Big Bend Administrative History

Wartime exigencies also revived the issue of water-storage reservoirs on the Rio Grande within the boundaries of the future national park. Paul Brown and Minor Tillotson had traveled to El Paso in May to meet with Lawrence Lawson of the IBC. Among the topics discussed were "the possibilities of dam construction and power development on the Rio Grande in the Big Bend area." Although there originally had been a dam projected in or near Boquillas Canyon, the tentative plan now would place this farther downstream near Sanderson. In so doing, the IBC would "take advantage of the inflow to the river between Boquillas and Sanderson, to shorten the length of transmission lines necessary, and to locate the dam site at a point where it would be more accessible to rail and other transportation." Tillotson then received in late August a copy of Confidential Bulletin No. 112, issued by the National Resources Planning Board (NRPB). This contained what the regional director called "a description of a proposed dam 'on the Rio Grande at Big Bend Area south of Marathon, Texas.'" Tillotson thus inquired of Lawson whether "tentative plans have again been changed or if the description of the project mentioned in Bulletin No. 112 is erroneous." The IBC commissioner eased Tillotson's fears by reporting that his survey crews would work south of Sanderson to the juncture of the Rio Pecos and the Rio Grande, and noticed that the NRPB had sought a comparison in cost of a dam near Boquillas with the preferred site at Del Rio. [34]

Pressure for increased access to natural resources to support the war effort extended to criticism of NPS policies prohibiting production of candelilla. Drew Pearson, a nationally syndicated columnist for the Washington Post, wrote a column that appeared in the Dallas News of October 26 entitled, "Gas Masks or Parks?" Pearson, whose "Washington Merry-Go-Round" columns were read by millions weekly, noted that "'to make a scaling compound for gas masks, the War Department requires a certain wax obtained from the candelilla plant, found only in hot, arid regions.'" The columnist had learned from Charles T. Wilson, whom he described as a "'New York millionaire,'" that the latter had leased property in the Big Bend area "'for exploitation of the plant.'" This included construction of "'a factory near Marathon, Texas,'" with Wilson's employees sent out to "'gather the weeds which heretofore nobody had been interested in except the burros.'" Then Wilson claimed that "'officials of the State of Texas intervened saying the property was desired as part of the Big Bend National Park,'" with "'Wilson and his wax gatherers . . . ordered off the premises.'" Pearson complained that "'so now the deer and antelope, instead of gas-mask wearers, will have the benefit of the candelilla.'" [35]

Eugene Thompson responded to Pearson's column by noting in correspondence with Conrad Wirth that "since all newspapers had given the Park so much favorable publicity any controversy should be guarded against." The state parks board believed that "whatever harm the article would cause had already been done and that any correction or retraction that Mr. Pearson might make now would not reach the same people his original article reached." Yet the state parks board wanted Wirth and NPS officials to know that "Mr. Pearson's article left the impression that Mr. Wilson had discovered some valuable plant that could be used in the construction of gas-masks and built an expensive plant." Thompson disagreed, noting that candelilla "is plentiful and is used primarily for floor wax while the plant he built was cheap junk and as far as we know never paid for." [36]

Charles Wilson's complaint that Big Bend National Park denied him access to wartime resources had a more humorous counterpart in the rumor that the NPS would construct within the park an exact duplicate of the "Jersey Lily" saloon. Regional director Tillotson had learned of this story from E.R. Beck, of Fort Hancock, Texas, and asked the NPCI's W.W. Thompson his thoughts on the matter. "From your knowledge of the West," wrote Tillotson on December 22, 1942, "or from having seen Gary Cooper in 'The Westerner,' you probably know something of the self-styled 'Judge' Roy Bean who set himself up as 'the law West of the Pecos,' dispensing justice in his own peculiar style from behind the bar of his saloon known as the 'Jersey Lily.'" Tillotson noted that "this structure still stands in the little town of Langtry, Texas, where it has been preserved by the State as a historic site." The regional director wrote that "the Big Bend is 'West of the Pecos' and in the general region over which Judge Bean held judicial sway," and that "it is our hope to preserve in the Big Bend area the spirit of Texas frontier days." With that in mind, Tillotson wondered of Thompson if "it might not be altogether out of place to have, instead of a cocktail lounge that would go with the usual type of hotel concession, an old-time Texas frontier saloon built as a replica of the 'Jersey Lily.'" Tillotson knew that "under present legislation there are no open bars in Texas for the sale of hard liquor," and that "the sale of liquor in the original package and of beer over a bar is regulated by local option," although Brewster County allowed such sales. Tillotson told Thompson that he had not seen the saloon that Beck wanted to sell to the NPS, but promised in closing: "If this bar were properly stocked with some of your well-known Kentucky products, I would like to own it personally." [37]

