Guadalupe Mountains National Park 325 Chapter 38 The Butterfield Overland Stagecoach through Guadalupe Pass

JIM W. ADAMS is an American Association of Petroleum Geologists (AAPG) certi- fied petroleum geologist in Midland, Texas. He worked as a geological advisor for Exxon, U.S.A. for 43 years.

The Mexican War ended with the they authorized an overland mail con - United States purchasing large tracts of tract. They made the mistake of leaving land in what is now the southwestern the choice of the route up to the post - part of the United States. The war also master general. Well, it so happened that settled the right of Texas to enter the the postmaster general was from the Union and, just two years after that, gold South, and he insisted on a southern was discovered in California. So many route. people rushed to California just two years later and in 1850 California joined At about that same time, an interesting the Union. It’s hard for me to realize that character by the name of John this happened 26 years before Colorado Butterfield came on the scene. His home had enough people to join the Union. At was in Utica, New York, and as a boy the any rate, there was a great clamor in con - sound of the stagecoach as it roared by gress and in the East and West both, es- in a cloud of dust thrilled him. He deter- pecially the West, for an overland mail mined that when he grew up he wanted service, an overland mail contract, and to be a stagecoach driver, and he did. He an overland stagecoach. As usual, con - was so good at it that he was soon made gress did nothing and then finally in 1857 manager of the line and he branched out

Figure 1. Butterfield overland mail and pony express route. 326 Adams

Figure 2. The Butterfield “Celerity” stage wagon was designed in the coach factory of James Goold in Albany, New York, where, in 1857, 100 of these wagons were built and placed in the overland service in 1858. They were more adaptable to the roughness of mountain and desert country than the regular high bodied coach. The seats were not upholstered but were constructed so that the backs could be lowered to make a bed, permitting the passengers to take turns sleeping at night. This type of vehicle was used exclusively between Springfield, Missouri; or Fort Smith Arkansas; and Los Angeles, California. Drawing by R. P. Conkling.

to form stagecoach lines of his own, three different makers. One particular which he later converted into railroads. manufacturer from Albany, New York By then he was wealthy. He invested made the Celerity Wagon. Butterfield heavily in real estate and in steam ships thought that the design with the front on Lake Erie. As a staunch Yankee, wheels smaller than the rear wheels Butterfield submitted a bid for the would be much better in the Rocky northern route of the overland mail to Mountain West, and it was. commence from the railhead of Saint Jo - seph, Missouri. The route would go up Several years earlier Butterfield had into Nebraska, Wyoming, Salt Lake City, joined with two other New York State across Nevada and across the scenic Si- express owners, Henry Wells and Will- erra Nevada into Sacramento, with the iam Fargo, to form the American Ex- mail going on down by steamboat to San press company. He remained the direc- Francisco. But as a practical stagecoach tor and vice president of that firm until man, he realized that the heavy snows of the day he died, and that firm is still alive the Rocky Mountains and the Sierra Ne - and kicking today. Nobody thought vada would be formidable barriers to Butterfield could meet the stiff mail con - any efficient schedule for the mail, and a tract of two stagecoaches per week with more practical route lay to the south. a maximum travel time of 25 days be- Butterfield made a very shrewd sugges- tween Saint Louis and San Francisco. tion of two routes: one starting at Saint They accused him of stock throwing. Louis and the other one starting at Why, that was an average of 112 miles a Memphis, and the two routes joining at day. Existing lines were only making 25 Fort Smith, Arkansas, then going miles a day. He simply had heard the through Indian Territory across Texas post horn again and could not resist this and what was later New Mexico, Ari- biggest challenge of his life, because he zona, and California. He won the was already wealthy and really did not $600,000 a year mail contract and he or- need that job. Those who scoffed at the ganized the overland mail company with project did not count on the hard- work - a capital stock of $2 million. He spent $1 ing genius of John Butterfield. He never million of that the very first year on took a day of vacation in his life. He equipment and supplies. One thing he pored over the reports of boundary did was purchase stagecoaches from commissioner Bartlett and Army Cap - Guadalupe Mountains National Park 327 tains Marcy and Pope. The existing mail sengers from Saint Louis westward to line from San Antonio to San Diego over the rail’s end at Tipton, Missouri. John the Jim Burch line was a very haphazard Butterfield and Waterman Ormsby were affair. One or two wagons a month plod- two of the passengers. Since the project ded along and stopped each night for the was bound to fail, nobody saw them off. passengers to cook their own meals and The first stagecoach driver was his son, bed down on the ground. Well, that just John J. Butterfield, Jr., and he drove the was not the way John Butterfield oper- stagecoach all the way to Fort Smith, Ar- ated. He built stagecoach stations all kansas, except when the old man him- along the route. He put his coaches on a self took over the reins. Parent schedule. The meals were ready for the Butterfield disembarked the first stage - passengers when they arrived, and he coach at Fort Smith, and that’s as far only allowed 20 minutes for meals and west as he ever got. The first stage went less for a change of horses. He also put through Indian Territory and crossed the lanterns on his coaches so that his stage - Red River into the northeast corner of coaches rolled both day and night. But Texas at Colbert’s Forge. They went what a task—almost 3,000 miles of through the tiny hamlets of Gainesville mostly unimproved trail through hostile and Sherman and they went on to Fort Indian country! Postmaster General Belknap and Fort Phantom Hill. Both of Brown called this the longest stagecoach these posts had been abandoned by the line in the world. It was actually 2,795 Army, but Butterfield went into the ruins miles long. There were only three cities and built stagecoach stations in both of along the entire route. Franklin, which them. From Fort Phantom Hill they we know as El Paso, Tucson, and a small went through Buffalo Gap, 11 miles north town of 6,000 people called Los Ange - of Abilene, and they came to Fort les. He built 139 way stations along this Chadburn. This first Butterfield stage - route. That was expanded later to 150. coach trek was ignored by the eastern His son, Daniel Adams Butterfield, drew United States, but in every fort and town up a schedule between these stations. in the West that it came through, it set Old John had a photographic memory off riotous demonstrations. The arrival and his associates were inspired by his of the first westbound mail in Fort enthusiasm. He could tell you the sched- Chadburn was an occasion for celebra- ule and the mileage between any of tion on the part of the drivers, and those stations, though he never saw Ormsby said they appeared to have been most of them. having a jolly good time for a long time before we got there. Any excuse, you Our knowledge of the Butterfield stage know. comes from two chief sources. First, the New York Herald was the only newspa- Indians, having raided the corrals a few per that thought the event was important days earlier, left only wild unbroken enough to send a 23-year- old cub re - mules. When they hitched the wagon to porter with the interesting name of these wild mules, they dashed off in a Waterman Lily Ormsby along on the first mad plunge through the trees where the stagecoach west. His interesting narra- top of the wagon with its canvas cover- tive was published in serial form as it was ing was completely demolished. This received. Second some 70 years later threw Ormsby out of the stagecoach and when Roscoe Conklin retired from the he almost refused to go any further, but Army in El Paso, he and his wife drove he did so, saying, “If I had any property, along the entire 3,000 mile route three I certainly would have made out a hasty times, documenting both the route and will.” They then crossed the Colorado the preservation of the stations, and River [of Texas] and ruts can still be seen their three-volume report is an invalu- there where the Butterfield stages able contribution. crossed. The adobe station there fed him a breakfast of mesquite beans and pork. On September 14, 1858, a coach started I thought mesquite beans in September out from San Francisco and two days were hard as a rock, but that’s what they later the train took the mail and five pas- apparently had. 328 Adams

On they went to the head of the Concho in those coaches, but the backs of the River, which was the start of a long 75- seats did recline so that they could take mile trek across the Ano West Tecano, turns sleeping—maybe. The Dutchman which had no water whatsoever. The gave them a breakfast of broiled bacon, head of Concho Station was one of the short cakes, and coffee, which was con - chain of 25 stone and adobe fortified sta- sidered quite an aristocratic meal for so tions that were built by Butterfield be- early a settlement. At least an hour was tween there and Mission Canyon in Ari- lost in catching and harnessing more zona. These were built along the Spanish wild mules for the team and for the cav - posada style with a high -walled corral alcade which had to go with them, be- and small rooms attached to the inside cause there was no change of mules for walls. There was only one entrance wide the next 75 miles. Their wagons were enough to admit a coach and team in well supplied with canteens of water. case they were being chased by Indians. Ormsby wrote that they came to the Well, from the head of Concho they head of the Concho at 2:30 in the morn- went across the dry desert and went ing of Saturday, and the Dutchman who through Castle Gap and arrived at the was head of that camp had breakfast for Pecos River at the famous Horsehead them at 2:30 a.m. I do not imagine they Crossing of the Pecos. Here, they did were sleeping too much in that bouncing not cross the Pecos. They took an im- coach anyway. There were no cushions proved road from there up to what’s

Figure 3. The Pinery Station ruins stand on the north side of Highway 62, opposite Pine Spring camp on the summit of Guadalupe Mountain Pass. The location is in Culberson County, Texas, Township 1, Block 65, Section 44, previously on the property of Walter Glover and the Grisham-Hunter Corporation, now within Guadalupe Mountains National Park. Guadalupe Mountains National Park 329 now the New Mexico state line. It was a and stoniest hills I have yet seen. It is road built by Captain John Pope, who enough to make one shudder to look at had the idea. He knew that the Llano the perpendicular side of the canyon.” Estacado would be a formidable barrier to railroads if they did not drill some wa- Ranger Roger Reisch and I have both ter wells. So he got some money from walked out to the Butterfield line from congress and got water- well drilling rigs the old road parking area, down the can- run by a steam engine, and the boiler yon to the present highway. We are both had to be transported all the way from of the opinion that the rock work which Indianhoma down on the Gulf Coast, up you see there on the north wall above through San Antonio and up this way. the present highway is probably the Well, those sand dunes on the east side stone work of the Butterfield engineers of the Pecos are quite a formidable bar- to get them through Guadalupe Pass. rier to transportation, so John Pope had Conklin’s drawing of the station at the to build a road from Horsehead Cross- Pinery shows the rock walls of the corral ing up to Pope’s camp. He drilled those were originally five feet high. The rock three wells, which are really interesting walls of the fortress area, with its only to geologists; he abandoned his camp af- one gate entrance, were 11 feet high and ter the last of the third wells because the 30 inches thick. rusty Pecos River water had rusted his boiler out in August 1858. So Butterfield The first stagecoach went through took over Pope’s camp a month later. Guadalupe Pass then again climbed to They went three miles farther on the higher ground at the bottom of the pass, Pecos River and crossed at a nice rock and it was here that the first westbound crossing there and then headed up Dela- and eastbound Butterfield mail coaches ware Creek. The next station was at passed each other at 7 p.m. on Septem- Delaware Springs. They had a nice meal ber 28, 1858. Both were several hours there consisting of jerked beef, bits of ahead of their schedule. The trail contin- bacon cooked over a fire of buffalo ued northwest across the Salt Flat gra- chips, served with raw onions and ben to the Cornudas Mountains, the sta- wormy crackers. tion at the tinaja of Hueco Tanks and on into the town we know as El Paso. Cap - Ormsby also reported on the hydrogen- tain Henry Skillman drove the first west - sulfide smell of the springs, and if you bound stagecoach all the way from have been to Delaware Springs, you Horsehead Crossing of the Pecos to know it’s still bubbling hydrogen sulfide Franklin, and when it got to Franklin, it to this day. was several hours ahead of schedule. This first stagecoach passage went on The next station was the Pinery Station through New Mexico and one reason in present day Guadalupe Mountains that the Butterfield line was successful National Park. The entire station was not was that the Army had just completed quite formed at that time, only the corral negotiations and peace treaties with the had been built. The crew was still living Apaches. Mangus Coloradas and all of in tents, but they fed him a grand meal of the resident Indians watched the first venison pie and baked beans. Water stage go by, as did Cochise, watching came from Pine Springs by means of an them go through Apache Pass in south - acequia which is an open ditch, to the western New Mexico. They went on tank in the northwest corner of the Pin- through Arizona and Ormsby describes ery Station. Ormsby was moved by the their arrival in San Francisco. “Just after beauty of the area: “It seems as if nature sunrise the city of San Francisco came in saved all her ruggedness to pile it up in sight, and never did a traveler enjoy a this colossal form of Guadalupe Peak, more distant sight. We struck the pave - sometimes called Cathedral Peak, which ment and to no little surprise of every - rears its head up 4,000 feet above the body, we finally drove up at the stage of- level of the plain. The wild grandeur of fice with our driver giving a shrill blast of the scene is beyond description. The his horn. It was just 23 days, 23 hours road winds over some of the steepest and a half from the time that John 330 Adams

Butterfield had taken the bags at St. Louis.” I had the satisfaction of knowing that the correspondent from The New York Herald had kept his promise and come through with the first mail. He was the only passenger to do so, and the only one who ever made the trip across the plains in less than 50 days.

