Guadalupe Mountains An Administrative History

SUPERINTENDENTS

Donald Dayton, Superintendent of Guadalupe Mountains National Park, 1972-1981. (NPS Photo)

Donald Dayton

Donald Dayton became Superintendent of Carlsbad Caverns in December 1970. In 1972, he also became Superintendent of the newly established Guadalupe Mountains National Park. Previously, Dayton had worked for the Department of Agriculture as a parasitologist for a year after receiving a bachelor's degree in wildlife management from Ohio State University. He entered the Park Service in 1955, as a ranger at Devil's Tower National Monument, Wyoming. During the next decade he also served at Glacier National Park, Montana, and Sequoia and King's Canyon National Parks in California. Dayton's first superintendency was at White Sands National Monument, New Mexico. From there he was promoted in 1967 to the superintendency of Petrified National Forest Park in Arizona.

Dayton's primary achievements during his superintendency of Guadalupe Mountains were in the realm of planning. From 1970 to 1981 he guided the park's planning process and was involved in the initial phases of construction of the planned facilities. He also helped to develop the park's first Resource Management Plans. During this time he faced several major public issues: the controversy over wilderness designation for the park, the proposed tramway, and the developing problem with mountain lion depredation on ranch lands adjacent to the parks. While Dayton could resolve none of the controversies by himself, as the most visible local representative of the Park Service he successfully articulated the agency's point of view to the public and gradually gained their support.

In 1981 Dayton transferred as Superintendent to become Deputy Regional Director of the Southwest Region.