Grand Canyon's Memorial Mather Plaques

Eighty Pounds of Bronze – Grand Canyon’s Memorial Mather Plaques

Mather Plaque, author’s photo. Plaque’s inscription was taken from the House of Representatives speech given by the Hon. Louis C. Cramton on the retirement of Stephen T. Mather, January 15, 1929. by G. Arthur Janssen stone trim, car-size chunks of Kaibab cobble together 57 Park units and cre- limestone, a cozy rustic amphitheater, ate a new, respected Federal agency or years the bronze plaque and all native vegetation, the Mather between 1915 and 1929. Now with hung on its boulder along a Plaque on its boulder is now perched more than 400 Park units around the bleak dusty path trampled life- at rim’s edge atop a stairway. It is a world today and a broad range of Fless by streams of gawking tourists stunning presentation. interpretive programs, research proj- on the South Rim. Somehow Stephen Stephen Mather’s part in the Park ects, and educational services, the Mather is important to the Park Ser- Service’s founding is a great story legacy of Stephen Mather in the 21st vice and the Grand Canyon, but here that was meant to be. Successes and century is simply astounding. it isn’t apparent how or why. Putting failures. A remarkable Secretary of The founding of Grand Canyon together plans and funding, the Park Interior in Franklin Lane. Mather’s National Park is equally storied with Service pulled off an elaborate reno- able assistant (and successor), Horace Teddy Roosevelt, a rogue Arizona vation of Mather Point starting in Albright. Congress. Politics. Money. senator, John Muir, a millionaire land 2010. Amid accessible concrete walks, Through it all, Mather managed to baron/newspaper magnate, Indian www.GrandCanyonHistory.org Grand Canyon Historical Society : 3 tribes, miners, scoundrels, a legend- recognize the remarkable achieve- ognition. They settled on the idea of ary liar, entrepreneurs of all sorts, ments of this charismatic man and a memorial tablet to be sent to Parks the Forest Service, a prima donna what Parks mean to all America. In where Mather had been personally architect, and an avaricious railroad. the seeming urgency of the moment, committed to their development Whew! Through all this, Mather’s planting a tree seemed simple and and success. Bryant Baker, a world- goal for America at the Grand Canyon appropriate enough. Several letters renowned sculptor, was chosen as came together pretty well, all things passed back and forth between the artist and paid $1,000 for the arts and considered. The Grand Canyon re- South Rim and Park Service head- crafts design. Gorham Bronze cast mains among the seven wonders of quarters to wit, a tree planted on 28 plaques in late 1930. Twenty were the natural world and continues to be the 4th of July (Mather’s birthday) as sent to National Parks, two to Nation- a premier international destination. suggested did not have a ghost of a al Monuments, three to State Parks, As for the Mather Plaque—well, chance to survive the summer heat. one to the University of California at Mather didn’t like plaques. He didn’t In October of 1930 a Utah juniper was Berkeley, and one plaque was placed want world-class National Parks clut- planted as part of a native plant gar- outside the Director’s Office in Wash- tered up like some courthouse square. den adjacent the Yavapai Observa- ington D.C. at Horace Albright’s re- True, he knuckled under to the Sierra tion Station, complete with dress uni- quest. Club for a plaque at the site of John forms, guests, and a photographer. As more Parks were added over Muir’s “Hang Nest” cabin in Yosem- Alas, the little tree didn’t make it. time, Gorham cast a run of 14 plaques ite Valley. True, he played politics in Today, about 10 feet away, a shapely in 1959 using the plaque in Park Ser- the dedication of a John Wesley Pow- Utah juniper twines up a weathered vice Headquarters to make a master ell memorial on the South Rim. In his corner of the old stone building. mold. Hank Schoch, Chief Ranger vision, a National Park was to show Rangers and docents refer to it as the at Colorado National Monument, itself. National Parks were not the “Mather tree.” Maybe it is? Why not? time or place for trivial amusements A more formal national group of and trite entertainment. friends and admirers formed “The Mather retired after a devastating Stephen T. Mather Appreciation,” a stroke in 1929. He died a year later at Who’s Who of 1930 America, to en- age 62. His broad following of friends tertain more than twenty different and colleagues joined in wanting to suggestions for a more dignified rec-

