Casa Grande Ruins Casa Grande Ruins National Monument, Arizona: A Centennial History of the First Prehistoric Reserve 1892 - 1992

Toward the end of October 1923, Frank Pinkley received an appointment as superintendent of a new field office headquartered at Casa Grande from which he administered the Southwestern National Monuments in a four-state area. Stephen Mather, the National Park Service director, created the position with the

idea of unifying the monument work and passing the problems from the various monuments up to a local man who would be in touch with local conditions, thus relieving the already overcrowded Washington office of some work which could be better understood and more economically handled from a field headquarters. [1]

Mather's statement served as a polite way to declare that the Park Service Washington office had little interest in the monuments. The Washington office leadership chose Pinkley for the job because he had demonstrated a keen management ability. He had succeeded in operating the Casa Grande and Tumacacori monuments with little financial aid from the Park Service budget. At the same time, Pinkley had accomplished administrative assignments at other regional monuments. His acceptance of the Southwestern Monuments superintendency added to his workload since he retained his positions as custodian of Casa Grande and Tumacacori. He did not relinquish the Tumacacori job until April 1929 and Casa Grande in July 1931.

Frank Pinkley.

Of the original twelve monuments assigned to him, only two others besides Casa Grande had resident custodians. The remainder of the areas were overseen by local volunteers who received only twelve dollars per year for their work. Consequently, some of these men lacked Pinkley's enthusiasm, although others performed with distinction. Despite this circumstance, Pinkley set out to build a tightly run organization that operated on strictly held ideals and principals. Slowly, he converted the volunteer system into one of paid, permanent custodians. One of his first activities involved the publication of a monthly newsletter called the Southwestern Monuments Monthly Reports. By getting the men who oversaw the various monuments to contribute articles about their monthly activities, Pinkley sought to instill a feeling of common interest among them. His first monthly report appeared in October 1923 with notes from six of the twelve monuments in his care. Although in the first several years he had to remind some men to submit reports, Pinkley's monthly publication provided one means by which he built an esprit de corps. [82]

Pinkley directed the Southwestern Monuments as an administrative unit through which he coordinated the management of the many monuments. In the early days he received almost no financial support from the Park Service Washington office. Pinkley overcame hardship and disappointment in developing an organization which grew to twenty-seven monuments by the latter part of the 1930s. During the 1920s, he traveled from monument to monument in a Model T Ford while camping along the way. Pinkley visited the monuments to encourage the custodians and to show them that he cared. He listened to their problems and noted each monument's needs. Pinkley then made a priority list for the allocation of the small budget that he received. After he received his annual funding, he would return to various monuments to lend a helping hand. He often aided a custodian to fence a monument, build a house, or accomplish preservation work. When a need called for it, he would buy building materials with his own money. [3]

Pinkley realized that an increasing visitation to the monuments could encourage the Washington office to give more funds, but in the 1920s that Park Service division usually ignored the monuments in favor of the national parks. Despite this situation, Pinkley labored to extend the publicity and education work that he had begun at Casa Grande to attract visitors to all of the Southwestern Monuments. He distributed a brochure which contained a description of each of the Southwestern Monuments and a map showing how to get to each one. Although he treated all of the monuments fairly, Pinkley's bias favored the historic and archeological monuments over the natural areas that he administered. In his opinion, the Southwestern Monuments offered the opportunity to educate people that there was more to the American Heritage than the usual selective Western European view. [4]

The only real aid that Pinkley received in the 1920s came from the Park Service's west coast field office for design and construction. Like the rest of the Park Service budget, however, design and construction money went mostly to national parks and not monuments. This situation was reflected in the fact that by the mid-1920s only three monuments in Pinkley's charge had museums. Consequently, the landscape architects and engineers, like Thomas Vint and Bert Burrell, mostly visited the Southwestern Monuments to offer advice and develop future plans. Construction programs that lacked funding rankled Pinkley, but he continued to meet with West Coast personnel and plan, as he told Burrell, "because I realize the importance of having your division well posted on the needs of my monuments should we begin to get enough money to really operate them." At the same time Vint offered "Pink," as he called him, advice on the design and grouping of buildings within the natural landscape. [5]