Of all the suggestions for wartime use of Big Bend and its future NPS site, none had the emotional power of a haven for wounded veterans. Bert Clark of Houston, Texas, who identified himself to NPS director Drury as a park service "collaborator," or private citizen advising the service on matters of policy, suggested that Big Bend "be made an up to date natural playground, a resort in fact but entirely different from our present Parks." Clark wanted NPS planners to "eliminate the costly installations, the old mid-Victorian hostelers, [and] the COSTS of visiting the Park." Instead the Houston-based collaborator would "simplify it, use the salvaged materials from the war, set up a lot of comfortable, clean houses like an auto camp but more detached, a play ground for children, and landing fields for planes, radio telegraph with the outside." These unusual accommodations Clark would offer to "ex-service men and their families at costs which could be met from their pensions." Clark considered his plan "an outstanding thing, not entirely a philanthropy or a health resort from the military standpoint, but nevertheless a haven of refuge for these washed-out men who have given their all to our Nation." Beyond these permanent residents, Clark "would likewise make it attractive to the week-ender, the man who can put his family there for the entire summer and commute by plane back and forth." Clark believed that this "revolutionary" dream "would make this Texas park a model of inexpensive perfection." [38]

Though Clark's plan bordered on the absurd, several of his observations attracted the attention of NPS officials. "Thousands of our lads will fly planes after this war," he told Drury, and he would "expressly stipulate in any concession to air-lines that this field is open to all comers, no monopoly," with a "passenger fare so low it could be used." Clark argued that "there are nineteen cities in Texas that can contribute a summer population to this park that will fill it." To do so would allow Texans to "enjoy our God given out of doors even for a day or two without a long, costly, burdensome journey to the distant mountains, always overcrowded." Clark worried that "the cost of visiting our present Parks can in many instances, be indulged but once in a life-time by great masses of our people who should enjoy these National projects paid for out of the National Treasury." Big Bend would have "a commissary where a meal can be had, an Army meal, for fifty cents." This Clark believed would eliminate "the Old Faithful dining-rooms and linen, the El Tovar." Clark had observed this elitism in his travels throughout the West, leading him to warn Drury: "The fights for lunch-counter food in the 'quick & dirties' is a disgrace, not to be vouched for by a Federal agency." He preferred to mimic "the auto camps in Arizona, California and elsewhere," describing the arrangement as "just a comfortable camping out place in grand natural surroundings, a respite from cities and heat." [39]

In Clark's dream of a utilitarian Big Bend, he would "surround this park with a game preserve, too large for the park's accommodations to be used as a spring-board to slaughter that game lured by salt-licks or otherwise, to the edge of the park." His goal would be "to create a distance too great to permit of the installations and operations of brothels, honky-tonks, rackets, etc. such as at Jackson, Wyoming near Yellowstone, and those near Sun Valley - a private enterprise, glamour." Clark wanted to "blot out these incubators of disease and worse, [to] keep Big Bend clean." The Houston collaborator contended that "the motor tourist in many of our Western trips, is sunk if he fails to gain the inside of a National Park before nightfall." Then the unwary visitor "just becomes so much fodder for these racketeers; remote, no chance to escape unless he carries his own camp outfit and even then it cannot always be used." Clark acknowledged that "the elaborate installations such as those at Zion [National Park in Utah] are not available to masses of people." Its lodges "are grand of course," said Clark, "but built for the accommodation of a wealthy patronage." Similar problems awaited Big Bend if the railroads developed transportation links to the park. Clark concluded that "Big Bend to my mind, offers the thing for which there is a great demand - the availability of the open to the masses." He claimed that "horse back riding is craved by youngsters and it is healthy, in that environment." Clark reiterated his desire for inexpensive transportation by air, with similar economies in visitor accommodations. "I would make the costs so low that all could afford it," said the Houston collaborator, "still keeping it neat, sweet and clean but free of elaborate, monumental, outstanding luxuries to which the masses are not accustomed nor do they want it." Clark had "traveled much, observed, shared the great benefits which a grand Government has established for me." In return, he asked the NPS to "popularize Big Bend - that would be the target at which I would set my sights." [40]

