PIPE SPRING Cultures at a Crossroads: An Administrative History

The Aftermath of DG-44 (continued)

1941

President Roosevelt was re-elected to serve for a third term in November 1940. The United States was increasingly being drawn into the war in Europe, particularly after the fall of France to the German Army in the summer of 1940. During 1941 Roosevelt's attention increasingly turned to matters of defense and military preparedness.

Planning for fort stabilization work began in early 1941. Superintendent Miller requested the fort work receive close field supervision from the regional office in Santa Fe. Regional Chief of Planning Harvey Cornell assured Miller the work would "receive every consideration" by his division.

From November 1940 to early January 1941, Heaton worked to complete the monument's sewer system, trenching, laying tile, and backfilling sewer lines. [1078] On January 9 Heaton was doing the last few days of work on the system. While trenching, he uncovered two skeletons lying side by side. [1079] He immediately covered up the burial and made a full report the next day to Superintendent Miller. "There was nothing in the shape of potsherds or flints in the graves I discovered yesterday. The area in which the graves are has been known to produce arrow points and has a lot of potsherds on the surface of the ground, also a few grinding stones have been found there." he reported. [1080] He asked if someone could be sent in the spring to "look into these graves and the one at Moccasin on Mr. Charles C. Heaton's land." Headquarters responded by writing that someone would be sent to investigate the burials in May; no other reference to the burial occurs in subsequent records, however.

In March 1941 Heaton reported the local livestock market was "in excellent condition... some men have contracted their cattle for the best prices in 20 years." [1081] Heaton's spirits were high as well, as he looked forward to overseeing stabilization work on the fort. The application for Job 26, "Stabilization, Old Fort and East and West Cabins," was submitted in late March and was approved on April 17 by the regional office with the stipulation that all stabilization work be fully and accurately recorded. Assistant Superintendent Richey asked Regional Director Minor R. Tillotson to assign someone from the regional office's Plans and Design Division to supervise the work. Architect George Norgard was the man assigned. He made a site visit on April 3 to review plans for stabilization to the buildings and prepare recommendations. [1082] On April 19 Norgard, Richey, Al Kuehl, and Zion's Assistant Superintendent John Davis visited the monument again to finalize plans. Officials assured Heaton someone from the Santa Fe office would visit every few weeks during stabilization work to oversee the project. In addition to fort stabilization work (described below) work on the east and west cabins was planned. The stabilization work was originally planned to be carried out by Camp NP-12 as Job 59, but when application was made to the Army, it arranged for work to be done by Grazing Service camps instead as Pipe Spring Job 26. [1083]

Richey reported after a visit to the monument in April 1941, "The old CCC camp area has been cleaned up and the area plowed and graded by Mr. Heaton. It is believed that this area will soon grass over and completely obliterate itself." (Actually the work of leveling the CCC site was done in March 1941 by Carl Johnson with a horse and team.) The garage Heaton had constructed (out of his barn) was "no architectural prize," stated Richey, but it was "out of view of the general public area and will serve until a permanent building can be erected." [1084]

Fort rehabilitation work began on April 24, 1941, with Heaton overseeing two hired local laborers. Two other local men would soon be hired. [1085] On April 28 six boys from the Grazing Service's Camp G-173 in Antelope Valley arrived to assist with work. Al Kuehl visited Pipe Spring on May 1 to inspect work progress and to go over fort needs. [1086] The job crew worked all of May. Excavating around the fort's foundation was the first project undertaken. On the east, west and north walls, excavation went down to bedrock or 10 inches below the foundation rock. A concrete footing was then poured under the foundation rock and extended out four to six inches. This was later tarred and backfilled. Heaton reported water seepage from the sandstone at the northwest corner of the fort complicated foundation repairs. [1087]

One event worthy of mention occurred while the fort stabilization work was in progress. On May 13, 1941, at about 3:00 a.m. Saturday, a truckload of 30 CCC boys returning to their camp from a night of recreation in town, overturned 100 yards west of the monument. "Too fast driving on a turn seems to be the cause," reported Heaton. Sixteen of the boys required hospitalization, including four of Heaton's work crew. [1088]

