Big Bend Administrative History

As with so much of the promotion of Big Bend, NPS officials confided in each other of the challenges facing the private solicitation of funds in Texas. At the signing ceremony in the governor's office, O'Daniel broke precedent by using four pens of 42 inches in length each. "Anything as Big as Big Bend Calls for Use of Big Pen," read the headline of May 14 in the Fort Worth Star Telegram. Herbert Maier then provided Arno Cammerer with details of the bill's passage, and of the journey awaiting park sponsors as Amon Carter initiated the fundraising project. "The school fund must now part with its mineral rights," Maier told the NPS director, and that "it will be noted therefrom that all items requested by the Washington Office were incorporated." The original request for $1,000 "had to finally be stricken out to satisfy a group in the House who were pledged to vote against all appropriation bills." Maier then reported that "there are several reasons why this campaign has not gotten underway and some of these no doubt involve personal jealousies." "Certain committee members," said the associate regional director, "have not yet made good on their personal pledges for the initial $25,000 publicity fund." James Record had told Maier that delay resulted in part because "the European situation since last fall has kept big business in Texas so tightened that it would have been impossible to shake loose a million dollars." In addition, said Maier, "if the Bill had failed of passage, the fundraising campaign would have likewise failed with the result that the National Park Project would be a dead issue for years to come." Once the Texas lawmakers endorsed the concept of a national park, "the school land obstructions have now been removed and with the current improvement in business in the State, Mr. Carter feels the time is propitious." Maier acknowledged that "the campaign will apparently be carried on over a rather lengthy period," comprised of "a local committee in each of the 254 counties with a fixed quota for each." The fundraising venues included "a benefit football game next fall" that might raise a total of $250,000, "and there are other schemes for raising money." Should the campaign falter, said Maier, "the balance, it is planned, will be called for through State appropriation at a special session of the Legislature next spring." The committee also would begin the actual purchasing of land "as soon as $100,000 is at hand." Maier predicted that "it will require from two to three years to acquire all the land," but closed on a note of optimism not seen since mid-decade: "It would appear, however, [that] the development work in the area through the CCC can be safely resumed before that time." [26]

Simultaneous with the announcement of passage of the Big Bend legislation, the park service benefited from publicity generated by a river trip through the Rio Grande canyons by Milton F. Hill of Marfa, Texas. Much as in 1937, when Walter Prescott Webb navigated the rapids of Santa Elena Canyon, Hill and five others first ventured through the same canyon in mid-April. Aided by CCC camp custodian Lloyd Wade, the Hill party also had assistance from the U.S. Army post at Fort D.A. Russell. The NPS contacted the Associated Press news service in Texas with word of the Hill venture, resulting in what Herbert Maier told Hill were many news clips. "The descriptions of Fern Canyon," said Maier, "are particularly interesting and of value," and he requested that Hill inform the park service when the latter planned his voyage through Mariscal Canyon, "so that we may more successfully arrange the matter of supplying you with film on the basis of the arrangement discussed with you by the undersigned [Maier] at Marfa." Not until June did Milton Hill, his son Milton, Junior, and his son's friend Harvey Smith take the journey through Mariscal Canyon, but his description made headlines in newspapers throughout Texas. While "the walls here did not impress me as being quite as high as the S.H. [Santa Helena] walls," said the elder Hill, "the scenery is very beautiful in here, the walls gradually getting higher." He recalled that "some magnificent pinnacles and great rock towers are in here, and the final part of the gorge has very precipitous walls." [27]