Bert Clark's vision of a worker's paradise on the border with Mexico did not fit with the plans of the NPS as the opening of Big Bend neared. By June of 1943, the state parks board announced that enough deeds had been executed to permit local park promoters to hold a transfer ceremony with the Interior department. Isabelle Story, editor in chief of the NPS, drafted a press release recounting the wonders of Big Bend, and the benefits accruing to the state of Texas for its work in acquiring 697,684 acres of private land. The park service wanted it known that Secretary Ickes appreciated the Lone Star state's diligence in spite of "successive periods of financial stringency, tense defense preparations, and actual war conditions." Ickes was certain that the state parks board could acquire the 15,236 acres still outstanding "which the National Park Service considers vital to the project." Isabelle Story then outlined the attractions of the nation's 27th national park. To familiarize newspaper readers across the country, the NPS noted that "Boquillas, in the southeastern part of the park, lies in the latitude of Daytona Beach, Florida," a reference to the popular tourist attraction on the Atlantic Coast. Story reiterated the praise of Big Bend's natural beauty and wilderness that suffused NPS publications and reports of the 1930s. Yet the park service's chief editor had to caution William Warne, director of information for the Interior department, that the final press release reflected the realities of race relations on the border. "Since the State of Texas has expressed disapproval of statements concerning the 'Mexican atmosphere' of the area," wrote Story, "we have regretfully deleted a proposed paragraph on that phase of the park." [41]

This last remark by Story revealed the depth of feeling still echoing throughout Texas regarding Mexico's nationalization of oil late in the 1930s, and also the history of border relations since the Texas revolt of a century before. The park service also faced the rising tide of political conservatism that accompanied wartime mobilization. Regional director Tillotson discussed with the state parks board the need to "make the actual acceptance ceremony as simple as possible." Tillotson worried that "if we made a big 'to-do' over the acceptance ceremony and had the Secretary, the Director, members of their staffs, and others gone to Texas for this ceremony, we would all of us rightly have been subject to public criticism for expenditure of the time and money involved during war times." Tillotson also reminded the parks board's Frank Quinn that President Roosevelt could not have attended, but that "we are all of us anxious--as I know you are--to have him take a prominent part in the formal dedication of the park." Thus the "more informality we can have in connection with the acceptance ceremony, the greater will be our chances to have a real celebration at the dedication ceremony." Tillotson cautioned Quinn that this meant waiting until the close of the war, "at which time I believe under the approved plan there would be an excellent chance of getting the President of the United States, the President of Mexico and the Secretary of the Interior to be present in person somewhere in Texas, preferably in the Big Bend National Park, at a formal dedication ceremony." Then the regional director reminded Quinn of the prosaic reality of land acquisition. Congress, through the intervention of Texas representative Ewing Thomason and Senator Tom Connally, had approved funds for the "administration, protection and maintenance of the Big Bend National Park during the present fiscal year." Without all land parcels deeded to the federal government, the NPS could not expend these funds. Yet Tillotson promised the parks board secretary that he would "have established the positions involved and to secure approval of the appointment of those selected to fill such positions, so that they may been entered on duty without delay immediately the park is established." [42]

Those latter details became clearer in August as Tillotson prepared his operating budget for the coming fiscal year. In a memorandum to all park superintendents within the southwestern region, Tillotson noted that the staff of Big Bend (which likely would be recruited from Region III park units) "will consist of not more than five persons." Among these would be "a Park Ranger at $2040 and a Senior Clerk at $2000 per annum." The regional director cautioned his superintendents that "the one ranger will have a 'ranger district' of some 713,000 acres," and he believed that "anyone familiar with ranger duties in a national park will know what that would entail, especially when it is considered that this is a brand-new park, without adequate improvements or equipment of any kind." Tillotson warned that park headquarters "will be some eighty miles from the nearest town--Marathon, Texas--and consequently a like distance from the post office, railroad, telegraph and telephone service, paved highway, schools, stores and churches." Employees would find that "the living quarters will consist of old CCC barracks," wrote Tillotson, "but there are water and direct current electricity in the camp." [43]