In addition to attempts to waterproof the fort's foundations, other work was accomplished in May. The west wall that had been pushed in by an old elm tree was pulled back into place. Repairs to upper story porches were made as needed. The men also removed some of the roofing on the lower fort building and began preparing the shakes. [1089] By mid-May reroofing of the lower building was completed. Roofing the north wing began on May 19. Heaton reported all the carpentry work on the porches and roofs was completed by May 26. By month's end, Heaton felt most of the work planned for the fort had been accomplished. He wrote in his journal, "I only wish that someone from the Plans and Design Division could have come in at least every two weeks as I feel they would have found things needing done that I missed being so close to the work." [1090] No one from the regional office in Santa Fe or from headquarters in Coolidge had visited since May 1, missing the most critical phases of stabilization work. By June 13, the allotment for stabilization work had all been expended, so hired skilled and unskilled labor were terminated. Finally on June 14 Architect George Norgard made an inspection visit from the regional office, noting work accomplished, problems encountered, and work that still needed to be done. [1091]

Heaton still had the labor of the CCC boys at his disposal. The Grazing Service had committed a six-person crew to work at the monument for 90 days, beginning April 28. In June and July 1941, stone pointing was completed on the fort's exterior and some work was done on the fort's interior (wall replastering where needed) and rehabilitation work was carried out on the east and west cabins. These were reroofed with 45 pound rubber roofing paper, tarred, then covered with 2-4 inches of green shale. [1092] The boys also did a lot of maintenance work on the roads, the campground, and irrigation ditches. Dry grasses were a very real fire hazard during the hot, dry summer. The boys removed grass (mostly foxtail) along the roads and paths and from around the buildings. July 25 was the CCC crew's final day working at the monument. After the departure of the CCC work crew, Heaton was on his own again. He continued stabilization work on the cabins and plastering work in the fort. When Thomas Vint, Harvey Cornell, and Al Kuehl made a surprise visit to Pipe Spring in early August, Heaton reported with considerable relief that the officials "seemed pleased with what I had done in the stabilization work and monument in general." [1093]

In early May 1941, Superintendent Miller turned down the Grazing Service's request to develop a swimming pool at the monument for use by their enrollees, saying it was "contrary to the purpose for which the area was reserved..." [1094] Miller was also concerned that Fredonia residents would start using it, thereby obligating the Park Service to permanently maintain it. The agreement to furnish water to cattlemen created a situation whereby the meadow pool was sometimes full and at other times dry, depending on the weather and needs of the cattlemen's stock (and the demands of the CCC camp south of the monument). Under "Boss" Pinkley, headquarters had tolerated DG-44's use of the pool for swimming because it expected to derive some benefit from the camp's presence on the monument. Once DG-44 was gone, Pinkley deceased, and Miller in charge, the headaches of maintaining a public swimming hole appear to have outweighed any gain there might have been. [1095]

In late August 1941, Regional Director Tillotson sent a memorandum to Superintendent Miller (copied to Zion's Superintendent Paul R. Franke) proposing that the administration of Pipe Spring National Monument be transferred to Zion National Park. [1096] His primary reasons were that the historic site, one of only four among Southwestern National Monument's 28 sites, was not in any way connected with the interests of most of the other areas and that its geographic location was more accessible to Zion National Park. He asked for Miller's views on the idea.

Superintendent Franke was wildly enthusiastic about the proposal: "There is no question about the story of Pipe Springs National Monument tying directly into the historical story of southern Utah as represented by Zion National Park," he wrote Tillotson. [1097] Franke thought administration of the monument would be "a relatively simple matter" and that descendents of southern Utah settlers would be only too willing to donate historic furnishings which would enable the Park Service to transform the fort into the historic house museum long dreamed of. Franke copied his memorandum to Director Drury and Superintendent Miller.

