Cover Page MENU     Contents     Preface      1908-1940     1947-1967     1968-1972     1973-1974     1975-1980     1981-1982     Conclusion     Research Note     Appendix		Visitor Fees in the National Park System: A Legislative and Administrative History I. THE PATTERN IS SET, 1908-1940 The Prohibition of Campground Charges Strangely, given the focus of his remarks, Byrns raised no objection to a second Cramton amendment specifically precluding campground charges: None of the appropriations for the National Park Service shall be available within any park or national monument wherein a charge is made or collected by the Park Service for campground privileges. This provision became a part of the fiscal 1928 Interior appropriations act, approved January 12, 1927. [15] During hearings on the fiscal 1929 appropriations bill in early 1928, Cramton reviewed the campground fee provision. "Congress having expressed its view with reference to that, is it necessary to continue that language?" he asked. "I do not think so," replied Arthur E. Demaray of the Park Service, "but the Bureau of the Budget showed objection to having it cut out..." (an odd circumstance--if true--in view of that office's pressure for campground charges two years before). "The Park Service is in harmony, as I understand it, with that view anyway," said Cramton. "They have no thought of making a collection for camp ground privileges?" "No," Demaray said. "It is a difficult proposition to handle." [16] The provision was repeated in the fiscal 1929 act and was made explicitly perpetual in the 1930 act, approved March 24, 1929, with the addition of "whenever made" applying to appropriations. [17] Horace M. Albright, who became Park Service director in 1929, was more sympathetic toward campground fees. Testifying before the Interior subcommittee of the House Appropriations Committee on January 6, 1932, Albright said that the Service had been reconsidering such charges: That is a more equitable fee than the automobile fee, because if you come in a national park and you bring your own camp equipment, you pay $3 and go to these camp grounds where you have comfort stations and tables and water, and you can stay there all summer and enjoy yourself. Somebody else might go to the hotel, not getting any use of the Government facilities except the road, but it would cost them just as much money. [18] Albright's testimony did not lead to repeal of the effective prohibition of campground fees, which remained until 1965. NEXT> Fee Opposition, 1932 15Ibid., p. 467; 44 Stat. 967. 16U.S., Congress, House, Committee on Appropriations, Interior Department Appropriation Bill, 1929, Hearing, 70th Congress, 1st Session, 1928, pp. 1119-20. 1745 Stat. 238, 1602. 18U.S., Congress, House, Committee on Appropriations, Interior Department Appropriation Bill, 1933, Hearings, 72d Congress, 1st Session, 1932, p. 905.
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