Well, San Francisco went wild. They had a great celebration. They had Waterman Lily Ormsby give them a speech and the same thing happened in Saint Louis when the eastbound stage came in.

In recent times commemorative trans- portation monuments have been placed at the Pinery Station. One was placed by the Highway Department of Texas and another by American Airlines, whose airmail route recognized the original Butterfield Trail as its route flying over the Guadalupe Mountains.

So far as we know, the Butterfield station stagecoach line was eminently success- ful. It was only short-lived because the Civil War severed the line in March 1861. As far as we know, it never failed to meet that contract schedule. John Butterfield suffered strokes and died in 1869. His son, Daniel Adams Butterfield, became a brigadier general and served as chief of staff to the infamous General Joe Hooker, who commanded the Army at the Potomac. While with this army, he composed the bugle call that we know as Taps. Guadalupe Mountains National Park 331 Chapter 39 Felix McKittrick in the Guadalupe Mountains of Texas and New Mexico

ROBERT HOUSE is an interpretive park ranger at Lyndon B. Johnson National His- torical Park. He researched several historic aspects of the Guadalupe Mountains during his two -and- a- half years stationed at Guadalupe Mountains National Park.

I thought I’d cover a little bit on Felix naturalist, Peter Sanchez, remembered McKittrick, who has been sort of a shad- seeing a reference to Captain Felix owy figure here, and yesterday I ran into McKittrick in a magazine article.1 somebody who said, “What are you go - ing to talk about?” I answered, “About The inquiries reached the pages of the everything we know about Felix Dallas Morning News in June 1965 when McKittrick, so someday when I’m gone the patron saint of chili aficionados, they can put on my tombstone, ‘he knew Frank X. Tolbert, devoted a column to all there was to know about Felix the McKittrick mystery. Tolbert offered McKittrick,’ and somebody else can say, his readers “Kid McKittrick,” an obscure ‘Who were either of these two guys?’” gunman supposedly killed in the El Paso Salt War, and another “old-timer’s” rec- At a symposium on the Guadalupe ollection of a “part-Delaware” Mountains, it is fitting that a geologist, McKittrick who worked on a ranch near R. S. Tarr, State Geologist of Texas, present-day Carlsbad.2 makes one of the first records of McKittrick Canyon in an official report By August of 1965, James McKittrick had in the mid- 1890s. Stories about Felix a reference to Felix McKittrick from McKittrick sandwich in nicely between Denton, Texas, and his captaincy of a the Butterfield stagecoach days and Mr. Confederate cavalry unit. His Carlsbad Pratt. sources had remembered a McKittrick associated with the Chisum cattle opera- The name “McKittrick” has become at - tion.3 tached to a number of the landforms in and about the Guadalupe Mountains of Guadalupe Mountains National Park Su- west Texas and southern New Mexico, perintendent Donald Dayton continued but by the mid- 20th century, its origins the inquiries as late as 1975 when an- had become as ephemeral as the wisps other McKittrick relative, Billy S. Th - of clouds that hide among those peaks ompson, wrote for information on the and canyons. name of the canyon. Dayton had little to go on beyond the material generated by The search for McKittrick was launched the 1965 letters of James McKittrick. Th - by a distant kinsman who happened ompson and Dayton apparently let the upon the sign for the canyon of that matter rest after an exchange of informa- name in the late 1920s. Time did not per- tion.4 mit this chance encounter to develop into a search, but James McKittrick of After the flurry of activity on McKittrick Pana, Illinois, returned in 1965 to the in the period between 1965 and 1975, the Carlsbad area to question some of the references to a person by that name were older residents. He would find several limited to the dugout in the canyon5 and versions of the story, and learn that the speculation bolstered by J. E. name most often mentioned was Felix McKittrick’s Carlsbad inquiries. Some McKittrick. A National Park Service people remembered he was a cattleman, and others that he was an outlaw. 332 House

In 1994, a new round of interest in the complexion, and five -feet-nine-inches in facts on McKittrick began to generate height. His listed occupation is cabinet discussions and tentative inquiries into maker.8 available sources. One book in the park library listed McKittrick as Chisum’s Even before the Mexican War, Texas had foreman, and placed him in charge of issued lands to a number of impresario one of two herds brought into New colonies to bring in settlers. By the mid- Mexico in 1866. Further, Felix 1840s, one of the largest—the Peter’s McKittrick was listed as a rancher on the Colony—would bring the first of over eastern slope of the Guadalupe Moun- 2,000 Kentucky families to an area tains, and a canyon on the south end of stretching from the present-day cities of the mountains is named for him.6 The Denton to Abilene.9 The colonists would additional link to the John Chisum cattle provide a buffer for the western push empire, and the later troubles in Lincoln into the Indian frontier, and reinforce County, introduced an element of possi - the Peters’ claims to a vast empire.10 bility that the heretofore shadowy Felix Among the Kentuckians moving to the might be chronicled with the better- colony by the early 1850s is Felix known figures of that era. McKittrick.

The key to Felix McKittrick did involve Denton County will grow from the scat - looking at Chisum, and in contacting his tered communities like Alton and relatives in Kentucky, principally Billy French Settlement which listed among Thompson. From McKittrick’s roots in their prominent citizens Jim and John Mackville, Kentucky; his arrival in Chisum, Emory Peter, and Felix Denton County, Texas, and association McKittrick. By 1854 McKittrick will have with John Chisum; his move to New been elected sheriff, and be listed with Mexico; and his final relocation to Ari- Peter and the Chisums as prominent zona and his death there, a series of im- cattlemen. The money from his father’s ages collects into the most complete pic- estate and land apparently provided ture to date. McKittrick with the means to a secure future in Texas.11 By 1860 McKittrick had Born in Mackville, Kentucky on Novem- real estate valued at $1,700 and a per- ber 26, 1828, Felix was the youngest son sonal estate of $20,000.12 of Robert McKittrick and a grandson of Captain John McKittrick, Revolutionary Also by 1860, Felix McKittrick had re - War veteran and founder of the Ken- turned to Kentucky and married Almira tucky community. Felix had an older Peter, sister of Emory. The ceremony brother, Fielding, and upon their father’s was performed in Mackville by the death the two youngsters were cared for Reverand John S. Coy on January 26, by a guardian appointed by provisions of 1860. Emory Peter also married a Ken- the will. The brothers shared in the es- tucky bride, Eliza McKittrick, likely a tate in the equal amounts of $302.01. On cousin of Felix. Both families would ex- February 24, 1846, Fielding apparently perience loss before 1860 ended, with leaves Mackville, and no further refer- Almira dying November 11, 1860, along ences appear.7 with her newborn child. Eliza Peter would also be lost under similar condi- The United States entry into the Mexi- tions. Her body was sent home to can War provided McKittrick with his Mackville.13 first chance to leave Mackville during service in Captain Mark R. Hardin’s One of the first associations of Company I, Fourth Regiment of Ken- McKittrick and Chisum was recorded in tucky Volunteers from October 4, 1847, Denton in 1860 when they located the until July 25, 1848. The honorable dis- body of John B. Denton for whom the charge issued in Louisville, Kentucky, county was named. Chisum kept a provides the best description of Felix promise to his father, Claiborne Chisum, McKittrick: age 19, with grey eyes, light to recover Denton’s body, and he had it Guadalupe Mountains National Park 333 reburied near the Chisum home. By the Even the trail-hardened Chisum outfit time of the discovery, McKittrick and fell victim to the Apaches. Pitser Chisum others are cattlemen like Chisum.14 took over a herd of 1,200 steers at the Pecos and quickly lost them to the raid- The outbreak of war provided ing Mescaleros at Black River. Another McKittrick with new avenues for leader- herd of 1,000 head, plus 150 horses and ship, but his Civil War service will also mules disappeared into the Sacramento result in the beginning of a long direct Mountains. No government claims were association with Chisum. On February 8, ever paid on these loses.20 1862, Felix will assume the captaincy of Company G, 18th Texas Cavalry in Despite the risks, other Texans like Denton. Though the unit will serve with Charles Goodnight and Oliver Loving Walker’s Texas Division; Granbury’s Bri- were bringing additional herds over the gade, and see action in Atlanta, and with trail they pioneered, and the route the Hood in Tennessee, he will resign for “Chisum Jinglebobs” used the previous health reasons. McKittrick’s request for year. Anticipating the competition, resignation on November 8, 1862 was Chisum men had quickly settled on granted four days later.15 The medical available water, claiming the range along problems are not specified, but he was the face of the Guadalupes, up the Pecos able to contribute to the war effort. One to the Bosque Grande. Rattlesnake year later the Chisum operations moved Springs, below the Carlsbad Caverns, from Denton County to the Concho McKittrick Canyon, and later River country, and while the cattle were McKittrick Spring, were all held by men being relocated, Felix and six other associated with the growing Chisum em- hands worked to build cabins and pens.16 pire.21 Chisum, McKittrick, and others would bolster the war effort as contractors for Attacks on the cattlemen continued into the Confederate government, and be the 1870s with the Chisum outfits hit by canny enough to exchange their Confed- Comanches raiding out of Texas. A erate dollars for cattle.17 roundup crew under Felix lost 80 horses in one raid, and one of the hands went The end of the Civil War opened new down under the bullets of the raiders.22 markets for Texas beef in the industrial - There were so many raids by Mescaleros ized north, but lucrative markets already and Comanches that the Chisum hands existed in New Mexico. General James were on foot during the branding season H. Carleton’s unfortunate reservation in 1874 and 1875, and at least one herd experiment at the Bosque Redondo cre - coming up the Pecos was left with only ated a government contract for beef to the horses the men on guard were feed the Navajo survivors of the Long riding. Moving the herd only three or Walk and Mescalero Apaches forced four miles per day, the outfit took 15 days from the Sacramento and Guadalupe to reach the Bosque Grande Ranch.23 Mountains.18 Chisum moved his headquarters to the The two “Long Rail” herds under South Springs, near present day Roswell, Chisum and McKittrick drove from the in 1874, and McKittrick followed, build- Concho range to the Pecos, striking ing the first house on the Jacobs Ranch.24 Horsehead Crossing en route to the McKittrick became the overseer of the Bosque in December 1866. Later that agricultural operations for Chisum, and year 10,000 head of cattle would be seen grew wheat, buckwheat, and rye on his on the Pecos route to the New Mexico adjoining acreage.25 free grass.19 The Chisum herds traveled freely on the first trip, but the During the buildup of the South Springs Horsehead route would ruin more than property, another possible scheme came one cattleman. to light and tied McKittrick and his friend Chisum into the Lincoln County troubles. The Tunstall Store in Lincoln showed ledger entries for John H. 334 House

