SITKA Administrative History

Chapter 3:
SITKA NATIONAL MONUMENT, EARLY YEARS (continued)

The park service proposes a full-time custodian for Sitka

These recommendations resulted in a reassessment of the situation at Sitka. It was still possible to request funds for a full-time custodian at Sitka in the fiscal year 1940 budget. Coffman's report also triggered a recommendation that the Branch of Plans and Design should develop a master plan for Sitka as soon as practicable. [149]

By November of 1938 the Bureau of the Budget knew that the park service wanted a full-time custodian at Sitka. The estimated cost was $2,360. That amount needed to be added to the National Park Service estimate of $450,775 for national monuments administration in fiscal year 1940. That fiscal year would begin on July 1, 1939. [150] The appropriation passed, and on August 30, 1939, the park service announced the availability of a Ranger-Custodian position at Sitka.

The new Ranger-Custodian would be responsible for patrolling the monument area, keeping records and compiling all periodic and special reports, and handling visitor contact and educational work. [151 The National Park Service notified the Alaska Road Commission that when the position was filled, Trierschield would be terminated. [152]

The Alaska Road Commission learned that a ranger-custodian had been appointed when Taylor read about the appointment in the Juneau Alaska Daily Empire of January 23, 1940. Miffed, Ike Taylor forwarded the clipping to Washington. From it, he had learned that on January 23 Ben C. Miller, former District Ranger at Glacier National Park, had passed through Juneau to take up duties at Sitka. Although the park service later apologized to Taylor, it had unceremoniously ended the "informal agreement" between the National Park Service and the Alaska Road Commission for administration of Sitka National Monument. [153]