Big Bend Administrative History

Land-purchase matters by the spring of 1940 had become quite complex, as the story given to the Texas public emphasized the virtues of private subscriptions for Big Bend park, while park advocates explored subsidies from the Lone Star legislature and the U.S. Congress itself. Arno Cammerer advised Undersecretary Wirtz that "there has been a definite trend in recent years toward Federal appropriations for the outright purchase of lands necessary for establishment of national parks and monuments or extensions thereto." The NPS director labelled this "a consistent process, since the Government purchases land for numerous other types of reservations-the Forest Service, for example, having spent more than $60,000 since 1911 for the purchase of forest lands under the Weeks Act." Beyond this initiative, said Cammerer, "since 1927, by several different acts, Congress has appropriated over $3,000,000 for the purchase of lands for national park purposes, the Federal funds to be matched dollar for dollar by contributions from other sources." Most recently the nation's lawmakers had voted $743,265.29 to complete the purchase of land in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park, after the major portions of the necessary land had already been acquired by other means. Yet another precedent had been Colonial National Historical Park in Virginia, where the Federal Government had expended over $1,000,000 while Virginia contributed only $80,000. Isle Royale National Park in the midst of Lake Superior had required 85 percent federal funding for land acquisition, "with a small contribution by the State." "While Isle Royale was purchased for ECW purposes," said Cammerer, "the authorized objective of the area was the establishment of a national park." Finally, the NPS director pointed to "the appropriation of $2,005,000 to purchase the Yosemite Sugar Pines [as] another instance in which the Federal Government purchased lands outright for park purposes." [14]

Further evidence for Cammerer of the ability of the park service to seek federal funding for parklands came "in the cases of Homestead National Monument, Nebraska, and Ackia National Monument, Mississippi." Here "congress appropriated funds for the outright purchase of all the necessary lands." Other park units whose enabling legislation contained federal funding for their land base included Virginia's Appomattox Courthouse National Monument and the Patrick Henry National Monument, as well as the Andrew Johnson National Monument in Tennessee. "It is apparent," wrote Cammerer, "that there is ample precedent for the appropriation of Federal funds for the purchase of lands for parks." He then told Wirtz that "authority for the Secretary to enter into contractual obligations to the extent of $1,000,000 to cover half the price of land was contained in the Act of March 4, 1929 (45 Stat. 1600) and extended by the Act of February 14, 1931 (46 Stat. 1154)." The park service director suggested that "the introduction of a bill to include the Big Bend project within the Secretary's authorization to enter into contracts for 50% of the purchase price of lands would not, we believe, receive serious opposition since it would merely extend an existing authorization to include an additional project." Cammerer believed that "such a bill should also provide that the appraised value of lands within the proposed park area which may be donated to the United States shall be considered as matching funds so as to authorize contractual obligations in an equivalent amount for the purchase at their full value of other private lands within the park project." The NPS director offered to Wirtz yet another compelling rationale for inclusion of the Mexican lands in such legislation. "In view of the strained European situation," said Cammerer, "we believe this is an excellent time to emphasize the international aspects of the Big Bend National Park." He argued that "there could be no more appropriate gesture than to establish the proposed Big Bend International Peace Park as a symbol of goodwill and friendship with our neighbors to the south." [15]

