Big Bend Administrative History

With Labor Day signaling the start of fall, park promoters accelerated their efforts to convince Texans and their elected representatives that Big Bend National Park needed no more delays in funding. Wayne Gard, a reporter for the Dallas News, wrote to NPS publicist Leo McClatchy on August 31 to seek more information about an upcoming inspection trip to the future park area by federal and state officials. "All that remains," said Gard, "is for you and Mr. Tillotson to decide whether or not it would be worth while for the National Park Service to take along a newspaperman hitchhiker." In return, Gard predicted: "I presumably could get a series of six or seven column-length articles in the [Dallas] News, each with at least one picture." An added bonus would be Gard's access to the Baltimore Evening Sun, "for which I am the Texas correspondent." Gard also had written articles for such national magazines as the American Mercury, Current History, and Country Gentleman. He recounted for McClatchy how "in three different years, I have gone on a week's trip with Jack L. Gubbels, head of the roadside development division of the Texas State Highway Department." Gard had written a host of features and editorials for the Dallas News as a result of these excursions, while "publicity resulting from my taking these trips has been of considerable value to the highway department." [28]

No sooner had Leo McClatchy received Wayne Gard's request than did the NPS learn that on September 2 President Roosevelt had come out forcefully in favor of Big Bend while dedicating Great Smoky Mountains National Park. The Santa Fe office of the NPS made much of FDR's remark that "we are living under governments which are proving their devotion to national parks." Roosevelt had thanked the governors of North Carolina and Tennessee for aiding in the land-acquisition campaign, and noted that "the Secretary of the Interior has today ready for dedication two more parks--Kings Canyon, in California and the Olympic National Park, in the State of Washington." Then for his nationwide audience, FDR declared that "soon, I hope, [we] will have a third, the Big Bend Park, in Texas." [29]

Energized by Roosevelt's highly visible support, NPS officials and local sponsors conducted a well-publicized tour of the future park in late September. The Star Telegram sent a reporter and photographer to cover the journey from Alpine to the Chisos Mountains. "Frequently during the long trek afoot, on horseback and by auto," said the Star Telegram, "[Minor] Tillotson expressed amazement at the scenic beauty, ruggedness and completeness of the biological island within the area." The Santa Fe regional director further claimed that "'only one of the national parks is at all comparable from an international point of view and that is Glacier National Park in Montana, which joins Waterton Lake Park in Canada." Tillotson wanted Big Bend developed with an eye toward its isolation and heritage. To that end, he recommended that "instead of automobile roads there should be trails, and all buildings should be widely scattered and of the ranch type." His park service colleagues, including Ross Maxwell (regional geologist), Harvey Cornell (regional architect), and John C. Diggs (west Texas inspector), joined with Everett Townsend, Captain Scott of the CCC camp, Wayne Gard of the Dallas News, and Nelson Lee of the Alpine chamber of commerce on the four-day excursion. They discussed such topics as preservation of wildlife, promotion of tourism, and the private fundraising venture. Tillotson told Gard that visitation could begin as early as the spring of 1941, when the CCC crew would have completed six stone cabins in the Chisos basin. In addition, said Tillotson, commercial interests were building "private tourist courts and a new hotel wing in Terlingua." Gard also reported that "plans for the park probably would include provision for a longhorn ranch." The Dallas News took pride in the fact that Tillotson implemented their suggestion to "display at the State Fair of Texas a large relief model of the Big Bend area in color." The CCC program in Austin had constructed the model, which Gard called "similar to the one now on display in the State Capitol." Among its details were "mountains, drainage, streams, canyons, roads, political boundaries and other points of interest." Should the state fair display prove successful, Gard reported that "the Texas Big Bend Park Association will co-operate in showing it in Dallas and later may sponsor its display in other Texas cities." [30]

Following the typical pattern of public praise for Big Bend, NPS officials filed their reports on the September trip with more cautious predictions for the park's future. Tillotson informed NPS director Cammerer of his thoughts on the four-day outing, where they began at the "CCC Camp NP-1." The group "inspected the cabin construction under way there and walked over the Juniper Flat area, tentatively proposed for lodge and cabin development." The itinerary included an auto tour of Santa Elena Canyon and Terlingua, a horseback ride along the South Rim of the Chisos Mountains, and a drive to Pine Canyon, where the party reviewed "the proposed site for a campground, trailer camp, etc." From there they drove eastward to Glenn Springs, Boquillas and its namesake canyon. While in the eastern section of the Big Bend, Tillotson observed "the area that has been tentatively suggested for a long horn range." The Santa Fe regional director believed that "during the short time at our disposal, we were able to see the maximum representative sections of the proposed park area." He also was "frank to say that I was most agreeably surprised at the character of the country, the variety and interest of the scenic features, the biological possibilities, and the international aspect." Tilllotson concluded that "surely this is an area of national park calibre in every respect, and I am personally most enthusiastic toward it." [31]

