GUADALUPE MOUNTAINS An Administrative History

CHAPTER IV: LEGISLATIVE HISTORY (continued)

Political One-Upmanship

Secretary Udall planned to release the updated version of the Guadalupe Mountain Ranch area investigation at the meeting of the Advisory Board on National Parks, to be held at Big Bend National Park on November 3, 1963. The Advisory Board was a group of private citizens that advised the Secretary of the Interior regarding national parks and monuments. Among the board members in 1963 were a university president emeritus, a naturalist-writer, a museum director, a labor union president, the owner of a major carpet manufacturing company, the president of the National Geographic Society, and the chairman of the National Conference of State Parks. Prior to their meeting in Big Bend, the Advisory Board had spent two weeks touring national parks. The Guadalupe Mountain Ranch was the last item on their itinerary before the meeting at Big Bend. [10]

On November 1, 1963, Hunter accompanied the Advisory Board, headed by Harold P. Fabian, as well as Park Service Director Conrad Wirth and Associate Director George Hartzog, on a tour of McKittrick Canyon and the foothills of the Guadalupes. An old friend of the park, Ben Thompson, who by then had become an Assistant Director of the Park Service, was among the visitors to the ranch. The officials were particularly impressed by what they saw during their tour, perhaps because their visit coincided with the height of the fall colors. [11]

At this point Senator Yarborough took his turn at political one-upmanship. On November 7, without official notification about the Advisory Board's recommendation, the Senator introduced S. 2296 to create Guadalupe Mountains National Park. That same day Yarborough inserted in the Congressional Record five articles about the Guadalupe Mountains and fourteen resolutions favoring the park that had been submitted by organizations and agencies from Texas and New Mexico. Two weeks later Yarborough announced that the Advisory Board had formally recommended that the Guadalupe Mountain Peak area be made a national park. The same day, Pool announced that he would introduce a bill recommending a 77,959-acre park. Still smarting from Yarborough's early start, Pool called his bill the "official Interior Department measure resulting from its formal study." He introduced his bill, H.R. 9312, on December 2. [12] On December 4 Yarborough amended his bill to delineate the boundaries of the proposed park. After Yarborough added the metes and bounds description of the park to his bill, the two park bills were virtually identical.

Gaining Support for the Park

During the early months of 1964 Glenn Biggs began gathering evidence of support for the park project. He contacted Dan Ponder, a prominent El Paso businessman, asking him to solicit statements of support from Texas Governor John Connally and New Mexico Governor Jack Campbell. [13] Secretary Udall also wrote to Connally because he wanted to be certain that national park status did not conflict with any plans the State of Texas had for the Guadalupe Peak area. [14] Connally's response to Udall cleared the way for a national park. He advised that Texas was not in a position to undertake such a large-scale project. [15]

Governor Campbell's letter to Ponder was terse but useful. He stated simply that he knew of no opposition to the park among the residents of New Mexico, and in fact, he had received quite a bit of correspondence in favor of the park. [16]

Congressional hearings about the proposed park were scheduled for April 1964, and the Texas support group worked quickly to ready the witnesses who would testify. At the last moment, the hearings were cancelled because of prolonged debate in the civil rights hearings that were taking place. Although Glenn Biggs activated his network of influential people to seek Yarborough's help in getting the hearings rescheduled, the 88th Congress took no action on the Guadalupe park proposal. [17]

In 1964, Thomas Morris, Congressman from New Mexico, chaired the House Subcommittee on National Parks. In July of that year, he visited McKittrick Canyon with a number of Carlsbad civic leaders. Morris, however, was slower than the Texas Congressional delegation to throw his support to the park project. After his visit he told reporters that the Department of the Interior had not issued an official report on the proposed park, something his committee needed in order to consider the proposal. He also expressed concern about acquiring the mineral rights to Hunter's property: they belonged primarily to the State of Texas, not to Hunter. Morris also pointed out to news people that national park status would close the land to hunting, fishing, grazing, timber cutting, or mineral prospecting. [18]

Biggs was concerned with Morris's attitude toward the project and worked with his connections in New Mexico to gain the firm support of Morris. After Morris visited the canyon, Biggs also wrote to Joe Pool and expressed his hope that the Texas delegation would not pick up the suggestion made by Morris that to preserve the uses precluded by park status the ranch should become a national recreation area rather than a national park. [19]

During the spring and summer of 1964, support for the park increased. Many articles about the proposed park appeared in publications all over Texas. More organizations adopted resolutions in favor of the project. Pool and Yarborough both inserted representative samples of this material into the Congressional Record. [20]

On December 13, 1964, Secretary Udall expressed strong support for the park proposal after he visited McKittrick Canyon and other parts of Hunter's ranch. A number of officials from the Interior Department, staff members from Carlsbad Caverns, and newspaper people accompanied Udall on the ground and aerial tour. Afterward, Udall revived an old idea and talked about building a parkway between Carlsbad Caverns and the new park. He reported that once the bill was through Congress and the park was established, a superintendent would be named and an appropriation would be acquired. Estimating that the park would be available for public use within four years from establishment, Udall expected all facilities could be completed within seven to ten years. [21]

At the opening of the 89th Congress, in January 1965, both Yarborough and Pool reintroduced their bills, which contained identical provisions but were worded slightly differently. In a show of support for the proposal, Congressman Richard White of El Paso also introduced a bill identical to Pool's. Although the reason for the action is not clear, Pool's bill was dropped and White's bill, H.R. 698, persisted. The House committee may have preferred to retain the bill proposed by the Congressman who represented the district in which the park was located.

J.C. Hunter, Jr., owner of the Guadalupe Mountain Ranch.	Glenn Biggs, Real Estate Broker who represented Hunter.
Congressman Joe Pool who proposed legislation to investigate the possibility of establishing a park in the southern Guadalupe Mountains.	Senator Ralph Yarborough, who initiated park legislation in the Senate and was instrumental in obtaining funds to purchase Hunter's ranch.

Figure 12. Key figures in the legislative process to authorize Guadalupe Mountains National Park.

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