Big Bend Administrative History

None of these last-minute entreaties could save the Big Bend legislation once it arrived on the desk of Governor Allred. Herbert Maier learned of the veto on June 8 in a telegram from Everett Townsend. "I know that you and the interested group at Alpine," said Maier in response, "must feel the disappointment keenly." As for himself, said the ECW regional director: "It certainly made me blue and I felt like going out on a darn good drunk." Maier promised to return to Alpine as soon as his schedule permitted. Then he affirmed the next step for park boosters to consider. "I believe I earlier discussed with you," said Maier, "my suggestion for a twelve-man committee representing the twelve leading cities of Texas and probably including a man from Alpine." Among these civic officials could be "Wendell Mays for Brownwood, Colonel Tuttle for San Antonio, etc. etc." Such a committee, "appointed by their respective Chambers of Commerce, . . . would make the Big Bend National Park movement statewide." This in turn "would place the Governor in a position where he probably could not again afford to exercise the veto." An added benefit, Maier told Townsend, would accrue when "all the leading Chambers of Commerce [got] behind the thing and West Texas would not have to again carry the financial load for publicity." [36]

It was not coincidental that Maier had an alternative strategy at hand when word came of the governor's veto. By July 1937, the NPS had begun advising its own people, as well as local citizens supportive of park creation, to work towards private funding of the land-purchase program at Big Bend. Writing on July 12 to Ardrey Borell of the NPS's newly established "Region III" office in Santa Fe, Maier mentioned that "there has been some talk about bringing up the Big Bend bill again in a call session in September." The ECW official, however, believed "that this will not be wise." He suggested instead to the NPS biologist that "our course of action now must be to keep giving all publicity possible to the national park project and work toward bringing up the bill again in the next regular session." While this would be "a year from next January," said Maier, he was resigned to the delay, as he told Borell: "After all, that is only eighteen months." By then, Maier noted wryly, "Gov. Allred will be out of office." Then he hinted at the crisis awaiting Big Bend park promoters when he concluded: "I presume we will have to move the [CCC] camp out of the Big Bend on October 1." [37]

As he had done throughout the process to convince Texas officials of the merits of their first national park, Maier turned to Everett Townsend for advice on the future of fundraising. Maier had spoken with Harry J. Adams, whom he described as "an influential man in the Ft. Worth Chamber of Commerce." Adams and Maier discussed "this thing which the Star Telegram had proposed and that you [Townsend] had contacted Mr. [James] Record [managing editor of the Star Telegram]." Adams concurred that a private campaign should begin immediately, but advised Maier that "Amon Carter would really be the man to contact," as he was "not only the owner of the paper but is one of the State's most influential citizens, a world traveler and quite a promoter and organizer." Townsend had asked Maier to contact the Star-Telegram, yet the ECW regional director wanted Townsend's opinion of Carter. "Actually, I think the idea is a splendid one," said Maier, "and at a dollar a head it should be possible to get a great many people interested in the thing." Maier believed that "once they have invested even a dollar, they will want to see the thing go through so that they will get ‘their money's worth.'" Maier acknowledged that "a great deal of organizing will have to be done on the part of the Star Telegram so that the thing will go ahead vigorously." He also reminded Townsend that "promotion schemes of this kind are bound to hit periods of lagging and are apt to drag out." Nonetheless, said Maier, "I think that if the thing can be pushed hard so that a real substantial sum, say something like half a million dollars, is gotten together, the other half can readily be gotten from the State, especially if all of the Chambers of Texas by that time have contributed at least a small amount." [38]

