“There will never come an end to the good that he has done.” The Stephen Mather Memorial Plaques by Don Lago good start. beautiful and ancient, but sacred, a The last line on the Mather plaque, refuge for the human spirit. A Cali- t had always seemed obvious to “There will never come an end to the fornia native, Mather made trips to me that Grand Canyon’s Mather good that he has done,” was spoken the Sierras, climbed mountains, and Point should have a sign explain- by Michigan Congressman Louis joined the Sierra Club when it was ingI who it was named for. People who Cramton on the floor of the U.S. only a dozen years old. Mather met are camping in the Mather Camp- House of Representatives in January, and had a long talk with John Muir, ground and attending ranger pro- 1929. Cramton served on the House who filled Mather with indignation at grams in the Mather Amphitheater Public Lands Committee, and was the despoiling of the Sierras. Yet the and enjoying the view from Mather one of Congress’s strongest support- national parks and America’s con- Point would begin to wonder who ers of Stephen Mather and the Nation- servation movement now required this Mather person was. To make it al Park Service. Cramton spoke on the something more than just vision and clear that Stephen Mather, the first occasion of Mather’s resignation as indignation. They required some- director of the National Park Service, director of the NPS, but since Mather one with the political and manage- was appreciated at Grand Canyon, had suffered a stroke and the progno- rial skills to build an agency, inside the NPS had installed not just a nor- sis was poor, Cramton’s remarks had the U. S. government, that could de- mal wayside sign, but a large, artistic, the ring of a eulogy. A year later, on fend and expand the national parks bronze plaque paying tribute to him. January 22, 1930, Mather suffered an- against powerful economic and po- Since I had always associated the other stroke and died. litical forces. It required someone Mather plaque with Mather Point, I Soon after Mather’s first stroke with the rare combination of Stephen was puzzled when I first noticed the and resignation, his friends and sup- Mather’s personality and experience. exact same plaque in another national porters started a private organization, In 1893 the young Mather, working as park. It seemed incongruous, almost the Stephen T. Mather Appreciation, a newspaper writer, was hired by the as if another park bore a sign explain- to plan some sort of memorial to him. Pacific Coast Borax Company to come ing the view from Hopi Point. Had The executive committee was full of up with an advertising slogan for its this other park made a copy of Grand prominent names, including Gilbert borax soap and detergent. Mather Canyon’s sign? I asked a ranger about Grosvenor of the National Geograph- came up with the slogan and image of their plaque, but he didn’t know any- ic Society, General John J. Pershing, the “20-Mule Team” brand. The presi- thing about it. Over the years I noticed and Congressman Cramton. They dent of the borax company disliked the Mather plaque in other parks, came up with forty-two ideas for me- Mather’s idea, but Mather prevailed, but no one seemed to know how it morials, and had a lively debate about and the borax company made a for- had gotten there. The rock strata be- them. There was strong opposition to tune. The 20-Mule Team, invoking the neath Mather Point remember 1.7 bil- the idea of a plaque, including oppo- romance of the Wild West, became lon years of events, but park rangers sition from Mather’s friends inside one of the enduring advertising sym- come and go more quickly, and even the National Park Service, including bols of the 20th century. Later Mather the National Park Service, which is Horace Albright, who had succeeded started his own borax mining com- officially dedicated to remembering Mather as director. Mather had always pany and made his own fortune, but history, holds many memories only disliked the idea of plaques, statues, Mather also observed the greed and on papers buried in archives, if at all. and other human monuments inside machinations of mining companies Eventually I contacted the national the national parks. National parks and other private interests. headquarters of the National Park were supposed to be about the gran- In 1914 Mather wrote a long letter Service and asked about the history deur of nature, not about the transient to the Secretary of the Interior com- of the Mather plaques. In response to heroism of politicians, generals, or ex- plaining about how private compa- my inquiry, NPS historians queried plorers. When admirers of John Muir nies were threatening the national one another, but no one knew much had come to Mather and proposed parks, and about how poorly the about it. Fortunately the folks at the that a small plaque honoring Muir national parks were being managed. NPS Mather Training Center in Harp- be placed in Yosemite, Mather had The Secretary of the Interior replied ers Ferry had remained more curious refused, even though John Muir was that if Mather didn’t like the way about their namesake, and they sup- Mather’s hero. the parks were being run, he could plied me with a 1997 research paper Stephen Mather shared John come to Washington and run them by David Nathanson that provided a Muir’s vision of nature as not just himself, as director of a new National

