Chapter 11:
Congressional Relations: Official and Personal
LEGISLATIVE COMMITTEES
There are hundreds of bills introduced in every
session of Congress that if enacted would establish additional
activities, effect changes in policies, or introduce new controls or
regulations that might affect an agency either directly or indirectly.
The legislative committee that handles National Park Service bills in
the House is called the Public Lands Committee and in the Senate is
called the Interior and Insular Affairs Committee. The committees hold
hearings, and the agencies affected are required to submit reports and
to provide witnesses to testify and answer questions from committee
members. The public is usually invited, and individuals are given an
opportunity to make statements or submit reports on behalf of themselves
or as representatives of organizations. Presentations to legislative
committees become difficult at timeseven disastrous. Both the
legislative and appropriations committees meet in executive session
after hearings and make their decisions, commonly referred to as
"marking up the bill," after which the staff prepares the reports. At
times there are strong disagreements within the committee, and when that
happens both majority and minority reports are prepared and find their
way to the floor of the House or Senate.
When we started Mission 66 we had several pieces of
legislation we wanted enacted that would have helped us or at least
cleared up any doubts as to our legal rights. One of these would have
let us spend some of our money to build facilities (campgrounds and
maintenance facilities, for example) on federal lands outside the parks,
provided the administering agency involved agreed, in order to avoid
encroaching on scenic areas of the national parks. We prepared bills and
they were introduced, but try as we might they were never called up for
hearings. Consequently we did the best we could without them. In 1962 at
one of the hearings before the Public Lands Committee of the House, we
were asked what right we had to move certain government facilities out
of a park even though they were put on federally owned land. The member
asking the question stated that the legislation to authorize such action
had not been acted upon by the committee. We told him that our legal
adviser in the solicitor's office had indicated that if the federal
agency that had jurisdiction over the site was agreeable and we had
justified the appropriation adequately before the Appropriations
Committee, the question of basic legislation was purely academic and we
could proceed without it. Apparently the answer was satisfactory,
because nothing further was said.
House Public Lands Committees
|
Congress |
|
Chairman, Majority Leader |
Ranking Minority Leader |
|
70th | 1927 1928 | Nicholas J. Sinnott Addison T. Smith | Oregon Idaho |
John M. Evans " | Montana " |
71st | 1929-30 | Don B. Colton | Utah |
" | " |
72d | 1931-32 | John M. Evans | Montana |
Don B. Colton | Utah |
73d | 1933-34 | René L. DeRouen | Louisiana |
Harry L. Englebright | California |
74th | 1935-36 | " | " |
" | " |
75th | 1937-38 | " | " |
" | " |
76th | 1939-40 | " | " |
" | " |
77th | 1941-42 | J. W. Robinson | Utah |
" | " |
78th | 1943 1944 | " J. Hardin Peterson | " Florida |
" James W. Mott | " Oregon |
79th | 1945-46 | " | " |
Karl M. LeCompte | Iowa |
80th | 1947-48 | Richard J. Welch | California |
Andrew L. Somers | New York |
81st | 1949 1950 | Andrew L. Somers J. Hardin Peterson | New York Florida |
Richard J. Welch Fred L. Crawford | California Michigan |
82d | 1951-52 | jJohn R. Murdock | Arizona |
" | " |
83d | 1953-54 | A. L. Miller | Nebraska |
Clair Engle | California |
84th | 1955-56 | Clair Engle | California |
A. L. Miller | Nebraska |
85th | 1957-58 | " | " |
" | " |
86th | 1959-60 | Wayne N. Aspinall | Colorado |
John P. Saylor | Pennsylvania |
87th | 1961-62 | " | " |
" | " |
88th | 1963-64 | " | " |
" | " |
89th | 1965-66 | " | " |
" | " |
90th | 1967-68 | " | " |
" | " |
91st | 1969-70 | " | " |
" | " |
92d | 1971-72 | " | " |
" | " |
93d | 1973 | James A. Haley | Florida |
" | " |
|
THE HOUSE PUBLIC LANDS COMMITTEE
When appearing before committes of Congress,
especially the legislative committees, a few simple, reasonable things
should be borne in mind: (1) Develop the attitude that if they give of
their time to consider your legislation you, the bureau chief should be
glad to testify. (2) Don't try to play party politics, especially if you
are a career civil servant. Let the politicians do that. You want all of
their votes regardless of party affiliation. (3) Don't overdo it, but
show your appreciation for their consideration of your problems. (4)
Learn as much as you can about all of your committee members. (5) Be
factual and forthright in your presentations and in your answers to
their questions. (6) Get to know the committee staff members and avoid
running around their ends. (7) Last but very important, don't get
long-winded, and know enough to stop when you think you have the
necessary votes. You can usually get a reading on how things stand by
observing the chairman or the sponsor of the bill.
