Big Bend Administrative History

In a most ironic twist to the creation of Big Bend National Park, prospects for acquisition of its vast acreage improved just as the clouds of war engulfed all of Europe. Six years of persistent promotion by the National Park Service and local sponsors had made the general public in Texas and the nation aware of the future NPS unit, while expansion of the Lone Star economy in wartime meant increased tax revenues for the state legislature to distribute. Park service officials capitalized on all of these forces in play during 1940, adding tried-and-true strategies like highly publicized trips to the Big Bend, the projected windfall of tourism spending, and appeals to Texans' sense of pride in their state. At year's end, park promoters could detect a ray of hope that few could have imagined twelve months before: passage of a measure to purchase with state funds the 788,000 acres that would constitute the Texas's first national park.

One reason for Big Bend's good fortune in 1940 was the cumulative effect of New Deal investment in the state park system of Texas. The NPS chief of land planning prepared a memorandum on January 5 for Conrad Wirth, providing him with details of work in Texas that director Cammerer could use in his upcoming conference with the new Under Secretary of the Interior, Alvin Wirtz. Even better news was that the "Texas Big Bend National Park Association [had] employed Adrian Wychgel and associates of New York City to conduct the campaign to raise funds from private subscriptions" for the park. The NPS memorandum knew that "the campaign has not yet started but is expected to commence shortly." The land planning chief conceded that "it will be difficult to estimate the amount of funds that may be raised," but did note that Governor O'Daniel "apparently believes that it will be necessary to supplement the funds . . . from private subscription by State appropriations in order to raise the necessary amount." Big Bend also fit with a larger strategy unfolding in NPS circles to expand the agency's network in Texas. "For a number of years," said the land planning chief, "the Service has been interested in the proposal to establish a national seashore along the Texas Gulf Coast." The memorandum suggested that "perhaps the most suitable area is Padre Island, approximately 118 miles in length, extending from Corpus Christi to Point Isabel." The Santa Fe regional office hoped to send a review team into the field soon, but realized a problem similar to that facing Big Bend and nearly all potential park sites in Texas: "The chief difficulty here is the fact that the majority of the lands are in private ownership." [1]

This reference to NPS plans for Padre Island National Seashore revealed changing attitudes in Texas toward national parks. The land-planning chief told Cammerer that by early 1940 "consideration has been given the proposal to establish the Palo Duro National Monument along Palo Duro Canyon in Randall and Armstrong Counties near Amarillo, Texas." NPS inquiries found that "the State has contracted to purchase a portion of the lands involved at what appears to be an [exorbitant] price," but that "Representative Marvin Jones is interested in this project." In addition, said the memorandum, "Old Fort Griffin has been proposed as a unit of the national park system by Representative Garrett of Texas." The regional office found that, "after careful study of the proposal, the Service advised Representative Garrett that Fort Griffin appeared to be more suitable for administration as a State park." Then there was the "area in East Texas known as the Big Thicket," which the NPS planning chief described as "a unique type of biotic community [that] should be preserved because of the scientific and inspirational features found therein." As with Big Bend and Padre Island, however, the Big Thicket was "in private ownership and it is estimated that approximately $4,000,000 would be required for its purchase." [2]

Yet another area of Texas studied by the NPS in the late 1930s was "the proposal to extend Carlsbad Caverns National Park, New Mexico." This idea also "received consideration," said the land-planning chief, "but the area in Texas is privately owned and no funds are available for its purchase." Then the memorandum noted that "since the Under Secretary is a native of San Antonio, Texas, he may be interested in the La Villita project of the National Youth Administration, sponsored by the City of San Antonio." Responding to the mayor of that city, the Santa Fe Regional Office sent NPS technicians to study the site. "We have advised the mayor," the chief of land planning told Cammerer, "that the Service will be glad to cooperate in every possible way to insure the preservation of the historic values involved." Among its recommendations was that "the City employ a historian to supervise the work." Then the NPS land-planning chief remarked that "the most important historical area in Texas in which the Service is cooperating is the Goliad State Park at Goliad, Texas." The memorandum suggested that "perhaps no other part of the United States offers in as pure and untouched a condition, material evidences of the influence of the padre, the soldier, and the settler illustrated by the mission, the presidio and the town." The land-planning chief, as with the other Texas sites under consideration, offered Cammerer a written report on Goliad, "with accompanying photographs," for the discussion that the NPS director would have with the native Texan who had become the Interior department's undersecretary. [3]

As the park service explored new areas of Texas for inclusion in the NPS system, Horace Morelock persisted in his efforts to stimulate interest in Big Bend's private fundraising campaign. Rumor had it that Amon Carter would commence the initiative before the end of February, and the Sul Ross president contacted Representative Ewing Thomason to take full advantage of the publicity. One feature that Morelock believed would ensure a successful campaign was mention of the international park in the same press releases going out to newspapers statewide. Thomason then wrote Interior Secretary Harold Ickes on the subject. Quoting Morelock, the El Paso congressman asked: "'Do you not think that we should immediately take the necessary steps to get the National Park Service of Mexico City to be ready to announce that the 400,000 acres just across the border will be available when and if the National Park on this side of the Rio Grande is a reality.'" Again using Morelock's words, Thomason told Ickes that, "'if I interpret properly the many questions that have been asked me relative to the international phase of the park, I think publicity of this kind released at the time of the start of the campaign in Texas will bring at least 30 percent more money from Texas people than you will get otherwise.'" The El Paso representative noted that "Dr. Morelock suggests that a special trip be planned to Mexico City to work out details," and that the Sul Ross president "desires to enlist your good offices to the end that there be proper Government participation in such a trip." Thomason knew of Ickes's "very deep interest in the establishment of the Big Bend Park," and thus hoped that the Interior department "will render all possible cooperation." The Interior secretary concurred, advising Thomason that "Dr. Morelock's suggestion should be taken up with the Department of State." Should that agency agree, said Ickes, "this Department will be glad to render all possible cooperation" through the NPS regional office in Santa Fe. [4]

Simultaneous with his appeal to Harold Ickes, Morelock worked with the influential Fort Worth Garden Club to sponsor a luncheon to raise funds for the Big Bend land-acquisition campaign. From the dollar paid by attendees at the February luncheon, 25 cents went towards the land-acquisition fund. Amon Carter had agreed to preside at the gathering of dignitaries and club members, with one newspaper account claiming that "many out-of-town reservations are expected." The NPS's Region III sent several members of its Texas state office, who joined with the president of the Texas State College for Women, based in Denton. The group heard Morelock speak on "The Educational Advantages of the Big Bend National Park." Carter then addressed the gathering with remarks about the fundraising venture, and introduced Sul Ross's Dr. Preston Smith, who presented color slides of the future park site. The group also witnessed a fashion show of "recreational togs" that one might wear to Big Bend, and watched a square dance that the program said was "dedicated to Mr. Amon G. Carter." They viewed a display of outdoor camping equipment suitable for the ruggedness of the new park, and dined on a menu created to evoke the sense of mystery and wonder that marked the promotional literature about Big Bend for nearly a decade: Horsetail Cataract shrimp cocktail, Pack Saddle chicken, Paint Gap Hills green beans, Green Gulch Canyon salad, Del Carmen barbecue sauce, Mariscal sweet potatoes, Baldy Peak rolls and doughnuts, Chisos Mountains pie, and Capote Falls coffee. [5]

Soon after the high-profile luncheon in Fort Worth in support of the fundraising campaign, Representative Thomason asked for permission to inform his colleagues in Congress of the merits of Big Bend National Park. On April 3, Thomason delivered an address that included a lengthy article from the El Paso Times written by Milton Hill. The El Paso congressman told the House: "The Big Bend is literally what the name implies." Thomason recounted how in 1935 he had sponsored the legislation authorizing creation of the park, highlighting how "this act made no mention of funds for purchase of the necessary land, as it is against the policy of the Federal Government to appropriate money to buy land for national park areas." The nation's lawmakers, Thomason noted, "expected that adequate appropriation by the State legislature will be made and supplemented by funds which shall be raised through private subscription." Since Thomason's initial effort on behalf of Big Bend, "the Government made a substantial contribution to the fund for purchase of land in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park." Thomason had voted for this measure, "as I felt that Federal funds could not be expended to a more worth-while end." He then stated rhetorically: "I wish my colleagues would support me in an appropriation for the Big Bend Park." He wrote that "the people not only of my district but the entire State are making a vigorous campaign at this time to raise money to buy the land." Yet "up to this time nothing like a sufficient amount has been raised." The Texas legislature in 1937 had appropriated $750,000 for land acquisition, only to have it vetoed by Governor Allred "on the ground that the financial condition of the State did not warrant the outlay." Thomason did express optimism that Governor O'Daniel's public support of the project would influence the state's lawmakers, and that "funds may be made available at the next session of the legislature." [6]