6 : Grand Canyon Historical Society www.GrandCanyonHistory.org Park Service. Mather put his skills E. W. Marland, as a salesman and manager to work an Oklahoma building a loyal constituency for the oil tycoon who national parks, building the National would also serve Park Service, and expanding and im- as Oklahoma’s proving the park system. Mather built governor and a coalition that spanned bird watch- congressman. ers, artists, politicians, and railroad Marland was a corporations. He set high standards great admirer for the national parks, enduring stan- of the American dards that have made America’s na- pioneers and tional parks the model for the world. felt that pioneer Even when railroad corporations had women hadn’t become crucial allies for bringing the been sufficiently public to the national parks and for honored for their fighting off powerful mining corpora- role in build- tions, Mather ordered the Union Pa- ing America. In One of the many Stephen Mather plaques. cific Railroad to decentralize its plans 1926 Marland for its lodges at Zion, Bryce, and the invited twelve North Rim of the Grand Canyon so prominent sculptors to a dinner party, ing’s Statuary Hall, three were done that human architecture wouldn’t promised them $10,000 just for cre- by Baker. For the Pioneer Woman compete too much against the scen- ating a model for a Pioneer Woman statue Baker created a strong woman ery. And yes, even when lovers of statue, and $100,000 if they won the striding heroically forward, her gaze John Muir wanted to place a tribute public contest. Many of the sculptors on the western horizon, holding a Bi- to Muir in Yosemite, Mather disliked were more famous than Baker, such ble in one hand and her son’s hand in the idea of national parks looking like as Alexander Stirling Calder, who her other hand. Baker thought of her every courthouse square in America. had done the statue of George Wash- as an American Joan of Arc. The stat- In the end, Mather was persuaded to ington at Washington Square Arch in ue is 27 feet high and weighs 12,000 allow John Muir into Yosemite. New York City, and whose son Alex- pounds. It was cast by the Gorham In the end, the Stephen T. Mather ander would become famous for his Company of Providence, Rhode Is- Appreciation decided on a bronze mobiles. Baker’s model was the big land; Gorham was famous for its fine plaque. Horace Albright reluctantly winner, beating the #2 choice by two silver, used in the White House from went along: “I did not want to stand to one. Lincoln to Bush, but it also operated a in the way of the activity of the Mather Bryant Baker had an unlikely be- bronze foundry. The Pioneer Woman Appreciation group.”1 ginning for a sculptor of American statue remains Baker’s most famous Hoping for something special, the heroes. Baker was born in London in work. When Baker died in 1970, the Mather Appreciation selected sculp- 1881, the son and grandson of pro- Marland Estate purchased the sculp- tor Bryant Baker to create the plaque. fessional sculptors. Baker learned tures and plaster casts in Baker’s New On April 22, 1930, three months after his skills helping his father build the York studio and moved them to a stu- Mather’s death, Baker had received Victoria and Albert Museum. While dio on the grounds of the Marland enormous national publicity with still an art student Baker won several mansion in Ponca City, and it also ac- the dedication of his Pioneer Woman medals and won royal favor, leading quired Baker’s papers. statue in Ponca City, Oklahoma. Forty to his sculpting royal subjects. When Baker had communicated with thousand people attended the Pioneer the Great War broke out, Baker tried Stephen Mather in 1925, though the Woman statue dedication ceremony to enlist in the British army, only to be purpose isn’t clear. All we have is a and heard Will Rogers praise the stat- rejected as unfit. Baker immigrated to two-sentence letter in which Mather ue and the American pioneer spirit the United States and enlisted in the replied to Baker, saying “I am glad it represented. Baker’s design for the American army, but he served in the you thought of me but I am going Pioneer Woman statue was selected Medical Corps, sculpting artificial back West for another two months in a national contest in which 750,000 limbs and faces for severely wounded and will have to wait until October people had voted among twelve con- soldiers. when I will see how matters stand.”2 tending models for the statue. Over Baker soon became enthralled by Was Baker working on a sculpture six months the models had toured