NPS EMPLOYEE MEMORIAL
by Jeff Ohlfs

Every August we honor the memory of former National Park Service employees who died in the line-of-duty. Sadly, this year we add one more name to that Memorial. Robin Sullivan Pendery, 33, a seasonal mountaineering ranger from Enumclaw, WA, died around 2 p.m. on June 4 after falling into a crevasse near 14,000 Foot Camp on Mount McKinley while on a climbing patrol. Despite immediate rescue efforts she did not survive. Pendery first joined the Denali mountaineering staff in 2024, supporting climber safety, emergency response, and mountaineering operations on North America’s highest peak.

Devils Tower National Monument, Wyoming was the first to be established, September 24, 1906, under authority of the Antiquities Act of 1906 which President Roosevelt had signed on June 8. (NPS)

"We in our turn have an assured confidence that we shall be able to leave this heritage unwasted and enlarged to our children and our children's children."

Theodore Roosevelt, 1905.

The Founders Day Dinner held each August 25th under the sponsorship of the 1916 Society of the E&AA brings together employees and retirees of the National Park Service to observe the anniversary of the establishment of the Service — a unique conservation agency of the Federal Government. The event serves to meld the retired and active members of the National Park Service Family, and to rededicate us all to the high purpose of preserving the Nation's natural, scientific, historical, and cultural heritage.

In 1981 the 65th anniversary of the passage of the organic Act of Congress which brought into existence the National Park Service was highlighted. We were inspired then by the presence of members of the family of the first Director, Stephen T. Mather, and our telephone visit with Horace M. Albright, the second Director. Both Mather and Albright were intimately involved in establishing the Service in 1916.

The National Park Service carries out the concepts of several broad preservation movements formalized by Congressional and Executive action both before and after the 1916 Act. One of the most important of these has been in the field of historic preservation. The Founders Day Committee felt that the 1982 dinner should keynote this aspect of the National Park Service story. We were influenced in reaching this decision by the observance of the 250th anniversary of the birth of George Washington and the 100th anniversary of the birth of Franklin D. Roosevelt, both of whose birthplaces are important Historical Areas in the National Park System. We also took note of the fact that the 125th anniversary of the birth of Theodore Roosevelt will occur in 1983.

Early Devils Tower National Monument Staff, c1940 (NPS)

Legislation to protect sites of historical or scientific value that were threatened with vandalism or commerical exploitation was sought as early as the 1880's by conservationists in both the east and west. Their efforts came to be rooted in the National Monument concept, which was evolved as an extension of the protective principle of the Forest Reserve Act of 1891, and were rewarded by passage of the Act for the Preservation of American Antiquities approved June 8, 1906 by President Theodore Roosevelt. Although the Antiquities Act authorized the President "to declare by public proclamation historic landmarks, historic and prehistoric structures, and other objects of historic or scientific interest" situated on lands owned or controlled by the United States to be national monuments, no definitive standards were set as guidelines for the selection of sites to be so designated. The Department of the Interior, which until 1933 administered only those monuments taken from the public domain, based its recommendations largely on advice received from scientists or explorers, or on the merits of privately owned sites to be donated to the government, or locally conceived projects some of which were sponsored by members of Congress. Between 1906 and 1916 the Department recommended, and Presidents Theodore Roosevelt, Taft, and Wilson proclaimed, 20 historic and scientific sites to become national monuments. In this same period the Presidents acting on the authority of the 1906 Antiquities Act established 14 national monuments on land under the jurisdiction of the Departments of Agriculture and War. In a very real sense the Antiquities Act of 1906 established the first national policy for the preservation of historic and scientific areas, some of which are now national parks.

