National Park Service United States Park Police: A History

CHIEFS UNDER THE NATIONAL PARK SERVICE

Patrick J. Carroll	1932-1940
Henry Helms	1940-1941
Mark A. Raspberry (in military 1942-1945)	1941-1954
Jerome B. Lawler (vice Raspberry)	1942-1945
Harold F. Stewart	1954-1963*
Nelson Murdock	1963-1966
Walter W. Lange	1966-1968
Grant Wright	1968-1973
Jerry L. Wells	1973-1979
Parker T. Hill	1979-1981
Lynn H. Herring	1981-

*Nash Castro acted as chief 1961-62 and Nelson Murdock acted as chief 1962-63; see Force in Turmoil chapter.

ILLUSTRATIONS

The First Park Watchman's Uniform, 1900. (From Annual Report of the Chief of Engineers for 1900, p. 5244)

The Second Uniform, 1903 (National Archives)

The Second Uniform with Summer Straw Helmet (National Archives)

NPS Associate Director Arthur E. Demaray and Assistant Director Conrad L. Wirth flank USPP Chief Mark A. Raspberry inspecting Civilian Disturbance Group on Washington Monument Grounds, 1950. (photo by Abbie Rowe, NPS)

USPP Horse Mounted Unit takes top honors in police team competition at Devon, Pennsylvannia, 1973. Chief Jerry L. Wells, left foreground, receives trophy from Sgt. Denis R. Ayres. Mounted from left: Pvts. Harry Huber, Norbert Bonjo, David Lennox, Reubin Ginn, John Thrift. (NPS Newsletter photo)

William Butler, Director, Federal Law Enforcement Training Center, and Deputy Chief Franklin A. Arthur congratulate Pvt. Kathleen Carlson for top scholastic honors at FLETC, 1974 (photo by Herman E. Baines, USPP)

A NOTE ON SOURCES

In a compact history, little purpose is served by repeating in a bibliography all the specific sources identified in the footnotes. Instead, this note will highlight the general collections and sources that proved most useful during the research.

The U.S. Statutes at Large, the chronological publication of all federal laws, was a basic reference especially important in tracing early appropriations for park watchman. Nineteenth-century appropriations acts itemized expenditures for personnel in great detail; from their failure to mention watchmen on Washington's public grounds beyond the White House and Capitol before 1866, it could reasonably be inferred that there were none. The reports of the Commissioner of Public Buildings, who had jurisdiction over the parks until 1867, were likewise silent on park watchmen until 1866, corroborating the inference.

Record Group 42 in the National Archives contains the records of the office of Public Buildings and Grounds, which oversaw the parks for the Army's Chief of Engineers from 1867 to 1925, and the Office of Public Buildings and Public Parks of the National Capital, its independent successor from 1925 to 1933. Here are found the annual reports of the military officers in charge of these offices and much correspondence pertaining to the watchmen and police. Unfortunately, Record Group 79, the records of the National Park Service in the Archives, contains only sporadic reference to the Park Police after 1933.

The volumes of annual congressional hearings on the District of Columbia and Interior Department appropriations bills since 1933 contain some testimony and supporting information on the Park Police, as does the Congressional Record in its coverage of other bills and floor debate related to the force.

Clipping collections in the Washingtoniana Room of the Martin Luther King Library helped to compensate for the paucity of Park Service records covering the years after 1933. The clippings, from the several Washington newspapers since the 1930s, are naturally weighted to the more sensational aspects of Park Police history rather than routine operations; the chapters that depend heavily on them, "Defending the Force" and "The Force in Turmoil," should be read accordingly.

Most of the annual reports issued by the Park Police in recent decades have been statistical compilations of limited value for a narrative history. The reports published for 1975 and 1977 were exceptions, providing good descriptions of the force's activities in those years. A historical file kept in the Office of Planning and Development at Park Police Headquarters contains much useful information and a few short papers tracing the back grounds of various functions, such as the three-page "History of the United States Park Police Aviation Section." Conversations with T. Sutton Jett, Nash Castro, James J. Lyons, Michael Fogarty, Lynn Herring, and William McDonnell provided valuable leads and helped fill gaps in the written record.