Big Bend Administrative History

Whatever their doubts concerning the future of Big Bend National Park, NPS planners and local sponsors focused all of their energies in the winter and spring of 1937 on the members of the Texas state legislature. There they hoped to convince the Lone Star lawmakers of the wisdom of purchasing land for the state's first national park. Publicity ventures that had accelerated during the year 1936 reached a crescendo, with newspaper stories and other media presentations saturating the Texas countryside. Walter Prescott Webb, dean of Lone Star historians, would undertake a highly publicized river-rafting trip through the canyons of the Big Bend, just as the legislature contemplated their vote on the land-purchase bill. Yet the vagaries of the state and national economy would compel Governor James Allred to veto the legislation, forcing park promoters to turn to the private sector for assistance.

As many lawmakers claimed allegiance to Texas's agricultural heritage, one of the more pronounced venues for park publicity in early 1937 was the ACCO Press. This journal described itself as a monthly magazine for the cotton farmer, with funding from Anderson, Clayton, and Company, identified as "an institution benefited by whatever benefits the cotton industry." In an article entitled, "America's Last Frontier and what a country!" the editor recounted the story of H.P. Attwater, a British immigrant who "at one time . . . was agricultural agent for one of the state's largest railroad systems." Attwater had spoken often of his love of the Big Bend country, which the ACCO Press editor experienced during a trip through the region in late 1936, joined by a companion identified only as "the Judge." Readers of the cotton trade journal learned of the romantic history of the Big Bend, from its geology to its Indian lore. The editor did mention the difference of opinion that people had about the etymology of the word "Chisos," which he reported as "commonly accepted as an interpretation of the Indian word ‘ghost.'" The editor then noted that "a few natives insist, however, that the interpretation should be ‘echo.'" He was "inclined to agree with the latter minority," as "the Judge's yodel rang on and on through the [crags]." The editor then turned his attention to local residents, remarking at length on the trading post operated by A.F. Hannold, which he described as "not only the last but only gasoline stop to the river." Within the store the editor found "fancy rugs and saddle blankets . . . made from wool - sheared, cleaned, carded, dyed and woven by Mexicans living in the vicinity." Hannold also impressed the ACCO Press editor because of his service as "Justice of the Peace Precinct No. 4, Brewster County;" an area of some one million acres (or nearly 1,563 square miles). [1]

Once the editor and his companion had left Hannold's store, they headed for the Rio Grande to sample the exotica of the border. He described the village of Boquillas, Texas, as "probably the most remote point in the whole United States." The party stopped at "Juan Sada's place," where they met the proprietor and his wife, Charlotta (known locally as "Chata"). The editor called Juan Sada "a courteous, highly intelligent Mexican who has a neat house and store on the American side." The editor could see that the town once was a thriving center of a silver mining region, but noted that "today Boquillas is a sleepy village which draws scant trade from scattered squash, bean and pepper farmers of the interior who drive for miles to barter and trade for the bare necessities of life." As the party drove upriver, they came to Hot Springs, which the editor characterized as making "the boast of being the only postoffice in the United States that is surrounded on three sides by the Republic of Mexico." The town consisted of "two souls; namely, J.O. Langford, the Postmaster and his wife." They received delivery of letters and packages once per week, and "ranchers [rode] horseback as far as 40 miles to get their mail." From there the party "spent several hours browsing about the old Mexican town of Boquillas (You would, too, if you went there)." They then "swam [their] horses back across the Rio, sat around for awhile on Juan Sada's veranda, and finally ‘pushed off' for home." [2]

Once the editor had completed his circular tour back to Alpine, he speculated on the meaning of Texas's first national park. Given that his readership was primarily rural, he highlighted the vastness of Brewster County, especially its southern reaches. "It is 136 miles from Boquillas to Alpine," wrote the ACCO Press editor, "and between the two points there are 225 qualified voters." By comparison, "there are 46,745 white-face cattle in the country, some 75,000 sheep and lambs, and, ironically, 47 hogs." The editor further marveled that "in a day and a half the Judge and I passed on the road two cars and one man on horseback." This led him to compare Big Bend to "the Blue Ridges of West Virginia," which he considered "quiet, serene, soothing," and the Rocky Mountains, which were "majestic, awe-inspiring." "But how to describe the Big Bend," he asked rhetorically, using terms like "raw" and "wild." These words were "inadequate," as "that country gets in your blood somehow." But the editor somehow envisioned a future park much different from the desolate and haunting landscape he had just visited. "I am afraid," he concluded, "that by the time [my] children grow up the roads of the Big Bend will be lined with hot dog stands and soft drink places;" a reference to the encroachment on open space in the more-populous eastern and mid-western states. [3]

The ACCO Press's enthusiasm for Big Bend, and its editor's focus on the wildness of its landscape, fit the pattern of park promotion undertaken by the NPS and local interests throughout the 1930s. Behind the scenes, park service officials and their allies in west Texas prepared for an intense round of lobbying in Austin in the first months of 1937. Texas lawmakers would be asked for $1.4 million for the land purchase program, with the issue of mineral rights on school lands yet to be resolved. Maier had held several meetings in the Lone Star capital with state school officials. These encounters only echoed the common wisdom that "certain members of the [teachers' association] Executive Committee are emphatic in their statement that no legal precedent should be established permanently denying the rights of the School Fund to engage in mineral development where it holds such rights." As to the suggestion that the teachers' association support "a gift of its mineral rights within the area," Maier noted that "this is not constitutionally possible and would require special legislation which we doubt could be passed." In addition, the teachers' group could not authorize acceptance of payment from the state to purchase the mineral rights. Even if it could, Maier feared that the addition of one dollar per acre to the land-acquisition bill, increasing the appropriation to some $450,000, "might wreck its chances of passing." [4]

To move the discussion forward, Maier asked the NPS director "if it would not be possible, since there is admittedly only the remotest possibility of oil ever being discovered in this area," that "the [Interior] Secretary . . . accept the titles as they are, providing that a committee of the best geologists of the Department of the Interior were to advise him, following a thorough investigation of the area, of the apparent absence of any major mineral deposits." As evidence of this scarcity, Maier recalled that "the Chisos Range is igneous, and . . . the surveys as made by oil companies had not resulted in a single lease within the area." To insure the veracity of the Interior department's judgment, Maier suggested selecting geologists from the NPS, the Bureau of Mines, and the U.S. Geological Survey. Even with this review process, Maier could not predict the response of the school lands advocates. As long as the school lands remained under state control, wondered Maier, "could it [the teachers' association] force the Department of the Interior to permit drilling?" Maier believed that "it is unfortunate that the question of mineral rights must be so paramount," and he reiterated his call for a blue-ribbon committee of geologists to survey the Big Bend area before the Texas legislature began its deliberations. At the same time, Maier wanted "a man from the [NPS] legal division in Washington [to] be sent to Austin, to assist the State in drafting the bill." Coke Stevenson, who would introduce the Big Bend measure, and other sponsors had requested such help from the park service. Maier also thought that an appearance by Cammerer himself before the legislature would "be of tremendous help." The stakes were high, Maier concluded, as "there is opposition expected from the industrialists since the appropriation for land would come from the general tax fund which is already $15,000,000 in arrears." Yet he had faith in the competence of "the West Texas group, with what help we can officially give them," and he praised them for "working assiduously and with much hope." [5]

While the park service sought to acquire funds from a depleted Texas treasury, it also learned that the senior citizens' pension program laid claim to the taxpayer's largesse. Carl White, president of a printing company in Port Arthur, Texas, wrote to Leo McClatchy about the NPS's media packet on Big Bend, and about his own conversations with business people in Texas regarding the new session of the legislature. The bill to appropriate $1.5 million, said White, came "at a time when all of the would be statesmen are trying to put all of the old people in the state on ‘Easy Street' without a sales tax." White feared that "anything which involves the expenditure of money on the part of the state is going to be hard to get through the legislature." White then supplied McClatchy with news clippings from the Houston Post and Fort Worth Star-Telegram endorsing the park bill. "Texas long has neglected exploitation of her natural beauties and recreational facilities," wrote the Post on January 24, "with consequent loss of substantial revenue from [the] tourist trade that could be built into a profitable industry." The Post claimed that states like California, Florida, South Carolina, and Colorado "reaped a golden harvest of tourist dollars, [while] Texas was content to plug along developing business and industry." Yet state lawmakers had proof, with the success of the 1936 Texas Centennial, "just how profitable tourist business can be." The Post believed that the Lone Star state "has an opportunity to acquire a tourist industry that will provide at least $1,000,000 a year in new business by taking advantage of the Federal Government's offer to establish a National Park in the Big Bend Section." "Conservative estimates," said the Houston paper, "indicate that income from the new park would exceed in two years the amount needed to buy land for the park." Citing statistics provided by the NPS for park visitation nationwide in 1936, the Post revealed that "more than 6,000,000 persons visited the twenty-six national parks of the United States." Only two NPS units, "one in distant Alaska," said the Post, "had attendance of less than 50,000." Appealing to its readers' pride in Texas, the Post noted that "in neighboring Oklahoma, Platt National Park, in an area without the scenic and recreational attractions of the Big Bend, the attendance was 235,000." Big Bend would, in the estimation of the Post, be more like parks such as Carlsbad Caverns (150,000 visitors), or Colorado's Rocky Mountain National Park (with 550,000 visitors in 1936, or nearly 10 percent of the NPS total). "There is every reason to believe," concluded the Post, "that the proposed Texas park would attract that many, or more, visitors annually [as Platt National Park]." This "appears to be an opportunity which the State of Texas can ill afford to ignore." [6]

From within the park service itself, the level of activity escalated once the legislative session opened. Horace Morelock wrote directly to Arno Cammerer with an invitation for the NPS official to speak before the Lone Star lawmakers. Because the Sul Ross president had close contact with leading Texas politicians, he advised Cammerer to focus on three points: the benefits accruing to states with national parks, the specific details of work at Big Bend, and the successful strategies of other states in securing NPS units. Morelock reiterated his own abiding interest in the creation of Big Bend, and hoped that "it may become a reality at an early date." He then noted in the margin of his letter to the NPS director that the state attorney general would be visiting Alpine and the Big Bend in his own aircraft in early February, and that the new president of the state board of education had agreed to accompany Everett Townsend on a sightseeing trip to the region. [7]

The issue of the international park became a selling point for Herbert Maier in his correspondence with Cammerer, as he reported to Washington on January 27 about the drafting of the Big Bend land-purchase bill. "It has been proposed," said Maier, "that along with the bill, a Concurrent Resolution be submitted to both [Texas] Houses, in which the Governor, Lieut. Governor, Speaker of the House, and other members would be delegated to visit the City of Mexico for the purpose of inviting the Mexican Government to participate in the creation of the international park." Maier had told the measure's sponsors that "such an action should prove to be an excellent gesture." In so doing, the park sponsors not only would "draw broad publicity to the project, but considering the fact that Mexico and the Republic of Texas were one time at war, such a personal visit and invitation to participate in an international peace park would be in line with the current stressing by Washington of the ‘good neighbor policy,' especially as it relates to Latin-American countries." Such a grand strategy might overshadow the discouraging news that "Governor Allred is not in favor of the Big Bend bill, covering the appropriation, . . . due to the fact that he is committed to a no-additional taxation policy." Endorsement of the "Resolution by the legislature providing for the official trip by the Governor would, however," said Maier, "bind the State administration definitely to the land purchase bill." The ECW regional director conceded that "there may be some federal constitutional prohibition which prohibits a state from dealing directly with a foreign government." Yet if Texas officials were to travel to Mexico as part of a federal delegation, the lawmakers could see for themselves the extraordinary nature of the international park designation, and remember that in their deliberations in Austin. [8]

Two years of NPS and local-sponsor efforts resulted on February 23, 1937, in the introduction in the Texas house and senate of a bill for the purchase of land for Big Bend National Park. State representative Coke Stevenson, no longer speaker of the house, addressed his colleagues on the matter of spending precious state tax money on a recreation area far from the centers of population in the Lone Star state. Beyond the one million dollars that potential visitors to the park would spend, said the Junction representative, "property values along main roads would be increased by Big Bend travel to an extent that would undoubtedly exceed by many times the $1,400,000 the Legislature is being asked to appropriate." Private employers would profit from the circulation of new money throughout the economy. Finally, said Stevenson, "the Texas Legislature should keep faith with the National government by enabling Texas to do its share in making possible the establishment of the Big Bend park." [9]

In the Texas Senate, H.B. Winfield of San Angelo offered S.B. No. 308 to his colleagues, who on March 24 reported favorably on the measure. Winfield called upon the lawmakers to authorize establishment of a "Board for the Acquisition of land within said area," which the state senator estimated at 736,000 acres. He also gave the board the authority to "acquire such additional lands in such amounts just so the total amount purchased in said area does not exceed one million acres." The land board would consist of "the Attorney General for the State of Texas, Chairman of the State Board of Control and two members of the State Board of Education." The members would receive no compensation for their services, "except to be reimbursed for all necessary and actual traveling expenses." The members also would serve "from the effective date of this Act to the time when the purpose for which this Act was created is completed." Winfield gave the board "the power of eminent domain . . . to condemn for park purposes within the said area." Also, the board could "institute, maintain, and prosecute suits in the name of the State of Texas, for that purpose applicable to the condemnation of lands by counties or by railroads or any other method authorized by law." The Texas State Parks Board would own all of these lands, and the Brewster County attorney would be asked to assist the state in the pursuit of any necessary legal action. [10]

To expedite the purchase of these lands, Winfield asked his colleagues to offer the State School Fund one dollar per acre for their properties. In exchange, "the Legislature of the State of Texas hereby transfers and conveys all mineral estates now owned by the State of Texas for the benefit of its Public Free School Fund in the area defined in this Act to the State of Texas for park purposes in consideration of the sum of fifty cents per acre." Mindful of the controversy over such a transfer, Winfield noted: "It is the purpose and intent of this Section of the Act only to place a value upon the mineral estate in lands where the mineral estate has been severed from the surface estate, the State Public School Fund having no interest in the surface." For lands in private hands, the board could offer no more than two dollars per acre, "exclusive of improvements, thereon for voluntary sales, provided this limitation shall not apply on lands acquired through condemnation proceedings." Where owners had purchased school lands "on the deferred payment plan and there are now outstanding balances," the board could "place a value on the purchasers' equity therein and pay such purchaser" no more than two dollars per acre, and then "pay the State of Texas for the benefit of the Public School Fund the amount of unpaid balance due thereon." Winfield estimated that the total operation of the board would require no more than two million dollars, which he wished to be expended by the close of the 1938 fiscal year (August 31). [11]