On the other hand, Hugh Miller was convinced the transfer to Zion would be a terrible mistake. He feared that the monument's interests would not be sufficiently protected by a park superintendent, as opposed to being safeguarded by a group whose only function was to protect the interests of the region's monuments. "I believe," argued Miller in his reply to Tillotson, "there is a constant tendency to regard the monument under the park as a sort of step-child and that there is a danger, inherent in human nature, that the park superintendent will devote his best energies to his park and accord the monument only such attention as he has left over." [1098] Miller dismissed the issue of geographic proximity as important, arguing that ties to Arizona were more critical from an administrative perspective than ties to Utah. Miller also copied his memorandum to Director Drury, but not to Superintendent Franke.

Regional Director Tillotson informed Miller in a terse memorandum that his concerns would be given full consideration during the regional director's three-month tour of duty in the Washington office that was to begin October 1. Meanwhile, Drury responded to Miller's memorandum addressing several of the objections he raised to the transfer of Pipe Spring's administration to Zion. Drury liked the idea of having a coordinating superintendent at Zion, however, and Miller's views had not changed his feelings on the matter. [1099] Still, he promised Miller he would talk it over with Tillotson and give the matter more consideration.

With the monument's fate weighing on his mind, Superintendent Miller decided to pay an inspection visit to Pipe Spring on September 29, 1941. His report of the recently accomplished work there and description of the monument's general condition — copied to both the director and regional director - were particularly glowing. There was still no interpretive program at the monument, Miller noted, but Heaton had made a laudable attempt to label and display the historic artifacts he had collected. To reduce the "confused" appearance of the displays, Miller suggested Heaton concentrate on furnishing a single room with his best examples, and storing the others in a locked room. His report stated,

It is emphasized that Heaton is in no sense to blame [for the inadequate displays]. He has taken care of the area and the fort admirably. If we were to expect more than that from him, the Civil Service Commission would have grounds to insist on a grade FCS-8 or 9 position instead of a position as laborer and caretaker in grade FCS-5. It is questionable whether present or immediate prospective visitor use is of sufficient volume to warrant more than the present protective measures. Pipe Spring has a charming atmosphere and would be a perfect spot for a budding historian, yet under the defense economy perhaps not enough persons would benefit from a fine interpretive program to warrant the expense. In the meantime there is certainly no evidence of neglect of any essential at Pipe Spring. [1100]

In general, Miller reported that the fort and monument grounds looked "better than I have ever seen it," giving most of the credit to Leonard Heaton. It appears that no word had yet been breathed to Heaton about the proposed administrative transfer of the monument to Zion National Park. Having worked with the monument's custodian for many years (long before Pinkley's death), having known the Heaton family and how hard and consciously they all worked to keep up the monument, Miller may have felt concerned - and rightfully so - about how Heaton would fare under Zion's management.

Headquarters sent plans for a comfort station and custodian's residence (NM/PS-2025-A) to Heaton for comment in early October 1941. [1101] Heaton returned his comments asking, among other things, that the residence be constructed of stone (similar to the fort) and reoriented. In early November officials at Southwestern National Monuments asked regional office staff to make changes to the plans according to Heaton's preferences. On December 10 Al Kuehl and George Norgard visited the monument to show Heaton the revised architectural plans and to choose a site for the new residence. The site chosen was on the east side of the meadow. Heaton was very pleased with the site and the new building plans, so much so that his report of their visit on December 16 failed to mention the country was then at war. [1102]

The December 7, 1941, bombing of Pearl Harbor by the Japanese military and the United States' subsequent declaration of war on Japan, Germany, and Italy launched the country into World War II. Any possibility that either the long-awaited residence or much-needed comfort station would be constructed at Pipe Spring National Monument in the foreseeable future evaporated overnight. The impact of the country's participation in World War II and its aftermath on the monument will be the subject of the next chapter. First, as the development of roads had always impacted visitation at Pipe Spring (and would continue to impact it), it is worth considering what steps were being taken in the late 1930s and early 1940s to improve the approach roads to the monument. Two major initiatives were taken, both of which are described below.