Beyond the financial details of the land-acquisition program, Thomason wished to link Big Bend's creation to the worsening crisis in Europe. "A vital need in the world today," said the El Paso representative, "is cultural and economic understanding between countries." He predicted that "an international park on our southern border would be a means of promoting contacts that would be not only interesting and instructive, but invaluable to the people of both countries." Thomason then focused upon the intrinsic benefits of a national park such as Big Bend. "As our country nears the saturation point in population," said Thomason, "we are forcibly reminded of the need of extensive recreation areas that shall be established in perpetuity." Thomason claimed that "there are no more public lands that may be set aside for national park purposes and unless the Federal Government establishes the policy of acquiring areas of outstanding scenic aspects for such use, then our people must raise funds and buy them." Texans "welcome all the help our neighbors will give us in the establishment of Big Bend Park," said Thomason, "which will be enjoyed by people from every section of our own country and travelers throughout the world." [7]

In order to dramatize that beauty, and also to encourage those donations (and perhaps a congressional rescue of the fundraising campaign), Thomason then introduced into the record Milton Hill's story about the value of Big Bend to travelers and locals alike. "To become a national park," said the Methodist minister from Pecos, Texas, "a region must have exceptional qualifications." For many of Hill's west Texas neighbors, "it is a little difficult for us to realize that right here at our back door is such a place" as Yosemite, Grand Canyon, Yellowstone, Glacier, and Mount Rainier National Parks. Lone Star citizens, Hill admitted, "have been in the habit of thinking of beautiful and picturesque places as being far, far away in some distant State." Thus it came as a pleasant surprise to Hill that "the national park people, who are familiar with the scenery of the entire Nation tell us that the Big Bend does qualify." Hill then reminisced about his own youth, where "I worked one season in Yellowstone Park, and I remember how disappointed some tourists were because Yellowstone did not have flower beds with iron fences around them." This, said Hill, "was their idea of a park." He then warned readers of the El Paso Times: "Someone [of this persuasion] might form an entirely wrong impression of the Big Bend Park." They instead should come prepared for a place whose "outstanding feature is grand and spectacular desert and mountain scenery, and it is a wonderful example of the unspoiled wilderness of the Southwest and of the health-giving atmosphere that goes with it." [8]

To aid the potential visitor, donor, and state or federal lawmaker, Hill outlined what he considered the best trips one could take in the future national park. "I have visited the Chisos fully 15 times," he wrote, "and each time this scene [Green Gulch] becomes more impressive and beautiful to me." "Very fortunate is the visitor," Hill continued, "who sees the clouds when they hang low in the mountains and drift among the great cliffs and crags." Hill himself had "seen them pour down through the clefts in immense cascades of white vapor." Green Gulch carried the visitor into the Chisos Basin and its C. C. C. camp, "where a company of boys are at work." Once one reached the "Window," a visitor could glimpse the quicksilver-mining town of Terlingua, and "beyond it the distant blue Bofecillas Mountains." From the Window, Hill encouraged the traveler to choose between a footpath "through a narrow, winding gorge with springs and a beautiful little creek," or to hike "to the head of Juniper Canyon, a great trough which comes into the mountains from the east." It was the third option for the Big Bend visitor, however, that Hill considered "the finest in the mountains." One rode horseback "through the forest to the pass just west of Emory [Peak]," then "[went] by an old lake bed, the Laguna, turn[ed] to the east, and pass[ed] under the south side of Mount Emory." In so doing, the traveler encountered Blue Creek Canyon, where "all around are great forested mountains." To the north stood Boot Canyon, and to the south the rim where one stood "on the edge of a tremendous escarpment, 6,000 feet higher than the Rio Grande out there below you." The horseback rider encountered "a land of clouds and trees; far below is the desert wilderness." Hill could only conclude: "The national park people are accustomed to grand and spectacular scenery and are not easily made enthusiastic." Thus "it means something," said the Pecos minister, "when they state that they consider this as magnificent as view as can be found in the United States." [9]

Once visitors availed themselves of wonders such as these, Hill believed that they would stay to appreciate some of the other attractions that Big Bend had to offer. "The park will be a large-scale museum for the botanist," wrote Hill, and "geologically the region is one of the most interesting on the continent." Yet "equally remarkable are the magnificent canyons of the Rio Grande," with Hill claiming that "it will be possible for tourists to make the trip up into the [Santa Elena] Canyon with little difficulty and no danger." He found that "words are utterly inadequate to describe the magnificence and grandeur of this canyon." Downriver in Mariscal Canyon, Hill reiterated his thoughts from earlier publications. "It has marvelous rock sculptures," said Hill, "wonderfully varied scenery, and it can be traversed by boats, with no danger when the river is normal." The Rio Grande canyons, he summarized, "will some day be recognized among the most magnificent and beautiful pieces of scenery in the United States." Even so, the visitor also should venture into "the desert badlands, where the earth has been carved into weird and fantastic shapes with rich and beautiful coloring," formations that Hill contended "will surpass the noted badlands of South Dakota and Nebraska." He then concluded that "in our hurried and busy age there is needed a region such as this, rich in grand and varied scenery, mild and invigorating in climate, a place of healing and restoration of mind and body." The park would be of "inestimable value . . . for the people of the entire Nation and for our own great State and its citizenship." Donors to the land-acquisition fund thus would ensure "the greatest single step ever taken in the history of the State of Texas." [10]

Thomason's speech to Congress, and the moving prose of Reverend Hill, became public as the NPS changed management in Santa Fe. Colonel John White replaced Hillory Tolson as director of Region III, and worked with Alvin Wirtz to grasp the politics of park building in Texas. Wirtz corresponded with former Texas lieutenant governor Walter Woodul, advising him that White would visit on an upcoming tour of Texas. "I would like for you," said Wirtz," to have Col. White tell you what other and poorer states than Texas have done in the matter of putting up funds, both private and public, for the acquisition of land needed for the establishment of national parks." In addition, the undersecretary hoped that Woodul and White could discuss "particularly the States of Tennessee and Kentucky with respect to the Great Smoky Mountains National Park." [11]

To Amon Carter, Wirtz offered more detailed information about the new Region III director. "I have assured Colonel White," said the undersecretary, "that you, as Chairman of the Texas Big Bend Park Association, are the man to get the job done." Wirtz then advised Carter: "Since I have become connected with the Department of the Interior and have had the Park Service under my direction, I have come to realize what a great asset a national park can be to our State." He also apologized for "how backward we have been on the Big Bend project." It bothered Wirtz that "poor states such as Tennessee and Kentucky have raised huge sums of money for the acquisition of lands necessary to the establishment of the Great Smoky Mountains National Park." The undersecretary especially worried that "the funds required of those states are much larger than [have] been asked of Texas;" monies that Wirtz pointedly noted "were raised by private donation," even as he forgot the substantial contributions by the states and the federal government. Wirtz also told Carter: "Of course, the state [of Texas] could afford to spend the money out of its general treasury, if it had any, as the traffic going to the park would practically all traverse the entire state." The "contributions in the way of gasoline taxes alone," he surmised, "would more than repay the State on its investment." [12]