One of the first congressmen I got acquainted with
was a person I had known slightly in New Orleans in 1927. His name was
Rene L. DeRouen, and he was chairman of the House Public Lands
Committee. We had met when we were both members of the New Orleans Young
Men's Business Club. I will confess I never did like strong Louisiana
coffee, but every time I called on Rene, I had to have a cup. I took my
medicine like a man, and I really enjoyed being with him. He was
chairman up through the third session of the Seventy-sixth Congress in
1940. He held that position when the Historic Sites and the Park,
Parkway, and Recreational-Area Study acts went through Congress, and I
must not forget the act of August 10, 1937, that enlarged Chalmette
National Monument, in Louisiana, and gave it national historical park
status.
DeRouen was followed by J. W. Robinson, who was quiet
and soft spoken but determined and helpful. He was chairman for the two
years1943 and 1944of the Seventy-eighth Congress. Chairman
Robinson was followed by J. Hardin Peterson, of Florida, better known to
us as Congressman Pete. Congressman Pete and I became very good friends,
and he was a strong supporter of the national park system. We had
absolutely no differences on that score, and most anything we needed he
would work for.
In the twelve years from 1947 through 1958, there
were six different chairmen as shown on the chart on page 323.
Congressman Pete was back for one session in 1950. These gentlemen were
all fine people, always very considerate and interested. It was during
Clair Engle's chairmanship that we started Mission 66, although without
any basic legislation. While Congress may not have been opposed to the
legislation we sought, it did nothing about it, and even though we got
along without the legislation, it would have helped if Congress had
approved it.
Beginning with the Eighty-sixth Congress, in 1959,
through the Ninety-second Congress, which ended in December, 1972, the
chairman of the House Public Lands Committee was Wayne N. Aspinall, of
Colorado, with John P. Saylor, of Pennsylvania, as ranking minority
leader. The record of the committee during that period is outstanding
from a Park Service point of view. I don't recall a park bill reported
out of committee that ever failed to pass once it was called up in the
House for consideration. There was occasional criticism of the length of
time it took to get certain bills out of committee, but Wayne Aspinall
wanted to be sure that a clear majority of the committee was supporting
a bill by the time it got to the floor of the House, and he would keep
his bills in hearings until he was sure of that advantage. Certainly he
encountered serious opposition to some bills; he even had to accept some
amendments from the floor. But be that as it may, they got through. The
record was so overwhelming that I obtained the following list of the
major bills related to park matters that were enacted during Aspinall's
chairmanship. Many of these acts of Congress provided new units to the
park system, and the rest concerned such things as boundary adjustments,
and policy and administrative matters. By far the majority of these acts
were the result of studies carried out during Mission 66 under the
general supervision of the Branch of Lands headed by Ben Thompson and by
Ted Swen after Ben's retirement. Long as this list is, I know that it is
not complete.
