Proposition 17 – the initiative petition document (PDF)

In February 1974, the initiative petition to save the Stanislaus River became known as Proposition 17 and was certified for signature gathering. This launched an enormous grass roots effort that involved 30,000 volunteer signature gatherers collecting over 500,000 signatures within , who ultimately gathered over 500,000 signatures within five months of incredible effort (see here for the original send out letter).  While the measure failed to pass, it likely would have had the opposition campaign not created massive confusion, leading people to vote no when they meant yes.  This particular petition document was a leftover, submitted after the filing date by a San Diego volunteer.