THE THIRD NATIONAL PARK CONFERENCE

By Hillory A. Tolson,
Regional Director.

The Third National Park Conference of the American Planning and Civic Association will be held at Santa Fe, New Mexico, from October 8 to 10, 1939, inclusive. The Conference will follow the annual meeting of National Park Service officials which is to be held in Santa Fe from October 2 to 7, inclusive. In addition to National Park Service Washington Office and field officials, the Conference will be attended by many outstanding persons interested in conservation and in the preservation of national park and monument areas and historic sites.

Mr. Horace M. Albright, former Director of the National Park Service, who is now President of the American Planning and Civic Association, will preside at the opening meeting of the Conference on Monday, October 9, at the San Fe Municipal Building. Greetings will be extended to those attending the Conference by the Honorable John E. Miles, Governor of New Mexico; Honorable Alfredo Ortiz, Mayor of Santa Fe; and the writer, Regional Director, Region III, National Park Service, whose headquarters is at Santa Fe.

Responses will be made by Honorable Oscar L. Chapman, Assistant Secretary of the Interior, representing Secretary of the Interior Harold L. Ickes; Honorable Robert Fechner, Director of the Civilian Conservation Corps; Associate Director Arthur E. Demaray of the National Park Service; and Superintendent O. A. Tomlinson of Mount Rainier National Park, who is Chairman of the National Park Service Superintendents' Conference.

Following the greetings and responses, an address on "Santa Fe, Where Three Civilizations Meet" will be made by Colonel T. B. Catron, Chairman of the New Mexico Chapter of the American Planning and Civic Association.

During the afternoon of October 9, addresses will be made by Mr. Irvin J. McCrary, City Planner, Denver, Colorado, on "National Parks in the National Plan"; by Mr. Horace M. Albright on "The National Park System and Its Future"; by Mr. Francis P. Farquhar, San Francisco, California, who is the Editor of the Sierra Club Bulletin, on "The Use of Wilderness Areas"; by Mr. T. C. Vint, Chief of Planning, National Park Service, on "National Park Roads and Parkways"; and by Mr. George L. Collins, Land Planning Division, National Park Service, on "Identifying Areas of National Park Caliber". These afternoon addresses will be followed by a visit to several Santa Fe gardens and a buffet supper in the New Mexican Room of La Fonda. During this session Dr. J. Horace McFarland, Past President, American Planning and Civic Association, will preside.

At the evening session on October 9 addresses will be made by Director Robert Fechner of the Civilian Conservation Corps on "The CCC in National Parks and Monuments"; by Chief Forester F. A. Silcox of the U.S. Forest Service on "Administration of Superlative Scenic Areas Primarily Suitable for Recreation"; by Conrad L. Wirth, Supervisor of Recreation and Land Planning, National Park Service, on "National Recreational Area Study"; by Mr. Clifford H. Stone, Director and Secretary, Colorado Water Conservation Board, on "Recreation as a By-Product of Reclamation"; and by Director Earle S. Draper of Regional Planning Studies, Tennessee Valley Authority, on "Planning for Water Recreation on a National Scale".

Dr. H. C. Bumpus, Chairman of the Advisory Board on National Parks, Historic Sites, Buildings, and Monuments, will preside at the morning session to be held at La Fonda on Tuesday, October 10. During that session addresses will be made by Superintendent Frank Pinkley of the National Park Service on "The Southwestern National Monuments"; By Senior Archaeologist Jesse Nusbaum of the National Park Service on "Our Archaeological Heritage"; by Dr. H. E. Dalton, Chairman of the Department of History, University of California, on "History in the National Parks and Monuments"; and by Miss Pearl Chase, Chairman, Plans and Planting Branch, Community Arts Association, Santa Barbara, California, on "Preservation of Natural Beauties and Recreational Values in National Parks".

During the afternoon session of October 10 at La Fonda, Colonel Richard Leiber, Vice-President of the American Planning and Civic Association, will preside, and an address will be made by Associate Director Arthur E. Demaray of the National Park Service on "The National Park Service".

Mr. Demaray's address will be followed by an inspection of the new Region III Headquarters building and an afternoon session to be held in the auditorium of the Laboratory of Anthropology, which session will be in charge of Director H. Scudder Mekeel of that Laboratory. After having dinner at La Fonda, an evening session will be held there at which Mr. Horace M. Albright, President of the American Planning and Civic Association, will preside.

CORNER OF PATIO REGION III HEADQUARTERS.

On Wednesday, October 11, the American Planning and Civic Association and National Park Service representatives will start a seven-day automobile tour of approximately 1,200 miles to some of the outstanding scenic and archaeological areas in New Mexico, Colorado, Utah, and Arizona. The tour, which is scheduled to leave Santa Fe at 9:00 a.m., Wednesday, October 11, has been planned with a view to giving those who make the trip an opportunity to see some of the outstanding scenic and archaeological areas of the Southwest. After a brief stop at the San Ildefonso Indian Pueblo, the caravan will go to the Bandelier National Monument, about 45 miles northwest of Santa Fe, where Custodian Charles A. Thomas will act as host to the group, to see pueblo ruins and cliffside caves that served as homes for prehistoric Indians. Tyuonyi, the largest of these ruins, has aver 200 excavated rooms on the ground floor. It was built about 1460. The Monument was named in honor of the late Adolph F. Bandelier, pioneer Swiss ethnologist, who made extensive study of the ruins in connection with early investigations of Southwestern Pueblo Indians.