Eighty-Fifth Congress 1957-1958 |
Fort Clatsop National Memorial | Oregon |
General Grant National Memorial | New York |
Grand Portage National Monument | Minnesota |
Independence National Historical Park | Pennsylvania |
Cowpens National Battlefield Site | South Carolina |
Eighty-Sixth Congress 1959-1960 |
Arkansas Post National Memorial | Arkansas |
Bent's Old Fort National Historic Site | Colorado |
Haleakala National Park | Hawaii |
Minute Man National Historical Park | Massachusetts |
Wilson's Creek National Battlefield | Missouri |
Eighty-Seventh Congress 1961-1962 |
Cape Cod National Seashore | Massachusetts |
Point Reyes National Seashore | California |
Padre Island National Seashore | Texas |
Fort Davis National Historic Site | Texas |
Fort Smith National Historic Site | Arkansas and Oklahoma |
The White House | District of Columbia |
Piscataway Park | Maryland |
Lincoln Boyhood National Memorial | Indiana |
Hamilton Grange National Memorial | New York |
Theodore Roosevelt Birthplace and Sagamore Hill National Historical Site | New York |
Frederick Douglas Home | District of Columbia |
Eighty-Eighth Congress 1963-1964 |
Ozark National Scenic Riverways | Missouri |
Fire Island National Seashore | New York |
Canyonlands National Park | Utah |
Lake Mead National Recreation Area | Arizona and Nevada |
Fort Bowie National Historic Site | Arizona |
John Muir National Historic Site | California |
Fort Larned National Historic Site | Kansas |
Saint Gaudens National Historic Site | New Hampshire |
Allegheny Portage Railroad National Historic Site | Pennsylvania |
Johnstown Flood National Memorial | Pennsylvania |
Roosevelt Campobello International Park | New Brunswick, Canada |
Ice Age National Scientific Reserve | Wisconsin |
Eighty-Ninth Congress 1965-1966 |
Delaware Water Gap National Recreation Area | Pennsylvania and New Jersey |
Assateague Island National Seashore | Maryland and Virginia |
Whiskeytown-Shasta-Trinity National Recreation Area | California |
Cape Lookout National Seashore | North Carolina |
Bighorn Canyon National Recreation Area | Montana and Wyoming |
Guadalupe Mountains National Park | Texas |
Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore | Michigan |
Wolf Trap Farm for the Performing Arts | Virginia |
Indiana Dunes National Lakeshore | Indiana |
Agate Fossil Beds National Monument | Nebraska |
Pecos National Monument | New Mexico |
Alibates Flint Quarries and Texas Panhandle Pueblo Culture National Monument | Texas |
Nez Perce National Historical Park | Idaho |
George Rogers Clark National Historical Park | Indiana |
San Juan Island National Historic Park | Washington |
Golden Spike National Historic Site | Utah |
Herbert Hoover National Historic Site | Iowa |
Hubbell Trading Post National Historic Site | Arizona |
Roger Williams National Memorial | Rhode Island |
Chamizal National Memorial | Texas |
Fort Union Trading Post National Historic Site | North Dakota and Montana |
Ninetieth Congress 1967-1968 |
Redwood National Park | California |
North Cascades National Park | Washington |
Ross National Recreation Area | Washington |
Lake Chelan National Recreation Area | Washington |
Biscayne National Monument | Florida |
John Fitzgerald Kennedy National Historic Site | Massachusetts |
Saugus Iron Works National Historic Site | Massachusetts |
Carl Sandburg Home National Historic Site | North Carolina |
Nintey-First Congress 1969-1970 |
Voyageurs National Park | Minnesota |
Florissant Fossil Beds National Monument | Colorado |
Chesapeake and Ohio Canal National Historic Park | Maryland |
Apostle Islands National Lakeshore | Wisconsin |
Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore | Michigan |
Gulf Island National Seashore | Mississippi and Florida |
William Howard Taft National Historic Site | Ohio |
Eisenhower National Historic Site | Pennsylvania |
Lyndon B. Johnson National Historic Site | Texas |
Fort Point National Historic Site | California |
Andersonville National Historic Site | Georgia |
Ninety-Second Congress 1971-1972 |
Fossil Butte National Monument | Wyoming |
Hohokam Pima National Monument | Arizona |
Buffalo National River | Arkansas |
Cumberland Island National Seashore | Georgia |