Tunstall’s payment of taxes for a number Chisum’s herds were targeted by outlaws of prominent ranchers including the old all over the region, and brands were Texas partners. McKittrick and Chisum burned over his Long Rail, while the are listed together in the accounts.26 The “jingle bobs” were lopped off, eliminat - pair also appears with Robert Beckwith ing his signature earmark.36 The descrip- in 1874 in the Robert Casey ledger from tion of the McKittrick-Thomas herd Lincoln County.27 Many ranchers de - leaves no doubt about their origins. The pended on credit, but the Tunstall tax pair operating out of their McKittrick payments lead to speculation that Spring dugout soon boasted quite a McKittrick and Chisum planned to number of cattle with their own signal transfer land to Tunstall.28 The South markings. The herd had no ears, no Springs land was not the only holding of horns, and was branded 666 on the McKittrick, and he sold a ranch on the shoulder, sides, and hip. Chisum was Rio Hondo to George Taylor after his said to have remarked, “They call me the farming venture took shape.29 cattle king, but I think Mac has me bested.” To which McKittrick replied, The McKittrick-Chisum connection “I’m one of your best scholars.”37 seems solid into 1878 with Felix signing for improvements on property belong - The bold inroads into Chisum’s cattle ing to Chisum, Hunter, and Evans at would not be tolerated. Pitser Chisum Croton Springs in Arizona. Chisum had reported the thievery in 1879 when he closed out much of his New Mexico wrote Fort Stanton’s Commander Henry holdings to Hunter and Evans, and re - G. Carroll about stock with unusual sumed business, presumably after set- marks. Most of the brands registered tling with the commission company.30 In went to names previously unknown a deposition to the government regard- among cattlemen, Chisum noted.38 ing his claim for losses to the Comanches, Felix testified he was boss- Hiding places for stock were numerous ing trail herds destined for the Apache in the Guadalupe and Sacramento reservation in Arizona, and represented mountains. Many ended up in Chisum while there.31 McKittrick Canyon, a place identified with Felix, though the Apaches received As the Lincoln County troubles heated the blame for many of the thefts.39 up, McKittrick went his own way, and established a ranch near Seven Rivers. In McKittrick was still in business in 1882 June 1880, the census enumerator found when John Meadows went to work for Felix, age 50, widowed, and listed as a him while waiting for a job with a friend dealer in cattle. He is listed as a native of moving to the territory. While working Kentucky. Living with McKittrick is with Felix, Meadows witnessed an event Charles Thomas, 25, also listed as a involving lawman Pat Garrett and dealer in cattle. Thomas, like many of McKittrick’s sense of fairness and hu - the Seven Rivers ranchers, was a Texan.32 mor. Garrett had arrested Hugh Beckwith for murdering his son-in-law, Joining the Seven Rivers ranchers put William H. Johnson, and was taking his McKittrick between his former friend prisoner to Lincoln. Needing to see to and partner Chisum, and the group of another warrant, Garrett left Beckwith small ranchers, mostly south Texans. At in the custody of Felix and Meadows. the time he was known to be friendly to McKittrick let Beckwith sleep outside Chisum’s enemies.33 McKittrick’s new the dugout, unguarded, and the sunrise partner, Charley Thomas, was riding revealed no prisoner in sight. Garrett ac- with Billy the Kid when the Kid killed cepted McKittrick’s story, and Meadows would-be gunman Joe Grant in the always believed that the lawman feared a Hargrove’s Saloon in Fort Sumner.34 The mob in Lincoln would have lynched Kid and Thomas were on speaking Beckwith, so he contrived an escape that terms, if somewhat strained, with the left two men a way out.40 Chisum roundup crew on the day they all went to the saloon.35 The lawlessness in Lincoln County would prompt Chisum to enlist his own “warriors”—hired gunmen—to patrol Guadalupe Mountains National Park 335 his ranges. Many Texans moving west from Washington, D.C., in bringing the from other range wars found employ - case to a close in February 1903 when ment with the Jingle Bob King.41 the award of $1,680 was paid to the es- tate, less $260 to Burdett. Through the McKittrick may have also partnered years the government had sought to with another veteran of the Chisum out - throw the [Indian depredation] case out fit, Emory Peter, his brother-in-law and because (a) Felix had not filed in a fellow Kentuckian. Family traditions timely manner, (b) because the Indians place them at McKittrick Canyon after might have been Comanches, and (c) in both left Chisum.42 a final insult, because the claimant had resided outside the United States and The days were long gone when Felix was not a citizen, based on the fact that McKittrick would be the joker-in-resi - Felix had been in Mexico, serving as a dence at the South Spring Ranch and the soldier in the Mexican War.46 trusted friend and partner of John Chisum. By 1885 he was gone to Arizona, Many characters in the history of the and he wrote Walter Thayer of Carlsbad “wild west” suffer from efforts to make inquiring about the people they both them bigger than life, and their associ- knew on the Pecos. Felix had not heard ates get painted with the same brush. from any of them in a long time, and by Chisum’s great herds and experiences in 1889 had sold his cattle to Charley Tho- Lincoln County furnish material for mas. He let Thayer know that many of endless versions of that event. the Pecos battlers were using other McKittrick, by comparison, lives on the names out in Arizona.43 Indeed many periphery, but is no less colorful, and by were living north of Clifton, Arizona, in the sheer accident of living amidst geo- the Blue Range seeking refuge and ano- logic wonders and natural beauty will in nymity like Felix. no small way be remembered always. McKittrick Canyon in the Guadalupe Some time after his move to Arizona, Mountains and McKittrick Canyon in Felix returned to Kentucky and visited the Blue Range of Arizona are fit monu - Mackville. His family remembered the ments. visit, and he was perceived as a real westerner in their accounts.44 Endnotes 1. Jeter Bryan, “Never Mind: McKittrick The account of his death lists the cause Canyon Search Fun, But Fruitless.” Current as drowning and records that Captain Argus, Carlsbad, New Mexico, Sunday, March 14, 1965. James McKittrick talked to a Felix McKittrick was found February 22, rather long list of old-time residents of the 1901, in the Blue River. He had fallen Carlsbad and Seven Rivers area. His letters over the front of the wagon and his head are in the files at Guadalupe Mountains Na- was in the water. His team of horses had tional Park, but there is no documentation of not moved. A former acquaintance his conversations with the local people he added some details, “Cap” McKittrick contacted. would come by Clifton, get too much to drink, and tell tales about the old days in 2. Frank X. Tolbert, “Tolbert’s Texas: On the New Mexico and Arizona.45 He was bur- McKittrick ‘Mystery’” Dallas Morning News, June 1965. The clipping copy I have ied in the Blue Cemetery. has no date other than this. Tolbert did make a plea for preserving the beauty of McKittrick’s estate at the time of his McKittrick Canyon. death consisted of a claim against the United States government for the attack 3. Letter, James E. McKittrick to Peter by the Mescaleros on the Chisum Sanchez, August 10, 1965. Copy in Guadalupe roundup crew on the Pecos. Felix filed Mountains National Park files. the claim on July 31, 1879, and it was pending when he died. He left any pro - 4. Letter, Guadalupe Mountains National Park Superintendent Donald Dayton to Billy ceeds to two of his nieces back in Ken- S. Thompson, October 14, 1975. Copy in tucky. Emory B. Peter acted as executor. Guadalupe Mountains National Park files. Peter joined S. S. Burdett, an attorney 336 House

Dayton replied in part, “No definite factual 14. R. G. Johnson, letter of October 30, 1900; evidence has surfaced as to whether the Felix in Denton Record-Chronicle. McKittrick who enlisted in the Confederate Army in Denton County, Texas, was the same 15. Confederate Archive, Chapter 1, File man who later worked the cattle lands with Number 92, page 30, received from David John Chisum, and who spent time in the area Williams, letter February 5, 1995. Felix’s of what is today Carlsbad and the Guadalupe medical report shows six cards for his time Mountains.” in service.

5. Guadalupe Mountains National Park re - 16. Harwood P. Hinton, “John Simpson port: “Known Structures in Guadalupe Chisum, 1877–84,” New Mexico Historical Mountains National Park.” The second Review, 31 (July 1956), 177–205. structure listed is the McKittrick dugout in McKittrick Canyon. 17. C. L. Douglas, Cattle Kings of Texas (Fort Worth, Branch Smith, Inc.), 115. 6. Frank Collinson, Life in the Saddle. 18. Robert M. Utley, The Indian Frontier of 7. Washington County, Kentucky records re - the American West 1846-1890 (Albuquerque, ferred by Billy Thompson; Fred L. University of New Mexico Press, 1984), 84– McKitrick, The McKitricks and Roots of Ul- 85. ster Scots (Baltimore, Gateway Press, Inc. 1979); Letter: Beulah Thompson to Billy Th - 19. Clayton W. Williams, “That Topographical ompson, October 25, 1975. The Fred Ghost-Horsehead Crossing.” Old West McKitrick genealogy study contains gaps, (Winter 1974), 50. Charles L. Pyron, traveling but establishes the McKitricks (McKittricks) the El Paso-Guadalupe Mountains–San An- as Scots, later settled in Ulster, Ireland. Felix tonio route estimated the numbers of cattle. will always be referred to as Irish by writers Horsehead Crossing is accurately located in who knew him. Beulah Thompson repeats the Williams’ article. the family tradition that Fielding ran away with some type “show.” She gives 1885 as the 20. Douglas, Cattle Kings, 118; Collinson, date of a return trip Felix made to Mackville. Life, 142.

8. Bounty-Land Warrant Application 21. Eve Ball, Ma’am Jones of the Pecos, (Tuc- 29.577.160-47, Mexican War. National Ar- son, University of Arizona Press, 1969), 132; chives, Can 2187-Bundle 176. Lily Klasner, My Girlhood Among Outlaws, (Tucson, University of Arizona Press, 1972), 9. T. R. Fehrenbach, Lone Star (New York, 35, Edited by Eve Ball. The Rattlesnake Macmillian, 1974), 284. Springs are identified with Hank Harrison, and the reference here is that he brought a 10. Ty Cashion, A Texas Frontier: The Clear few cattle and held the land. This may ex- Fork Country and Fort Griffin, 1849–1887 plain the actions of people like McKittrick (Norman, University of Oklahoma Press, who owned cattle in Denton County. If so, 1996), 23 the Chisum outfit seems to be a large organi- zation with many “partners.” The Klasner 11. Ed F. Bates, History and Reminiscences of book links McKittrick to the canyon for a Denton County (Denton, McNitzky Printing long period of time, noting he camped there Co., 1918), 137, 306. for years and “made it his headquarters.” By the time the army pursues the Mescaleros 12. Census of the United States, Denton into the canyon they have abandoned their County Texas, p. 433. In what will cause con - camp and left the stock. McKittrick was not fusion later, McKittrick lists his age at 30. occupying the canyon then. His occupation is stock raiser. 22. T. Dudley Cramer, The Pecos Ranchers in 13. Washington County, Kentucky: marriage the Lincoln County War, (Oakland: Branding records p. 110; Denton County Historical Iron Press), 56. Commission, IOOF Cemetery Survey, 1982, p. 71, Almira’s birth date is January 18, 1834; 23. Mary Whatley Clark, John Simpson Beulah Thompson letter, October 25, 1975. Chisum: Jinglebob King of the Pecos, (Aus- Mrs. Thompson confirms that Almira died tin: Eakin Press, 1984), 24; J. Frank Dobie, soon after childbirth, and the child also died. The Longhorns, (New York: Bramhill, 1982), She noted that Felix was no stranger to trag- 75. edy. Guadalupe Mountains National Park 337

24. Roswell Record, “Something More of the Past,” M. A. Upson, April 15, 1892. Ash Upson 38. Hinton, J. S. Chisum, 330. is the same person who appears on the cen- sus at the Heiskell Jones Ranch and the 39. Klasner, My Girlhood, 35. ghostwriter of Pat Garrett’s book on Billy the Kid. 40. Early Experiences of John Meadows, Tularosa: J. Evetts Haley Library, Midland, 25. Clarke, John Simpson Chisum, 113; Mary Texas. Hudson Brothers in A Pecos Pioneer reports the same information on the farming activi- 41. Clarke, John Simpson Chisum, 25. ties. 42. H. P. Hinton to Alex Williams, June 19, 26. Frederick Nolan, The Lincoln County 1978. Sharon McKittrick Brown related the War: A Documentary History, (Norman: family story to Tom Brown of Artesia. University of Oklahoma Press, 1992), 132, 142. Tunstall’s entries are not dated after July 21, 43. Letter: Felix McKittrick to Walter Thayer. 1877. Original belongs to Mary Helen Brunt, Carlsbad, New Mexico. 27. Robert Casey, Biographical File, J. Evetts Haley Collection: J. Evetts Haley History 44. Letter: Beulah Thompson to Billy Th- Center, Midland Texas. ompson, October 25, 1975.