Equally important to Tillotson was the opportunity to generate substantial media coverage of the tour. The presence of the Dallas News's Wayne Gard, and the Star Telegram's Harry Connelly, who "served as a correspondent for that paper" even though he worked for the fundraising committee, meant that "the Big Bend park project received much excellent and widespread publicity." Gard's stories would appear in the Baltimore Sun and other papers nationwide, leading Tillotson to comment: "All of this should be helpful both in crystallizing sentiment toward the park and in promoting the forth-coming financial campaign." This latter point especially concerned Tillotson, as a week before the park visit he had attended a state parks board meeting in Breckenridge. "The directorship of the Big Bend Park Association," said Tillotson, "has recently been greatly enlarged." Unfortunately, he told Cammerer, "I have the feeling that an effort has been made to secure on the Board of Directors too many big names and not enough workers." Yet this new committee included "some of the most prominent men in Texas and representatives from every section of the State." Now the deadline for commencing the campaign was immediately after the Christmas holidays and not later than the first of February of 1941. At the Breckenridge meeting, the committee asked the state parks board to begin "securing of options on lands involved." The board discussed this issue in detail, focusing upon "the length of time for which such options should be made, whether funds were immediately available for down payments in order to acquire such options, the number of parcels and acreage involved, etc., etc." The parks board did not commit to this program, but agreed "to give such a proposition the most favorable consideration possible after they had had an opportunity to study the matter further and, particularly, to go over a land ownership map." Tillotson's final thought to Cammerer referred to the CCC relief map of the Big Bend, which he had authorized Harry Connelly to use "in connection with his forth-coming campaign to raise funds for the purchase of necessary lands." [32]

Tillotson's relationship with park advocates also merited attention after his return from the Big Bend excursion. To Nelson Lee the Santa Fe regional director offered "my sincere appreciation and that of my associates for all that was done by you personally and by the Alpine Chamber of Commerce officially to make a success of our recent trip." Tillotson remarked that "although my Texas experience dates back a great many years, this was the first time that I had ever been in your particular section of the State." He felt moved to confide in Lee that "it was certainly an eye-opener to me," and that the laudatory comments he had made to the news media "have been quite correctly reported." The park service "shall always be mindful and greatly appreciative of the part taken by the good people of Alpine in promoting this project." For his part, Tillotson would devote "every effort toward final realization," with the hope that "it will not be too long before we can stage at Alpine a celebration similar to the one held last month in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park at which the President of the United States was present personally to dedicate a new national park." He then suggested to Lee that the local chamber "take up with the Texas State Highway Commission or other proper authorities the matter of changing the signs on the road in from Marathon." With so much positive coverage generated about Big Bend, Tillotson was worried that "not only are [the signs] misleading in giving distances to and directions toward 'Grand Canyon,' but we are losing the excellent publicity value that could be had by popularizing Santa Elena Canyon." [33]

Heavy promotion of the NPS visit to Big Bend had the desired effect upon local park sponsors and the statewide fundraising committee. On October 5, executive secretary Harry Connelly informed Tillotson of plans for a meeting of the board of directors "in the very near future." Connelly sought the regional director's advice on "a subject which I would like to be able to discuss intelligently," the need to acquire private property. Connelly told Tillotson that "it is needless to say that our organization is eager to do everything it can to facilitate the work of your organization even in advance of our campaign to acquire all the needed land." Yet he conceded that "some of our officers are inclined to the belief that we should not make piece-meal purchases in advance of achieving our financial goal." Connelly then echoed Tillotson's sentiments on the special nature of the September trip through the future NPS site: "So enjoyable was my visit with you and your staff in the Big Bend area." He now was "anxious to be with you when you explore the park area in Old Mexico." To that end, Connelly had instructed the Star Telegram photographer, Paul McAllister, to develop the pictures taken on the trip and provide them to Ross Maxwell "for identification." [34]

Connelly's request represented the first significant attempt by the fundraising committee to coordinate their work with the park service. Minor Tillotson responded by admitting that "it would be highly desirable to secure title to some additional lands in the vicinity of the land on which the cabins are now being constructed." Yet the NPS did "not consider this absolutely necessary at least for the present." The park service preferred "to use such funds as may now be available for the purpose of making a land status study of the entire area eventually to be acquired." In so doing, the statewide committee "would be in a much better position to carry out [its] campaign for raising necessary funds." Should the state parks board lack the capacity to conduct such a study, said the Region III director, "it seems that funds the Association already has available could most properly be used for such a purpose." [35]

