Theodore Roosevelt Administrative History

1. As in the epigraph to Part 1 of this history.

2. Still, to a receptive mind this scene was anything but unexceptional. In an unpublished manuscript (probably written soon after his visit to the park—see text at n5, Chapter 9), Olaus Murie, the wildlife biologist, described his first visit to the Elkhorn site—a place that he had read about as a boy:

. . . its very simplicity was elegant. There at one time had stood a significant log cabin. By recognizing this humble spot on the bank of the Little Missouri we do more than establish a reminder of a prominent national political figure. It pleased me that this was not a mountain spire, a figure carved in a cliff, or some other obtruding feature. By selecting this spot where had once stood a cabin, representative of the bigger scene, a spot no different from the rest of it up and down the river (rather less striking, in fact, than most of it), we effectively recognize an adventurous era, a significant experience of mankind, a stretch of country that is capable of instilling in us something that can hardly be named in ordinary prose, but may only be guessed by the poet.

3. In Theodore Roosevelt's storage building there is a file which includes a map of the park's first road system, dated 1949. It bears the legend "part of the Master Plan for Theodore Roosevelt National Memorial Park." It is the only reference to an early master plan in any of the documents at the park. I have not been able to locate the full text of any such plan, but it is possible that one was written to guide the park's initial development.

4. Packaged Master Plan Narrative, Theodore Roosevelt National Memorial Park, unpublished MS, 1963 (THRO-A), unpaginated. Hereafter cited as 1963 Master Plan.

5. The Master Plan for Theodore Roosevelt National Memorial Park (Preliminary Working Draft) (Washington, DC: NPS, 1967). Hereafter cited as 1967 Master Plan. See also William J. Bruggle (Deputy Director, NPS) to Reg. Dir. (RMRO), memorandum, 4 May 1977 (THRO-S); and Theodore Roosevelt National Memorial Park Master Plan (Washington, DC: NPS, 1973). Hereafter cited as 1973 Master Plan.

6. Wayne W. Gardner (Div. of Park Planning, RMRO), to Reg. Dir. (RMRO), memorandum, 4 April 1983 (THRO-A).

7. David Harmon, NPS Planning Documents and the Interpreter," Valley Forge Brief #5, December 1983 (Valley Forge, PA: Valley Forge NHP), 2.

8. "Statement for Management: Theodore Roosevelt National Memorial Park," unpublished MS, November 1975, fourth revision, June 1980 (THRO-A); "Statement for Management: Theodore Roosevelt National Park," memorandum, 7 December 1981 (THRO-A). Hereafter cited as "1975 SFM" and "1981 SFM." The newest revision was not available to the author before this was written.

9. "Basic Operations Declaration, Theodore Roosevelt National Park," unpublished MS, 1982 (THRO-A).

10. Harmon, 3; letter of Micki Hellickson (Chief Naturalist, THRO) to author, 14 May 1985. A draft Land Protection Plan has also recently been prepared by the park's staff. Land Protection Plans are one way the Service is now responding to the large increase in the number and severity of external threats to units of the System. They often propose solutions such as the purchase of scenic or preservation easements instead of fee-simple acquisition of adjacent lands from which incompatible uses originate. Refer to Janet L. Madden, "Tax Incentives for Land Conservation: The Charitable Deduction for Gifts of Conservation Easements" (Boston College Environmental Affairs Law Review 11:1 (1983), 105-148) for the legal background of this new protection technique.

11. See text at n14, Chapter 11.

12. Some of the early scientific research: Wheeler's work on amphibians and reptiles, Berg and Brophy's on fossilized wood, and Koford's on prairie dogs. For more detail on these studies, see respectively n49, Chapter 9; n34, Chapter 8; and n44, Chapter 9. For the 1964 reorganization, see Franklin and Schaeffer, 189; and n15 below.

13. George F. Baggley, "Management Inspection, Theodore Roosevelt National Memorial Park," unpublished MS, 15 December 1961 (THRO-S), 1.