To local advocates of the new national park, the source of funding for land acquisition mattered less than an aggressive campaign of surveying and purchase. A.F. Robinson of Alpine wrote to Representative Thomason in late April to offer a strategy for buying land. "As an interested citizen and co-worker," said Robinson, "I offer suggestions with the belief that they can be used beneficially by the Texas Legislature and the National Park Service." He had learned that "a number of the ranchers in the County own land, about half of which is deeded land, the remainder being school land." Many of these owners "had purchased [the land] from the State of Texas a number of years ago, a down payment of one fortieth of the [principal] being made at the time of purchase, forty years to pay the balance." In 1940 "this land was valued at a rate of $1.00 to $3.00 per acre," said Robinson, with "the interest being 3 percent." Echoing the comments of Everett Townsend several years earlier, the former chairman of the Alpine chamber of commerce found that "in many cases nothing has been paid on the [principal], and in [a] number of instances not even the interest has been paid." Yet "they still hope to receive $1.00 bonus per acre on said land." Robinson suggested that "if possible, the State or the [fundraising] Committee allow them $1.00 bonus per acre in lease, thereby, allowing the ranchman the privilege of running [a] certain amount of cattle or livestock for a definite period of years, contracts of course being made with each one to insure the protection of all wild life." In this manner "the Committee would not have to raise funds for the purchase, and the [ranchmen] would have their leases paid up for several years." The ranchers also could "continue making a livelihood from the only business with which they are familiar." Robinson warned Cammerer that "there are obligations on many of the ranches," some of which were 30-year loans just taken out from the Federal Land Bank. He then asked the NPS director: "Could the State or Committee [or] the National Park Service or the Federal [government] assume these obligations?" Robinson claimed to "have talked to about 60% of the land owners and did at one time take options on all this land." By this process the Alpine businessman had learned that "90% of the owners [were] glad to work with the Park Committee or with the National Park Service or with the Texas State Parks Board if they understand." [16]

By early May, Horace Morelock had decided that a direct appeal to Colonel John White would be the most expedient means of gauging the potential of federal funding of Big Bend. He sought a visit from the Region III director because he had learned that "the Texas State Highway Commission will not allocate sufficient funds for the proper development of highways contiguous to the park proper until the National Park Service definitely and finally locates the Main Entrance to the Park." Morelock advised White that he served as president of the Highway 67 Association in west Texas, and had planned a meeting in late May in Alpine to advance the cause of good highways and national parks. White, who would serve in Santa Fe as the regional director for only a few months, nonetheless informed Morelock that "there is nothing in Region III in which I am more interested than the proposed Big Bend National Park." White anticipated "with much pleasure visiting Alpine, the proposed Park area, and meeting all of you who are interested in its creation and development." Despite the tragic circumstances surrounding White's brief tenure as regional director (he died of a heart attack 30 days in office), local park sponsors went forward on May 24 with their meeting. "All towns of West Texas," read the promotional literature, "are not only interested in good highways to this section, but in the proper routing of highways as well." [17]

The summer of 1940 brought the lengthiest delay in promotion of Big Bend National Park since the start of the decade. With the U.S. Congress in recess, a presidential election campaign underway nationwide, the Texas legislature out of session until the following January, and Amon Carter awaiting more propitious times for raising private funds for land acquisition, even Horace Morelock found little to do on behalf of the Lone Star state's first national park unit. Thus the Sul Ross president took time to draft a story entitled, "The Big Bend Empire," which he distributed to friends and associates as his synopsis of the cultural history of west Texas. Employing dramatic metaphors, Morelock called the Big Bend "the Abyssinia of the West;" an area "shut off from the rest of the world by a 'no man's land' of desert and mountains." "Until recently," Morelock continued, "but little was known of its people and the life they fashioned except as this country has been fabled in song and story as a 'scene of border raids, the home of bandits, and the last stronghold of the pioneer.'" Evidence of this for Morelock was the story of "Judge Roy Bean, ironically known as 'The Law West of the Pecos.'" Bean had come to the Big Bend country in 1882, "and as Justice of the Peace continued to hold court in his 'Jersey Lily Saloon' at Langtry until 1905." Calling Bean "this Falstaff-Robin Hood of the Big Bend," Morelock contended that "these stories reveal in a somewhat realistic way the spirit of the time, and they were on the whole true to character." [18]

