This review touches on a part of watershed history that has been forgotten, 1938 until 1972 with some attention to the 1912 to 1938 period. There were six decades of experiment and trial and error by engineers, scientists, and medical personnel of the United States Public Health Service. It reviews as well the renewal of the watershed concept by the EPA, the transference of watershed planning from the programs prior to 1972 to Areawide (208) watershed planning and, within the last half decade, to the current EPA watershed development program.