Mount Rainier Administrative History

PART FOUR: DEPRESSION AND WAR YEARS, 1930-1945

X. VISITOR USE IN THE DEPRESSION ERA (continued)

THE OHANAPECOSH HOT SPRINGS COMPANY

The large addition to Mount Rainier National Park in January 1931 brought the natural feature known as Ohanapecosh Hot Springs under the jurisdiction of the park administration. The feature consisted of more than a dozen separate springs, some of them very hot, which drained into the Ohanapecosh River, deep in the lowland forest in what was now the southeast corner of the park. At that time the springs could be reached most easily from the town of Lewis (Packwood), Lewis County, at the end of a twelve-mile mountain road. Alternatively, the springs were sixteen miles by trail from Narada Falls. The springs were locally popular as a place to camp and bathe, attracting a few thousand visitors each year.

Early Interest in the Springs

The park administration had shown an interest in the Ohanapecosh Hot Springs long before the boundary extension in 1931. Park superintendents made repeated proposals--in 1913, 1916, 1919, and 1925-26--to extend the park boundary so as to include this area in the park. The original boundary of 1899 placed the hot springs a mere fifth of a mile outside the park. The ostensible reason for including the springs in the park was to give protection to the natural feature itself, but the overriding concern was to be able to control visitor access and use in the southeast corner of the park. As long as the springs remained just outside, it would be an easy thing for Lewis County residents to camp at the springs and hike across the park boundary--either intentionally or inadvertently--to hunt game. But each time the proposal for a boundary change surfaced, it ran into opposition from Lewis County residents and local developers. These opponents of the boundary extension claimed that the NPS was merely acting in the interests of the RNPC, which wanted to stifle development of the springs and protect its monopoly in the area. [58]

When the springs finally came under park administration in 1931, development of the springs already dated back many years (Chapter VIII). The earliest commercial tent camp at the springs was established by Mrs. R.M. O'Neal in 1913. Apparently it was a short-lived affair. [59] Three years later, Superintendent Reaburn noted that many people attributed therapeutic powers to the springs, but that "very little development work has been done on them." [60] In 1921, a local entrepreneur named N.D. Tower obtained a permit from the Forest Service to develop a resort at the springs. Tower's permit contained a 25 year lease. After a few years, Tower found an investor by the name of Dr. Albert W. Bridge and together they formed the Ohanapecosh Hot Springs Company. Bridge was owner of the Bridge Clinic in Tacoma. In the spring of 1924, Bridge and Tower hired a road crew to construct five and a half miles of road from Clear Fork to the hot springs, and that summer they opened a tent camp and a few cabins. In 1925, they built a small hotel and two bathhouses. According to an announcement in the Tacoma Ledger, the cedar-shake and log building was supposed to be a start toward "a great resort and sanitarium" which would acquire a national reputation "such as the Hot Springs in Arkansas." [61] Asahel Curtis offered a more realistic appraisal when he predicted to Superintendent Tomlinson that the development would "never amount to anything" unless a large company got involved. [62]

Park officials were unsure how to handle the Ohanapecosh concession when they inherited it from the Forest Service in 1931. It was clear that the Ohanapecosh development would remain small compared to the RNPC's developments at Paradise, Longmire, and Sunrise. The RNPC refused to have anything to do with it. Even the owner, Dr. Bridge, who bought out Tower's share in the company in the mid-1920s, seemed to be biding his time until the Eastside Road was completed. [63]

To make the situation still more problematic, local opinion about the concession was divided. The developers claimed to have strong local support for their enterprise, which they styled as a populist franchise challenging the monopolistic RNPC, whose profits they alleged were siphoned off by Seattle and Tacoma capitalists without any benefit to the people of Lewis County. But many people who actually used the springs did not appreciate the Ohanapecosh Hot Springs Company. They thought the government should provide campground, toilet, and bathhouse facilities for free rather than allow a concession to charge a fee for them. With the opening of the road to the springs in 1925, a considerable number of people with rheumatism and other maladies had started coming to the springs each summer, camping in a free public campground provided by the Forest Service, staying for weeks or months at a time, and paying the company twenty-five cents per day for use of its bathhouse and concrete-lined hot pools. These convalescents formed a summer community of as many as 135 people, all of whom favored free public access to the springs. [64]