From dime-novel drama, Morelock turned to historical figures of the Alpine area, naming the major ranchers of the region as "adventurous young men from distant parts of Texas [who] yielded to the lure of the West and followed dim trails into the Big Bend." Of these individuals, said Morelock (among them H.L. Kokernot, Everett Townsend, W.B. Mitchell, and A.S. Gage), "their heroic struggles for a half century, in the face of baffling difficulties--long distances to market, periodical dry years, no roads to travel, and no fences to mark off their individual domains--would match the resoluteness of any other group of pioneers in American History." By 1940 these "Cattle Barons," as Morelock described them, "own ranches ranging from 40,000 to 250,000 acres, and the 'Highland Hereford Association' with headquarters at Marfa is nationally known for its grass-fed cattle." The Sul Ross president then essayed an historical analogy between these men and "the pre-Civil War 'Southern Planters' with Negros as tillers of the soil." For Morelock, "in each case the elite cultivated a dignified independence in word, deed, and thought." Southerners and Big Bend ranchers also "loved isolation, and they resented any attempt at social, educational, and economic intrusions." As a man of learning himself, Morelock noted that "for the most part, those with sufficient economic competency sent their sons and daughters to 'finishing schools' for their college education." In so doing, he contended, "a distinct landed aristocracy was born and fostered." [19]

Given these socioeconomic parallels, Morelock did distinguish between "the social, intellectual, and spiritual life in the Big Bend and in the Old South." Speaking of black slaves in terms more common to the mid-nineteenth century, Morelock said that "the 'Plantation Darky' had but little background of race-culture; social equality and independent thinking were foreign to his desires and to his opportunities." Then the Sul Ross president changed direction with his assertion: "Not so with the Mexicans in the Big Bend." He claimed that "for although most of them are a mixed breed of Indian and Spanish, they have inherited and still cherish a sensitive pride both in their ancest[o]rs and in their achievements." The Sul Ross executive wrote that "many of them speak only [S]panish in their homes, and old and young alike maintain a punctillious regard for a variety of festive occasions that date back to a remote past." Among these, said Morelock, "Cinco de Mayo is more sacred than the Fourth of July, and their chief interest in affairs of government is economic competency for their loved ones." Morelock believed that "as a race the Mexicans are fond of music, but there is no such thing as a 'Negro Spiritual' in all their repertory of music." An example of this for the Sul Ross president was "how far removed is the studied grace of the Mexican 'Jaraba Tapitio' from the improvised 'shuffle' of the 'Southern Darky.'" Yet another cultural trait that drew Morelock's attention was "the religion of the Mexican," which he disparaged as "largely an indoctrination of fixed tenets, which find expression in colorful decorations in their Churches and cemeteries and at their weddings." By contrast, said Morelock, "the Negroes' religion is colored by a kind of superstitious regard for some all-powerful deity who lurks behind most of life's phenomena with an avenging scowl on his countenance." [20]

Into the Big Bend of the late nineteenth century had come "many influences," Morelock stated, that "have conspired to revolutionize primitive life." For him the "first harbinger of change" had been William B. Bloys, "an 'Itinerant Cowboy Preacher' who came like John the Baptist into the wilderness to proclaim a new order." His early efforts to minister the word to ranch families expanded by 1890 to the "Bloys Camp Meeting," where one-half century later "thousands of people from all parts of Texas come to this shrine every summer to enjoy free meals of barbecue at the ranchers' table and to listen to some of the greatest ministers in the South." Then modestly Morelock noted the opening in 1920 of his own campus in Alpine, where "on the first morning, cowboys wearing their boots, spurs and an occasional bandanna registered with a kind of idle curiosity." Morelock, himself the epitome of the college administrator, saw in these first students "a frankness in expressing their wishes and a freedom in their conduct that was somewhat disconcerting to faculty members recruited from the cloistered halls of staid academic institutions." Yet the small enrollment and close interaction of students and teachers led all to "study together in the classroom and to play together in the big outdoors of the open West." From this "democratic atmosphere," said Morelock, "formal discipline has seldom been necessary, and character development and academic achievement have progressed of their own volition." Praising the wonders of nature that surrounded Alpine, and proud of the conventional thinking of his students, Morelock concluded that "campus life at Sul Ross is tainted with few questionable 'isms,' and students who wish to keep physically strong while they are passing through the ordeal of achieving a college education are happy in their enviroment." [21]

