PIPE SPRING Cultures at a Crossroads: An Administrative History

Interpretation

On-site Programs

As mentioned in the preceding sections, the interpretive program remained heavily reliant on seasonal staff and workers during the 1980s. During this period, a new special event was created at Pipe Spring, called "Christmas in July." In 1981, the event was held from July 27 through August 1. During that week, VIPs and staff festively decorated the house in order to give visitors a feel for what the fort might have looked like during the holiday season in the 1870-1890 period. [2329] The event featured Christmas carol singing, decorating Christmas trees, making gifts, and holiday baking on the old wood-burning stove. In 1984 the monument received a loom from the LBJ Ranch National Historic Site in Texas. It was set up for visitor use in the visitor center.

The practice of plowing the demonstration gardens with horse-drawn plow was abandoned about 1982 and garden tractors were purchased and used for that purpose. While the death of horse "Molly" that year played a role in the change, a shortage of workers may have also been a factor, rather than any desire to dispense with the living history program. Unlike the late 1960s and early 1970s, when the Neighborhood Youth Corps program provided an equal number of boys and girls (with the boys turned over to Mel Heaton and the girls assigned to act as guides), most government-funded youth that worked at Pipe Spring after 1976 were female. Even some of the males recruited in the 1980s chose to work as guides. During the decade, the maintenance division never had more than two summer youth workers assigned under the CETA program. That is probably why it became commonplace for the monument to hire two or three seasonal laborers each year, and why the more labor-intensive, "authentic" way of tilling the gardens was phased out.

There were other changes in the interpretive program during the 1980s, but they were more gradual. Soon after Superintendent Herr's arrival, the emphasis began to slowly shift away from the broader history of Mormon migration to Utah and the West and move more toward telling the story of Church's Southern Utah Mission (also called Dixie Mission or Cotton Mission) and ranching life on the Arizona Strip. Some Park Service officials, Herr among them, were no longer comfortable with the story told on the Harpers Ferry Center-designed waysides installed along visitor walkways in 1975. During the summer of 1980, Fred Banks refurbished the panels but no textual changes were made. Herr reported Banks' work at a September squad meeting held in Zion. That led to the following discussion, as reported in the meeting minutes:

They [the panels] really look nice. However, as Superintendent Herr pointed out, the story told at Pipe Spring is the story of the Mormon migration to Utah rather than the story of Pipe Spring National Monument. Mr. Jackson explained that years ago we were instructed that Pipe Spring would be the Park Service area in Southern Utah where the story of the Mormon migration to Utah would be told, and the exhibits were made to that effect at Harpers Ferry. Nevertheless, Region may wish to change the exhibits to perhaps tell the more appropriate story of Utah's Dixie Mission. [2330]

Of course, in the minds of many Mormon visitors, one could not tell the story of Utah's Southern Utah Mission without telling the larger story of the Mormon's migration to the West. The Park Service's shift away from the content of the "old" Pipe Spring story led to some public relations problems (particularly among the local Mormon residents) which have yet to be resolved. In the minds of many, it had always been a monument to Mormon pioneers, even if the enabling legislation delicately neglected to mention that fact. It is important to note that until the 1980s, monument staff as well as visitors (Mormon and non-Mormon alike) seemed happy with the way the site was being interpreted. Herr encouraged Fred Banks to work on ideas for changing wayside exhibits while shifting the focus of the Pipe Spring story to be more region specific. There was consideration given in the early 1980s to sending the old wayside exhibits, once replaced, to Salt Lake City's "This is the Place" State Park. Its area manager had once expressed that they would be appropriate there. [2331]

Throughout the 1980s, Banks was responsible for preparing the monument's "Annual Statement for Interpretation and Visitor Services." [2332] A comparison of statements made under the "Themes and Objectives" headings in the report hints of the change in interpretive emphasis over time. In 1982, for example, interpretive themes were described as follows:

The Interpretive Program will provide the visitor with opportunities to understand Pipe Spring's role in the Mormon pioneer effort and the subsequent westward expansion and settlement. The period of the 1870s and 1880s provides the greatest insight into the early life of this portion of the Mormon culture.... The program will also introduce the visitor to man's historic and prehistoric use of the Strip and encourage him to consider how this relates to our land use ethic today. [2333]