Maier then traced for Townsend the limitations facing the NPS in any private fundraising venture. "While we cannot use our own employees for promoting the thing," said the ECW official, "at the same time it should be borne in mind that everyone of our foremen and superintendents in Texas will want to contribute." The NPS had some 250 employees in the Lone Star state, and "while this is not a large number, it will help to start the ball rolling." Maier thought that "each of these foremen, superintendents, and clerical employees will be glad to have with him at all times a sample certificate which he can show to others who may be in line for purchasing one." In addition, said Maier, "perhaps our [CCC] camps can get up benefit entertainments." "There is a tremendous amount we can do," declared Maier, but warned Townsend that, "although the Star Telegram has accepted the undertaking, it will require continual hammering from all influential and interested parties to keep the thing from dying a premature death." Maier hoped that "once a few thousand dollars has been subscribed, the Board, as originally planned, can be appointed." The NPS also had to address "whether optioning and purchasing of any of the land should start before the entire sum has been subscribed." Maier apologized for not being able to travel to Fort Worth to meet with Townsend and Star-Telegram officials, but promised that while "in Washington I will see what the possibilities are of keeping you on." He expressed frustration at NPS rules limiting its involvement in the fundraising campaign: "The thing that makes it so difficult is the very definite ruling that employees can only work at points where assigned." Nonetheless, Maier hoped to return from the nation's capital soon to plot a course of action with Townsend and one of the largest newspapers in Texas. [39]

Simultaneous with his correspondence to Everett Townsend, Maier contacted James Record of the Star-Telegram to begin negotiations for the Big Bend fundraising venture. "I have been requested by a group of public-spirited Texans," said Maier, "who are deeply interested in the Big Bend National Park and International Peace Park to write you in connection with the original idea proposed in an editorial in the Ft. Worth Star Telegram a few months ago." Maier considered this "a most practical method for . . . raising the funds for the purchase of the land in the Big Bend for national park purposes." He also saw the campaign "to raise a million dollars by popular subscription at one dollar per person" as "one which could give a statewide patriotic flavor to the undertaking." Maier had learned that "the Ft. Worth Chamber of Commerce is the largest unit affiliated with the West Texas Chamber of Commerce and has been one of its leading sponsors." He considered it "logical for Ft. Worth to sponsor the Big Bend National Park project as proposed." While the newspaper might decline the offer to direct the campaign, "considering that the idea originated with the Star Telegram it is sincerely hoped by [local promoters] that it, as one of Texas' leading dailies, will at least get the thing underway, if not see it entirely through." Maier had "kept a file of newspaper clippings and editorials on the Big Bend project during the past twelve months," and could report that "not a single discouraging editorial in any of the Texas newspapers has come to our attention." He believed that "as time goes on new methods for raising money will present themselves, and as usually happens in matters of this kind, everyone will want to ‘climb onto the band wagon.'" Once this happened, "it should not be difficult to get the State to supplement the donation with a substantial contribution." [40]

As with Everett Townsend, Maier cautioned Record that "considering my position I probably should not be writing you in this matter." Further, said Maier, "I beg you to consider this as a personal and not as an official letter, based upon the request of the interested West Texas group, and also upon the advice of Mr. Harry J. Adams . . . that Mr. Amon Carter, . . . as one of the leading citizens of Texas is perhaps in the best position in the State to get this thing successfully going." Maier explained to Record that upon notice of Allred's veto, he had proposed a "Committee of Twelve" to initiate fundraising. "Nothing further has been done on this," said Maier, "but perhaps the two ideas could in some manner be combined." All sectors of the Lone Star state would benefit from the creation of Big Bend, said Maier, as "the bulk of the visitors . . . will be forced to travel back and forth through the entire length of Texas in order to visit the national park." Maier doubted "if there is any project up before the State which will result in so much money filtering down through the pockets of its citizens in all walks of life in the years to come." He forwarded to the managing editor "data on travel statistics in relation to national parks in support of this," and concluded: "This office will be pleased to cooperate with you in the undertaking in every manner commensurate with its official position." [41]