As the 1920s progressed, Pinkley began to develop a more systematic approach to his management. At first though, he combined Southwestern Monument functions with those of Casa Grande. Late in 1927, Pinkley hired George Rudy as a clerk-stenographer-ranger to perform office work and bookkeeping for both Casa Grande and the Southwestern Monuments. Rudy, however, was assigned as a Casa Grande staff member and, as a ranger, often led guided tours at that monument. Rudy brought order to Pinkley's bookkeeping when, in February 1928, he installed a standardized accounting system. [6]

By 1931 Pinkley's hard work began to pay dividends. Even before the New Deal depression programs began to provide large sums of money and manpower, expanded appropriations permitted Pinkley to press forward with his development program and to begin to build a support staff at the Southwestern Monument headquarters. The new Casa Grande administration/museum building, completed in January 1932, gave him more space to house his staff. His efforts won for him the admiration of those who worked for him and he became affectionately known as "the Boss."

Pinkley began to develop a staff in the Southwestern Monuments headquarters in 1931. In the late 1920s Pinkley had difficulty keeping the clerk-stenographer-ranger position filled because it paid such a low wage. In March 1931, the Boss received permission to retitle the job as chief clerk. It then became solely a Southwestern Monuments position. He promoted Martin O. Evenstad from Casa Grande ranger into that position. In June of that year Pinkley created an assistant park naturalist position and filled it with Robert H. Rose. Although titled a naturalist, Rose functioned to establish educational programs for the various monuments. Rose first approached his job by looking at individual monuments, but, by 1935, he developed a general educational plan as a guide for all the Southwestern Monuments. Rose also considered part of his work to involve "pioneering in museum installation with only a limited sum of money. . . . He began his museum work in early 1932 with the completion of the new building at Casa Grande. Rose worked with Dr. C. P. Russell, a Park Service field naturalist, to develop the exhibits for that new museum. By September 1932, as part of his education duties, Rose started to collect books for a circulating library through which he hoped to add to the various monuments' interpretive plans. [7]

One issue which Pinkley contested with the Park Service Washington office was the conversion of monuments to national parks. By the late 1920s, most of the spectacular Western natural areas had been incorporated into the National Park Service. Consequently, Stephen Mather and Horace Albright sought national park expansion through the conversion of one-of-a-kind national monuments to national parks. Pinkley had put a great deal of effort into developing the Southwestern Monuments without much aid from the central office, so he did not appreciate having monuments under his care taken from him. He thought that the public would then view his remaining national monuments as picked-over property that was not worth visiting. Despite his protests, Carlsbad Cave National Monument, which he had administered since November 1923, became Carlsbad Cavern National Park on May 14, 1930. Although it was not immediately redesignated as a National Park, Petrified Forest National Monument, one of Pinkley's original monuments, was separated from the Southwest Monuments on July 1, 1932, and its custodian reported directly to the Washington office. [8]

Another administrative disagreement between Pinkley and the Washington leadership developed in 1930 over the establishment of a Division of Education in the central office. It especially galled Pinkley when that division spent most of its funds to create educational programs in the national parks. Pinkley, who had been stressing education for many years with little money to develop his own programs, thought of this activity as another means to deprive his monuments of educational funds. He disliked the rise of the professional groups in the central office, because he felt that he should have local control of the programs, not the distant Washington bureaucrats. Consequently, Pinkley began to build an "adobe wall" around his monuments and develop his own education programs. For that reason, his second employee solely attached to the Southwestern Monuments headquarters was Bob Rose, whose main duty was to develop educational programs. [9]

Pinkley was not content to have only one employee working with an educational program. Considering that the Boss wanted education to extend beyond his monument boundaries, there was just too much work for one person to handle. In 1933, the number of units in the Southwestern Monuments increased to twenty. Only six of these monuments had museum buildings. Except for Casa Grande, these existing museums needed to have better and more informative displays installed. At the same time development plans were required for the construction of museums at the other monuments. Rose, however, had no time to address the monument education problems because in March Pinkley sent him to the Park Service Field Educational Headquarters Laboratories in Berkeley, California to design dioramas which showed Southwestern Monuments scenes. As part of his outside education and publicity program, Pinkley intended to place those exhibits on display at the Century of Progress Exposition in Chicago. [10]

In fiscal year 1933, to broaden his programs, Pinkley wanted to hire more specialized personnel. He hoped to establish positions for botanists and zoologists as well as museum curators in order to serve the monuments' museum needs. At the same time, he hoped to create positions for specialized personnel who could develop and oversee general development plans. [11]