The objectives of the interpretive program in 1982 were,

To foster public understanding and appreciation of life in and around the Mormon settlement at Pipe Spring, of the significance of the settlement in western American history, and of the management policies that protect the natural and historic resources and promote their safe and non-consumptive public use. [2334]

By 1988, although still prepared by Fred Banks, the description of interpretive themes is quite different. It also omits the word "Mormon:" "The primary theme is human activity at a pioneer ranching settlement in an arid land and the secondary theme is Native American influence on the pioneer culture." [2335] The monument's objectives in 1988 were,

To foster public understanding and appreciation of a pioneer ranching life on a last frontier; to promote the significance of the settlement westward in westward expansion; to advance management policies that protect the natural and historical resources; and to instill safe and non-consumptive public use. [2336]

Dramatic changes would not take place until Herr's successor arrived. Yet the shift in interpretive focus was clearly evident by the late 1980s and some concrete steps were taken to implement the change. For most of the decade, however, the living history program continued at the monument, albeit reduced in scale. Branding and blacksmithing demonstrations continued during the summer months, as did some of the domestic arts demonstrations. On June 15, 1984, monument staff experimented with an evening music program, which consisted of organ playing and singing. They also tried offering several quilting seminars. Herr's reports suggest that at least on some July 4 holidays during the 1980s, the monument held an ice cream social of sorts, complete with homemade ice cream. It seems that from 1986-1988, the event included a traditional dance demonstration by a group of cloggers led by Rhea McCormick, all working as VIPs.

During fiscal year 1986, Herr tried to work out a plan with regional office archeologists and historical architects to re-excavate the Whitmore-McIntyre dugout so the site could be of greater interpretive value. The dugout was the site's earliest structure dating to the Mormon settlement period. Herr, like former site managers Leonard Heaton and Bernard Tracy, wanted to see the structure's remains exposed. Soon after the site was excavated in 1959, it had been backfilled. Ever since the late 1950s, archeologists in particular convincingly argued that exposing its remains would lead to their rapid deterioration. (See Part IX, "Monument Administration, 1959" section for details.) The site had been interpreted by means of a wayside exhibit for many years. While Herr's reports suggest he may have faced less opposition in the mid-1980s, the site was not reopened.

In January 1987, Assistant Chief Naturalist Jay Schuler from Badlands National Park visited Pipe Spring and drafted a new wayside exhibit plan for the monument. He returned to finalize the plan in August, which was completed in 1988. Harpers Ferry Center constructed new wayside exhibit panels and audio stations, received at the monument in late 1988. Herr was still in charge but the new exhibits were not installed until after his departure.

In 1989 both Bill Herr and Fred Banks transferred to other park units. Herr's successor, Gary M. Hasty, saw an opportunity to implement "new ideas, methods, and directions" for the monument. His tenure will not be covered in this report, but suffice to say the controversy over what story was to be told at Pipe Spring was far from over. Prior to his arrival, Hasty claimed,

"It was possible for a visitor to enter the area, receive a history of the Mormon Church, learn of the people that have lived there, their genealogy, and depart without seeing an NPS uniformed person, not [even] knowing that this was a unit of the NPS system or why the area was set aside". [2337]

After Hasty's arrival, formal guided tours were once-again presented by uniformed Park Service personnel, much as they had been before Ray Geerdes initiated the monument's "living ranch" phase in the late 1960s. Over the winter of 1989-1990, under Hasty's administration, the old waysides were removed and new waysides were installed along the main walkways. The new exhibits interpreted both the natural and human history of the area, returning the interpretive program - according to Hasty - to the "original intent and themes" that accompanied the monument's original creation. [2338]

Soon after the waysides exhibits were changed, Hasty received a number of complaints from local white residents, many of whom were probably descendants of families that settled in the area in the Church's initial period of southern colonization. These descendants witnessed what seemed to them to be a radical shift in interpretation away from the history they knew and revered. [2339] Hasty would bear the brunt of local disappointment and bitterness over interpretive changes at Pipe Spring, even though, as these changes were made, Park Service officials believed the new interpretive program returned to the original intent and purpose for which the monument was created.

Off-site Programs

In late December 1979 and early January 1980, Herr contacted the science teachers at area high schools regarding offering Park Service history and astronomy programs. (Herr gave the astronomy programs and Banks, the history ones.) Three to four off-site interpretive programs were given each year from 1980 to 1983, and eight in 1984. Herr reported several were offered from 1986 to 1988.