To reinforce Maier's request, Townsend also wrote to Record with an appeal for help. After detailing his own commitment in time and money to Big Bend, Townsend admitted: "Probably I had too much pride in its advancement up to the time of the Governor's veto, which may delay its consummation longer than many think, unless we can find some other method of financing the way for another program." Townsend was quick to inform Record that "I do not censure the Governor's attitude on the subject [of the veto], because I can somewhat understand the many difficulties under which he was struggling to satisfactorily arrange the State's financial status, to which end nothing has been done." Having said that, Townsend then confided in Record: "I do believe he was gravely in error, but not that it has been done it is up to the friends of the Project to work out some other plan." That circumstance led Townsend to emphasize the Star-Telegram's call for a million-dollar subscription campaign. "I did not hasten to communicate with you," said Townsend, "because I wanted to devote more thought to the suggestion." Now the west Texas rancher believed that support by the Fort Worth paper "would immediately create a deep and pervading interest all over the State, not only in the Project but also in your thoughtful wisdom for the inception of the movement." Townsend asked Record if the paper could form a "non-profit sharing corporation . . . with a selected group of widely known and trusted men, such as Mr. Amon Carter, to act as the directing agency." This body could "provide for the receipt and disbursal of the donations as well as for the acquisition of the lands" by selling "engraved certificates" in denominations from one dollar to $1,000. Townsend also did not think it "unreasonable to expect liberal donations from the railroads and the major oil companies of Texas as these will be the chief beneficiaries from the increased tourist traffic in the State." Townsend informed Record that "I have all available data on the land holdings and much general information," and he hoped that "we may be able to devise plans for the realization of our park." [42]

Pressure from Big Bend advocates within and outside the NPS led James Record to approach Dom Adams, president of the Brewster County Chamber of Commerce, to speak "frankly and comprehensively about the Big Bend park campaign." Record could report that "we [the Star-Telegram] are eager to assist in the enterprise and start immediately raising the fund." He advised Adams that "you will understand that readers are more interested in parks, highways, and scenery now - the heart of the vacation and touring season than they will be in the cold and bleak months." Thus the park sponsors should "strike while the iron is hot." To that end, Record suggested that "the inception of the campaign should come from your organization or one that has the responsibility for building the park." This would allow the Star-Telegram "to avoid being called upon in future years to do similar work for a cause or a section that might not be as worthy as your's." Record wanted to announce the campaign in his newspaper on Sunday, July 18, and asked Adams that "your organization write the Star-Telegram a formal letter, mentioning the editorial that we carried recently and saying that you will undertake the raising of funds by popular subscription." In addition, said Record, the park boosters should ask "that The Star-Telegram assist by accepting funds from its readers." The paper then would agree to "publish that letter as well as a picture and a map and an announcement that we will accept the contributions." Record also could report that "I have a dollar bill already sent in by a Waco man." From this inaugural story could come "stunts, pictures, etc., from time to time." For its part, the Brewster county chamber should have "some kind of a steering committee in Alpine to handle the details of the campaign, that the committee name sub-committees in every Texas county to receive funds and to direct the campaign in that particular county." The Star-Telegram would want the chamber to agree that "there shall be no expenses paid or anything deducted from the money that is raised through the newspaper." The paper would ask nothing in return of the Alpine chamber, as "our regular staff will handle the stories and details." This was the procedure followed by the Star-Telegram when it championed "the Will Rogers Memorial Fund and other funds in the past." [43]

Prompted by Record's enthusiasm and advice, Dom Adams sent a letter to the Star-Telegram outlining the strategies for the Big Bend fundraising campaign. Ignoring the recent veto of the land-purchase measure, Adams preferred to focus upon "the splendid support which the newspapers over Texas gave this project." He believed that "the people of Texas are tremendously interested in a national park, not only as an opportunity for taking a vacation close to home for a reasonable outlay of money, but also for the revenue which the Big Bend National Park will produce for the State-at-large and for every town through which tourists pass." Adams reiterated the statistics produced in New Mexico when it funded publicity of its natural and historic wonders. "In the estimate of the National Park Service," wrote Adams, "Texas would derive yearly a minimum of $3,600,000 from this source just as soon as the park is well established." Adams then quoted Conrad Wirth: "‘It is apparent that the Big Bend Park will be recognized as one of the outstanding geological laboratories and classrooms of the world.'" Big Bend, in Wirth's estimation, "‘gives the Service its first opportunity to set up a boundary that will protect a logical and complete biological unit.'" Star-Telegram readers should know further, said Adams, "that the people of Virginia contributed $1,000,000 by popular subscription for the purchase of land to guarantee the realization of the Shenandoah National Park." In return, said the Brewster County chamber president, "for the year 1936 694,098 tourists patronized this park;" a situation that "argues strongly the benefits to the State of a national park." [44]