As the Hill party neared their overnight destination of the Hot Springs, they encountered a swift channel but "had no trouble navigating it." Milton Hill judged Mariscal Canyon "not a difficult or dangerous trip at all in ordinary water, and has no place in it even approaching the Labrynth in difficulty." He estimated that "if there were a good place to get to the river and a place to get out good boatmen could take tourists through there with no trouble at all right now." Hill then remarked on the "fine scenery for several miles below the canyon." As they passed "the end of the San Vicente [Mountains] in Mexico," which Hill described as "a high and rugged range," they entered "the San Vicente Canyon, with vertical walls about 400 feet high." The Marfa minister declared that "it would have great fame east of the Mississippi [River] if the other canyons did not overtop it." A mile below San Vicente, Hill and his party encountered "a remarkable cream-colored cliff on the Texas side." There they saw "many sculptured hills of thin-bedded limestone, magnificent views of the Chisos and the [Sierra] Del Carmen." At this point they spotted "two beavers swimming in the high water, and in the Mariscal are numerous big blue herons." Hill remarked that "the main difficulty in making the [Mariscal] canyon now is getting to the river." The party had to carry their boats one-half mile over rough terrain. "However," said Hill, "it might be possible to get closer by going up-stream a little further," where "boats could be taken out at the Solis ranch . . . and thus avoid the long trip to Hot Springs." Hill extended his thanks to Lloyd Wade, as "the trip would have been impossible without his cooperation," as well as the hospitality of Mrs. J.O. Langford, who along with her husband managed the facilities at the Hot Springs. Hill then concluded that "if our people knew what they have in that Big Bend section in the way of scenery and health-giving wilderness they would surely make it a Park and visit it." [28]

The attention paid by the Texas media to Milton Hill's navigation of the canyons of the Rio Grande inspired others to attempt similar ventures. The most prominent of these involved Roy Swift, the youthful editor of the Robstown Record. The twenty-seven-year old Swift, joined by his 37-year old brother W.E. Swift, opted to swim the 20 miles from Lajitas through Santa Elena Canyon, a feat that had led in 1938 to the death of a Fort D.A. Russell soldier using an inner tube. The Swift brothers themselves had floated halfway through the canyon in 1931, and a year later had explored the large opening known as the "Great Cave," some 150 feet in diameter located high on the canyon walls. The Corpus Christi Caller-Times also reported that W.E. Swift had been "a member of a party that climbed the face of a cliff deep in the canyon to photograph the gorge from above." The Swifts' successful journey through Santa Elena Canyon had taken them thirteen hours, said the Albuquerque Journal, with the brothers "wearing swimming suits, heavy hats, knee pads and tennis shoes." Ten miles into the canyon they confronted walls that rose between 1,000 and 2,000 feet from the river's edge. Then two miles further downstream, said Roy Swift, "'we encountered the dangerous rapids where several boats and lives have been lost.'" They saw "'boulders strewn in the river [that] made it look to us impossible that any boat could get through.'" The Swifts also struggled with "places along this quarter-mile stretch in which no swimmer could live and we used ropes to get over and around the boulders.'" [29]

Publicity continued to emanate from the sponsors of Big Bend National Park in the spring and summer, as they sought to sustain the momentum of the 1939 Texas legislative session, and to create a sense of inevitability about the fundraising campaign. In late May, H.W. Kier, a filmmaker from San Antonio, met with Everett Townsend to plan a script for a newsreel on the Big Bend. Relying heavily on the dramatic themes made popular by Walter Prescott Webb, and lionized in Hollywood westerns of the 1930s, Kier claimed that "the frontier of half a century ago, still lingers untouched by the progress that has passed it by unheeding." Kier described Santiago Range as named for "a soldier of old Spain killed in an attack against the redskins on the northern slopes of the peak." He paid special attention to "the haze hidden peaks of the mighty [Chisos] Mountains," whose name "is Apache for Ghostly." The Chisos "in the distance," said the San Antonio filmmaker, "seem unreal, almost detached from the earth . . . grim . . . silent." Huarache Spring (spelled "Hurrache" by Kier) had earned its name as a place "where the first white man to enter this region found a pair of rawhide sandals [huaraches] left by some Indian." He identified "Dog Canyon" as "perpendicular cliffs . . . lined with caves that were once the homes of a pack of wild dogs that played havoc with the herds of the first settlers in this part of the 'Bend.'" Kier then came upon "an ex-college professor and the members of his family," whom the filmmaker claimed "used a loom that is an adaptation of the old Apache hand-loom." This permitted the unnamed professor to "weave Boquillos rugs from native mohair." Kier described this work as "skillfully and interestingly done," with "the pattern, designs and color, all original and done by hand beneath an outdoor arbor." [30]

