It was 50 years ago today President Richard Nixon signed the Endangered Species Act.
The law charged the federal government with saving every endangered plant and animal in America.
The Act helped to save the tiny fish known as a snail darter. The fish caused havoc with TVA which was building the Tellico Dam on the Tennessee River in East Tennessee.
The snail darter was considered to be endangered and protected under the Act and construction had begun on the dam was in 1967. After the Supreme Court heard the case and sided with the snail darter, Congress passed an exception to the Act and the dam was finally finished in 1979 which has brought millions of dollars in tourism for that region.
