Sen. Larry Craig, of Idaho, who claimed the act would ruin irrigation, Idaho farms and, ultimately, agriculture itself.

Susan Thomas remembered her husband and the community he represented.

“You did well, my friends,” she said to applause. “Let the river remind us we all come together in the end.”

She later met Charlie Craighead, son of the late Jackson Hole biologist Frank Craighead who 50 years ago got the notion that some rivers ought to be preserved in their natural state. Along with his brother John, Frank Craighead fashioned the beginnings of the federal Wild and Scenic Rivers Act of 1968, which preserves waterways for their outstanding wild, scenic or recreational characteristics.

Teton County Commissioner Andy Schwartz adopted a historical perspective in observing that protection of the upper Snake River and its tributaries was part of a preservation heritage that included the Rockefeller family’s efforts to expand Grand Teton National Park.

“This is a big deal,” he told the group, “a little piece in the continuum, but this is a big deal.”

It will be up to the next generations to figure out what the next piece of the puzzle will be, he said.

Tom Patricelli, director of the Campaign for the Snake River Headwaters, recognized Scott Bosse, a former staffer for the Greater Yellowstone Coalition, for launching the campaign with a trip to Jackson where he marketed his concept. Bosse, a fisheries biologist who fought to rehabilitate salmon habitat on the lower Snake, has said that difficult battle led him to envision headwaters protection of a pristine environment.

Patricelli also recalled Craig Thomas as “a great man who left us too soon, a man whose commitment and vision made this day possible.”

Jackson angler and businessman Jack Dennis characterized the headwaters in testimony before the Senate in 2007 when he called the rivers and creeks “the most stunningly beautiful in the world.”

“These rivers touch our souls,” he told a Senate panel.