GUADALUPE MOUNTAINS An Administrative History

BIBLIOGRAPHIC ESSAY

Background

Several books are available that give good overviews of the history and philosophy of the National Park Service. The National Park Service, by William C. Everhart (New York, Washington, London: Praeger Publishers, Inc., 1972); National Parks: The American Experience, by Alfred Runte (Lincoln, Nebraska, and London: University of Nebraska Press, 1979); Mountains Without Handrails: Reflections on the National Parks by Joseph L. Sax (Ann Arbor: The University of Michigan Press, 1980); and America's National Parks and Their Keepers, by Ronald A. Foresta (Washington, D.C.: Resources for the Future, Inc., 1984) are complementary and provide varying points of view.

Other books to consider include Parks, Politics and the People, by Conrad L. Wirth (Norman, Oklahoma: University of Oklahoma Press, 1980), which contains many of Wirth's reminiscences, but is particularly valuable for its description of MISSION 66. Another book that gives an overview of park policies and problems prior to 1960 is John Ise's Out National Park Policy: A Critical History (Baltimore: the Johns Hopkins Press for Resources for the Future, Inc., 1961). Ise also provides good descriptions of the Directors of the Park Service, their points of view, and experiences that influenced the leadership they gave the agency. An older publication by the Park Service, A Study of the Park and Recreation Problem of the United States (Washington, D.C.: U.S Government Printing Office, 1941), provides a perspective for the situation with national and state parks at the end of the 1930s and shows how weakly developed the park program was in Texas.

The beautifully illustrated book by Alan Tennant and Michael Allender, The Guadalupe Mountains of Texas (University of Texas Press, 1980) describes the area of the park and some of its natural resources. Patricia Patterson's book, Queen, New Mexico: A Historical Perspective on the Settlement in the Guadalupe Mountains, 1865-1975 (Roswell, New Mexico: Hall-Poorbaugh Press, Inc., 1985), while less than scholarly, does contribute to under standing of the early settlements near the park.

Early Park Movements, J. C. Hunter, and Wallace Pratt

The Carlsbad and El Paso newspapers from the 1920s and 1930s contained many references to proposed parks and extensions to Carlsbad Caverns. Combined with the material from the Park Service which Bobby Crisman has assembled in Background Book #4, it was possible to piece together the history of the early movements to establish a park in the southern Guadalupes and the roles played by J. C. Hunter and Wallace Pratt.

Legislative History and Acquisition of Land and Mineral Rights

The Glenn Biggs Collection in the Southwest Collection of Texas Tech University at Lubbock, Texas, provided information about the legislative history of the park and about early negotiations with landowners that was not available elsewhere. The correspondence in the collection also helped to understand J. C. Hunter, Jr.'s position as owner of the Guadalupe Mountains Ranch. For information about acquisition of surface and mineral rights, however, the Land Resources Office at the Southwest Regional Office had the most complete files. Also, the files in the Land Resources Office relating to the Glover property were voluminous and up-to-date.

Planning, Development, and Resource Issues

The park's Master Plan, Wilderness Proposal, the Pine Springs Development Concept Plan, and the environmental reviews prepared for all three of those documents, contain not only the plans and analyses of environmental impacts, but also letters and comments received during the review process. In addition to documenting the planning process, the planning documents for the park provide a good historical perspective for the changes in attitude that took place regarding the kind of recreational experience Guadalupe Mountains should provide for visitors. Resource Management Plans, which were updated every five years, documented the refinements that took place in understanding the park's natural and cultural resources.

The files maintained by Bobby Crisman were an invaluable source of information. They contained news clippings as well as Park Service documents. His complete set of park logs and annual reports formed the backbone of the latter chapters of this work.

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