Theodore Roosevelt Administrative History

1. Wilderness Proposal: Theodore Roosevelt National Memorial Park (Washington, DC: NPS, 1970), 7. In 1956 an access road was bladed to Achenbach Spring to facilitate the installation of a dish tank. "North Unit District Ranger Monthly Narrative Report," memorandum, 3 December 1956 (THRO-S).

2. Osmer, 2.

3. 1963 Master Plan, unpaginated.

4. Anthony Wayne Smith, introduction to Preserving Wilderness in Our National Parks (Washington, DC: National Parks and Conservation Association, 1971), ix.

5. "Staff Meeting Minutes," 6 September 1966, and 7 November 1966, 3; "Superintendent's Monthly Narrative Report," 14 September 1966, 6; and 12 October 1966, 6.

6. George M. Johnson, "The Badlands and Teddy's Park," Living Wilderness 31:96/97 (1967), 22-25.

7. Arthur L. Sullivan (Supt., THRO) to Reg. Dir. (MWRO), memorandums, 6 April and 2 May 1969 (THRO-S); and J. Stanley Fillmore (Acting Supt., THRO) to Reg. Dir. (MWRO), memorandum of 31 July 1969 (THRO-S). See also Final Environmental Statement: Proposed Wilderness, Theodore Roosevelt National Memorial Park (Omaha: MWRO, 1973), 34.

8. Sullivan to Reg. Dir. (MWRO), memorandum, 2 September 1967 (THRO-S).

9. Wilderness Proposal, 8.

10. McKenzie County Farmer, 19 November 1970. See also "Staff Meeting Minutes," 23 October 1970.

11. McKenzie County Farmer, 28 November 1970.

12. Ibid., 28 November and 3 December 1970.

13. The Wilderness Society, "Joint Announcement of Hearings: Theodore Roosevelt National Memorial Park Wilderness," unpublished leaflet, 18 November 1970.

14. Ibid.

15. Joseph L. Sax, Mountains Without Handrails: Reflections on the National Parks (Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press, 1980), 63.

16. "Transcript of Proceedings of Public Hearings on Park Wilderness Proposal, Theodore Roosevelt National Memorial Park, North Dakota," unpublished MS, December 1970 (THRO-A). Quote is from p. 60; Thompson's remarks from p. 19. See also pp. 39-46, 53, 56, 74-75, and 76-77.

17. "Transcript of Proceedings," 64, 50; and "Congressman Don Short," 65.

18. For the attitude of stockmen that public domain land is "theirs," see Phillip O. Foss, Politics and Grass: The Administration of Grazing on the Public Domain (New York: Greenwood Press, 1969), 18. Originally published by the University of Washington Press, 1960.

19. "Transcript of Proceedings," 26.

20. Ibid., 70. In the draft of his remarks, Stenehjem had "agitator" in place of "man from Washington." Scott was the Wilderness Society's liaison to the Theodore Roosevelt wilderness planning process. See Ibid., 27-30, 30-33, 36, 47-48, 50-53, and 61-64.

21. The only negative comment came from the Belfield Commercial Club, which introduced into the record a near-verbatim copy of the Watford City Association of Commerce position paper. Ibid., 115-118.

22. Ibid., 134-139 (Anderson) and 142-144 (Burgess).

23. Ibid., 122. See also 107-108, 110, 111, and 120-121.

24. Guy to Thompson, 8 January 1971, attached to Wilderness Recommendation: Theodore Roosevelt National Memorial Park, North Dakota (Washington, DC: NPS, 1972).

25. Thompson to Reg. Dir. (MWRO), memorandum, 30 January 1971 (THRO-S).

26. Of the 457 comments received during the allotted period:

— 340 favored enlarging the NPS proposal (74.4%);
— 55 favored the NPS proposal unchanged (12.0%);
— 23 expressed general support of wilderness (5.1%);
— 39 were against any designation of wilderness (8.5%).

A poll of the members of the Dickinson Chamber of Commerce produced this result:

— 47 favored the Wilderness Society's proposal (50.5%);
— 32 favored the NPS proposal (34.4%);
— 10 were against any wilderness designation (10.8%);
— 4 had no opinion (4.3%).

See, respectively, Wilderness Recommendation (1972), 29; Don Wanner (Dickinson Chamber of Commerce) to Hearing Officer (THRO), 6 January 1971 (THRO-A).

27. Thompson to Reg. Dir. (MWRO), 30 January 1971.

28. Wilderness Recommendation: Theodore Roosevelt National Memorial Park (Washington, DC: NPS, 1971).

29. Wilderness Recommendation (1972), 13-14, 27-28.

30. Ibid., 13-14. The buffer zone had been set aside to allow vehicles to enter the park for fence maintenance, but in 1970 it was decided to henceforward perform such tasks on foot or by horse access. Final Environmental Statement: Proposed Wilderness, 15.

31. Wilderness Recommendation (1972), 23-24.

32. Douglas W. Scott (Coordinator of Special Projects, the Wilderness Society) to J. Leonard Volz (Reg. Dir., MWRO), 27 October 1972.

33. Dan Davis (Chief, Public Affairs, MWRO) to John O. Lancaster (Supt., THRO), memorandum with draft letter and attached comments, 6 December 1972 (THRO-S). See also "Revised Statement of Significant Issues, Theodore Roosevelt Wilderness Proposal," unpublished MS, 27 February 1974 (THRO-S), 1.

34. Davis to Lancaster, 6 December 1972. MWRO wanted to present a united response and expressed "concern over revising [the] NPS position at this time." See also Robert D. Powell (Acting Supt., THRO) to Asst. Reg. Dir. (RMRO), memorandum, 28 February 1977 (THRO-A).

35. McKenzie County Farmer, 9 November 1972.

36. Lancaster to Joe Howe (no identification), memorandum, 27 February 1974 (THRO-S), 1. The rights were acquired on 12 September 1972, thus allowing seventy six hundred acres to be added to the proposal.

37. For dish tanks see Final Environmental Statement: Proposed Wilderness, 4; Charles A. Evans (U. S. Soil Conservation Service) to Volz, memorandum, 20 November 1972 (attached to the above, 40-41); Volz to James B. Thompson (Supt., THRO), memorandum, 25 May 1972; and Wilderness Recommendation (1972), 14. For weather modification, see Warren Fairchild (Bureau of Reclamation) to Volz, 21 November 1972 (attached to Final Environmental Statement: Proposed Wilderness, 38-39).

38. Legislative History of the National Parks and Recreation Act of 1978, 916.

39. U. S. Congress, Senate, Subcommittee on Parks and Recreation, 95th Cong., 2d sess., 26 July and 4 August 1978, Hearings on H. R. 12536, 118, 123, and 131.

40. Special Report: Re-evaluation of the South Unit for Wilderness, Theodore Roosevelt National Park (Denver: RMRO, 1980), 1-3.

41. Roderick Nash, Wilderness and the American Mind, revised ed. (New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 1973), x-xi. First edition 1967. See also p. 2.