28. Nolan, Lincoln County, 170. 45. Solomonville, Arizona, Bulletin, March 8, 1901; Letter: Anderson to Blazer. 29. Sid J. Boykin interview with J. Evetts Haley, June 23, 1927, XIT Ranch, Volume 1, 46. RG-123, Case Number 5936. JEH Library, Midland, Texas.

30. Letter, Harwood P. Hinton to Alex Will- iams, May 15, 1978.

31. RG-123, Records of the United States Court of Claims, Indian Depredation Records, Case Files, March 5, 1891–March 17, 1894; September 21, 1917. Felix McKittrick, Case Number 5936.

32. U.S. Census, County of Lincoln, Territory of New Mexico. Taken by A. H. Whetson, June 1880. McKittrick and Thomas are Fam- ily 31. Their near neighbors are Family 33, the Heiskell Joneses, including boarder, Ash M. Upson.

33. Letter: A. A. Anderson to Almer Blazer, October 31, 1931. Robert Mullin Collection, Nita Stewart Haley Memorial Library, Mid- land, Texas.

34. Pat F. Garrett, The Authentic Life of Billy the Kid, (Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1954, 1980), 87. This is the book likely ghostwritten by Ash Upson.

35. Robert M. Utley, Billy the Kid: A Short and Violent Life, (Lincoln: University of Ne- braska Press, 1989), 131–132.

36. Hinton, J.S. Chisum, 332.

37. Mary Hudson Brothers, A Pecos Pioneer, (Albuquerque: University of New Mexico Press, 1943), 50.

Guadalupe Mountains National Park 339 Chapter 40 The Career and Contributions of Wallace E. Pratt

JIM W. ADAMS is an American Association of Petroleum Geologists (AAPG) certi- fied petroleum geologist in Midland, Texas. He was instrumental in securing corpo- rate funds for park preservation actions on the Wallace Pratt residence, Ship-on-the - Desert. He worked as a geological advisor for Exxon, U.S.A. for 43 years.

Wallace Pratt was born in 1885 and raised don’t seem spectacular unless we notice on a farm in northern Kansas. Being just how early Pratt came to his conclu- number six of 10 children, he had to sions. earn his own way through college. He graduated from the University of Kansas 1917: Pratt was a founder of the American with a Bachelor of Arts Degree in 1907 Association of Petroleum Geologists and a Bachelor of Science Degree in (AAPG) and their fourth President. 1908. He was unable to find a job as a ge - ologist, so he stayed in college and re - 1919: Pratt was a member of the team that ceived a Master of Arts Degree in 1909. went to New York to secure money for a He then signed on as a geologist with the badly needed refinery and a pipeline Division of Mines of the Philippine Is - from the Ranger Field to the Gulf Coast. lands. When he returned to Kansas in Standard Oil Company of New Jersey 1915, he earned another degree as Engi- purchased a half-interest in Humble at neer of Mines. He then took a job with that time for $17 million. Because of the Texas Company in old Mexico Texas law, however, it was agreed that Figure 1. Wallace E. Pratt. where he was thrown in jail and rescued “Jersey” would not interfere with Photo courtesy of the with other Americans by gunboats. Humble’s board of directors. American Association of Pe- troleum Geologists. He began his long successful career with 1920. Pratt realized that the gas produced the newly formed Humble Oil & Refin- with oil was helpful to push the oil ing Company in early 1918. As their first through the reservoir rock into the well geologist, he was named chief geologist bore. This started him on a lifelong quest in Houston; he later became a director to prevent the burning of gas flares: Pratt and vice president. Wallace Pratt’s suc- was probably the first person to recog- cess as an oil -finder came chiefly nize the reservoir recovery factor. He through his brilliant mind and his capa- said, “I can’t get away from the idea that bility as an organizer. He quickly hired a the flow from such wells does not repre - staff of 10 geologists and insisted on their sent the total volume of oil in the reser- being closely associated with all drilling voir…. I doubt if these wells flow as wells. He started a research laboratory much as 50% of the total volume avail - where they could study cores and well able.” samples. He cleverly integrated oilfield scouts, landmen, geologists, and geo- 1921: Pratt said, “Our first great explora- physicists into his exploration depart - tion success…resulted purely from a ment, so when any of these people got a breakthrough we made in geological lead on a new prospective area, the knowledge.” He was poring over the Humble Company could move quickly field maps late one Saturday night on the to acquire valuable leases at low cost. kitchen table of his field geologist in Mexia, Texas. The rock structure had His thinking frequently ran contrary to been mapped as an anticline, but the prevailing geologic prejudices of the day. data just didn’t fit that explanation. Fi - So many of his ideas have become ac- nally it dawned on Pratt that the mecha- cepted by modern-day geologists they 340 Adams

nism trapping the oil was a fault, not an 1926: Pratt recommended that Humble anticline! Three new oil -finding con - hire its first petroleum engineer. With cepts entered his mind that night: John Suman, he supported increased conservation measures, wider well spac- 1. Faults can trap petroleum; this was a ing, and more reservoir research. Pratt sealing fault (they were generally urged the Railroad Commission of Texas considered to leak). to force operators to reinject panhandle 2. The fault plane dipped at an angle to gas to maintain reservoir pressure, and the west (the prevailing thought was Humble started this practice on its own that they were vertical). leases in many fields. 3. The dip on the fault meant that acre - age west of the surface expression 1927: Humble discovered the Sugarland might be productive, yet this area (Texas) Field as the first major field dis- was not even leased! covered by seismic methods. Under Pratt’s leadership, some 300 geologists Wallace Pratt was so excited that he tele- and landsmen met in Iraan, Texas, to ef- phoned the president of Humble at 2:00 fect the first voluntary production prora- am Sunday morning requesting permis- tion agreement in the huge Yates Field. sion to lease as much acreage as he could get. He was given $400,000 authority; 1928: Humble voluntarily joined its first 175 of 180 wells drilled on this acreage field unit by turning over a lease to were productive. Using these new con - Conoco in Coleman County, Texas. cepts, Pratt’s team was very successful Unitization is accomplished for energy also in the Luling and Powell fields. He conservation by water flooding or other doubled Humble’s production from 8 means with one company operating the million barrels of oil in 1920 to 17 million entire field for the benefit of all lease in 1923. Humble thereby passed up owners. Upon the strong recommenda- Texaco as the largest producer in Texas. tion of one of his geologists, Wallace Pratt started leasing in what later proved It was also in 1921 that he first became in- to be the large east Texas Field. terested in McKittrick Canyon. “I had been told simply that it was the most 1929: Pratt’s company started a public in- beautiful spot in Texas, so I drove 100- formation campaign to permit state odd miles in an old Model T to see for agencies to prorate oil and gas produc- myself…. So over a period of years and tion and permit unitization of fields to largely with borrowed money, I gradu - conserve energy. Humble also helped ally achieved full ownership of the State of New Mexico draft a model McKittrick Canyon and its surrounding conservation law; it also proposed the acreage.” His first interest was strictly for formation of the Interstate Oil Compact the scenery, but he soon came to realize Commission. that he had purchased one of the world’s most outstanding exposures of an an- 1930: Between the time that Dad Joiner’s cient carbonate reef. well in east Texas received its first show of oil and the final completion of the 1925: Pratt was at first slow to use geo- well, Wallace Pratt leased another 12,000 physics in oil prospecting, but by 1925 he acres for $500,000. He correctly sur- had nine crews in the field including mised that the first three scattered pro - magnetometer, gravity and seismic. Dur- ductive wells were part of one long pro - ing the early 1920s, Humble participated ductive trend and leased accordingly. It in drilling most of the major Texas took nine years to develop these leases, oilfields; nearly all of the larger (lease) but on their own, they tripled Humble’s trades were negotiated by Wallace per- 1930 reserves and made it the largest op- sonally. He was also elevated to erator in the field with 16% of the Humble’s board of directors that year. proven acreage. Of course, this prolific uncontrolled field caused the price of oil to drop below $0.10 per barrel during Guadalupe Mountains National Park 341

America’s Great Depression, and hard ment was that if 10 different companies times came to the oil patch until World operated wells on the ranch, who would War II. Kleburg go to when someone ran in to his pet bull? Facing a $3 million inherit - In a letter I received from Wallace Pratt, ance tax and not wanting to sell part of which I treasure, he wrote: “We built our their prize herds, Robert J. Kleburg, Jr. first home in McKittrick Canyon in 1930 came around to Pratt’s way of thinking. (we had to go clear to Sweetwater, Texas, Kleburg’s terms of this new lease were: to get a stonemason). Our first home was located at the mouth of North 1. No lease bonus! McKittrick where it joins Main 2. Humble would lend the ranch McKittrick. Our first home is generally $3,500,000 at 5% interest known as ‘Pratt’s Hunting Lodge’ al - 3. Annual rentals of $127,824 though we have never hunted nor per- 4. ? royalty on production mitted hunting on our property. Both of 5. 20 year lease (renewed until year our homes are constructed of fine - 2000) grained closely laminated, silty lime - stones of the marine facies of the Bell Humble’s president was opposed to this Canyon. Both were included in our gift lease in rank wildcat territory during the of McKittrick Canyon to the National height of the Great Depression. With Park Service to become the nucleus low oil and gas prices, he wanted Pratt around which it accumulated all of the to get partners to spread the risk. Gulf, present Guadalupe Mts. National Park.” Shell, and Texaco all turned down the chance to participate. Wallace Pratt re - Also during this year, Pratt’s geophysi - mained optimistic: “Unlike most of my cists developed the industry’s first grav - fellow geologists, I was convinced that ity meter to replace the slower torsion hydrocarbons are normal constituents of balance. marine sedimentary rock” (Copithorne 1982). Pratt’s arguments were so impres- 1931: Pratt converted all Humble seismic sive that Humble’s board of directors crews from refraction surveys to Everett not only approved the King Ranch lease, L. DeGolyer’s more progressive reflec- but gave him authority to lease an addi- tion surveys. He also established a train- tional two million acres between Corpus ing section for professional personnel. Christi and the Rio Grande. It took many years to develop the King Ranch, 1933: This was a banner year for 48-year- but Pratt’s lease yielded Humble over old Wallace Pratt. He was made a vice 1,000 oil and gas wells. When these large president of Humble Oil. He learned gas reserves were discovered, there was how to fly, bought an open-cockpit air- no outlet, so Pratt personally pushed gas plane, and built a landing strip on the contracts with refineries in the Houston McKittrick Canyon Ranch so they could area and got a pipeline built to supply enjoy it more. During his lifetime, he them. The huge King Ranch gas plant also flew this plane to New York and that was necessitated by these transac- Alaska. It was also in 1933 that Pratt ac- tions also generated profit for Humble. complished what was to him a highlight of his career: he negotiated a lease of the 1933: The discovery of Tomball, Pledger, huge King Ranch, the largest single lease and Greta fields added a trillion cubic ever written: over one million acres in 11 feet of gas to Humble’s reserves. Humble counties of south Texas. The lease terms also started running Schlumberger elec- were specified by Robert Kleburg of the tric logs in 1933. King Ranch, but the integrity of Wallace Pratt was a key factor in these negotia- 1934: Humble’s discoveries at the Means tions. Pratt had infuriated Kleburg 15 Field (Andrews, Texas), Tom O’Conner years earlier when he canceled a lease (south Texas), and Hastings Field added because of checkerboard provisions that 315 million barrels of oil to Humble’s re - he felt were not in the best interests of serves, thus exceeding the reserves of Humble or the King Ranch. Pratt’s argu- Gulf and Texaco combined. Wallace 342 Adams