Powell Memorial dedication. GRCA NPS photo

4 : Grand Canyon Historical Society www.GrandCanyonHistory.org made it perfect. The Mather Plaque at Pipe Spring was obtained in 1991 and looks over the North Kaibab Plateau from a hillside above the spring and Winsor Castle. Saguaro National Park and Walnut Canyon National Monu- ment will dedicate their plaques in 2016. Which brings us back to the Grand Canyon and its two plaques. While most Parks don’t have a Mather Plaque, three National Parks have two! Each of these Parks has two plaques for a different reason. (The other Parks are Mt. Rainier and Se- quoia/Kings Canyon.) The Grand Canyon has no idea why it has two plaques. The Mather Plaque on the South Rim is well known and well documented with a file of letters, Mather tree planting. GRCA NPS photo notes, photos, memorandums, tele- grams, reminders, architect’s draw- ings, and a bill of lading. It was dedi- looked to obtain a Mather Plaque plaques were all a private donation cated on 4 July 1932 with Arizona for his monument’s 75th anniversa- and never budgeted by the Park Ser- Governor Hunt as the guest speaker. ry in 1986. With none to be had, he vice, there is no official NPS record 3 year old Sonny Lehnert, photogra- embarked on the project of having a of how many they have actually re- pher Emery Kolb’s grandson, placed plaque cast for his Monument. Over ceived, where they went, or where a wreath on the monument. Since the next five years his persistent effort they are now. that day, the plaque has moved three led to a Rededication Activity of 20 Arizona has seven of those 67 more times enroute to its current lo- Park units in 1991, on the 75th anniver- Mather Plaques. (Only California cation. Its present setting is certainly sary of the Park Service. Gorham cast with twelve has more—but one of one of the most esthetically pleasing 20 individually numbered plaques those is lost somewhere (?) and an- of any plaque and eminently worthy using the 1930 plaque at Wind Cave other one has been in storage for al- of your appreciation. (then in storage) as a master mold. In most 70 years—leaving ten currently A maintenance worker found a 2015 Jim Milestone, Superintendent on display or awaiting dedication in Mather Plaque in a storage shed on at Whiskeytown National Recre- that state.) The two National Monu- the North Rim in 1995. The plaque ation Area, independently had three ments to receive 1930 plaques are was promptly whanged onto a lime- plaques cast using the 1930 Berkeley both in Arizona. Both were admin- stone boulder and placed in front of plaque as a master mold. One was istered by the curmudgeonly Frank the North Rim back country office. dedicated at Whiskeytown’s 50th An- “Boss” Pinkley, a long time Mather No documentation there or any place niversary, 22 August 2015. The other appointee and friend. Both of those else has ever been found concerning two are to be placed at Redwood plaques were dedicated in 1932 and this plaque. It is from the 1959 cast- National and State Parks and Joshua both remain in their original locations ing. The maintenance officer whose Tree National Park in 2016. Using the at Petrified Forest and Casa Grande crew found the plaque retired and Milestone mold, other donors pur- Ruins. Mather and his cronies donat- was lost to contact. For a while the chased plaques for Saguaro National ed the money to purchase Pipe Spring search stopped there. Earlier this year Park and Walnut Canyon National National Monument on the Arizona (2015) when a friend had a permit for Monument. (Current price is $2,350 Strip in 1923. With its quintessen- South Coyote Buttes and asked me to plus shipping.) tial western lore of cattle rustling, a go along, the third hiker with us was So 67 Mather Plaques total have wagon trail, Indian raids, smuggling, in fact that retired maintenance su- been cast. Thanks are due Don Lago polygamy, God-seeking, and des- pervisor. So I got the rest of the story: for verifying production numbers ert rats, this cool green wayside was The discovered North Rim plaque from Gorham before the company too much for Mather to resist. That was new, in the box. It had never been closed. Where are the plaques today? it was a natural stop along the way mounted. The shipping crate was bro- Good question! And finding them all between Zion and the Grand Canyon ken up and burned as firewood. No, is another story. Inasmuch as these on his Grand Circle of National Parks there was no documentation or paper www.GrandCanyonHistory.org Grand Canyon Historical Society : 5 work of any sort. Upper management way, painted silver. contact information. Abruptly end- on the South Rim decided where the Over a period of many years (since ing the conversation she said “I’ll get plaque was to go. The worker that the 1970’s) several people had occa- back to you” and hung up. Lo and be- found the plaque was just trying to sion to note and document a Mather hold, it was the Chief Ranger and she clean things out to make more room Plaque stored in a supply room at did get back to me. In the aftermath in the sign shop. Fire Island National Seashore. The of Hurricane Sandy, Fire Island un- Of the fourteen 1959 plaques, plaque in storage there was new and derwent a complete inventory of all three have moved completely from had never been mounted. Rather than buildings and property. They have no their original locations. Mather Ju- email, I called Fire Island about this Mather Plaque on their present mani- nior High School was closed and the plaque on a cold winter day in early fest. As Fire Island has no record of building turned over to the city of 2015. It didn’t seem likely to me that a ever having a plaque, they could not Darien, Connecticut, for its City Hall New York beach should be very busy possibly know when it left, why it in 1983. Harper’s Ferry picked up its middle of the week in February. The left, or where it went. But where else plaque and dedicated it that Novem- Ranger answering the phone turned could a new 1959 plaque come from ber in front of the Mather Training my inquiry into an interrogation. to be found in 1995 on the North Rim Center. Mounted on a large boulder “Why do you want to know about of the Grand Canyon? The mystery from the Shenandoah River, it is re- this Mather Plaque?” “Do you do this remains: who took or sent this plaque ferred to as the Mather Rock. Another often?” No, she personally had not and why? plaque from an as yet unknown lo- seen a Mather Plaque at Fire Island. Of the 67 plaques cast, two are cation was returned to the NPS His- “Who is funding your research?” currently in storage. Haleakala took tory Collection at an unknown time. No one—me! “Why do you think down its plaque several years ago as Sent to the Blue Ridge Parkway about our plaque is missing?” “How do part of a renovation at Park Head- 1989 or 1990, it was mounted outside you know about our supply room?” quarters for bathroom and sidewalk behind the Linn Cove Viaduct Visitor “Have you located other missing construction. For unknown reasons Contact Station. This plaque is deeply plaques?” Yes, several. She noted in it was never put back up. An offer to weathered and somewhere along the detail my personal identification and privately fund its mounting has met