That scheme for fundraising, however, did not appeal to Everett Townsend, who had not received immediate responses from Maier or Record because of telegraph transmission problems between the towns of Pecos and Alpine. Two days before the release of the Star-Telegram story on Big Bend, Townsend reminded Maier that he had asked Record to create a corporation to handle funds and purchase lands for the park. Townsend also noted that the Texas State Parks Board needed to be the agency of record for the transactions, and that the park sponsors needed to "bring in quite a lot of money which should be used immediately for the purchase of needed land in the vicinity of the [CCC] Camp." Townsend also sought advice from Maier on the NPS's ability to maintain him on the payroll. "You know of my anxiety to put the Park over at any cost which I can afford," said Townsend. Thus he hoped that Maier could place him "were I can keep and increase the State wide contacts already made." He worried less about "the job" than about his "desire for the successful creation of our ‘Baby.'" He offered the ECW regional director "[a] suggestion [that] may be as chimerical and as useless as our western winds:" the employment of Townsend on the publicity staff of Leo McClatchy. Maier "in no case" was to "assume any position on it that is not sound, or that you cannot justify." If Maier could not "come within those bounds," said Townsend, "forget what I have said." Yet he hoped that the NPS, for which he had worked so well throughout the 1930s, would recognize the need to maintain his services, especially since he had word from state representative Albert Cauthorn that "the Governor will submit the Park question to the Legislature which it is now thought will be convened in special session some time in September." [45]

Townsend's warnings came too late for the Star-Telegram, which ran on July 18 the story about fundraising for Big Bend. "What the State of Texas could not afford," said the paper, "the people of Texas can - indeed, they cannot afford to do without, according to leaders of the Brewster County Chamber of Commerce." That body, not the state park board, had "launched a statewide campaign to buy the scenery of the Big Bend and present it to the Nation." F.L. McCollum, James Casner, and Horace Morelock would lead the group, and the Star-Telegram announced that it had accepted their invitation to solicit and collect funds for the project. "Because of the complimentary vote of both House and Senate," said the paper, "and many personal expressions of interest from leaders in many sections, Brewster County citizens believe that the people of Texas will welcome the opportunity to make the park their very own." Then the Star-Telegram carried a story about J.C. White of Waco, Texas, who had the distinction of donating the first dollar toward the campaign. "The initial giver," said the Star-Telegram, "was influenced by reading the recent editorial in the paper, suggesting the public donation plan." When other donors appeared, the paper would acknowledge them in print; a gesture aimed at celebrating the public-spiritedness of the Star-Telegram's readers. [46]

The following day, the Alpine sponsors gathered to address the question of a statewide network, and to authorize state officials to handle the financial arrangements. "The plan contemplates," wrote Morelock and his colleagues from the Brewster County chamber, "that the Texas State Parks Board shall have exclusive control of any and all funds raised for this purpose." Each of the 254 counties in Texas would be asked to create a local committee "composed of the President of the Chamber of Commerce, the President of a local Bank, the County Superintendent (or County Judge), the Proprietor of a local hotel, and Newspaper Editors." These agencies would carry the park service message of Big Bend's economic benefit throughout the Lone Star state. Big Bend also could be connected to the existing tourist traffic to "Carlsbad Cavern, the McDonald Observatory, the International Park, and on into Old Mexico." Each committee would pledge to raise one dollar for each resident of their county with the slogan, "Wouldn't You Like to Have a Proprietary Interest in a Big Bend National Park for Texas and Her People?" The Alpine boosters hoped that "the local and daily newspapers [would] publish from time to time the names and addresses of those who have donated to this fund." Then the sponsors closed with a reference to the campaign to establish Shenandoah National Park: "Can Texas, with her vast resources and patriotic citizenship, afford to contribute less for a National Park than did the citizens of Virginia?" [47]

