Cultures at a Crossroads : An administrative history of Pipe Spring National Monument

856 Pages·2000·68.5 MB·English

by  McKoy, K.

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Cultures at a Crossroads
An Administrative History of
Pipe Spring National Monument
Kathleen L. McKoy
CULTURAL RESOURCES SELECTIONS
NO. 15
Intermountain Region
2000
National Park Service
Cover photograph
Pipe Spring fort and ponds, about 1928
(Courtesy Union Pacific Museum, image 40253)
Cultures at a Crossroads
An Administrative History of
Pipe Spring National Monument
Kathleen L. McKoy
U.S. Department of the Interior
National Park Service
Intermountain Region
Denver, Colorado
2000
Digitized by the Internet Archive
in 2012 with funding from
LYRASIS Members and Sloan Foundation
http://archive.org/details/culturesatcrossr002000
Foreword
As part of the National Park Service mission to protect and interpret its resources, it is
important to make valuable, historical information readily available. Therefore, I am
pleased to present this volume in our occasional series of publications on the
Intermountain Region's past.
This study, prepared by National Park Service Historian Kathleen L. McKoy, provides a
comprehensive history of Pipe Spring National Monument's administration, from its
creation in 1923 to 1990. It is concerned with the people and events that played a role in
the establishment of the monument as well as its subsequent administration. The study will
aid both current and future monument managers in protecting the monument and
interpreting it t o the public.
Karen P. Wade
Regional Director
Intermountain Region
Mission: As the nation's principal conservation agency, the Department of the Interior has
responsibility for most of our nationally owned public lands and natural and cultural
resources. This includes fostering wise use of our land and water resources, protecting our
fish and wildlife, preserving the environmental and cultural values of our national parks
and historical places, and providing for the enjoyment of life through outdoor recreation.
The Department assesses our energy and mineral resources and works to assure that their
development is in the best interests of all our people. The Department also promotes the
goals of the Take Pride in America campaign by encouraging stewardship and citizen
responsibility for the public lands and promoting citizen participation in their care. The
Department also has a major responsibility for American Indian reservation communities
and for people who live in Island Territories under the U.S. Administration.
NPS-D-18. hi