In the early years of the Depression, Tomlinson showed some sympathy for these campers, even though they were not the typical kind of park visitor. He refused to let the concessioner build new cabins in the area of the free camp sites, even though this area was too hummocky for a good campground, because it would require moving the campers farther away from the springs. Tomlinson explained to Bridge and his architect that this was undesirable "due to the fact that many of the campers are crippled with rheumatism and other diseases and want to have their camps as close as possible to the bath house." Moreover, Tomlinson wanted the company to provide two classes of baths with one at a lower rate "to meet the demands of poor people who claim they cannot afford even to pay that much, but feel that the Government should provide free bathing service." [65] On the other hand, Tomlinson showed no inclination for the NPS to take over this service from the concession.

A Second Park Concession

As a result of all these circumstances, the boundary addition in 1931 brought a second concession into the park which did not fit the mold of the NPS concession policy established under Mather. The Ohanapecosh Hot Springs Company was a throwback to the type of rustic resort hotel such as James Longmire had built. It was also akin to the small, family-owned resorts that began appearing along highways and lakeshores in the national forests in this era. NPS planners disparagingly referred to such developments as "topsy" because of the disorderly or topsy-turvy way that the buildings and grounds usually developed.

The Ohanapecosh Lodge was built in 1925 and became a secondary park concession after the Ohanapecosh area was added to the park in 1931. It was removed in the early 1960s. (Photo courtesy of University of Washington.)

This is not to say that the Ohanapecosh development was ignored by the Park Service's landscape architects and engineers. Rather, the concession s small size limited how much could be done with it. The concession was permitted to continue operating with a minimum of improvements to the existing facilities. A sawmill was removed in 1934, and an oil house was taken out in 1938, but other improvements to the site were postponed until the Eastside Road neared completion. [66] In 1939, the Ohanapecosh Hot Springs Company added five new cabins to the existing twenty, improved the employee quarters in the lodge, and built a five-car garage. In 1941, the company completed seven more cabins. [67] Despite these improvements, however, the development remained substandard. It would be a growing embarrassment to the park administration until its closure in 1960.

THE ORDEAL OF THE RAINIER NATIONAL PARK COMPANY

The partnership of public and private investment which had underpinned the development of Mount Rainier National Park in the 1920s was superseded by a matrix of federal relief programs in the 1930s. The Seattle and Tacoma businessmen who served on the board of directors of the RNPC saw their influence ebb rapidly as NPS officials concerned themselves less with private capital and more with the federal administrators who held the purse strings of the Emergency Conservation Work (ECW), Public Works Administration (PWA), Civil Works Administration (CWA), Emergency Relief Administration (ERA), and other New Deal agencies.

The RNPC's stockholders, meanwhile, found their hopes for a large return on their investment blighted by the Depression. As the company's outlook changed, they began to wonder how they could tactfully extricate themselves from such a public-spirited yet unprofitable venture. The financial misfortunes of the RNPC held longterm consequences for the park, because twenty years later it would become necessary for the federal government to buy the company's buildings and lease them back to the RNPC in order to keep the concession operational. Therefore, the nature and finances of this company are significant to the park's administrative history.

Reversal of Fortune

Company spokespersons insisted that the progressive-minded businessmen and women of the Puget Sound region who had launched the RNPC had done so with little thought of private gain; rather, they had responded to Mather's summons to develop the national park for the economic return it would bring to the region. These spokespersons pointed out that the company's elected officers served without compensation, and that the stockholders had thus far received negligible dividends as most of the RNPC's profits were plowed back into the expanding enterprise during the 1920s. [68] But the RNPC was comprised of longterm investors. The company's financial records show that it posted strong yearly profits as total revenues climbed impressively from 1916 to 1929. There should be little doubt that the RNPC management was motivated by considerations of profit and loss just like the management of any other company.