Reaching the river's edge, Kier's film crew shot footage of the "ancient bathing place of Hot Springs," which he stated "serves the visiting whites as it once served the Warriors of the raiding Commanches." These Indians, "returning from their forays into Mexico," said Kier, "halted here long enough to bathe in the health-giving waters." "Today," Kier noted dryly, "semi modern conveniences await the visitors." Then the film crew came upon the village of Boquillas, Texas, where "Maria Sada and her family offer the hospitality of Old Spain . . . with a charm and courtesy that is distinctly of the old world." Maria Sada, known locally as "Chata," served "visitors with food prepared in the distinctive style of 'Big Bend,'" as Kier claimed that "her family has lived in this region for nearly 200 years." Across the river in Mexico, Kier found "the remains of Boquillos [sic], once a prosperous mining town . . . now almost deserted." The Mexican village known as Boquillas was "slowly crumbling from ruin and neglect." Further upstream the crew paused at San Vicente, which Kier described as "old . . . just how old no one knows." The site was "all that is left of the village that grew up beside the ancient Presidio de San Vicente, built in 1770 to guard the Commanche War Trail." Kier claimed that "some of the houses are the original ones and show the ancient hand-hewn beams and sills," while "the old methods of planting and harvesting still prevail in the little fields beside the river." He then recounted the story "that the monks of the mission that stood beside the Presidio worked a gold mine some where in the Chisos Mountains;" hence the famed "Lost Mine Peak," where "prospectors still search for the old shaft from which came the mission gold." [31]

Once the film crew had finished their shooting in Boquillas, they turned back west to Glenn Springs. This Kier described as "a green garden spot at the foothills of the pink and red parapets of the 10,000 foot Carmen Mountains . . . in Old Mexico." The crew passed "Johnson Ranch with hotel accommodations and landing field," eventually reaching Castolon, "lying in the shelter of the great pink mountain that is called Castolon Peak." There the crew filmed what they called "the Grand Canyon of the Rio Grande," where "many lives have been lost in attempting the passage of the wild rocky miles of twisted Canyon." The 2,000-feet-high barrier "almost shuts out the light of day," said Kier, and "the roar of the water fills the space between the narrow walls with a noise so constant, so profound . . . that [it] is almost a silence." Venturing northward from the Rio Grande, Kier's crew reached Terlingua, identified as a place where "primitive mining conditions prevail in one of the largest quicksilver mines in the country." The crew filmed a scene where "the homes and graveyards of the miners bespeak their frontier lack of anything that resembles modern comforts." Eastward the crew drove until they turned south through Green Gulch. There they found "CCC Camps that built the road and marked many of the trails into still more rugged vastness of the higher ridges." In the Basin Kier found "broad views sweeping for miles over a terrain as rugged and wild, as primitive and untouched as when white men first viewed it." Kier's crew then retraced their route northward to the base of the Chisos Mountains, and closed with the statement: "The mystery of the 'Big Bend' is a mystery no longer." "That which was once an impenetrable wilderness," said Kier, "is now the playground of the people of Texas and their friends and visitors from everywhere." Kier then left the potential viewer with the heartening thought: "Here, to-day meets yesterday in the heart of a mountain wonderland." [32]

