Whtie Sands Administrative History

The merits of the White Sands proposal notwithstanding, the CCC in 1941 did not fund the Alamogordo camp. Then in June of that year the other source of New Deal labor, the WPA, announced elimination of most of its park service contracts. Johnwill Faris and his small staff (Ranger George Sholley and maintenance man Joe Shepperd) thus faced the summer travel season without the personnel of the preceding eight years. Equally affected was Tom Charles. Like his successor as custodian, Charles' business had been overrun by the growth of visitation and demand for his souvenirs, refreshments, and his guided tours of the dunes. By January 1940, Charles once again drew the ire of his former supervisor, Frank Pinkley, when he requested waivers of the NPS restrictions on his operations. The park service had allowed Charles to outfit a small trailer with concession items, but ordered him to bring the trailer back to headquarters each evening. Charles' proprietary attitude towards the park led him to take the wheels off the trailer and leave it overnight in the picnic area. He then asked Pinkley if he could build a watchman's house out in the dunes to guard against theft. The SWNM superintendent wrote to Charles in language as stern as any he had used while Charles had been a park service employee. "All this is not what we talked about nor what we issued a permit for," said Pinkley. Should the NPS let Charles continue to increase his operation, "we are caught in a never ending line of expansion based on the plea that you must be allowed to do this and that and the other in order to protect your investment." [16]

Charles' request had come less than two months after his retirement as custodian of the monument. Yet within that short span of time, the "Father of White Sands" had realized what he had suspected all along: that visitors to the dunes would patronize a concession heavily. His White Sands Service Company had turned a small profit for the two months of operations in 1939, and in 1940 would generate revenues of nearly $400 per month. To meet that consumer demand, Charles continued to petition NPS officials for expansion of his facility. In March 1940, he received permits from the Southern Pacific and the Rock Island railroads to transport passengers from Alamogordo to the dunes. He also asked Hillory Tolson for permission to move his operations from the trailer to vacant work space in the visitors center. This triggered yet another debate within the NPS regional bureaucracy, reminiscent of the early days at White Sands when Charles' plea for recreational usage clashed with the ecological aesthetic of park service professionals. Charles L. Gable, chief of the "park operators division" in Washington, conceded that the White Sands visitors center would not be fully utilized for some time, and that Charles could generate additional revenue for himself and the NPS by using the headquarters' supply room. In addition, Gable encouraged his superiors to allow Charles to continue his "dune drives" (except to Lake Lucero), and to open a "gasoline service station" for visitors (the only such facility for miles in any direction). [17]

The park service compromised with Charles for the 1940 summer season by providing "storage space" for the White Sands concession in the visitors center. Charles would continue to use his trailer in the picnic area, with service offered daily from 2:00PM until 11:00PM daily. The NPS would try to build more pit toilets near his concession, but had no money for shade. Superintendent Miller encouraged Charles instead to "experiment . . . with the feasibility of renting beach umbrellas at a reasonable price." Colonel John White, Region III director, visited White Sands in July to confirm these arrangements. He believed that visitor demand required two sites for concessions: the dunes proper and the headquarters complex. White then acknowledged what normally would have been park service heresy: "[The dune drive] gives visitors not only a fine opportunity to see the dunes, but to have them explained in inimitable fashion by Tom Charles." [18]

By the fall of 1940, the combination of high volume and Tom Charles' persistence led the park service to negotiate a solution favorable to Charles' company. From June to September, the dunes had 31,000 paying customers, many of whom patronized Charles' trailer. Hugh Miller reported that "the service the operator [Charles] is expected to give is required in the sands and cannot be expected to satisfy legitimate public demand at any other point." Miller declared Charles' trailer to be "ridiculously inadequate," and called for construction of a facility of some 600 square feet "at a point approximately 200 yards beyond the present construction site." If the NPS could not provide Charles with such a facility by the spring of 1941 (including 20 picnic tables and six pit toilets), Miller suggested that the park service accept Charles' offer of private funding in exchange for a "20-year permit" for his company. [19]

In a fashion typical of its relationship with Tom Charles, the NPS spent the next twelve months alternately challenging his plans and recognizing the inevitable. Hugh Miller wanted Charles to accept a location adjacent to the visitors center, sign a lease for a maximum of five years, and limit his annual salary to $1,800. Miller even criticized Charles' plan to charge fifteen cents for hamburger sandwiches (the local rate in Alamogordo), as Charles did not as yet prepare hot meals at the park. The superintendent also suggested termination of the dune drives, given the distance from the visitors center. Charles agreed to address all of Miller's concerns, but grew weary of the delays. By November 1941, he had consented to lease a $3,500 government structure, to be built in adobe style next to headquarters. Yet Charles also gently chided Miller (as he had his predecessor, Pinkley), noting that he earned $500 in August 1940. "Whatever you think best Hugh," said Charles, "for after all White Sands comes first with me, but I wouldn't have to work for anyone else for $1,800 a year." [20]

Tom Charles' strategies for concession work at White Sands reflected his deep understanding of local demand and state politics. Both factors influenced land-use issues in 1940-1941, as the state land office sought control of unclaimed grazing acreage within the monument. The New Mexico state game warden, Elliott Barker, pursued his own proprietary policies on the thirteen sections of state land at White Sands. In January 1940, Barker brought to the monument a herd of nine antelope, hoping to restore game animals to the Tularosa basin. Within days, however, coyotes attacked the weaker animals, reducing the herd size and endangering the game experiment. To Barker's surprise, the NPS denied his request for state game officers to pursue coyotes onto monument property and kill them. He found especially mystifying the logic of Milton McColm of the Santa Fe NPS office, who claimed that "coyotes are just as interesting to many of our monument visitors as are antelope and we hope Mother Nature will allow us to have both." [21]