Golden Gate National Recreation Area | California |
Gateway National Recreation Area | New York and New Jersey |
Glen Canyon National Recreation Area | Utah and Arizona |
Lower Saint Croix National Scenic River | Wisconsin and Minnesota |
Lincoln Home National Historic Site | Illinois |
Puukohola Heiau National Historic Site | Hawaii |
Grant-Kohrs Ranch National Historic Site | Montana |
Longfellow National Historic Site | Massachusetts |
Mar-A-Lago National Historic Site | Florida |
Thaddeus Kosciuszko Home National Memorial | Pennsylvania |
Benjamin Franklin National Memorial | Pennsylvania |
John D. Rockefeller, Jr., Memorial Parkway | Wyoming |
I know that Aspinall and committee Minority Leader
John Saylor worked together on park legislation. They both thought
highly of the National Park Service and tried to help it in every way
they could because they felt that the preservation and interpretation of
our natural and historic heritage for the use and enjoyment of the
people was one thing the nation needed if it was to remain sound and
prosper. True, they would not hesitate to let us know if they felt we
were doing something they thought was not right. The nation and the
service owe them and their committee a great debt of gratitude.
I'm placing special emphasis on these two men,
especially the chairman, for several reasons. As will be noted, I have
included in the list of bills not their numbers but the areas or subject
matter involved and the location by state if applicable. On that list is
a bill that radically changed the procedure in developing the national
park system. This bill, which became the act of the Eighty-seventh
Congress, established Cape Cod National Seashore and
authorized sixteen million dollars for purchase of the lands, thus
creating the new policy of acquiring park lands by government purchase.
Under the chairmanship of Wayne Aspinall the Land and Water Bill also
became law. That act provides funds for land acquisition for the
national park system as well as for conservation measures administered
by other federal agencies. It alsoand this is very
importantprovides funds to aid the planning, purchase, and
development of parks and recreation areas for state and metropolitan
park systems. The funds available for these purposes now amount to
hundreds of millions of dollars a year. The act establishing the Bureau
of Outdoor Recreation to administer these funds and to see that
comprehensive planning is undertaken before the funds are allocated also
came out of Wayne's committee. It should be noted that both Wayne
Aspinall and John Saylor were members of the Outdoor Recreation
Resources Review Committee that Laurance Rockefeller chaired and that
recommended the establishment of the BOR. Also not mentioned in the
list is passage of the Wilderness Act, a most important piece of
legislation affecting all landholding agencies of the government,
including the National Park Service.
Wayne Aspinall had served as an assistant to
Representative Edward T. Taylor, of Colorado, and he later represented
Taylor's old district in Congress. Toward the end of Aspinall's service
in Congress the district was extended to include some heavily populated
areas in northeastern Colorado, and Wayne was defeated in the primaries
by an individual from the urban areas who in turn was defeated in the
final election in 1974. I know that some special interest groups outside
Wayne's congressional district exerted considerable pressure to defeat
him, and I'm sorry to say that one of those special interest groups is
called conservationist. Certainly there were some things that Wayne
Aspinall and his committee did that I objected to, but in my opinion and
in the opinion of many others Aspinall, John Saylor, and their committee
deserve a place of high honor for their accomplishments in providing
for the conservation of our heritage, both natural and historic, and in
extending to all levels of government financial and other authorization
to develop adequate park and recreation facilities for all people. I am
convinced that those who believe in sound, practical conservation and
yet voted against Wayne or urged others to vote against him never
examined the record.