Once Senator Winfield had determined the scale and cost of the land-purchase program, he then turned his attention to the relationship between the state and the NPS. When Texas wrote its deed of conveyance, Winfield wanted the Lone Star state to reserve to itself "concurrent jurisdiction with the United States over every portion of the lands so ceded." This meant that "all process, civil or criminal, issuing under the authority of this State or any of the courts or judicial officers thereof, may be executed by the proper officers of the State." These laws would be applied "upon any person amenable to the same within the limits of the land so ceded as the area for Big Bend National Park, in like manner and like effect as if no such cession had taken place." The state further had the right "to levy and collect taxes on sales of products or commodities upon which a sales tax is levied in this State." Texas also could "tax persons and corporations and franchises and properties, on land or lands deeded and conveyed under the terms of this Act." Residents in the park area would have "the right to vote at all elections within the counties" comprising the park, "upon like terms and conditions and to the same extent as they would be entitled to vote in such counties had not such lands been deeded or conveyed as aforesaid to the United States of America." Winfield closed his legislation by noting that Congress already had authorized creation of the park, and that "the lands lying within said area [are] of little, if any, value for any other purpose." Texas would gain a great measure of economic and recreational opportunity from the purchase of these lands for the NPS, and he asked his colleagues to consider the bill "an emergency and an imperative public necessity," allowing it to be read and approved quickly. [12]

Once Winfield had brought the Big Bend measure to the attention of his peers, local sponsors extended to the state senators an invitation to inspect the area personally. Herbert Maier discussed with CCC camp superintendent Morgan the details of this visit, scheduled for mid-March. Maier asked Morgan to solicit the services of Ross Maxwell, attached to the CCC as a geologist, to speak to the lawmakers. "He should stress the academic side of it," said Maier, "and give the story in general without being too technical." Maxwell, however, "should not unconsciously convey the idea that the area has strong mineral value, since we know that such is not the case." Maier reminded Morgan that "since to the average Texan the word geology is synonymous with oil and commercial deposits," Maxwell should "bring out the fact that there has never been a single oil lease in this area and our access to confidential reports of Texas oil companies show that none of them entertain any hope of finding oil within the proposed park area." Maier then cautioned the CCC superintendent: "For this reason, I suggest that the party not be taken to Terlingua, which is outside the area, and where false impression of local mineral deposits may result." [13]

Horace Morelock saw another angle for the NPS to pursue with the legislative tour of Big Bend. He wrote to Cammerer with a suggestion given to him by a member of the local chapter of the American Legion. "I have been told," said the Sul Ross president, "that certain provisions have been made by which disabled veterans of the [First] World War were given accommodations in the Yellowstone National Park." Morelock noted that "it so happens that a large portion of New Mexico and West Texas have no facilities for accommodating the disabled veterans in this territory." Thus he wondered "if the National Park Board could provide suitable quarters for this group in the Big Bend National Park." Morelock believed that Cammerer knew that "the recreational facilities and the climate in that area would be fine" for the veterans. In addition, the NPS "would be rendering a great service to a worthy group, who, incidentally, would naturally be influential in Texas in obtaining through legislative enactment the money necessary to purchase this land." Morelock wanted Cammerer's thoughts on the matter, as "this weekend sixteen legislators are to pay the Big Bend National Park a visit, and next weekend thirty additional members are to make the trip to the Chisos Mountains." It was his hope that "the situation will so impress these groups that the park bill will go over in good form;" hence the need for the NPS director's opinion on the disabled-veteran proposal. [14]

While Morelock pursued his ideas for attracting legislative support for the Big Bend bill, Herbert Maier corresponded with Senator Winfield in advance of his party's arrival in Brewster County. Maier wanted Winfield's opinion on a measure working its way through the Texas state house of representatives to increase the tax on oil by one-quarter of one cent per barrel (to three cents). "The suggestion was made," wrote Maier, "that it may be possible to slap an amendment on the bill in the Senate adding 1/2 [cent] or 1/4 [cent] per barrel (which would probably be enough to meet the land cost)." Maier's contact within the legislature believed that "the oil companies might favor this because they are expecting increases in the tax anyway and would favor this particular fraction because it would last for one year only." Once the lawmakers arrived in the Chisos Mountains, this and other ideas received much attention as they rode horseback with Everett Townsend and Robert Morgan. Townsend had arranged for a Texas railroad to absorb the cost of transporting the larger party of state legislators to the Big Bend. He then asked the Alpine chamber of commerce to fund the meals and incidental expenses for the state senators' party, among which he listed "dinner for gang at [Dona] Chata's (and extras)" ($25.70 for a group of eleven), and a box of cigars worth $2.35. [15]

Once the Texas legislators had seen the wonders of the Big Bend country, the NPS and park promoters accelerated their lobbying efforts in Austin. Herbert Maier sent to Everett Townsend "a large easel of fine photographs with descriptive labels." Maier told Horace Morelock that Townsend could move the display from one hotel lobby to another in Austin, and can also probably place it in the cloakrooms of the two houses and at functions in Austin where legislators will be present." In so doing, said Maier, "every single legislator will have had at least one chance to view it before the bill is voted on." He further suggested that "our technicians, most of whom are good speakers, can arrange their official travel in such a manner that they can speak at any luncheon or gathering you may have in mind." The Sul Ross president's idea for coordinating a series of public addresses at luncheons and club meetings appealed to Maier, who inquired of Morelock: "It appears to me that someone should be given the task of determining the most strategic functions of that kind in Texas that will eventuate between now and the time the bill comes up for a vote." Maier also acknowledged Morelock's warning that the park promoters would need private monies to implement this plan. "I have no doubt," said the ECW regional officer, "that your fund raising campaign will be a success," as "it is almost impossible to do anything without the expenditure of some funds." [16]

When state representative Albert Cauthorn of Del Rio prepared to speak to his colleagues about the park bill, he too called upon the NPS for information and advice. Everett Townsend passed along to Maier the request of Cauthorn for details of the "area and acquisition cost to Virginia of the Shenandoah National Park." Cauthorn also wanted numbers on the costs incurred by the states of North Carolina and Tennessee to gain approval for Great Smoky Mountains National Park, as well as the federal outlay for development of these facilities. Townsend then asked Maier if Cauthorn could "have on hand data concerning the expenditures during the past few years in the Yellowstone or some of the other larger National Parks, which have been in the process of improving over a long period of years." Then on April 7, Townsend could report to Maier that "over two thousand copies of the inclosed circular have been mailed out to the Hotels of Texas, by the Hotel Association." When Senator Winfield brought up his bill for scheduling on the calendar, Townsend reported proudly that the vote was twenty-one to five. While this offered no indication of the final vote totals, Townsend sensed victory. Yet Townsend found troubling the attitude of the Dallas Times-Herald, which on February 23 had asked the rhetorical question, "But How About The State Deficit?" Townsend sent to Maier a copy of the rather caustic editorial, in which the Times-Herald reminded its readers: "There are lots of interesting ways in which Texas could spend money. But where to get the money is a problem that the legislature is finding hard to solve." The editors remarked that Coke Stevenson "has been a strong advocate of economy," and that "perhaps he is prepared to show how the park expenditure is justifiable at this time." The Times-Herald conceded Stevenson's point that "the park would more than pay for itself by attracting tourists to this state." Yet the editors counseled patience by noting that "the money from tourists would be obtainable only over a period of years." [17]

Such negative commentary challenged Townsend and his fellow park promoters to work all the harder to convince the legislature and governor of the merits of the land-acquisition program. On April 14, Townsend wrote to Herbert Maier with news that advocates of the park bill had met with Governor Allred, "and the Governor promised that he would not veto the Bill should we succeed in getting it up to him." Allred further informed the park sponsors that Walter Woodull, the lieutenant governor (in his capacity as presiding officer of the state senate), "had promised . . . that he . . . would do everything possible to get the Bill up in the Senate." The support of such an important official excited Townsend, as "quite a number of bills have been set for special consideration." Since many of these were of "a controversial nature," Townsend noted that they "have been accumulating on the calendar and many in the ordinary course of action have precedence over the Park Bill." Even though "all these [bills] in order are stacked up on the presiding officer's desk at the beginning of each day's work," nonetheless Woodull "is allowed a certain latitude;" a circumstance that Townsend described as "pulling one from the middle or bottom of the ‘deck.'" Thus he hoped that Woodull would exercise his prerogatives in favor of the Big Bend legislation, and concluded to Maier: "Everything looks good." [18]

Given the circuitous journey that the Big Bend measure had taken to date, one could forgive Maier for being cautious despite the optimism of Everett Townsend. He learned from Ted L. Edwards, superintendent of the CCC camp in Daingerfield, Texas, that media coverage remained positive, but that "the only hitch that I have uncovered at any point is a rumor that major oil companies are looking to the Big Bend Country as a potential supply when the fields now operated that are close to rail heads and tide water are exhausted." Yet Edwards, like Townsend and other advocates of the park, believed that "this will be no obstacle to the passage of the bill and that if conditions in this area are indicative, we have every assurance that the bill will go through." Maier could not operate on such rosy assumptions, however, and he wrote to Conrad Wirth on April 26 with a plea for director Cammerer to send an airmail letter immediately to Governor James V. Allred of Texas. Maier went so far as to draft the lengthy letter for Wirth's review, in which the NPS director would remind the governor that "there has been expended by the Federal government an estimated sum of $12,800,000 in development of state parks in Texas during the past four years." From this the Lone Star state received some 25 recreational areas that drew "hundreds of thousands of people." Cammerer would inform Allred that "in Feb. 1937 the President wrote you and stressed the fact that the period of emergency was over and that the State government would necessarily have to assume responsibility for the investments made;" a condition that Maier found "in accordance with the assurance given by the State in requesting CCC camps for state park development." [19]

Maier's anxiety had arisen from learning that "the appropriation bill reported out by the Texas Senate Finance Committee is inadequate and actually does not even provide for a State Director of Parks." In addition, said the ECW regional official, "it makes no provision for Custodians [superintendents] for the state parks." Maier saw as obvious the fact that "the property which has been built must be protected from vandalism and maintained in a sanitary and usable condition for the public." He and his colleagues "believe it is self-evident that unless adequate State funds for park maintenance are provided, the Federal government cannot continue to approve further expenditures." The FDR administration already had announced a "proposed reduction in the strength of the CCC," and "the major share of the reduction will necessarily fall upon those states making the least effort to comply with the President's request." Maier compared the Texas legislation for state parks with the commitments of other states, and suggested that "if the bill is passed with its present limited provisions, it will be necessary to place future applications from the Texas State Parks Board . . . low in priority compared to those states which have made provision to properly maintain their parks." The NPS should ask Allred at a minimum to "include at least the position of Director of State Parks, which we understand now carries the title of Executive Secretary, together with a Custodian for each park." Maier acknowledged that "our relationship with your State Parks Board as it is conducted through its present Executive Secretary [William J. Lawson] is most satisfactory." It was his hope that "in the event of a permanent Civilian Conservation Corps we may have the opportunity to carry the work now begun to a satisfactory conclusion." Such a partnership could be secured, Maier concluded, if Texas accepted "its responsibility for public recreation in the form of adequate funds for park maintenance." [20]

Soon after the state senate had reported out the state parks bill, word came to Maier that the Big Bend measure faced similar reductions. Everett Townsend wrote on May 12 to Representative R. Thomason to offer his thoughts on the actions of the Lone Star lawmakers. Champions of Big Bend National Park knew that their original request of $2 million had no chance in the 1937 session. "No doubt you are acquainted," said Townsend, "with the snarl in which the legislature has gotten itself and for that reason it has been impossible to bring the Bill up in either House." On April 27, the day after Maier had pleaded with Conrad Wirth to have NPS director Cammerer intercede with the legislature, Townsend had managed to get the Big Bend bill attached to the larger "Departmental Appropriation Bill." The senate had agreed to fund the land-acquisition program at $750,000; an amount that Townsend believed would satisfy the demands of the budget-conscious state representatives. Unfortunately, Townsend admitted to Thomason, "we could not in these amendments to an appropriation Bill set up the entire machinery for the acquisition, transfer, etc., to the government." Instead, park promoters like Townsend "had to content ourselves with the largest sum we could get for the purchase of the lands for a State Park and confine it to the limits set out in your [1935] Congressional act." Fortunately for the NPS, said Townsend, "all legislators understand that this is only the beginning and that it will be made into a National Park." He predicted that "at a later Session we will have no trouble in enacting the necessary legislation to complete it." In the interim, "the sum named is large enough to secure the most desirable areas and to insure future appropriations for the whole set-up." Townsend noted that "as quickly as some of the larger ranches are taken over, I believe it advisable that the Park Service take over the enforcement of protection for the game and of course, I would like to see general improvements continued as far as possible." [21]

Coincident with the aggressive campaign by Big Bend park sponsors, and timed for the legislative vote in mid-1937, was the NPS's contract with Walter Prescott Webb to conduct historical research on the future national park. In an effort to maximize the publicity that Webb could generate on behalf of Big Bend, the park service in January developed plans for the famed Lone Star historian to work on what Herbert Maier told his superiors would be "a readable study of the known history of the Big Bend (since 1850) based on [Lieutenant William H.] Emory and other early authorities, and on information gathered from living persons." Maier wanted Webb to "include brief biographical portraits of some of the outstanding figures in the region's past," and to develop "a study in which the influence of the environment on individuals would be clearly [delineated]." Finally, Webb was to offer "brief sketches of interesting historical points in the park," written "with a light touch and illustrated with photographs and perhaps with drawings." Maier was sure that "Dr. Webb could be depended on to catch the spirit of the region as a whole." In addition, "his interpretation of past life in the Big Bend would be a real contribution to history and would undoubtedly lay open new vistas for further research." [22]

The NPS was fortunate to have someone, said Maier, whose "published volumes have been read widely by the general public, and at the same time have been recognized by historians as being brilliant and sound." Not the least of Maier's hopes was Webb's potential to "generate publicity values in arousing public opinion in support of land acquisition legislation which will be introduced at the next session of the Texas legislature." Webb had "accepted an invitation to deliver a series of public lectures at the University of London;" something that Maier characterized as "an unprecedented honor for a Western historian." Even "a brief note in any historical journal to the effect that the National Park Service had employed Walter Prescott Webb," said Maier, "for even a brief period would receive instant attention from the whole of the historical profession." The ECW regional director asked his superiors to approve a contract for 60 days of work by Webb, payable at $20 per day (for a total of $1,200). Maier told the NPS that "the amount . . . is available from the [CCC] camp allotment to the Big Bend SP-33 camp for this purpose." Maier also solicited endorsements of the contract from members of the NPS advisory board. Dr. Hermon C. Bumpus, an early advocate for park status, advised Arthur E. Demaray, acting NPS director, to support Maier's request, and the latter submitted the proposal to Interior secretary Harold Ickes for final approval. [23]