In contrast to the ancient dwellings at Bandelier are the lodge, guest cabins, residences, and other buildings recently completed by the National Park Service, using Civilian Conservation Corps enrollees and funds. These structures, built of tufa taken from the hillsides, constitute an excellent example of the type of work being accomplished in the national park areas by that Corps.

The second stop will be at Chaco Canyon National Monument, where Custodian Lewis T. McKinney will be the host. The prehistoric ruins of the monument include Pueblo Bonito, one of the largest apartment houses built anywhere in the world prior to about 1887. It was constructed more than 1,000 years ago and part of it is five stories in height. The 800 rooms are estimated to have housed as many as 1,200 people.

From Chaco Canyon the tour will proceed to Farmington, New Mexico, where the first night will be spent. On Thursday morning, the party will go to the nearby Aztec Ruins National Monument, where Custodian Thomas C. Miller will be the host. Different types of prehistoric ruins are to be seen here and the Great Kiva, or sanctuary, has been restored. Its modern uses include housing of large crowds that assemble annually for Easter Sunday sunrise services.

Mesa Verde National Park, in Colorado, is next on the itinerary and the caravan is scheduled to arrive there for lunch on Thursday. Superintendent Paul Franke has been designated to act as host to the group at Mesa Verde. Prehistoric cliff dwellings, some in caves occupied centuries earlier by the Basket Makers, first agricultural Indians of the Southwest, are the major attraction at that park. They probably are the most notable and best preserved cliff dwellings in America. The earliest dates back nearly 900 years. Cliff Palace, the largest, is believed to have been occupied from 1073 to 1273. It contains 200 rooms for family living and 23 kivas for ceremonial purposes.

CLIFF PALACE, MESA VERDE.

On Saturday, October 14, the party will drive to Moab, Utah, to inspect a portion of the proposed Escalante National Monument area near that town. The Lions Club of Moab has arranged to serve the visitors a barbecue at Dead Horse Point, a great promontory 3,000 feet above the Colorado River. This proposed monument, important historically and geologically, also is considered to be one of the most superb scenic areas now available for inclusion in the National Park System.

The caravan will proceed from Moab on Sunday, October 15, via Monument Valley and Kayenta, Arizona, to Canyon de Chelly National Monument, where Custodian Theodore Cronyn will be the host. En route to Canyon de Chelly lunch will be obtained at the Monument Valley Trading Post and Lodge operated by Mr. and Mrs. Harry Goulding.

For nearly 16 centuries American Indians are known to have occupied the de Chelly and del Muerto Canyons. The earliest dated beam from Mummy House Cave indicates that the Basket Makers occupied the area as early as 348 A. D. Beams from White House, the great cliff dwelling there, indicate it was occupied from 1050 to 1300 A. D. Dinner will be served to the members of the touring party on October 15 at the Ganado Mission to the Navajos at Ganado, Arizona, where the group will stay that night and have breakfast on Monday morning, October 16. Dr. C. G. Salsbury will be host to the group at the Ganado Mission.

The caravan next goes through the Hopi Villages of Walpi, Oraibi, and Hotevilla, to Grand Canyon National Park, on Monday afternoon, October 16, where Acting Superintendent H. C. Bryant will be the host. The tour will terminate there the following day. Some of the caravaneers plan to go from Grand Canyon to the Golden Gate International Exposition at San Francisco. For those who plan to return to Santa Fe, stops can be made at Petrified Forest and Walnut Canyon National Monuments. The highway which will be used by them between Lupton, Arizona, and Manuelito, New Mexico, passes near the proposed Manuelito National Monument area.

New Mexico is the only State in the Southwest having a state chapter in the American Planning and Civic Association, but the enthusiastic cooperation which is being given by the people of Arizona and of southern Colorado and Utah in arranging for the automobile tour is indicative of their interest in the Association's purposes, which include the promotion of public understanding and support of national, regional, state, and local planning for the best use of urban and rural land, water, and other natural resources; the advancing of higher ideals of civic life and beauty in America; and the safeguarding and developing for the largest good to the people of natural wonders and scenic possessions and of national and other parks and recreational facilities. The trip will afford an opportunity for people from those States to become better acquainted with the Association's organization, policies, and programs.

The New Mexico Chapter of the American Planning and Civic Association will be host to the American Planning and Civic Association and National Park Service representatives during the Third National Park Conference to be held at Santa Fe on Sunday, Monday, and Tuesday, October 8, 9, and 10. The officers of the New Mexico Chapter are Colonel T. B. Catron, Chairman Mr. Herbert Maier, Vice-Chairman; Mr. Raymond Higgins, Secretary; and Mr. George M. Bloom, Teasurer. The Committee in charge of the arrangements for the Conference is composed of Mrs. F. C. Wilson, Chairman; Colonel S. W. Anding, and Colonel Catron.