It was this serendipitous union of higher learning and natural beauty that promised so much for tourism promotion in west Texas once Big Bend National Park opened. In the Davis Mountains the University of Texas and the University of Chicago had joined forces to build and maintain the McDonald Observatory. This facility, and the 1935 congressional authorization of Big Bend, said Morelock, awakened the citizenry "to the reality that a new day dawned for this entire section." The Sul Ross executive declared that "the widespread publicity accompanying these achievements brought many tourists to the Big Bend." One example was the meeting in Alpine in May of 1939 of the Southwestern Division of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, which "gave a new basis to raw materials in geology, in biology, in archaeology, and art of the entire Big Bend Section." This plus "the further fact that graduates of Sul Ross have gone back to the ranches and others into the public schools as teachers," said Morelock, "augur a new era of far-reaching consequences for the entire Trans-Pecos region." Morelock claimed that "life in the Big Bend is trembling on the borderland of change akin to that which Thomas Nelson Page and Joel Chandler Harris caught and portrayed for Virginia and Georgia." His prediction was that "the next ten years will see more adjustments in the economic, social, and educational program of the Big Bend than have taken place in all its previous history." A signal event for Morelock was that "even the coming of more than 200,000 thoroughbred sheep into this section during the past four years may revolutionize the cattle industry planned and built up by the 'Cattle Barons.'" [22]

All of this change for Big Bend and Morelock's campus would make west Texas a different place. He promised that "Sul Ross State College will naturally square itself with the new order." At the same time, the college president hoped that "whatever the changes, let us hope [to maintain] the friendliness of the Big Bend pioneer which recognized no caste except individual worth, courage which prompted him to use the six-shooter if necessary in defending his code of honor, the chivalrous attitude which he maintained towards women on all occasions, also the true American-way, which believes that the Declaration of Independence demands loyalty in deed as well as in word." Such claims to virtue would give pause to later generations of historians of the American West, as they looked more closely in the late twentieth century at the disparities between professions of freedom and the reality of contested landscapes. Yet Horace Morelock, now heavily invested in the entwined futures of his school and Texas's first national park, closed his cultural history of Big Bend with the plea that "these sterling pioneer qualities which are the safeguards of our civilization, shall not be lost to American life." [23]

Whether coincidental or deliberate, Morelock's story of the Big Bend country appeared just as the National Park Service undertook one last campaign of publicity and promotion for the park; an initiative timed for the election season of the fall of 1940, and not incidentally targeting Texas lawmakers seeking to represent their districts in Austin the following January. Milton McColm, acting regional director in Santa Fe, advised NPS director Cammerer of the status of Amon Carter's fundraising ventures. Milo Christiansen of the Santa Fe office had travelled to Dallas in early August to attend a meeting of river basin planners. There he conversed with James Record of the Star Telegram and Harry Connelly, a former Star Telegram reporter now detailed to the Texas Big Bend Park Association. Record had unpleasant news, said McColm, as "progress in raising funds had become stalemated," a situation that the managing editor of the Fort Worth paper attributed to "the war scare." He believed that "'the oil companies certainly would not be generous in their contributions.'" In addition, McColm reported that "Texas, as stated by Mr. Record, does not want the Federal Government to appropriate funds for the land acquisition program." This the managing editor viewed as "contrary to the spirit and purpose of the Big Bend Association." Instead, "Mr. Connelly stated [that] they were making plans to increase the membership of the Big Bend Association and to establish an organization committee in each county [a total of 254] as contrasted to the 39 members which represent 20 out of the 21 congressional districts." Record and Connelly also told McColm that they had rejected the appeal of Morelock and the west Texas park advocates to spend the $100,000 raised on immediate land purchases. Connally further "stated that he was being called on continually to dispute the fact that there is an abundance of oil and minerals in the Big Bend area." The fundraising committee had asked Ross Maxwell, now residing in Austin, to ascertain the merits of these claims. McColm closed his memorandum to Cammerer by noting that "the publicity is being kept alive by the Fort Worth Star Telegram and other newspapers and magazines, but the intensive campaign for fund raising will not be launched until conditions become more favorable." [24]

