PIPE SPRING Cultures at a Crossroads: An Administrative History

So Much To Do, So Little Help

For the most part, Heaton seems to have kept busy with restoration and repair tasks assigned him by Superintendent Pinkley. On occasion, he completed his list of jobs and had to await further instructions. In early September 1929 Heaton reported, "I have not done anything on the monument the past two months, hoping that Mr. Pinkley would be up here and help plan what is to be done this year." [569] Heaton had certainly not been idle for the two months, since the summer of 1929 appears to have been one of the busiest ever at Pipe Spring in terms of visitation.

Congress finally approved funding for the custodian's position at Pipe Spring for fiscal year 1932; it took effect July 1, 1932. Beginning then, Heaton was paid $75 per month. [570] He had no staff, even seasonal, until 1953.

In addition to special projects assigned to him by Pinkley, routine work for Heaton by the 1930s, as well as in later years, included the following activities: trap setting, bird banding and record keeping; sweeping the fort and cleaning its windows (a constant chore, thanks to a "dirty west wind"); constructing or cleaning out irrigation ditches; watering vegetation; routine building maintenance; controlling weed growth (foxtail, milkweed, wild morning glory, thistles); tree planting and trimming; cutting dead trees; raking leaves and trash; cleaning fort ponds; journal keeping; writing monthly reports; gathering and pressing plant specimens; cleaning out pipelines to springs; cleaning out cattle guards; trapping gophers (who ruined the meadow and irrigation ditches, and ate tree roots) or plugging up their holes; replastering fort walls and ceilings when old plaster fell down; maintaining the monument road (hauling gravel, filling holes, grading); clearing the road of snow; cutting up firewood for campground or monument use (or hauling it from local sawmills); hauling coal from local mines for fuel; keeping museum collection records; maintaining or repairing the Park Service truck; preparing cost estimates for rehabilitation and other projects; keeping track of expenses; preparing fire reports; cleaning the camping areas; and last but not least, giving guided tours of the fort. Heaton also often came to the aid of motorists whose cars became stuck in mud holes on the abysmal approach road to the monument.

For many years, Heaton regularly worked six days a week for the monument. In addition, Heaton was active in local church and community activities. He usually tried to take one-half or all of Sunday off to attend church or to tend to personal chores. However, at least in 1932 Heaton reported, "In the summer my wife and I take turns in showing the visitors [the fort] on Sunday, that is she goes to church one Sunday and I the next." [571] The Heatons also had a farm in Alton, Utah. Leonard used most of his approved leave from the monument to plant or cultivate wheat there. He was also heavily involved with the Boy Scouts of America, and sometimes took leave to attend their official gatherings. From time to time, Heaton recruited the boy scouts to do small jobs on the monument such as weeding, paying them $2.50 per day. The boys used the money to attend July summer camp.

In addition to maintaining the monument and tending their store and gas station, Leonard and Edna Heaton began raising a family that grew over the years to number 10 children, seven boys and three girls. Five children were born between June 1927 and April 1934 (Maxine, Clawson, Dean, Leonard P., and Lowell); two more were born in 1936 and 1939 (Sherwin and Gary). The last three (Olive, Claren, and Millicent) were post-World War II births. [572] All of the children were brought up on the monument, with exception of the years the Civilian Conservation Corps camp was at Pipe Spring (1936-1940). During those years the family lived in Moccasin. [573] The children attended elementary school in Moccasin and later, high school in Fredonia. Years later, a proud father wrote that seven of the children attended college, two served in the Korean War, and five went on Church missions. [574]

Heaton had little or no money to pay for help for much of his long tenure at Pipe Spring. Members of both his immediate and extended family were recruited to help with some of the day-to-day tasks. Edna Heaton in particular helped out with giving tours, as did many of the children as they grew older. Leonard Heaton often expressed dismay in his journal whenever visitors (or worse, a surprise visit by Park Service officials) caught him in dirty or disheveled clothing while performing routine chores. He once wrote, "I try to be halfway presentable when doing outside work to take the visitor through the fort." [575] As hard as the outdoor monument work was, Heaton far preferred physical labor to working in the office writing reports or filing correspondence, chores he distinctly disliked. Edna often helped out with the filing, keeping museum collection records and helping her husband prepare plant specimens.

