Agate Fossil Beds Administrative History

Interim Headquarters Development, 1967-1968

The 1967 visitor season began in earnest when Seasonal Ranger William W. Taylor returned for a second year on May 30. Superintendent Richard Holder hoped 1967 would be the last year of operating a temporary visitor center at the Agate Springs Ranch headquarters adjacent to Highway 29. With settlement of the Hoffman tract, bids for construction of a test well were opened on May 24 in San Francisco and Meder-Smith, Inc., of Alliance, Nebraska, was low bidder. [34] Work began on July 5, and on July 27, Richard Holder staged an onsite press conference to publicize the monument's first construction project. [35] A pumping test of the 200-foot well on August 8 revealed an excellent supply of water, producing 165 gallons per minute at maximum pump speed. [36] This was confirmed on August 11 after a final inspection by representatives of the State of Nebraska and the United States Geological Survey. [37]

With the first project finished, an informal August 20 ground breaking ceremony was held "chiefly to reassure the public that the monument is actually going ahead." [38] Symbolic spadefuls of earth were overturned by Margaret Cook and Earl Cherry, President of the Agate Fossil Beds National Monument Association. Participants expressed the hope that a more elaborate formal dedication could be held the following summer after the interim visitor facilities were in place. [39]

Communications between Scotts Bluff and the remote headquarters site at the base of the quarries beyond the Niobrara was a problem. Holder ruled against the installation of intrusive and expensive radio towers at both sites. He preferred to wait until December when Northwestern Bell Telephone Company crews could install underground cables and thereby provide normal telephone service to the area. [40]

At the end of October, the temporary visitor center trailer closed for the season having served 3,744 visitors. This represented a more than twenty-four percent increase in visitation over 1966 (3,013). Boundary line survey work concluded on October 12. [41]

Included in President Johnson's January 1968 budget to Congress was $60,200 for Agate Fossil Beds: $45,100 for management and $15,100 for maintenance. [42] A freeze on new Federal construction activity imposed in early February, however, caused much local alarm that the interim headquarters complex at Agate would be affected. Holder issued assurances that the Agate project would proceed as an authorized project because only $51,000 of the allocated $137,200 construction funds had been spent. [43] Nevertheless, Holder fielded constant media inquiries for exact dates on the beginning and completion of the spring construction program. [44]

Holder's assurances proved correct. During the third week of March, bid invitations for trailers were issued marking the "real beginning of construction-related activity." The contract to furnish three of the five trailers at the interim headquarters went to the A. C. Nelsen Company of Omaha. The positive news was tempered at the same time by an ominous disappointment in the land acquisition effort. With only Tract Nos. 3 and 7 (Cook estate) outstanding, the Service rejected a compromise offer submitted by the four co-owners and emphasized again the Service's commitment to acquire the land. Following an appeal by the Cook daughters to the Nebraska Congressional Delegation, Holder warned Fred Fagergren, "The owners are apparently preparing to resist in every possible way." [45]