Cultivating Amon Carter in the spring of 1940 was an important feature of NPS work on Big Bend. Milo S. Christiansen, acting assistant director for Region III, tried to contact the Star Telegram publisher on April 10, reaching instead James Record. From him Christiansen learned that Carter planned to open the Big Bend fundraising office on May 15, "that the subsequent 90 days would be spent on a preliminary campaign, and that the big drive will start with a big splurge the day after Labor Day." Carter wanted this portion of the campaign to last only fifteen days, with a "plan to have the whole thing through with by October 15." Christiansen informed Conrad Wirth that "at the present time the groundwork is all laid, and with good luck -- a good wet summer -- and the war situation does not get worse, it is figured they can clean it up in 15 days in September." Carter had agreed to employ Adrian Wychgel's firm to collect $1 million. In addition, Record advised Christiansen that "they have a lot of encouragement, and feel it is 'over the hill,'" with "some of the money . . . already raised." [13]

Land-purchase matters by the spring of 1940 had become quite complex, as the story given to the Texas public emphasized the virtues of private subscriptions for Big Bend park, while park advocates explored subsidies from the Lone Star legislature and the U.S. Congress itself. Arno Cammerer advised Undersecretary Wirtz that "there has been a definite trend in recent years toward Federal appropriations for the outright purchase of lands necessary for establishment of national parks and monuments or extensions thereto." The NPS director labelled this "a consistent process, since the Government purchases land for numerous other types of reservations-the Forest Service, for example, having spent more than $60,000 since 1911 for the purchase of forest lands under the Weeks Act." Beyond this initiative, said Cammerer, "since 1927, by several different acts, Congress has appropriated over $3,000,000 for the purchase of lands for national park purposes, the Federal funds to be matched dollar for dollar by contributions from other sources." Most recently the nation's lawmakers had voted $743,265.29 to complete the purchase of land in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park, after the major portions of the necessary land had already been acquired by other means. Yet another precedent had been Colonial National Historical Park in Virginia, where the Federal Government had expended over $1,000,000 while Virginia contributed only $80,000. Isle Royale National Park in the midst of Lake Superior had required 85 percent federal funding for land acquisition, "with a small contribution by the State." "While Isle Royale was purchased for ECW purposes," said Cammerer, "the authorized objective of the area was the establishment of a national park." Finally, the NPS director pointed to "the appropriation of $2,005,000 to purchase the Yosemite Sugar Pines [as] another instance in which the Federal Government purchased lands outright for park purposes." [14]

Further evidence for Cammerer of the ability of the park service to seek federal funding for parklands came "in the cases of Homestead National Monument, Nebraska, and Ackia National Monument, Mississippi." Here "congress appropriated funds for the outright purchase of all the necessary lands." Other park units whose enabling legislation contained federal funding for their land base included Virginia's Appomattox Courthouse National Monument and the Patrick Henry National Monument, as well as the Andrew Johnson National Monument in Tennessee. "It is apparent," wrote Cammerer, "that there is ample precedent for the appropriation of Federal funds for the purchase of lands for parks." He then told Wirtz that "authority for the Secretary to enter into contractual obligations to the extent of $1,000,000 to cover half the price of land was contained in the Act of March 4, 1929 (45 Stat. 1600) and extended by the Act of February 14, 1931 (46 Stat. 1154)." The park service director suggested that "the introduction of a bill to include the Big Bend project within the Secretary's authorization to enter into contracts for 50% of the purchase price of lands would not, we believe, receive serious opposition since it would merely extend an existing authorization to include an additional project." Cammerer believed that "such a bill should also provide that the appraised value of lands within the proposed park area which may be donated to the United States shall be considered as matching funds so as to authorize contractual obligations in an equivalent amount for the purchase at their full value of other private lands within the park project." The NPS director offered to Wirtz yet another compelling rationale for inclusion of the Mexican lands in such legislation. "In view of the strained European situation," said Cammerer, "we believe this is an excellent time to emphasize the international aspects of the Big Bend National Park." He argued that "there could be no more appropriate gesture than to establish the proposed Big Bend International Peace Park as a symbol of goodwill and friendship with our neighbors to the south." [15]

To local advocates of the new national park, the source of funding for land acquisition mattered less than an aggressive campaign of surveying and purchase. A.F. Robinson of Alpine wrote to Representative Thomason in late April to offer a strategy for buying land. "As an interested citizen and co-worker," said Robinson, "I offer suggestions with the belief that they can be used beneficially by the Texas Legislature and the National Park Service." He had learned that "a number of the ranchers in the County own land, about half of which is deeded land, the remainder being school land." Many of these owners "had purchased [the land] from the State of Texas a number of years ago, a down payment of one fortieth of the [principal] being made at the time of purchase, forty years to pay the balance." In 1940 "this land was valued at a rate of $1.00 to $3.00 per acre," said Robinson, with "the interest being 3 percent." Echoing the comments of Everett Townsend several years earlier, the former chairman of the Alpine chamber of commerce found that "in many cases nothing has been paid on the [principal], and in [a] number of instances not even the interest has been paid." Yet "they still hope to receive $1.00 bonus per acre on said land." Robinson suggested that "if possible, the State or the [fundraising] Committee allow them $1.00 bonus per acre in lease, thereby, allowing the ranchman the privilege of running [a] certain amount of cattle or livestock for a definite period of years, contracts of course being made with each one to insure the protection of all wild life." In this manner "the Committee would not have to raise funds for the purchase, and the [ranchmen] would have their leases paid up for several years." The ranchers also could "continue making a livelihood from the only business with which they are familiar." Robinson warned Cammerer that "there are obligations on many of the ranches," some of which were 30-year loans just taken out from the Federal Land Bank. He then asked the NPS director: "Could the State or Committee [or] the National Park Service or the Federal [government] assume these obligations?" Robinson claimed to "have talked to about 60% of the land owners and did at one time take options on all this land." By this process the Alpine businessman had learned that "90% of the owners [were] glad to work with the Park Committee or with the National Park Service or with the Texas State Parks Board if they understand." [16]

By early May, Horace Morelock had decided that a direct appeal to Colonel John White would be the most expedient means of gauging the potential of federal funding of Big Bend. He sought a visit from the Region III director because he had learned that "the Texas State Highway Commission will not allocate sufficient funds for the proper development of highways contiguous to the park proper until the National Park Service definitely and finally locates the Main Entrance to the Park." Morelock advised White that he served as president of the Highway 67 Association in west Texas, and had planned a meeting in late May in Alpine to advance the cause of good highways and national parks. White, who would serve in Santa Fe as the regional director for only a few months, nonetheless informed Morelock that "there is nothing in Region III in which I am more interested than the proposed Big Bend National Park." White anticipated "with much pleasure visiting Alpine, the proposed Park area, and meeting all of you who are interested in its creation and development." Despite the tragic circumstances surrounding White's brief tenure as regional director (he died of a heart attack 30 days in office), local park sponsors went forward on May 24 with their meeting. "All towns of West Texas," read the promotional literature, "are not only interested in good highways to this section, but in the proper routing of highways as well." [17]

The summer of 1940 brought the lengthiest delay in promotion of Big Bend National Park since the start of the decade. With the U.S. Congress in recess, a presidential election campaign underway nationwide, the Texas legislature out of session until the following January, and Amon Carter awaiting more propitious times for raising private funds for land acquisition, even Horace Morelock found little to do on behalf of the Lone Star state's first national park unit. Thus the Sul Ross president took time to draft a story entitled, "The Big Bend Empire," which he distributed to friends and associates as his synopsis of the cultural history of west Texas. Employing dramatic metaphors, Morelock called the Big Bend "the Abyssinia of the West;" an area "shut off from the rest of the world by a 'no man's land' of desert and mountains." "Until recently," Morelock continued, "but little was known of its people and the life they fashioned except as this country has been fabled in song and story as a 'scene of border raids, the home of bandits, and the last stronghold of the pioneer.'" Evidence of this for Morelock was the story of "Judge Roy Bean, ironically known as 'The Law West of the Pecos.'" Bean had come to the Big Bend country in 1882, "and as Justice of the Peace continued to hold court in his 'Jersey Lily Saloon' at Langtry until 1905." Calling Bean "this Falstaff-Robin Hood of the Big Bend," Morelock contended that "these stories reveal in a somewhat realistic way the spirit of the time, and they were on the whole true to character." [18]