Although his wish for more personnel was not realized as much as he had hoped, Pinkley began to feel the effects of President Franklin D. Roosevelt's relief programs. These measures provided the Boss with funds and a welcomed construction program. It was this money that permitted Pinkley to expand his operation and retain his local control in the face of the Washington office centralizing trend. He accepted the additional work with only the assistance of Bob Rose, and his chief clerk (accountant), Hugh M. Miller, who had replaced Martin Evenstead in August 1933. Two Emergency Conservation Work (ECW) camps were established under the Boss' supervision. Popularly called the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) until the name was officially changed in 1937, the ECW provided service jobs for unemployed, single young men. The two ECW camps were located at Bandelier National Monument (November 1933) and Chiricahua National Monument (June 1934). In addition Pinkley received aid from a temporary program, the Civil Works Administration, which provided unemployed men for any number of jobs on the Southwestern Monuments between December 1933 and April 1934. Pinkley also received money and/or laborers through the Public Works Administration (PWA), Federal Emergency Relief Administration (FERA), and emergency roads and trails appropriations. As if that additional work were not enough, Pinkley acquired six more national monuments that were officially transferred from the United States Forest Service to the Southwestern Monuments on August 10, 1934. [12]

Pinkley gained three new employees from July 1934 to July 1935. Walter G. Attwell, an engineer who had supervised part of the ruins shelter construction in 1932, served in the Southwestern Monuments headquarters during fiscal year 1935 to advise on development projects. Two junior park naturalists, Dale S. King (July 1934) and Louis R. Caywood (July 1935), joined the staff to help Bob Rose expand the education program. The archeology background of these two men provided an example of one problem faced by Pinkley. He wanted to hire archeologists but, because the National Park Service had no provision for archeologists as a result of its natural area orientation, Pinkley had to hire archeologists under the naturalist title. King spent several months in early 1935 at the Park Service Education Laboratories in Berkeley where he prepared exhibits for the California Pacific International Exposition in San Diego. Rose was also stationed at that field office while he designed displays for the Aztec National Monument museum. At the same time, Rose produced a General Educational Development Plan manuscript as a first step in a museum and education program for the Southwestern Monuments. Louis Caywood did public contact work for education and publicity purposes. [13]

Beginning in July 1936, Pinkley's headquarters staff began to grow. Consequently, the Boss split his workforce into two groups — the administrative staff and the branch of research and education. The administrative group consisted of six individuals when Pinkley received approval to create a clerk-stenographer position. He also was allocated two clerk jobs to be filled by CCC personnel. Hugh M. Milker moved from chief clerk to assistant superintendent, while James Luther was hired in September to fill the chief clerk void. Another clerk-stenographer position was authorized for fiscal year 1938. The research and education branch comprised two permanent personnel and a CCC student technician. Dale S. King received a promotion to park naturalist when he replaced Bob Rose who left on January 1, 1937. Charlie R. Steen, who had joined the Casa Grande staff in 1935, was shifted to the Southwestern Monuments as a junior park naturalist to replace Louis Caywood. Clarence Cole filled the CCC student technician position in that branch during the summer of 1936. The members of the research and education branch mimeographed a number of pamphlets, gave lectures at schools, CCC camps, and civic groups. They planned museum exhibits and installed these exhibits that had been produced in the Field Division of Education laboratories. Their work extended to the investigation of proposed new monuments as well as construction work at existing units. [14]

Probably the most important event of fiscal year 1937 was the establishment of the Indian CCC Mobil Unit for ruins stabilization. Created in June 1937 under the headquarters research and education branch, this group of twenty-five men and two foremen began the ruins stabilization program which has operated for many years. The unit performed urgently needed stabilization work on disintegrating ruins. Much of their time was spent at Chaco Canyon. [15]

As the Southwestern Monuments staff continued to expand in 1937, the stress of the job took its toll on Pinkley. A workaholic by nature, he had spent even more hours on the monuments' business after his wife died unexpectedly in 1929. The Boss suffered a heart attack in 1937 which kept him inactive for some time. Hugh M. Miller kept the operation going during Pinkley's absence. Two more clerk-stenographer positions were filled on the administration staff as Millard Singerman and Luis Gastellum were hired in July and August 1937. Natt Dodge joined the branch of research and education in September. Gertrude Hill filled the CCC technician job as a ranger-historian during the summer of 1937 and worked to organize the library. A third branch was established at the headquarters on July 1, 1937 with the creation of a general mechanic position. Eugene Stonehocker served as the only individual in this Branch of Maintenance until the latter part of 1938 when J. L. "Teddy" Baehr joined him as a utility man. At first he worked in a small shed until the CCC completed a maintenance facility. Here he maintained the Southwestern Monuments equipment from all the monuments. Stonehocker repaired everything from cars to tractors, cement mixers, and pumps. [16]