By early March 1937, Webb had traveled to the Big Bend area to survey the landscape and prepare for his historical research and writing. After a four-day excursion on horseback through the Chisos Mountains, guided by former state game warden Pete Crawford, Webb returned to Austin to correspond with Herbert Maier about the park. Webb accepted the designation of "consulting historian," and authorized publication of a press release on his contract at once. "My preliminary trip to the Big Bend," he told Maier, "was filled with interest." From it Webb would prepare "a general article entitled, subject to your approval, ‘Is the Big Bend park Worth While?'" Webb assumed that he could "meet every argument save one that is being made by the school people who are afraid of losing some mineral rights." He agreed not to "touch that subject at all, because I am of the opinion that the more it is agitated the worse off we will be." Webb did note that "a horseback ride to the South Rim and vaccination by U.S. health service who came to the camp where I was on a smallpox scare, almost put me out." Nonetheless, Webb had commenced reading all that he could find about the Big Bend region, adding: "I only wish that I could convey its charm and spell to the public in written words." He planned to return soon to the future park site "in company with Pete Crawford, who knows the land, the legend, and the history [to] explore the country by car, horse, and, if possible, by boat." Webb especially targeted "some possibilities in those canyons, Santa Helena and others, that are worth considering." The Texas historian closed by asking Maier if he could assist in the lobbying campaign in Austin, and solicited his thoughts on the message that Webb could deliver to the Lone Star lawmakers. [24]

Webb then expressed to Leo McClatchy a particular curiosity in the international park concept, asking the NPS publicist about other such park units worldwide. He also promised to write immediately a newspaper feature in which Webb "tried to portray something of the spirit of the Big Bend region." He also noted that "this afternoon [April 5] an Austin paper, The Dispatch, will start a series of editorials on the Big Bend." Webb had learned that "these will be blocked in on the first page and a copy of the paper will be laid on the desk of each legislator daily." Webb himself would write these editorials, and would seek prior approval from McClatchy before their publication. "The [Dispatch] editor," said Webb, "seems to be of the opinion that the newshawks will pick up the story." Thus if McClatchy had "anything that you want to appear here, let me have it at once." For his part, the NPS publicist could supply Webb with "a history of the origins and development of the National Park System," as he was "in immediate need of the material" for his research. [25]

True to his word, Walter Prescott Webb began earning dividends for the NPS and the Big Bend sponsors by promoting the concept statewide. Webb airmailed to McClatchy on April 7 the first in his series on the future park, which the historian contended "took some time to prepare . . . because it is not an easy matter to encompass the Big Bend and explain it so that an outsider can gain any conception of what it is like." Webb then discussed with McClatchy his plans for "the Santa Helena trip." In conversation with Herbert Maier, Webb had concluded that "the difficulties involved in getting the government to sponsor the trip are too great." Thus Webb had decided to make the raft trip "a private enterprise, to be carried out after I have finished my contract with the National Park Service." While "the results, if any, will of course be used to promote the park," Webb faced a campaign of solicitations from newspapers and magazines in Texas and nationwide. "If you can get Life Magazine to co-operate by accepting one or more articles," said Webb, "that will be fine." For his part, Webb had traveled to San Antonio from Austin to meet with radio station WOAI and the San Antonio Express. The editor of the Express advised Webb to contact the Texas Newspaper Association "to sponsor the undertaking," which Webb believed would have to occur in August, as "there is not time to prepare before the spring rains set in." Webb then revealed the excitement that the Big Bend contract had stimulated in him: "Incidentally, this park work thrills me and I fear that I shall be no good as a teacher from now on." [26]

By April 18, Webb had placed in newspapers statewide the first of two major features about Big Bend and the land-acquisition bill before the Texas legislature. "Big Bend Park Will Put Texas On Travel Map," read a headline in the Dallas Morning News, with the tag line "Another Yellowstone as a Tourist Attraction, Avers Expert of Proposed National Project." After recounting the now-standard evidence of geological and historical distinctiveness, Webb summarized "the first impression of the country - one that does not wear off - [as] that of magnificent confusion." Geologists and biologists had pieced together parts of the natural story, but "the historian has less chance than either of these to assist in the restoration." All that an historian could hope, said Webb, was "to attempt a generalized picture of the place, much simplified, and with the full knowledge that there are exceptions to every statement he makes." Poets and novelists could invoke the "atmosphere and circumstance in which human beings move like microbes across the brilliant yet awesome landscape." Yet even such literary talent could not "convey the sense of unreality and romance that overwhelms the spectator and leaves him with a recurrent nostalgia for a land in which he cannot live." Webb then attempted to describe the geologic forces that shaped the Big Bend country, only to conclude that the future park was "the geologist's paradise and his despair." By this Webb meant "his paradise because he finds on the surface such a variety of formation; his despair because he can hardly classify them, much less explain how they came there." [27]

On the following Sunday (April 25), Webb further regaled Texas newspaper readers with historical tales of significance to the Big Bend. He noted the artifacts found in caves along the Rio Grande by Elmo and Ava Johnson, "the remains of the Basket Makers who disappeared before the white man set foot on the land." Webb recounted the story of Pete Crawford when the former state game warden had chased a herd of wild burros in the Chisos Mountains that local stock raisers wanted killed "because they destroyed the grass needed by the cattle." When the party of hunters trapped the burros in a narrow ravine, the reports from their guns echoed several times, leading Crawford to name the area "Echo Dike." As for the Rio Grande, Webb noted that "in finding its way through the debris of the sunken block, [it] does all sorts of queer things." Eastern visitors might find it modest, yet "to the people of the West, of the Great Plains, and the arid region, it appears a mighty stream." It was the lure of the river, and of its stunning canyons, that Webb devoted most of the space in his April 25 feature. "I wish to say," the Texas historian wrote in conclusion, "that there is something very precious in this wild country, and that is a place of temporary escape from the world we know." Webb found the Big Bend "a place where the spirit is lifted up as it must have been when the white man found America and before he had time to mar it with his improvements." Because "man has not seriously disturbed the Big Bend," wrote Webb, this "recommends it as a National Park site." Had the NPS found the area "thickly settled, it would be out of the picture." But "there it lies in its gorgeous splendor and geological confusion," said Webb, "almost as it fell from the hands of the Creator." Webb then delivered the famous line often quoted in the press and historical works: "Because it seems to be made up of the scraps left over when the world was made, containing samples of rivers, deserts, sunken blocks of mountain and tree-clad peaks, dried up lakes, canyons, cuestas, vegas, playas, arroyos, volcanic refuse, and hot springs, it fascinates every observer." He further addressed the potential of an international park, echoing the sentiments of Everett Townsend: "Men have not always lived in peace here, as one can learn by sitting in camp and listening to the border men - Texas rangers, border patrol, river guards, game wardens, and cow men." But the NPS, and the nation, could redress those grievances, Webb believed, "if the Big Bend of Texas, and the wild region opposite in Mexico, could be converted into an international park devoted to the pleasure and enlightenment of man, and to the promotion of peace and understanding between neighboring nations." [28]

One day after publication of the April 25 story about Big Bend, Herbert Maier wrote to Webb to outline the final product that the NPS needed from its illustrious historical consultant. Maier conceded that a 60-day contract would not generate the definitive treatment of the Trans-Pecos area that the park service would like. Yet if Webb could identify the naming of historical landmarks in the area, and compile "a chronology of the important historical events which have occurred in the region," he could "point the way for further researches by National Park Service technicians in the future." Maier also noted Webb's request "to retain an unofficial or semi-official connection with the Service after the expiration of your present working period." The ECW official wished to assure Webb that "we are very appreciative of this attitude and shall do everything in our power to cement this valuable relationship." [29]

The park service found reason to avail itself of Webb's commitment to promotion of Big Bend National Park when prospects for passage of the land-acquisition bill turned sour in the Texas legislature. While Webb as late as mid-April had discounted the possibility of a river trip through the Rio Grande canyons, suddenly the NPS announced plans for Webb to float the "Grand Canyon de Santa Helena" on May 16. Just days before the vote in Austin on the park bill, Webb joined a party led by Thomas V. Skaggs of McCamey, Texas, who along with fellow McCamey resident Joe Lane, and James W. Metcalfe, acting chief inspector for the U.S. Immigration Service's Border Patrol, would spend the next two days in two steel boats named the Cinco de Mayo and the Big Bend. The Austin Dispatch identified other onshore participants as James Lederer of Bastrop, Texas, who would film the journey, Pete Crawford, who would oversee activities at the base camp at Castolon, William R. Hogan, historian of the NPS from Oklahoma City, and members of the U.S. Border Patrol. The Dispatch told Austin readers that "all branches of the border service are cooperating to make this expedition a success." The CCC had sent a work crew to the railhead in Alpine to bring the steel boats down to the river, and "a new United States Coast Guard Ship is standing by to fly over the exploring party and receive signals of distress if any should develop." Border patrol officers would be stationed at the mouth of the canyon "with a boat which can go up stream to aid the party if trouble develops." In addition, "news of the expedition will be radioed to the outside world through the station at Johnson's Ranch in the bottom of the Big Bend." All of this exertion was for a trip that would take less than 48 hours. Yet The Dispatch noted that "the present expedition is the best equipped one that has attempted the venture, and if successful, may open the way for other parties to follow." [30]

As the foursome and their well-wishers gathered at the town of Lajitas that Sunday, they pondered the state of deliberations on the Big Bend park bill in Austin. The scale of the operation, and the precautions taken by state and federal officials, dramatized the need for maximum publicity and attention to the wonders of the Rio Grande canyons. The Coast Guard plane flew over the river just before the steel boats put into the water, and reported the current as low. The Austin Texan reported that "the Rio Grande at this point has never been popular with navigators," noting "only Dr. Robert T. Hill [in 1899] having gone through heretofore." The Austin Statesman played the story for its dramatic effect, headlining on May 17 with "Webb Defying Canyon Perils." "Treacherous rapids flow through the 2,000-foot high walls of the [Santa Elena] canyon," wrote the Statesman, "and no one is known to have navigated the river at this point." Webb's wife told the Statesman that she had received both a letter and a telegram from her husband while camped at Lajitas, and she expected to hear from him within 24 hours of his completion of the trip. Then the Fort Worth Star-Telegram of May 18 carried the cryptic headline: "No Word From 4 Explorers." "While they had expected to complete their hazardous journey through the dangerous, rock-studded waters this afternoon," said the Star-Telegram, "word as to whether or not they accomplished the feat was not known." The newspaper had called the telephone operator at Marathon, described as "117 miles from the canyon," but "her last report at [7] o'clock was that the voyage had not been completed." The Coast Guard added to the mystery when it informed the paper that it "had men stationed about seven miles from the [Santa Elena] canyon at Castolon, but they had received no report at that time and could be reached by telephone afterward." Then the Associated Press reported on May 19 that Webb and his companions had reached Castolon after "an arduous trip" through the canyon. The Texas historian told the AP reporter that "there was no serious trouble on the 16-mile trip though it had been made with much difficulty." [31]

One day after the news of Webb's successful completion of the Big Bend boat trip, the realities of Texas politics neutralized the public relations bonanza generated by the Rio Grande expedition. Everett Townsend sent a hurried telegram to Milo F. Christiansen of the NPS's office in Little Rock, Arkansas, asking him to tell Herbert Maier of his telegram to Thomason with the news that Governor Allred "is seriously considering the veto" because of "state finances." Townsend suggested to Maier's assistant that the park service "bring every possible influence to bear and if possible include that of the vice-president [John Nance Garner of Texas] and senators." W. B. Tuttle of the San Antonio Public Service Company told Maier that Allred worried about "the failure of the legislature to appropriate funds to meet the State's financial necessities." Tuttle had asked Allred for a personal meeting before the governor took any action on the Big Bend measure, and hoped that Maier could accompany him on such a visit. Harry J. Adams, superintendent of parks for the City of Fort Worth, wired Allred on May 21 to warn that "your failure to approve this bill will greatly embarrass the National Park Service in the program which they have setup for this wonderful and worthy project." In addition, Allred's veto would "seriously retard the entire State Park program." Then Townsend approached Herbert Maier directly on May 21, telling him tersely: "Situation not good." He minced few words by advising the ECW regional director: "Imperative that pressure from Washington continue." Then the longtime promoter of a national park in the Big Bend asked that "if possible, direct endorsements from Mexico City" be sent to Allred to influence his opinion. [32]

Pressure from park advocates motivated Herbert Maier to write two dozen Texas newspaper editors on the best means to lobby the Governor. The latter, said the ECW official, "believes that the State of Texas would benefit immeasurably by establishment of the Big Bend National Park," having said as much in a speech the previous month at the CCC state-park facility at Bastrop. Yet even the $750,000 appropriated by the state's lawmakers (half the original request of the NPS and park sponsors) troubled the governor. Maier asked J.J Taylor of the Dallas News if his paper could highlight the efforts of "the Government of Mexico . . . to acquire, by exchanging publicly-owned lands, the 400,000 privately-owned acres that are to become a National Park in Mexico." This "combined area would be of such international importance," said Maier, "as to attract tourists into Texas from throughout the world." The NPS believed that "a strong editorial in The News right now would help to convince the Governor that he is justified in signing the Big Bend bill because of the increased revenues that will be collected in Texas annually." In addition, "the expense of development would be taken over entirely by the Federal Government." Between visitors' expenses and the taxes collected from them, Maier saw Big Bend bringing into Texas "every year a very minimum of three million dollars." Allred's signature "absolutely assures annual and permanent increased revenues to the State," and Maier advised Taylor: "You can editorially justify signing of the bill along that line alone." The NPS then offered kind words to Taylor for the "splendid support you have given in the past, both in editorial and news columns." All Maier now asked was for the News to "please sew up the whole issue right now with this last clinching editorial." [33]

Maier's campaign with Texas newspaper editors found widespread support, as the Amarillo Daily News declared rhetorically: "By All Means Sign It, Governor." Gene Howe, publisher of the Amarillo paper, noted that the governor meant well in "opposing other appropriation measures that do not make provision for the raising of the money to be expended." In the case of Big Bend, however, "Texas is so badly, badly in need of more parks and lakes and recreational places." Howe claimed that "we have been so backward, so stubborn in developing our wonder places and in providing outdoor recreation for our citizens that it would be little short of a disaster if the governor failed to sign this bill." The Daily News asked its readers: "Think of the millions we waste: think of the pitiable few dollars we spend to attract tourists and to make our state more attractive for our own citizens." Howe conceded that "up here in the Panhandle we are in the other extreme end of the state." Yet Big Bend fit a larger scheme of promotion of Lone Star attractions for Howe and his newspaper. "We want the Big Bend," editorialized the Daily News, "we want the Palo Duro [canyon state park south of Amarillo] improvement carried on and we want more parks and lakes in every district, in every county, if practical, in the whole state." Howe pleaded with Allred: "We are so many years behind the eastern states, governor, that it would be most, most regrettable if this worthy movement was delayed or broken down by your veto." For his part, Howe promised that his paper would "send thousands of West Texas citizens down there to see it." As proof, Howe argued that Texans would "much rather travel in Texas than other states but first you have to have something worth seeing to attract them." [34]