From a legislative standpoint many people believe
that the Wilderness Act, the Cape Cod Act, the Bureau of Outdoor
Recreation Act, and the Land and Water Act stand shoulder to shoulder
with the Yellowstone National Park Act, the Antiquities Act, the
National Park Service Act, the Historic Sites Act, and the Park,
Parkway, and Recreational-Area Study Act. They are equally important to
the development of a cooperative national system of parks, historic
sites, and recreation areas at all levels of government for the people
to enjoy and pass on to those who follow.
THE SENATE INTERIOR AND INSULAR AFFAIRS COMMITTEE
From the Seventieth through the Seventy-ninth
congresses (1927-46), the Senate Interior and Insular Affairs Committee
was called the Public Lands and Surveys Committee. One of our strong
supporters in the Senate, Gerald P. Nye from North Dakota, was chairman
of that committee through the Seventy-second Congress of 1931-32.
Like Louis Cramton on the House Appropriations Committee, Nye was a
social friend as well as a sound adviser to the Park Service on
legislative matters.
With the advent of the New Deal on March 4, 1933, the
Republicans became the minority party and the Democrats took over the
chairmanship of the various committees of the Senate. Senator John B.
Kendrick, from Wyoming, became chairman of the Public Lands and Surveys
Committee at the beginning of the first session of the Seventy-third
Congress on March 9. (This session is covered fully in Chapter 4.) The
second session began on January 3, 1934, and at that time Key Pittman,
of Nevada, became chairman of the committee and was followed on May 4,
1934, by Robert F. Wagner, of New York. The record shows that Wagner was
the only man, either Republican or Democrat, on the committee from east
of the Mississippi River. His chairmanship therefore presented a
somewhat odd situation, because the Public Lands and Surveys Committee
at that time was primarily concerned with the great masses of western
lands belonging to the federal government. During the period beginning
with the Seventy-third Congress in 1933 and ending with the
Seventy-fourth Congress in 1936, Senator Peter Norbeck, of South Dakota,
was the minority leader on the committee. He was a strong supporter of
state and national parks. The Historic Sites Act of 1935 and the Park,
Parkway, and Recreational-Area Study Act of 1936 were products of this
period.
Senate Interior and Insular Affairs Committee
|
Congress |
|
Chairman, Majority Leader |
Ranking Minority Leader |
|
70th | 1927-1928 | Gerald P. Nye | North Dakota |
Key Pittman | Nevada |
71st | 1929-30 | " | " |
" | " |
72d | 1931-32 | " | " |
" | " |
73d | 1933
1934 | John B. Kendrick Key Pittman Robert F. Wagner | Wyoming Nevada New York |
Peter Norbeck " " | South Dakota " " |
74th | 1935-36 | " | " |
" | " |
75th | 1937-38 | Alva B. Adams | Colorado |
Gerald P. Nye | North Dakota |
76th | 1939-40 | " | " |
" | " |
77th | 1941 1942 | " Carl A. Hatch | " New Mexico |
" " | " " |
78th | 1943-1944 | " | " |
" | " |
79th | 1945-46 | " | " |
Chan Gurney | South Dakota |
80th | 1947-48 | Hugh Butler | Nebraska |
Carl A. Hatch | South Dakota |
81st | 1949-1950 | Joseph C. O'Mahoney | Wyoming |
Hugh Butler | Nebraska |
82d | 1951-52 | " | " |
" | " |
83d | 1953-54 | Hugh Butler | Nebraska |
James E. Murray | Montana |
84th | 1955-56 | James E. Murray | Montana |
Eugene D. Milikan | Colorado |
85th | 1957-58 | " | " |
George W. Malone | Nevada |
86th | 1959-60 | " | " |
Henry C. Dworshak | Idaho |
87th | 1961-62 | Clinton P. Anderson | New Mexico |
" | " |
88th | 1963-64 | Henry M. Jackson | Washington |
Thomas H. Kuchel | Colorado |
89th | 1965-66 | " | " |
" | " |
90th | 1967-68 | " | " |
" | " |
91st | 1969-70 | " | " |
Gordon Allott | Colorado |
92d | 1971-72 | " | " |
" | " |
93d | 1973 | " | " |
Paul J. Fannin | Arizona |
|
Senator Alva Adams, of Colorado, was chairman during
the Seventy-fifth and Seventy-sixth congresses and in the first session
of the Seventy-seventh. In the second session of the Seventy-seventh
Carl A. Hatch, of New Mexico, took over and carried on through the
Seventy-eighth and Seventy-ninth congresses. And that takes us through
1946. There is little I can say about the Senate committee during this
period as my duties were directed to other matters. In the first session
of the Eightieth Congress, in 1947, the committee's name was changed to
Public Lands Committee; but in the second session, in 1948, it was
given its present name, the Committee on Interior and Insular
Affairs.