Tillotson's inquiry reached the desk of Amon Carter, who had been unavailable until a month after the September tour of Big Bend. He thanked the regional director for inviting him to join the group, noting that "from all reports and indications, the trip was interesting and worthwhile." His concern was that "we are working along slowly and carefully, as best we can under the the circumstances, until conditions right themselves to the point that we feel we can go ahead and raise the money to carry through to its successful conclusion the Big Bend Park project." Harry Connelly then answered Tillotson's request for information from the committee. "It now appears," said the executive secretary, "that we may proceed without a meeting of our board." He thanked Tillotson for loaning to the committee the relief map model of the park, which had been moved upon closure of the state fair to the Hotel Texas. Connelly also noted that "considerable interest is being manifested here in your statements as to the number of years required to bring to a successful conclusion the movement creating Grand Canyon National Park." The executive secretary asked if it "would be possible to secure similar information as to the time required in establishing the other national parks?" He also informed Tillotson: "Demand for pictures of the Big Bend has been so great that I have been unable to secure a complete set to send to Dr. Ross Maxwell for his identification of them." [36]

In conjunction with this correspondence between the NPS and the fundraising committee, Amon Carter drafted a letter to Tillotson that explained in great detail the status of the project, and his hopes for completion of the initiative. "Just as we were about to begin the preliminaries to our land purchase fund campaign last May," wrote Carter, "the European situation took a decided turn for the worse." The committee believed "it would have been folly to have gone ahead with large scale and expensive preparations . . . in the light of such conditions." Carter now admitted that "conditions have not changed materially for the better," and with "the threat of even greater disruption coming from the Orient [war in the Pacific], there is even more reason for caution." In spite of these obstacles, Carter could report that "definite progress has been made toward our goal." A new and expanded board had been assembled, "to make it representative of each of the 21 congressional districts within our State." Executive secretary Connelly had gathered "all statistical data required for the proper computation of county quotas on an equitable basis." The committee also had "kept [Big Bend] before the public through a publicity campaign in which weekly and occasionally semi-weekly news articles have been distributed to the daily newspapers of the State." Carter noted the support of organizations such as the "State Federation of Women's Clubs," the "Texas Federation of Garden Clubs," the "Texas Congress of Parents and Teachers," and "some groups of organized labor." The NPS had done its part by reviving the CCC camp in the Chisos Mountains, where the original six stone cabins "are to be augmented by twenty others which we hope will be completed early next spring." All of this good news had prompted Carter and the statewide fundraising body to create "congressional district committees," then "county committees," "community committees," and the like. Such an elaborate network would ensure that "this organization work can be done with little expense and without making any commitments calling for substantial disbursements of our funds." Carter believed that "if we wait for economic conditions to get right before organizing, we may pass into, through and out of a short period of prosperity before we can complete our organization." [37]

As per the request of Harry Connelly regarding the length of time required to create national parks, Arthur E. Demaray, acting NPS director, informed Tillotson on December 10 that "you should emphasize that there could be no more propitious time for launching the Big Bend fundraising campaign." He declared that "the establishment of this international park would be one of the most timely projects conceivable for prompting greater neighborly sentiment with Mexico, and greater goodwill throughout the Pan American countries." Then the acting NPS director outlined "the dates of authorization and establishment of certain of the recently created national parks." Among these were Shenandoah in Virginia, which took nine years to create; Great Smoky Mountains, which took 14 years; Isle Royale National Park (nine years); and Kentucky's Mammoth Cave, which had been authorized in 1926 but did not open its gates to visitors for fourteen years. Demaray then listed parks with their federal contributions added to their state and private donations. Shenandoah had received $151,000 from the U.S. Treasury (with $1,838,000 coming from non-federal sources). Great Smoky gained the most from Congress, with the federal government spending $2.3 million to help fund the $11,586,000 project. John D. Rockefeller, Junior, gave $5 million, while the states of Tennessee and North Carolina added $3.5 million. As for Mammoth Cave, Demaray would report that the federal contribution was $300,000 out of a total of $3,185,000; half of that total ($1,660,000) paid by the state of Kentucky, and only one-fifth of the costs ($625,000) donated by private individuals. [38]

