PIPE SPRING Cultures at a Crossroads: An Administrative History

Monument Administration (continued)

1960

Superintendent Paul R. Franke left Zion National Park at the end of 1959. [1711] His successor was Francis R. Oberhansley, who came on duty January 1, 1960. Oberhansley appears to have had a habit of dropping by the monument to inspect it or to see Heaton unannounced. On a number of occasions, it was Heaton's day off and Heaton would be away on personal business, which always seemed to annoy Oberhansley. Heaton's journals frequently refer to Oberhansley as being rather critical, usually related to matters of neatness, either of the facilities or of Heaton's personal appearance. The new superintendent expected him to be always clean and in full uniform. Heaton wondered how he was supposed to always look clean and well-pressed when in fact he still had to do much maintenance work around the monument.

In March 1960 Jim McKown submitted a draft of the Pipe Spring National Monument historical handbook to Zion and regional office staff for review. He then began working on the history narrative for the Mission 66 master plan. Probably the high point of the spring was the arrival of commercial power to the monument in April which enabled the Heatons and McKown to move into the new residences (see "The Final Push for Power" section). For a time, Heaton used the old residence for temporary storage. Ray Mose and Grant Heaton were on duty the most as laborers during 1960, with Harry Judd and Clifford K. Heaton hired for short-term projects. That summer Ray Mose worked on peeling 100 cedar posts and replacing deteriorated posts in the monument's boundary fence. Landscaping of the new residences and construction of walkways, a new visitor parking area, and service roads were also completed in the late summer and early fall. (See "Walkways" and "Planning and Development" sections.)

On August 24, 1960, during construction work on the monument's new parking area and service roads, two fire pits were unearthed. They were described as about 18 inches square, at a depth of two feet. Potsherds and a broken projectile point were also picked up in the area. [1712] On September 19 Assistant Superintendent Humberger made an inspection visit to check on the construction work. While he was there the drainage wash was being changed near the site of the new parking area. The construction crew ran into an old CCC retaining wall on the west side of wash and the men became quite excited thinking they had discovered an old wall, perhaps of the fort's era. Heaton of course, knew otherwise, as he had been there when the CCC boys worked on the flood diversion project in 1939. (The "stone wall" was most likely a remnant of the stone box culvert constructed then.) Later Heaton wrote of the incident in his journal, "There are a lot of things on this monument no one but me knows anything about. They were put in just temporarily and were not located on maps and plans." [1713]

Heaton was on sick leave a good deal in May 1960 with back problems from a pinched nerve. He saw a specialist in Mesa, Arizona, about the problem. On May 30, Establishment Day, the program of speakers included Superintendent Oberhansley, Anson P. Winsor III, Jim McKown, and Leonard Heaton. [1714] On June 15, 1960, Charlie Steen visited the monument to see how the fort looked after the restoration and furnishing work of 1959 and early 1960. He commented in a report to Erik Reed, "The buildings at Pipe Spring no longer look as though the Monument were an unwanted orphan. With the Art Woodward report as a guide the monument staff, with assists from Zion, have created a most attractive historic house exhibit." [1715] He noted that rooms were lighted by concealed spotlights and was pleased to see no labels on furnishings. Steen's primary recommendation was that some replicas of equipment used in the cheese room be added to make it appear less barren, and that labels be used in this room only, as most visitors would not be familiar with such equipment.

McKown had asked for a lateral transfer to a protection division of a larger park in May 1959. He was unhappy working at Pipe Spring ("Too lonely" for him, Heaton wrote in his journal. A later entry says that the park historian was "mostly lonely for his girl who won't come down here to live. Would like a transfer to get away where there is more activity and people." [1716] ) McKown really longed to return to Yellowstone. He turned down a transfer to Bandelier National Monument in August that year, saying it wasn't a large enough park. Finally, a position opened up at Grand Canyon National Park. McKown was transferred to the South Rim on June 30, 1960, after two years and five months at Pipe Spring. [1717] Heaton later wrote in his journal that he thought McKown did good work, but that his being Catholic placed him at a disadvantage when it came to talking about Mormon history at Pipe Spring. [1718] (In late August 1999, Jim McKown, at age 71, returned to Pipe Spring to see the site and to reminisce about his time there, 40 years earlier. He is now living in Missoula, Montana. He characterizes his time at Pipe Spring as "a long, lonely two and a half years, which now oddly seems somehow central to my life." [1719])

It took about six weeks to hire another park historian, during which time Leonard P. Heaton (paid) and Edna Heaton (unpaid) assisted with tours. On August 22 McKown's successor, Max P. Peterson, arrived at Pipe Spring, accompanied by a wife and child. Heaton wrote of them in his journal: "They are nice people and just out of college last spring in Logan, Utah." [1720] After a week of training at Zion, Peterson assumed the duties of park historian at the monument on August 29. When he attended a staff meeting in September, Chief Ranger Jim Felton told the park historian (in Heaton's words), "that Pipe Spring National Monument should never have been established in the first place, [it was] just an accident, but now that we have it, we have to paint it red so people will like it and to justify our spending money on it. Felton is a Mormon hater and can't see any good in anything they do or have done." [1721] This could only have heightened Heaton's sense of the monument being an unwanted "step-child" in the eyes of Zion officials.

In addition to giving tours of the fort, that fall Max Peterson worked on the Mission 66 master plan outline and catalogued museum artifacts and library books. In his Annual Report on Information and Interpretation for 1960, Peterson reported a new method of counting visitors was being used that excluded through traffic, which had been previously counted. Thus while visitation showed a decline from 1959, the figures in fact gave a more accurate picture of visitation to the monument. All interpretive services were by personal contact, but the use of a self-guiding leaflet was being considered for times when guides were unavailable. The self-guided nature trail and associated geologic display, first proposed in 1938, had yet to be constructed as well as the visitor center and water system. The year's most important accomplishments were the completion of the draft historical handbook and the restoration and furnishing of most of the fort rooms and the cabins. The two upstairs rooms in the north building had yet to be furnished. [1722]

At the end of 1960, Heaton confided in his journal that while he had "gotten use" to the family's new home, he didn't much like the overhead heating that left the floor always cold. He looked forward to spring when he could do more landscaping around the residence. Perhaps most of all, Heaton hoped Max Peterson would like his new position at the monument as park historian and not get bored or lonesome, the way McKown had. Heaton envisioned Peterson taking over for him when he retired. He ended his journal entry for December 31 on a somewhat pensive note:

So ends another year, making almost 35 years I have lived at the monument, spending hundreds of dollars of the government to preserve and interpret the western pioneer life of this area to thousands of visitors, most of which I believe were pleased with their visit. Three more years and I will have 30 years of retirement service so I will quit and do something, visit other areas. [1723]