Starting with the Eighty-first Congress in January,
1949, Joe O'Mahoney, of Wyoming, became chairman of the Interior and
Insular Affairs Committee and continued in that position until the end
of the Eighty-second Congress in 1952. During Joe's chairmanship, and
Representative J. Hardin Peterson's chairmanship in the House, one of
the real gems of the national park system, Grand Teton National Park, in
Wyoming, was extended and established as it now exists. Its completion
climaxed an effort that was started before the turn of the century but
that really began to take shape in 1929. It involved two acts of
Congress, a presidential proclamation, a lawsuit, and more hearings than
I care to try to count.
Ronald F. Lee summarized the Grand Teton story in his
booklet Family Tree of the National Park System:
Jackson Hole had been talked of as a possible
addition to Yellowstone as early as 1892, and from 1916 onward the
Service and Department actively sought its preservation in the National
Park System. . . . It was John D. Rockefeller, Jr., however, who rescued
Jackson Hole for the nation after a visit in 1926 left him distressed at
cheap commercial developments on private lands in the midst of
superlative natural beautydance halls, hot dog stands, filling
stations, rodeo grand stands, and billboards in the foreground of the
incomparable view of the Teton Range.
Rockefeller began a land acquisition program, which
he offered as a gift to the United States. Meanwhile, however, bitter
opposition developed among cattlemen, dude ranchers, packers, hunters,
timber interests, and local Forest Service officials who preferred
livestock ranches or forest crops to a National Park, county officials
who feared loss of taxes, and members of the Wyoming State
administration who were politically concerned. When no park legislation
had been enacted by 1943, Rockefeller indicated he might not be
justified in holding his property, on which he paid annual taxes, much
longer. President Roosevelt decided to act and on March 15, 1943,
proclaimed the Jackson Hole National Monument, consolidating 33,000
acres donated by Rockefeller and 179,000 acres withdrawn from Teton
National Forest into a single area adjoining Grand Teton National
Park.
Roosevelt's proclamation unleashed a storm of
criticism which had been brewing for years among western members of
Congress. Rep. Frank A. Barrett of Wyoming and others introduced bills
to abolish the monument and to repeal Section 2 of the Antiquities Act
containing the President's authority to proclaim National Monuments. A
bill to abolish the monument passed Congress in 1944 but was vetoed by
President Roosevelt who pointed out in an eloquent message that
Presidents of both political parties, beginning with Theodore Roosevelt,
had established ample precedents by proclaiming 82 National Monuments,
seven of which were larger than Jackson Hole. The proclamation was
nevertheless also contested in court, where it was strongly defended by
the Departments of Justice and Interior and upheld. Finally, a
compromise was worked out and embodied in legislation approved by
President Harry S. Truman on September 14, 1950. It combined Jackson
Hole National Monument and the old Grand Teton National Park in a "new
Grand Teton National Park" containing some 298,000 acres, with special
provisions regarding taxes and hunting. It also prohibited establishing
or enlarging National Parks in Wyoming in the future except by express
authorization of Congress.