Left: Mather Point, South Rim Mather Plaque, author’s photo. Above: North Rim Mather Plaque, author’s photo.

6 : Grand Canyon Historical Society www.GrandCanyonHistory.org Plaque Production and Current Dispositions

1930 Casting (28 plaques) 1959 Casting (14 plaques) 1991 Casting (20 plaques) 2015 Casting (5 plaques)

Acadia NP Big Bend NP #1 Colorado NM Joshua Tree NP (2016) Bryce Canyon NP Blue Ridge Parkway #2 Chamizal NMem Redwood N & SPs (2016) Casa Grande Ruins NM Cabrillo NM #3 Guadalupe NP Saguaro NP (2016) Crater Lake NP Carlsbad Caverns NP #4 Big Cypress NPres Walnut Canyon NM (2016) Denali NP Death Valley NP #5 NPS Rocky Mtn.R.O. Whiskeytown NRA (8/22/15) Glacier NP Everglades NP #6 Pipe Spring NM ______Grand Canyon NP (South Rim) Grand Canyon NP (North Rim) #7 Great Basin NP 5/5 Grand Teton NP Haleakala NP (storage) #8 Santa Monica Mtns NRA Hawaii Volcanoes NP Harpers Ferry NHP (lost) Hot Springs NP Isle Royale NP #9 Allegheny Portage NHS Indiana Dunes NL Mammoth Cave NP #10 Boston NHP (lost) Lassen Volcanic NP Theodore Roosevelt NP #11 Fort Clatsop NMem Mesa Verde NP Virgin Islands NP #12 Golden Spike NHS Mount Rainier NP (Longmire) Mather High School (Chicago) #13 Petersburg NB Mount Rainier NP ______#14 Old NPS Region III Bldg. (Tipsoo Lake/Mather Pkwy) 14/14 #15 Canyonlands NP Petrified Forest NP #16 Bent’s Old Fort NHS Rocky Mountain NP #17 Yucca House NM (lost) Sequoia NP #18 Hovenweep NM (lost) Wind Cave NP #19 Fort Union NHS Yellowstone NP #20 Assateague NS Yosemite NP ______Zion NP 16/20 National Park Service Headquarters (Washington D.C.) New York-New Jersey Interstate Park (Bear Mountain State Park) University of California, Mather Memorial Grove (Botanical Garden at Berkeley) Redwood Highway (Humboldt Redwoods State Park, Kent-Mather Grove) TOTAL—60/67 27--General Grant NP plaque in museum storage, Ash Mountain, Sequoia NP Lost—5, Storage--2 (28--replacement to Acadia in ME for lost plaque?) ______27/28