The Amarillo Daily News's editorial stand on the Big Bend measure echoed the campaign that the park service undertook in the days prior to Governor Allred's refusal to sign the bill. Herbert Maier had asked Daniel Galicia and Juan Zinser of the Departemento Forestal, Caza y Pesca, to "arrange to have [Mexican] Ambassador [Josephus] Daniels contact Governor Allred . . . by wire in favor of the appropriation which is now before the Texas State Legislature for purchase of land in the Big Bend." Maier had not known of Daniels's return to the United States, and he apologized to Galicia and Zinser for the diplomatic confusion. Yet Miguel Angel de Quevedo revealed the high regard that he held for the NPS by responding that Galicia "was commissioned to lay this matter before the Charge-de-Affaires of the United States Embassy here and to make known the contents of your letter, having previously made similar representations to Ambassador Daniels relative [to] establishment of Big Bend National Park." Then Quevedo mentioned for the first time the contemplated name for the Mexican portion of the international park, which he called "‘Sierra Del Carmen' National Park." The NPS director followed with his own direct appeal to Allred, sending a telegram on June 5 urging "favorable consideration." The park service, Cammerer declared, was "confident from past experience that indirect benefit to state both financially and socially will greatly exceed requested appropriation." "We realize your problem," said the NPS director, "due to [the] failure of [the] legislature to pass additional tax bills." Yet Cammerer predicted (without substantiating data) that "increased travel to Texas will return money through existing taxes a hundred fold." The director reminded Allred that his agency had "enjoyed cooperating with Texas both in allotment of camps and money for development [of the] Texas state park system." Thus it was Cammerer's hope that "you will see your way clear to assist us in developing our national park system." [35]

None of these last-minute entreaties could save the Big Bend legislation once it arrived on the desk of Governor Allred. Herbert Maier learned of the veto on June 8 in a telegram from Everett Townsend. "I know that you and the interested group at Alpine," said Maier in response, "must feel the disappointment keenly." As for himself, said the ECW regional director: "It certainly made me blue and I felt like going out on a darn good drunk." Maier promised to return to Alpine as soon as his schedule permitted. Then he affirmed the next step for park boosters to consider. "I believe I earlier discussed with you," said Maier, "my suggestion for a twelve-man committee representing the twelve leading cities of Texas and probably including a man from Alpine." Among these civic officials could be "Wendell Mays for Brownwood, Colonel Tuttle for San Antonio, etc. etc." Such a committee, "appointed by their respective Chambers of Commerce, . . . would make the Big Bend National Park movement statewide." This in turn "would place the Governor in a position where he probably could not again afford to exercise the veto." An added benefit, Maier told Townsend, would accrue when "all the leading Chambers of Commerce [got] behind the thing and West Texas would not have to again carry the financial load for publicity." [36]

It was not coincidental that Maier had an alternative strategy at hand when word came of the governor's veto. By July 1937, the NPS had begun advising its own people, as well as local citizens supportive of park creation, to work towards private funding of the land-purchase program at Big Bend. Writing on July 12 to Ardrey Borell of the NPS's newly established "Region III" office in Santa Fe, Maier mentioned that "there has been some talk about bringing up the Big Bend bill again in a call session in September." The ECW official, however, believed "that this will not be wise." He suggested instead to the NPS biologist that "our course of action now must be to keep giving all publicity possible to the national park project and work toward bringing up the bill again in the next regular session." While this would be "a year from next January," said Maier, he was resigned to the delay, as he told Borell: "After all, that is only eighteen months." By then, Maier noted wryly, "Gov. Allred will be out of office." Then he hinted at the crisis awaiting Big Bend park promoters when he concluded: "I presume we will have to move the [CCC] camp out of the Big Bend on October 1." [37]

As he had done throughout the process to convince Texas officials of the merits of their first national park, Maier turned to Everett Townsend for advice on the future of fundraising. Maier had spoken with Harry J. Adams, whom he described as "an influential man in the Ft. Worth Chamber of Commerce." Adams and Maier discussed "this thing which the Star Telegram had proposed and that you [Townsend] had contacted Mr. [James] Record [managing editor of the Star Telegram]." Adams concurred that a private campaign should begin immediately, but advised Maier that "Amon Carter would really be the man to contact," as he was "not only the owner of the paper but is one of the State's most influential citizens, a world traveler and quite a promoter and organizer." Townsend had asked Maier to contact the Star-Telegram, yet the ECW regional director wanted Townsend's opinion of Carter. "Actually, I think the idea is a splendid one," said Maier, "and at a dollar a head it should be possible to get a great many people interested in the thing." Maier believed that "once they have invested even a dollar, they will want to see the thing go through so that they will get ‘their money's worth.'" Maier acknowledged that "a great deal of organizing will have to be done on the part of the Star Telegram so that the thing will go ahead vigorously." He also reminded Townsend that "promotion schemes of this kind are bound to hit periods of lagging and are apt to drag out." Nonetheless, said Maier, "I think that if the thing can be pushed hard so that a real substantial sum, say something like half a million dollars, is gotten together, the other half can readily be gotten from the State, especially if all of the Chambers of Texas by that time have contributed at least a small amount." [38]

Maier then traced for Townsend the limitations facing the NPS in any private fundraising venture. "While we cannot use our own employees for promoting the thing," said the ECW official, "at the same time it should be borne in mind that everyone of our foremen and superintendents in Texas will want to contribute." The NPS had some 250 employees in the Lone Star state, and "while this is not a large number, it will help to start the ball rolling." Maier thought that "each of these foremen, superintendents, and clerical employees will be glad to have with him at all times a sample certificate which he can show to others who may be in line for purchasing one." In addition, said Maier, "perhaps our [CCC] camps can get up benefit entertainments." "There is a tremendous amount we can do," declared Maier, but warned Townsend that, "although the Star Telegram has accepted the undertaking, it will require continual hammering from all influential and interested parties to keep the thing from dying a premature death." Maier hoped that "once a few thousand dollars has been subscribed, the Board, as originally planned, can be appointed." The NPS also had to address "whether optioning and purchasing of any of the land should start before the entire sum has been subscribed." Maier apologized for not being able to travel to Fort Worth to meet with Townsend and Star-Telegram officials, but promised that while "in Washington I will see what the possibilities are of keeping you on." He expressed frustration at NPS rules limiting its involvement in the fundraising campaign: "The thing that makes it so difficult is the very definite ruling that employees can only work at points where assigned." Nonetheless, Maier hoped to return from the nation's capital soon to plot a course of action with Townsend and one of the largest newspapers in Texas. [39]

Simultaneous with his correspondence to Everett Townsend, Maier contacted James Record of the Star-Telegram to begin negotiations for the Big Bend fundraising venture. "I have been requested by a group of public-spirited Texans," said Maier, "who are deeply interested in the Big Bend National Park and International Peace Park to write you in connection with the original idea proposed in an editorial in the Ft. Worth Star Telegram a few months ago." Maier considered this "a most practical method for . . . raising the funds for the purchase of the land in the Big Bend for national park purposes." He also saw the campaign "to raise a million dollars by popular subscription at one dollar per person" as "one which could give a statewide patriotic flavor to the undertaking." Maier had learned that "the Ft. Worth Chamber of Commerce is the largest unit affiliated with the West Texas Chamber of Commerce and has been one of its leading sponsors." He considered it "logical for Ft. Worth to sponsor the Big Bend National Park project as proposed." While the newspaper might decline the offer to direct the campaign, "considering that the idea originated with the Star Telegram it is sincerely hoped by [local promoters] that it, as one of Texas' leading dailies, will at least get the thing underway, if not see it entirely through." Maier had "kept a file of newspaper clippings and editorials on the Big Bend project during the past twelve months," and could report that "not a single discouraging editorial in any of the Texas newspapers has come to our attention." He believed that "as time goes on new methods for raising money will present themselves, and as usually happens in matters of this kind, everyone will want to ‘climb onto the band wagon.'" Once this happened, "it should not be difficult to get the State to supplement the donation with a substantial contribution." [40]

As with Everett Townsend, Maier cautioned Record that "considering my position I probably should not be writing you in this matter." Further, said Maier, "I beg you to consider this as a personal and not as an official letter, based upon the request of the interested West Texas group, and also upon the advice of Mr. Harry J. Adams . . . that Mr. Amon Carter, . . . as one of the leading citizens of Texas is perhaps in the best position in the State to get this thing successfully going." Maier explained to Record that upon notice of Allred's veto, he had proposed a "Committee of Twelve" to initiate fundraising. "Nothing further has been done on this," said Maier, "but perhaps the two ideas could in some manner be combined." All sectors of the Lone Star state would benefit from the creation of Big Bend, said Maier, as "the bulk of the visitors . . . will be forced to travel back and forth through the entire length of Texas in order to visit the national park." Maier doubted "if there is any project up before the State which will result in so much money filtering down through the pockets of its citizens in all walks of life in the years to come." He forwarded to the managing editor "data on travel statistics in relation to national parks in support of this," and concluded: "This office will be pleased to cooperate with you in the undertaking in every manner commensurate with its official position." [41]

To reinforce Maier's request, Townsend also wrote to Record with an appeal for help. After detailing his own commitment in time and money to Big Bend, Townsend admitted: "Probably I had too much pride in its advancement up to the time of the Governor's veto, which may delay its consummation longer than many think, unless we can find some other method of financing the way for another program." Townsend was quick to inform Record that "I do not censure the Governor's attitude on the subject [of the veto], because I can somewhat understand the many difficulties under which he was struggling to satisfactorily arrange the State's financial status, to which end nothing has been done." Having said that, Townsend then confided in Record: "I do believe he was gravely in error, but not that it has been done it is up to the friends of the Project to work out some other plan." That circumstance led Townsend to emphasize the Star-Telegram's call for a million-dollar subscription campaign. "I did not hasten to communicate with you," said Townsend, "because I wanted to devote more thought to the suggestion." Now the west Texas rancher believed that support by the Fort Worth paper "would immediately create a deep and pervading interest all over the State, not only in the Project but also in your thoughtful wisdom for the inception of the movement." Townsend asked Record if the paper could form a "non-profit sharing corporation . . . with a selected group of widely known and trusted men, such as Mr. Amon Carter, to act as the directing agency." This body could "provide for the receipt and disbursal of the donations as well as for the acquisition of the lands" by selling "engraved certificates" in denominations from one dollar to $1,000. Townsend also did not think it "unreasonable to expect liberal donations from the railroads and the major oil companies of Texas as these will be the chief beneficiaries from the increased tourist traffic in the State." Townsend informed Record that "I have all available data on the land holdings and much general information," and he hoped that "we may be able to devise plans for the realization of our park." [42]

Pressure from Big Bend advocates within and outside the NPS led James Record to approach Dom Adams, president of the Brewster County Chamber of Commerce, to speak "frankly and comprehensively about the Big Bend park campaign." Record could report that "we [the Star-Telegram] are eager to assist in the enterprise and start immediately raising the fund." He advised Adams that "you will understand that readers are more interested in parks, highways, and scenery now - the heart of the vacation and touring season than they will be in the cold and bleak months." Thus the park sponsors should "strike while the iron is hot." To that end, Record suggested that "the inception of the campaign should come from your organization or one that has the responsibility for building the park." This would allow the Star-Telegram "to avoid being called upon in future years to do similar work for a cause or a section that might not be as worthy as your's." Record wanted to announce the campaign in his newspaper on Sunday, July 18, and asked Adams that "your organization write the Star-Telegram a formal letter, mentioning the editorial that we carried recently and saying that you will undertake the raising of funds by popular subscription." In addition, said Record, the park boosters should ask "that The Star-Telegram assist by accepting funds from its readers." The paper then would agree to "publish that letter as well as a picture and a map and an announcement that we will accept the contributions." Record also could report that "I have a dollar bill already sent in by a Waco man." From this inaugural story could come "stunts, pictures, etc., from time to time." For its part, the Brewster county chamber should have "some kind of a steering committee in Alpine to handle the details of the campaign, that the committee name sub-committees in every Texas county to receive funds and to direct the campaign in that particular county." The Star-Telegram would want the chamber to agree that "there shall be no expenses paid or anything deducted from the money that is raised through the newspaper." The paper would ask nothing in return of the Alpine chamber, as "our regular staff will handle the stories and details." This was the procedure followed by the Star-Telegram when it championed "the Will Rogers Memorial Fund and other funds in the past." [43]

Prompted by Record's enthusiasm and advice, Dom Adams sent a letter to the Star-Telegram outlining the strategies for the Big Bend fundraising campaign. Ignoring the recent veto of the land-purchase measure, Adams preferred to focus upon "the splendid support which the newspapers over Texas gave this project." He believed that "the people of Texas are tremendously interested in a national park, not only as an opportunity for taking a vacation close to home for a reasonable outlay of money, but also for the revenue which the Big Bend National Park will produce for the State-at-large and for every town through which tourists pass." Adams reiterated the statistics produced in New Mexico when it funded publicity of its natural and historic wonders. "In the estimate of the National Park Service," wrote Adams, "Texas would derive yearly a minimum of $3,600,000 from this source just as soon as the park is well established." Adams then quoted Conrad Wirth: "‘It is apparent that the Big Bend Park will be recognized as one of the outstanding geological laboratories and classrooms of the world.'" Big Bend, in Wirth's estimation, "‘gives the Service its first opportunity to set up a boundary that will protect a logical and complete biological unit.'" Star-Telegram readers should know further, said Adams, "that the people of Virginia contributed $1,000,000 by popular subscription for the purchase of land to guarantee the realization of the Shenandoah National Park." In return, said the Brewster County chamber president, "for the year 1936 694,098 tourists patronized this park;" a situation that "argues strongly the benefits to the State of a national park." [44]

That scheme for fundraising, however, did not appeal to Everett Townsend, who had not received immediate responses from Maier or Record because of telegraph transmission problems between the towns of Pecos and Alpine. Two days before the release of the Star-Telegram story on Big Bend, Townsend reminded Maier that he had asked Record to create a corporation to handle funds and purchase lands for the park. Townsend also noted that the Texas State Parks Board needed to be the agency of record for the transactions, and that the park sponsors needed to "bring in quite a lot of money which should be used immediately for the purchase of needed land in the vicinity of the [CCC] Camp." Townsend also sought advice from Maier on the NPS's ability to maintain him on the payroll. "You know of my anxiety to put the Park over at any cost which I can afford," said Townsend. Thus he hoped that Maier could place him "were I can keep and increase the State wide contacts already made." He worried less about "the job" than about his "desire for the successful creation of our ‘Baby.'" He offered the ECW regional director "[a] suggestion [that] may be as chimerical and as useless as our western winds:" the employment of Townsend on the publicity staff of Leo McClatchy. Maier "in no case" was to "assume any position on it that is not sound, or that you cannot justify." If Maier could not "come within those bounds," said Townsend, "forget what I have said." Yet he hoped that the NPS, for which he had worked so well throughout the 1930s, would recognize the need to maintain his services, especially since he had word from state representative Albert Cauthorn that "the Governor will submit the Park question to the Legislature which it is now thought will be convened in special session some time in September." [45]