Pratt did an extensive study and found Humble but not without some trepida- that oil consumption was exceeding tion. He said, “My instinct has always even the good rate of discovery. Despite been to distrust any enterprise that re - the glut of oil in east Texas, he predicted quires a new set of clothes” (Copithorne that the United States would someday 1982). need to import oil; therefore, he acceler- ated leasing 50% greater than 1933! During Pratt’s tenure with Humble (from 1918 to the prorated year 1937) he 1935: Pratt’s exploration team discovered and his exploration team succeeded in the Anahuac Field (200 million barrels raising the company’s reserves from 32 of oil) while the Katy Field yielded million barrels of oil to 1.9 billion barrels Humble’s largest gas reserves. of oil, more than twice that of its nearest domestic competitor. They increased 1936: Amelia Field was a Humble seismic production from 11,759 barrels of oil per discovery while Talco yielded another 80 day to 138,660 barrels per day, with a ca- million barrels of oil reserve. pability of 150,000 barrels per day. By 1941 production on Pratt’s leases had 1937: During the Great Depression when risen to 149,972 barrels of oil per day the price of oil fell to less than $1 per with remaining oil reserves proven at 2.7 barrel, many oil companies ceased leas- billion barrels (14% of our nation’s total) ing and reduced drilling and began lay - plus 6.6 trillion cubic feet of gas. ing off professional personnel. Wallace Pratt’s genius lay in pursuing a course di- Wallace and Iris Pratt moved to a flat rectly opposite to that of industry. He overlooking Central Park in downtown reasoned that leases were cheap and Manhattan. personnel were cheap, so he expanded lease acquisitions, drilling, and hiring. 1937–1945: Wallace Pratt’s career with The official history of Humble states: “Jersey” was also successful. He set up “Pratt’s courage—his willingness to an office in France that discovered the think and act independently—merits Parentis Field (France’s largest oilfield). special emphasis. At the very time when He was also instrumental in establishing much of the American Oil Industry had sound relations with the government of greatly reduced…its search for oil, he led Venezuela that were very important to his company in an unprecedented cam- Jersey’s large operations there. paign for building up its reserves. He persuaded his associates on the Humble The Humble Company’s contribution to Board…by the persuasiveness of his the war effort during these years was facts and arguments” (Larson and Porter outstanding. Many employees served in 1959). “Pratt’s high standing outside the the Armed Services, others in Oil Plan- company was an important factor…he ning Boards in Washington. Humble’s worked for the advancement of petro - greatest contribution was in oil produc- leum geology, better production meth - tion, the largest in the nation; pipe- ods, and the conservation of re - lines—the “Big Inch” pipeline from sources… In the lease market, he had a Texas to the East bypassed German sub- reputation for fair trading…. He was an marines in the Gulf of Mexico; and re - outstanding geologist as well as an ad- fining—Humble developed high-octane ministrator” (Larson and Porter 1959). airplane gasoline and also made valuable synthetic butyl rubber from patents ob- 1937 also brought the discovery by tained from I. G. Farben of Germany Humble of Friendswood Field near during the 1920s. Events in the life of Houston, of North Crowley in Louisi - Wallace Pratt during the war were: ana, and Wasson Field in west Texas. In this year of Humble’s largest expendi- 1941: He delivered four lectures to the ture for leases ($8 million), Wallace Pratt Department of Geology of his alma (June 30, 1937) was made a director and mater, the University of Kansas, which executive committee member of Stan- contained his most famous quotation: dard Oil Company of New Jersey. He left Guadalupe Mountains National Park 343

“Where oil is first found, in the final fice. Wallace and Iris Pratt built a larger analysis, is in the minds of men” (Salva- home near the mouth of McKittrick dor 1982). Canyon out of the same type of lime - stone flagstones as the cabin. This was 1942: Pratt was made a vice president of the famous “Ship-on-the-Desert” that Standard Oil Company of New Jersey. was designed on the lines of an oil tanker. It is long and narrow with rail - 1943: Wallace and Iris Pratt were ma- ings above the first story protecting ex- rooned one week in the McKittrick tensive sun decks. A second story Canyon cabin by a flash flood. This “bridge” is located in the center which caused them to think about building an- features large picture windows with other house on the ranch. magnificent views: McKittrick Canyon to the northeast, the Delaware Basin to 1944: He predicted the discovery of im- the south, and Capitan Peak to the west. portant oil deposits on the North Slope Access to the bridge is by a unique circu- of Alaska. Humble secured leases there lar stairway: one vertical pole with radi- and participated in the Prudhoe Bay dis- ating steel plates and circular handrail covery. like that in a submarine.

1945: At the age of 60, Wallace Pratt re - Wallace Pratt was very fond of the tired from Standard Oil of New Jersey, wooden bookshelves that he had espe- but did not retire from geology. I have cially built while in New York. He often marveled that this active man, with brought these with him when he retired the entire world at his fingertips in that to the ranch and he donated them to the office in downtown Manhattan, chose to National Park Service where they can be move to the solitude and quiet of seen in the Ship-on-the-Desert today. McKittrick Canyon. For the next 15 When Exxon closed their office in Mid- years, he didn’t have a telephone and land, Texas, I requested that they donate lived 10 miles from the nearest neighbor books to fill these bookcases. They gra- and 60 miles from the nearest post of- ciously gave “The Ship” a complete set

Figure 2. The second Pratt residence, Ship-on-the-Desert, in the Guadalupe Mountains. Drawing by James E. White, A.L.A. Architect, August 1973. 344 Adams

of bound American Association of Pe - stitute of Mining and Metallurgical En- troleum Geologists Bulletins (1917–1997: gineers awarded him the Anthony Lucas 80 years!) and a complete set of the Jour- Medal. nal of Sedimentary Geology (1933?– 1996). 1950–1959: Many more honors came to Wallace Pratt. The president of Colum- I once made the mistake of calling this bia University, Dwight D. Eisenhower, house the “Ship-of- the-Desert.” Wallace gave him the university’s James Forman Pratt quietly corrected me: “No, Jim, the Kemp Medal. API presented him with Ship-OF-the-Desert is a camel.” The Na- the Gold Medal for Distinguished tional Park Service has now designated Achievement. Both AAPG and the this building as The Wallace Pratt Ship- Roswell Geological Society made him an on-the-Desert Research Center, and it is honorary life member. I attended the lat - a useful dormitory for research geolo- ter presentation where the president gists, biologists, botanists, ecologists, en- talked at length about all of Wallace vironmentalists, and cave experts need- Pratt’s achievements. When Wallace was ing a home within park boundaries. finally allowed to speak, he thanked the president and quietly added: “I got so During his retirement years, Pratt set up enthused listening to that marvelous in- a consulting office in Carlsbad to which troduction that I couldn’t wait to get up he would commute in his airplane or in here to hear what I had to say.” “his” of “his-and- hers” Mercedes 1960: When Iris Pratt’s arthritis needed Benz—back in a time when NO Ameri- more treatment, they moved to Tucson, cans bought foreign cars. Arizona. As a young geologist, Wallace had longed to see granite, which Kansas He also drilled a few oil wells on his did not have at the surface. He was over- own, many of which were successful! It joyed to spend his last years walking was also in 1945 that Pratt was named the around some of the oldest granite on the first recipient of the highest honor continent. They first offered the awarded by AAPG: The Sidney Powers McKittrick Ranch to son, Dr. Wallace Memorial Medal. In presenting this Pratt, Jr., provided he would live on the medal to him, another pioneer oil finder, ranch. He wasn’t interested. This trig - Everett L. DeGolyer aptly summarized gered the first of three acreage donations Pratt’s contribution by saying, “He has totaling about 5,632 acres to the National raised the profession of petroleum geol - Park Service which he felt would be the ogy to an eminence and a dignity which ablest custodian of the beautiful scenery it would not otherwise attain.” To all of McKittrick Canyon as the nucleus for such honors, Wallace Pratt modestly re - the future Guadalupe Mountains Na- plied, “I was lucky. The time just hap - tional Park. This grant was made with pened to be ripe for someone with my concurrence of his heirs. They donated bag of tricks to come over the pike.” about one-third of their acreage to the park including the McKittrick cabin and 1946–1947: Wallace Pratt traveled exten- the Ship-on-the-Desert and retained sively as one of the first AAPG distin- about two-thirds as a working cattle guished lecturers. He predicted that ranch. Then Wallace and Iris Pratt built a enormous quantities of oil and gas third house on the ranch for the enjoy - would be found by offshore drilling on ment of the family. The following year, continental shelves all over the world, Iris persuaded Wallace very reluctantly and that eventually we would need to to give up flying at the age of 76. use solar energy also. 1969: Wallace was the keynote speaker at 1948: The Pratts lived in Washington the dinner honoring him and others be- where he served as assistant chairman of ing inducted into the Permian Basin Hall the National Security Resources Board. of Fame in Midland, Texas. Throughout It was at this time that the American In - his life, he was a generous contributor to the University of Kansas and the AAPG where an office tower at the Tulsa head- Guadalupe Mountains National Park 345 quarters is named after him. But one of Pratt, W. E. 1926. Geology of Salt Dome oil his most lasting gifts was the one he gave fields. Problems of Petroleum Geology to you and to me: the everlasting beauty (pages 235–245). American Association of Pe- of the Guadalupe Mountains and their troleum Geologists, Tulsa, Oklahoma. canyons. Today when we come to the _____. 1934. Hydrogenation and the origins visitor center we hear a tape extolling of oil. American Association of Petroleum the natural beauty and geological signifi- Geologists, Tulsa, Oklahoma. cance of this “prettiest spot in Texas.” It is Wallace Pratt’s voice urging us to en- _____. 1941. Oil in the Earth. University of joy the same things he enjoyed here: Kansas: based on four lectures at the Depart- “tongues in trees, books in the running ment of Geology. brooks, and sermons in stones.” _____. 1942. Source beds of Petroleum. American Association of Petroleum Geolo- Wallace Pratt stayed up late on Christ- gists, Tulsa, Oklahoma. mas Eve in 1981. He was dictating letters to his friends. He passed away as gently _____. 1945. American Association of Petro- as he lived on Christmas Day at the age leum Geologists Bulletin 29:478, 491, 1633. of 96. As Pratt himself said many times to others: “Vaya con Dios.” _____. 1948. Structure of typical American oilfields. Volume 3. American Association of Petroleum Geologists, Tulsa, Oklahoma.