The final month of 1940 differed markedly from its counterpart of the previous year. Even though the threat of American entry into the Second World War loomed large in the thinking of Amon Carter, and his fundraising committee had generated a mere six percent of the $1.5 million estimated for purchase of Big Bend National Park lands, NPS officials and local park sponsors preferred to focus upon the new session of the Texas legislature. Harry Connelly reported to Minor Tillotson that he had canvassed over half of the congressional districts in the Lone Star state, and that "we hope to launch the expansion program in the rest of the State this month." He also noted that "the relief map which you were kind to place at our disposal was, as you know, exhibited at the State Fair of Texas in Dallas and for a month here in Fort Worth." From there the Texas Big Bend Park Association had shipped the model "to the Entrada of the Coronado Centennial at El Paso," with arrangements underway "to exhibit it in Pecos and Midland." Connelly could report with some satisfaction to Tillotson that "it is attracting broad interest everywhere it is exhibited." Further proof of the momentum building for the campaign was Connelly's statement that "Mr. Amon Carter seems eager to visit the park area." The executive secretary hoped to combine Carter's trip with a committee meeting that included a tour of the Rio Grande, the Chisos Basin, and Boquillas. [39]

A mere four days after his optimistic message to the regional director, Harry Connelly had to temper the NPS's eagerness for initiating the capital campaign. He told Milton McColm that "data as to the time required in establishing other national parks and statistics as to their financing is greatly appreciated." But he showed less enthusiasm for the request of Arthur E. Demaray to accelerate the fundraising venue. Connelly echoed the acting NPS director's belief that Big Bend "would be one of the most timely projects conceivable for promoting greater neighborly sentiment with Mexico and greater good will throughout the Pan American countries." "This fact," said Connelly, "cannot be questioned." Yet the association's executive secretary warned that "another factor to be considered is the state of the public mind." He informed McColm that "with new taxes the big business pending before the new Congress in January, we believe it desirable to delay any State-wide solicitation of contributions for a national park until new tax legislation has been disposed of." Instead Connelly counseled patience, and reminded the acting Region III director: "Whenever any data comes your way, which to your mind, would be useful in the work of our organization please make it available to us." [40]

Enthusiasm could not, however, suffice for funding as the park service, the Carter committee, and the local sponsors of Big Bend faced the close of the year 1940. Charles L. Woody, an attorney with the New York City firm of Gifford, Woody, Carter and Hays, reminded the Texas state parks board of the complexity awaiting anyone who sought to purchase private holdings within the boundaries of the future park unit. "We have clients," Woody told the parks board, "who own an interest in a great deal of the land in the area proposed to be taken for park purposes." The New York lawyer was quick to point out that "they are people who have paid for the land and have been carrying it, paying taxes on it, have never received any return from it during the many years (I suppose almost half a century) and of course they would not think of donating it." His clients "have it for sale and I assume they will sell it for what the land is worth." Woody then offered to deal with the parks board in order to resolve his clients' dilemma. "Do you suppose," Woody asked the parks board, "that it would be possible to trade those sections to Texas in the park area for the alternate sections which the State of Texas owns outside of the park area and adjacent to the land our clients own?" If the parks board considered such a scheme to be legal, Woody offered to "devote some time to find out if such a deal can be made." He then warned the state parks board: "I know of some cattle people who might buy the land after the alternate section situation is disposed of." [41]

Frank D. Quinn, the new executive secretary of the state parks board, revealed both the hopes and fears of the sponsors of Big Bend when he informed Charles Woody: "At this time we have no funds available for purchase of land in the Big Bend area." Instead Quinn asked: "If you will submit to us a list of the lands which your clients own we will be glad to preserve same carefully for future information to be used, if and when the money becomes available for purchase of this land." He was intrigued with the idea of trading private land for public. "This seems reasonable and logical," said the executive secretary, "and would undoubtedly work to the mutual advantage of your clients and the Texas State Parks Board." Quinn then apologized for any misperceptions that Woody's clients had about the motives of the parks board. "We did not mean to bluntly demand," said the board's secretary, "that land be donated for this purpose -- it was only a suggestion, but in many cases we are receiving substantial donations of land within the area." In an admission rare for its candor, Quinn told Woody: "We have no idea what the ordinary run of land in the proposed Big Bend National Park area will bring." All that he could predict was that "when the time comes the entire acreage will be acquired by appropriate legal proceedings." [42]

Park service officials and local sponsors could reflect on the decade of promotion and lobbying for Big Bend with a mixture of trepidation and relief. Given that most national park units took that much time or more to enter the system, their efforts had not been wasted. The challenge of educating Texans on the wisdom of public investment in tourism and the preservation of natural and cultural resources had indeed been daunting. Yet the commitment of people like Everett Townsend, Herbert Maier, and their fellow park advocates had brought the park initiative by the end of 1940 to the threshold of success. No one could predict the future with any great accuracy, but the improved economic health of the state of Texas and the nation, and the determination of park promoters to bring Texas into the NPS orbit, would stand them well in Austin when the legislature convened in early January of 1941. Only the international park concept languished, to the extent that the symbolism of cooperation between neighbors with a history of conflict slowly faded as a world at war relearned the value of peace.

Figure 13: Adobe Cottage #103, Chisos Basin