From dime-novel drama, Morelock turned to historical figures of the Alpine area, naming the major ranchers of the region as "adventurous young men from distant parts of Texas [who] yielded to the lure of the West and followed dim trails into the Big Bend." Of these individuals, said Morelock (among them H.L. Kokernot, Everett Townsend, W.B. Mitchell, and A.S. Gage), "their heroic struggles for a half century, in the face of baffling difficulties--long distances to market, periodical dry years, no roads to travel, and no fences to mark off their individual domains--would match the resoluteness of any other group of pioneers in American History." By 1940 these "Cattle Barons," as Morelock described them, "own ranches ranging from 40,000 to 250,000 acres, and the 'Highland Hereford Association' with headquarters at Marfa is nationally known for its grass-fed cattle." The Sul Ross president then essayed an historical analogy between these men and "the pre-Civil War 'Southern Planters' with Negros as tillers of the soil." For Morelock, "in each case the elite cultivated a dignified independence in word, deed, and thought." Southerners and Big Bend ranchers also "loved isolation, and they resented any attempt at social, educational, and economic intrusions." As a man of learning himself, Morelock noted that "for the most part, those with sufficient economic competency sent their sons and daughters to 'finishing schools' for their college education." In so doing, he contended, "a distinct landed aristocracy was born and fostered." [19]

Given these socioeconomic parallels, Morelock did distinguish between "the social, intellectual, and spiritual life in the Big Bend and in the Old South." Speaking of black slaves in terms more common to the mid-nineteenth century, Morelock said that "the 'Plantation Darky' had but little background of race-culture; social equality and independent thinking were foreign to his desires and to his opportunities." Then the Sul Ross president changed direction with his assertion: "Not so with the Mexicans in the Big Bend." He claimed that "for although most of them are a mixed breed of Indian and Spanish, they have inherited and still cherish a sensitive pride both in their ancest[o]rs and in their achievements." The Sul Ross executive wrote that "many of them speak only [S]panish in their homes, and old and young alike maintain a punctillious regard for a variety of festive occasions that date back to a remote past." Among these, said Morelock, "Cinco de Mayo is more sacred than the Fourth of July, and their chief interest in affairs of government is economic competency for their loved ones." Morelock believed that "as a race the Mexicans are fond of music, but there is no such thing as a 'Negro Spiritual' in all their repertory of music." An example of this for the Sul Ross president was "how far removed is the studied grace of the Mexican 'Jaraba Tapitio' from the improvised 'shuffle' of the 'Southern Darky.'" Yet another cultural trait that drew Morelock's attention was "the religion of the Mexican," which he disparaged as "largely an indoctrination of fixed tenets, which find expression in colorful decorations in their Churches and cemeteries and at their weddings." By contrast, said Morelock, "the Negroes' religion is colored by a kind of superstitious regard for some all-powerful deity who lurks behind most of life's phenomena with an avenging scowl on his countenance." [20]

Into the Big Bend of the late nineteenth century had come "many influences," Morelock stated, that "have conspired to revolutionize primitive life." For him the "first harbinger of change" had been William B. Bloys, "an 'Itinerant Cowboy Preacher' who came like John the Baptist into the wilderness to proclaim a new order." His early efforts to minister the word to ranch families expanded by 1890 to the "Bloys Camp Meeting," where one-half century later "thousands of people from all parts of Texas come to this shrine every summer to enjoy free meals of barbecue at the ranchers' table and to listen to some of the greatest ministers in the South." Then modestly Morelock noted the opening in 1920 of his own campus in Alpine, where "on the first morning, cowboys wearing their boots, spurs and an occasional bandanna registered with a kind of idle curiosity." Morelock, himself the epitome of the college administrator, saw in these first students "a frankness in expressing their wishes and a freedom in their conduct that was somewhat disconcerting to faculty members recruited from the cloistered halls of staid academic institutions." Yet the small enrollment and close interaction of students and teachers led all to "study together in the classroom and to play together in the big outdoors of the open West." From this "democratic atmosphere," said Morelock, "formal discipline has seldom been necessary, and character development and academic achievement have progressed of their own volition." Praising the wonders of nature that surrounded Alpine, and proud of the conventional thinking of his students, Morelock concluded that "campus life at Sul Ross is tainted with few questionable 'isms,' and students who wish to keep physically strong while they are passing through the ordeal of achieving a college education are happy in their enviroment." [21]

It was this serendipitous union of higher learning and natural beauty that promised so much for tourism promotion in west Texas once Big Bend National Park opened. In the Davis Mountains the University of Texas and the University of Chicago had joined forces to build and maintain the McDonald Observatory. This facility, and the 1935 congressional authorization of Big Bend, said Morelock, awakened the citizenry "to the reality that a new day dawned for this entire section." The Sul Ross executive declared that "the widespread publicity accompanying these achievements brought many tourists to the Big Bend." One example was the meeting in Alpine in May of 1939 of the Southwestern Division of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, which "gave a new basis to raw materials in geology, in biology, in archaeology, and art of the entire Big Bend Section." This plus "the further fact that graduates of Sul Ross have gone back to the ranches and others into the public schools as teachers," said Morelock, "augur a new era of far-reaching consequences for the entire Trans-Pecos region." Morelock claimed that "life in the Big Bend is trembling on the borderland of change akin to that which Thomas Nelson Page and Joel Chandler Harris caught and portrayed for Virginia and Georgia." His prediction was that "the next ten years will see more adjustments in the economic, social, and educational program of the Big Bend than have taken place in all its previous history." A signal event for Morelock was that "even the coming of more than 200,000 thoroughbred sheep into this section during the past four years may revolutionize the cattle industry planned and built up by the 'Cattle Barons.'" [22]

All of this change for Big Bend and Morelock's campus would make west Texas a different place. He promised that "Sul Ross State College will naturally square itself with the new order." At the same time, the college president hoped that "whatever the changes, let us hope [to maintain] the friendliness of the Big Bend pioneer which recognized no caste except individual worth, courage which prompted him to use the six-shooter if necessary in defending his code of honor, the chivalrous attitude which he maintained towards women on all occasions, also the true American-way, which believes that the Declaration of Independence demands loyalty in deed as well as in word." Such claims to virtue would give pause to later generations of historians of the American West, as they looked more closely in the late twentieth century at the disparities between professions of freedom and the reality of contested landscapes. Yet Horace Morelock, now heavily invested in the entwined futures of his school and Texas's first national park, closed his cultural history of Big Bend with the plea that "these sterling pioneer qualities which are the safeguards of our civilization, shall not be lost to American life." [23]

Whether coincidental or deliberate, Morelock's story of the Big Bend country appeared just as the National Park Service undertook one last campaign of publicity and promotion for the park; an initiative timed for the election season of the fall of 1940, and not incidentally targeting Texas lawmakers seeking to represent their districts in Austin the following January. Milton McColm, acting regional director in Santa Fe, advised NPS director Cammerer of the status of Amon Carter's fundraising ventures. Milo Christiansen of the Santa Fe office had travelled to Dallas in early August to attend a meeting of river basin planners. There he conversed with James Record of the Star Telegram and Harry Connelly, a former Star Telegram reporter now detailed to the Texas Big Bend Park Association. Record had unpleasant news, said McColm, as "progress in raising funds had become stalemated," a situation that the managing editor of the Fort Worth paper attributed to "the war scare." He believed that "'the oil companies certainly would not be generous in their contributions.'" In addition, McColm reported that "Texas, as stated by Mr. Record, does not want the Federal Government to appropriate funds for the land acquisition program." This the managing editor viewed as "contrary to the spirit and purpose of the Big Bend Association." Instead, "Mr. Connelly stated [that] they were making plans to increase the membership of the Big Bend Association and to establish an organization committee in each county [a total of 254] as contrasted to the 39 members which represent 20 out of the 21 congressional districts." Record and Connelly also told McColm that they had rejected the appeal of Morelock and the west Texas park advocates to spend the $100,000 raised on immediate land purchases. Connally further "stated that he was being called on continually to dispute the fact that there is an abundance of oil and minerals in the Big Bend area." The fundraising committee had asked Ross Maxwell, now residing in Austin, to ascertain the merits of these claims. McColm closed his memorandum to Cammerer by noting that "the publicity is being kept alive by the Fort Worth Star Telegram and other newspapers and magazines, but the intensive campaign for fund raising will not be launched until conditions become more favorable." [24]