with noncommittal disinterest. The lukewarm official response. dered the personal observation that phantom plaque at General Grant Five of the 67 Mather Plaques are “when something happens in Maine, National Park was taken down, prob- missing. One may well have been lost there are usually at least two ver- ably in the late 1940’s, for unknown or damaged in the big 1947 wildfire sions of what happened and why… reasons—possibly the graffiti dated at Acadia and replaced with the last and usually both are wrong.” Four 1934 scrawled across its front. It was 1930 copy remaining at Park Service plaques from the 1991 casting reached located in museum storage beneath Headquarters. This is not clear, how- their shipping destinations but noth- a warehouse stairwell at Ash Moun- ever, as the current interpretive staff ing has been seen or heard of them tain, Sequoia National Park—where at Acadia denies that their plaque on since. It is suspected that they may it has been stored for almost 70 years. the summit of Cadillac Mountain has well be lost in storage somewhere in An offer to pay for professional resto- moved since the day it was dedicated the Parks that received them. (Each ration, repatinate this otherwise pris- there by Superintendent George Dorr of those plaques cost $1,275 plus tine plaque and have it mounted has on the 4th of July 1932. A wonderful shipping, est. $60--$65, and weighs also failed to elicit much more than a historian in Darian, CT simply ren- close to 100 pounds.) The new never www.GrandCanyonHistory.org Grand Canyon Historical Society : 7 mounted 1991 plaque at Big Cypress Parkways, Memorials, a Preserve, a versity under auspices of the Smithson- (#4) was located in their headquar- Battlefield, a Recreation Area, His- ian. ters attic after multiple email inqui- toric Sites, and Historical Parks. David Nathanson, “The Mather Memorial Plaques,” NPS Park History Program ries and a three month search in 2013. They adorn three administrative of- Subject Files, 12/4/97, updated 9/21/99 They received it in August of 1991 fices, a couple of State Parks, and two & 1/7/02. This is the only NPS docu- and hope to have it mounted in time schools. There are Mather Plaques ment relating to Mather Plaques from for the 2016 Park Service centennial. in 16 UNESCO Biosphere Reserves any NPS national source. This paper is Some plaques have taken on a and 10 World Heritage Sites. As the helpful but contains a number of errors, several inaccuracies, and is incomplete. life of their own. At Great Basin Na- Park Service reaches its centennial in Personal communication with a Deputy tional Park the plaque has been sto- 2016, Stephen Mather and the Memo- NPS Director, an Associate NPS Direc- len twice and miraculously recovered rial Mather Plaques firmly remain an tor, five Park Superintendents, and a both times—last time from a scrap integral part of Park history, they are Washington D.C. Department of Interior yard in Reno two years after disap- a touchstone to our present, and they Librarian. Personal communication with six retired pearing. Now mounted in a “bomb are a challenge to our future. They are Superintendents and two retired Re- proof” wall at Mather Overlook America at her best. Visiting them is a gional Directors. along the Wheeler Peak Scenic Drive, journey. And you can start it all right Emails with museum curators at NPS it is among the most beautiful of set- here at the Grand Canyon. Headquarters, Moab, Grand Canyon, tings. Following a Freedom of Infor- Sequoia, Yosemite, Zion, Crater Lake, Darien and Boston. Emails with two mation Act request at Mt. Rainier, THANKS Chief Rangers. the story of gunplay at Tipsoo Lake To the countless people who con- Countless email exchanges with each Na- was detailed, thus explaining the 40 tributed to this collection, I give my tional Park, State Park, or school pos- caliber bullet ricochet marks on that heartfelt gratitude. For all the sug- sessing a plaque as well as many Park plaque. The Old Santa Fe Trail Build- gestions, criticisms, and