Guadalupe Mountains An Administrative History

The Forces at Work

During a period of fifty years a number of social, political, and economic factors combined to bring about the establishment of Guadalupe Mountains National Park. Three of those factors might be singled out as crucial. One was philosophical: the belief in the necessity for parks in American society. The other two factors were economic: rapid development and population growth in West Texas and southern New Mexico, and the increasing use of the automobile, which provided a means to escape the pressures that development and increasing population created.

Parks were an accepted part of American life by the 1920s. Congressional authorization of the National Park Service in 1916 reflected public interest in material and spiritual conservation. This philosophy was based in the belief that scenic grandeur, experienced in a relatively primitive state, could revitalize people who lived daily with the forces of industrialization and urbanization. Since the country had a non-renewable supply of scenic resources, people believed they should be conserved and managed for use by present and future generations. [1]

Although the entire Southwest was less than thirty years past its frontier stage, the area was growing up. People living in small and scattered agricultural and ranching communities in New Mexico and Texas watched towns like Las Cruces, Roswell, Artesia, Carlsbad, and El Paso grow to be prosperous centers of economy and culture.

"Boosterism," a popular term of the early twentieth century, described the efforts made by individuals and organizations to advertise the potentials of a locale for economic development and personal contentment. Boosters wanted to put their towns "on the map." Chambers of commerce, the institutions of boosterism, seemed to grow spontaneously once a town achieved a population of several thousand.

El Paso, Texas, a city by local standards, was geographically isolated from other centers of population in Texas. The El Paso Chamber of Commerce looked east, therefore, to the rapidly developing oil fields of the Permian basin as a market for goods and services and to the newly established Carlsbad Cave National Monument in southeastern New Mexico as a source of expanding tourism.

Boosters of Carlsbad, New Mexico, were equally aware of the economic potential of their area. After Carlsbad Cave was designated a National Monument in 1923, tourism became the most frequently mentioned topic in the local newspaper. In addition to the spectacular cave, the boosters of Carlsbad pointed to the rugged beauty and archeological artifacts to be found in the canyons of the nearby Guadalupe Mountains; the beautiful and healthful waters of Sitting Bull Falls and Carlsbad Spring; and the tamer diversions the city offered, such as swimming and golf. [2]

The automobile provided the means for many people to make excursions to relatively distant points on their own time schedules. Without access to the diversions afforded by major metropolitan areas, and living in a climate that provided long seasons for enjoyment of the outdoors, residents of West Texas and southern New Mexico often spent vacation times camping and exploring archeological ruins or geological formations. The guano cave near Carlsbad, where Jim White was the resident foreman and guide, was a popular recreation destination for people from the area even before it became a national monument. Because they were proud of their scenic resources, local people also wanted the rest of the country to appreciate them.

As automobile use expanded, people became more aware of the limitations of the old wagon roads. Local good roads committees grew up with the chambers of commerce. Those committees, magnified to state and federal proportions, served as the lobbying forces to promote the establishment of a national highway system. Although people began to think it would be a good idea to establish a park in the scenic Guadalupe Mountains located between Carlsbad and El Paso, a park could develop only after roads opened the remote area. On the other hand, tax dollars would not be spent on improving or building a road unless the road led somewhere. In West Texas and southern New Mexico, automobiles, roads, and parks were inextricably linked.

Motorcades were a phenomenon of the 1920s, expressive of the country's newfound mobility, the spirit of boosterism, and goodwill toward neighboring communities. Organized by chambers of commerce, these events involved from several dozen to hundreds of vehicles traveling together, usually for a few days, but sometimes for weeks at a time. The motorcade was met with enthusiasm wherever it stopped because it occasioned an opportunity to show off each locality's particular attractions to an appreciative audience. During the social activities there was always time to discuss ways to strengthen ties between towns. Good roads were usually the principal topic.

In the 1920s no direct route existed between El Paso and Carlsbad. Instead, travelers from El Paso went to Alamogordo, then through the Sacramento Mountains to Artesia, then south to Carlsbad, a scenic but indirect route. In 1927, after a motorcade of El Pasoans through the "El Paso trade territory," the Carlsbad newspaper reported that there was much interest in building a highway to link El Paso and Carlsbad. To get such a project underway, one wealthy businessman from El Paso had put up $5,000 and challenged twenty others to match the amount. [3]

Judge J. C. Hunter and Early Park Plans

The occasion of the motorcade in 1927 was not the first time West Texans had considered the advantages of a road to connect El Paso and Carlsbad. In 1925, McKittrick Canyon, located partly in Texas and partly in New Mexico, in the southern Guadalupe Mountains, had attracted the attention of some Texans who wanted to create a state park there. The park plan was part of a larger effort to get a road built between Carlsbad and El Paso.