In conjunction with McColm's conference with representatives of Amon Carter's committee, regional director Minor Tillotson spoke on August 13 in Ruidoso, New Mexico, to the "Southwestern Chamber of Commerce Association." His message was the "tremendous financial benefits" to descend upon the area once Big Bend National Park opened. Tillotson, the replacement for Colonel John White, reminded the audience of business leaders that "'we [the NPS] have given, and are continuing to give, every possible encouragement that we can to make this park a reality.'" He recalled how "Secretary of the Interior Ickes, under the authority given him by the Congress, is ready to proclaim the park status just as soon as the privately-owned lands have been acquired and the area is deeded to the federal government." Important to this effort, said Tillotson, was the fact that "we have recently re-established a CCC company to continue work in that portion of the project that is already owned by the State." When the national park became a reality, much of the needed development already would be accomplished. As to the growing demand for information about Big Bend by potential visitors, Tillotson noted that "we have been publicizing this area in newspapers, magazines, and over the radio for more than five years, so you may be certain it is pretty well known all over the country." The regional director, himself recently transferred from the superintendency of Grand Canyon National Park, compared that unit's annual visitation of 400,000 people, and lamented that he and his staff had to tell inquirers of Big Bend's status that "the area is not ready for visitors," and that "there are no facilities for tourists." [25]

Minor Tillotson's optimism did not assuage the doubts of Horace Morelock, as the promotion of Big Bend remained problematic. On August 15, the Sul Ross president corresponded with Amon Carter regarding the fundraising initiative, and also reported on his own recent visit to the future park. Morelock had suggested to James Record that Carter join a party touring the Big Bend area that would include Harry Connally, Wendell Mayes, Senator H.L. Winfield, Colonel Thomas Boles (superintendent of Carlsbad Caverns National Park and a reviewer of potential NPS units), Minor Tillotson, and Daniel Galicia of the Mexican department of forestry, game and fish. Morelock himself had driven down to the reopened CCC camp in the Chisos Mountains, where he spoke with the camp director, Captain K.H. Scott. The latter showed Morelock "the complete plans (not yet released) which the National Park Service had made covering the entire area." Scott "appeared to be greatly interested in getting the Ira Hector section of the land settled," Morelock told Carter, and "also in the acquisition of additional land for development purposes." Morelock hoped that this would convince Carter to "agree that some of the money we have already collected for the purchase of land can be placed in the State Treasury to the credit of the Texas State Parks Board." The Sul Ross president's sense of urgency emanated from his observation that "at present, a good many of the tourists who go into the park return home with somewhat of a distaste in their mouths because there are no overnight accommodations in the area." This meant "no places to get meals, and therefore, not sufficient time to see enough of the section and return to Alpine by night." Morelock suggested to Carter that "if we had adequate accommodations down there for tourists they would return home and be the greatest salesmen we could have for the park." [26]

Despite the reputation of Carter in the Lone Star state, Morelock chided him about the Big Bend fundraising initiative: "I do not know what your plans are as to who will conduct the campaign or when it is to start." Adrian Wychgel had written to Morelock with a warning "not [to] wait later than September 1," and Minor Tillotson's remarks in Ruidoso "emphasized the unusual interest which the National Park Service has in this project." Morelock conceded that "there is never a 'good time' to start a campaign to raise money." Yet the Sul Ross executive believed that "if we had the Big Bend Park under way at an early date it would be the greatest revenue producing agent in the state in a very short time." Carter also needed to know, said Morelock, of the "very definite impression" that he received from the Ruidoso meeting "that both New Mexico and Arizona are far ahead of Texas in their advertising campaign for tourists." Despite the publicity given Big Bend by Carter's newspaper, "they are going to take away some of our possibilities for the future unless we act at once." Morelock saw it as "unfortunate if we cannot go ahead with our Big Bend project at an early date and make it attractive to tourists." The Sul Ross president, himself a busy man, nonetheless asked Carter: "I hope that you may find time to write me fully and frankly on all these points and such other points as you may have in mind." [27]

With Labor Day signaling the start of fall, park promoters accelerated their efforts to convince Texans and their elected representatives that Big Bend National Park needed no more delays in funding. Wayne Gard, a reporter for the Dallas News, wrote to NPS publicist Leo McClatchy on August 31 to seek more information about an upcoming inspection trip to the future park area by federal and state officials. "All that remains," said Gard, "is for you and Mr. Tillotson to decide whether or not it would be worth while for the National Park Service to take along a newspaperman hitchhiker." In return, Gard predicted: "I presumably could get a series of six or seven column-length articles in the [Dallas] News, each with at least one picture." An added bonus would be Gard's access to the Baltimore Evening Sun, "for which I am the Texas correspondent." Gard also had written articles for such national magazines as the American Mercury, Current History, and Country Gentleman. He recounted for McClatchy how "in three different years, I have gone on a week's trip with Jack L. Gubbels, head of the roadside development division of the Texas State Highway Department." Gard had written a host of features and editorials for the Dallas News as a result of these excursions, while "publicity resulting from my taking these trips has been of considerable value to the highway department." [28]

No sooner had Leo McClatchy received Wayne Gard's request than did the NPS learn that on September 2 President Roosevelt had come out forcefully in favor of Big Bend while dedicating Great Smoky Mountains National Park. The Santa Fe office of the NPS made much of FDR's remark that "we are living under governments which are proving their devotion to national parks." Roosevelt had thanked the governors of North Carolina and Tennessee for aiding in the land-acquisition campaign, and noted that "the Secretary of the Interior has today ready for dedication two more parks--Kings Canyon, in California and the Olympic National Park, in the State of Washington." Then for his nationwide audience, FDR declared that "soon, I hope, [we] will have a third, the Big Bend Park, in Texas." [29]

Energized by Roosevelt's highly visible support, NPS officials and local sponsors conducted a well-publicized tour of the future park in late September. The Star Telegram sent a reporter and photographer to cover the journey from Alpine to the Chisos Mountains. "Frequently during the long trek afoot, on horseback and by auto," said the Star Telegram, "[Minor] Tillotson expressed amazement at the scenic beauty, ruggedness and completeness of the biological island within the area." The Santa Fe regional director further claimed that "'only one of the national parks is at all comparable from an international point of view and that is Glacier National Park in Montana, which joins Waterton Lake Park in Canada." Tillotson wanted Big Bend developed with an eye toward its isolation and heritage. To that end, he recommended that "instead of automobile roads there should be trails, and all buildings should be widely scattered and of the ranch type." His park service colleagues, including Ross Maxwell (regional geologist), Harvey Cornell (regional architect), and John C. Diggs (west Texas inspector), joined with Everett Townsend, Captain Scott of the CCC camp, Wayne Gard of the Dallas News, and Nelson Lee of the Alpine chamber of commerce on the four-day excursion. They discussed such topics as preservation of wildlife, promotion of tourism, and the private fundraising venture. Tillotson told Gard that visitation could begin as early as the spring of 1941, when the CCC crew would have completed six stone cabins in the Chisos basin. In addition, said Tillotson, commercial interests were building "private tourist courts and a new hotel wing in Terlingua." Gard also reported that "plans for the park probably would include provision for a longhorn ranch." The Dallas News took pride in the fact that Tillotson implemented their suggestion to "display at the State Fair of Texas a large relief model of the Big Bend area in color." The CCC program in Austin had constructed the model, which Gard called "similar to the one now on display in the State Capitol." Among its details were "mountains, drainage, streams, canyons, roads, political boundaries and other points of interest." Should the state fair display prove successful, Gard reported that "the Texas Big Bend Park Association will co-operate in showing it in Dallas and later may sponsor its display in other Texas cities." [30]