In conjunction with McColm's conference with representatives of Amon Carter's committee, regional director Minor Tillotson spoke on August 13 in Ruidoso, New Mexico, to the "Southwestern Chamber of Commerce Association." His message was the "tremendous financial benefits" to descend upon the area once Big Bend National Park opened. Tillotson, the replacement for Colonel John White, reminded the audience of business leaders that "'we [the NPS] have given, and are continuing to give, every possible encouragement that we can to make this park a reality.'" He recalled how "Secretary of the Interior Ickes, under the authority given him by the Congress, is ready to proclaim the park status just as soon as the privately-owned lands have been acquired and the area is deeded to the federal government." Important to this effort, said Tillotson, was the fact that "we have recently re-established a CCC company to continue work in that portion of the project that is already owned by the State." When the national park became a reality, much of the needed development already would be accomplished. As to the growing demand for information about Big Bend by potential visitors, Tillotson noted that "we have been publicizing this area in newspapers, magazines, and over the radio for more than five years, so you may be certain it is pretty well known all over the country." The regional director, himself recently transferred from the superintendency of Grand Canyon National Park, compared that unit's annual visitation of 400,000 people, and lamented that he and his staff had to tell inquirers of Big Bend's status that "the area is not ready for visitors," and that "there are no facilities for tourists." [25]

Minor Tillotson's optimism did not assuage the doubts of Horace Morelock, as the promotion of Big Bend remained problematic. On August 15, the Sul Ross president corresponded with Amon Carter regarding the fundraising initiative, and also reported on his own recent visit to the future park. Morelock had suggested to James Record that Carter join a party touring the Big Bend area that would include Harry Connally, Wendell Mayes, Senator H.L. Winfield, Colonel Thomas Boles (superintendent of Carlsbad Caverns National Park and a reviewer of potential NPS units), Minor Tillotson, and Daniel Galicia of the Mexican department of forestry, game and fish. Morelock himself had driven down to the reopened CCC camp in the Chisos Mountains, where he spoke with the camp director, Captain K.H. Scott. The latter showed Morelock "the complete plans (not yet released) which the National Park Service had made covering the entire area." Scott "appeared to be greatly interested in getting the Ira Hector section of the land settled," Morelock told Carter, and "also in the acquisition of additional land for development purposes." Morelock hoped that this would convince Carter to "agree that some of the money we have already collected for the purchase of land can be placed in the State Treasury to the credit of the Texas State Parks Board." The Sul Ross president's sense of urgency emanated from his observation that "at present, a good many of the tourists who go into the park return home with somewhat of a distaste in their mouths because there are no overnight accommodations in the area." This meant "no places to get meals, and therefore, not sufficient time to see enough of the section and return to Alpine by night." Morelock suggested to Carter that "if we had adequate accommodations down there for tourists they would return home and be the greatest salesmen we could have for the park." [26]

Despite the reputation of Carter in the Lone Star state, Morelock chided him about the Big Bend fundraising initiative: "I do not know what your plans are as to who will conduct the campaign or when it is to start." Adrian Wychgel had written to Morelock with a warning "not [to] wait later than September 1," and Minor Tillotson's remarks in Ruidoso "emphasized the unusual interest which the National Park Service has in this project." Morelock conceded that "there is never a 'good time' to start a campaign to raise money." Yet the Sul Ross executive believed that "if we had the Big Bend Park under way at an early date it would be the greatest revenue producing agent in the state in a very short time." Carter also needed to know, said Morelock, of the "very definite impression" that he received from the Ruidoso meeting "that both New Mexico and Arizona are far ahead of Texas in their advertising campaign for tourists." Despite the publicity given Big Bend by Carter's newspaper, "they are going to take away some of our possibilities for the future unless we act at once." Morelock saw it as "unfortunate if we cannot go ahead with our Big Bend project at an early date and make it attractive to tourists." The Sul Ross president, himself a busy man, nonetheless asked Carter: "I hope that you may find time to write me fully and frankly on all these points and such other points as you may have in mind." [27]