Bandelier Administrative History

Interest in a new road from Santa Fe to the plateau area also pitted progress against protection of the region. New Mexico Highway 4 provided the only access from Santa Fe to the plateau. From Pojoaque to the Rio Grande, the road was only two lanes; from the river to the Los Alamos "Y", only three. As commuting to Los Alamos became standard for many of the employees of the various facilities there, congestion on the road increased. The thirteen-mile trip from the "Y" to the four-lane U.S. 84/285 often turned into thirty-five minutes of "stop-and-go" traffic. Local wags who worked on the hill referred to their trek as the "Frijoles 500." Particularly in the evenings, bumper-to-bumper traffic down to the valleys became the rule. For the people who sought easier travel to the Pajarito Plateau, a new and shorter road had considerable allure.

The idea of a direct route from Santa Fe to the plateau was not an innovation. Earlier roads to the region were the result of specific enterprises. Most were built without the benefit of road grading equipment and other technological innovations of the twentieth century. They were often roundabout routes that went from one specific feature to another. From before the arrival of the Park Service at Bandelier, advocates clamored for a direct road from Santa Fe.

The original modern road to the plateau that Harry Buckman built to facilitate his timber cutting wound up White Rock Canyon. It stretched from the town of Buckman on the east side of the Rio' Grande in Cañada Ancha to the Buckman sawmills in Water Canyon. Early travelers to the monument followed its course. In 1912, the road was extended from Water Canyon to the north rim of Frijoles Canyon. After the demise of the post office in the town of Buckman during the early 1920s, the Los Alamos Ranch School received its mail at Otowi Crossing, and the emphasis shifted away from the trail that Buckman constructed. The school received an easement from the Forest Service to build a road between the crossing and the school, and soon there were two ways to take an automobile to the Pajarito Plateau. The Ranch School road was the antecedent of New Mexico Highway 4 that began in Pojoaque and finished at the Ranch School. Yet both roads were unpaved, cumbersome, and rutted, and often discouraged travel to the region. [9]

When the Park Service made efforts to acquire Bandelier National Monument from the Forest Service during the late 1920s, NPS officials perceived that new road facilities would increase the number of visitors to the monument. The roundabout trip across the Otowi Bridge encouraged sentiment for a shorter route between Santa Fe and the plateau. During the early 1930s, Jesse Nusbaum reported that the construction of a direct road from Santa Fe to the vicinity of Bandelier had become a strong likelihood. Nusbaum suggested that its path might follow the old Buckman road, eliminating a number of miles from the Otowi Crossing-Ranch School route and shortening the trip to Frijoles Canyon. Persistent rumors were all that ever came of this effort. [10]

The creation of Los Alamos also affected the chances of a road. The military cut its own road, which became known as the Los Alamos spur or truck road, through the Otowi section. While the coming of the Los Alamos facility brought substantial capital development to the plateau, the secrecy associated with it considerably dimmed prospects for a public road. During and after the Second World War, the Los Alamos facilities were top secret, with a manned security gate. Officials wanted to make access to the area as difficult as possible. The 54,000+ acres that Los Alamos controlled limited the range of possible locations for any additional roads. But as traffic congestion on New Mexico Highway 4 increased during the 1960s and 1970s, so did rumors of the imminent construction of a new road.

In the early 1980s, the New Mexico State Highway Department studied the issue and found three routes from Santa Fe to the Los Alamos area that merited additional study. The southernmost of these, called the Montoso Peak route, proposed a 2,900-foot bridge across the Rio' Grande that would join the existing Highway 4 at Los Alamos Technical Area-33 [TA-33], adjacent to the northeast boundary of the monument. The middle route, the Potrillo alternate, would meet the existing Highway 4 loop south of the town of White Rock, while the northernmost route, titled the Buckman road, roughly followed its namesake from the turn of the century and passed between the detached Tsankawi section of the monument and the town of White Rock.