American history, and over the next with a national park inspiration? from museum to museum, from coast 50 years he would sculpt many Amer- For the Stephen Mather plaque, to coast, and stirred up great public ican presidents, generals, explorers, Baker drew upon arts-and-crafts interest and newspaper publicity. The and other heroes like Thomas Edison. style of imagery and lettering. He statue and the contest were the idea of Of 100 statues in the Capitol build- shows Mather in profile, gazing off www.GrandCanyonHistory.org Grand Canyon Historical Society : 7 toward the left horizon, which on a for the American people.” At Crater Lake National Park the map would be west, a bit reminiscent Gilbert Grosvenor traveled to Se- ceremony included remarks by the of the Pioneer Woman. In the back- quoia National Park to head up their park naturalist, a song accompanied ground are sharp, Sierra-like peaks, dedication ceremony. Sequoia, like by a violin, an invocation from a pas- and a forest. At the bottom is a pine most parks, followed the suggestion of tor, more songs, a speech by a judge, branch, and above that is the inscrip- the Mather Appreciation and installed then a speech by Superintendent El- tion: “He laid the foundation of the its plaque on a large, elegant boulder. bert Solinsky, who said of the plaque: National Park Service, defining and Most parks placed their plaque-boul- May its presence remind all establishing the policies under which der in a prominent location. who come and read its message its areas shall be developed and con- At Yellowstone the featured speak- of the prophetic judgment and served unimpaired for future genera- er was nationally prominent novelist works of a good man and of a tions. There will never come an end Struthers Burt, who had helped lead life well spent. May his life and to the good that he has done.” John the fight to get Grand Teton estab- the record he left be an incentive Hays Hammond, the chairman of lished as a national park. The Yellow- to our citizenship to carry on the the Mather Appreciation, appreci- stone dedication ceremony was held great work which he inaugurat- ated Baker’s design, telling Baker it outside the new Madison Museum. ed. We of Crater Lake National was “very excellent.”3 The Mather For decades the Madison Museum Park will keep and treasure this Appreciation paid Baker $1,000 for would serve as the NPS’s foremost plaque not only as a monument to his work. The plaque was forged by shrine to the idea of national parks. a great American citizen, but also the Gorham Company. The plaque is According to Yellowstone legend as a challenge and inspiration to 30 inches by 35 inches, and since it is (now deflated) it was at Madison us for all times to come. solid bronze, it must be heavy, though Junction in 1870 that early explorers At Yosemite the ceremony includ- the exact weight isn’t recorded. The sat around a campfire and resolved ed music from the Curry Company plaque is signed “Bryant Baker, 1930.” that Yellowstone should be protected orchestra and a string quintet, and The Mather Appreciation was by the creation of a national park. Ac- then Superintendent C. G. Thomson hoping to place plaques in all 56 of cording to Yellowstone historian Lee spoke, saying that it was Yosemite the national parks and monuments H. Whittlesey, the placement of the that had inspired Stephen Mather’s of the time, but at first they cast only Mather plaque at the Madison Muse- love of nature and his Park Service 25 plaques for the National Park Ser- um was a large symbolic step in turn- career, and that Yosemite had served vice, and three more for state parks. ing the museum into a shrine: as the model Mather had applied to For unknown reasons, Mount Rainier …having built the Madison parks across the nation, the example National Park received two copies of Museum as a shrine in 1929, and of how to build facilities and staff, the plaque. Two later generations of with the museum not yet open to how to protect resources and wel- plaques would be cast in the 1950s and the public, the NPS decided at the come visitors, how to solve problems. 1980s, adding about 30 more plaques, time of the death of its founder Glacier National Park delayed its though this wasn’t enough to keep up Stephen Mather in 1930 to elevate dedication ceremony for a year, un- with the proliferation of new parks the “shrine” idea one step fur- til the completion of the Going-to- and monuments. Today 59 sites are ther. One can almost picture their the-Sun Highway, which was one of known to have Mather plaques, but thinking. Madison was already a Mather’s initiatives and one of the this count may not be complete. shrine to both the establishment greatest engineering feats in any na- Stephen Mather’s 65th birthday of the first national park and the tional park. Both the highway and would have been July 4, 1932, so on national park idea, so why should the Mather plaque were dedicated and around that date a dozen national it not also be a shrine to