Kier's script revealed once more the problem that the NPS faced in crafting a story that dramatized the otherworldliness of Big Bend, while assuring urban audiences that the ruggedness of the terrain meant them little harm. Katharine Seymour, a writer from San Antonio, had gone to the Big Bend area in late May to research a story on the future national park. Seymour had visited with Ross Maxwell at the NPS's Austin office, describing the park service geologist as "another Big Bend addict." Her use of NPS files led her to ask Herbert Maier: "I want to do a book on the whole International Park area. What do you think about it?" Seymour also noted the assistance given her by Lloyd Wade of the Chisos CCC camp. "Apparently he wanted me to get the real stuff," she told Maier, "for his complaint about writers in general is that 'they always write about the country like it used to be and it never was that way.'" Upon reflection, said Seymour, "I am inclined to agree with him." She was working on the West Texas section of a book on the State of Texas, a collaboration job with J.H. Plenn, author of Mexico Marches, published in March 1939 by Bobbs-Merrill Company. Seymour's exposure to the Big Bend had inspired her to write an in-depth study of the area, even though "the hitch is in being financially able to carry the Park book through [to publication]." Should the NPS agree to support her work, Seymour thought that "Mr. Wade's help would be the best we could possibly have in covering the park area, for I realized in talking over this west Texas material with him, that he has a more intelligent and intelligible slant on the country than anybody else who might be available to us for that service." Wade also "has the added quality of allowing people to think for themselves occasionally instead of distorting their vision and sickening their ears with picaresque anecdotes -- if you know what I mean." Seymour came away from her visit convinced that Big Bend was "my favorite subject," and she promised Maier to "be as honest as possible without making it too hot for the publisher to handle. After all this is the Big Bend we are talking about." [33]

Maier found Seymour's correspondence intriguing, given the need for as much good news as the NPS could generate. Thus he responded to her inquiry: "It is the policy of the National Park Service to assist wherever possible, to the extent permissible under regulations, in the writing of books and articles that will give favorable publicity to National Park Service areas." Unfortunately, said Maier: "With the exception of the CCC Camp, this Service at present has no jurisdiction over the area." He also cautioned Seymour about the ability of Lloyd Wade to assist her research. Wade, said Maier, "is the only one employed by the National Park Service now in this area." As caretaker, "the regulations require that he be on duty at the camp 24 hours each day;" a circumstance that was "largely in the interest of fire prevention." The NPS had "furnished [Wade] with a Government pick-up truck; however, regulations do not permit the use of a Government car for other than official transportation." Maier did agree that Wade could "assist you in any manner that does not conflict with the limitations that have been imposed on CCC camp caretakers." The acting Region III director had done so because "your plan for writing a book on the Big Bend area that will include archaeology, geology, fauna, flora, etc., we feel, will be a very worthwhile undertaking." Maier acknowledged that "National Park areas are made up of these scientific elements, and national park tourists are eager for a popular interpretation, especially in an area such as the Big Bend in which the visitor will always be conscious of the presence of these elements and eager for their interpretation." [34]

For readers of news stories about the future national park, little information appeared regarding the status of land sales and ownership in Brewster County; this a result of the uncertainty surrounding when (or if) the state parks board would commence acquisition proceedings. Nonetheless, A.M. Turney, county attorney for Brewster County, discovered in July what Everett Townsend had learned four years earlier when he surveyed land ownership patterns in the Big Bend area. Writing to Wendell Mayes, Turney reported that "the Tax Assessor and the County Clerk of this Brewster County, Texas, inform me that they do not have a list of the lands owned by the Park Board of Texas." Turney also had found that "there have been over 300 delinquent tax suits filed in this County and a great many of them in the lower end of the County, and the Deputy Tax Assessor and Collector tells me that he believes that the suits probably are on a good deal of lands owned by the Park Board." In order to prepare for potential land purchases, Turney asked Mayes: "I would like to have a list of all of the land owned by the Park Board situated in this County, . . . in order that I may not take judgment for taxes on this land." [35]