From the point of view of the highway department, the shorter distance of any of the three routes offered the major advantage. From the intersection of Diamond and Trinity Drive in Los Alamos to the Cerillos-Airport Road interchange in Santa Fe, the existing Highway 4 route covered thirty-nine miles. The Montoso Peak alternative cut that to thirty-two miles, while both the Potrillo and Buckman Road proposals measured twenty- seven miles.

The proposals offered other benefits besides decreased distance. The New Mexico Highway Department suggested that any of the options would provide easier access to recreational areas like Bandelier and that the reduction of traffic congestion would make both the new road and its predecessor more safe. The new options also allowed the Los Alamos facility to avoid a number of winding roads in populated areas while it transported hazardous waste. Yet the project seemed likely to divert business from concerns along Highway 84/285, and the question of air, noise, and sight pollution merited consideration. [11]

Two of the three routes posed difficulties for the staff at Bandelier National Monument. The proximity of the Montoso Peak route to the main section of Bandelier presented a major threat to the resources of the park. TA-33 adjoined the monument. From any high point in the monument, a visitor could easily see the planned 2,900-foot bridge. The noise and pollution from automobile traffic would make portions of Bandelier into a freeway rather than a park, an impression enhanced by a proposed widening of the part of the Highway 4 loop that crossed Bandelier. The construction of the Montoso Peak road also indicated an increase in visitation at the already overcrowded Frijoles Canyon. Superintendent Hunter viewed the proposal "with some alarm." [12]

The Buckman Road proposal also made the Park Service wary. It passed close to the detached Tsankawi section, already an island amid the noise of the modern world, and Hunter feared that a road that close to the area with the anticipated volume of traffic "would destroy all the park values and reduce the area to (little more than) a significant archeological site for scientific study." [13]

Nor did the Park Service offer the only opinion on the question of the new road. The Forest Service expressed its concern about the location of the Montoso Peak route. The proposal divided national forest lands into two distinct parcels, a situation that did not suit Santa Fe National Forest Supervisor Maynard T. Rost. It also passed directly through the Caja [Del Rio Grant] Wild Horse Territory, separating approximately 1000 acres from the remainder of the designated area. Rost worried that the road would encourage people to use an area largely reserved for feral animals and that some kinds of new use might not be appropriate. [14]

Residents of White Rock held a different view. The one alternative that the Park and Forest Services did not protest, the Potrillo route, did not please townspeople. Many thought it would bring too much traffic into their small community, adding a variety of hazards to their lives. Most agreed that the new road was a necessity, but from the local point of view, a route north of White Rock offered the best alternative. [15]

The interests of the Park Service, the Forest Service, and many of the people of White Rock were at odds. The Park Service sought to protect the values of the monument, and a road that impinged on either the main portion or the detached Tsankawi section was unacceptable. The foresters also had obligations to fulfill. The people of White Rock wanted the advantages of shorter travel time to Santa Fe, but did not want their community turned into a freeway exit. Resolution of the differing points of view would require compromise and in all likelihood, a degree of dissatisfaction on all sides.

During the fall and winter of 1985-86, public support for the road grew in Los Alamos County. Petitions in favor of the road circulated, and some businesses, including the Los Alamos Credit Union, allowed advocates of the road to place their petitions on the premises. Local residents overwhelmingly believed that in the near future they would need the road. Although the issue had not been resolved by the end of 1986, the prospect of a new road loomed large.

Many advocates did not appear to have considered the long- term consequences of an additional route to Los Alamos. Seduced by the convenience of a shorter road to Santa Fe, they failed to see that the new road could have a profound effect on life on "the Hill." The culture of Los Alamos was predicated upon its isolation. With only one viable way both in to and out of the community, it remained a sheltered, isolated place. Those who valued the quality of life above all else suggested that the shorter travel distance would affect that reality. The tight- knit feeling of community that characterized Los Alamos was a likely casualty. The desirability of real estate in Los Alamos County would decrease, as a result, increases in property values would presumably slow. The social problems that were endemic throughout the nation seemed likely to become more evident in Los Alamos. "They don't know what they have up there," one long-time resident of the plateau growled, "but they sure won't like it when it changes."