PIPE SPRING Cultures at a Crossroads: An Administrative History

Monument Administration

General

Superintendent Bill Herr arrived at the monument on April 9, 1979, with his wife Jan and their two children. Herr had a B.A. in biological sciences and had worked as a park naturalist in Petrified Forest National Park, Gila Cliff Dwellings National Monument, Zion National Park, and (most recently) Theodore Roosevelt National Park. His past acquaintance with many of the staff at Zion was helpful since Zion continued to oversee the administration of Pipe Spring National Monument. Zion Superintendent Bob Heyder and retired Superintendent Bernard Tracy met with Herr during his first few months at Pipe Spring to familiarize him with operations. Herr was an avid amateur astronomer and enjoyed teaching astronomy programs to school classes in the area. When Haley's Comet shot past the earth on March 19, 1985, Herr's family all rolled out of bed at 4:15 a.m. to witness the sight.

141. Williams M. ("Bill") Herr and his wife Jan at Pipe Spring, undated (Pipe Spring National Monument).

Herr made what appears to be his first official visit to Tribal Chairman Bill Tom on May 23, 1979. Their conversation centered on maintenance issues pertaining to the visitor center. In late October, Herr and Tom met again to discuss the paving of the visitor center parking lot, maintenance issues, and the monument's use of the tribal dump. The Tribe had never paved the parking area since the dedication of the visitor center in May 1973. On July 29, 1980, Hurricane Sand and Gravel, under contract to the Tribe, began paving the area. Work was completed August 1. "Better late than never," quipped Herr in his monthly report at the seven-year delay. [2264] Documentation during the decade indicates that Maintenance Mechanic Doug Dewitz interacted considerably more with tribal members on a personal basis than did Superintendent Herr, who preferred rubbing elbows with the people of Fredonia and Kanab.

During the 1980s, four permanent staff were on duty at Pipe Spring: a superintendent, a maintenance person (Dale Scheier until April 18, 1981, succeeded by Doug Dewitz), and two park technicians. [2265] One technician headed the interpretative program (Fred Banks) and the other performed the monument's clerical work (Nora Heaton, followed by Jeff Frank, Jewell Harter, and Marlene Frederick/Coombs). The monument hired its first seasonal museum curator in 1988, Zula Brinkerhoff. For names of staff who are known to have worked at the monument and a chronological listing of personnel changes, see Appendix IX, "Personnel." [2266]

Air quality continued to be monitored at the monument during the 1980s. Early in his tenure, Herr faced a noise problem caused by low-flying B-52 bombers, reportedly flying at an altitude of 500 feet. The problem was solved, for the time being, after he contacted officials at Nellis Air Force Base (near Las Vegas, Nevada) and explained to them the Congressional mandate to protect the monument.

In May 1982, a Regional Performance Evaluation Team visited the monument to inspect facilities and evaluate operations. Its report praised the monument's living history program while commending Herr for his effective management of the area. It noted that the Zion Natural History Association (ZNHA) provided substantial financial support, remarking that the monument had "become dependent on it in order to maintain basic operations." [2267] Among the team's recommendations pertaining to resource management and visitor protection were that a study be made to determine specific needs for security and fire protection; to not plant trees in straight lines, but to stagger or scatter plantings "to preserve the natural scene;" and to limit use of irrigation water in response to declining spring flow. With regard to maintenance, the team recommended that the park request additional staffing and funding for its maintenance operations. Among recommendations for interpretation were that the monument get some cattle (it had none at the time); replace the "inappropriate" draft horse with "a couple of non-pedigreed range horses;" revamp the waysides "to accurately reflect the Pipe Spring story;" and complete paperwork requesting a furnishings plan for the fort. [2268]

In July 1985, Herr proposed to Park Service officials that all grounds within the historic site be declassified as historic except for a very small area encompassing the historic buildings, ponds, corrals, and Whitmore-McIntyre dugout. Having to maintain the monument's entire 40 acres according to the strict guidelines of the 1966 Historic Preservation Act exceeded the monument's resources. Herr garnered the support of Zion and region officials for this proposal, which was later approved. In October Herr made a formal proposal to the Tribe that a cooperating agreement be executed that would allow monument staff to take over the upkeep of the grounds around the visitor center and nearby tribal picnic area, but it appears that no such agreement was reached. [2269]

Pipe Spring National Monument officially entered the computer age in November 1986 when a Data Point 1800 computer was delivered from Zion National Park. Zion staff (Pat Fesler, John Tordoff, and Teresa Everard in particular) paid frequent visits to Pipe Spring to provide training to monument staff and to help with computer problems over the next several years.

