Whtie Sands Administrative History

While the Disney artists never came to the dunes, discussion of such issues as mural-painting indicated the rapid completion of the construction phase of the New Deal at White Sands. Hoping to use more WPA funds, Tom Charles suggested to his superiors that the NPS should refurbish the old house on the Oliver Lee ranch at Dog Canyon. Frank Pinkley, anticipating decisions by his successors in the 1970s, was "not at all convinced that the Lee ranch has any national significance. " He conceded that "the story does have local interest," and informed Charles "that it would make a good county park. " Then the future intruded unwittingly on the dunes, as the First Cavalry Division of the U.S. Army, stationed at Fort Bliss, Texas, asked permission to plan maneuvers in an area "extending northward along the Oregon [Organ] and the San Andres Mountains up to and including the White Sands, and eastward into the Sacramento Mountains. " Major James T. Duke asked Tom Charles for a list of "the large landowners or lessees" in the Tularosa basin between the dunes and Orogrande, and also a map of the area. He then inquired: "Is there any regulation in your service which would forbid us from using the White Sands for troop movement or a camping area if it were required in the problem?" [97]

The request of Major Duke presaged by three years the massive military presence entering the Tularosa basin because of World War II, and the subsequent seizure of ranch land for testing of weapons and military exercises. Tom Charles could not know this in 1939 when he wrote to Frank Pinkley: "The Army has used the Sands in the past with no apparent injury." The superintendent worried about the scale of land use, but acknowledged "the increased interest in military preparedness" as Europe moved towards Adolf Hitler's September 1939 invasion of Poland. John L. White, acting NPS director, prophesied the future relationship between the expansionist military and the preservationist park service: "We feel that [White Sands'] use for an encampment or for the passage of troops would result in defacement which would be difficult to eradicate. " The NPS would not prohibit troop transport along the federal highway bordering the monument, but stood firm on its refusal to provide access to the dunes. [98]

Between the Oliver Lee ranch project and the Army training petition, Tom Charles also engaged the request of the Coronado Cuarto Centennial Commission for closure on plans for its 1940 historical pageant at the dunes. Charles had accepted the position as Otero County chair of the 4C's, and worked with Clinton Anderson on logistical details. Park service officials in Santa Fe approved of the pageant concept, but opposed collection of a separate fee. Anderson, who the following year would run successfully for the U.S. Congress, persisted in his bid for gate receipts in the dunes. He told regional director Hillory Tolson that the elaborate staging (over 100 yards in length), costumes, cast (several hundred performers), and the advanced sound system all cost more than the 4C's could subsidize. The regional office then asked Washington to rule on the fee issue, as congressional funding of the 4C's gave Anderson clout with the nation's lawmakers. [99]

The 4C's marked the last major program that Tom Charles would manage for the park service at White Sands. Throughout 1939 Charles negotiated the terms of his retirement with the NPS, which included the operation of the White Sands concession. One point of contention was Pinkley's desire that Charles invest in a permanent facility, which the custodian feared would not return a profit for several years. Charles also wanted to take passengers on dune trips without competition from other vendors, and to cut a road south from the dunes to Lake Lucero. The park service agreed to let Charles outfit a trailer with souvenirs, soft drinks, and other dry goods that he would tow into the dunes each morning. Called the "White Sands Service Company," Charles' new endeavor shifted to what he had always sought for the dunes: promotion of the recreational aspects of the gypsum field, and creation for families of a place to play like nowhere else in the park service. [100]

Upon his retirement in September 1939, Tom Charles received plaudits from local admirers and NPS officials alike. Arno Cammerer, now director of the park service, called Charles "the guiding hand in setting aside, building up, and preserving the White Sands. " In a statement that ignored the arguments between Charles and his superiors about monument usage, Cammerer declared: "I do want you to know that the National Park Service highly values and appreciates the pioneering work you have done. " Johnwill Faris echoed these sentiments twenty-five years later, as he neared his own retirement, saying: "Tom Charles was to the White Sands what Stephen Mather is to the National Park Service." For Charles himself, the release of control over the dunes prompted nostalgic memories shared in the SWNM Monthly Report for September. He had come from the plains of Kansas, where his father had been an "Indian fighter," and his mother "the only doctor within a radius of 100 miles." Yet he knew that times had changed, requiring skills of organization and awareness of the complexities of science and technology that he did not possess. "It was mine to do the pioneering," he told his colleagues in the park service, but at the close of his career he felt: "I was born 40 years too soon." [101]