J. C. Hunter was a prime mover in the group boosting the park and highway. In 1924 he had visited the inaccessible but spectacular canyon for the first time. Hunter was from Van Horn, Texas, a ranching community approximately halfway between Carlsbad and El Paso, and 65 miles south of the southern end of the Guadalupe range. As judge for Culberson County, Hunter was an influential and respected man in West Texas. He also was an oilman with a substantial income. After seeing McKittrick Canyon, Hunter began working with others who were also interested in establishing a park there. [4]

In the spring of 1925, a group of about 100 persons, including the highway commissioners of both Texas and New Mexico, Governor Pat Neff of Texas, and members of the newly created Texas State Parks Board visited Carlsbad Cave and McKittrick Canyon. Considerable enthusiasm existed for the park project. After the highway commissioners agreed to build the road, Hunter purchased a section of land in the canyon, intending to donate it as part of the 6,000 to 8,000 acres that the group had pledged to help create a Texas state park. Hunter also secured a promise from the State Banking Department, which owned some of the land at the mouth of the canyon, that the land would not be sold. [5]

In September 1925, National Geographic carried a long article about the new discoveries their explorers were making at Carlsbad Caverns. Wilis T. Lee, leader of the exploration group and author of the article, apparently had been impressed by the dynamism and positive action of the Texas state park group. A portion of the article described a new Texas state park in the southern Guadalupes that had been established as a result of the Society's activities at Carlsbad Cave. Photographs of El Capitan and a canyon scene accompanied the article. [6]

In spite of initial enthusiasm, the idea of a park in McKittrick Canyon did not go beyond Hunter's initial one-section purchase. The State Banking Department reneged on its promise and sold the land at the mouth of the canyon. Disappointed, Hunter gave up the idea of a park, but continued to acquire land in the southern Guadalupe Mountains. Around 1928 he sold all of the land he had acquired to a corporation he had formed with M. McAlpine and Thomas and Matt Grisham. The corporation, headquartered in Abilene, Texas, engaged in oil and gas exploration. By 1934 the Grisham-Hunter Corporation had acquired ownership or control of 43,200 acres between the New Mexico-Texas boundary and El Capitan. [7]

Early in 1928, Stephen T. Mather, Director of the National Park Service, visited New Mexico and expressed his belief that either the Frijole Canyon area near Santa Fe (later to become Bandelier National Monument) or Carlsbad Cave could be considered logical locations for a national park. The Carlsbad Chamber of Commerce immediately went to work lobbying for the cave and suggested that sections of the Guadalupe Mountains, including Guadalupe Peak and El Capitan, should also be a part of the park. [8]

Although Judge Hunter had given up the idea of a park in McKittrick Canyon, his Grisham-Hunter Corporation remained a strong supporter of tourism in West Texas and southern New Mexico and an advocate for the El Paso to Carlsbad highway. As an expression of that support, in August 1928 the corporation hosted a 24-hour picnic in McKittrick Canyon, attended by some 500 persons, including members of the West Texas Chamber of Commerce, the governors of Texas and New Mexico, Texas Highway Commissioner R.S. Sterling, and a contingent of the Army from Ft. Bliss, which took care of the housekeeping details for the large party. Among the speakers at the festivities, Highway Commissioner Sterling spoke about the park potentials of the Guadalupes, calling it the "recreation center of Texas." He recommended that the state acquire the land in McKittrick Canyon for a park and asserted that then there would be no problem with building a road to it. [9]

Not long after the big picnic in McKittrick Canyon, J. Stokely Ligon, a biologist for the U.S. Biological Survey who had recently spent two years doing a wildlife survey of the Guadalupes for the State of New Mexico, expressed his ideas about providing public access to the Guadalupes. He envisioned a scenic loop drive touching El Paso on the west, El Capitan at the south, Roswell on the east, and White Sands National Monument on the north. Ligon suggested that many organizations and government agencies would have to cooperate to advertise the loop route and to help visitors understand its features. He emphasized, however, that while roads should be built to the canyons in the Guadalupes, the canyons themselves should only be accessible by foot or horseback. Ligon said, "The great trouble with us is that an ease-loving people want to sit in their cars and reach the few spots of natural wild life and then the wild life vanishes." [10]