As mentioned in Part XI, Mel Heaton resigned from the monument in 1979 to go into business for himself. During the 1980s, he privately organized annual Honeymoon Trail wagon treks to St. George. The wagon treks continued to pass across the reservation and through Pipe Spring National Monument until 1987. [2270] According to Herr's annual report, that year the Kaibab Paiute Tribe asked Heaton to pay an amount he thought was excessive to drive across the reservation. Consequently, Heaton decided to start the trek about four miles southwest of Pipe Spring, thus bypassing the reservation and monument.

On July 25, 1987, the Kaibab Paiute Tribe and Pipe Spring National Monument sponsored a special event to celebrate the "Take Pride in America" program. Participants dressed in native costume. Entertainment included traditional Kaibab Paiute songs and dances as well as demonstrations of traditional Indian crafts. Activities took place in a recreated traditional Paiute village. [2271] (The event appears to have taken place on monument grounds.) Indian craft demonstrations were also featured during the summer of 1988.

142. Elva Drye (left) and Gail Bulletts (right) demonstrate their beadwork skills at Pipe Spring, summer 1988
(Photograph by Fred Banks, Pipe Spring National Monument).

In mid-June 1988, an operations evaluation was conducted at Pipe Spring. The evaluation team was noticeably more critical in its appraisal of the interpretive program than in prior years. Comments included the following:

The monument has high potential, which is not being met by its present operation. It could be a model representation of a past landscape, with additional emphasis placed on wider interpretive themes through a more vigorous interpretive program. The efforts of the maintenance division at recreating an historic scene could be brought to life for the visitor. The monument could become a 40-acre slice of Arizona Strip history, instead of just a fortified home set in an overgrazed, ill-kept pasture, offering only a cliché living history program. [2272]

In addition to other recommendations to improve the program, the team recommended additional seasonal supervisory staff. The recommendation by evaluation team member Bill Swift that monument staff "reexamine interpretive themes" apparently incensed Herr who responded,

Quite frankly, Mr. Swift is ignorant of the scope of interpretive themes we have tried over the years. After all, between the current staff involved in interpretation, there is over 27 years of experience at PISP [Pipe Spring]. The existing program has evolved out of season after season of trial and error, finding out what has/has not worked with our public. Our existing programs are very well recved... [2273]

(For more information about the monument's interpretive program in the 1980s, see "Interpretation" and "The VIP Program" sections.) The evaluation team also reported that a lack of restroom and hand-washing facilities in the fort created health and safety problems for interpreters who often had to abstain from drinking to reduce their need to use the restrooms, which were located some distance away from the fort in the visitor center. Fort guides also cooked in the kitchen and the lack of hot water for hand washing meant food preparation did not meet Department of Public Health standards. The team recommended installing a restroom facility with hot water near the fort. This advice was never carried out, but the team's concerns may explain why cookie baking was later dropped from fort demonstrations, much to the dismay of repeat visitors! The evaluation team praised the work of Doug Dewitz, while acknowledging the maintenance division's need for additional help. They also reported, "In addition to his assigned duties, he seems to be the most active link that the NPS has with the Tribal Council and has initiated a good relations project with the local communities in growing and marketing the pumpkins [grown at the monument]." [2274] The team was the first bold enough to assess in print, "Historic landscape no longer exists." (See "Landscape Changes" section.) It recommended research be undertaken to determine what the historic landscape looked like and what should be presented to the public. [2275]

In mid-November 1988, Herr accepted an offer of the superintendency of Golden Spike National Historic Site from Zion Superintendent Grafe. [2276] The transfer was made official on December 1. He entered on duty at Golden Spike January 15, 1989. The fifth permanent person to administer Pipe Spring National Monument, he worked there just under 10 years, the longest tenure after that of Leonard Heaton. Fred Banks also left Pipe Spring during 1989, transferring to Mount Rushmore National Memorial. After Herr's departure, John W. Hiscock served as acting superintendent for just under four months, followed by a permanent appointee, Gary M. Hasty. (Hiscock returned to the monument as superintendent in June 1994 and has served in that position up to the present time.)