With the solicitations underway, Leo McClatchy suggested to Maier that he be sent to Fort Worth to "help out on this campaign." Promotion of the park would be enhanced, said McClatchy, if he could have "statements from Secretary Ickes and Director Cammerer, endorsing the campaign." Townsend likewise approached Maier with advice on the efforts to solicit donations from high-ranking officials. Townsend asked whether Maier had approached President Roosevelt and Interior Secretary Harold Ickes to make public contributions, the more to encourage Governor Allred to do likewise. In addition, said Townsend, "it would be a splendid idea to get a letter from Mr. Queveda [Quevedo] or some leading men from the Mexican National Park Service directed to the Star-Telegram congratulating them on this movement and telling of their interest and progress in the subject." Townsend also informed Maier that he planned to visit several communities throughout southern Texas "to try to organize the movement at each place." In this capacity he would be sponsored by the Brewster County chamber, which would meet his expenses for the summer. Yet McClatchy came to realize that Townsend alone could not carry the campaign for the park, suggesting instead to Maier that the local chamber of commerce hire a "professional promoter." In turn, the Star-Telegram had asked for statements of support from Governor Allred, Lieutenant Governor Woodull, and Wendell Mayes, chairman of the state parks board. Still to come were endorsements from Vice President John Nance Garner and members of the Lone Star congressional delegation. As evidence of the close collaboration between the NPS and the Fort Worth paper, McClatchy closed by informing Maier: "Mr. Record wants me to continue for the present writing stuff for the Star Telegram, and then to furnish releases for state-wide distribution, after the state organization has been perfected." [48]

Less than 30 days after the Big Bend promotion took effect, the Dallas News surprised park sponsors by running a story entitled, "Rich Gold and Quicksilver Lodes Are Found on Texas School Lands." Dawson Duncan, the Austin correspondent for the News, reported that T.E. Bollman of San Antonio held a prospector's permit for the Chisos Mountains that would expire at the end of August. His declaration of mineral wealth on property owned by the state school lands board rekindled the interest of that group, in that the News accepted Bollman's assertion that the gold was valued at $249 per ton of ore. A month later, the Star-Telegram reported that "state officials discounted today the possibility of a major gold strike along the Big Bend of the Rio Grande." Yet Bollman and his associates were digging in the area known as the Big Bend State Park. State senator T.J. Holbrook, chairman of the senate investigating committee, "quoted Bollman as telling him the vein was traceable for 13 miles along the top of the ground in Texas and cropped out south of the Rio Grande in Mexico." Holbrook admitted that "he had not checked on the claim," leading state parks board secretary William J. Lawson to declare that "‘all kinds of technicians' had been in the Big Bend area since establishment of a CCC camp there four years ago and had found no trace of gold." State land commissioner William H. McDonald concurred, stating that "‘every few days some one comes into my office with a story of [a] gold or quicksilver strike.'" McDonald then declared that "‘usually the last we see of him is when he leaves with his prospector's permit." The problem with this latest claim, Lawson conceded, was that "Bollman may really have something;" a circumstance that the Star-Telegram reminded its readers would provide the state school fund with "one-sixteenth of its value." [49]

The Big Bend park sponsors could not waste time with such dramatic stories as that of Bollman, even though the wide publicity given the claim reminded them of the delicate nature of Texas land law and politics. Horace Morelock was more concerned with the strategies followed in Tennessee by the "Great Smoky Mountain Conservation Association," whose president, David C. Chapman, outlined his group's work on the southeastern park. "You ask how our campaign was financed," responded Chapman. "For many months I personally paid all the bills," only to have a local "Conservation Association" form that generated some $30,000 in subscriptions. By joining with a "like organization in North Carolina," Great Smoky park boosters generated about one million dollars, ranging from one penny to $25,000. "Practically all the school children in Knoxville and Knox County," added Chapman, "donated something." Once the park joined the NPS network, said the association president, "it may interest you to note that the Great Smoky Mountains National Park had more visitors in 1933, ‘34, and ‘35 than did any other park in the system." The following year, Shenandoah National Park was created, outdrawing Great Smoky by a few thousand. Nonetheless, in 1937, the NPS estimated the latter park's total attendance at 727,000. [50]