Townsend's warnings came too late for the Star-Telegram, which ran on July 18 the story about fundraising for Big Bend. "What the State of Texas could not afford," said the paper, "the people of Texas can - indeed, they cannot afford to do without, according to leaders of the Brewster County Chamber of Commerce." That body, not the state park board, had "launched a statewide campaign to buy the scenery of the Big Bend and present it to the Nation." F.L. McCollum, James Casner, and Horace Morelock would lead the group, and the Star-Telegram announced that it had accepted their invitation to solicit and collect funds for the project. "Because of the complimentary vote of both House and Senate," said the paper, "and many personal expressions of interest from leaders in many sections, Brewster County citizens believe that the people of Texas will welcome the opportunity to make the park their very own." Then the Star-Telegram carried a story about J.C. White of Waco, Texas, who had the distinction of donating the first dollar toward the campaign. "The initial giver," said the Star-Telegram, "was influenced by reading the recent editorial in the paper, suggesting the public donation plan." When other donors appeared, the paper would acknowledge them in print; a gesture aimed at celebrating the public-spiritedness of the Star-Telegram's readers. [46]

The following day, the Alpine sponsors gathered to address the question of a statewide network, and to authorize state officials to handle the financial arrangements. "The plan contemplates," wrote Morelock and his colleagues from the Brewster County chamber, "that the Texas State Parks Board shall have exclusive control of any and all funds raised for this purpose." Each of the 254 counties in Texas would be asked to create a local committee "composed of the President of the Chamber of Commerce, the President of a local Bank, the County Superintendent (or County Judge), the Proprietor of a local hotel, and Newspaper Editors." These agencies would carry the park service message of Big Bend's economic benefit throughout the Lone Star state. Big Bend also could be connected to the existing tourist traffic to "Carlsbad Cavern, the McDonald Observatory, the International Park, and on into Old Mexico." Each committee would pledge to raise one dollar for each resident of their county with the slogan, "Wouldn't You Like to Have a Proprietary Interest in a Big Bend National Park for Texas and Her People?" The Alpine boosters hoped that "the local and daily newspapers [would] publish from time to time the names and addresses of those who have donated to this fund." Then the sponsors closed with a reference to the campaign to establish Shenandoah National Park: "Can Texas, with her vast resources and patriotic citizenship, afford to contribute less for a National Park than did the citizens of Virginia?" [47]

With the solicitations underway, Leo McClatchy suggested to Maier that he be sent to Fort Worth to "help out on this campaign." Promotion of the park would be enhanced, said McClatchy, if he could have "statements from Secretary Ickes and Director Cammerer, endorsing the campaign." Townsend likewise approached Maier with advice on the efforts to solicit donations from high-ranking officials. Townsend asked whether Maier had approached President Roosevelt and Interior Secretary Harold Ickes to make public contributions, the more to encourage Governor Allred to do likewise. In addition, said Townsend, "it would be a splendid idea to get a letter from Mr. Queveda [Quevedo] or some leading men from the Mexican National Park Service directed to the Star-Telegram congratulating them on this movement and telling of their interest and progress in the subject." Townsend also informed Maier that he planned to visit several communities throughout southern Texas "to try to organize the movement at each place." In this capacity he would be sponsored by the Brewster County chamber, which would meet his expenses for the summer. Yet McClatchy came to realize that Townsend alone could not carry the campaign for the park, suggesting instead to Maier that the local chamber of commerce hire a "professional promoter." In turn, the Star-Telegram had asked for statements of support from Governor Allred, Lieutenant Governor Woodull, and Wendell Mayes, chairman of the state parks board. Still to come were endorsements from Vice President John Nance Garner and members of the Lone Star congressional delegation. As evidence of the close collaboration between the NPS and the Fort Worth paper, McClatchy closed by informing Maier: "Mr. Record wants me to continue for the present writing stuff for the Star Telegram, and then to furnish releases for state-wide distribution, after the state organization has been perfected." [48]

Less than 30 days after the Big Bend promotion took effect, the Dallas News surprised park sponsors by running a story entitled, "Rich Gold and Quicksilver Lodes Are Found on Texas School Lands." Dawson Duncan, the Austin correspondent for the News, reported that T.E. Bollman of San Antonio held a prospector's permit for the Chisos Mountains that would expire at the end of August. His declaration of mineral wealth on property owned by the state school lands board rekindled the interest of that group, in that the News accepted Bollman's assertion that the gold was valued at $249 per ton of ore. A month later, the Star-Telegram reported that "state officials discounted today the possibility of a major gold strike along the Big Bend of the Rio Grande." Yet Bollman and his associates were digging in the area known as the Big Bend State Park. State senator T.J. Holbrook, chairman of the senate investigating committee, "quoted Bollman as telling him the vein was traceable for 13 miles along the top of the ground in Texas and cropped out south of the Rio Grande in Mexico." Holbrook admitted that "he had not checked on the claim," leading state parks board secretary William J. Lawson to declare that "‘all kinds of technicians' had been in the Big Bend area since establishment of a CCC camp there four years ago and had found no trace of gold." State land commissioner William H. McDonald concurred, stating that "‘every few days some one comes into my office with a story of [a] gold or quicksilver strike.'" McDonald then declared that "‘usually the last we see of him is when he leaves with his prospector's permit." The problem with this latest claim, Lawson conceded, was that "Bollman may really have something;" a circumstance that the Star-Telegram reminded its readers would provide the state school fund with "one-sixteenth of its value." [49]

The Big Bend park sponsors could not waste time with such dramatic stories as that of Bollman, even though the wide publicity given the claim reminded them of the delicate nature of Texas land law and politics. Horace Morelock was more concerned with the strategies followed in Tennessee by the "Great Smoky Mountain Conservation Association," whose president, David C. Chapman, outlined his group's work on the southeastern park. "You ask how our campaign was financed," responded Chapman. "For many months I personally paid all the bills," only to have a local "Conservation Association" form that generated some $30,000 in subscriptions. By joining with a "like organization in North Carolina," Great Smoky park boosters generated about one million dollars, ranging from one penny to $25,000. "Practically all the school children in Knoxville and Knox County," added Chapman, "donated something." Once the park joined the NPS network, said the association president, "it may interest you to note that the Great Smoky Mountains National Park had more visitors in 1933, ‘34, and ‘35 than did any other park in the system." The following year, Shenandoah National Park was created, outdrawing Great Smoky by a few thousand. Nonetheless, in 1937, the NPS estimated the latter park's total attendance at 727,000. [50]

Chapman warned the Sul Ross president that all was not easy for the boosters of Great Smoky Mountain National Park. That site also had difficulty in matters of land acquisition. As early as 1925, congressional authorization of the park had led the Tennessee state legislature to commit to the purchase of 76,000 acres. Yet "a joker was added to this bill," said Chapman, "providing that the city of Knoxville paid 1/3 of the purchase cost." Then "to the amazement of all of us the city did just this." Thereupon the North Carolina state legislature "authorized bonds issued to the extent of two million dollars, when there was money enough in sight to buy all the land in both states." Tennessee followed with bond sales of $1.5 million, and "the Laura Spelman Rockefeller Memorial Fund made a gift of five millions, matching monies from every other source." Yet even this largess did not secure the acreage needed for Great Smoky, so in 1934 "the President made an allotment of $1,550,000." After this announcement, "for some mysterious reason the Park Service elected to buy all the [future park] lands in North Carolina," leaving it to Congress to appropriate $750,000 to purchase the property in Tennessee. [51]

The mixture of good news and bad about fundraising for Big Bend continued in the summer of 1937 when Walter Prescott Webb returned to Austin from teaching summer school at the University of Wyoming. He had written a check for five dollars to the land-purchase fund, as well as a letter that he authorized the Star-Telegram to release. "The wild country appealed to me," said the Lone Star historian, "as no other ever has." Big Bend's "plants, . . . rocks, . . . wild deserts and lofty mountains made me feel that I had entered another world." Webb confessed that since his May raft trip "I have had periods of homesickness for the Big Bend." In these dreams "I have waked up in the night with an inexplicable longing to return there." He knew that "it will mean a great deal to Texas in every way to have a great international park that will vie in interest with Yellowstone, Yosemite and others." Webb called upon his Lone Star neighbors "to contribute to the cause," so that "a million people may see fit to invest at least a dollar apiece in preserving for posterity the most romantic spot in America - the Big Bend." Webb's praise prompted similar (though less dramatic) statements of support from C.V. Terrell, chairman of the Texas Railroad Commission, and Lieutenant Governor Walter Woodull, whose donation of $20 came with the promise that "after the ‘budget had been balanced' he would ask Governor Allred to submit the subject of creating the park to a special session of the Legislature to be called probably in September." [52]

Simultaneous with his contribution and letter of support, Webb asked the park service if he could help further by publishing at his expense a pamphlet (with pictures taken by himself) of the May 1937 run through Santa Elena Canyon. "These booklets," Webb told McClatchy, "could be produced in quantity at a low cost and then sold through the Star Telegram campaign and others that may follow at one dollar a shot, the proceeds to go to the Park purchase fund." The Texas historian promised that the book "would contain an original narrative and would be sought after by collectors of Americana." Webb would retain the copyright, and claimed that "people would pay one dollar for the book more readily than they will contribute a dollar outright." His only problem at the moment was that "I am overworked and am unable to delegate this sort of thing." He had spent his own funds on the river trip, "and it cost a considerable sum." Webb admitted, however, that "no one made me do it, and now that it has been done, we must use it to the best advantage to promote the creation of the Big Bend Park." Presley Bryant and James Record of the Star-Telegram told McClatchy that they considered Webb's proposal "a splendid idea, if it can be worked out." Yet Herbert Maier reminded Webb that such a publication would "cost considerable to print and apparently would leave little profit for the fund." While "more donors may be attracted through this method," Maier feared that "the margin of contribution would be less." William Hogan, associate regional historian, disagreed with his superior, writing in August 1937 to support Webb's desire "to help promote the campaign now underway to raise funds for purchasing the land." "Of course," Hogan told Hagerty, "Dr. Webb might do this as a private citizen, since all of the material to be used in the proposed campaign pamphlet was obtained while he was not on the government payroll." Ignoring the massive federal and state presence attendant to Webb's journey through the canyon of Santa Elena, Hogan nonetheless noted that Webb "would like to have the concurrence of the Regional Office before making the offer to the Star-Telegram." This led the former student to offer his "personal opinion . . . that [Webb] should be encouraged in this public-spirited action." [53]

Webb's reference to his heavy workload at the University of Texas indicated the delay that the park service could expect in the completion of his Big Bend manuscript. On August 17, L. Vernon Randau, assistant ECW regional director for projects, wrote to William F. Ayres, Austin-based inspector for the NPS, to inform him that the Texas Procurement Office had yet to receive Webb's report. Webb had been paid the complete contract sum of $1,200, and Randau could only note that "we are unable at this time to obtain a complete breakdown of the work accomplishments." Randau had word that Webb "will submit a report in the near future." Yet without any documentation from the famed Texas scholar, the park service had little upon which to base its promotional literature as the fundraising campaign headed toward autumn. [54]

Without Walter Prescott Webb's soaring prose, Herbert Maier drafted for the NPS Bulletin a story on the land-purchase program that reiterated the basic themes developed over the course of the summer. Maier informed his park service colleagues that "there are less than 7,000 people in the entire county of Brewster, whose area of 5,935 square miles is almost equal to the combined areas of Connecticut and Rhode Island." Brewster County officials were welcoming "daily" contributions from throughout the Lone Star state, with one of the first donations coming from Governor Allred himself, who "said the State Treasury could not stand the drain." Maier then reported that Allred "is expected to issue a proclamation calling for observance of Big Bend Day in late September, after all of the agricultural crops will have been harvested." Allred and the NPS hoped that "on that occasion it is planned that each of the 254 counties will have its own benefit-celebration." Local organizations would determine "the form of that celebration - dance, barbecue, field meet, etc." Following the lead of the Virginia fundraisers for Shenandoah National Park, Maier cited as "one novel method" the "‘parcelling off' of different areas in the proposed park, so that a contributor designates the particular portion his dollar or dollars is to purchase." With his twenty dollars, "Lieutenant Governor Walter F. Woodul ‘bought' Mount Emory, the highest peak in the Chisos Mountains." Then "the father of a newly-born set of twins sent in a contribution so that each child would have an acre in which to play." [55]

While family images were a central feature of the Big Bend fundraising campaign, park service officials also recognized the appeal of more mature themes and settings. J.F. Kieley of the NPS's Washington office wrote to Leo McClatchy in late August about the latter's idea "about getting you some more pretty Texas girls' pictures." To Kieley's amazement, "it's proving very difficult to find anyone who will pose." Kieley complained that "two of the first group [of pictures] we sent you were girls in our own organization, and the third was a friend of one of our girls." The latter, surprisingly, "was extremely reluctant to pose at all," said Kieley, and she "absolutely would not pose in shorts." Kieley also had failed to get any of the men of the Texas congressional delegation to pose for a promotional picture for the Big Bend fundraising venture (he made no mention of whether he asked them to wear shorts). "I don't know how long this campaign will go on," Kieley wrote, "but as soon as the colleges re-open here about the middle of next month it will be easy to get girls for pictures." Then he mentioned efforts to get a "Denver girl picture," which he warned McClatchy "is going to be a stickler." As with the women in Washington, Kieley had not "been able to locate anyone yet who will pose." He had identified "one girl in WPA [Works Progress Administration] who was good looking and she seemed inclined to like the idea at first, then she backed down on us." Further searches of Washington offices revealed "a little girl in the Interior Building from Denver, but she is very poorly blessed with looks." Not surprisingly, Kieley reported that "we haven't approached her." Revealing the prurient nature of his efforts, Kieley did note that "another girl from Denver is secretary to Assistant [Interior] Secretary [Oscar] Chapman and I'm afraid we can't use her because, in that more or less prominent position, she would draw the Interior Department too closely into the campaign, and we can't have that." Kieley promised the NPS publicist that "we'll keep working on this thing, and try to supply you with more pictures." Even if the "Congressional idea is out," he concluded, "we'll keep working on the girls." [56]

Whether using dignified shots of public officials, or teasers with attractive young women, the Big Bend publicity campaign needed the help of all newspapers in Texas. McClatchy would send press releases and photographs regularly to a list of 75 Lone Star dailies; a procedure that he had developed since the start of 1936. "In addition," he told Berta Clark Lassiter of the Alpine chamber, "we have been covering the field nationally, with occasional features and photographs to newspaper syndicates, magazines, and some of the individual eastern papers that have national distribution, such as The New York Times and The Christian Science Monitor." McClatchy saw it as unfortunate that the NPS could not afford "funds for furnishing mats nor are we otherwise able to service the weekly press." He told Lassiter that a "photo of the Texas girls contributing to the Big Bend Fund was sent to you in the hope you perhaps could issue mats occasionally to these smaller papers that cannot afford to make their own cuts." Horace Morelock noted that an appeal to workers in Texas's CCC camps could result not only in donations, but also in excellent public relations for the federal government. Morelock wrote to the superintendent of Texas state parks that "I am inviting all men in the C.C.C. camps in Texas not only to contribute $1.00 to the Big Bend National Park funds, but to write their friends back home, urging that they participate in this campaign." The local sponsors of the Everglades National Park in southern Florida also approached Morelock for advice on park fundraising. Will Mann Richardson, chief clerk for the Texas state parks board, responded to the Florida inquiry. Ernest F. Coe, director of the "Everglades National Park Association, Inc.," told Richardson that Florida already controlled over half of the 1,280,000 acres needed for the park. "Another 100,000 acres," Coe noted, "is available through the removal of a Seminole Indian Reservation from the Park area to other quarters." Unlike the Big Bend situation, the state of Florida had granted to the private land-acquisition agency "the power of eminent domain," Nonetheless, Coe asked for advice on the purchase of private lands with personal donations. [57]