The effects of the Depression on the RNPC were profound. During the worst years of the Depression the RNPC's gross revenues shriveled to about one quarter of what they had been in 1929. In six out of ten years of the Depression decade the company lost money. In 1933, the company's indebtedness was so severe that it was barely able to scrounge together enough capital to open for business that summer. The Depression was all the more stunning to company officials because the preceding decade had been so full of promise. For the whole 1920-29 period, the RNPC averaged an annual gross revenue of $437,000 with a net profit of approximately 17 percent. Stockholders were told that when all the approach roads to the park were completed, the company's business would quadruple. [69] As it turned out, the 1920s were the RNPC's heyday. The company would suffer further financial reverses during the war years and again in the early 1950s. It would never approach the level of business that its founders had anticipated. After grossing more than a half million dollars in 1925, it would not pass that mark again until the late 1950s. In a sense, the Depression delivered a blow from which the company never recovered.

But the company's problems went deeper than that. They also had to do with changing visitor demand. As discussed in Chapter IX, the RNPC was asked to undertake an ambitious five year development plan in 1928. The commercial tent camp at Paradise was to be upgraded to housekeeping cabins at the same time that a new, first-class hotel was to be built near Nisqually Vista. In addition, the company agreed to undertake another major development at Sunrise. To finance this $2.5 million scheme, the RNPC tried to enlist the four transcontinental railroads serving the Pacific Northwest. When that failed, the company scaled back its five year development plan to something that could be financed by local capital. The RNPC was stretched thin trying to modernize its accommodations at the very time that the economy crumbled. [70]

The concessioner built more than 400 cabins at Paradise and Sunrise in the early 1930s. They were not popular with visitors and did not stand up well under the heavy snowloads. Removed in 1944, they left lasting impressions in the meadows. (Photo courtesy of Mount Rainier National Park.)

After borrowing heavily to pay for new lodges and cabins at Paradise and Sunrise, the RNPC was some $375,000 in debt. The company tried to increase its stock but could find no new subscribers as the business climate worsened. Desperate for cash, the company tried to borrow $350,000 through an issue of $500 notes that would mature at six percent in five years. [71] The RNPC's new president, Alexander Baillie, urged the four railroads to subscribe to 1,000 notes apiece. NPS Director Albright wrote to the president of the Northern Pacific, Charles Donnelly, asking that his railroad loan $200,000 to the RNPC. After months of haggling, the four railroads finally tried to appease the RNPC and the Park Service with token loans of $2,000 apiece. Altogether, the RNPC raised a mere $30,000 in notes. In 1933, the RNPC appealed to Secretary of the Interior Harold Ickes for a loan from the Reconstruction Finance Corporation (RFC), but since a large part of the money was needed to retire the company's debts the RFC could not help out. [72]

Meanwhile, the company was faced with shrinking business revenues. Brand new housekeeping cabins stood empty through the summer; a newly redecorated and refurnished Paradise Inn experienced room vacancies on weekends in July; waitresses and busboys stood around with nothing to do in the inn's elegant dining room. The RNPC's account books were awash in red ink: a $69,000 loss in 1931, $91,000 in 1932, $73,000 in 1933. Superintendent Tomlinson could do little more than offer the company praise and encouragement. He wrote in his annual report of 1931:

The improvements and new equipment provided by the Public Utility Operator during a time of serious business depression throughout the country are indicative of the progressive attitude of Company officials. Although business was far below expectations, the impression gained by visitors as to the fine accommodations now available places the company in an excellent position to meet the needs of visitors when conditions return to normal. There were more expressions of approval of the Operator's facilities this year than during any other year, and I desire to here acknowledge my personal appreciation of the fine spirit of cooperation shown by directing officials of the Rainier National Park Company. [73]