_____. 1951. A philosophy of oil-finding. Ab- stract. Distinguished lecture tour. American Selected references Association of Petroleum Geologists Bulle- Adams, J. W. 1985. Tribute to Wallace E. Pratt tin, December. (1885–1981). Permian carbonate-clastic sedi- mentology, Guadalupe Mountains. Publica- _____. 1952. A philosophy of oil-finding. tion number 85-24, pages vi–xii. SEPM, Per- American Association of Petroleum Geolo- mian Basin Section, Midland, Texas. gists Bulletin 36:2231–2236, 2625–2631. Adams, J. W., and L. E. Henderson. 1993. The _____. 1969. Petroleum pioneers in the Per- Wallace Pratt Ship-on-the-Desert Research mian basin. Address. The 2nd “Hall of Fame” Center, Guadalupe Mountains National dinner. Permian Basin Petroleum Museum, Park. Pages 48–49 in D. W. Lovew, J. W. Midland, Texas: December 23, 1969, tape Hawley, B. S. Kues, G. S. Austin, and S. G. transcription. Lucas, editors. Carlsbad region, New Mexico and west Texas: 44th Field Confer- Salvador, A. 1982. Memorial. Wallace E. Pratt ence, October 6–9, 1993. Guidebook 44. memorial volume. Volume 66, pages 1412– New Mexico Geological Society. 1416. American Association of Petroleum Ge- Copithorne, W.L. 1982. From Doodlebug to ologists, Tulsa, Oklahoma. seismograph. Century of Discovery (pages 44–47). Exxon Corporation.

Fritz, M. 1984. Wallace Pratt’s legacy contin- ues. American Association of Petroleum Ge- ologists Explorer Magazine, November.

Larson, H. M., and K. W. Porter. 1959. His- tory of Humble Oil & Refining Company. Harper and Brothers Publishers, New York.

Myres, S. D. 1972. Interview with Wallace Pratt and Neil Wills at Tucson, Arizona. Per- mian Basin Petroleum Museum, Midland, Texas: March 18, 1972, tape transcription.

Guadalupe Mountains National Park 347 Chapter 41 The Role of History in Managing NPS Areas

DWIGHT T. PITCAITHLY, Ph.D., is the chief historian for the National Park Ser- vice. He has worked as an historian for the National Park Service on a variety of projects for the past 10 years.

If mountains are good for the soul, then Guadalupe Mountains. I can’t say I’m the Guadalupe Mountains are good for looking forward to that, but it’s there my soul. Having grown up here, they nonetheless. have been part of my existence for as long as I can remember; they were magi- Let’s talk some history. One hundred cal and mystical and very seductive for years ago, William James wrote of being me as a boy scout. I went camping and in the mountains of North Carolina and hiking in and around them during the seeing what he perceived as pure squa- 1950s. I knew men who had hiked to the lor. “The forest had been destroyed,” top of the Guadalupe Peak and I held James wrote. Settlers had killed all the them in awe. I could imagine that, but I trees, planted their crops around the never did it until about five years ago. I stumps, and built crude cabins and am sure it was a lot easier when I did crude fences. The result was hideous, a than when they did. My first excursion sort of ulcer, without a single element of into the Guadalupes wasn’t until 1963 as artificial grace to make up for the loss of a laborer at Carlsbad Caverns when Dick nature’s beauty. Ugly indeed seemed the Stansbury, who then was chief of main- life of the squatter. But as he became tenance for the park, and I went out to better acquainted with the region and its McKittrick Canyon to the Wallace Pratt inhabitants, James began to view the Lodge, the first Pratt cabin. (Just for the landscape through their eyes. “When record I picked up trash the first season they looked on the hideous stumps,” he and cleaned toilets the second season.) I wrote, “what they thought of was per- think we got a refrigerator out of there sonal victory. The chips, the girdled and took it to the dormitory at Carlsbad trees, the vile split rails spoke of honest Caverns. That was my first entry into the sweat, persistent toil, and final reward. heart of the Guadalupe Mountains. I The cabin was a warrant of safety for was of course quite taken by that. I re - self, wife and babes. In short, the clear- member that when I was returning from ing which to me was an ugly picture on Vietnam in 1966, I had shipped back and the retina was to them a symbol redolent spent a month in San Diego and then got with moral memories and sang a very a leave of absence, or whatever you call paean of duty, struggle and success” it, furlough. I remember getting on the (“On a Certain Blindness in Human Be - Perceptions shape the bus in El Paso and getting a left hand ings” in William James: Writings, 1878– way we look at things: seat so I would be sure and see the 1899). Guadalupes as they loomed ahead. And the natural world, it wasn’t until I went through Guadalupe Perceptions shape the way we look at history, other cul- Pass I knew that I was home and every - things: the natural world, history, other tures, our own cul- thing was going to be okay. I have a cultures, our own culture, the federal ture, the federal gov- painting of the Guadalupe Mountains in government. Perceptions are based on my dining room so that I get a good dose our own experiences, knowledge, ernment. of the Guadalupes every day, and I plan ethnicity, social circles, economic status, on a long engagement with the political outlook, and geographical Guadalupes, getting to know more of it roots. Even as we thought we under- over a long period of time. My will stood the concept of nature, William stipulates that after my demise and cre - Cronon, Richard White, and others are mation, I am to be sprinkled in the challenging us to think about it in new 348 Pitcaithley

and different ways, even suggesting that tory has a way of bringing us up short. wilderness is a cultural construct and Just as we think we have it all figured not an environmental abstract. Bill out: everyone in their place, events all in Cronon in particular has opened our order, someone, usually a historian or minds to the idea that the American writer of some vision comes along and landscape of 1492 and after had been stirs the pot, reorders the past, adds new shaped and molded by Native Ameri- players to the game, gives us a different cans for generations, and the concept of perspective on the past, encourages us to virgin forests was, in reality, not so real. think differently about what we thought we knew, adds a new and different voice Historians regularly deal with the won - to preconceived notions about “the derfully interesting intersection of his- olden days.” tory, myth, and culture. Many of our most cherished cultural traditions are That is as it should be, the way it has built not on solid historical documenta- been since written history began. We tion but on cultural traditions that help know this in our personal lives. We us make sense of a sometimes confusing know that our perceptions of events and dissonant past: Washington praying change as we age, as we mature, as we in the snow at Valley Forge, Betsy Ross move from place to place, as we learn sewing the first flag. I’ll not mention more through reading and thinking Washington chopping down the cherry about events we witnessed earlier. tree. (Those who have experienced war cer- tainly know that firsthand accounts of The National Park Service harbors its battles differ depending on whether the own cultural traditions. For decades the author was an officer or enlisted, Washburn expedition of 1870 through whether the account was written imme - Yellowstone served as the genesis of the diately after or decades later.) It is, I national park idea. It is now more com - think, those evolving perceptions about pletely understood as the origin of a the past that imbue the profession of his- happy partnership linking first the tory with the excitement that currently Northern Pacific and later other rail - characterizes its conferences, journals, roads with tourism and national parks. and stimulating discussions over break - (For years the diorama of the expedition fast and beer. A sense of anticipation: in the Department of the Interior mu - what will Bill Cronon or Donald seum carried the mythic tradition. A sec- Worster or Patty Limerick do to us next? ond label put up in recent years adds an additional layer of understanding to that Interesting then—isn’t it?—that as a soci- What is a useful his- event.) ety we have trouble accepting different tory to one generation interpretations of the past. We tend to does not work for the But we don’t like to have our percep- want a seamless unchanging past; one tions of truth challenged, our contem- that reaffirms assumed truths; one that next, thus prompting porary perceptions or our perceptions minimizes conflict and embraces a a reconsideration or of the past. We get comfortable with the dominant narrative of progress, upward reassessment. worlds we create, and yet we know in- mobility, and success all leading to stinctively that our truths are not univer- happy endings—sort of an Ozzie and sal, that others have perceptions that are Harriet version of history. The western different from ours, and that the open writer Wallace Stegner thought the for- discussion of those differences can be mation of a mythic past, personal and intellectually and emotionally stimulat - collective, cuts us off from not only our ing and—gasp—may even prompt us to past but from ourselves, and thus hin- modify our previously assumed truths. ders our ability to know how to adapt Historians in particular see their work as wisely and responsibly to our environ - evolutionary. What is a useful history to ment and to changing contemporary one generation does not work for the conditions. Our understanding of the next, thus prompting a reconsideration past is not a monolith, rigid and static, or reassessment or to use the other “R” but dynamic and fluid, and we search for word, revision, of the past. Indeed, his- truths knowing that ultimate truth will Guadalupe Mountains National Park 349 always elude us. Historians also under- quickly followed by a structural and ar- stand now that our understanding of cheological survey. The latter was ac- history comes not just from the written complished under contract with Texas record but from various remnants from Tech University during the 1970s where I our past. Perhaps Stegner said it best (I was then a graduate student in history. (I am a Wallace Stegner fan) when he missed out on that contract, but a year wrote, “The past becomes a thing made later drove Tech’s 1953 surplus Air Force Baseline information palpable in the monuments, buildings, ambulance, all 7,000 pounds of it—you from historians and historic sites, museums, attics, old can talk to Paul and Susana [Katz] about trunks, relics of a hundred kinds; and in their driving it earlier—to the Arkansas archaeologists enable the legends of grandfathers and great - Ozarks where I constructed the same us to chart a clearer grandfathers; and in the incised marble sort of structural survey along the Buf- course in all our man- and granite and weathered wood of falo River.) Baseline information from agement activities. graveyards; and in the murmuring of historians and archeologists enable us to ghosts” (from Wolf Willow 1962). chart a clearer course in all our manage - ment activities. It is the historian’s responsibility to listen to those murmurings and legends, visit The second area where historians play a monuments and graveyards alike, exam- major role in managing natural areas is ine “relics of a hundred kinds.” Histori- through the preparation of administra- ans look for and interpret stories. Histo - tive histories. These studies do not focus rians in the National Park Service look as much on the resources of the park, for stories that connect us with specific but on how the National Park Service as places. They link relics—those physical, an agency has managed those resources tangible reminders of our collective over time. They provide an introspective past—to us in the present and give them look at a federal agency that historically purpose and meaning. Historians ap - has not been very introspective. If they proach natural parks no differently than are worth doing (and they are) they are they do cultural parks; indeed, over the worth doing right, and that means pro - past decade or so, we have seen the lines ducing an unvarnished analysis of the blur between our artificially imposed la- failures as well as the successes of park bels of “natural” and “cultural.” Is management. These histories should not Saratoga National Historical Park with be laudatory, although praise when de - its forests and fields and creeks a natural served is always appreciated. Instead, park or a cultural park? The blending of they should provide us a clear sense of professional sensibilities at such places is where we have been so we can increase a healthy development for the [National the chances that the decisions we make Park] Service, as I will note later. in the future will stand a better chance of being right (or at least more right). Because we now recognize the impact of Administrative histories are done indi- human occupation on all of your parks, vidually (involving one park) or collec- we recognize increasingly that historical tively (involving multiple parks or pro - information provides the beginnings of a cesses). Had Hal Rothman stayed framework for understanding the natural around, I would have said something processes of place. To know that indig - about his work, but since he chose to enous people used fire on a regular basis leave before I talked, I will not mention to renew vegetation, clear land, or herd Hal Rothman and his contribution to wildlife gives us insights regarding na- our understanding of us and our agency. ture of the landscapes we have been charged with preserving. I would be remiss in my comments if I didn’t mention three recent administra- It is not surprising, then, to remember tive histories that are shaping the future that one of the first studies commis- of natural resource management sioned by the National Park Service at throughout the National Park Service. Guadalupe Mountains National Park Linda Flint McClellan’s Building the Na - was a historical overview of human oc- tional Parks: Historic Landscape Design cupation and use of this park. That was and Construction published by John 350 Pitcaithley