In the fall of 1937, the park service managed to rebut the charges raised by treasure-hunters in the Big Bend country when Ross A. Maxwell concluded his study, "The Reported Gold-Quicksilver Deposits in the Big Bend Park Area." The future park superintendent of Big Bend was on the payroll of the CCC as a geologist, and had come to Brewster County soon after receiving his doctorate in that field. Maxwell noted the news media's fascination with the claims of "fabulously rich gold and quicksilver strikes in the Big Bend Park Area." He traveled to the supposed site of these claims, "approximately one and one-half miles north of the old Solis Ranch near the northwest flank of San Vicente mountain," and "approximately five miles southeast of Mariscal and seven and one-half miles southwest of San Vicente." The owner of this claim, Todd Bollman, "has apparently been careful to keep the location a secret," wrote Maxwell, and "consequently it has been necessary for the writer to play the part of a sleuth in order to locate it." Maxwell and several members of the CCC camp staff "have talked with some of the local people and who saw Bollman, and also checked the county mineral record claims." The CCC geologist "can vouch for the authenticity of these statements only by the confidence of his friends who have cooperated in every way to clear up these questionable ‘gold strike' stories." Thus Maxwell advised his superiors that "the part of this report dealing with the history of the prospect and the individuals involved should be confidential and not circulated outside of Federal and State Departments who are directly interested in this region." [58]

From his inquiries, Maxwell had learned that in 1933 or 1934, a man named T.A. Walker, "the son of a former land commissioner [for the] State of Texas, located a prospect in sec. 20, [Block] G. 17." Walker had "sunk a shaft to a depth of approximately 30 feet into the upper Boquillas flagstone," from which he extracted and assayed several samples. "None of them," Maxwell reported, "were good enough to encourage further development." Walker then assayed several samples "from an igneous sill that lies approximately 300 feet west of the shaft." Maxwell's sources contended that "this material contained gold at the rate of two dollars ($2.00) per ton." Walker then supposedly "divided his samples with a partner," and discovered in his assays "at least a trace of several kinds of metal." The samples that Walker gave to his partner, however, "were assayed by a reliable organization and showed nothing." Walker then transferred his claim to Melvin Lynn, "who is said to be an orchestra leader." Lynn and his partner, James Heacock, came down to the Big Bend from Yankton, South Dakota, late in 1936 with their spouses to camp at the abandoned Solis Ranch. "During December," reported Maxwell, "their living quarters became uncomfortably cold and the wives were moved into one of the cabins at Hot Springs." The next month "Lynn and Heacock disappeared," only to return some two weeks later "explaining that they had gone to San Antonio to raise money." Maxwell then learned that "soon after their return a stranger appeared;" a man whom local residents claimed was Todd Bollman. "The three men collected samples," said the CCC geologist, "and left telling that they had succeeded in raising plenty of money and that they would return if the samples assayed up to their expectations." [59]

It was Bollman's reappearance in the Big Bend in August 1937 that triggered media coverage of his claims. Maxwell had learned that Bollman "talked with people in Marathon and Terlingua . . . always telling of his ‘big strike' but never telling the location." Bollman also attracted notoriety because of his purchase of "a very small amount of powder, a small drill," and his rental of a shovel. While Bollman himself never resurfaced in the area, news stories soon appeared of the vein of gold and quicksilver that he had located. For Maxwell, the larger problem was not Bollman but the imitators who flocked to the Big Bend region to find their own strikes. While Bollman dug in the sands of the Terlingua District, "H.C. Slaughter is at the present time working a prospect on the northwest side of Talley Mountain." This Maxwell referred to as "a lost Spanish mine . . . on the site of an old Indian camp and shelter." The geologist surmised that "if there is any gold there it was probably lost by the Indians." In like manner one Harold Stephenson "is working a claim in Fresno Draw about three miles above Fresno Spring;" more precisely an area "about half-way between the South Rim and the Elephants Tusk (Indianola Peak)." Maxwell had heard that "some of the assays showed a true trace of gold and silver," but he had "not seen anything that would indicate that it will ever be a paying proposition." Someone named "Chief" Norton had a working claim "on the west side of the Deadhorse Mountains about five miles north of Alto Relex." This also showed "a trace of silver, lead, and zinc," but Maxwell estimated that "there is very little chance of finding minerals in commercial quantities." Finally, Maxwell reported that "several strangers who are probably prospectors have been seen in the park area during the past 10 days." One had made "headquarters at Glenn Springs," while three others "have been wandering over the area." Two additional men worked the land around the Solis ranch, although "these men claim that they are going to farm." The latter prospectors had built a house and planted a garden, leading Maxwell to conclude: "They may be farmers, but they don't look or act like it." [60]

As Maxwell walked over the surface of the Bollman claim (on "the eastern border of a narrow graben that lies to the east of Mariscal Mountain"), he found it "marked by a fault that crosses the Rio Grande near the mouth of the Mariscal Canyon." Its eastern boundary in turn crossed the river at the Solis Ranch house. "This down-dropped block," said the geologist, "averages about one and one-half mile in width and trends in a north-south direction." Maxwell then located a sill and fault in the Terlingua shale that could be "Bollman's lead." "Virtually all of the calcite and a small amount of the brecciated flagstone," he wrote, "has been stained with iron." This condition had led Walker to sink "a shaft along this fracture zone to a depth of 50 feet," only to find "nothing but Boquillas flags . . . encountered in the workings." Beyond this main shaft, Maxwell identified "several additional prospect pits." From one of these Bollman had extracted calcite that "apparently caused considerable excitement for the prospectors." A vein of diorite nearby also gave Walker "a two dollar ($2.00) per ton gold assay." Yet "the general lack of activity in the diorite," said the CCC geologist, "indicates that he was not interested in the mineralization there." Down below these pits, Maxwell found evidence of placer mining for gold amidst a stand of persimmon trees. Even this did not impress the geologist, as he reported: "It is more likely . . . that they wanted to make a showing, the digging was easy and they had a little shade." [61]

To validate his assumption, Maxwell asked Homer Wilson, "a local geologist and rancher," to test some of the samples. "None of the samples," reported Maxwell, "tested by either Wilson or the writer showed any trace of either gold or quicksilver." The rancher had "considerable experience in quicksilver prospecting and mining," and Maxwell "has a great deal of respect for his judgment on this problem." Maxwell and student technician geologist H.M. Eley had worked in the summer of 1936 to collect samples "from the dioritic sill a short distance from the Bollman prospect." While they found some traces of lead, Wilson agreed with Maxwell that "there is not any gold, quicksilver or other mineral of commercial value on the Bollman prospect or in the surrounding area that we investigated." This led Wilson and Maxwell to conclude: "These press stories are either a part of a ‘swindle game' to sell stock, or a plan to oppose the acquisition of land for the Big Bend National Park Project, based on the controversial question of the park vs. mineral resources and the Public Schools of Texas." Equally disturbing was the discovery by Maxwell that "there are not any prospecting permits on record under Bollman's name with the county officials at Alpine." Thus Maxwell had to write to state land commission officials in Austin to determine the extent of Bollman's holdings. [62]

With the good news emanating from the Maxwell study of mineral claims in the Big Bend, the park service and local park sponsors could proceed in the fall of 1937 with its publicity efforts. Horace Morelock wrote to the National Geographic Society in Washington to encourage its editors to plan a story on the future national park. "The scenic beauties of that section," wrote the Sul Ross president, "are attracting artists from far and wide." Morelock sent photographs of the natural wonders of the area "with the hope that the National Geographic Society may be interested in giving Texas an illustrated section on the Big Bend Park." Morelock hoped that the society would do for Big Bend what it had done recently for Carlsbad Caverns National Park, in that "the Associated Press carried a statement a few days ago that approximately one million people visited Carlsbad Cavern during this year." Everett Townsend likewise drafted a letter to the Fort Worth Star-Telegram to generate even more publicity. Townsend planned to donate a deed of 20 acres of his own land to the purchase campaign, including all the mineral rights. In addition, all property taxes had been paid on this land. This gesture was designed to counter the image of absentee ownership and tax delinquency that plagued the Big Bend area. Townsend also spoke out against the latest wave of prospectors that captivated the media's attention. "It is of no use to tell them of the futility of the quest," wrote Townsend, but the very region itself will teach them if they have the stamina to stay and the minds to learn." He considered it "chimerical and phantasmal to hope for valuable discoveries where every stone, ledge, and structure has been so completely analyzed by scientific minds." Instead, wrote Townsend, the Big Bend area "should be dedicated to peace, love, and harmony on the Western Hemisphere and all nations invited to participate." Thinking of the global conflict looming in Europe, Townsend mused: "What a glorious opportunity to show the Old World, reeking in its intrigues, hates, and wars, how neighbors should neighbor." Asked the old rancher: "If we love peace, let us set them the example by welding this chain of friendship." All Texans, said Townsend, "should consider it an honor and a privilege as well as a duty to contribute to this patriotic and sacred cause." This latter reference to divine inspiration led Townsend to conclude: "Let us consume less time in dedicating [the park] to His uses, else the future inhabitants of Texas will be reading its history in our fossilized bones." [63]

The Star-Telegram did not print all of Townsend's remarks, but on October 10 the Fort Worth daily did remind its readers of the ongoing campaign for donations, and of early champions of the park like Townsend. The Star-Telegram recalled how in 1916 a young Texas National Guard soldier, Jodie P. Harris, had sketched the Chisos Mountains on a post card that he sent to his family in Mineral Wells. While on duty with Company I at Camps Mercer and La Noria in pursuit of Pancho Villa, Harris overheard two officers (Major Coulter of the Pennsylvania National Guard, and Captain C.A. Davis of Mineral Wells) talking about the wonders of the Big Bend. "‘When we get back home,'" Davis supposedly remarked to Coulter, "‘let's start a move to make it a national park.'" Harris by 1937 worked in the oil business in his hometown, and read in the Star-Telegram of the Big Bend fund drive. "‘I'd just like for Captain Davis,'" wrote Harris, "‘to get some of the credit for thinking of the Big Bend National Park idea.'" Harris further noted that "many of the men posted in the area fell in line with Captain Davis' suggestion." One of these was Harry Rugely, "a young bugler who has since become an active figure in the drive." Rugely, according to Harris, "has ‘promoted' the idea since his return from the area when the military units were withdrawn." [64]

More significant than the news that Harry Rugely had labored in anonymity for two decades to create Big Bend National Park was the speech given on October 16 by Interior secretary Harold Ickes in support of the plan. First at the dedication of the $250 million Buchanan and Inks Dams on the Colorado River of Texas, near the town of Llano, and then before a group of oil industry executives in Houston, Ickes linked Big Bend to the larger goal of natural resource conservation promoted by several New Deal agencies. Introduced at the dam dedication ceremonies by U.S. Representative Lyndon Baines Johnson, Ickes noted the value of hydroelectric power to the revitalization of the Texas economy ravaged by a decade of depression. To the oil men Ickes gave thanks for their work in modernizing the nation's industry; something that he could not say for the representatives of private electric utility companies fearful of federal competition. Then he added a plea for the Brewster County chamber's efforts to generate funds for Big Bend National Park. "This is the last great wilderness area of Texas," said the Interior secretary, and he believed that "before it is too late this great State will take the steps necessary to preserve it for future generations of their children." The landscape was breathtaking, thought Ickes, including the view from the South Rim, where "the eye can sweep over a range of 200 miles of American and Mexican terrain." The cost of this land to Texas would be trifling, Ickes continued, as "a far greater expenditure than would be necessary could be justified on aesthetic and altruistic grounds alone." The million dollars needed for the land purchases, said the secretary, should be easy to raise, and Ickes claimed that "if he could have the profits Texas would make he would be glad to pay $10,000,000 for the land." [65]

Ickes also championed the international park concept in his Texas speeches, leading Daniel Galicia to inquire of Herbert Maier about the extent of the fundraising campaign. Galicia had completed a tour of the Big Bend area that October, and asked Maier if he could prevail upon Horace Morelock for "all of the printed data in connection with your campaign." Morelock, as with all matters involving promotion of Big Bend, wasted no time in corresponding with Galicia. "We have talked a good deal about the commercial value of the park," he informed the Mexican forestry chief, and "of its scenic beauties and its wealth of scientific material." Yet "in my judgment," Morelock noted, "we have overlooked its international value." Thus the Sul Ross president had decided to submit to newspapers in Texas the same article that he had sent Galicia that would appear in the El Paso-based Picturesque Southwest. Galicia had Morelock's permission to "use it in some publication in Mexico City." Morelock also informed Galicia: "I enjoyed knowing you personally, and I trust that the dreams of the National Park Service of Mexico and of the United States may be realized." [66]

All of this momentum in the local and regional press drove Morelock and park sponsors in the fall and winter of 1937 to seek out new audiences. Proof of the impact of the media coverage came for Morelock when he attended a Sunday picnic some ten miles south of Marathon. "I was surprised," he wrote to Maier, "at the number of cars on the road from Marathon to the Big Bend Park." Yet the Sul Ross president warned that "unless this road and the accommodations are kept in good shape, many people will be discouraged from visiting the Chisos Mountains, which might put a bad taste in the mouths of other people." Everett Townsend sent to William Hogan copies of a local paper, the "Voice of the Mexican Border," which contained stories about the ranching heritage of the Big Bend country, which he hoped could serve as inspiration for "the re-establishment of an ‘Old Time Ranch'" in the future park. Yet Maier could not ignore the potential for bad publicity implicit in a request by Victor Cahalane to publish a paper he had delivered to the Audobon Society on wildlife in the Chisos Mountains. "His comment" about mountain lions, Maier told Story, "while of course wholly accurate, has been omitted . . . because some of the ranch people in the Big Bend region feel pretty keenly on this subject." Thus the ECW official "felt best not to introduce any controversial matter into the news story because of possible effects on the present campaign to bring about establishment of the proposed National Park." [67]