Mitigative Measures

The company looked for ways to cut operating expenses. Transportation service between Seattle, Tacoma, and Portland and the park was turned over to the North Coast Transportation Company in 1931. That company had fully-enclosed, 32-passenger busses. Passengers transferred from the large busses to the RNPC's open-air, 14-passenger stages at Longmire. Tomlinson considered this arrangement an improvement because the large busses were more comfortable for the long drive while the stages gave passengers a better view of the scenery from Longmire to Paradise. [74]

The company proposed to sell to the government its hydroelectric plant on the Paradise River. [75] This proposal took the form of a bill, which Washington's Senator Wesley Jones introduced in the Senate on December 14, 1931 [76] At the annual meeting of the board of directors in January 1932, it was suggested that the Seattle and Tacoma chambers of commerce be requested to lobby for the bill through their representatives in Washington, D.C. Albright also supported the proposal. In a memorandum written for the Secretary of the Interior, Albright explained that the company had used the majority of the electrical power supply when the plant was built in 1915. Now with the lighted public campground and numerous administrative and residential buildings at Longmire, the situation was reversed, with the government using most of the plant's power-generating capacity. Albright informed Secretary of the Interior Ray Lyman Wilbur that it was the government's policy to own such power plants in the national parks, and moreover, the purchase would provide the company with much-needed capital. [77] This bill failed to pass.

In August 1932, General Manager Sceva and RNPC President Baillie wrote to the Secretary of the Interior to request a waiver of the $2,000 annual franchise fee. "We rather feel we are partners of the Government in maintaining these facilities for the comfort and convenience of visitors," Baillie wrote. "I am not using idle words when I say that if this charge is not eliminated from our contract it will be impossible to raise money from the public to create increased facilities." [78] This request was politely refused. Assistant Secretary Joseph M. Dixon reminded Baillie that the RNPC had been allowed a smaller franchise fee than the Curry Company of Yosemite when the RNPC's new contract was negotiated in 1928. [79]

Company officials had to adjust their expectations for the new development at Sunrise. Even after the plan for the Sunrise Lodge was scaled down from the original plan of a large, deluxe hotel, it was opened in July 1931 with some $50,000 of interior finishing yet to be completed. The new building contained a cafeteria-style food service, baths, supply store, post office, and employee quarters, but no guest rooms. Uphill from the lodge were 215 housekeeping cabins.

To attract business to this new development the RNPC began marketing the Sunrise development as a dude ranch. The company brochure stated, "Memories of the Old West are revived and experienced in the Sunrise Dude Ranch where real western riders entertain and lead you on many interesting trips." Yakima Park was billed as a former cattle range abounding in "romantic legends." The Mount Rainier Mining Company's idle works in Glacier Basin were styled the "Ghost Gold Mine" and were the destination of moonlit horseback rides. A small box canyon called Devil's Hole was claimed to have been a hideout for rustlers, where two badmen were said to have defended themselves against an attack by a large posse of local townsmen. [80] This kind of exploitation of the national park was not in keeping with the purpose of the park concession, but under the circumstances park officials did not object to it. Indeed, the design theme of the new administrative buildings at Sunrise, which commemorated the Indian past in Yakima Park by the use of a dubious frontier-blockhouse architectural style, only contributed to the hype.

An important thrust of the RNPC's new marketing effort at Sunrise was its offering of a weekly rate that included cabin, meals, and a horse, all in one package. The aim, once again, was to attract easterners to Mount Rainier. The RNPC also coordinated its publicity and sales efforts with the transcontinental railroads, offering all-expense fares that included two and three days' accommodations at Mount Rainier in the cost of a railroad ticket. These tickets could be purchased at any railroad office or travel agency in the United States and Canada. Beginning in 1932, RNPC officials persuaded the Seattle, Tacoma, and Yakima chambers of commerce to help pay the cost of the company's promotional literature. [81]

Meanwhile, on the south side of the mountain, the company adjusted its rates and schedules to appeal to a local clientele. During the 1933 season the guide service at Paradise was greatly curtailed, the photograph business was not opened, and most guest services were concentrated at the Paradise Lodge, the inn being used only for overflow guests on weekends. These drastic measures lasted just one season, and succeeded in trimming the company's losses from what they had been the year before despite the fact that park visitation fell to its lowest point during the whole Depression.

