Bandelier Administrative History

The two sides had very different ideas about an acceptable size for the proposed national park. The Park Service envisioned a large area, including the existing monument, the Otowi ruins, the Puye ruins, and the Baca Crater. "The boundaries I laid," Nusbaum wrote Mather, "made the Forestry people gasp." The Forest Service counter offer reflected its perspective. It included only the existing monument, the Otowi ruins, and a corridor connecting the two. Nusbaum immediately rejected the proposal. It did not fit the image of the size and stature of a national park that the agency held. The Forest Service made another offer, which included much of the area east of the Los Alamos school and portions of the national forest between the Santa Clara Indian Reservation and the Ramon Vigil Grant, which bordered the existing monument. This compromise offered the NPS archeological control of the Pajarito Plateau, but Nusbaum turned it back in hopes of being able to get everything the agency wanted at a later date.

The bargaining continued until well after midnight, spurred by Temple's declaration that a national park was necessary to "preserve a tremendous outdoor Museum." Nusbaum, a lower ranking official than his Forest Service counterpart, suggested that they table any permanent agreement until a meeting when Mather could attend. He hoped that the NPS could parlay its advantage into success at a later date. But the Forest Service representatives, feeling that their advantage lay in the field, pressed hard for a settlement. Nusbaum refused, and Temple, tired after a long day and a longer evening, suggested that the delay might be a good idea, so that "others could be heard from." [29]

Unhappy at what it regarded as an acquisitive, one- dimensional land policy, the Forest Service was not prepared to relinquish its holdings to allow the Park Service to administer the ruins as a national park. Even under pressure from Temple and Morrow, the foresters refused to acquiesce. They were willing to cede archeological administration to the Park Service, but not at the expense of commercial use of resources and their own embryonic recreational programs.

The archeological and natural significance of the Bandelier area gave park advocates the ammunition they needed. In their view, the region contained an aggregation of values that made it worthy of national park status. Forest Service recalcitrance in the face of what the NPS regarded as obvious merit made it appear to the Park Service that the Forest Service was trying to do the work of both agencies. A Forest Service declaration in 1928 that added Bandelier to one of its wilderness preserves confirmed that sense. New Mexico Congressman John Morrow supported the NPS, stating that the Forest Service "(was) endeavoring to set up little national parks of their own." [30] The Park Service believed that the Forest Service did not belong in the recreation and tourist business; that was the province of the Park Service. The Forest Service had a multitude of interests in the region. In the view of the NPS, USFS personnel lacked the background and initiative to administer archeological sites for visitors. It appeared that the situation on the Pajarito could not be resolved to the satisfaction of both agencies.

The conflict with the Forest Service reduced itself to a comparison of incommensurable values. In 1925, the USFS offered Nusbaum the primary archeological features on national forest land. It was only a matter of time until the Park Service acquired Frijoles Canyon and the rest of the existing monument. The debate centered upon how much additional land the USFS would transfer to the NPS. Forest Service arguments were in its usual utilitarian vein. There was a quantitative economic value to the disputed timber lands in the Santa Fe National Forest. The Park Service held that a park containing ruins and natural features had cultural significance that outweighed the value of lumber and pasture land. Each agency felt its use and constituency should take priority, but there was no way to measure the comparative merits.