freethinking units that don’t have one. Wikepedia. ing (former Region III office) is home ideas I’ve received, I love you for it. Various Park Administrative Histories are to 1991 plaque #14. This classic CCC Any mistakes, omissions, or inaccu- available on the internet. When you can building was negotiated back from racies—and there may be some—are find them, these comprehensive docu- the General Services Administration inadvertent but they are all mine. ments are most interesting for many at a swank dinner party in Ft. Worth, Should you have any additional in- reasons. Only one email received was succinct to Texas after cocktails, with the transfer formation, corrections, facts, sources, the point of rudeness. The vast major- note written on a bar napkin. Indiana or material related to Mather Memo- ity of folks receiving my inquiries were Dunes State Park gave their lovely rial Plaques, kindly send it along as variably interested and at least tried to old original 1930 plaque to Indiana this continues to be a work in prog- answer my questions. It must be real- Dunes National Lakeshore next door ress. Thanks. It’s been fun. ized (as I have learned) that often Park archives, records, memos, photo files, when that Park unit was brought etc. are “off site.” If these collections online in 1966. It was finally put up ABOUT THE AUTHOR have not been cross referenced and on display with development of the While in university and gradu- digitalized (and most have not because Lakeview picnic area in 1989. Mount- ate school, G. Arthur Janssen MD that costs time and money) then these ed on a movable sawhorse affair in worked four summers with the Na- resources are not available to the interpretive Rangers schlucking through the front of the Cruz Bay Visitor Center, tional Park Service in the 1960’s as a daily emails, trying to answer peoples’ a tourist managed to knock over the backcountry fire fighter, packer, fire endless nitpicking questions about their Virgin Islands plaque and it landed crew foreman, and ranger. After a 40 Park. If a plaque doesn’t have much sup- on another visitor’s foot breaking a year career first as an academic and porting historical information, it may toe. A possible lawsuit has been con- then as a clinical anesthesiologist, he not exist anymore or there may not be a reasonable way to obtain the informa- sidered. A flash flood in the 1950s is now a full time dirtbag hiker and tion if it does exist. A substantial number washed Zion’s plaque away from pursues eclectic historical interests. of Rangers gave me more information its first location. Fortunately it was [email protected] than I had requested. Maintenance offi- promptly located and recovered from cers should never be overlooked as they a sand burial with the aid of a WW II SOURCES know where things are in Parks. One superintendent personally answered my Don Lago, “There will never come an end mine detector. It is now in its third lo- general email to his Park from his cell to the good that he has done—The Ste- cation on the wall of the Zion Human phone on a Sunday afternoon. phen Mather Memorial Plaques,” Grand Details and descriptions of plaque loca- History Museum. And so it goes. Canyon Historical Society, The Old Pio- tions are based on firsthand experience. Of the Mather Plaques currently neer, Vol. 21 No. 4 (2010). This is the only Shankland, Robert, “Steve Mather of the on public display, they are scattered published article of any veracity that I National Parks,” Alfred A. Knopf, New could find. Don had access to the Gor- from Alaska to the Virgin Islands, York, 1951. ham company archives at the time he Maine to the Big Island of Hawaii. Albright & Schenck, “Creating the Nation- wrote this. Currently (as of this writing) al Park Service—The Missing Years,” You can find them in National Parks, the Gorham records are in storage with Oklahoma, 1999. Monuments, a Seashore, a Lakeshore, very limited accessibility at Brown Uni-

8 : Grand Canyon Historical Society www.GrandCanyonHistory.org