the agen- in a July 15, 1933 ceremony that had parks and monuments held dedi- cy that managed them? …the idea an audience of over 4,000 people, in- cation ceremonies for their plaque. that the Madison Museum could cluding 1,500 members of the Civilian Some of these ceremonies were major also be a monument to the NPS as Conservation Corps. The next year events, with VIPs, music, live radio well as to Mather fit right into the President Franklin Roosevelt visited broadcasts, and lots of speeches. The shrine concept…The NPS’s cer- Glacier National Park and publicly next day the New York Times took note emony to dedicate this “Mather acknowledged Mather’s importance. of the occasion with an editorial titled memorial tablet” involved speak- Also in 1933 First Lady Eleanor “The Mather Memorials.” After two ers and around seven hundred Roosevelt attended a plaque dedica- paragraphs praising Mather’s devo- members of the public, and it is tion ceremony, along with Secretary tion, vision, and results, the Times clear from the many words ex- of the Interior Harold Ickes and Mrs. noted that he “would have been 65 on pended at the ceremony and from Mather, at Palisades Interstate Park the Fourth of July if he had not worn the guests who attended it that the on the Hudson River. The longtime himself out in devotion to the cause of Service considered the new tablet superintendent of Palisades Interstate developing the national park system a very important monument.4 Park, William Welch, had been a key

8 : Grand Canyon Historical Society www.GrandCanyonHistory.org Mather ally. When Mather wanted his PBS series on the national parks, most cordial.”5 Horace Albright then to create national parks in the Ap- he liked to feature battles between he- declared that the bridge was “for the palachian Mountains, he had placed roes and villains, and Burns presented everlasting benefit and enjoyment of Welch in charge of studying the possi- Mather as the NPS’s greatest hero and the people.”6 A motorcade of 147 cars, bilities, and Welch had recommended Ralph Cameron as Mather’s greatest led by Governor Hunt and Director the areas that became Great Smoky enemy. Horace Albright was deeply Albright, then crossed the bridge. Mountain and Shenandoah national involved in Mather’s struggles to cre- At 9 a.m. the next morning, the parks. In May of 1933 Palisades In- ate and consolidate Grand Canyon officials assembled to dedicate the terstate Park hosted the National National Park. Mather plaque. “This plaque,” ac- Conference on State Parks, and the On July 5, 1932, the Arizona Repub- cording to the park’s monthly report, highlight was the dedication of the lic reported on Horace Albright’s day “had been set in a massive boulder Stephen Mather plaque. A motorcade at the Grand Canyon, in an article cap- about 200 yards from the Museum. winded its way up the still-under- tioned “Park Director is Paid Honor”: A winding trail had been located construction George W. Perkins Me- Governor George W. P. Hunt past it with a short branch leading morial Highway to Bear Mountain, represented the state of Arizona to the plaque. This trail is called the where Mrs. Roosevelt spoke and un- and Horace A. Albright, present STEPHEN T. MATHER MEMORIAL veiled the plaque. park service director, the federal TRAIL. Superintendent Tillotson and The ceremony at Palisades Inter- government. Director Albright Superintendent Pinkley [of Petrified state Park was also attended by NPS read a telegram from John Hays Forest] made very fine talks. Director director Horace Albright. For the July Hammond, Washington DC engi- Albright made an exceptionally fine 4, 1932 mass dedication of Mather neer and head of the Mather Me- address in which he sketched the life plaques, Albright needed to choose morial Association, in which the of Mr. Mather and told his listeners among a dozen national parks, and he courage and vision of Mather in many things not commonly known of chose to go to the Grand Canyon. bringing about the creation of the the former Director and the establish- The Grand Canyon held special park service was praised. ment of the National Park Service. We significance for Stephen Mather. The only thing wrong with this in the Petrified Forest feel highly hon- When Mather became director of the article was that, in reality, Horace Al- ored in having this plaque dedicated National Park Service in 1916, Yellow- bright wasn’t really there. Neither, it by the Director.”7 stone had been a national park for 44 seems, was any reporter from the Ari- Yet instead of heading for the years, and Yosemite for 26 years. The zona Republic. It seems that the news- Grand Canyon, which seems to have Grand Canyon was still not a national paper just wrote an article based on been the original plan, Albright and park, and to Mather this was a scan- a press release about what was sup- Tillotson then headed for Oraibi at dal. For decades the American people posed to happen. Hopi, where they spent the night with had recognized the