During the summer of 1950 while hearings were being
held on the park act, Congressman Pete and Senator Joe O'Mahoney decided
to conduct a joint meeting of the House and Senate committees in the
area to examine the whole matter and listen very carefully to the pros
and cons. As the Park Service's assistant director in charge of lands, I
was asked by the two chairmen to arrange for them to meet in Yellowstone
and then go to the Grand Tetons by automobile. They wanted seating
arranged so that there would be one person for the park and one against
the park in each car with a member of the committee. Congressman Pete
suggested I get in touch with Representative Frank A. Barrett, from
Wyoming, who was on the Public Lands Committee and against the park, and
get from him a list of people who should represent the opposition.
When a date for the field meeting was set by the two
chairmen, I called Frank Barrett. I told him I was going out there at
least a day in advance to work out the itinerary. I hadn't quite
finished my statement when Barrett proceeded to take me over the coals,
informing me in no uncertain terms that I shouldn't go, that people were
so angry out there that somebody was liable to be crazy enough to shoot
me. I replied that I didn't think I'd get shot, and anyway I'd been
asked to go by the chairmen of the House and Senate committees. He
bluntly told me he wasn't going to take part in it. The next day,
however, he called back. He had cooled off and gave me the names of four
people who would represent the opponents.
The controversy over the park was a real hornet's
nest, and the expedition of the congressional committees to the site was
not without incident. As we came out of Old Faithful Inn to set out for
the Grand Tetons, a car drove up, jammed to a halt, and out came Frank
Barrett and another opponent, Felix Buchenroth. Barrett rushed up to me
and shook his fist in my face, accusing me of trying to run the state of
Wyoming. The discussion got a little loud and almost to a pushing stage.
The boisterous argument attracted some of the park visitors, and a crowd
started forming. Congressman Pete helped break it up and ushered us to
our assigned cars.
One of our scheduled stops was an excellent vantage
point on Antelope Flat, where we viewed the whole Grand Teton Mountain
range to the west, with the Snake River winding its way through Jackson
Hole in the foreground after coming around Signal Peak in the north and
disappearing some eight miles south near the settlement of Moran. It was
a beautiful day and a strikingly beautiful view. We had a geologist from
the University of Wyoming with us to tell about the geology of the
country. The geologist gave a very fine talk, lasting perhaps ten
minutes, in which he spoke of the geological faults and hence the uplift
of the Teton Mountains and the sinking of Jackson Hole. But he happened
to oppose the park and concluded by saying, "So you see, gentlemen, the
land we're standing on really has no scenic value. The only scenery is
the mountains, and if you take them away you don't have anything." With
that Congressman Pete piped up and said, "If you're going to get rid of
those mountains send them down to Florida where we can use them."
Everybody laughed as we moved on to the next point of observation.
We ended the day at the theater in Jackson, where a
public hearing had been arranged. The theater was full of people, and
there was a lot of hooting and hollering. The opposition had a large
turnout and was making the noise. But all the hearings on Jackson Hole
National Monument were difficult. It seemed that most of the local
people wanted the monument abolished. It had been cattle country for
years, elk-hunting country always, and they wanted to keep it that way,
the opponents contended. On the other side, the scenery in the
TetonJackson Hole country is tremendous and it belongs to all the
people, the proponents countered. I think it was one of the most
clear-cut divisions of opinion I have witnessed in any of the proposed
national park hearings I've been through.
Several interesting things happened while Grand Teton
National Monument was in existence between March 15, 1943, and
September 14, 1950, when the national park was extended to include the
monument. In order to ridicule the monument's historic values, which
constituted some of the justification for the presidential proclamation
that established the monument, someone got an old outhouse and put a
sign on it that read, "Horace Albright was here." They then took
pictures of it and printed post cards and gave them fairly wide
distribution. Opponents to the monument also got the famous old movie
star Wallace Beery to ride a horse across the monument with a rifle in
his arms, supposedly in defiance of the Park Service rangers. This stunt
made the pages of Time magazine. Of course, there were no rangers
on duty because Congress refused to appropriate any funds for the
monument, and the service could not spend any funds or assign any
personnel there until the monument was abolished and the land made a
part of Grand Teton National Park. In one of my later conversations with
Felix Buchenroth I told him I understood Wallace Beery had to use a
stepladder to get on the horse, and I thought it would be a good idea
for them to donate the ladder to the Park Service so we could put it on
display in our visitor center. I laughed, and he looked at me with a
scowl on his face and then broke into a grin.