Hawkins University Press provides a his- role of human occupation within it. Bill torical perspective on how the National Cronon, Don Worster, and Richard Park Service conceived and constructed White, among others, have prompted us its own brand of cultural landscapes. to think differently, to conceptualize our Ethan Carr’s Wilderness by Design: work more broadly, to examine and Landscape Architecture and the Na - question our purpose and goals more tional Park Service just out by the Uni- thoroughly. Their work constantly re - versity of Nebraska Press is a parallel minds us of the seamless interconnec- work that looks closely at the design of tions between nature and history, be- complex built landscapes such as his- tween natural processes and human toric districts in several national parks. activities through time. Preserving Nature in And finally, I must make mention of a the National Parks book I trust all of you have read or will Managing the national parks into the 21st has been embraced shortly read: Preserving Nature in the century will require greater attention to by the bureaucracy National Parks: A History by Richard balancing visitor use with preservation West Sellars represents the critical analy- of natural and cultural resources. How and is being used to sis of National Park Service management do we manage wilderness areas that re - alter the course of the practices at its finest. (They didn’t pay flect 18th and 19th century human occu- agency. me to give this plug, but I notice there pation? How do we effectively preserve are a stack of books out there that I’m historic places that contain rare and en- sure the purveyors would just as soon dangered species? How do we deal with not take back to their office. So if you historic places threatened by natural don’t have a copy, please get one.) processes? Sellars has provided us an unblinking as- sessment of how this agency has done These are not easy questions, and they during its first 80 years of managing do not engender easy answers. Today the natural resources in the parks. It is criti- National Park Service has not one man- cal and fair and it prompted the director date, but many mandates. We are the to initiate an overhaul of the natural re - creation of congress, and while we take source management program, an over- our lead largely from the Organic Act, haul being discussed and refined this we also are bound by subsequent direc- week during the National Leadership tions from congress: the 1935 Historic Council meeting in Washington. It was Sites Act, the 1964 Wilderness Act, the not without a little trepidation that 1966 National Historic Preservation Act, Sellars offered his book to the National the 1969 National Environmental Pro - Park Service. An earlier generation of tection Act, and many others. Our job is managers would not have received [it] so to balance these various charges in such acceptingly. I think it is an encouraging a manner that respects the integrity and sign of the maturation of the National significance of all the resources within Park Service that Preserving Nature in our care. During the 1960s the National the National Parks has been embraced Park Service divided our resources— by the bureaucracy and is being used to your resources—into three categories: alter the course of the agency. We should natural, historical and recreational. To- all be thankful that Richard Sellers had day the value of hindsight has taught us the experience within the agency and that a more holistic approach to re - the training and perspective of an envi- source management not only makes ronmental historian to craft this marvel - more sense, but also matches the reality ous book. We should also be thankful of our circumstance. Many of our parks that Regional Director John Cook had reflect an intertwining of the natural and the vision to support—without hesita- cultural, and yes, the recreational. My tion—what turned into an almost de - personal view is that it is unfortunate cade-long labor of love for both men. that the discipline of cultural geography was not embraced by the National Park Finally, I should mention the work of Service when it began to be developed other historians whose vision at the glo- during the 1920s. Instead of looking at bal scale help us understand the natural individual resources, we could have world in historical perspective and the been looking at systems of resources and Guadalupe Mountains National Park 351 appreciated how the natural historically in which we were created and under- affected the cultural and how the cul - stand the context of the times in which tural naturally affected the natural. We we work. now know that almost every place we manage was altered in some fashion by Part of what makes our work so chal - human hands prior to our coming on the lenging and exciting is that we all don’t scene. There are no vignettes of a primi- come to the table with the same set of tive America. New England was practi- perceptions, knowledge, and sensibili- cally denuded of trees by the middle of ties. We manage our parks and our re - the 19th century and had been altered sources between and around differing extensively prior to 1620. Yosemite was interpretations of the past, different sen- manipulated by fire prior to European sibilities of our policies, and differing exploration. understandings of our missions. It is those places where disparate points of Our management policies now are, I view rub together—the spaces be- think, (I hope, since we are revising tween—that I and others find so inter- them this year) less combative between esting and enlightening. Barbara the resources than in the past. Our Kingsolver, author of High Tide in Tuc- battlefields and other cultural land- son: Essays from Now or Never and scapes are places where the various dis- many other books, enjoys those conflict - ciplines come together for common pur- ing belief systems—those spaces be- pose, and that model is being tween—between men and women, implemented elsewhere, even here in North and South, white and non -white, the Guadalupe Mountains. The Vail communal and individual, and I would Agenda suggests that the National Park add, natural and cultural. It is through Service is being looked at as an interna- our better understanding of, and respect Part of what makes tional model of “conservation and pres- for, the spaces between that we will be our work so challeng- ervation management—a model that can able to manage our lands for the benefit ing and exciting is teach valuable lessons to a world in- of America in the 21st century. It is that we all don’t come creasingly concerned with environmen- within this broader social and intellec- tal degradation, threats to wilderness tual framework that the National Park to the table with the values, and rapid cultural and historical Service reflects the “land, the cultures, same set of percep - change.” To meet that challenge, we must and the experiences that have defined tions, knowledge, and acknowledge the connections between and sustained the people of the nation in sensibilities. the natural and cultural spheres and the past and upon which we must con - manage them as wholes, not parts. tinue to depend in the future.”

I would like to conclude with three Finally, I will turn to Joseph Sax, who in thoughts—all borrowed. The first comes his superb analysis of the origin of the from William Cronon in his introduc- national park idea concluded, “To speak tion to Uncommon Ground: Rethinking of man as the measure of all things is not the Human Place in Nature. Cronon only a cliché but to describe a world in writes, “A cultural tenant of modern hu - which the rhythm of life is tuned only to manistic scholarship is that everything the pace of human enterprise. It is not we humans do, our speech, our work, that we are necessarily going too fast but our play, our social life, our ideas of our- that we risk losing contact with any ex- selves and the natural world, exist in a ternal standards that help us to decide context that is historically, geographi- how fast we want to go. It is the function cally and culturally particular and can- of culture to preserve a link to forces not be understood apart from that con - and experiences outside of the daily text.” The National Park Service is a routine of life. Such experiences provide political entity created by congress 82 a perspective—in time and space— years ago. It continues to be shaped by against which we can test the value, as that legislative body. To be effective, we well as the immediate efficacy, of what must understand the context of the time we are doing.” Historians function at the intersection of the natural rhythm of life and the cultural context of human enter- 352 Pitcaithley

prise. They bring the historical perspec- tive of our natural and cultural worlds to the National Park Service’s management table. That table, we now understand, is large enough to accommodate a wide range of perspectives and professions. And we are better managers because of it. Guadalupe Mountains National Park 353 Chapter 42 Eyewitness Details and Perspectives: The Value of Oral History at Guadalupe Mountains National Park

ROBERT J. HOFF has served at Carlsbad Caverns National Park for the past 12 years; he is the park historian. He has held positions in interpretation and visitor ser- vices throughout his 27-year career with the National Park Service.

Voices from the past. Voices of people Charlton, who has been in charge of the who went before us—and who now con - Baylor University Institute of Oral His- sent to share with us what they experi- tory since 1970, notes elsewhere: “Oral enced and felt. The historian who con - history holds out some hope that infor- ducts oral history interviews “captures” mation thus gathered informally about on tape—and later through transcrip- the past will enable both living and fu - tion—the stories, insights, and perspec- ture generations to grasp what it was like tives of “people who were there;” actual to be alive during any given past era.” eyewitnesses to a period of history inter- Certainly oral history is a good opportu- esting to that particular historian and to nity to “grasp what it was like to be alive Many of these voices others. during any given past era.” from the past do Many of these voices from the past do Let me admit right here that oral history nothing less than en- nothing less than enlarge the horizons is but only one way to understand the large the horizons and understandings of those of us in the story of Guadalupe Mountains National and understandings present. Don’t we often understand and Park. In 1990 Judith Fabry published of those of in the enjoy more about a historical place or Guadalupe Mountains National Park: time or person when we take the oppor- An Administrative History, a very thor- present. tunity to listen to those with personal ough, well-organized, and interesting connections with those places, eras, and historical account of the park. In addi- people? tion, Professor Hal K. Rothman is cur- rently preparing a well-researched his- In his 1985 book Oral History for Tex - torical resources study for Guadalupe ans Baylor University Professor, Thomas Mountains National Park and Carlsbad L. Charlton, wrote: Caverns National Park.

Who can argue against the poten- If such historical studies exist, why tial good that lies in capturing the should historians bother with conduct - accounts and voices of people ing more oral history interviews? For employing their memories as they several reasons, oral histories have their describe their personal and social own value. experiences? Who could possibly oppose the preserving of first - 1. Oral history interviews often result person recordings that may help in fresh “points of view” or perspec- overcome the growing shortage of tives that illustrate an historical topic personal diaries, elaborate corre - from a different angle. spondence, and other primary 2. Oral history interviews often reveal sources which, until recent years, “choice” specific details never be- were standard items in families, fore revealed in other sources. Such businesses, and other elements of details may result in some historical society? person or event coming into better focus; such details may also result in 354 Hoff

some new connection being made During the interview, Crisman recalled between a Cause A and an Effect B, that the bill to authorize the park was between Person A and Person B, or signed on October 15, 1966, by President between Motivation A and Behavior Lyndon Baines Johnson (who himself B. was the subject of a wonderful 1980 oral 3. A person mentioned in an interview history work entitled Lyndon: An Oral often becomes a historical source to Biography by author Merle Miller) six be contacted later by the interview- years before the park was established. ing oral historian. These unexpected Before the park could be staffed and “leads” sometimes prove to be re - opened, land and mineral rights had to warding in separate research value be acquired. “Oral history is as re - themselves. liable or as unreliable 4. Oral history interviews often present In those six years before the park would as other research historians with contrary points of be established (1966–1972), Crisman said, view, a reminder that every issue has “it was kind of a nebulous period in sources. No single an array of perspectives, and that all there; we were getting public use even piece of data of any perspectives must be weighed and though we weren’t officially opened.” sort should be trusted considered in interpreting history. completely.” Actually National Park Service involve - Historian Donald Richie declares that ment in the area had started in 1959 —Donald Richie “oral history is as reliable or as unreli- when Wallace Pratt, a highly respected able as other research sources. No single petroleum geologist and conservationist piece of data of any sort should be who first came to the Guadalupe Moun- trusted completely, and all sources need tains area in 1921, bestowed the first of to be tested against other sources.” three donations totaling 5,600 acres in McKittrick Canyon; that land was ad- Recently I did an oral history interview ministered as a detached section by with Carlsbad Caverns Management As- Carlsbad Caverns National Park, like sistant Bob Crisman. With the help of Rattlesnake Springs is today. In the early several others, we conducted 15 inter- 1960s, rangers had started living in the view sessions, lasting a total of 20 hours. Pratt house near McKittrick Canyon Known for his keen interest in history, with the picturesque name of Ship-on - for his attention to detail, for his marvel - the-Desert. ous history files kept over 40 years in the National Park Service, and for his devo - In September 1997, the park celebrated tion to National Park Service goals and the 25th anniversary of its September 30, ideals, Crisman proved to be a knowl - 1972, dedication. Crisman recalled that edgeable, willing, interesting, and articu- at the original 1972 dedication the count late oral history interviewee. was 2,424 people, and “I remember my - self and others having to make a lot of Crisman worked at Carlsbad Caverns phone calls to help generate that crowd. National Park from 1957 to 1960 and We got a lot of school kids from Van from 1970 to 1996. He split the 1960s de - Horn and Dell City out there.” Julie cade about in half working at Nixon Eisenhower was the principal Montezuma Castle National Monument speaker; Crisman recalled writing sug- in Arizona and Fort Davis National His- gested material for her to use if she cared torical Site in Texas. During the period to use it. Congressman Richard White, 1972–1987 when Guadalupe Mountains Senator Ralph Yarborough, and Assis- National Park was administered by tant Secretary of the Interior for Fish, Carlsbad Caverns National Park, he Wildlife, and Parks Nathaniel Reed were served first as a staff interpreter and present. Also present was Caverns Su- from 1974 on as the management assis- perintendent Donald Dayton and one of tant. During these 15 years, he worked Dayton’s predecessors, former Caverns directly in the operations of Guadalupe Superintendent “Colonel” Tom Boles Mountains National Park. (1927–1946), age 90, ailing, and in a wheelchair. Guadalupe Mountains National Park 355