Then the regional director defined the key feature of character for new hires at Big Bend. "These are no jobs for weaklings or for those seeking 'light out-of-door employment,'" said Tillotson. NPS personnel could expect instead "very difficult assignments entailing much hard work and requiring the services of experienced he-men who have the ingenuity to make the best of a situation with limited facilities and the intestinal fortitude to cope with conditions along an unsettled portion of the Mexican Border--one of our few remaining frontiers." A more positive dimension of employment at Big Bend was that "the assignments will be most interesting ones for those who wish to pioneer in a new National Park Service project." Park personnel would find "unusual opportunities for advancement in the Service by 'getting in on the ground floor' of our newest national park, the sixth largest in the national park system, and one for which I foresee a most brilliant future." Tillotson then canvassed his superintendents for interested applicants, warning that "no one should apply who is not fully aware of the situation, willing and able to live, work and take care of himself under primitive frontier conditions, and ambitious to advance in the Service." The regional director acknowledged that "if an applicant is married, equally careful consideration will be given his wife and to her ability and willingness to live under pioneer conditions." He then closed with the admonition: "A working knowledge of the Spanish language is desirable but not essential." [46]

These prescriptions for staffing at Big Bend would echo down through the twentieth century, with the park's isolation, distance, complex ecology, and proximity to Mexico affecting park operations and personnel decisions in ways not experienced in most NPS units. The fact that the regional director had to warn superintendents that Big Bend was unique, at a time when most park units were isolated from urban centers, and were understaffed and under-funded because of the war, said a great deal about the challenge of management. Tillotson's references to the "he-man" qualities of the ranger corps at the park, and the concerns for families, also could be seen over the next six decades. Issues of employee housing, schools, social services, community maintenance, and race relations touched every superintendent's watch from 1944 through the start of the new millennium, even as the more conventional policy issues of resource protection and interpretation, visitors services, and community relations occupied any superintendent's day.

To address this challenge, Tillotson announced on September 14 that Ross Maxwell would assume the duties of superintendent at Big Bend. The geologist had earned the coveted post, said the regional director, "because his first assignment with the service in 1936 was the making of a detailed geological map of that area." Tillotson believed "that there is probably no one in the service who knows more about the region than he," noting that Maxwell had earned a doctorate from Northwestern University, as well as having held several positions within the southwestern region of the park service. Response to Tillotson's announcement in Brewster County was uniformly positive, as Glenn Burgess, manager of the Alpine chamber of commerce, told his good friend "Tilly" that "we have heard nothing but praise of the appointment of Ross Maxwell as Superintendent of the Park and we are looking forward to the time when he will be a permanent citizen of the Big Bend country." As for Maxwell himself, he owed a debt to Hillory Tolson, by then assigned to the NPS headquarters in Chicago. "Naturally," wrote Maxwell on October 12, 1943, "I think that the Big Bend is a great area, and I shall thoroughly enjoy taking you around." Maxwell praised the former Region III director as someone who "had a great deal to do with my former appointment to the positions of Regional Geologist and Assistant Superintendent, Southwestern National Monuments." He hoped that Tolson "can stay at least a week for it will take about that long to see the 'highlights'" of Big Bend, and Maxwell concluded: "I shall need plenty of advice on this new assignment and am anxious to get started as soon as practical." To Glenn Burgess Maxwell offered similar thanks, telling the chamber manager: "You can rest assured that I'll see the 'Alpine gang' every chance I get," with park headquarters and residences to be located "at the old CCC camp in the Chisos Mountains." [47]