14. 1963 Master Plan. This statement was promulgated a year earlier in order to get the staff thinking about "one centralized goal": "Statement of Mission and Purpose for TRNMP: Draft," unpublished MS attached to memorandum of Wallace O. McCaw (Supt., THRO) to Reg. Dir., 27 February 1962 (THRO-S).

15. See Stewart L. Udall (Secretary of the Interior) to George B. Hartzog, Jr. (Director, NPS), memorandum, 10 July 1964, published as Appendix A in Compilation of the Administrative Policies for Historical Areas of the National Park System, September 1968 version (Washington, DC: NPS, 1968), 72-73. See also "Superintendent's Monthly Narrative Report," memorandum, 12 October 1964 (THRO-S).

Later, when historical areas of the System came to be classified by theme, the park (along with Sagamore Hill NHS, Oyster Bay, NY; Theodore Roosevelt Birthplace NHS, New York City; and Theodore Roosevelt Inaugural NHS, Buffalo, NY) was assigned to the "Theodore Roosevelt" facet of "The American Presidency subtheme of "Political and Military Affairs." The national memorial park was supplementally given the prime theme of "Westward Expansion," subtheme "The Cattleman's Empire," facet "Ranches of the Northern Plains." Part One of the National Park System Plan: History (Washington, DC: NPS, 1972), 39, 90.

16. 1967 Master Plan, 3, 6; 1973 Master Plan, 1, 3. The quotations can also be found in "Theodore Roosevelt National Memorial Park: Management Objectives," unpublished MS, 24 June 1969 (THRO-S), 1.

17. Arthur L. Sullivan (Supt., THRO) to Reg. Dir. (MWRO), memorandum 17 May 1968 (THRO-S). The staffing study cited is entitled "Analysis of management at historic and natural areas," memorandum from the Asst. Reg. Dir, of Administration (WASO) to all Reg. Dirs., 19 March 1968 (THRO-S).

18. "Although it was generally recognized that the park area possessed significant natural and scientific values, these [made] were subordinate and secondary to the intangible value of Roosevelt's historical association with the badlands region": "Management Objectives, Theodore Roosevelt National Memorial Park," memorandum, 6 March 1969 (THRO-S).

19. "1975 SFM," 4.

20. "1975 SFM (1980 revision)," 1.

21. 1963 Master Plan, unpaginated; 1967 Master Plan, 4-5; 1973 Master Plan, 1-3; "Management Objectives," un-paginated; "1975 SFM," 6.

22. 1963 Master Plan, unpaginated.

23. 1967 Master Plan, 33-37.

24. Ibid.

25. 1973 Master Plan, 26-27.

26. Ibid., and "Environmental Assessment, Elkhorn Unit Development, Theodore Roosevelt National Memorial Park, North Dakota (Working Draft)," unpublished MS, 1976 (THRO-A), 1-18.

27. See Horace Albright's similar comments in text at n23, Chapter 1, and North Dakota Senator Quentin Burdick's, quoted in "State Coordinator's Monthly Report: October 1972," 26 October 1972 (THRO-A), 2. The feeling persisted among North Dakotans that they were being shortchanged by not having a national park. See also "State Coordinator's Monthly Report," April 1975 (THRO-A).

28. "Staff Meeting Minutes," 20 June 1966, 1.

29. "State Coordinator's Monthly Report," October 1972, 1-2.

30. Rod Tjaden, Dickinson Press, August 1977. His thoughts were echoed elsewhere in the state: "For countless tourists the idea of a 'Memorial Park' must have conjured up images of plaques, a statue and a few acres of manicured turf. That special designation excluded the park from nearly all park service publications that featured national parks, monuments or historic parks. Those same publications in turn became source materials for private firms publishing atlases, guidebooks and directories." See "Theodore Roosevelt National Park—A dream come true," Ransom County Gazette and Enterprise, 28 December 1978. See also McKenzie County Farmer, 10 August 1978.

