Throughout the history of the National Park Service there have been individuals that stepped up and help direct the course the park service would take, Frank Pinkley was one of those people. He was born in Missouri in 1881 and at 19 years old, he had a case of tuberculosis. His doctor told him to go to Arizona for 6 months to recover. Little did he know that this trip was going to be the start of a 40 year career with the National Park Service. One year after arriving in Arizona, Frank took his first park service job as caretaker of Casa Grande ruin. He would evenly become the superintendent of the Southwest National Monuments, a collection of 27 monuments over 4 states Arizona, New Mexico, Colorado and Utah. Frank Pinkley spent most of his career trying to increase visitation to the smaller parks and to get people to be made aware of what they had to offer. Frank knew that the larger parks like Yellowstone and the Grand Canyon, would have no problem with visitation with their natural beauty but to him, it was the small parks that so much more to offer people with their culture and forgotten history. On February 25th, 1932 Bandelier National Monument became the newest addition to the park service and fell under the supervision of Frank Pinkley. He knew exactly what he wanted to do with the monument, but because of the Great Depression funding was tight and his plans would have to wait. Pinkley saw Bandelier as a gateway to other monuments in the region. He hoped that the ruins Ancient Puebloan people would make people aware of what these smaller parks had to offer and they would visit other monuments in the area. In order to do this the public would need access to the canyon floor and there would need to be new facilities, infrastructure and trail systems. This was made possible by getting a Civilian Conservation Corps camp established at Bandelier in 1933. These young men would build the main road coming into the park as well all the buildings and trails that would be used by visitors and office staff. To this day the buildings built by the CCC at Bandelier are still single largest collection of CCC buildings in the park service. Frank Pinkley spent his career preserving monuments and coming up with creative ways to increase the number of people who could visit them. He was always shaping the future of the park service. In one of his quotes he said “In all this rushing and roaring around and growing into a bigger organization, let us watch carefully that the Park Service spirit, the spirit of service, doesn't evaporate." He died in 1940 while holding the first Southwestern National Monument custodial conference. During his opening speech he reflected over his career and thanked those that protected and promoted the monuments. He sat back down in his chair and he died of a massive heart attack. The last words he said was “May we leave this meeting three days hence with a bigger and broader comprehension of our work and a fixed determination to do it better this next year than it has ever been done before." Always looking to improve things all the way up to his last breath. |
Last updated: January 10, 2023