During his first year on the job, Hasty was faced with a major environmental issue. In October 1989, just after the election of Tribal Chair Alberta Fuller, the Kaibab Paiute Tribe entered into negotiations with Waste-Tech Services, Inc., a subsidiary of Amoco Oil Company. Waste-Tech sought the Tribe's approval to locate two 50,000-ton hazardous waste incinerators on the reservation, south of Pipe Spring National Monument. [2277] Incinerated waste products (mainly oil refinery waste) were also to be buried on the reservation. The incinerators would have generated a payroll of $3 million annually and employed 150 people. As area tourism failed to bring in the expected revenue and since federal aid to Indian programs declined during the 1980s, some influential members of the Kaibab Paiute Tribe thought Waste-Tech's proposal was worthy of consideration. The Tribe and local communities were deeply divided on the issue, however, and Park Service relations with the Tribe were also temporarily strained. [2278] On October 6, 1990, after a year of negotiations with Waste-Tech, the Tribe voted to sign a contract with the firm. (On the very day the Tribe voted on the issue, Gloria Bulletts-Benson was elected to a three-year term as tribal chair, assuming her duties on October 11.) The vote to sign the contract set off loud outcries from environmental groups, citizen groups in Fredonia and Kanab, and even out-voted members of the Tribe. Tribal member Vivienne Jake organized a group called the "Paiute Earthkeepers" to oppose the incinerators. [2279] Both out of concern for the environment and for area groundwater sources, the Park Service also opposed the plan. Waste-Tech then began preparation of the required Environmental Impact Statement. Early in 1991, the Tribe ceased its negotiations with Waste-Tech, and the incinerators were never constructed on the reservation. Details of this important story must be left for a future history of monument events during the 1990s. [2280]

Operating Budget and Entrance Fees

The monument's approved operating budget rose from $124,200 for fiscal year 1979 to $189,600 for fiscal year 1988. This represents an increase of approximately 65 percent over a 10-year period. Entrance fee collection more than doubled during this period, from $5,271 in 1979 to $13,262 in 1988. Separate operating funds were allocated for the VIP program, ranging from $700 in 1980 (the earliest year reported) to $2,400 in 1988. [2281] Annual donations from the Zion Natural History Association were also important to the monument. (See Appendix VIII, "Monument's Administrative Budget" and "Zion Natural History Association" section.)

Public Relations

During his administration, Bill Herr kept in close touch with local schools and service clubs, offering off-site programs on various topics. He reports no specifics about his interactions with tribal officials, other than summarily reporting that "close working relationships are maintained" in his annual reports. Not long after his arrival to the area, Herr became a member of the Kanab Lion's Club and the Kanab Chamber of Commerce. In 1982 he resigned from the Lion's Club and joined the Kanab Kiwanis Club, preferring their morning weekly meetings to the Lion's Club evening ones. He attended meetings of these organizations very regularly and was twice elected vice-president of the Kiwanis Club. In the early 1980s, Herr was a member of the Citizens Contract Negotiating Team, which worked with the Fredonia Board of Education and Teachers Association. In November 1984, Herr was elected to the non-partisan Fredonia-Moccasin Board of Education. In either late 1985 or early 1986, Herr was elected president of the Fredonia School Board. He was an elected member of the Coconino County Academic Decathlon Board of Directors in late 1986. Herr appears to have thoroughly enjoyed his involvement with the communities of Fredonia and Kanab. [2282] He accepted a part in the Fredonia Civic Play in 1985, but was later forced to set aside his thespian urges when he learned the Superintendents' Conference was scheduled the week of the play's performances.

In 1981 Herr completed the Native American Concerns Training at the Albright Training Center. Aside from the expected interaction monument staff had with the Tribe in connection with leasing space in their building, reports suggest some instances of mutual aid during the decade. When two fires broke out near Kaibab Village in 1982, three monument staff responded to the call for assistance. When Molly, one of the monument's draft horses, died just before spring planting time in 1982, the Tribe not only used its equipment to dig a hole just outside the monument to bury the horse's remains, but later sent over a tractor to till up the demonstration garden, a job formerly performed by horse-drawn plow. (The monument abandoned the plow after Molly's death.) When a six-inch water main broke on the monument in 1983, the Tribe lent the monument their backhoe. On the other hand, when the monument completed enlarging its maintenance building in 1987, it gave the 1974 metal storage unit to the Tribe.

There are no reports by Herr of any serious public relations problems during the 1980s. After Herr's departure and the arrival of Gary Hasty in February 1989, communication appears to have increased between the Tribe and monument staff. As relations improved, Hasty reported, one segment of the local community complained that "we were giving the area back to the Indians." [2283] Monument managers and staff often found themselves walking a very fine line between the sometimes-opposing interests of the Tribe and local non-Indian communities.

Herr was not the only staff involved with local communities. In conjunction with Fredonia's celebration of its centennial, Park Technician Fred Banks made arrangements for the exhibit, "300 Years of German Emigration to America, 1683- 1983," to be shown at the Fredonia library the last two weeks of January 1985. About 250 people saw the display. In 1985 Banks oversaw the preparation of an exhibit on Pipe Spring National Monument for the Northern Coconino County Fair. It won "Best of Show" award and first place in the educational exhibit division.

News releases of special events were sent out as needed. During 1986, the monument appeared on television three times, filmed twice by two different television stations from Phoenix and once by a Salt Lake City station. Salt Lake City's station did a special on the monument's Memorial Day weekend activities that year. In 1987 two television crews visited Pipe Spring for filming, one from Salt Lake City and one from Phoenix.