Chapman warned the Sul Ross president that all was not easy for the boosters of Great Smoky Mountain National Park. That site also had difficulty in matters of land acquisition. As early as 1925, congressional authorization of the park had led the Tennessee state legislature to commit to the purchase of 76,000 acres. Yet "a joker was added to this bill," said Chapman, "providing that the city of Knoxville paid 1/3 of the purchase cost." Then "to the amazement of all of us the city did just this." Thereupon the North Carolina state legislature "authorized bonds issued to the extent of two million dollars, when there was money enough in sight to buy all the land in both states." Tennessee followed with bond sales of $1.5 million, and "the Laura Spelman Rockefeller Memorial Fund made a gift of five millions, matching monies from every other source." Yet even this largess did not secure the acreage needed for Great Smoky, so in 1934 "the President made an allotment of $1,550,000." After this announcement, "for some mysterious reason the Park Service elected to buy all the [future park] lands in North Carolina," leaving it to Congress to appropriate $750,000 to purchase the property in Tennessee. [51]

The mixture of good news and bad about fundraising for Big Bend continued in the summer of 1937 when Walter Prescott Webb returned to Austin from teaching summer school at the University of Wyoming. He had written a check for five dollars to the land-purchase fund, as well as a letter that he authorized the Star-Telegram to release. "The wild country appealed to me," said the Lone Star historian, "as no other ever has." Big Bend's "plants, . . . rocks, . . . wild deserts and lofty mountains made me feel that I had entered another world." Webb confessed that since his May raft trip "I have had periods of homesickness for the Big Bend." In these dreams "I have waked up in the night with an inexplicable longing to return there." He knew that "it will mean a great deal to Texas in every way to have a great international park that will vie in interest with Yellowstone, Yosemite and others." Webb called upon his Lone Star neighbors "to contribute to the cause," so that "a million people may see fit to invest at least a dollar apiece in preserving for posterity the most romantic spot in America - the Big Bend." Webb's praise prompted similar (though less dramatic) statements of support from C.V. Terrell, chairman of the Texas Railroad Commission, and Lieutenant Governor Walter Woodull, whose donation of $20 came with the promise that "after the ‘budget had been balanced' he would ask Governor Allred to submit the subject of creating the park to a special session of the Legislature to be called probably in September." [52]

Simultaneous with his contribution and letter of support, Webb asked the park service if he could help further by publishing at his expense a pamphlet (with pictures taken by himself) of the May 1937 run through Santa Elena Canyon. "These booklets," Webb told McClatchy, "could be produced in quantity at a low cost and then sold through the Star Telegram campaign and others that may follow at one dollar a shot, the proceeds to go to the Park purchase fund." The Texas historian promised that the book "would contain an original narrative and would be sought after by collectors of Americana." Webb would retain the copyright, and claimed that "people would pay one dollar for the book more readily than they will contribute a dollar outright." His only problem at the moment was that "I am overworked and am unable to delegate this sort of thing." He had spent his own funds on the river trip, "and it cost a considerable sum." Webb admitted, however, that "no one made me do it, and now that it has been done, we must use it to the best advantage to promote the creation of the Big Bend Park." Presley Bryant and James Record of the Star-Telegram told McClatchy that they considered Webb's proposal "a splendid idea, if it can be worked out." Yet Herbert Maier reminded Webb that such a publication would "cost considerable to print and apparently would leave little profit for the fund." While "more donors may be attracted through this method," Maier feared that "the margin of contribution would be less." William Hogan, associate regional historian, disagreed with his superior, writing in August 1937 to support Webb's desire "to help promote the campaign now underway to raise funds for purchasing the land." "Of course," Hogan told Hagerty, "Dr. Webb might do this as a private citizen, since all of the material to be used in the proposed campaign pamphlet was obtained while he was not on the government payroll." Ignoring the massive federal and state presence attendant to Webb's journey through the canyon of Santa Elena, Hogan nonetheless noted that Webb "would like to have the concurrence of the Regional Office before making the offer to the Star-Telegram." This led the former student to offer his "personal opinion . . . that [Webb] should be encouraged in this public-spirited action." [53]