Public perception of the land-purchase program became more significant to park service personnel as the year 1937 drew to a close. A mix of good and bad news continued to appear in Texas newspapers, with the Alpine Avalanche reporting on November 5 that the state legislature had passed, and Governor Allred had signed a bill which "defines the park boundaries, authorizes the State Parks board to receive donations of money and property for the park and vests the board with the power of eminent domain." While the measure included no monies for land acquisition, the Avalanche took heart in the news that both houses of the state legislature had passed the bill overwhelmingly. Then the Alpine weekly reviewed a story in Picturesque Southwest (without identifying the author) on the international park concept. The story labeled the park a "Peace University" that could attract students "from every country on the globe!" The author had noted that "‘diplomatic conferences in which greedy nations scheme for advantage have, in too many cases, resulted in no safer guarantee of permanent peace than the scrapping of treaties at the whim of dictators or in resentment by a whole people who feel they have been dealt with unjustly." The story saw in Big Bend the chance to dramatize how "peace between nations is achieved in the same way as friendship between individuals - a mutual understanding and good will between both parties." Concluded the Avalanche: "If we are to have enduring peace between nations, we must substitute the Good Samaritan for the horse trader." [68]

The "peace university" concept, however, had to compete with the perceptions of local residents and NPS officials regarding the realities of Big Bend. Arthur E. Demaray, acting NPS director, wrote on November 12 to Herbert Maier to warn him about the consequences of a press release sent by the latter "stating that 19 goats, stampeded by a black bear, jumped off the south rim of the Chisos Mountains," a situation that Maier had called a "tragedy." Speaking from the NPS headquarters in Washington, Demaray advised Maier: "We believe that this type of news release, while written in good faith and having news value, is certainly poor publicity for the proposed park and its wildlife." The acting director noted that "bears are not too common in the Big Bend area and we, of course, want to do everything possible to protect them and bring them back in normal numbers." This strategy had included NPS suggestions to "the Texas Fish and Game Department to place Brewster County bears on the list of protected game animals." Demaray believed, therefore, "that the press release . . . will not be appreciated by the local ranchmen, and may encourage hunters to disregard the law and kill bears - defeating our efforts to protect them." Maier was reminded "that you and your technical staff carefully check the scientific accuracy of all press releases issued from our office in the future and consider whether their direct or indirect efforts will be favorable to the established or proposed park areas in Region III." [69]

This degree of sensitivity to NPS planning surfaced also in the matter of a geologic map being drawn by Ross Maxwell. H.C. Bryant, assistant NPS director, advised Region III personnel "that no further publicity be given to the geologic map of the Big Bend . . . until the map is ready for publication or public distribution." While the drawings were "made as a record of survey, the purpose of which was to aid in the planning and development of the Big Bend project," Bryant worried that "until this project is more thoroughly established than at present, the information revealed by the survey should be retained for that purpose." He thought that "a map of this kind has considerable economic value and will be in demand by concerns interested in mining, oil prospecting, water rights, et cetera." Then, too, "the interpretation which these parties may place on the map, particularly if it is unaccompanied by explanatory texts, may result in action unfavorable to the project." The NPS, said Bryant, would not be able to respond to inquiries about the map's features, and he asked regional officials to wait "until Dr. Maxwell's work has been correlated with that of the U.S. Geological Survey, until the explanatory report has been prepared, and until some means for publishing it has been discovered." [70]

The park service's caution occurred in part because of the impending decision to close the CCC camp in the Chisos Mountains; a financial and public relations disaster, in the eyes of local park sponsors. Even though Ickes had championed the park in public addresses in November, U.S. Senator Morris Sheppard (one of the original sponsors of the 1935 legislation authorizing creation of Big Bend) asked the NPS for an explanation of rumors that the Chisos camp would be terminated. "In order to comply with the provisions of the Act extending the activities of the Civilian Conservation Corps for three years beyond July 1, 1937," wrote Fred T. Johnston, acting assistant NPS director, to Sheppard, "this Service has been compelled to terminate many camps during the past few months." By the end of 1937, the park service would have to close an additional 26 camps. This led Johnston to place the Chisos camp on that new list, a situation that the park service regretted. "In view of the present uncertainty concerning the future of the area," wrote Johnston, "it is believed that the termination of this camp will result in the least injury to the program in Texas as a whole." He wanted Sheppard to know, however, "that the Service is very much interested in the Big Bend area, and it is our intention to reestablish a CCC camp on the area when the necessary land has been acquired." [71]

This decision, while understandable, came just as local sponsors believed that they had convinced Governor Allred to change his mind on the land-acquisition program. On November 30, Allred announced his intention to proclaim "Big Bend National Park week" as soon as "those in charge of gathering the necessary $1,000,000 complete plans for the state-wide observance." The governor told reporters: "‘I heartily favor the project,'" and did not "‘believe there is a Texan from east to west or north to south who would not lend his every support once he is acquainted with what a Big Bend National [P]ark will mean to every section.'" He expressed his sorrow at vetoing the original land-purchase bill, but hoped that "‘everyone knows what prompted my rejection of the measure.'" Instead, he wanted all Lone Star citizens to know that "it will give me a great pleasure to issue a proclamation rallying all Texans to the movement to bring Big Bend National park into reality." But the formal announcement of the closure of the Chisos CCC camp accompanied Allred's praise of the private fundraising campaign. By December 15, the NPS would withdraw the approximately 180 enrollees for reassignment to camps in Arizona and New Mexico. The impact of this closure reached north to the Davis Mountains, where 40 of the Big Bend camp's members had been detailed to work on the Indian Lodge resort outside of Fort Davis. "Only the army staff, the educational advisor and doctor will be retained in the transfer," reported the Alpine Avalanche on December 3. The NPS had yet to reveal its plans for supervisory personnel like R.D. Morgan, but did know that Ross Maxwell would be moved north to the CCC camp at Palo Duro Canyon state park. "A caretaker will be left in charge of the property at the camp," said the Avalanche, "and accommodations will be provided for visitors, including meals and lodging." The CCC buildings and "40 cots and all kitchen equipment" would remain on the premises, and the "museum, housing many valuable specimens, is to remain open, in charge of the caretaker." The state highway department had agreed to maintain the seven-mile stretch of road from the Chisos campsite to the Burnham ranch, linking the camp with the state route from Marathon. [72]

As winter set in throughout the Big Bend area, park sponsors and NPS officials could take little comfort from Allred's faith in private donations. Park promoters had worked feverishly throughout 1937 to convince the state legislature of the merits of taxpayer-funded land purchases, only to face the daunting task of organizing a solicitation venue in a state unfamiliar with such initiatives. Everett Townsend spoke for many park boosters on December 23, when he told Herbert Maier of the obstacles still in place to a successful fund drive. "No one seems to know how much has been collected to date," said Townsend. "In fact," continued the former county sheriff, "there is no way of knowing because as yet no effort has been made to assemble it at one place." Townsend also saw "no reason why the total amount has grown very much over the sum as it was estimated some time ago, which you will probably remember, was from thirty to forty thousand dollars." Townsend had just visited with state parks board director William Lawson, who "dictated letters to Mr. Record and Dr. Morelock asking that every effort be made to ascertain the approximate sum in order that he can report it to a meeting of the State Wide Committee." Townsend and other park sponsors had decided to enlist Governor Allred to make a personal appeal to "a list of one hundred of the most prominent people in Texas." They would be asked to attend a meeting in Austin on January 17, 1938, "for the purpose of setting up an organization to push the campaign for raising funds for the Big Bend National Park." Allred would request the services of these individuals, who would return to their home communities to "get to work." This Townsend believed would make the campaign more meaningful to donors, and to media outlets whose coverage the park sponsors so desperately needed. [73]

A year that had begun with such promise for sponsors of Big Bend National Park had ended with anxieties about its future. Evading the rules prohibiting federal involvement in state legislature matters, the NPS joined with west Texas park advocates to deluge the Lone Star state's lawmakers with news releases, personal tours of the planned park unit, and employment of Everett Townsend as the park service's liaison in Austin. But the realities of the Great Depression and the fierce streak of independence on the part of Texas politicians and citizens, forced Governor Allred to deny the Lone Star state its first national park. From there the NPS entered an unknown world of private fundraising that would delay the dream of park creation for the next seven years. For the next two years, park advocates struggled to rekindle their dream of saving Texas's "last frontier."

Figure 10: Chisos Basin Store and Gas Station

Endnotes

¹ "America's Last Frontier and what a country!" ACCO Press, Volume XV, Number 1 (January 1937): 1-7. This journal was found in RG 79, NPS, SWRO, Santa Fe, Correspondence Relating to National Parks, Monuments and Recreational Areas, 1927-1953, Box 94, Folder: Big Bend General, DEN NARA.

² Ibid., 5.

³ Ibid., 6.

⁴ Maier to Cammerer, January 4, 1937, RG 79, NPS, SWRO, Santa Fe, Correspondence Relating to CCC, ECW, and ERA Work in National Parks, Forests and Monuments and Recreational Areas, 1933-1934, Box 95, Folder: General Part 3, DEN NARA.

⁵ Ibid.

⁶ Carl White, President, White House Printers, Inc., Port Arthur, TX, to McClatchy, January 13, 1937, RG 79, NPS, SWRO, Santa Fe, Correspondence Relating to CCC, ECW, and ERA Work in National Parks, Forests and Monuments and Recreational Areas, 1933-1934, Box 95, Folder: General Part 3, DEN NARA; "Big Bend National Park," The Houston Post, January 24, 1937.

⁷ Morelock to Cammerer, January 26, 1937, RG 79, NPS, SWRO, Santa Fe, Correspondence Relating to National Parks, Monuments and Recreational Areas, 1927-1953, Box 94, Folder: Big Bend General, DEN NARA.

⁸ Maier to Cammerer, January 27, 1937, RG 79, NPS, SWRO, Santa Fe, Correspondence Relating to National Parks, Monuments and Recreational Areas, 1927-1953, Box 2, Folder: 120-07 (NPS) Proposed Legislation Big Bend, DEN NARA.

⁹ "The State's Part," The Houston Post, February 22, 1937.

¹⁰Texas Senate Bill (SB) No. 308, "A Bill to be entitled An act dedicating and establishing the Big Bend National Park in Brewster County, Texas . . . ," February 23, 1937, Townsend Collection, Box x, Wallet 24, Folder 4, Archives of the Big Bend, SRSU.

¹¹ Ibid.

¹² Ibid.

¹³ Maier to Morgan, March 5, 1937, RG 79, NPS, SWRO, Santa Fe, Correspondence Relating to National Parks, Monuments and Recreational Areas, 1927-1953, Box 94, Folder: Big Bend General, DEN NARA.

¹⁴ Morelock to Cammerer, March 10, 1937, RG 79, NPS, SWRO, Santa Fe, Correspondence Relating to National Parks, Monuments and Recreational Areas, 1927-1953, Box 3, Folder: 204-10 By Field Officers Folder 2, DEN NARA.

¹⁵ Maier to Senator H.L. Winfield, State Capitol, Austin, TX, March 10, 1937, RG 79, NPS, SWRO, Santa Fe, Correspondence Relating to National Parks, Monuments and Recreational Areas, 1927-1953, Box 2, Folder: 120-07 (NPS) Proposed Legislation Big Bend; R.D. Morgan to Maier, March 15, 1937; Townsend (?) to Berta Clark Lassiter, Secretary, Chamber of Commerce, Alpine, TX, March 16, 1937, RG 79, NPS, SWRO, Santa Fe, Correspondence Relating to National Parks, Monuments and Recreational Areas, 1927-1953, Box 1, Folder: 0-30 Big Bend International Park Part 2, DEN NARA.

¹⁶ Maier to Morelock, March 22, 1937, RG 79, NPS, SWRO, Santa Fe, Correspondence Relating to National Parks, Monuments and Recreational Areas, 1927-1953, Box 1, Folder: 0-30 Big Bend International Park Part 2, DEN NARA.

¹⁷ Townsend to Maier, March 30, 1937, RG 79, NPS, SWRO, Santa Fe, Correspondence Relating to National Parks, Monuments and Recreational Areas, 1927-1953, Box 11, Folder: 610.01 Purchasing of Lands #1 Big Bend; Towsend to Maier, April 7, 1937, RG 79, NPS, SWRO, Santa Fe, Correspondence Relating to National Parks, Monuments and Recreational Areas, 1927-1953, Box 2, Folder: 120-01 House Bills Big Bend, DEN NARA; "But How About The State Deficit?" Dallas Times-Herald, February 23, 1937.

¹⁸ Townsend to Maier, April 14, 1937, RG 79, NPS, SWRO, Santa Fe, Correspondence Relating to National Parks, Monuments and Recreational Areas, 1927-1953, Box 2, Folder: 120-07 (NPS) Proposed Legislation Big Bend, DEN NARA.

¹⁹ Ted L. Edwards, Superintendent, S.P. 49-T, Daingerfield, TX, to Maier, April 20, 1937, RG 79, NPS, SWRO, Santa Fe, Correspondence Relating to National Parks, Monuments and Recreational Areas, 1927-1953, Box 2, Folder: 120-01 House Bills Big Bend; Maier to Wirth, April 26, 1937, RG 79, NPS, SWRO, Santa Fe, Correspondence Relating to National Parks, Monuments and Recreational Areas, 1927-1953, Box 1, Folder: 0-30 Big Bend International Park Part 2, DEN NARA.

²⁰ Maier to Wirth, April 26, 1937.

²¹ Townsend to R. Ewing Thomason, May 12, 1937, RG 79, NPS, SWRO, Santa Fe, Correspondence Relating to National Parks, Monuments and Recreational Areas, 1927-1953, Box 2, Folder: 120-07 (NPS) Proposed Legislation Big Bend, DEN NARA.

²² Maier to the NPS Director, Attn: Branch of Historic Sites and Buildings, January 8, 1937, RG 79, NPS, SWRO, Santa Fe, Correspondence Relating to National Parks, Monuments and Recreational Areas, 1927-1953, Box x, Folder: xx, DEN NARA.

²³ Ibid.; A.E. Demaray, Acting NPS Director, to Dr. Hermon C. Bumpus, Duxbury, MA, February 6, 1937, RG 79, NPS, SWRO, Santa Fe, Correspondence Relating to National Parks, Monuments and Recreational Areas, 1927-1953, Box 94, Folder: Big Bend General, DEN NARA.

²⁴ R.D. Morgan to Maier, March 16, 1937; Walter Prescott Webb to Maier, March 19, 1937, RG 79, NPS, SWRO, Santa Fe, Correspondence Relating to National Parks, Monuments and Recreational Areas, 1927-1953, Box 1, Folder: 0-30 Big Bend International Park Part 2, DEN NARA.

²⁵ Webb to McClatchy, April 5, 1937, RG 79, NPS, SWRO, Santa Fe, Correspondence Relating to National Parks, Monuments and Recreational Areas, 1927-1953, Box 1, Folder: 0-30 Big Bend International Park Part 2, DEN NARA.

²⁶ Webb to McClatchy, April 7, 1937, RG 79, NPS, SWRO, Santa Fe, Correspondence Relating to National Parks, Monuments and Recreational Areas, 1927-1953, Box 1, Folder: 0-30 Big Bend International Park Part 2, DEN NARA.

²⁷ Walter Prescott Webb, "Big Bend Park Will Put Texas On Travel Map," The Dallas Morning News, April 18, 1937.