Following the typical pattern of public praise for Big Bend, NPS officials filed their reports on the September trip with more cautious predictions for the park's future. Tillotson informed NPS director Cammerer of his thoughts on the four-day outing, where they began at the "CCC Camp NP-1." The group "inspected the cabin construction under way there and walked over the Juniper Flat area, tentatively proposed for lodge and cabin development." The itinerary included an auto tour of Santa Elena Canyon and Terlingua, a horseback ride along the South Rim of the Chisos Mountains, and a drive to Pine Canyon, where the party reviewed "the proposed site for a campground, trailer camp, etc." From there they drove eastward to Glenn Springs, Boquillas and its namesake canyon. While in the eastern section of the Big Bend, Tillotson observed "the area that has been tentatively suggested for a long horn range." The Santa Fe regional director believed that "during the short time at our disposal, we were able to see the maximum representative sections of the proposed park area." He also was "frank to say that I was most agreeably surprised at the character of the country, the variety and interest of the scenic features, the biological possibilities, and the international aspect." Tilllotson concluded that "surely this is an area of national park calibre in every respect, and I am personally most enthusiastic toward it." [31]

Equally important to Tillotson was the opportunity to generate substantial media coverage of the tour. The presence of the Dallas News's Wayne Gard, and the Star Telegram's Harry Connelly, who "served as a correspondent for that paper" even though he worked for the fundraising committee, meant that "the Big Bend park project received much excellent and widespread publicity." Gard's stories would appear in the Baltimore Sun and other papers nationwide, leading Tillotson to comment: "All of this should be helpful both in crystallizing sentiment toward the park and in promoting the forth-coming financial campaign." This latter point especially concerned Tillotson, as a week before the park visit he had attended a state parks board meeting in Breckenridge. "The directorship of the Big Bend Park Association," said Tillotson, "has recently been greatly enlarged." Unfortunately, he told Cammerer, "I have the feeling that an effort has been made to secure on the Board of Directors too many big names and not enough workers." Yet this new committee included "some of the most prominent men in Texas and representatives from every section of the State." Now the deadline for commencing the campaign was immediately after the Christmas holidays and not later than the first of February of 1941. At the Breckenridge meeting, the committee asked the state parks board to begin "securing of options on lands involved." The board discussed this issue in detail, focusing upon "the length of time for which such options should be made, whether funds were immediately available for down payments in order to acquire such options, the number of parcels and acreage involved, etc., etc." The parks board did not commit to this program, but agreed "to give such a proposition the most favorable consideration possible after they had had an opportunity to study the matter further and, particularly, to go over a land ownership map." Tillotson's final thought to Cammerer referred to the CCC relief map of the Big Bend, which he had authorized Harry Connelly to use "in connection with his forth-coming campaign to raise funds for the purchase of necessary lands." [32]

Tillotson's relationship with park advocates also merited attention after his return from the Big Bend excursion. To Nelson Lee the Santa Fe regional director offered "my sincere appreciation and that of my associates for all that was done by you personally and by the Alpine Chamber of Commerce officially to make a success of our recent trip." Tillotson remarked that "although my Texas experience dates back a great many years, this was the first time that I had ever been in your particular section of the State." He felt moved to confide in Lee that "it was certainly an eye-opener to me," and that the laudatory comments he had made to the news media "have been quite correctly reported." The park service "shall always be mindful and greatly appreciative of the part taken by the good people of Alpine in promoting this project." For his part, Tillotson would devote "every effort toward final realization," with the hope that "it will not be too long before we can stage at Alpine a celebration similar to the one held last month in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park at which the President of the United States was present personally to dedicate a new national park." He then suggested to Lee that the local chamber "take up with the Texas State Highway Commission or other proper authorities the matter of changing the signs on the road in from Marathon." With so much positive coverage generated about Big Bend, Tillotson was worried that "not only are [the signs] misleading in giving distances to and directions toward 'Grand Canyon,' but we are losing the excellent publicity value that could be had by popularizing Santa Elena Canyon." [33]

Heavy promotion of the NPS visit to Big Bend had the desired effect upon local park sponsors and the statewide fundraising committee. On October 5, executive secretary Harry Connelly informed Tillotson of plans for a meeting of the board of directors "in the very near future." Connelly sought the regional director's advice on "a subject which I would like to be able to discuss intelligently," the need to acquire private property. Connelly told Tillotson that "it is needless to say that our organization is eager to do everything it can to facilitate the work of your organization even in advance of our campaign to acquire all the needed land." Yet he conceded that "some of our officers are inclined to the belief that we should not make piece-meal purchases in advance of achieving our financial goal." Connelly then echoed Tillotson's sentiments on the special nature of the September trip through the future NPS site: "So enjoyable was my visit with you and your staff in the Big Bend area." He now was "anxious to be with you when you explore the park area in Old Mexico." To that end, Connelly had instructed the Star Telegram photographer, Paul McAllister, to develop the pictures taken on the trip and provide them to Ross Maxwell "for identification." [34]

Connelly's request represented the first significant attempt by the fundraising committee to coordinate their work with the park service. Minor Tillotson responded by admitting that "it would be highly desirable to secure title to some additional lands in the vicinity of the land on which the cabins are now being constructed." Yet the NPS did "not consider this absolutely necessary at least for the present." The park service preferred "to use such funds as may now be available for the purpose of making a land status study of the entire area eventually to be acquired." In so doing, the statewide committee "would be in a much better position to carry out [its] campaign for raising necessary funds." Should the state parks board lack the capacity to conduct such a study, said the Region III director, "it seems that funds the Association already has available could most properly be used for such a purpose." [35]

Tillotson's inquiry reached the desk of Amon Carter, who had been unavailable until a month after the September tour of Big Bend. He thanked the regional director for inviting him to join the group, noting that "from all reports and indications, the trip was interesting and worthwhile." His concern was that "we are working along slowly and carefully, as best we can under the the circumstances, until conditions right themselves to the point that we feel we can go ahead and raise the money to carry through to its successful conclusion the Big Bend Park project." Harry Connelly then answered Tillotson's request for information from the committee. "It now appears," said the executive secretary, "that we may proceed without a meeting of our board." He thanked Tillotson for loaning to the committee the relief map model of the park, which had been moved upon closure of the state fair to the Hotel Texas. Connelly also noted that "considerable interest is being manifested here in your statements as to the number of years required to bring to a successful conclusion the movement creating Grand Canyon National Park." The executive secretary asked if it "would be possible to secure similar information as to the time required in establishing the other national parks?" He also informed Tillotson: "Demand for pictures of the Big Bend has been so great that I have been unable to secure a complete set to send to Dr. Ross Maxwell for his identification of them." [36]

In conjunction with this correspondence between the NPS and the fundraising committee, Amon Carter drafted a letter to Tillotson that explained in great detail the status of the project, and his hopes for completion of the initiative. "Just as we were about to begin the preliminaries to our land purchase fund campaign last May," wrote Carter, "the European situation took a decided turn for the worse." The committee believed "it would have been folly to have gone ahead with large scale and expensive preparations . . . in the light of such conditions." Carter now admitted that "conditions have not changed materially for the better," and with "the threat of even greater disruption coming from the Orient [war in the Pacific], there is even more reason for caution." In spite of these obstacles, Carter could report that "definite progress has been made toward our goal." A new and expanded board had been assembled, "to make it representative of each of the 21 congressional districts within our State." Executive secretary Connelly had gathered "all statistical data required for the proper computation of county quotas on an equitable basis." The committee also had "kept [Big Bend] before the public through a publicity campaign in which weekly and occasionally semi-weekly news articles have been distributed to the daily newspapers of the State." Carter noted the support of organizations such as the "State Federation of Women's Clubs," the "Texas Federation of Garden Clubs," the "Texas Congress of Parents and Teachers," and "some groups of organized labor." The NPS had done its part by reviving the CCC camp in the Chisos Mountains, where the original six stone cabins "are to be augmented by twenty others which we hope will be completed early next spring." All of this good news had prompted Carter and the statewide fundraising body to create "congressional district committees," then "county committees," "community committees," and the like. Such an elaborate network would ensure that "this organization work can be done with little expense and without making any commitments calling for substantial disbursements of our funds." Carter believed that "if we wait for economic conditions to get right before organizing, we may pass into, through and out of a short period of prosperity before we can complete our organization." [37]

