Whtie Sands Administrative History

Beyond the monument's boundaries, the state of New Mexico added to the pressure for quick completion of the visitors center and headquarters compound. More claimants like Eugene Stevens, of Batesville, Arkansas, surfaced to petition the state land office for mineral leases at White Sands, while Jack Guion of Los Angeles declared that his grandfather's and uncle's graves (which lay on monument property) entitled him to claim acreage around their plots. Then the state wanted to trade gypsum lands within the park for acreage outside; a situation that puzzled Tom Charles, who believed this issue had been resolved in 1932 when "Mr. Hinkle [then-state land commissioner] definitely committed the State to the policy of an immediate exchange." [57]

While the state land office sought closure on mineral and other lease claims, the New Mexico highway department threatened facility planning at White Sands by shifting the path of U. S. Highway 70. The old gravel road had run along the southeast face of the dunes, then turned eastward to Alamogordo. Because of fears of drifting, the state wanted to retain control of the roadway. Unfortunately, the new route would cross monument lands, and federal law prohibited expenditure of U. S. highway funds on such property. Either the NPS would have to pay for this section of road work, or the impoverished state of New Mexico would be liable. Given that scenario, the state preferred to reroute U.S. 70 altogether, designing the road due east from Las Cruces to the intersection with U.S. Highway 54 at Valmont, some ten miles south of the monument entrance. Hurried correspondence between NPS officials and the state revealed that federal money could indeed be expended. Governor Tingley, with an eye on the upcoming 1938 campaign, promised not only to get funding for the White Sands section of U.S. 70, but to have the entire route blacktopped; a situation that the politically astute Tom Charles called "'just before election' news." [58]

With vastly increased visitation, new transportation links, and completion in sight of the headquarters complex, White Sands then faced its most critical test of 1937: securing a more stable water supply than that available from shallow wells in the dunes, from the city of Alamogordo, or from Garton Lake. In the case of the dunes proper, Tom Charles had learned from a group of Hispanic laborers at the monument that "there used to be a spring of sweet water within two or three miles of headquarters." Since they could not establish its location, Carton Lake received NPS attention. Then in November 1936, the drilling rig operated by Kersey and Company fell into the Carton well, with retrieval and re-drilling costs set at prohibitive levels. As for the municipal supply at Alamogordo, the NPS brought water from town and stored it in a pressure tank for staff use only; visitors still had to carry their own. When asked if the town could sell a larger volume, which would be sent via pipeline to the dunes, the mayor replied: "At times our water is scarce." Frank Pinkley thus advised the Santa Fe regional office: "On an approximately equal basis, this office would much prefer to own its own water system." [59]

That source of water, the NPS hoped, would come from the mountain spring 12 miles east of the dunes owned by J.L. Lawson. First discovered by ranchers in 1850, the spring was diverted for extensive use in the 1880s by Oliver Lee. In 1907 the territorial legislature of New Mexico, as part of its efforts to achieve statehood, created the office of territorial engineer, among whose duties was identification of all water rights claims. Because the 1907 law did not extend to "domestic" use (including stock raising), the Lee claim in Dog Canyon transferred in 1910 to Judge Lawson, who also received 440 acres for the hefty sum of $10,000. Lawson, whom NPS attorney Albert Johnson described as "a lawyer of Alamogordo who was inimical to the Government," supposedly in a fit of pique offered to sell Dog Canyon and its water for $2,500; a deal that federal officials pursued secretly so as not to alarm other landowners or boost the sales price. The NPS sent Charles and attorney Johnson to negotiate the sale, paying Lawson $3,000 for an option on his land and water. Then a park service contract examiner, Prentice Lackey, discovered that Lawson had paid the state land office only $66 of a total of $1,320 for title to public acreage in Dog Canyon. Until the remainder was paid to the state, the park service could not begin construction of an estimated $63,000 pipeline project to carry Dog Canyon water to the monument. [60]

Figure 15. Adobe style of construction of New Deal Agency work crews (1930s).
(Courtesy White Sands National Monument)