²⁸ Press Release, "The Big Bend of Texas," by Walter Prescott Webb, April 25, 1937, RG 79, NPS, SWRO, Santa Fe, Correspondence Relating to National Parks, Monuments and Recreational Areas, 1927-1953, Box 1, Folder: Big Bend International Park Part 2, DEN NARA.

²⁹ Maier to Webb, April 26, 1937, RG 79, NPS, SWRO, Santa Fe, Correspondence Relating to National Parks, Monuments and Recreational Areas, 1927-1953, Box x, Folder: xx, DEN NARA.

³⁰ "Dr. Walter Webb Starts Today Through Canyon In The Big Bend of Texas," Austin Dispatch, May 16, 1937.

³¹ Ibid.; "Dr. Webb Leads Exploring Trip Through Canyon," Austin Texan, n.d. (May 1937?); "Webb Defying Canyon Perils," Austin Statesman, May 17, 1937; "No Word From 4 Explorers," Fort Worth Star-Telegram, May 18, 1999; "Explorers On Perilous Ride," Oklahoma City Oklahoman, May 19, 1937.

³² Telegram of Townsend to Milo F. Christiansen, NPS, Little Rock, AR, May 20, 1937; Telegram of Harry J. Adams, Superintendent of Parks, Fort Worth, TX, to Allred, May 21, 1937; Telegram of Townsend to Maier, May 21, 1937, RG 79, NPS, SWRO, Santa Fe, Correspondence Relating to National Parks, Monuments and Recreational Areas, 1927-1953, Box 2, Folder: 120-07 (NPS) Proposed Legislation Big Bend; W.B. Tuttle, San Antonio Public Service Company, San Antonio, TX, to Maier, May 21, 1937, RG 79, NPS, SWRO, Santa Fe, Correspondence Relating to National Parks, Monuments and Recreational Areas, 1927-1953, Box 1, Folder: 0-30 Big Bend International Park Part 2, DEN NARA.

³³ Maier to J.J. Taylor, Editor, The Dallas News, Dallas, TX, May 26, 1937, RG 79, NPS, SWRO, Santa Fe, Correspondence Relating to National Parks, Monuments and Recrational Areas, 1927-1953, Box 2, Folder: 120-07 (NPS) Proposed Legislation Big Bend, DEN NARA.

³⁴ "By All Means Sign It, Governor," The Amarillo Daily News, May 29, 1937; Gene Howe, Publisher, The Globe-News Publishing Company, Amarillo, TX, to McClatchy, May 28, 1937, RG 79, NPS, SWRO, Santa Fe, Correspondence Relating to National Parks, Monuments and Recreational Areas, 1927-1953, Box 2, Folder: 120-07 (NPS) Proposed Legislation Big Bend, DEN NARA.

³⁵ Maier to Departemento Forestal, Caza y Pesca, Mexico City, D.F., Attn: Srs. Galicia and Zinser, June 3, 1937; Miguel A. De Quevedo, Chief (Departemento Forestal, Caza y Pesca), to "Dear Sir" (Maier), n.d. (June 1937?); Telegram of Cammerer to Allred, June 5, 1937, RG 79, NPS, SWRO, Santa Fe, Correspondence Relating to National Parks, Monuments and Recreational Areas, 1927-1953, Box 2, Folder: 120-07 (NPS) Proposed Legislation Big Bend, DEN NARA.

³⁶ Maier to Townsend, June 9, 1937, RG 79, NPS, SWRO, Santa Fe, Correspondence Relating to National Parks, Monuments and Recreational Areas, 1927-1953, Box 2, Folder: 120 (NPS) Legislation (General), DEN NARA.

³⁷ Maier to A.E. Borell, NPS, Santa Fe, NM, July 12, 1937, RG 79, NPS, SWRO, Santa Fe, Correspondence Relating to National Parks, Monuments and Recreational Areas, 1927-1953, Box 2, Folder: 120-07 (NPS) Proposed Legislation Big Bend, DEN NARA.

³⁸ Maier to Townsend, July 13, 1937, RG 79, NPS, SWRO, Santa Fe, Correspondence Relating to National Parks, Monuments and Recreational Areas, 1927-1953, Box 11, Folder: 610.01 Purchasing of Lands #1 Big Bend, DEN NARA.

³⁹ Ibid.

⁴⁰ Maier to James R. Record, Managing Editor, Star Telegram, Ft. Worth, TX, July 13, 1937, RG 79, NPS, SWRO, Santa Fe, Correspondence Relating to National Parks, Monuments and Recreational Areas, 1927-1953, Box 12, Folder: 610.01 Purchasing of Lands #1, DEN NARA.

⁴¹ Ibid.

⁴² Towsend to Record, July 9, 1937, RG 79, NPS, SWRO, Santa Fe, Correspondence Relating to National Parks, Monuments and Recreational Areas, 1927-1953, Box 11, Folder: 610.01 Purchasing of Lands #1 Big Bend, DEN NARA.

⁴³ Record to Dom Adams, Brewster County Chamber of Commerce, Alpine, TX, July 13, 1937, RG 79, NPS, SWRO, Santa Fe, Correspondence Relating to National Parks, Monuments and Recreational Areas, 1927-1953, Box 11, Folder: 610.01 Purchasing of Lands #1 Big Bend, DEN NARA.

⁴⁴ Adams to Record, July 16, 1937, RG 79, NPS, SWRO, Santa Fe, Correspondence Relating to National Parks, Monuments and Recreational Areas, 1927-1953, Box 11, Folder: 610.01 Purchasing of Lands #1 Big Bend, DEN NARA.

⁴⁵ Townsend to Maier, July 16, 1937, RG 79, NPS, SWRO, Santa Fe, Correspondence Relating to National Parks, Monuments and Recreational Areas, 1927-1953, Box 11, Folder: 610.01 Purchasing of Lands #1 Big Bend, DEN NARA.

⁴⁶"Texans Asked to Give For Park in Big Bend: Campaign for $1,000,000 Launched to Purchase Land for Project," Fort Worth Star-Telegram, July 18, 1937.

⁴⁷Morelock, et al., "Local Park Committee," Brewster County Chamber of Commerce, to the Citizens of Texas, July 19, 1937, RG 79, NPS, SWRO, Santa Fe, Correspondence Relating to National Parks, Monuments and Recreational Areas, 1927-1953, Box 1, Folder: 0-30 Big Bend International Park Part 2, DEN NARA.

⁴⁸ McClatchy to Maier, July 19, 27, 1937; Townsend to Maier, July 26, 1937, RG 79, NPS, SWRO, Santa Fe, Correspondence Relating to National Parks, Monuments and Recreational Areas, 1927-1953, Box 1, Folder: 0-30 Big Bend International Park Part 2, DEN NARA.

⁴⁹ Dawson Duncan, "Rich Gold and Quicksilver Lodes Are Found on Texas School Lands," Dallas News, August 8, 1937; "Big Bend Gold Story Scouted," Fort Worth Star-Telegram, September 9, 1937.

⁵⁰ David C. Chapman, President, Great Smoky Mountain Conservation Association, Knoxville, TN, to Morelock, October 8, 1937, Townsend Collection, Box 6, Wallet 23, Folder 17, Archives of the Big Bend, SRSU.

⁵¹ Ibid. The Laura Spelman Rockefeller Memorial Fund was named for the wife of industrialist John D. Rockefeller, Senior, and was managed by his foundation.

⁵² Webb to McClatchy, August 10, 1937; "Officials Aid Fund For Park," Fort Worth Star-Telegram, August 12, 1937, RG 79, NPS, SWRO, Santa Fe, Correspondence Relating to National Parks, Monuments and Recreational Areas, 1927-1953, Box 1, Folder: 0-30 Big Bend International Park Part 2, DEN NARA.

⁵³ Webb to McClatchy, August 10, 1937; "Pres" (Presley Bryant) to "Leo" (McClatchy), n.d.; Maier to Webb, August 19, 1937; William R. Hogan to Region III, NPS, Oklahoma City, Attn: Mr. Hagerty, August 12, 1937, RG 79, NPS, SWRO, Santa Fe, Correspondence Relating to National Parks, Monuments and Recreational Areas, 1927-1953, Box 1, Folder: 0-30 Big Bend International Park Part 2, DEN NARA.

⁵⁴ L. Vernon Randau, Assistant - Projects, NPS, ECW Region Three, Oklahoma City, to William F. Ayres, Inspector, NPS, Austin, TX, August 17, 1937, RG 79, NPS, SWRO, Santa Fe, Correspondence Relating to National Parks, Monuments and Recreational Areas, 1927-1953, Box x, Folder: xx, DEN NARA.

⁵⁵ Maier to the NPS Director, Attn: Miss Isabelle Story, Editor-in-Chief, August 18, 1937, RG 79, NPS, SWRO, Santa Fe, Correspondence Relating to National Parks, Monuments and Recreational Areas, 1927-1953, Box 1, Folder: 0-30 Big Bend International Park Part 2, DEN NARA.

⁵⁶ J.F. Kieley to "Leo" (McClatchy), August 23, 1937, RG 79, NPS, SWRO, Santa Fe, Correspondence Relating to National Parks, Monuments and Recreational Areas, 1927-1953, Box 1, Folder: 0-30 Big Bend International Park Part 2, DEN NARA.

⁵⁷ McClatchy to Berta Clark Lassiter, Secretary, Brewster County Chamber of Commerce, Alpine, TX, August 24, 1937; Memorandum of Morelock to the Superintendent of Texas State Parks, September 4, 1937, RG 79, NPS, SWRO, Santa Fe, Correspondence Relating to National Parks, Monuments and Recreational Areas, 1927-1953, Box 1, Folder: 0-30 Big Bend International Park Part 2; Ernest F. Coe, Director, Everglades National Park Association, Inc., to Morelock, September 21, 1937; Coe to Will Mann Richardson, Chief Clerk, Texas State Parks Board, Austin, TX, September 21, 1937, RG 79, NPS, SWRO, Santa Fe, Correspondence Relating to National Parks, Monuments and Recreational Areas, 1927-1953, Box 11, Folder: 610.01 Purchasing of Lands #1 Big Bend, DEN NARA.

⁵⁸ Ross A. Maxwell, "The Reported Gold-Quicksilver Deposits in the Big Bend Park Area," submitted to R.D. Morgan, Superintendent, Big Bend SP-33-T, Marathon, TX, September 23, 1937: 1, NPS Big Bend National Park Service NS 12 File, Southwest System Support Office (SSO), NPS, Santa Fe.

⁵⁹ Ibid., 1-2.

⁶⁰ Ibid., 2-4.

⁶¹ Ibid., 4-5.

⁶² Ibid., 6-7.

⁶³ Morelock to The National Geographic Society, Washington, DC, September 25, 1937, RG 79, NPS, SWRO, Santa Fe, Correspondence Relating to National Parks, Monuments and Recreational Areas, 1927-1953, Box 8, Folder: 501.02 Magazine Articles; Townsend to McClatchy, October 2, 1937, RG 79, NPS, SWRO, Santa Fe, Correspondence Relating to National Parks, Monuments and Recreational Areas, 1927-1953, Box 8, Folder: 501.01.1 Roadside Advertising and Road Signs, DEN NARA.

⁶⁴ "Soldier's Prophetic Cartoon 21 Years Ago Foresaw Park," Fort Worth Star-Telegram, October 10, 1937.

⁶⁵ "Ickes Dedicates Two Texas Dams," San Antonio Express, October 17, 1937; "Official Urges International Big Bend Park," Amarillo News, October 17, 1937; "Secretary Ickes' Speech," Houston Chronicle, October 17, 1937; "Ickes on Big Bend Park," El Paso Times, October 17, 1937.

⁶⁶ Maier to Morelock, October 18, 1937, RG 79, NPS, SWRO, Santa Fe, Correspondence Relating to National Parks, Monuments and Recreational Areas, 1927-1953, Box 11, Folder: 610.01 Purchasing of Lands #1 Big Bend; Morelock to Galicia, October 22, 1937, RG 79, NPS, SWRO, Santa Fe, Correspondence Relating to National Parks, Monuments and Recreational Areas, 1927-1953, Box 9, Folder: 504 (NPS) Publications (General) [Folder 2], DEN NARA.

⁶⁷ Morelock to Maier, October 26, 1937, RG 79, NPS, SWRO, Santa Fe, Correspondence Relating to National Parks, Monuments and Recreational Areas, 1927-1953, Box 11, Folder: 610.01 Purchasing of Lands #1 Big Bend; Townsend to Hogan, October 28, 1937, RG 79, NPS, SWRO, Santa Fe, Correspondence Relating to CCC, ECW, and ERA Work in National Parks, Forests and Monuments and Recreational Areas, 1933-1934, Box 96, Folder: 600-03 CCC Development Outline; Maier to the NPS Director, Attn: Isabelle F. Story, November 6, 1937, RG 79, NPS, SWRO, Santa Fe, Correspondence Relating to National Parks, Monuments and Recreational Areas, 1927-1953, Box 8, Folder: 501.03 #1 Newspaper Articles (Folder 2), DEN NARA.

⁶⁸ "Big Bend Park Termed ‘Peace University' By Southwest Magazine," Alpine Avalanche, November 5, 1937.

⁶⁹ Demaray to Maier, November 12, 1937, RG 79, NPS, SWRO, Santa Fe, Correspondence Relating to National Parks, Monuments and Recreational Areas, 1927-1953, Box 8, Folder: 501.03 #1 Newspaper Articles (Folder 2), DEN NARA.

⁷⁰ H.C. Bryant, Assistant Director, NPS, Washington, DC, to Acting Regional Director, Region No. 3, NPS, Santa Fe, November 19, 1937, RG 79, NPS, SWRO, Santa Fe, Correspondence Relating to National Parks, Monuments and Recreational Areas, 1927-1953, Box 8, Folder: 501.03 #1 Newspaper Articles (Folder 2), DEN NARA.

⁷¹ "Statement of Secretary Ickes at the Colorado-Big Thompson hearing," November 12, 1937, RG79, NPS, SWRO, Santa Fe, Correspondence Relating to National Parks, Monuments and Recreational Areas, 1927-1953, Box 11, Folder: 609 (CCC) Leases; B.N. Timmons, "Park Plan Aid To Friendship," Fort Worth Star-Telegram, November 23, 1937; Fred T. Johnston, Acting Assistant Director, NPS, Washington, DC, to Morris Sheppard, U.S. Senate, November 30, 1937, RG 79, NPS, SWRO, Santa Fe, Correspondence Relating to CCC, ECW, and ERA Work in National Forests, Monuments and Recreational Areas, 1933-1934, Big Bend National Park, TX/Bryce Canyon National Monument, UT, Box 97, Folder: 601-03.2 (CCC) Abandoned Camps, DEN NARA.

⁷² "CCC Company In Park Area Gets Definite Orders For Removal," Alpine Avalanche, December 3, 1937.

⁷³ Townsend to Maier, December 23, 1937, RG 79, NPS, SWRO, Santa Fe, Correspondence Relating to National Parks, Monuments and Recreational Areas, 1927-1953, Box 11, Folder: 610.01 Purchasing of Lands #1 Big Bend, DEN NARA.