Grand Canyon’s Albright was not far away. Al- Lorenzo Hubbell, who ran a trading grandeur. In 1901 the Santa Fe Rail- bright had arrived at Petrified Forest post there. “After dinner a trip was way had turned the canyon into a National Monument on July 2, along made up on the Mesa, at sunset, an ex- major tourist destination. Yet Arizo- with Miner Tillotson, the superinten- perience not soon to be forgotten. Lat- na politicians had opposed making dent of Grand Canyon National Park. er on at the foot of the mesa, a group the Grand Canyon a national park, They had just come from Canyon de of Hopi children put on several Indian had opposed the very idea of public Chelly. On July 3, Albright and Til- dances with great earnestness.”8 The lands. The Wild West was meant for lotson took part in the dedication of next morning, Albright and Tillotson resource exploitation, for mining, log- the new Rio Puerco Bridge, a 480-foot set off for Rainbow Bridge. ging, and ranching. President Teddy steel span that eliminated the problem There is no explanation as to why Roosevelt had to settle for making the of high waters cutting off Rt. 66 traffic Albright did not proceed to the Grand Grand Canyon a national monument from being able to reach the south- Canyon, why Tillotson failed to at- in 1908. It was one of Mather’s proud- ern end of Petrified Forest National tend his own park’s ceremony. The est accomplishments that he succeed- Monument. The Holbrook Chamber press release issued by Grand Canyon ed in getting Grand Canyon desig- of Commerce roasted a steer for the National Park after the dedication nated a national park. Yet even then, occasion and fed over 700 people. ceremony referred to “the enforced the Grand Canyon became a major From a reviewing stand at the bridge, absence” of Albright and Tillotson. battleground between the NPS and Governor Hunt declared: “I have Tillotson sent a telegram to Acting private interests. It didn’t help that done considerable scrapping in the Superintendent James V. Lloyd say- Ralph Cameron, who had fought for past with various government agen- ing: “Regret exceedingly my inability years to maintain control of the Bright cies, but I want to state, here and now, to be present at dedication of plaque.” Angel Trail and his other holdings in- that it doesn’t go as far as the National Albright sent Lloyd a telegram say- side the park, had become Arizona’s Park Service is concerned. Our rela- ing: “Regret cannot be present at U.S. senator. When Ken Burns made tions are, and will continue to be, the ceremonies tomorrow but will par- www.GrandCanyonHistory.org Grand Canyon Historical Society : 9 ticipate in similar dedicatory exercises “This plaque will reveal the noble Park Service. 9 here.” The fact that these telegrams profile of one who had the vision The continuing respect for Stephen were sent on July 3 suggests that the and whose courage and perseverance Mather within the NPS, and the con- absence of Albright and Tillotson brought the achievement.” Then the tinuing creation of new national parks wasn’t due to any last-minute illness, plaque was unveiled by ranger-natu- and monuments, led to a continuing car breakdown, or monsoon flood. ralist Eddie McKee and Chief Ranger demand for new Mather plaques. In Perhaps Albright had been planning James Brooks. Three-year-old Sonny 1958 a second generation of plaques to skip the Petrified Forest plaque Lehnert, the grandson of Emery Kolb, was created, though this was initiated ceremony for Grand Canyon’s cer- placed a wreath of ponderosa pine from outside the National Park Ser- emony, only to realize that with all the and fir at the base of the plaque. Gov- vice. Chicago was planning to dedicate political VIPs who had come for the ernor Hunt spoke about the conserva- a Stephen Mather High School in 1959 bridge dedication, it might seem like tion vision of Teddy Roosevelt and and wanted a Mather plaque for the a snub for him to disappear. Perhaps Stephen Mather. The ceremonies con- school. A relative of Stephen Mather Albright had received a last-minute, cluded with the wives of several rang- contacted NPS Director Conrad Wirth politically valuable invitation to meet ers singing verses from “America.” about obtaining a plaque. Wirth con- with Hopi leaders or with the influen- Years later the Mather plaque tacted Bryant Baker, who contacted tial Lorenzo Hubbell. Perhaps, as of- was removed from its original ped- the Gorham Company, but it turned ten happens with tourists, a schedule estal and placed upon a large boul- out that they no longer possessed the planned on a map at home turned out der, which was what had been done model of the original Mather plaque, to be unrealistically ambitious once from the start in most other parks. which had probably been destroyed travelers were facing the long distanc- This boulder sat along the sidewalk during World War Two when Gorham es and summer heat of the Southwest. further east of the Yavapai Observa- cleaned out much old material to clear