The summers were always a very busy time for the Heatons — maintaining the monument, supplying and running the store and gas station, in addition to taking care of personal chores (his farm in Alton, fruit trees and gardens at Pipe Spring, household tasks, and large family). The winters, on the other hand, could get boring. In December 1932 Heaton reported "the worst blizzard that I have ever seen in this country raged, causing death and misery to many birds and animals and much discomfort to us humans." [576] During that month Heaton wrote headquarters,

I find that I have got more time than I know what to do with on my hands this winter and I am going to ask you to give your opinion on some of the things that I have thought of to do here, not only to keep me at work but to make the place more attractive and educational. A few of my ideas are as follows:

1) Fixing up the lower east room of the lower house for use as a registering office and [with] literature of the Monument, also having some of the relics on exhibition in this room.
2) Label all of the furniture as to when it was made and who now owns it.
3) Make hitching racks or tie posts for the horses instead of letting horsemen tie [them] to the trees.
4) Collect plants and insects found on the Monument, giving them the common and scientific names.
5) Make a nature garden of all plant life with signs telling of the kinds of plants.
6) Make a lookout point on the top of the hill back of the Fort showing the interesting places in the development of this country.
7) Have a museum of the live reptiles to be found on the monument.
8) Make a sign of shrubbery, 'Pipe Spring National Monument,' for the airplanes so they can locate this place while flying past. [577]

(This last item suggests the custodian might have been suffering from a sense of neglect, as few visitors - including official ones - stopped by to see the monument, partly due to the distance of the site from U.S. Highway 89.) Heaton assured Pinkley there would be very little cost involved in these projects as he planned to use materials on hand. He wrote that with few visitors, there was little work for him to do and he would enjoy doing these projects. The conscientious custodian added, "Another reason that I want to do it is that when a man gets a government job it is said he can lay around and do nothing. I don't want it said that I did not try to earn the salary that the Government is paying me for staying here." [578]

As a rule, the workload was far heavier in the summer than during the winter. As the weather worsened, very few visitors came by the monument. Less seems to have been done by either the Indian Service or Mohave County road crews to maintain the roads once the travel season ended, making travel conditions over the winter worse than usual. Heaton tried to keep the fort clean and to stay warm in his office, located for many years in the east room of the lower building's ground floor. During this time he usually read or wrote in his journal (often expressing boredom during the winter months), trapped birds, updated bird and museum records, maintained the monument road, repaired museum furnishings, worked on woodwork and floors, or painted inside areas of the fort. The arduous work of cleaning out irrigation ditches and watering vegetation could begin as early as February each year, depending on the weather. Winter brought the area's children a new recreational opportunity: children skated on the meadow pond when it was sufficiently frozen.

Heaton worked very hard to learn as much as he could about the natural history of the area, both for the purpose of sharing this knowledge with visitors and in order to keep official monument records. Heaton faithfully recorded bird sightings in his journal. [579] Heaton also noted numerous reptiles on the monument. [580] Monument reports over the years have many references to finding rattlers on the monument, particularly during the driest months. In July 1931 Heaton reported, "The rattlesnakes seem to be taking a liking to this place this summer, as I and others have killed some on the monument, and some of them are [as] large as I have ever seen, one having 14 rattles and a button, and measuring over three feet long." [581]

In addition, Heaton studied the monument's plant life, seeking outside professional assistance in identifying any kinds of plants he was unfamiliar with. He often sent specimens to Boyce Thompson Arboretum in Superior, Arizona, for identification. As Heaton became more familiar and appreciative of the area's native plants and animals, he also became increasingly protective of those on the monument. His resolve to "preserve and protect" both natural resources and cultural resources would be severely put to a test after the Civilian Conservation Corps camp was established at Pipe Spring.

The job of tending to the monument as well as trying to make a living on the side could be quite a juggling act for Heaton at times. He reported to Pinkley in June 1932,

Just a line to let you know that I am still at the place and trying to take care of it and do the farm work and make a living. Have been spending most of my time getting in crops and gardens and have somewhat neglected the care of the fort, but I am about through with the farm work.... There has not been very many people here this month. [582]