An Administra Ti Ve History of Grand Canyon Na Tional Pa Rk
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Polishing the Jewel An Administra ti ve History of Grand Canyon Na tional Pa rk by Michael F.Anderson GRA N D CA N YO N A S S OC I ATI O N Grand Canyon Association P.O. Box 399 Grand Canyon, AZ 86023 www.grandcanyon.org Grand Canyon Association is a non-profit organization. All proceeds from the sale of this book will be used to support the educational goals of Grand Canyon National Park. Copyright © 2000 by Grand Canyon Association. All rights reserved. Monograph Number 11 Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Anderson, Michael F. Polishing the jewel : an adminstrative history of Grand Canyon National Park/by Michael F.Anderson p. cm. -- (Monograph / Grand Canyon Association ; no. 11) Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 0-938216-72-4 1. Grand Canyon National Park (Ariz.)--Management—History. 2.Grand Canyon National Park (Ariz.)--History. 3. United States. National Park Service—History. I. Title. II. Monograph (Grand Canyon Association) ; no. 11. F788 .A524 2000 333.78’3’0979132--dc21 00-009110 Edited by L. Greer Price and Faith Marcovecchio Designed by Kim Buchheit, Dena Dierker and Ron Short Cover designed by Ron Short Printed in the United States of America on recycled paper. Front cover: Tour cars bumper-to-bumper from the Fred Harvey Garage to the El Tovar Hotel, ca.1923. Traffic congestion has steadily worsened at Grand Canyon Village since the automobile became park visitors’ vehicle of choice in the mid-1920s.GRCA 3552; Fred Harvey Company photo. Inset front cover photo: Ranger Perry Brown collects a one dollar “automobile permit” fee at the South Rim,1931.GRCA 30. an adm i n i strati ve history of grand ca nyon nati onal pa r k PolishingContent thes Jewel List of Illustrations ii Preface iii Acknowledgments viii 1 Becoming a National Park, - 2 Foundations, - 3 Ironic Golden Years, - 4 World War and Its Wake, - 5 Infrastructural Last Hurrah, - 6 An End to Consensus, - 7 Upshots and Prognosis Appendix 1 Visitation Statistics Appendix 2 Park Superintendents Endnotes Index IllustFigurerationss All photographs are from the Grand Canyon National Park Museum Collection. All images are National Park Service photos unless otherwise indicated. 1. Map of Grand Canyon National Monument/Grand Canyon 27. NPS, BIA,and Havasupai Tribe officials, 1947. 44 Game Preserve, 1906-10. x 28. Assistant Superintendent James V. “Jimmy” Lloyd. 45 2. The Edwin Dilworth “Uncle Dee”Woolley cabin, ca.1907; Rust Collection photo. 1 29. Fred Gurley, president of the Santa Fe Railroad. 47 3. U.S.Forest Service ranger Pat Fenton,1905. 9 30. Byron Harvey, Jr., president of Fred Harvey Company, below Mooney Falls,Havasu Canyon,1950. 47 4. Fred Harvey Girls, ca.1915; photo by T. L.Brown. 10 31. Fred Harvey buses at Mather Point,autumn 1954; 5. NPS staff in front of the 1921 park administrative photo by Steve Leding. 49 building, 1930. 11 32. Assistant Superintendent Lon Garrison with 6. William Harrison Peters. 13 Fred Harvey Manager W. D. Rouzer. 50 7. Fred Harvey tour buses, ca.1923; Fred Harvey 33. Naturalist’s Workshop (formerly Grand Canyon School), Company photo. 14 1930s. 51 8. Wylie Way Camp staff at Bright Angel Point,1919. 15 34. Interior of Naturalist’s Workshop, 1948; photo by J. M.Eden. 52 9. The 1924 village plan map. 19 35. First (and only) plane to land within the canyon,at Plateau 10. Superintendent J. R. Eakin (left) and Fred Harvey Point, 8 August 1922; Fred Harvey Company photo. 54 manager Victor Pattroso, ca.1925. 20 36. Map of park boundaries pre-1975. 56 11. Employee housing along the railroad tracks near the wye, 1932. 22 37. Uniformed NPS personnel, April 1956. 59 12. View of Grand Canyon Village from an army biplane, 38. Interpretive sign,Grand Canyon Village, late 1960s. 61 ca.1924. 24 39. First units of Yavapai Lodge under construction, 13. Rangers R. Redburn and George Collins in front April 1958. 64 of new administrative building,September 1931. 26 40. Map of park boundaries,post-1975. 66 14. Uniformed NPS personnel, ca.1934. 26 41. Trail caretaker Newt Schaeffer feeding antelope, 15. October 1936 view of North Rim camp for Civilian 1920s,Indian Garden; photo by Edwin McKee. 71 Conservation Corps Company 818. 27 42. Rangers planting trout fry in Clear Creek,1940. 72 16. Aerial view of South Rim, 1932; Fred Harvey Company photo. 27 43. Sikorsky S-61 helicopter carrying a truck down to Phantom Ranch,May 1968. 76 17. Twenty 10,000-gallon tankers deliver water from the Chino Valley to South Rim storage tanks,1961. 28 44. Merle Stitt and John Riffey, January 1980. 77 18. Civilian Conservation Corps recruits, September 1937. 29 45. Grand Canyon National Park interpretive staff, 1978; photo by Bob Butterfield. 78 19. The bridge spanning Dead Indian Canyon along the original East Approach Road, ca.1935. 30 46. Utah Parks Company employees in front of original Grand Canyon Lodge entrance,North Rim,1930; 20. Civilian Conservation Corps crew rounding slopes photo by George C.Grant. 