Webb's reference to his heavy workload at the University of Texas indicated the delay that the park service could expect in the completion of his Big Bend manuscript. On August 17, L. Vernon Randau, assistant ECW regional director for projects, wrote to William F. Ayres, Austin-based inspector for the NPS, to inform him that the Texas Procurement Office had yet to receive Webb's report. Webb had been paid the complete contract sum of $1,200, and Randau could only note that "we are unable at this time to obtain a complete breakdown of the work accomplishments." Randau had word that Webb "will submit a report in the near future." Yet without any documentation from the famed Texas scholar, the park service had little upon which to base its promotional literature as the fundraising campaign headed toward autumn. [54]

Without Walter Prescott Webb's soaring prose, Herbert Maier drafted for the NPS Bulletin a story on the land-purchase program that reiterated the basic themes developed over the course of the summer. Maier informed his park service colleagues that "there are less than 7,000 people in the entire county of Brewster, whose area of 5,935 square miles is almost equal to the combined areas of Connecticut and Rhode Island." Brewster County officials were welcoming "daily" contributions from throughout the Lone Star state, with one of the first donations coming from Governor Allred himself, who "said the State Treasury could not stand the drain." Maier then reported that Allred "is expected to issue a proclamation calling for observance of Big Bend Day in late September, after all of the agricultural crops will have been harvested." Allred and the NPS hoped that "on that occasion it is planned that each of the 254 counties will have its own benefit-celebration." Local organizations would determine "the form of that celebration - dance, barbecue, field meet, etc." Following the lead of the Virginia fundraisers for Shenandoah National Park, Maier cited as "one novel method" the "‘parcelling off' of different areas in the proposed park, so that a contributor designates the particular portion his dollar or dollars is to purchase." With his twenty dollars, "Lieutenant Governor Walter F. Woodul ‘bought' Mount Emory, the highest peak in the Chisos Mountains." Then "the father of a newly-born set of twins sent in a contribution so that each child would have an acre in which to play." [55]

While family images were a central feature of the Big Bend fundraising campaign, park service officials also recognized the appeal of more mature themes and settings. J.F. Kieley of the NPS's Washington office wrote to Leo McClatchy in late August about the latter's idea "about getting you some more pretty Texas girls' pictures." To Kieley's amazement, "it's proving very difficult to find anyone who will pose." Kieley complained that "two of the first group [of pictures] we sent you were girls in our own organization, and the third was a friend of one of our girls." The latter, surprisingly, "was extremely reluctant to pose at all," said Kieley, and she "absolutely would not pose in shorts." Kieley also had failed to get any of the men of the Texas congressional delegation to pose for a promotional picture for the Big Bend fundraising venture (he made no mention of whether he asked them to wear shorts). "I don't know how long this campaign will go on," Kieley wrote, "but as soon as the colleges re-open here about the middle of next month it will be easy to get girls for pictures." Then he mentioned efforts to get a "Denver girl picture," which he warned McClatchy "is going to be a stickler." As with the women in Washington, Kieley had not "been able to locate anyone yet who will pose." He had identified "one girl in WPA [Works Progress Administration] who was good looking and she seemed inclined to like the idea at first, then she backed down on us." Further searches of Washington offices revealed "a little girl in the Interior Building from Denver, but she is very poorly blessed with looks." Not surprisingly, Kieley reported that "we haven't approached her." Revealing the prurient nature of his efforts, Kieley did note that "another girl from Denver is secretary to Assistant [Interior] Secretary [Oscar] Chapman and I'm afraid we can't use her because, in that more or less prominent position, she would draw the Interior Department too closely into the campaign, and we can't have that." Kieley promised the NPS publicist that "we'll keep working on this thing, and try to supply you with more pictures." Even if the "Congressional idea is out," he concluded, "we'll keep working on the girls." [56]