As per the request of Harry Connelly regarding the length of time required to create national parks, Arthur E. Demaray, acting NPS director, informed Tillotson on December 10 that "you should emphasize that there could be no more propitious time for launching the Big Bend fundraising campaign." He declared that "the establishment of this international park would be one of the most timely projects conceivable for prompting greater neighborly sentiment with Mexico, and greater goodwill throughout the Pan American countries." Then the acting NPS director outlined "the dates of authorization and establishment of certain of the recently created national parks." Among these were Shenandoah in Virginia, which took nine years to create; Great Smoky Mountains, which took 14 years; Isle Royale National Park (nine years); and Kentucky's Mammoth Cave, which had been authorized in 1926 but did not open its gates to visitors for fourteen years. Demaray then listed parks with their federal contributions added to their state and private donations. Shenandoah had received $151,000 from the U.S. Treasury (with $1,838,000 coming from non-federal sources). Great Smoky gained the most from Congress, with the federal government spending $2.3 million to help fund the $11,586,000 project. John D. Rockefeller, Junior, gave $5 million, while the states of Tennessee and North Carolina added $3.5 million. As for Mammoth Cave, Demaray would report that the federal contribution was $300,000 out of a total of $3,185,000; half of that total ($1,660,000) paid by the state of Kentucky, and only one-fifth of the costs ($625,000) donated by private individuals. [38]

The final month of 1940 differed markedly from its counterpart of the previous year. Even though the threat of American entry into the Second World War loomed large in the thinking of Amon Carter, and his fundraising committee had generated a mere six percent of the $1.5 million estimated for purchase of Big Bend National Park lands, NPS officials and local park sponsors preferred to focus upon the new session of the Texas legislature. Harry Connelly reported to Minor Tillotson that he had canvassed over half of the congressional districts in the Lone Star state, and that "we hope to launch the expansion program in the rest of the State this month." He also noted that "the relief map which you were kind to place at our disposal was, as you know, exhibited at the State Fair of Texas in Dallas and for a month here in Fort Worth." From there the Texas Big Bend Park Association had shipped the model "to the Entrada of the Coronado Centennial at El Paso," with arrangements underway "to exhibit it in Pecos and Midland." Connelly could report with some satisfaction to Tillotson that "it is attracting broad interest everywhere it is exhibited." Further proof of the momentum building for the campaign was Connelly's statement that "Mr. Amon Carter seems eager to visit the park area." The executive secretary hoped to combine Carter's trip with a committee meeting that included a tour of the Rio Grande, the Chisos Basin, and Boquillas. [39]

A mere four days after his optimistic message to the regional director, Harry Connelly had to temper the NPS's eagerness for initiating the capital campaign. He told Milton McColm that "data as to the time required in establishing other national parks and statistics as to their financing is greatly appreciated." But he showed less enthusiasm for the request of Arthur E. Demaray to accelerate the fundraising venue. Connelly echoed the acting NPS director's belief that Big Bend "would be one of the most timely projects conceivable for promoting greater neighborly sentiment with Mexico and greater good will throughout the Pan American countries." "This fact," said Connelly, "cannot be questioned." Yet the association's executive secretary warned that "another factor to be considered is the state of the public mind." He informed McColm that "with new taxes the big business pending before the new Congress in January, we believe it desirable to delay any State-wide solicitation of contributions for a national park until new tax legislation has been disposed of." Instead Connelly counseled patience, and reminded the acting Region III director: "Whenever any data comes your way, which to your mind, would be useful in the work of our organization please make it available to us." [40]

Enthusiasm could not, however, suffice for funding as the park service, the Carter committee, and the local sponsors of Big Bend faced the close of the year 1940. Charles L. Woody, an attorney with the New York City firm of Gifford, Woody, Carter and Hays, reminded the Texas state parks board of the complexity awaiting anyone who sought to purchase private holdings within the boundaries of the future park unit. "We have clients," Woody told the parks board, "who own an interest in a great deal of the land in the area proposed to be taken for park purposes." The New York lawyer was quick to point out that "they are people who have paid for the land and have been carrying it, paying taxes on it, have never received any return from it during the many years (I suppose almost half a century) and of course they would not think of donating it." His clients "have it for sale and I assume they will sell it for what the land is worth." Woody then offered to deal with the parks board in order to resolve his clients' dilemma. "Do you suppose," Woody asked the parks board, "that it would be possible to trade those sections to Texas in the park area for the alternate sections which the State of Texas owns outside of the park area and adjacent to the land our clients own?" If the parks board considered such a scheme to be legal, Woody offered to "devote some time to find out if such a deal can be made." He then warned the state parks board: "I know of some cattle people who might buy the land after the alternate section situation is disposed of." [41]

Frank D. Quinn, the new executive secretary of the state parks board, revealed both the hopes and fears of the sponsors of Big Bend when he informed Charles Woody: "At this time we have no funds available for purchase of land in the Big Bend area." Instead Quinn asked: "If you will submit to us a list of the lands which your clients own we will be glad to preserve same carefully for future information to be used, if and when the money becomes available for purchase of this land." He was intrigued with the idea of trading private land for public. "This seems reasonable and logical," said the executive secretary, "and would undoubtedly work to the mutual advantage of your clients and the Texas State Parks Board." Quinn then apologized for any misperceptions that Woody's clients had about the motives of the parks board. "We did not mean to bluntly demand," said the board's secretary, "that land be donated for this purpose -- it was only a suggestion, but in many cases we are receiving substantial donations of land within the area." In an admission rare for its candor, Quinn told Woody: "We have no idea what the ordinary run of land in the proposed Big Bend National Park area will bring." All that he could predict was that "when the time comes the entire acreage will be acquired by appropriate legal proceedings." [42]

Park service officials and local sponsors could reflect on the decade of promotion and lobbying for Big Bend with a mixture of trepidation and relief. Given that most national park units took that much time or more to enter the system, their efforts had not been wasted. The challenge of educating Texans on the wisdom of public investment in tourism and the preservation of natural and cultural resources had indeed been daunting. Yet the commitment of people like Everett Townsend, Herbert Maier, and their fellow park advocates had brought the park initiative by the end of 1940 to the threshold of success. No one could predict the future with any great accuracy, but the improved economic health of the state of Texas and the nation, and the determination of park promoters to bring Texas into the NPS orbit, would stand them well in Austin when the legislature convened in early January of 1941. Only the international park concept languished, to the extent that the symbolism of cooperation between neighbors with a history of conflict slowly faded as a world at war relearned the value of peace.

Figure 13: Adobe Cottage #103, Chisos Basin

Endnotes

¹ Memorandum of the Chief, Land Planning Division, NPS, Washington, DC, to Wirth, January 5, 1940, RG79, NPS, SWRO, Santa Fe, Correspondence Relating to National Parks, Monuments and Recreational Areas, 1927-1953, Box 12, Folder: 610.01 Purchasing of Lands #2 [Folder 2] Big Bend, DEN NARA.

² Ibid.

³ Ibid.

⁴ Thomason to Ickes, February 5, 1940; Ickes to Thomason, February 26, 1940, RG79, NPS, SWRO, Santa Fe, Correspondence Relating to National Parks, Monuments and Recreational Areas, 1927-1953, Box 12, Folder: 610.01 Purchasing of Lands #2 [Folder 2] Big Bend, DEN NARA.

⁵ Memorandum of Inspector (John Diggs), NPS, Austin, to the Acting Regional Director, Region III, NPS, February 13, 1940, RG79, NPS, SWRO, Santa Fe, Correspondence Relating to National Parks, Monuments and Recreational Areas, 1927-1953, Box 1, Folder: 0-3 (NPS) Invitations and Addresses Big Bend, DEN NARA.

⁶ "Big Bend National Park," Speech of Hon. R.E. Thomason of Texas in the House of Representatives, April 3, 1940, Townsend Collection, Box 9, Wallet 27, Folder 2, Archives of the Big Bend, SRSU.

⁷ Ibid.

⁸ Ibid.

⁹ Ibid.

¹⁰ Ibid.

¹¹ Alvin J. Wirtz, Undersecretary, Department of the Interior, Washington, DC, to Walter Woodul, Houston, TX, April 12, 1940, RG79, NPS, SWRO, Santa Fe, Correspondence Relating to National Parks, Monuments and Recreational Areas, 1927-1953, Box 12, Folder: 610.01 Purchasing of Lands #2 [Folder 2] Big Bend, DEN NARA.

