Theodore Roosevelt Administrative History

1. Strictly speaking, the natural and historical scenes themselves are separate, because the park now manages natural resources to perpetuate the ecosystem which is thought to have prevailed before the beginning of European settlement in western Dakota Territory—hence, before Roosevelt's arrival in 1883. "Basic Operations Declaration," unpaginated.

2. See, for example: John C. Hendee, George H. Stankey, and Robert C. Lucas, Wilderness Management, Miscellaneous Publication #1365 (Washington, DC: USFS, 1978), 176-186.

3. "Natural Resources Management Plan and Environmental Assessment, Theodore Roosevelt National Park (draft)," unpublished MS, 1983 (THRO-A), 34-35 (hereafter cited as NRM Plan"). It notes that, unlike the others, noise from the railroad is part of the historical scene, since Medora grew up because of the Northern Pacific Railroad in the 1880s.

4. Bradbury, 6-7; "Chief Ranger's Monthly Report," 14 June 1977.

5. "Chief Ranger's Monthly Report," 2 December 1982.

6. Bradbury, 7.

7. Harvey Wickware (Supt., THRO), quoted in Bismarck Tribune, 11 June 1983; "Chief Ranger's Monthly Report," 8 September 1977.

8. "State Coordinator's Monthly Report," 31 August 1982; Bismarck Tribune, 11 June 1983; "NRM Plan," 34.

9. Indeed, Gold Seal offered to donate some of its own land to facilitate the longer runway. Dickinson Press, 12 June 1983.

10. Ibid.; "NRM Plan," 34.

11. Quotation from "North Dakota and the National Park Service," unpublished MS, 9 November 1982 (THRO-S), 5; Hellickson to author, 14 May 1985. The Park Service has indicated that it too would participate in an airstrip EIS, if prepared by qualified individuals.

12. "Basic Operations Declaration," unpaginated.

13. "NRM Plan," 14; "Preliminary National Assessment of Class I Related Values: Visibility Report, Theodore Roosevelt National Memorial Park," unpublished MS, August 1978 (THRO-A), unpaginated.

14. "Visibility References in the Legislative History: Theodore Roosevelt National Park," unpublished MS, ca. 1978 (THRO-A), 2.

15. "Preliminary National Assessment of Class I Related Values," unpaginated.

16. "NRM Plan," 14.

17. North Dakota's other Class I area is the wilderness portion of Lostwood National Wildlife Refuge in Burke and Mountrail counties.

18. "Preliminary National Assessment of Class I Related Values," passim.

19. "NRM Plan," 14; "Researchers and Visitors Monitor Park Air Quality," Frontier Fragments 5 (1985-86), unpaginated.

20. For example, the "1981 Seasonal Visibility Summary Report for Theodore Roosevelt National Park," attached to memorandum of James Littlejohn (Monitoring Specialist, NPS Air and Water Quality Division, Denver) to Supt. (THRO), 15 March 1982 (THRO-A).

21. 46 Federal Register 3646; 46 Federal Register 23389; 40 Code of Federal Regulations 51.300 ff.

22. Loretta Tofani, "U. S. Won't List Most Beautiful Views," Washington Post, 26 October 1985.

23. Acknowledged in the survey the park staff filled out for the "State of the Parks Report 1980." See "Questionnaire: Threats to the Parks," unpublished MS, May 1980 (THRO-A), 3, 10.

24. Management Prescription for the Badlands Planning Unit, Little Missouri National Grasslands (Billings, MT: Custer National Forest, USFS, 1974), 50. The restrictions around the Elkhorn Unit were tougher: no off-road vehicle use, crop irrigation, or seismic prospecting—all of which were permissable in the buffer zones around the North and South units. Ibid., 43, 54, 56, 62, and 225; "Environmental Assessment: Elkhorn Unit Development," 14.

25. Management Prescription for the Badlands Planning Unit, 68; "1975 SFM," attached constraint maps. For the Department of the Interior's reaction to the buffer zone, see Stanley D. Doremus (Deputy Asst. Secretary of the Interior) to U. C. MacIntyre (Supervisor, Custer National Forest), memorandum, 12 August 1974, 1, in Addendum to the Management Prescription for the Badlands Planning Unit, Little Missouri National Grasslands (Billings, MT: Custer National Forest, USFS, m.d.).

26. See Robert W. Hammer (District Ranger, Medora Ranger District, USFS) to Harvey D. Wickware (Supt., THRO), 3 August 1979 (THRO-A). Attached to this letter is another map showing a buffer zone around the park.

27. Ibid.

28. Wickware to Jerry B. Reese (District Ranger, Medora Ranger District, USFS), 26 May 1982 (THRO-A).

29. "NRM Plan," 35-36.

30. Wickware to Hamner, 12 May 1980 (THRO-S).

31. See "Star Light, Star Bright. . . . Night Sky Delights Park Visitors," Frontier Fragments 5 (1985- 86), unpaginated.

32. Cf. Wickware's comments published in the Dickinson Press, 24 February 1983, with the letter of Lowell J. Ridgeway (ND Petroleum Council) to Sen. Mark Andrews (ND), 21 March 1983 (THRO-A). The park keeps a log in which visitors can note instances of hydrogen sulfide odor: "Researchers and Visitors Monitor Park Air Quality," unpaginated.

33. Hydrogen sulfide is first noticeable at concentrations of 150 g/m³ and decidedly noticeable at 500 g/m³: NPS Air and Water Quality Division, "Fact Sheet: Hydrogen Sulfide (H₂S) at Theodore Roosevelt National Park (THRO)," unpublished MS, 1983 (THRO-A), unpaginated.

34. Robert T. Angelo and Kurt W. Anderson, Western North Dakota Air Quality Study (Bismarck: NDSDH, 1981), 36-37.

35. "State Coordinator's Monthly Report," 30 March 1983. See also Dickinson Press, 24 February 1983; Wickware to the ND State Industrial Commission, 2 June 1980 (THRO-A); Lee C. Gerhard and Sidney B. Anderson, Oil Exploration and Development in the North Dakota Williston Basin, NDGS Miscellaneous Series #57 (Bismarck: NDGS, 1979), 16-17; "State Coordinator's Monthly Report," 2 February and 6 May 1983.

36. When the Forest Service drew up its master plan for the Little Missouri National Grasslands, it explicitly stated that energy development would mean the loss of some of the badlands' remoteness. See Management Prescription for the Badlands Planning Unit, 85.

37. Ibid., 131. See also "State Coordinator's Monthly Report," 5 September 1979.