Government Purchase of the Longmire Tract

Park administrators had been urging that the government purchase the Longmire Springs property since the early years of the national park. The privately-owned tract, or inholding, flew in the face of the basic national park concept of public ownership of the land. The more cluttered the Longmire property became, the more it undermined the purposes of the national park. Indeed, a case could be made that the old Longmire Springs Hotel was an example of the very kind of unsightly development that Cornelius Hedges and his companions had had in mind during their legendary discussion beside the Madison River in Yellowstone when they pledged themselves to work for the creation of the nation's first national park. It is rather surprising, given the centrality of public ownership to the national park idea, that Congress was so reluctant to appropriate funds for the purchase of inholdings like the Longmire property.

In 1927, Congress finally appropriated $50,000 for purchases of private lands in national parks, with the stipulation that fifty percent of each purchase must come from private donations. That year Mather approached the RNPC about buying the Longmire property, based on a fifty-fifty split and a $30,000 option price. The RNPC countered that it would donate $15,000 if the government would remit its $2,000 franchise fee yearly until the company was reimbursed. This was unsatisfactory to Mather and the matter was allowed to rest. [82]

Six years later, the RNPC's president, Alexander Baillie, reopened the issue with Director Cammerer, suggesting that the property owners themselves might be willing to make a donation. "I think it would not be difficult to get the Longmire Mineral Springs Company to put a reasonable price on their property and then cut the price in two, which I understand is the usual procedure where the National Park Service is acquiring property in or adjoining the National Parks," Baillie wrote. The owners placed a value of $100,000 on the land, and would likely accept $50,000 from the government, he thought. [83] At this stage it was difficult to judge whether Baillie was motivated by concerns about adverse use of the land or by a desire for personal gain: he neglected to mention that the Longmire Mineral Springs Company had bought the land from the Longmire family for about $60,000, and that his wife was a 25 percent owner in that company. In any case, Assistant Director Arthur E. Demaray rejected the $100,000 value as unrealistic. [84]

One year later, in 1934, Cammerer received a communication directly from the Longmire Mineral Springs Company's president, a Tacoma lumberman named Frost Snyder. Cammerer was willing to deal if the property was reappraised. Nearly a year later, Tomlinson reported to the director that he and Snyder had been able to settle--"after considerable delay, numerous conferences, and much investigation"--on an appraisal of $55,000. Evidently both the Longmire Mineral Springs Company and the RNPC hoped that the other would donate half the purchase price, and negotiations stalled once more. In 1936, the RNPC tried to have the property reappraised at $100,000, expecting the owners to settle on a basis of $50,000. [85]

These protracted negotiations reached a critical stage in 1937. With the RNPC's 20-year lease soon to expire, Cammerer and Baillie both displayed less and less patience with one another. Baillie urged the NPS to secure an emergency appropriation that would allow it to pay 100% of the option price. Cammerer reiterated his request that the RNPC contribute half, noting that the Curry Company had made an analogous donation for the purchase of the Wawona properties in Yosemite. [86] Baillie did not even acknowledge the director's request, but coolly replied:

I may tell you that the public are very much aroused over the possibility of the Longmire Mineral Springs property falling into the hands of a resort crowd and there is much criticism of the National Park Service for not acquiring the property at its appraised value when you had the opportunity to do so. And I think if you have another appraisal of it the price will be more than doubled. And with no restrictions as to what could be placed on the property except the restrictions of the State, one can't foresee what may happen.