Although the proposed park in McKittrick Canyon failed to materialize, two highways connecting El Paso and Carlsbad were completed by 1931. The first, the "short line" (later to become U.S. 62) was in use by the summer of 1929. [11] The other highway, U.S. 80, which linked El Paso with Van Horn, was completed in the summer of 1931. [12] Completion of these highways would enhance the credibility of later efforts to establish a park in the southern Guadalupe Mountains of Texas.

The El Paso Boosters and the Texas Legislature

During 1931 and 1932, the Guadalupe Mountain Park Association functioned as a branch of the El Paso Chamber of Commerce. E. H. Simons, manager of the El Paso Chamber of Commerce, served as secretary for the Association. An avid booster who stood by the idea of a park in the Guadalupes for a number of years, Simons approached the chairman of the Texas highway commission about the possibility of establishing a park in the southern Guadalupes. He proposed acquiring part of the ranch belonging to the Grisham-Hunter Corporation with funds raised by a county bond issue. The chairman agreed that if El Paso County would donate the park site to the State of Texas, the highway commission would build roads to scenic points within the park to a total cost of $500,000. Simons then secured an option to purchase the 33,000-acre proposed park site for a total of $200,000. Undoubtedly aware of the unreliability of funds available at the state level for park management and maintenance, Simons envisioned that after the state had developed the park it would donate it to the national park system. [13]

Although Texas had set up a state parks board in the mid-1920s, by 1930 it still did not have a state park system. Early in 1931, anticipating the access to the Guadalupe Mountains afforded by the new highways, the Texas legislature considered a bill that would have provided $300,000 to acquire land for a park in the Guadalupe Mountains. The Davis Mountain Park was proposed in the same bill. In March, the Texas State Parks Board made movies of the proposed park areas to use for publicity purposes. Once again, however, enthusiasm did not carry the issue; the proposed park bill died from lack of support. [14]

The Proposed Extension of Carlsbad Caverns

Concurrent with the Texas legislative efforts, the National Park Service investigated the possibility of extending the boundaries of Carlsbad Cave National Monument, which at that time encompassed only one square mile. On May 14, 1930, Congress gave the area national park status and authorized the extension of the boundaries. A total of 192 square miles of land surrounding the monument had previously been withdrawn by Executive Orders in 1924, 1928, and 1930. The withdrawn lands were all in New Mexico and extended west to the Lincoln National Forest boundary. [15] The proximity of these lands to the scenic splendors of Guadalupe Peak, El Capitan, and McKittrick Canyon raised the issue of extending the Carlsbad Caverns boundaries even farther.

As a part of the preliminary survey of wildlife in the national parks undertaken in 1931, Ben Thompson and George Wright, of the University of California, visited Carlsbad Caverns and the lands of the proposed extension. The researchers expressed views that diverged slightly from the traditional "monumental" attitudes toward national parks. Although they noted the relatively minor economic usefulness of the lands and recognized the scenic and recreational values of the Guadalupe Mountains, they found the unique wildlife resources of the Guadalupes to be equally important. They noted that the Guadalupe Mountains were then or previously had been home to four native species which were not represented in other national parks: the Merriam turkey, the Texas bighorn, the collared peccary, and the Mearns quail. Thompson and Wright suggested that the peccary, which had been extirpated from the park, could be reintroduced. A remnant population still existed in the desert lands east of the Pecos River. Wright also noted the possibility that Texas would make the southernmost tip of the Guadalupes a state park and might donate it to the national park system if the boundaries of Carlsbad Caverns were extended. [16]

In September 1931, without visiting the area, F. A. Kittredge, Chief Engineer of the San Francisco Field Headquarters, gave the Director a more traditional assessment of the lands of the proposed boundary expansion. He saw no advantage in extending the boundaries of Carlsbad Caverns. To him, the cave was the only attraction there, not the distant vistas or archeological features. [17]