¹² Wirtz to Amon Carter, April 12, 1940, RG79, NPS, SWRO, Santa Fe, Correspondence Relating to National Parks, Monuments and Recreational Areas, 1927-1953, Box 12, Folder: 610.01 Purchasing of Lands #2 [Folder 2] Big Bend, DEN NARA,

¹³ Memorandum of Milo S. Christiansen, Acting Assistant Regional Director, Region III, NPS, for File, April 15, 1940, RG79, NPS, SWRO, Santa Fe, Correspondence Relating to National Parks, Monuments and Recreational Areas, 1927-1953, Box 12, Folder: 610.01 Purchasing of Lands #2 [Folder 2] Big Bend, DEN NARA.

¹⁴ Memorandum of Cammerer for the Under Secretary, April 18, 1940, RG79, NPS, SWRO, Santa Fe, Correspondence Relating to National Parks, Monuments and Recreational Areas, 1927-1953, Box 12, Folder: 610.01 Purchasing of Lands #2 [Folder 2] Big Bend, DEN NARA.

¹⁵ Ibid.

¹⁶ Thomason to Cammerer, April 26, 1940; Memorandum of A.F. Robinson, Alpine, TX, "Proposed Project for Obtaining Required Lands for National Park in the Big Bend of Texas known as the Chisos [Mountains] of Brewster County," n.d., RG79, NPS, SWRO, Santa Fe, Correspondence Relating to National Parks, Monuments and Recreational Areas, 1927-1953, Box 12, Folder: 610.01 Purchasing of Lands #2 [Folder 2] Big Bend, DEN NARA.

¹⁷ Morelock to (Colonel John R.) White, Regional Director, NPS, Santa Fe, May 7, 1940; White to Morelock, May 11, 1940; Program, "To Promote Good Highways To Big Bend Park Meeting Of West Texas Citizens At Alpine," May 24, 1940, RG79, NPS, SWRO, Santa Fe, Correspondence Relating to National Parks, Monuments and Recreational Areas, 1927-1953, Box 1, Folder: 0-3 (NPS) Invitations and Addresses Big Bend, DEN NARA.

¹⁸ H.W. Morelock, "The Big Bend Empire," unpublished manuscript, July 27, 1940, Folder A976.4932, M8396, Archives of the Big Bend, SRSU.

¹⁹ Ibid.

²⁰ Ibid.

²¹ Ibid.

²² Ibid.

²³ Ibid.

²⁴ Memorandum of Milton J. McColm, Acting Regional Director, Region III, NPS, Santa Fe, to the NPS Director, August 13, 1940, RG79, NPS, SWRO, Santa Fe, Correspondence Relating to National Parks, Monuments and Recreational Areas, 1927-1953, Box 12, Folder: 610.01 Purchasing of Lands #2 [Folder 2] Big Bend, DEN NARA.

²⁵ "N.P.S. Regional Director Boosts Big Bend Project," Fort Worth Star Telegram, August 27, 1940 (material taken from NPS press release of August 10, 1940).

²⁶ Morelock to Carter, August 15, 1940, RG79, NPS, SWRO, Santa Fe, Correspondence Relating to National Parks, Monuments and Recreational Areas, 1927-1953, Box 12, Folder: 610.01 Purchasing of Lands #2 [Folder 2], DEN NARA.

²⁷ Ibid.

²⁸ Wayne Gard, The Dallas News, Dallas, TX, to McClatchy, August 31, 1940, RG79, NPS, SWRO, Santa Fe, Correspondence Relating to National Parks, Monuments and Recreational Areas, 1927-1953, Box 22, Folder: 867 Tours (General), DEN NARA.

²⁹ "Excerpt from address by President Roosevelt at the dedication of Great Smoky Mountains National Park, September 2, 1940," RG79, NPS, SWRO, Santa Fe, Correspondence Relating to National Parks, Monuments and Recreational Areas, 1927-1953, Box 12, Folder: 610.01 Purchasing of Lands #2 [Folder 2] Big Bend, DEN NARA.

³⁰ "Big Bend Trip Is Completed," Fort Worth Star Telegram, September 29, 1940; Wayne Gard, "Park Official Enthusiastic On Big Bend," Dallas News, September 29, 1940; Wayne Gard, "Fair to Get Relief Model Of Big Bend," Dallas News, September 29, 1940.

³¹ Memorandum of Tillotson to the NPS Director, October 4, 1940, RG79, NPS, SWRO, Santa Fe, Correspondence Relating to National Parks, Monuments and Recreational Areas, 1927-1953, Box 12, Folder: 610.01 Purchasing of Lands #2 [Folder 2] Big Bend, DEN NARA.

³² Ibid.

³³Tillotson to Nelson Lee, Jr., Manager, Chamber of Commerce, Alpine, TX, October 4, 1940, RG79, NPS, SWRO, Santa Fe, Correspondence Relating to National Parks, Monuments and Recreational Areas, 1927-1953, Box 22, Folder: 867 Tours (General), DEN NARA.

³⁴ Harry Connelly, Executive Secretary, Texas Big Bend Park Association, Fort Worth, TX, to Tillotson, October 5, 1940, RG79, NPS, SWRO, Santa Fe, Correspondence Relating to National Parks, Monuments and Recreational Areas, 1927-1953, Box 12, Folder: 610.01 Purchasing of Lands #2 [Folder 2] Big Bend, DEN NARA.

³⁵ Tillotson to Connelly, October 15, 1940, RG79, NPS, SWRO, Santa Fe, Correspondence Relating to National Parks, Monuments and Recreational Areas, 1927-1953, Box 12, Folder: 610.01 Purchasing of Lands #2 [Folder 2] Big Bend, DEN NARA.

³⁶ Carter to Tillotson, October 17, 1940; Connelly to Tillotson, October 24, 1940, RG79, NPS, SWRO, Santa Fe, Correspondence Relating to National Parks, Monuments and Recreational Areas, 1927-1953, Box 12, Folder: 610.01 Purchasing of Lands #2 [Folder 2] Big Bend, DEN NARA.

³⁷ Carter to Tillotson, October 24, 1940, RG79, NPS, SWRO, Santa Fe, Correspondence Relating to National Parks, Monuments and Recreational Areas, 1927-1953, Box 12, Folder 610.01 Purchasing of Lands #2 [Folder 2] Big Bend, DEN NARA.

³⁸ Memorandum of A.E. Demaray, Acting NPS Director, for the Regional Director, Region Three, NPS, December 10, 1940, RG79, NPS, SWRO, Santa Fe, Correspondence Relating to National Parks, Monuments and Recreational Areas, 1927-1953, Box 12, Folder: 610.01 Purchasing of Lands #2, Folder: #1, DEN NARA.

³⁹ Connelly to Tillotson, December 16, 1940, RG79, NPS, SWRO, Santa Fe, Correspondence Relating to National Parks, Monuments and Recreational Areas, 1927-1953, Box 12, Folder: 610.01 Purchasing of Lands #2 [Folder 2] Big Bend, DEN NARA. The Coronado Cuarto Centennial Commission (or the "4Cs"), formed in 1934 at the University of New Mexico, promoted awareness of Hispanic culture and tradition in the Southwest to mark the 400th anniversary of the arrival of the Spanish conquistador, Francisco Vasquez de Coronado (1540). For a discussion of this program, see Michael Welsh, "A Prophet Without Honor: George I. Sanchez and Bilingualism in New Mexico," New Mexico Historical Review, Volume 69, No. 1 (January 1994): 19-34.

⁴⁰ Connelly to McColm, December 20, 1940, RG79, NPS, SWRO, Santa Fe, Correspondence Relating to National Parks, Monuments and Recreational Areas, 1927-1953, Box 12, Folder: 610.01 Purchasing of Lands #2 [Folder 2], DEN NARA.

⁴¹ Charles L. Woody, Gifford, Woody, Carter and Hays, Counsellors at Law, New York City, NY, to the Texas State Parks Board, Austin, December 20, 1940, Townsend Collection, Folder 4, Archives of the Big Bend, SRSU.

⁴² Frank D. Quinn, Executive Secretary, Texas State Parks Board, Austin, to Woody, December 31, 1940, Townsend Collection, Folder 4, Archives of the Big Bend, SRSU.