Does Mr. Ickes understand the situation? [87]

It was well-known that Cammerer had an uncomfortable relationship with the irascible Secretary of the Interior, and Baillie's final remark was clearly barbed. Cammerer duly instructed his assistant director, G.A. Moskey, to review the now-voluminous file on the Longmire property and prepare a memorandum. In late October, Cammerer and Tomlinson discussed the Longmire property with Baillie and Paul Sceva in person at the Rainier Club in Seattle. Now it was Cammerer's turn to bait Baillie: he wondered aloud whether the RNPC president was acting primarily in the interest of his wife's 25 percent share in the Longmire Mineral Springs Company? Baillie resented this, but the men nevertheless reached an agreement. The property was assessed at $60,000, and Cammerer promised to seek a special appropriation by Congress for the government's share of $30,000, while Baillie promised to urge the Longmire Mineral Springs Company to grant the U.S. government a one-year option to purchase. [88]

The RNPC's general manager, Paul Sceva, believed that the deal was still very tenuous. He contacted local conservation groups, chambers of commerce, and Representatives John M. Coffee and Charles H. Leavy of Washington in an effort to create public support for the deal. [89] Sceva's letter to J.J. Underwood, the Seattle Chamber of Commerce's lobbyist in Washington, D.C., suggests how serious the situation had become:

...The owners of the property, the Longmire Mineral Springs Company, with Mr. Frost Snyder, of Tacoma, as its President, has [sic] determined to get some revenue from this area and has offered it for sale in whole or in part. The area can easily be divided into one hundred lots that would readily sell to the public at a price from $1,000 to $2,000 per lot. I am of the opinion that the whole area could be sold within ninety days and undoubtedly bring the owners from $110,000 to to [sic] $120,000 by such means.

Fortunately, Mr. Alexander Baillie's wife owns 24% of the stock of the Longmire Mineral Springs Company. She is a public spirited woman and a lover of National Parks, and through her influence she has been able to talk down the aggressiveness of Mr. Snyder in his method of selling this area without giving the National Park Service an opportunity to buy it. Furthermore, she has been able to have that company grant to the National Park Service an opportunity to buy for one year from this date at a price of $60,000. I understand the Longmire Mineral Springs Company paid approximately $60,000 for this area years and years ago.

If the National Park Service is unable to exercise the option and purchase the area, the method referred to above of selling will undoubtedly come to pass and then we will have virtually a Coney Island right in the center of Mount Rainier National Park. To my personal knowledge, I know of one man who offered $2,000 for a plot of this area fifty by seventy. He wanted to install a beer tavern. I know of another one who offered $2,000 for a small area around the soda springs and he intends, if he is successful in his purchase, to build a tavern with the soda spring in the middle of it, using the soda spring water for a soda fountain and other uses. The warm springs would probably be utilized for bath houses. Undoubtedly there will be gas stations, repair shops, curio stands, hot dog stands, dance halls and everything imaginable, because the general public believes there are great profits to be made in individual business in the Park. I am of the opinion that any purchaser of any of these lots could make a very good living out of his endeavor because he would not be burdened with any expense of publicity, promotion fees or whatnot. The purchasers would merely tie on to the tail of the kite of the Rainier National Park Company and pick off any business that they could get from the two or three hundred thousand people who go right through this area every year.... [90]

Finally, by the Act of March 9, 1938, Congress appropriated $30,000 for the purchase of the Longmire property. [91] More than a year later, on June 15, 1939, Tomlinson notified Cammerer that Check No. 5,683,886 had been received and delivered to Snyder's partner, C.L. Dickson, treasurer of the Longmire Mineral Springs Company. Tomlinson concluded his message, "Custody of the land and responsibility for its protection and maintenance was accepted today by the National Park Service." [92]

The perilously long delay in acquiring this land may be attributable in part to the attitude of Secretary Ickes. In his "Secret Diary," Ickes fretted about the way the NPS acquired land parcels like the one in Mount Rainier. According to Ickes, park officials would employ an appraiser who "would determine the value of the property to be purchased, then double that value on the basis of an understanding with the owner that half of the doubled value would represent a contribution to the National Government." As a result, alleged Ickes, "the Government would be paying the full, fair and reasonable values of the property instead of fifty percent of it." [93] The official record suggests that Ickes's suspicion was in this case unfounded.