During the 1930s, years of rapid expansion of the national park system, Roger Toll, Superintendent of Yellowstone National Park, spent his off-season time touring proposed park areas for the Park Service. As Superintendent of the nation's premier park, Toll was a powerful person in the Park Service and his opinions carried much weight. In November 1931, Toll visited Carlsbad and West Texas; he spent four days surveying the proposed extension to Carlsbad Caverns. Toll suggested that the withdrawn lands would be valuable for park purposes only if some 55 square miles of the southeastern part of the Lincoln National Forest were also added. The land in the Lincoln National Forest contained the best scenic canyons and most of the known archeological features of the area. However, Toll believed the archeological features were not "sufficiently remarkable" to justify extension of the park. [18] Two experts supported his assessment of the archeological resources: Jesse Nusbaum, director of the Laboratory of Anthropology in Santa Fe, and well-known archeologist H. P. Mera. [19] Ultimately, Toll recommended adding only 43 square miles around Carlsbad Caverns. [20]

Toll made another report to the Director of the Park Service after his trip to New Mexico and Texas. The second report concerned two park proposals that had been submitted to the Park Service. One, the Guadalupe Mountain National Park, Texas, proposed principally for its mountain scenery, had been suggested by Harold J. Brodie of Winnipeg, Canada. Brodie's proposal focused on the scenic qualities of El Capitan and Guadalupe Peak area. The other proposal, McKittrick Canyon National Monument, Texas, had been proposed by Vance Prather, secretary of the Kentucky State Park Commission. Prather had been impressed with the quantity of game in the canyon. After describing the proposals to the Director, Toll suggested that the two proposals should be combined because they involved the same general area. [21]

Although these proposals fell outside the proposed boundary extension for Carlsbad Caverns, Toll had investigated the lands during his November trip. He met with Simons of the Guadalupe Mountain Park Association and learned about the Grisham-Hunter Corporation's land holdings and of the existing option to purchase the land for $200,000. Referring to his report on the lands that had been withdrawn around Carlsbad Caverns, Toll suggested to Director Horace M. Albright that since the Texas land adjoined the southern boundary of the Lincoln National Forest it might become valuable if the land in the Lincoln National Forest were also added to Carlsbad Caverns. He concluded, though, that since the land in Texas was entirely in private ownership there was no need for action by the Park Service at that time. [22]

Local stockmen disagreed with the assessment that had been made by the Park Service regarding the economic importance of the withdrawn lands around Carlsbad Cavern. In 1933, Arno Cammerer, who had replaced Albright as Director of the Park Service, notified Toll of the opposition expressed by this group to the westward expansion of Carlsbad Caverns and told him that plans for the boundary extension had been dropped. As a result of this change, he instructed Toll that the proposed park land in Texas be considered entirely on its own merits, separate and apart from Carlsbad Caverns. [23]

The National Park Service and the Grisham-Hunter Ranch

In January 1934 Toll returned to Texas and toured the proposed park land with J. C. Hunter. Hunter indicated his interest in creating a park and offered the Grisham-Hunter Corporation's 43,200 acres to the federal government for $237,600, which was the corporation's cost for acquiring the land. Hunter also indicated that the corporation was not interested in holding the land indefinitely and that if the Park Service did not buy the land, it would be disposed of in some other way. He suggested that summer-home sites might be sold to wealthy people, while land unsuited to that type of development could be held in joint ownership by the residents as a private game preserve. [24]

The Grisham-Hunter corporation did not own all of the land that was proposed for the Guadalupe Mountain park. Toll learned that "Guadalupe Point" [El Capitan] was owned by J.C. Williams and 200 acres at Frijole Post Office were owned by J.T. Smith, who valued his land and improvements at $10,000. Wallace Pratt owned the land at the mouth of McKittrick Canyon and was not interested in selling it. Toll had been advised, by sources he did not reveal, that Pratt had no interest in the park idea and preferred to see the land used for private summer homes. [25]

In the 1930s the federal government was not in the business of purchasing private property for park lands. National parks created from private lands had been purchased by philanthropists who then donated them to the national park system. Toll seemed to be undisturbed by the fact that all of the lands of the proposed Texas park were in private ownership and that one of the owners was known to be uninterested in selling. Indeed, when he made his recommendation, he even ignored Cammerer's directive that the Texas park would have to stand on its own. He suggested that while the Texas land was not suitable as a separate national park, he did believe it would be a valuable addition to Carlsbad Caverns, even if it had to be administered as a detached unit of that park. [26]