In early 1938, to enlarge upon educational activities, Pinkley decided to create a publication capability. The Southwestern Monuments Association, as the Boss named it, was designed to parallel the type of work done by the Yosemite and Grand Canyon natural history associations. In July 1938, Pinkley received approval from the Secretary of the Interior to create the association. The headquarters staff in the branch of research and education supervised publications. [17]

By 1939 the Southwestern Monuments headquarters staff had grown to fifteen employees. Pinkley succeeded with building his "adobe wall". He had achieved an almost self-contained operation within the Park Service, but the number of personnel strained the office space of the Casa Grande administration/museum building. Pinkley renamed the branch of research and education to branch of historic sites/branch of research and information. Its programs were divided into seven sections:

1.) Research and Survey which dealt with bird banding, herbarium collections, and visitor reaction to museum exhibits.

2.) Archeological projects for oversight of the ruins stabilization program and artifact collections which were stored in a room in the Casa Grande maintenance equipment building.

3.) Interpretive Projects comprised slides and photographs for projection and display, public talks, movies, leaflets, booklets, assistance to monument staffs on their interpretive programs, and nature trail projects.

4.) Exhibit programs involved the installation of museum displays, writing exhibit prospectus, making labels, and building exhibit cases.

5.) Publicity covered photographs, maps, and signs.

6.) Loan Library included new purchases and loans to monuments as well as book repair which was done in the National Park Service Western Museum Laboratories. (The Western Museum Laboratories was the successor to the Field Office Education Laboratories.)

7.) Southwestern Monuments Association which covered publications. [18]

At the beginning of 1944) Pinkley finally had enough funds to bring all of the Southwestern Monuments custodians together for a conference at the headquarters. The meetings were set to open on February 14. After his men had assembled on that morning, Pinkley gave the opening address. When he returned to his seat, he had a heart attack. Before anyone could do anything, the Boss had died. [19]

Hugh M. Miller succeeded Pinkley as Superintendent of the Southwestern Monuments. He continued to administer the programs that Pinkley had developed. To somewhat relieve the crowding in the Casa Grande administration building, Miller had a private office added to the southwest corner of that structure. Charles A. Richey transferred from the Region Three office in Santa Fe to fill the assistant superintendent position. [20]

There were changes within the administration of some programs in 1941. With the end of the CCC, funding from that source for the ruins stabilization program halted. National Youth Administration (NYA) personnel and funds were used to continue that operation. Miller hoped to get a permanent appropriation for that program. The NYA boys were also used as clerical assistants at the Southwestern Monument headquarters and to help Stonehocker in the automobile repair shop. [21]

A new program was added in 1941. Soil and Moisture Conservation funds became available for the first time. Money from that source was used for contour furrowing, revegetation, and gully control work and plantings. Among other places, some contour furrowing was done at Casa Grande to conserve moisture and prevent erosion. [22]

After some special assignments in the Region Three and Washington, D.C. offices, Hugh M. Miller transferred to the regional office in Santa Fe. Charles Richey replaced Miller as Superintendent on July 1, 1942. The days of the Southwestern Monuments headquarters at Casa Grande were numbered. On October 19, 1942, the headquarters and personnel were transferred to the Region Three office in Santa Fe except for the maintenance people who remained at the shops and warehouse at Casa Grande until their program ended in 1948. [23]

Once in the regional office, Pinkley's organization changed somewhat. The administrative staff was combined with that of the region and the Superintendent became an Assistant Regional Director. The Southwestern Monuments remained at the regional office until the end of 1952. At that time, the headquarters was moved to Globe, Arizona, where it existed until it ceased operations at the end of 1957. The archeology and ruins stabilization functions remained at Globe as the Southwestern Archeology Center, but the other personnel were disbursed among various Park Service offices. The Southwestern Monuments joined the rest of the National Park Service. The adobe wall had crumbled. [24]