SITKA Administrative History

Chapter 4:
SITKA NATIONAL MONUMENT, MIDDLE YEARS (continued)

Visitation and use

The park historian at Sitka, George A. Hall, a graduate of Drake University, had worked with the Public Health Service on Japonski Island. In 1957 he transferred to Sitka National Monument, where he would remain until 1963. After leaving Sitka, he would go on to serve as assistant chief of the park service's National Memorials Branch in the National Capital Region in Washington, D.C. lie later returned to Alaska as superintendent of Mount McKinley National Park and Katmai National Monument. [238]

Hall observed that 1958 was the first year in which annual visitation to the monument had reached the peak attained before passenger steamer service to Sitka was ended in 1954. He attributed this to changing transportation patterns, with more travelers going by air, to the transient population brought to Sitka as a result of pulp mill construction, and to an increasing habit of Sitka families to use the monument for recreational purposes. Tourists arrived between 9 a.m. and 3 p.m., and transient workers used the park in the evenings. Special events also in creased park usage, with 1959 seeing Sitka conventions for the Alaska Lions Club, Business and Professional Women, Protestant Chaplains of Alaska, and the Southeastern Camporee of the Boy Scouts of America. Most conventioneers visited the monument, and the scouts camped on the grounds. [239]

Noteworthy events in this period included the June 1958 appearance of Time and Life magazine staffers to photograph totem poles for a forthcoming article and Lowell Thomas' visit to the monument to film a portion of his "High Adventure" television program. [240]

The end of the 1950s also saw the Sitka Historical Society, established in 1955, hold a commemorative tea on April 5, 1959, to celebrate the establishment of Sitka National Monument. [241] Hall served as president of the historical society, a reflection of strong park service involvement in community affairs. This continued the tradition begun by Ben C. Miller in the 1940s. Hall was also active on the Sitka Historic Sites Restoration Committee, which was working on restoration of Saint Michael's Cathedral. [242]

A blight on the monument authorized by special use permit was removed when the asphalt hot plant of the Morrison-Knudsen Company, installed on the east bank of Indian River to provide material for the paving of Sitka's streets, was finally removed. Surplus asphalt and debris from the plant were buried on the site, which was later reforested. [243]

The stage was set for final acquisition of the last private property on the east side of the road at the park entrance when Esther Littlefield agreed to sell her house, which was one of the three sitting on the hill at the entrance to the park. The service, however, did not take an option to purchase the property until March of 1963. [244]

Planning for the monument continued as the draft of chapter 1 of volume 1 of a new master plan for Sitka went to the regional office for review and comment in April of 1960. The plans at this time incorporated Mission 66 recommendations for a visitor center. Concurrent with master planning, park personnel initiated detailed exhibit planning and drew upon the assistance of the service's Western Regional Office and Western Museum Laboratory. [245]