Toll was the first of many to suggest a road connecting the Guadalupe ridge with Carlsbad Caverns. Believing that the road would provide a scenic and shorter alternative to U.S. 62 for visitors to Carlsbad Cavern, he envisioned a road taking off from U.S. 62, west of El Capitan, skirting the west face of the mountains, reaching the crest, and then continuing to the Caverns. To support this suggestion, Toll depended upon Simons' agreement with the Texas highway commission to build $500,000 worth of roads if the park became a reality. [27]

The Director received more input about the proposed extension to Carlsbad Caverns in April 1934. George Wright and Ben Thompson visited the area that month, this time as part of a survey of wildlife management in the parks. Wright wrote the report of their findings. He recommended adding the southern Guadalupes to Carlsbad Caverns National Park, but cautioned that the eastern boundary of the extension should lie close to the foot of the mountains so it would not encroach on land used for livestock grazing. He added that McKittrick Canyon was the most scenic of the canyons on the eastern face of the Guadalupes, providing opportunity for development of hiking and camping features as well as possibilities for an "unusual wildlife preserve." Finally, Wright recommended that the elk herd introduced into McKittrick Canyon be "either greatly reduced or extirpated entirely, if this area becomes a national park." Wright viewed the Canadian elk (cervus canadensis canadensis), which Hunter transplanted to replace the extinct Arizona Wapiti (cervus merriami), as an exotic species that inhabited the slopes of the canyon nearest the stream bed, and destroyed "native and extremely picturesque vegetation." [28]

Cammerer accepted the advice of Toll and Wright. In September 1934 he proposed to Secretary of the Interior Harold L. Ickes that the area of the Guadalupe Mountains in Texas and about 30 square miles of the Lincoln National Forest in New Mexico be added to Carlsbad Caverns as a detached area. He also suggested that a 1,000-foot-wide parkway connect the two areas. [29]

In spite of the flurry of reports and reconnaissance trips, the annual reports of the Secretary of the Interior indicate the seriousness of the interest of the Department of the Interior in the Guadalupe Mountains park. Each year the report listed areas that were being considered as additions to other parks or as separate parks. The Texas area received no mention in any of the annual reports from 1934 to 1945. [30]

The 1938 Revival

For three years the Guadalupe park proposal received little attention. Then, in April 1938, at the request of Director Cammerer, Herbert Maier, Acting Regional Director of Region III in Santa Fe, and a team of four resource specialists investigated the entire Guadalupe range, to its southern extremity in Texas. Maier and the survey team concluded that except for the southern extremity of the range, the mountains provided little in the way of scenic or wildlife values. They recommended against extending the boundaries of Carlsbad Caverns to include the mountainous area. [31]

Shortly after 1934, Judge Hunter had acquired sole title to the Guadalupe Mountain lands formerly owned by the Grisham-Hunter Corporation. During the period of corporate ownership, and subsequently during Hunter's individual ownership, the ranch was managed with an eye to conservation. Although the land was open to deer hunting (by invitation) each fall, much of the land remained undisturbed throughout the rest of the year. McKittrick Canyon was protected from grazing and hunting. Hunter continued to believe the canyon land should be a park.

During 1938 Hunter proposed to donate a 1,000-acre site in McKittrick Canyon to the State of Texas. He included several stipulations with his offer. Access to the park was a prime consideration. Hunter asked (1) that the state build an 8-mile access road to the canyon, and (2) that development must begin immediately, preferably through the use of Civilian Conservation Corps personnel. E.H. Simons convinced the members of the State Parks Board to tour the proposed park site on October 5 and 6, 1938. He invited Herbert Maier to accompany the group. [32]

Maintaining the enthusiasm of earlier boosters and recognizing the potential economic and civic advantages of the project, the writers for the El Paso Times covered the tour with considerable optimism even though no official decisions had been made. A week later, the Sunday edition of the paper contained a full page of photographs taken during the McKittrick tour. Three weeks after the McKittrick photo essay, the Times ran another full page of photographs of the white sand dunes, which were located on the west side of the Texas Guadalupes. [33]