Crisman also noted that the Cavern Sup- Later a double-wide trailer was moved ply Company provided a free barbecue in as a temporary visitor center. The ac- lunch for over 2,400 people—a very gen- tual building of a permanent visitor cen- erous gesture. Cavern Supply was ter was much farther down the road formed in 1927 at the Caverns, the same than anyone might have suspected. For year that Colonel Boles arrived to take example, in 1977, according to Crisman, charge. visitation was continuing to climb and reaching 91,878 visitors that year. The I asked Crisman if the proposal for na- Frijole visitor contact room remained In the 1930s NPS offi- tional park status for Guadalupe Moun- just 10-feet-by -15 feet, with one cials Roger Toll and tains had been opposed. He replied that, restroom. And one particular day the “Beginning in the 1960s, I think people park hosted 1,000 visitors trying to com - later Ben Thompson recognized the national significance of pete for that one restroom and 10-by -15 proposed that the reef and the reef formation. Of room. Crisman said, “we were beginning Carlsbad Caverns Na - course, initially back in the 1930s NPS to get a little desperate for a visitor cen- tional Park boundary officials Roger Toll and later Ben Th - ter by then.” ompson proposed that the Carlsbad be extended all the Caverns National Park boundary be ex- At one point, the amount of money be- way down to tended all the way down to Guadalupe ing spent on the National Visitor Center, Guadalupe Peak and Peak and El Capitan, and include all that a railroad station in Washington, seemed El Captian. area including Big Canyon.” He added, to be drawing much negative criticism “In the 1920s and 1930s, Judge J. C. from congress. At this time the name Hunter, Sr., who lived in Van Horn, “visitor center” seemed to be a lighting Texas, had started talking about a state rod for congressional criticism. In re - park in that area from McKittrick, El sponse Crisman reported that they Capitan, and Guadalupe Peak…it was changed the name “visitor center” on all from Judge Hunter’s son, J. C. Hunter, the official paperwork to “operational Jr., that we later bought the bulk of the headquarters.” This semantic slight of land for the park…. So initially this area hand had even a slighter result—noth - was looked at as an addition to Carlsbad ing. Cave National Monument, but other folks were looking at it as a state park. In 1986, the visitor center reached a But my impression is that by the 1960s turning point when Congressman Ron many [people] pretty well recognized Coleman, who had replaced Congress- that the land was probably national park man Richard White, secured a $250,000 quality.” budget add- on which enabled drawings and specifications to be finished for the Once dedicated, the new national park visitor center. faced major development concerns: wa- ter was needed, housing was required, In December 1987, congress appropri- and visitor facilities were essential. The ated $3.65 million to construct a 10,000 first building was acquired from the FAA square foot visitor center. The long buildings at Salt Flat and moved up to awaited and much needed visitor center the park and became the Frijole infor- was finished in the late 1980s. If the six mation station with Ranger John years which passed between the authori- Hollingsworth living in a back room. On zation of the park in 1966 and the dedi- June 6, 1972, when Ranger cation of the park in September 1972 had Hollingsworth was not home, someone seemed long, the 16 years waiting for a tried to burn it down. A motorist passing permanent visitor center must have at 4:20 a.m. reported the blaze and a seemed like an eternity. Crisman re - quick response by firefighters saved this called that on several occasions in re - building from total destruction. A can ports and other correspondence, offi - with flammable liquid was found in the cials at the park penned the phrase, “the building, but no perpetrator or perpetra- lack of public use facilities in the new tors were ever caught. park, coupled with rapidly increasing public use of the area, has created seri- ous problems.” 356 Hoff

Crisman noted a serious problem: the fence, breaking his wrist and dislocating lack of a proper contact station actually his shoulder. Another time the wind posed a safety issue, for the park lacked turned the McKittrick Canyon contact a place to give out safety messages to station trailer on its side. hikers headed for the backcountry. The park needed water sources. Several The visitor center wasn’t the only devel - wells were drilled in the main housing opment -worry facing the determined and visitor contact area, several unsuc- staff. Housing had to be secured. In the cessful before workable wells resulted. beginning, housing consisted of leftover In several cases like Pine Springs and trailers from the FAA. Recently, I E- Signal Peak, wells were drilled several mailed a questionnaire to Bruce thousand feet. Dog Canyon required Fladmark, an area manager at the four wells before adequate water sup- Guadalupe Mountains in the 1970s. plies were reached. Fladmark wrote me that the trailers were The wind under- “pre -wornout.” Worsening the situation Water wasn’t always in short supply at scored life almost on of the poor quality housing in the early Guadalupe Mountains. In September years was the incessant wind. Crisman 1974, the park got more water than it a daily basis at reported that a maintenance boss named wanted when McKittrick Canyon Guadalupe Moun- Herschel Fowler arrived and had to un- flooded, running four feet deep and 100 tains. load his own stuff into a trailer during feet across. 100-miles-per-hour winds. Crisman re - called that Fowler, a particularly gruff, The early efforts for shelter, water, and but effective boss, didn’t stay at visitor facilities seemed always tougher Guadalupe Mountains too long. because of the wind. Fladmark re - Crisman conceded that maybe Fowler marked, “We spun our wheels a lot just “had to be a tough guy for tough condi- to exist there.” tions.” “Waiting and more waiting” seemed to The wind underscored life almost on a be the theme at Guadalupe Mountains daily basis at Guadalupe Mountains. The National Park in the 1970s and 1980s. unrelenting wind seemed to underscore Crisman said, “The National Park and the harshness of the climate and the re - Recreation Act of 1978 passed on No - moteness of the region. Crisman told vember 10th, officially designating several stories about the wind, including 46,850 acres of wilderness. Of course, that the wind was once clocked in excess this was six years after the recommenda- of 110 or 120 miles per hour at tion had gone to Congress, so it did take Guadalupe Mountains. In February 1979 quite a while to get that approved.” the wind blew over an 18 wheeler truck and the park’s radio antenna. It also If wilderness preservation in 1978 was blew over two camper vehicles belong - part of the big picture at Guadalupe ing to visitors. Fladmark told me that on Mountains, an important part of that the same day Superintendent Donald picture was the protection of the moun- Dayton and his staff had traveled to tain lions residing in the national park. Guadalupe Mountains “to speak to the Crisman reported that “Ranger Harry employees and answer questions (quell Steed made the big discovery of illegal discontent).” Fladmark added, “The trapping; he found some traps that were noise of the wind was so loud in our stamped with New Mexico Department maintenance shed that neither questions of Game and Fish markings, probably set nor answers could be heard, so the by some area rancher. These people meeting at least demonstrated adverse were taking the lions illegally out of the living and working conditions to park Dog Canyon–West Dog Canyon area management. Later that day the wind and transporting them across the state picked up enough rock to destroy the line. Apparently some [lions] were windshield of my park pickup. I was found skinned, but I don’t think anyone driving at the time.” Once, high winds ever made a case for convicting anyone. blew a maintenance employee into a But I think the publicity, the discussions, Guadalupe Mountains National Park 357 and the interviews had a deterrent ef- could get the bus stopped. Then the guy fect. I think that was the last incidence jumped off the bus and apparently fell of anyone, as far as we know, trapping in about 70 feet there in that Guadalupe the park. Of course, our concern was Pass area, was knocked unconscious, not only losing the lions, but with visitor and the rangers had to get involved and safety; some of these traps were not far rescue him. I guess they ended up flying off of visitor trail routes where a visitor him by Fort Bliss helicopters to El Paso. could have been injured. I never did hear the outcome of him or what happened, but at least that got the I asked Crisman if that was typical for problem out of the park for somebody the New Mexico Department of Game else to deal with. [Laughs]” and Fish to give people traps like that? He replied that, “they would sometimes The following year, a different challenge loan out traps to ranchers in known was posed in an unusual incident. He re - depredation cases resulting in livestock called, “In 1981 a lot of construction go - losses. Harry Steed was in the middle of ing on over at Dog Canyon with many that situation; of course, tensions in- utility trenches opened up. A big old elk creased with the neighbors because of had fallen in a utility trench and landed his discovery. Harry was completely upside down, with his feet up in the air, businesslike. He was a very professional and with his back and bottom in the law enforcement person, though he trench. Ranger Roger Reisch wasn’t sure didn’t have that friendly rapport with the how he was going to get the elk out of neighbors that some of the other rangers the trench; he went to get rancher had, but he was good at his job. Later Marion Hughes and some of the other on, we switched Harry over to Rattle- neighbors. With the trucks and ropes, snake Springs and replaced him with the rescuers were able to pull this big elk Roger Reisch, partly to ease the strained out of that trench. Apparently the elk tensions with the neighbors. wasn’t hurt and went on his way after being pulled out; Roger and the others Crisman shared a lighter story about also went on their way.” wildlife in the area. He said, “There was another incident that you may have “And then there was a turkey trapping come across. I thought it was interesting. and relocation incident: Bob Stockwell, A black bear, after he was discovered in who was the county manager at that The Guadalupe a nearby alfalfa field, was treed on a time, kept reporting to us about these Mountain National power pole down near Dell City. Of overly aggressive wild turkeys over at course people were standing all around, Dog Canyon. I think they may have been Park stories in trying to get him to come down. And, of some that had been fed, and so they’d Crisman’s oral history course, he wasn’t coming down until all come up to visitors expecting handouts. interview continue, the people dispersed. Once the people So the turkeys were starting to chase the revealing increasing were removed, he came down and campers around, and the campers headed off toward the park and up to - couldn’t chase ‘em back. I think Roger details about life at ward the mountain.” ended up catching several of them with Guadalupe Moun- some help. They packed the turkeys by tains. Crisman also shared an unusual law en- horseback from Dog Canyon over to the forcement story. He said, “In 1980 McKittrick Canyon area somewhere and [there] was the incident about the grey- turned ‘em loose. Later, Roger put his hound bus, one of the law enforcement horse in for a performance award.” (The incidents. I didn’t get involved in that, horse received a sack of oaks.) but I did find it interesting in reading and hearing about it. This greyhound The Guadalupe Mountain National Park bus was traveling through Guadalupe stories in Crisman’s oral history inter- Pass and there was an emotionally dis- view continue, revealing increasing de - turbed man on board and he decided he tails about life at Guadalupe Mountains was going to attack the driver; there was in the 1970s and 1980s, but this paper a Catholic nun on board, who was able must come to an end. Other topics dis- to pull him off the driver until the driver cussed in Crisman’s interviews include 358 Hoff

the proposal for the tramway; the wheel - chair-bound visitors who climbed to Guadalupe Peak; the building of backcountry trails; the intermittent search and rescue efforts of lost victims, including three wilderness study groups; the development of a park’s interpretive program; the preserving of historic structures; and more—all against the backdrop of high winds.

For understanding the history and uniqueness of Guadalupe Mountains National Park, Bob Crisman is a voice from the past, a voice who can enlarge our horizons and understandings about an incredibly beautiful and special place. All we have to do is listen.