Or perhaps Albright simply wanted tion Station. The original pedestal space for war-related work. Baker told to visit the Hopis. was removed. In 1953 the NPS built a Wirth they could use one of the origi- At least Governor Hunt made it to new highway from the park entrance nal 1932 plaques as a model, and Wirth the dedication ceremony on the South station to the rim, with the goal of al- volunteered the one in the hallway Rim. The Mather plaque was installed lowing visitors to have a first experi- outside his office. As Wirth thought on a stone pedestal in front of the rock ence not of the buildings and bustle about the opportunity and queried his wall just to the east of the Yavapai Ob- of Grand Canyon Village, but of the NPS colleagues, he decided that the servation Station. Acting Superinten- canyon itself. The highway offered a NPS should cast fourteen new plaques dent Lloyd presided over the ceremo- stop at a dramatic promontory, which for newer parks. Baker contacted two ny, which was attended by about 100 was named Mather Point. The Mather other foundries to obtain estimates people. Chaplain D. E. Fuller offered plaque, boulder and all, was moved for making new plaques, and Wirth a prayer. Lloyd expressed regret for from Yavapai to Mather Point. As agreed to pay Baker to supervise the the absence of Albright and Tillotson, the Mission 66 program built new fa- process. and at some point he read from their cilities, Stephen Mather was honored A third generation of plaques was telegrams. Albright’s telegram told with the Mather Campground, the cast between 1986 and 1991. This cast- of how Stephen Mather had helped Mather Amphitheater, and even the ing was initiated by Colorado Nation- establish Grand Canyon as a park, Mather Business District—the cluster al Monument, which wanted a Mather and helped build the Kaibab Trail, the of grocery store, bank, post office, and plaque to celebrate its 75th birthday in North Rim facilities, and the highways Yavapai gift shop and cafeteria. When 1986. They obtained the 1932-edition to both rims: “He was Grand Can- Mather Point was redesigned in 2010, Mather plaque from Wind Cave Na- yon’s stalwart, courageous friend.” it gained the Mather Point Amphi- tional Park and made a mold from it. Tillotson said: “I am particularly ap- theater (the old Mather Amphithe- In anticipation of the 75th anniversary preciative of Mr. Mather’s interest in ater was renamed the McKee Am- of the National Park Service in 1991, Grand Canyon National Park.” Then phitheater), which is used for ranger other parks and monuments were giv- Lloyd read the telegram from Mather programs. Until now there has been en the chance to obtain a plaque, and Appreciation chairman John Hays little ranger presence at Mather Point, many responded. This new edition Hammond, which seems to have been so there was little opportunity to in- is aluminum but colored to look like read at all of the plaque dedication terpret the Mather plaque to visitors. bronze, and on the backside it says ceremonies. Hammond noted that Yet former South Rim District Ranger “Colorado National Monument Edi- General John J. Pershing, who usually John Benjamin told me that when he tion.” Several parks and monuments refused to serve on committees, had was responsible for escorting VIPs held dedication ceremonies in 1991. gladly served on the Mather Appre- around the park, he would always be- Two Mather plaques have experi- ciation national committee out of his gin with Mather Point and the Mather enced adventures with Mother Na- high regard for Mather’s vision and plaque, using the plaque as a lesson in ture. achievements. Hammond concluded: the value and values of the National Zion National Park received one

10 : Grand Canyon Historical Society www.GrandCanyonHistory.org of the original 1932 plaques, which fire, giving no details as to whether make Pipe Spring a national monu- was dedicated by Heber Grant, the the plaque was melted, cracked, or ment, even donating some of his own president of the LDS Church. The just ruined aesthetically. Tolson said funds for it. Pipe Spring NM created a plaque was placed halfway up the that the national NPS had given up new wayside exhibit about Mather’s Riverwalk, the path that leads to the its one spare copy of the plaque to re- role, including a Mather photo and Narrows, on a boulder in a grotto place Acadia’s plaque. quote, and moved the Mather plaque known as “the Stadium”. The Stadi- Quite a few plaques were moved to be near this wayside exhibit. um, ringed by boulders and centered to new locations, but for reasons less Some of the 1932 plaques are still on a pool and full of wildflowers, was dramatic than the move at Zion. With in their original location. At Acadia a popular spot for visitors and ranger the Mission 66 construction of a new the replacement plaque is still atop programs. But the Stadium was di- generation of visitor centers and other Cadillac Mountain. The Yellowstone rectly beneath a hanging canyon that facilities, many