D. D. Obert, Assistant Landscape Architect for the Park Service, prepared a report for the Texas State Parks Board about the proposed Hunter donation in McKittrick Canyon. Obert considered the landscape value of the Guadalupes "unexcelled in Texas and. . . superb scenery anywhere." He also attributed the beauty of the area to private ownership that had precluded public exploitation. In addition to scenery, the report covered forestry and wildlife, which Obert considered equally important. Obert's conclusions brought new issues about park development to light. Some sound surprisingly modern. He suggested that if the canyon were to be accepted for state park purposes, four points needed careful consideration: location, size, accessibility, and type of development. He suggested that an open area near the mouth of the canyon would be needed to provide service facilities for the park. Obert believed that the 1,000 acres proposed for the park were not sufficient, that at least 2,500 to 3,000 acres were necessary for proper development of the canyon resources. He emphasized that 150 acres of the additional acreage should be at the canyon mouth. He believed that because the canyon was isolated from centers of population, its primary users would be tourists and vacationers, not picnickers. Given those users, Obert suggested that the park should offer enough diversions to occupy people for at least two weeks, not half a day. After evaluating the proposed land donation, Obert advised against establishing a park in the canyon. He recommended leaving the area in private ownership rather than mar it with overdevelopment. [34]

Obert's recommendations apparently were not made public and enthusiasm for the project mounted. In early November 1938, Texas highway commission officials visited McKittrick. They expressed their desire to cooperate to get the road issue worked out. The El Paso Times continued its support for the park. On November 4 an article and an editorial discussed the fact that Hunter's entire ranch was for sale. The newspaper reported that E.H. Simons had negotiated a deal to purchase the 44,000 acres for $6 per acre, providing the land was used as a state park and the purchase was not made with funds appropriated by the legislature. During negotiations, Hunter had suggested that a purchase could be accomplished by long-term notes, to be paid through user fees obtained from the park. Two weeks later, Texas Governor-elect W. Lee "Pass the Biscuits Pappy" O'Daniel toured McKittrick with Hunter and Simons and pledged to do everything he could to establish a park there. [35]

By August 1939 Texas still had taken no positive moves to acquire either the McKittrick donation or the entire ranch. At that time Acting Regional Director Herbert Maier responded to another request to assess the appropriateness of extending the boundaries of Carlsbad Caverns to include portions of the Guadalupe Mountains in Texas and New Mexico. As a result of changes to the boundaries of Carlsbad Caverns National Park, which had been accomplished by Presidential Proclamation in February 1939, Maier reversed the stand he had taken in 1938. The new park boundary lay immediately adjacent to the most desirable park land in the Guadalupes. Maier agreed with technicians from the regional office who recommended extending the present boundaries to the southernmost point of the Guadalupe Mountains. He also emphasized the wildlife values present in the lands of the proposed expansion since he believed the lands surrounding Carlsbad Caverns contained little in the way of wildlife. [36]

A year later, the Park Service was still debating the extension to Carlsbad Caverns. Planning Coordinator Wendell Little of the Washington office of the Park Service wrote to Director Newton Drury, describing his trip to Carlsbad and the Guadalupes in July 1940. Little recognized the scenic value of El Capitan and Guadalupe Peak, but also knew the problems involved in the Park Service acquiring privately owned land. He presented a suggestion proffered by Ben Thompson: that profits from the operation of Carlsbad Caverns could be used to purchase the private land in Texas. Since that idea required Congressional approval to become reality, Little recommended that legislation to extend the boundaries to El Capitan be drafted and submitted to the Interior Department for consideration. [37]

Within the Park Service during the 1930s, ideas of what constituted a park and how park lands should be acquired were changing. Two new parks authorized in the mid-1920s, Shenandoah and Great Smoky, could be considered transitional. While these parks contained scenic mountains and fit the visual standards of the great parks in the West, they also contained the ecological qualities of later-twentieth century parks. Also, both of these parks required private philanthropy to be purchased. The Everglades National Park, established in 1934, established a precedent for parks created purely for conservation purposes. Cape Hatteras National Seashore (1937) confirmed that precedent. [38]