80 along West Rim Drive, 1937. 31 47. The Motor Lodge central services building, east side, 21. Grand Canyon National Park road system, pre-1940. 32 ca.1935. 81 22. Off-duty Civilian Conservation Corps recruits meet 48. Aerial view of Grand Canyon Village, 1989; photo by Harvey girls,1936; photo by Ernest Lee Burns. 33 Greg Probst. 81 23. Early naturalists (left to right) Fred Wright, Eddie 49. Dedication of Roosevelt Point,1996. 84 McKee,Vernon Bailey, and Glenn Sturdevant,1929. 34 50. President Clinton dedicates Parashant National Monument. 86 24. Pauline “Polly”Mead Patraw (1904-), first woman ranger-naturalist at Grand Canyon National Park. 34 51. Parking congestion in Grand Canyon Village. 87 25. The temporary ranger staff of 1939. 36 52. Arizona Governor Fife Symington at press conference along South Entrance Road,1995. 88 26. Members of 51st Armored Infantry on Bright Angel Trail, April 1943; photo by Emery Kolb. 42 53. Canyon View Information Plaza, 2000. 89 i i an adm i n i strati ve history of grand ca nyon nati onal pa r k PrPrefefaceace When the U.S. Congress granted Yosemite Valley to the This conclusion derives from consideration of Grand people of California in 1864 and withdrew from private Canyon and national park history within a broad frame- entry a portion of northwestern Wyoming as Yellowstone work of world-system theory, a method of historical inquiry National Park in 1872, it set national precedents for reserv- that shifts analysis from the actions of individual nations to ing expansive parcels of open land as public parks. Since worldwide trends of the past five hundred years.The his- those years national parks, monuments, historic sites, torical model also focuses on a single, expanding, capitalist seashores, and recreational areas have proliferated, reaching economy that by the early twentieth century had captured every state in the union but Delaware and embracing more world markets, labor, and natural resources, but posits more than 375 discrete units comprising 83 million acres.The than a Marxist view of world economies. Immanuel National Park Service and its allies have successfully, for the Wallerstein argues in Historical Capitalism with Capitalist most part, fended off concerted efforts to tap these reserves Civilization (Verso, 1995), and I contend in the context of for extractive purposes, helping other land-management national park history, that world capitalism has engendered agencies slow a centuries-long trend of exhausting the public a pervasive social system in which the scope of capitalistic domain. rules Despite its many achievements, the National Park Service has grown ever wider, the enforcers ofthese rules vee r more in recent decades has been roundly criticized by many sectors intransigent,the penetration ofthese rules into the social of U.S. society, including its intermittent allies among con- fabric ever greater, even while social opposition to these gressmen, preservationists, businessmen, and public users. rules has grown ever louder and more organized. The history at hand, though narrowly descriptive of issues and events of an administrative nature at Grand Canyon It is within the contexts of these “rules” that native peoples, National Park from 1919 to the present, is also attentive to explorers, settlers, exploiters, capitalists, ecologists, tourists, this judgmental shift toward the eighty-three-year-old interest groups, park administrators, and governments have organization born at the apogee of U.S. progressivism and so acted and reacted in the canyon region since the mid-nine- immediately successful. A principal argument is that funda- teenth century, virtually unquestioned until a century later mental causes of the perceived about-face derive not as much when “social opposition” gained a viable national voice. from specific agency decisions, which have proved remark- It will be a relief to most readers that I do not relate ably consistent for nearly a century, as from a maturing com- park history within the intricate “vectors” and vocabulary of prehension of ecology and an understanding of true “preser- world-system theory, but rather limit contextual relation- vation,” or what Stephen Mather called “complete conserva- ships to several of the more noticeable and destructive ele- tion.” As park administrators, scientists, and others gained a ments of the modern era explained by that paradigm. First better understanding of what is required to allow ecosystems and foremost, of the 4,300 internal and external threats to to evolve along their own paths, the ambition of some to the national parks identified in the NPS internal study, implement such knowledge collided head on with demo- State ofthe Parks—1980, nearly all can be traced to the sole graphic, economic, and political trends observable in the malady of expanding populations, which fulfills our cul- western United States since the mid-nineteenth century, ture’s need for more consumers as well as cheap laborers.