Preface
Purpose
This administrative history is primarily intended to provide monument managers with a
better understanding of the complex issues underlying both the creation and subsequent
administration of Pipe Spring National Monument. The study will also provide support
staff working in the areas of resource management, interpretation, and maintenance with
useful and accurate information to assist them in understanding how past events and
decisions have impacted their areas of responsibility. The assumption underlying all
administrative histories of National Park Service units is that through examining the
problems their predecessors faced and the courses they followed, officials at all levels can
be better informed about current issues and thus bring greater awareness to future
management decisions.
The need for this study was identified in mid-November 1994 during an on-site meeting
between members of the Rocky Mountain Region's cultural resources management team,
led by Historical Architect Rodd Wheaton, and staff of Pipe Spring National Monument
and Zion National Park. Superintendent John W. Hiscock had supervised the monument
for only six months when the team responded to his request for technical assistance.
Hiscock asked those assembled at this meeting to consider the question, what were the
monument's most pressing cultural resource management needs and what would it take
to address those needs? An ethnographic study of Zion National Park and Pipe Spring
National Monument was already in progress. It was agreed at the time that, after a
resource management plan, the next two most critical studies needed were a cultural
landscape assessment and an administrative history. It was acknowledged that oral
histories were also an important "mother lode" of information that had only partly been
mined by past monument historians and few of those interviews had ever been
transcribed.
Format and Organization
In researching and writing this study, I endeavored to gather and present information
that would not only fulfill the requirements of an administrative history but that would
also be useful to the monument in future studies, particularly those identified at the
1994 meeting. For example, this history documents the monument's efforts over the
years to create a historic house museum, which may be useful to a future historic
furnishings report; a chronology of past restoration and rehabilitation work on the
monument's historic buildings will be equally essential to a historic structures report.
(The drawback to such an approach, of course, is that in trying to create such an "all-
purpose" document, far more detail is included than the average reader cares to wade
through!) In the same vein, a coordinated approach was taken by monument
management both in the timing and requests for funding and in the undertaking of a
number of needed studies, contemporaneous with the administrative history project. All
of the monument's documents were searched and assessed for pertinence; those
determined of historical value were organized and archived. Thirteen oral history
interviews (conducted by monument staff between 1973 and 1989) were transcribed in
1996; another 14 interviews were conducted in 1996 and 1997, eight of which were with
members of the Kaibab Paiute Tribe. All of these interviews provided much useful
information. Moreover, data collected in 1997 to inventory and evaluate the monument's
cultural landscape was also used and expanded on in the administrative history. This
"layering" of projects was highly effective, both from a standpoint of funding and in
increasing the amount of historical data which could be gathered.
While there was initial discussion about writing the monument's history using a thematic
framework (having separate issue chapters on interpretation, tribal relations, and water
matters, for example), it soon became apparent that a chronological format was a more
appropriate and useful way to tell the Pipe Spring story. This is primarily due to the
continually overlapping nature and complexity of monument issues. Beginning with Part
IV, each chapter has an introductory section; most provide a historical context for the time
period along with descriptions of changes in officials from the Washington, D.C., to the
local levels. Most introductions offer a quick "snap shot" of the years covered in the
chapter, highlighting the most significant events.
No existing historical or ethnographic studies adequately provided a background for the
types of research questions being asked in this study. While a small number of articles and
booklets have been published about Pipe Spring's early history, my research revealed that
a significant amount of error and contradiction existed in these secondary sources.
Realizing that some of what I p resented in Part I w ould not be in keeping with some other
histories in use at the monument, I took great care to endnote source material. Not all
questions about the site's early history have been definitively settled. Additional research
into 19th century documents may yield more answers, but was far outside the scope of this
administrative history.
One thing became apparent as soon as I d elved deeply into the history of the monument,
and that is that one could not comprehend its history or appreciate the complexity of
controversial matters - particularly about water - without at least a general understanding
of the history of the two neighboring communities: the Kaibab Indian Reservation and the
Mormon settlement of Moccasin. While it w as beyond the scope of this study to chronicle
a complete history of either of those communities, references to them continually surfaced
in monument documents, some of which is included in this history. Part I contains
background information about the Kaibab Indian Reservation and Moccasin to facilitate
the reader's understanding of later events. This study provides only scattered references,
however, to economic and social conditions among these communities after the Great
Depression. As those communities research and compile their own histories, the Pipe
Spring story can only grow richer.
The history of the monument's establishment is prefaced with a description of its setting
and with historical and ethnographical background en the Arizona Strip. From that point
VI
onward, the history is written predominantly in chronological fashion through World War
II. Beginning with the chapter on the Cold War (Part VIII) the chronological style is
continued, but section headings tend to assume a more predictable format, allowing the
reader to target specific information from one chapter to the next with relative ease. This
style of organization, along with the index and an electronic version of this document, will
enable monument staff to quickly computer-search subject areas and generate
comprehensive reports on various sub-topics of the monument's history.
Sources
Research for this administrative history relied heavily on primary federal government
documents from the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA), especially
Records of the National Park Service, Record Group 79. Documents were also located in
the NARA's Records of the Office of the Secretary of the Interior, Record Group 48, and
from Records of the Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA), Record Group 75. Documentation on
the Division of Grazing 's C ivilian Conservation Corps (CCC) Camp DG-44 was primarily
obtained from NARA's Records of the CCC, Record Group 35, and from monument
archives. Other Park Service records and official correspondence were obtained primarily
from the archives and administrative files of Pipe Spring National Monument and Zion
National Park.
In addition to these sources, documents critical to the understanding of the
history of the Kaibab Indian Reservation and its relations to the monument
came from one regional office and two field stations of the BIA, listed below.
Most documents related to the history of the Union Pacific's tours of and
development in southern Utah and northern Arizona parks came from the Union
Pacific Museum's archives in Omaha, Nebraska. Oral histories were also an
important source of information. Oral history interviews were conducted with
former superintendents (both of Pipe Spring and Zion), former interpreters and
other monument staff, local cattlemen, Kaibab Paiute, and others. Maps, plans,
and construction drawings were particularly helpful in reconstructing the
history of monument developments and changes to the landscape (see Appendix
XII for a list of these documents). Historical photographs were also useful in
that regard.
The following is a comprehensive list by state of archives and libraries visited by either
Historian Mary S. Culpin and/or myself in the course of research:
Arizona: Bureau of Indian Affairs, Western Regional Office, Branch of Real Estate
Services and Branch of Land and Water Resources (Water Rights Protection
Section), Phoenix; Hayden Library, Archives and Manuscripts, Arizona State
University, Tempe; Northern Arizona University, Cline Library, Special
Collections and Archives Department, Flagstaff; Museum of Northern Arizona,
Flagstaff; Pipe Spring National Monument archives and administrative files,
Fredonia
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California: Bancroft Library, Manuscript Collections, University of California, Berkeley;
National Archives and Records Administration, San Bruno and Laguna Nigel
Colorado: National Archives and Records Administration, Lakewood; National Park
Service, Water Resources Division files, Ft. Collins; National Park Service,
Intermountain Region, Denver Support Office, administrative files; National Park
Service, Denver Service Center, Technical Information Center and Library;
Denver Public Library, Western History Collection
Maryland: National Archives and Records Administration, College Park
Nebraska: Union Pacific Museum, Omaha
New Mexico: National Park Service, Intermountain Region, Santa Fe Support Office,
library, Santa Fe
Utah: Harold B. Lee Library, Special Collections, Brigham Young University, Provo;
Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, Church Library and Archives, Salt
Lake City; Zion National Park archives and administrative files, Springdale;
Bureau of Indian Affairs, Southern Paiute Field Station, St. George and Uintah and
Ouray Field Station, Ft. Duschene
Washington, D.C.: National Archives and Records Administration
The following is a list of the most important series of official reports utilized during the
course of research:
Annual Reports (Pipe Spring National Monument and Zion National Park)
Annual Statements for Interpretation and Visitor Services (Pipe Spring National
Monument)
Custodian's/Park Manager's/Superintendent's Monthly Reports (Pipe Spring National
Monument)
Camp Inspection Reports for Pipe Spring National Monument (Emergency Conservation
Work/Civilian Conservation Corps)
Field Reports for Pipe Spring National Monument (Branch of Plans and Design)
Historian's Monthly Reports (Pipe Spring National Monument)
Inspection Reports (Pipe Spring National Monument)
"Notes of C. Leonard Heaton on Pipe Springs National Monument" (Heaton Journal)
Log of Significant Events (Pipe Spring National Monument)
Log of Significant Events and Important Contacts (Zion National Park)
Monthly Reports to Chief Architect (Branch of Plans and Design)
Monthly Reports to Chief of Planning (Regional Landscape Architect)
Project Completion Reports (Pipe Spring National Monument)
Reports of the Secretary of the Interior
Reports of the Director of the National Park Service
Reports of Park Engineer on Civil Works Projects
Southwestern Monuments Monthly Reports
Staff Meeting Minutes (Zion National Park)
Superintendent's Monthly Reports (Zion National Park)
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