Both issues--park values and acquisition by purchase--were involved in the Park Service considerations of the Guadalupe Mountain lands. None of the people who assessed the proposed Texas park lands denied the scenic value of the mountainous area at the southernmost tip of the Guadalupe Mountains. Most were doubtful, however, that the scenic quality of the rest of the Guadalupe range bordering on Carlsbad Caverns was of monumental value. Interests in ecological values prompted the biologists to recommend establishment of the Texas park for the rare and endemic plant and animal species they found in the proposed park lands. Finally, the preservation ethic of one evaluator caused him to suggest that McKittrick Canyon be left in private hands rather than ruin it with development. Most of the evaluators seemed to assume that the State of Texas would take the lead in establishing the park, then would turn it over to the national system. While Texas had done little to give credence to this position, it provided a comfortable starting point from which administrators could deal with boosters like Simon. More realistic points of view, such as Little's suggestion that legislation be drafted to permit spending excess funds from Carlsbad Caverns to acquire the land in Texas, apparently fell on deaf ears. No one considered purchase of the park lands by Congressional appropriation. That approach would not be used for another twenty years.

The 1940s and 1950s

In spite of the depressed state of the national economy, the 1930s had been a time of expansion and improvement for the parks; the work performed by the Civilian Conservation Corps had been particularly beneficial. The optimism of the park officials who investigated the Guadalupe extension to Carlsbad Caverns was part of that wave of expansion and improvement. The 1940s, however, brought a new Director to the Park Service and new attitudes toward the national park system.

Economies enforced by World War II and the conservative leadership of Director Newton Drury caused the Park Service to languish during the 1940s. Drury came to the Park Service from a successful career in park work in California. He was known for his skill in obtaining public support for preservation of the California redwoods and private financial support for the establishment of park lands. However, during his years as Director of the Park Service, his unaggressive style of management generated criticism from those who believed in a stronger preservation ethic than Drury exhibited. He called for minimal development of the visitor facilities of the parks; restraint seemed to be his guiding principle. [39]

In 1945, Ben Thompson, who was then Chief, Branch of Lands, for the Park Service in Washington, expressed the subsidence of enthusiasm for expansion when he once again addressed the subject of extension of the boundaries of Carlsbad Caverns. He wrote to Regional Director Minor Tillotson in Santa Fe and told him that he foresaw no major boundary changes for the park. He asked Tillotson to encourage the State of Texas to acquire McKittrick Canyon and the Guadalupe Peak section of the Guadalupe Mountains. Thompson intimated that the Park Service would probably be receptive if the state offered to donate the park lands at some later date. [40]

When Conrad Wirth took over as Director of the Park Service in 1951, the entire park system needed renovation. MISSION 66, a program undertaken in the mid-1950s to improve all park access and facilities by 1966, proved to be a high point in development of the national parks. However, the emphasis of MISSION 66 was on upgrading existing parks rather than adding new ones to the system. Throughout the late 1950s and early 1960s, therefore, there was little interest within the Park Service for creating a new park in Texas.

The Early Park Movements

From 1925 to 1945 a relatively sustained effort existed to establish a park in the Guadalupe Mountains of Texas. The effort, however, was highly fragmented. Little substantive exchange took place between interested citizens and park agencies. Boosters were interested in expanding tourism because their communities would experience economic benefits. The spiritual and psychological appeal of the mountains and canyons of the Guadalupes so enthralled them that they gave little thought to the problems involved in administering a large park. Acquisition of the land was the boosters' primary concern.

On the other side, national and state park agencies worried about where they would find the money to acquire, develop, and maintain park lands. The Texas legislature was hesitant to make any move, partly because of lack of funds and partly because every legislator was promoting his district's pet park. [41]

Park Service personnel worked to justify either the creation of a separate Texas national park or an extension to Carlsbad Caverns. Neither plan fit neatly into the financial and ideological frameworks of the Park Service. By some analyses the scenic value of the Texas park was limited. By other analyses, acquisition of the land was the problem since purchase by the federal government was a method yet untried. In addition to those problems, a wide range of viewpoints existed within the Park Service regarding the character and purposes of park lands. The emerging awareness of conservation of unique biota was apparent in the assessments of Wright, Thompson, and Toll. Similarly, Obert recognized the fragility of McKittrick Canyon, but he went further than his associates and addressed development needs and compared them with the resource. He did not consider economic gain or recreational values to be appropriate trade-offs for destruction of the canyon. A generation later, environmentalists concerned with the development of Guadalupe Mountains National Park would express beliefs similar to Obert's.