Little did A.M. Turney or anyone else involved with the promotion of Big Bend National Park realize how their lives (and the prospects for land acquisition) would change when on September 1 the armed forces of Germany instigated the Second World War. Within two weeks of the "blitzkrieg" strike of Hitler's "Wehrmact" against the helpless people of Poland, the Fort Worth Star Telegram carried an editorial with the curious title, "Tourist Opportunity." "Out of the wreckage of the tourist business in Europe," said the Fort Worth paper, "for the rebuilding of which years will be required, even after the crisis has passed, Texas like the rest of the country stands to gain if she takes advantage of the inevitable increase in travel in the United States that lies ahead." To the editors of the Star Telegram, "the principal project in Texas for attracting more visitors is the establishment of Big Bend National Park, for which $1,000,000 must be raised by popular subscription." The paper cited estimates that "the 90,000-odd tourists who are fleeing from Europe will be expected to travel in the United States next year." In addition, "there is another group known as Winter Tourists, on which Texas should have as much claim as California and Florida." With a vision that seems prophetic in hindsight, the Star Telegram predicted the future economy of leisure and travel that would shape the Lone Star state (and much of the nation as well) for the remainder of the twentieth century, when its editors concluded: "Texas should not fail to seize the opportunity to become a greater tourist State and to profit from the increased travel that is to be diverted from Europe to this country." [36]

The Star Telegram's wishful thinking, while accurate in the long term, did not prevail in the weeks following the onset of World War II. By mid-October, Herbert Maier would report to Director Cammerer that "this Office has had no recent word concerning the status of this matter [fundraising]." It had been five months since Maier had spoken with Amon Carter's representatives. "At that time," said the acting Region III director, "Mr. Carter was abroad; however, early action was promised upon his return which was to occur shortly." Carter's people had advised Maier that "business conditions in Texas did not warrant approaching the heads of the bigger industries for substantial donations." Maier now believed that "business in Texas . . . has increased tremendously during the last few months, due to the War, and the oil and cotton industries are in very sound positions." It was Maier's opinion that "the present, therefore, should be an opportune time for Mr. Carter to launch his appeal." [37]

As the European conflict escalated, and Amon Carter sent no word about the fundraising initiative, park sponsors in Alpine attempted to generate their own publicity with the printing of a bulletin praising the virtues of Big Bend. Horace Morelock confided to Maier that the chamber of commerce felt compelled to publish the bulletin "principally because the park movement did not shape up according to our ideas and hopes." This marked the first admission by Morelock, a tireless advocate for the park, that the effort might be in vain. Morelock thought "that it would be a fine thing if you would write to Mr. Record, indicating that you have had an inquiry from Washington on the subject of the bulletin, also showing the interest of the National Park Service in the Big Bend National Park." Morelock also thought "it imperative that the Parks Committee in Texas buy additional land immediately about the CCC camp in order that this group might do such things as will justify their staying in the Park area." Maier could assist park sponsors by soliciting a "good letter from [Texas CCC director] Mr. Robert Fechner as to the program of the CCC in the park area," as this might "stimulate some of our group to get busy in raising funds." Then he asked if "the National Park Service could not make a contribution, both in money and in service on this score?" This reflected the depths of Morelock's frustration with Amon Carter and the whole fundraising strategy: "I have been a little impatient at the slow progress we have been making in Texas, and I should like to get suggestions from you as to what we might do." Maier needed to know that "personally, I can see no reason for any further delay," and Morelock urged the NPS official: "I feel that some kind of a meeting must be held at an early date if we are to get things under way." [38]

Minus a strategy for raising monies for Big Bend, all parties involved in park planning (the NPS, the state parks board, and local sponsors) had little information to dispense to the news media, and less detail for potential donors or sellers of property. Frank D. Quinn, appointed executive secretary of the parks board in the fall of 1939, told Brewster Kenyon of Long Beach, California, that "the money for the purchase of this land has not yet been raised and we regret we are not now in position to indicate what [Kenyon's 320 acres] might be worth for park purposes." Wendell E. Little, planning coordinator for the NPS office in Washington, attended a meeting in the nation's capital "of ex-students of the University of Texas where the principal speaker was Major Parten of the Board of Regents." Parten's "chief subject of discussion," Little told his superiors, "was the management of the University lands." The NPS planning coordinator believed that "the establishment of the Big Bend National Park would be directly in line with certain stated objectives of the University." The Austin campus "is one of the chief centers of Latin American studies designed to foster goodwill and mutual understanding between the United States and South and Central America." This prompted Little to surmise that "the international aspects of the Big Bend area also tend in this same direction." Logistics also played a role in UT's involvement in the future of Big Bend, said Little, as "the establishment of the park would provide facilities for research by the University and other scientific institutions." He noted that "only recently the University has expanded its research activities and plans are being made for considerable further expansion, provided funds are made available." Thus Little suggested to the NPS that "when the matter of appropriating funds by the Texas Legislature is up for consideration, it may be desirable to discuss the proposed national park fully with officials of the University." He recognized that "a great many of the members of the Texas Legislature are ex-students of the University, and the support of that institution on behalf of the park would carry considerable weight." [39]

