It is well known that the first Earth Day in 1970, along with the grassroots mobilization and student activism that accompanied it, played an important role in fostering the proliferation of environmental studies programs in colleges and universities across the United States. In historical narratives of this proliferation, the role of anti-establishment students are typically highlighted and celebrated. These types of narratives are often used by campus environmentalists to rally a supportive community for their cause. Based on archival work and oral histories, my research reveals, however, that other actors and forces played crucial roles: conservation education forged during the 1930s created influential models that guided environmental programs. Post-WWII political economic trends were also crucial. Faculty understood environmental studies as a way to address real problems but also as a niche for garnering external research grants in an increasingly competitive funding atmosphere. Administrators deeply committed to their institutions and facing financial challenges responded to student demands for new and relevant curriculum but also hoped to attract students and their tuition dollars. Many campus leaders who galvanized environmental programs utilized their relationships with government officials, corporate leaders, philanthropic organizations, and wealthy individuals to do so. Efforts were also done in concert with broader campaigns in struggling rural areas to promote outdoor recreation economies. This history reveals that environmental studies programs have not simply struggled with but have embodied, through their initial formation, the tension between environmentalist visions of the profound transformation of American society and the realities of working within the established organizational structures, cultures, and political economies of higher education. A more careful assessment of this history might open possibilities for more imaginative and less polarizing forms of environmental political education and environmental politics more broadly, and create space for more varied visions of environmental wellness and community.