Senator Cliff Hansen was one of the opposition's most
articulate leaders. A cattle rancher during the park extension
controversy between 1943 and 1950, he became governor of Wyoming for
four years before he went to Washington as senator in January, 1967.
When he was governor he was given a luncheon in New York by officials of
several large oil companies, to which Laurance Rockefeller, Kenneth
Chorley, a close associate both of Laurance and of John D. Rockefeller,
Jr., and I were invited at his request. On that occasion he said: "I
fought against the establishment of the Grand Teton National Park as
hard as I could and I lost and I want you all to know that I'm glad I
lost, because I now know I was wrong. Grand Teton National Park is one
of the greatest natural heritages of Wyoming and the nation and one of
our great assets." He then thanked us for what we had done, especially
Laurance and his father, John D. Rockefeller, Jr.
Looking back at the long struggle that beset the
establishment of Grand Teton National Park, I can appreciate how the
local people felt. They had settled in that country and developed a
cattle business, holding on to a little of the Old West for the benefit
of visitors. A change was taking placea big changeand all
they could envision was harm to their livelihood. I think we all learned
something from the Jackson Hole experience. I'm glad to say the Park
Service's relationship with the people in Teton County is very good. The
adjustment made in the legislation seems to have satisfied all points of
view to a reasonable degree.
The Republicans became the majority party in the
Senate at the start of the Eighty-third Congress in 1953 when President
Dwight D. Eisenhower took office. Senator Hugh Butler, of Nebraska,
became chairman of the Interior and Insular Affairs Committee. I was
director at that time, and we were still under the pressures of the cold
war. Our efforts were directed largely toward increased appropriations
to build up our maintenance organization in the parks, for they were
seriously understaffed. By the Eighty-fourth Congress, in 1955, the
Democrats again became the majority party in the Senate. James E.
Murray, of Montana, became chairman and served through to the end of the
Eighty-sixth Congress, in 1960. The Eighty-sixth was the same Congress
in which Wayne Aspinall, from Colorado, took over the chairmanship of
the House Public Lands Committee. At that time Mission 66 had completed
many of its field studies of proposed new units, the bills were
formulated and submitted to Congress, and five new units were added to
the national park system. In the Eighty-seventh Congress another twelve
were added, and then the number began to increase rapidly. At the
beginning of the Eighty-seventh, Senator Clinton P. Anderson, of New
Mexico, became chairman for two sessions of that Congress. In 1963, in
the Eighty-eighth Congress, the chairmanship went to Henry M. Jackson,
better known to many of us as "Scoop" Jackson, for the state of
Washington. Senators Murray, Anderson, and Jackson were always very
considerate of our needs and worked very closely with Chairman Aspinall
on park matters. Senator Murray was not in very good health, however,
and retired after the Eighty-sixth Congress.
The Interior and Insular Affairs Committee had
several subcommittees, one of which handled national park matters, and
we dealt primarily with the chairmen of the subcommittees. Among them
were Henry (Scoop) Jackson, Alan Bible, of Nevada, and Frank (Ted) Moss,
of Utah. They were all very much interested in the parks and helped
greatly. Although I retired on January 7, 1964, the big influx of
proposed legislation to add new parks to the system resulting from
studies made during Mission 66 lasted some six or seven years beyond the
end of Mission 66. I'm glad to say that after Mission 66 the Park
Service continued with further studies in an effort to assure that the
great heritage of natural and historic areas of this nation will be
accorded the stature and given the protection they deserve.
|