plaques were relocated plaque was originally on the park’s occasionally disgorged a waterfall, to new buildings. Occasional remodel- main road, but today this has become sometimes a violent waterfall. Shortly ing also moved plaques. At Glacier the a much quieter spot. The Petrified after the plaque was dedicated, ac- 1933 plaque was moved about 200 feet Forest plaque is right where Horace cording to ranger-naturalist A. M. when a parking lot was reconfigured. Albright left it, although the trail is Woodbury in Zion’s Nature Notes, “In At Bryce Canyon a 2001 remodeling now called the Giant Logs Trail. July 1932 another waterfall following of the 1959 visitor center moved the Great Basin National Park has a heavy rain poured from the hanging flagpole and the Mather plaque about done its best to keep the Mather canyon scouring the pool completely 25 yards. At Mount Rainier the 1932 plaque in its original location, against clear again of plant and animal life, plaque on the Mather Memorial Park- the best efforts of vandals. In 1994 leaving a clean sandy floor under the way was moved about 300 yards. vandals removed the plaque from pool…”10 The Mather plaque would Sometimes a relocated plaque Mather Point Overlook along the survive another 20+ years of floods, symbolized a change of values. At De- Wheeler Peak Scenic Drive and threw but sometime in the 1950s a waterfall nali their 1934 plaque was originally it down the slope. The next year the knocked the plaque off its boulder installed at the ranger’s dormitory, plaque was stolen. It remained miss- and buried it under so much sand that which seemed to say that the plaque ing for years, but then it showed up at rangers couldn’t find it, and they had was intended only for rangers. By 1952 a scrap yard in Reno. Great Basin Na- to get a war-surplus metal detector to the plaque had been moved to a more tional Park left the plaque in storage find it. Today people at Zion are still visible location at the Naturalist’s Of- for years until it could build a “bomb- trying to find the Mather plaque— fice, the main visitor contact station of proof” setting for it. finding it is one of the assignments the time. But today the Denali plaque Several other parks and monu- for Junior Rangers. The plaque was is at the front door of the park head- ments also placed their Mather relocated to the wall beside the door quarters, which again means that the plaque into storage for many years, of the new Mission 66 visitor center, public seldom sees it. At least Bent’s but they were not forced by vandals, which today is the Zion Human His- Old Fort National Historic Site had a only by their own indifference to the tory Museum. good rationale for hiding its plaque plaque’s meaning. In researching this At Acadia National Park it wasn’t from the public. Bent’s Old Fort is a article I contacted all the parks and flood that attacked the Mather plaque, living history site, with interpreters monuments that were said to have but fire. In October, 1947, a wildfire dressed in 1840s period costume. Be- Mather plaques, and while I received burned 17,000 acres, 10,000 of which cause of its rural isolation, Bent’s Old enthusiastic replies from a dozen su- were inside Acadia National Park— Fort has a better chance than most his- perintendents who had always val- about 20% of the park. In the nearby toric sites of creating the illusion that ued their plaque, I also discovered town of Bar Harbor the fire wiped out you are stepping back in time. Cars that many parks had no clue about much of Millionaires’ Row, a chain are required to park a good distance the story behind their plaque. This of mansions, luxury cottages, and away, and people walk up a trail to the even included Colorado National hotels. The burned areas inside the fort. In 2009 this trail was redesigned Monument, whose personnel had park included Cadillac Mountain, the to further the feeling that you are made great efforts in the 1980s to get highest peak within 25 miles of the walking back to the 1840s. Rangers felt a new generation of plaques cast. American east coast, atop which the that the Mather plaque, located on the At least the Mather plaque got Mather plaque had been installed, a trail, tended to burst this bubble, so the some recognition in the Ken Burns site apparently chosen by Superinten- plaque was moved to the new admin- PBS series “The National Parks.” Af- dent George Dorr, a longtime friend istration building. At Pipe Spring Na- ter relating Mather’s death, Burns of Stephen Mather. In a 1958 letter to tional Monument the superintendent showed a glimpse of the Mather Bryant Baker, NPS Assistant Director felt that their Mather plaque wasn’t plaque, but then the narrator stated Hillory Tolson said simply that the good enough, since Stephen Mather that the plaque had been placed in plaque had been “destroyed” by the had made it his personal mission to “all” of the parks and monuments of www.GrandCanyonHistory.org Grand Canyon Historical Society : 11 the time, when in fact it got into less have a clue about what the plaque (Endnotes) than half. was doing there. 