Disappointment with the Winter Season

Mount Rainier's winter season was like a gambling habit for the RNPC: year after year the company officers ruefully tabulated the RNPC's losses during the past winter's operation and then talked themselves into trying it again. The Paradise Inn was available for use and the snow conditions were superb; it stood to reason that the company would do well to extend its operation through the winter. Unfortunately, local skiers did not spend a lot of money while they were in the park, and profits eluded the RNPC. [94]

The company liked to blame the Park Service for making it offer services to the public which were unprofitable, but the fact was that RNPC officials consistently pushed for a winter season, first at Longmire and later at Paradise. They believed that the national park must establish a market; a profitable level of business would develop in due course. The construction of the Paradise Lodge went forward with high hopes of developing a big winter season at Paradise. When winter business failed to materialize, company officials decided that a promotional campaign was required. The RNPC advertised winter sports in Mount Rainier. [95] It leased housekeeping cabins and rooms in the Paradise Lodge for the entire winter season for nominal rates of $30 to $60. The plan was inaugurated for the winter of 1933-34. Superintendent Tomlinson gave it his full support. "This policy of low cost accommodations and the maintenance of a winter road to within 1-1/4 mile of Paradise Lodge are doing more than anything else to increase interest in winter sports in the Park," he wrote in his annual report. [96]

By the end of the 1930s, RNPC officials were feeling discouraged about the winter season. Probably Sceva or someone else with a close involvement in the company was responsible for an editorial in the Tacoma News Tribune, on November 28, 1938, which blamed the government for the RNPC's troubles. "Years ago the government called on the citizens of Tacoma and Seattle to help in the building of a recreation resort at the mountain," the editorial began. Now the federal government was investing heavily in recreation areas, creating unfair competition. Timberline Lodge on Oregon's Mount Hood was the most flagrant example; ski resorts built by government-subsidized railroads were another. At Mount Rainier, meanwhile, the RNPC had incurred a debt of more than $300,000; its old buildings were in need of rehabilitation. [97] The sense of betrayal in this editorial probably reflected the views of the company. The company's president, Alex Baillie, confided to a business associate, "Between you and me and the gatepost, I have been pretty much disgusted with the attitude of the National Park Service in regard to our problems, and while I am optimistic about the future of the Rainier National Park, we don't get very much help from the 'powers that be' in Washington." [98 ] Company officials were in no mood to cooperate with the Park Service on a winter use policy.

Many Washington residents resented the Rainier National Park Company's monopoly in the park. Here the company is depicted as an octopus barring all access roads to the mountain except the road to Paradise. (M. Tackaberry cartoon from the Washington Sportsman, vol.3 no.9, November 1937.)

After World War II, Washington residents who wanted skiing facilities at Mount Rainier would demand that the concession either provide this public need or step aside so others could do so. These promoters would attack the NPS for coddling the RNPC and perpetuating a private monopoly that they alleged was against the public interest, a charge that had not been heard since the early 1920s. After the war there would also be a whole new cast of characters: John Preston replaced Tomlinson as superintendent in 1941; Newton B. Drury became the next director of the NPS after Cammerer's retirement in 1940; Paul Sceva would become president of the RNPC after Baillie's death in 1949; and the editor of The Washington Motorist, Roger Freeman, would emerge as the Puget Sound region's most voluble booster after Asahel Curtis died in 1941. Yet, as this issue swelled into the dominant management concern in Mount Rainier National Park in the postwar period, its roots could be found in the 1930s, when Pacific Northwesterners discovered the sport of downhill skiing and the RNPC discovered the vagaries of the winter tourist season.