31. The bills were: S. 4072 (92d Cong., 2d sess., 1972), S. 1467 (93d Cong., 1st sess., 1973), S. 1609 (94th Cong., 1st sess., 1975), and S. 2062 (95th Cong., 1st sess., 1977). Representative Mark Andrews also introduced legislation in the 95th Congress (H. R. 8637) that would have redesignated Theodore Roosevelt.

32. Acting Deputy Director (NPS) to Rep. Larry Pressler (SD), 6 July 1978, quoted in U. S. House, Subcommittee on National Parks and Insular Affairs, Legislative History of the National Parks and Recreation Act of 1978 (Public Law 95—625), 95th Cong., 2d sess., Committee Print #11 (December 1978), 514; J. Leonard Volz (Reg. Dir., MWRO), memorandum, 6 June 1973, quoted in Richard C. Curry (Assoc. Director for Legislation, WASO) to Reg. Dir. (RMRO), memorandum, 31 March 1976 (THRO-A), 2.

33. Curry to Reg. Dir., 1.

34. Quote from Lynn H. Thompson (Reg. Dir., RMRO) to Assoc. Director for Legislation (WASO), memorandum, ca. 1975 (THRO-A), 1-2.

35. Curry to Reg. Dir. (RMRO), 31 March 1976, 3 (Truman quote on p. 1).

36. First quote: Gary Everhardt (Director, NPS) to Secretary of the Interior, memorandum, 9 March 1976 (THRO-A). Second quote: Acting Asst. Secretary of the Interior to Senator Henry M. Jackson (Chrmn., Committee on Interior and Insular Affairs), memorandum, 23 August 1974 (THRO-A).

37. John E. Cook (Deputy Director, NPS) to Reg. Dir. (RMRO), memorandum, 3 February 1976 (THRO-A), 1, 2.

38. Acting Asst. Secretary of the Interior to Jackson, 23 August 1974, 1; repeated verbatim in Asst. Secretary of the Interior to Jackson, memorandum, 3 March 1976 (THRO-A), 1.

39. Ibid., and Everhardt to Secretary of the Interior, 9 March 1976, 1, 2.

40. Everhardt to Secretary of the Interior, 9 March 1976, 1; Curry to Reg. Dir. (RMRO), 31 March 1976, 2.

41. Cook to Reg. Dir. (RMRO), 3 February 1976, 3.

42. McKenzie County Farmer, 10 August 1978.

43. North Dakota State Senate Concurrent Resolution #4034, 45th Legislative Assembly, April 1977.

44. Legislative History of the National Parks and Recreation Act of 1978, 1-113, esp. 80.

45. Ibid., 117-120.

46. Ibid., 464. For a discussion of Burton's tactics and the background of the National Parks and Recreation Act of 1978, see Everhart, 146-147; and Ronald A. Foresta, America's National Parks and Their Keepers (Washington, DC: Resources for the Future, 1984), 80-82.

47. Perhaps because of the political climate prevailing under the Carter administration. Refer to Franklin and Schaeffer, 191-206, Everhart, 141-155, and Foresta, 85-86. See also U. S. Senate, Subcommittee on Parks and Recreation, 95th Cong., 2d sess., Hearings on S. 2706, S. 2848, and H. R. 12536, July-August 1978 (Publication 95-160), 208; and letter of Senator Quentin Burdick (ND) to Senator James Abourezk (Chrmn., Subcommittee on Parks and Recreation), 20 July 1978, attached to the above hearings report, 339.

48. Legislative History of the National Parks and Recreation Act of 1978, 514.

49. Burdick to Abourezk, 20 July 1978.

50. Legislative History of the National Parks and Recreation Act of 1978, 977.

51. The pertinent sections (the numbers refer to S. 791 and not H. R. 12536): Section 301 (16), which deleted 160 acres from and added 146 acres along the boundary of the North Unit; Section 401 (8), which designated 29,920 acres in the park as statutory wilderness (see Chapter 7); and Section 610, which changed the park's name. Ibid., 901, 916, and 947, respectively.