Big Hole National Battlefield Administrative History

Chapter Five:
Administrative Restructure

Administrative changes initiated in the 1970s addressed some of the problems identified in Pat Miller's 1972 Operations Evaluation Team report. On July 1, 1975, the battlefield received an Imprest Fund. No longer were staff required to expend their own funds on minor purchases and then wait for reimbursement. In February 1975, Rocky Mountain Regional Director Dave Thompson designated the Yellowstone Library and Museum Association as an official cooperating association for Big Hole National Battlefield. The association assisted in artifact, photograph, and document acquisition, including the battlefield's large collection of pension records. Finally, by 1976 the battlefield had been provided with a ¾-ton, 4 x 4 pickup truck and blade plow for winter snow clearing. [79]

A service-wide "belt-tightening" directive issued in 1974 ("a year of fuel shortages, high prices and a troubled economy,") [80] stymied efforts to increase staff. The staff remained at a permanent superintendent, a subject-to-furlough maintenance man, two seasonal interpreters, and a seasonal laborer. Schulmeyer augmented this small staff with use of the Volunteer in the Parks program and he had the seasonal laborer double on occasion as an interpretive ranger. Without these adjustments, Schulmeyer maintained, "visitor services would [have] . . . suffered." This crew was not only inadequate in number but also in experience. "Seasoned" interpreters Kermit Edmonds and Dale H. Annis did not return for the 1975 season. While the new seasonals adapted quickly, Schulmeyer missed the "exceptionally high quality" that Edmonds and Annis brought to the interpretive program. For the 1976 season, Schulmeyer successfully "prevailed" upon Edmonds to return. [81]

In 1977, the maintenance position was reclassified as full-time permanent and the battlefield was authorized its first full-time historian, Paul Hedren, on a career-seasonal appointment. This position was reclassified as permanent upon release of the hiring ceiling. Ironically, immediately upon receiving authorization for a permanent maintenance position, maintenance man Steve Winters was transferred to Grand Canyon National Park. Schulmeyer was unsuccessful in recruiting a qualified replacement and the position was vacant for the last quarter of 1976. Qualified seasonal interpreters also remained scarce. In 1976, Schulmeyer reported that applicants from the newly instituted Rocky Mountain Region Seasonal Hiring and Rating System had "no background in history." Those secured through the regional Equal Employment Office were only "minimally qualified" and were most-often still in school and therefore unavailable for the spring and fall months. [82]