Little's correspondence marked the first time that anyone had suggested approaching the Austin campus for assistance in the Big Bend campaign. It also revealed how park sponsors needed to change direction in their quest for Texas's first NPS unit. On November 10, regional director Tolson reported to his Washington superiors that he had met with Governor O'Daniel. The latter "advised that little progress had been made to raise the necessary funds," attributing this to Amon Carter's lengthy stay in Europe, where he had "not given much time to raising funds for the above-mentioned purpose." Moreover, said Tolson, O'Daniel "gave me the impression that he wanted Mr. Carter to have an opportunity to see what he could do to raise funds for purchasing the privately owned areas within the proposed Big Bend National Park area." The governor also stated bluntly that "Mr. Carter would not be very successful in doing so," and that "it would be essential for the Texas legislature to appropriate all, or the major portion, of the funds necessary therefor." Without the promise of private monies, Herbert Maier then had to deny Horace Morelock's request for NPS support of the Big Bend promotional bulletin. The park service itself, said Maier, had printed some 5,000 copies of its own pamphlet on the future park, several of which the NPS had sent to Morelock and other local park sponsors. "It seems best," wrote Maier, "to not release these until a strategic time when [Amon Carter's] campaign actually gets under way." Maier also did not support the idea of Morelock to "contact CCC Director Fechner regarding the purchase of land immediately surrounding the [Chisos] camp." He believed that "easements can no doubt be obtained on such lands on which CCC work is indicated." Maier also hoped that "the State will be in a position to start purchasing some lands shortly from the $40,000 or more that is already at hand." [40]

Local sponsors and NPS personnel committed to the creation of Big Bend National Park had endured perhaps their most bleak period as the days of 1939 dwindled. The year had begun hopefully enough, when Governor W. Lee O'Daniel accepted the entreaties of President Franklin D. Roosevelt and championed the park with Lone Star lawmakers. Positive publicity for the first six months of 1939 (coinciding with the deliberations at the Austin capital) led to O'Daniel's signature on legislation committing the state of Texas to acceptance of lands purchased by private subscription; a process that looked promising because of the active role promised by Amon Carter. Yet the anxieties caused by war surrounded Big Bend, even though the future park site was 10,000 miles from the battlefields of eastern Europe. Thus it came as no surprise to park advocates when in December A.C. Jones of Dallas wrote to Governor O'Daniel, seeking guidance on the future of his property in south Brewster County. In 1928 Jones and Dr. William B. Phillips, director of the Bureau of Economic Geology at UT, had acquired one-eighth of a section (80 acres), with mineral rights, that Jones contended included four miles of the riverbank along the Rio Grande. Jones claimed that Phillips had examined the property and had determined that it contained deposits of "gold that would run over 30 dollars per ton and quick silver that is richer more than five time more than the producing mines near Terlingua City." Jones asked O'Daniel "if you have to take this section of land or mineral rights . . . at 50 cents per acre." If the state wanted Jones's property, "could you the state of Texas pay me in a compensation form for the land that has valuable minerals that is paying quantity." Jones declared that "the reason that [I] hate to lose this piece of land or mineral rights when it could be developed for these minerals" was that "I am [a] disabled soldier or veteran that got hurt in action on the front during the [first] World War." He thus joined hundreds of other property owners in wondering whether the dream of Everett Townsend for a park along the Rio Grande would become one more mystery shrouding the mountains and valleys of the Big Bend. [41]

Figure 12: Chisos Basin Store and Dining Room (c. 1950)