1 Horace Albright, The Birth of the National Park Service: The Founding Years 1913-1933 (Salt For me the saddest commentary After I had finished writing this ar- Lake City: Howe Brothers, 1985) p 249. on the forgetting of the Mather plaque ticle, with its bemoaning of how the 2 Letter from Stephen Mather to Bryant Baker, came at Death Valley National Park. National Park Service didn’t know its July 27, 1925, in Bryant Baker papers at Mar- Stephen Mather owed his entire career own history, a Grand Canyon ranger land Mansion, Ponca City, Oklahoma. to his conceiving the “20-Mule Team” asked me, “Of course, you know 3 Letter from John Hays Hammond to Bryant Baker, May 5, 1931, in Bryant Baker papers, brand for borax soap and detergents. there’s a Mather plaque on the North Marland Mansion. In the 1920s the borax company cam- Rim too.” Actually, I hadn’t known 4 Lee H. Wittlesey, “Loss of a Sacred Shrine: paigned for the creation of Death Val- this. It is in front of the North Rim How the National Park Service Anguished ley National Monument, with the help administration building. I searched Over Yellowstone’s Campfire Myth, 1960- of Horace Albright, who’d grown up Grand Canyon National Park ar- 1980” George Wright Forum, Volume 27, Issue # 1, 2010, p 99. near Death Valley, and later on the bo- chives but could find no record that 5 Quoted in NPS monthly report, July 28, 1932, rax company donated land for the cre- this plaque even existed. It couldn’t by custodian Chas. J. Smith, Petrified Forest ation of a Mission 66 visitor center. In have been an original 1932 plaque, National Monument, p 2. its courtyard the visitor center holds since Mt. Rainier was the only park 6 Ibid, p 2. a Mather plaque, dedicated in 1991. to receive two copies then, so it must 7 Ibid, p 2-3. 8 Ibid, p 3. I once attended a history talk in that have been from the two later genera- 9 Quotes from documents in monuments file, courtyard, given by a history-minded tions of plaques. I asked various rang- Study Collection, Grand Canyon National ranger. Afterward I asked him about ers who had been around Grand Can- Park. their Mather plaque, and he went yon for a long time, but no one could 10 A. M. Woodbury, Nature Notes, September over and looked at the plaque as if he tell me how the North Rim Mather 1932. Archives, Zion National Park. had never noticed it before. He didn’t plaque had gotten there.

The Demise of the Lost Orphan Mine by Keith Green the edge of the canyon. Well, now the ey through tourism. In 1936, Hogan headframe is gone! The Park Service opened a lodge at the mine site on the emember the big headframe, contracted to have it removed in Jan- four rim acres which eventually in- part of the Lost Orphan Ura- uary, 2009. cluded a swimming pool on the can- nium Mine, that could be seen The Lost Orphan Mine was an yon rim! onR the South Rim between Maricopa inholding predating the creation of The story of the mine shows that, and Powell Point? When the mine Grand Canyon National Park. Dan over and over, people and institutions was operating, Christmas lights were Hogan made it a mining claim in 1893. failed to realize the extent and danger strung on it for the holidays making The claim included four acres of land of what the Lost Orphan Mine really it look like a giant Christmas tree on on the edge of Grand Canyon, but the is. In 1951, geologists discovered that mine is actually 1,200 feet below the those pesky rocks Hogan had been rim near the bottom of the Coconino discarding for years were uranium Sandstone. That is where Dan first ore. The concentration of uranium started digging a hole into the ground. was fairly weak near the surface, but This was later dubbed “the Glory it became rich further down. He had Hole” and is the hole that can be seen been working for sixty years in an down below the rim from Maricopa unventilated radioactive mine, but he Point. The mine shaft follows a bra- lived to be 90 and died of pneumo- chia pipe which has in it many miner- nia – not cancer or radiation poison- als including copper, silver, and ura- ing. In this case, what he didn’t know nium. Hogan was mostly interested in didn’t kill him. the copper but access to the mine on The mineral rights, and eventu- his Hummingbird Trail was difficult. ally the whole property were sold The trail skirted down thin ledges and to Western Gold and Uranium Inc. ladders over the canyon’s rim. in 1953. Originally, a cable brought Dan never made much of a profit buckets of ore from the Glory Hole, The Orphan Mine headframe stood at the from the mine probably because it over several towers to the rim near south rim for more than 50 years. Photo was so inaccessible, but he began to where the headframe was being built. courtesy of National Park Service. notice the possibility of making mon- At shift changes, two men per bucket

12 : Grand Canyon Historical Society www.GrandCanyonHistory.org