GUADALUPE MOUNTAINS An Administrative History

CHAPTER III: THE CONTRIBUTIONS OF WALLACE PRATT AND J. C. HUNTER, JR. (contined)

J. C. Hunter, Jr., and Glenn Biggs

After his death in 1945, Judge Hunter's property had passed to his wife and son, J.C., Jr. The Hunters had continued to buy land in the Guadalupes and to manage it conservatively. By 1961 the Guadalupe Mountain Ranch had reached a total of some 72,000 acres.

J.C. Hunter, Jr., like his father, was a well-respected civic leader. During the early 1970s he was mayor of Abilene, Texas, for six years. Besides being involved in the family oil business, he served on the boards of Hardin-Simmons University, the Baptist Foundation of Texas, the Independent Petroleum Association, Citizens National Bank of Abilene, and the West Texas Utility Company. Similarly, like his father, he was outgoing and generous and enjoyed sharing the Guadalupe Mountain Ranch with friends and associates. However, after the visit by the Park Service reconnaissance team in May 1961, Hunter began seriously considering the sale of the ranch. In September 1961, without knowing the outcome of the Park Service study, Hunter put the ranch on the market and hired Glenn Biggs, a partner in the Abilene, Texas, brokerage firm of Millerman and Millerman, to represent his property. [26]

Glenn Biggs played an important role in the creation of Guadalupe Mountains National Park. Biggs was an ambitious young man; after graduating in 1956 from Baylor University he had been the assistant manager of the Abilene Chamber of Commerce for three years before going into the real estate business. The untiring effort he exerted from 1961 to 1965 in Hunter's behalf must not be overlooked. Although Biggs stood to make a substantial commission on the sale of the property (5 percent of $1,500,000), he was also strongly committed to the idea of a park. Biggs was a latter-day "booster." Some people considered him over-zealous because his good intentions often led him into territory other than his own. [27] In spite of criticism, however, he continued to struggle through the legislative red tape that was necessary to create Guadalupe Mountains National Park.

Biggs donated his papers from the Guadalupe Mountain park years, 1961-65, to the archives of Texas Tech University in Lubbock, Texas. The thousands of pages there testify to reams of letters Biggs wrote and answered, thousands of miles he traveled, and uncounted days and nights he spent pursuing park status for the Hunter ranch.

Soon after Biggs took on the sale of Hunter's ranch, he published an attractive colored sales brochure filled with photographs of the ranch and containing quotations from naturalists, government officials, and other writers about the beauty of the property (see Figure 11). The brochure, however, was only a tickler. Serious prospects also received a hefty notebook full of information about the ranch. Biggs utilized the network of real estate brokers of which he was a part to search for a client of substantial means who would be interested in the type of property the ranch represented.

Between October 1961 and January 1963 Biggs negotiated with several persons who appeared seriously interested in the Hunter property. However, none of them made Hunter an offer. In June 1962, when Hunter learned about the favorable report the Park Service team had made about the ranch, he indicated his willingness to sell the land to the federal government. [28]

The stage was set for the legislative process to begin. The Pratts and the Hunters, people whose lives testified to their belief in the revitalizing qualities of mountains, canyons, and nature left to its own devices, stepped down. They recognized the unique value of their lands and they trusted the federal government to preserve that value. The final decisions about how their land would be preserved and developed fell into the hands of businessmen, politicians, and environmentalists. The interests of all of these sectors would be expressed at various times and in various ways in the ensuing decade and the balance of power would shift from the hands of the developers to the hands of the environmentalists. Guadalupe Mountains National Park was created at a time when the values of Americans were broadening. Material gain continued to be important to most people, but they were beginning to realize the nation could be bankrupted, physically and spiritually, by unrestricted exploitation and depletion of natural resources. Guadalupe Mountains National Park would be a preserve of wilderness resources, a product of the democratic system, established to enhance both the material and the spiritual interests of the nation.

Figure 11. Guadalupe Mountain Ranch Sales Brochure

The sales brochure distributed by Glenn Biggs to advertise the sale of J. C. Hunter, Jr.'s, Guadalupe Mountain Ranch emphasized the wildlife and scenic resources of the ranch and gave secondary importance to its economic value as a working sheep ranch. Biggs and Hunter knew that the property was more likely to be purchased by a wealthy person interested in a private hunting or nature preserve than by a working rancher. (From the Glenn Biggs Collection, Southwest Collection, Texas Tech University, Lubbock, Texas)

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