Naming a park superintendent also meant that regional officials needed to address visitor services, especially a contract with NPCI for management of concessions. By September 1943, Tillotson still had not heard from NPS headquarters about NPCI's involvement at Big Bend, which he realized in a letter to W.W. Thompson might not occur until after the war. "In the meantime and until definite arrangements can be made to provide suitable accommodations for the visiting public," said Tillotson, "there are a few parties who have lived and operated in the area for the past several years." It was the park service's intention to work with W.A. Cooper, "who operates a little store and gas station on the main highway, south of Persimmon Gap," Baylor Smith, whom Tillotson described as "still located at the only postoffice, Hot Springs, Texas," the Hannold store "on the back road between the Basin and Hot Springs," and "last but not least, our old friend Maria Sada (commonly known as Chata), who operates a little store and Mexican restaurant at Boquillas." Tillotson would seek approval from the NPS director to permit "some or all of these parties to continue operations under formal special use permits." The regional director hoped that "such an arrangement would be satisfactory with the National Park Concessions, Inc., even if you have already entered into a formal contract." [48]

Tillotson then explained to the NPCI president how the park service intended to use the CCC cabins in the Chisos Basin as the core of future visitor accommodations. "With the establishment of the national park," wrote Tillotson, "title to these cabins along with lands and other properties involved will vest in the United States." When the CCC abandoned the basin for the last time, "Lloyd Wade, formerly a CCC foreman, whom you will remember, has been employed by the State as a caretaker." Wade had been given authority to manage the rental of the cabins, while his wife "has on occasion furnished meals to visitors in cases of emergency." The NPS had made "definite arrangements" to hire Wade as a foreman at the new park, "after which time he could not, of course, continue to operate the cabins." Tillotson worried, however, that "it would put us in an embarrassing position if, with these nice cabins available and no other place for people to stay, we had to tell visitors that they could not occupy the cabins because we had no one to operate them." The regional director instead had "in mind some sort of a scheme by which Mrs. Wade could be made responsible for looking after the cabins, either as an employee, or subcontractor of [NPCI}, when you enter into a formal contract, or under some form of direct temporary permit until that time." [49]

Throughout the fall and winter of 1943-1944, the park service could only wait and plan as the federal government anticipated word on the final cession of land deeds for Big Bend. Regional officials, rather than Ross Maxwell, had to manage the park from the distance of Santa Fe, leaving no one in the Big Bend area available for consultation on matters of local or state interest. Use of water resources in the future NPS unit required attention, as A.M. Mead of San Benito, Texas, pressed the state's congressional delegation to build a dam and reservoir on the Rio Grande within the park's boundaries. ""Now, as the Big Bend is a State and Nations Park," wrote Mead, "wouldn't it be grand to have a Big Lake in it, for boating, bathing, hunting and fishing." Mead even suggested a means for constructing such a facility. "Listen," he told Congressman Milton West of Brownsville, "a big dam across the Santa Elena Canyon, on the Rio Grande River, would do this job and the lake would catch all the flood waters and hold them in storage for Mexico and this Valley." Mead also suggested that "we could work those Nazi prisoners on this job and get the job done, and would have plenty of water for this Valley at all times." C.E. Ainsworth, a consulting engineer for the IBC, worried more about the contracts that his agency had with local ranchers to measure rainfall and operate stream-gauging stations on the Rio Grande. "This office has need for all available rainfall records from the Big Bend Park area," Ainsworth informed Tillotson, and the IBC wondered when Elmo Johnson and Albert W. Dorgan would no longer be able to provide the stream commission with this data. [50]

More troubling to NPS officials was the decision by the Texas state board to water engineers to revoke the permit of J.O. Wedin for use of 780 acre feet of water from the Rio Grande. Wedin's property was part of the future Big Bend, and constituted a substantial portion of the park's water supply. Wedin had been informed in November 1927 that his use of the stream-flow was predicated upon construction of suitable irrigation facilities within 90 days of receipt of the permit, with completion scheduled for no later than one year (the fall of 1928). In addition, Wedin was to file annual reports with the state water board "showing, among other things, the quantity of water used and the purposes for which it was used." J.E. Sturlock, attorney for the water board, neither could find a record that Wedin had filed his reports, nor that he had constructed his irrigation works. The state then ordered Wedin to show cause why his permit should not be revoked; a condition made more difficult by the delay in transfer of title to the park service. Fortunately for the NPS, Sturlock advised the water board to "defer further action in the matter of forfeiting and canceling [the permit] until such time as you have completed your development plan for the Big Bend National Park area." [51]