One of the primary contributions of Stephen T. Mather and Horace M. Albright to the conservation movement was the establishment of the National Park Service in 1916 and their management of the 34 areas, including 14 national parks and 20 national monuments, in existence at that time. But there are also many who consider their deep interest in American history and their early efforts to expand the Service's mission for the preservation of historic sites to be of equal, if not greater, importance. Indeed, Horace has said he considered his work in the historic preservation field one of the most significant and personally satisfying accomplishments of his National Park career. In 1971 former Director Albright wrote an intriguing account of his involvement in this movement entitled Origins of National Park Service Administration of Historic Sites published by the Eastern National Park and Monument Association. In it he speaks of the great interest both he and Director Mather had in history, and their visits to historic sites in the Washington area and elsewhere in the country. In the first Annual Report of the National Park Service, written in 1917 as Acting Director, Albright raised the question whether the national military parks should not be transferred from the War Department to the Department of the Interior to be administered as a part of the National Park System. This was a matter he pursued throughout the remainder of his career with the National Park Service until his efforts were finally crowned with the approval of Executive Order 6166 by President Franklin D. Roosevelt on June 10, 1933. In his lucid style, Horace tells of an April 9, 1933 trip to Camp Hoover in Shennandoah National Park with President Roosevelt and Secretary of the Interior Harold L. Ickes. The purpose of the excursion was to determine what interest the President might have in using the camp for rest and relaxation as President Hoover had done. He had the good fortune to ride with the Secretary on the way out, and with the President on the return trip. You may be sure Horace made the most of this opportunity and by the time the motorcade returned to the White House he had paved the way for the approval of the Reorganization of 1933. This order increased the number of historical areas under National Park Service management from 20 to 77. It also brought into the system the National Capital Parks, an extensive urban park system which originated in the L'Enfant Plan of 1791. This total also includes the George Washington Birthplace National Monument, Colonial National Monument and Morristown National Historical Park established in the early 1930's. Thus the Service moved into another form of historic preservation which greatly influenced the growth of the System and its historical preservation program.

(George A. Grant/NPS)

During this period, Director Albright began to establish in the Washington Office and in the field, a professional staff of historians to direct this significant new historic preservation role of the Service. The Civilian Conservation Corps was established in 1933 and by 1935 there were 600 CCC camps allocated to the National Park Service: 118 were assigned to National Park areas and 482 to State Parks. With them came a large corps of historians, architects, landscape architects and archeologists. It was in November 1933 that historic architect Charles Peterson presented a memorandum recommending a national project for documenting historic buildings. It was approved and activated as the Historic American Building Survey (HABS) which brought together the Park Service, American Institute of Architects (AIA), the Library of Congress, the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC), universities, and other agencies that had funds and personnel that could help carry on the study. The Library of Congress is the depository for these researches and the project is still active.

Over the next three decades several significant Acts of Congress expanded and refined the National Park Service's historical preservation movement. The first and perhaps the most important of these was the Historic Sites Act of 1935. It set forth a national policy "to preserve for public use historic sites, buildings and objects of national significance for the inspiration and benefit of the people of the United States." The Act assigned broad powers and duties to the Secretary of the Interior to be implemented through the National Park Service. It called for a national survey of historic and archeological sites, buildings and objects having exceptional value for commemorating or illustrating the history of the United States, and led to contracts or cooperative agreements with states, municipalities, corporations, associations and individuals to preserve historic properties. The Act also established an Advisory Board on National Parks, Historic Sites, Buildings and Monuments. Soon after its passage, the Secretary of the Interior created the Branch of Historic Sites and Buildings in the Washington Office of the National Park Service.

The Act of Congress to charter the National Trust for Historic Preservation was approved by Congress on October 17, 1949. This was achieved through the guidance and dedicated work of officials of the National Park Service and preservationists in the private sector. Its purpose was to further the national historic preservation policy set forth in the Historic Sites Act by encouraging initiative and participation of the private sector.

The enactment of the National Historic Preservation Act of 1966 was another landmark in the historic preservation movement. It greatly enlarged the role of the National Park Service in the historic preservation movement. It authorized the Secretary of the Interior to expand and maintain a National Register of historic sites, buildings, districts and objects; it provided for a program of matching grants-in-aid to states to assist them in preparing statewide historic preservation surveys and for "brick and mortar" acquisition and preservation projects; it authorized matching grants to assist the National Trust for Historic Preservation, and it established an Advisory Council on Historic Preservation to advise the President and Congress on historical preservation matters.

(S. Carter/NPS)

By 1972, when the Nation was celebrating the 100th anniversary of the establishment of Yellowstone, the first National Park in the world, there were 172 historical areas in the National Park System. This was a significant increase from the 20 such areas at the time of the Reorganization of 1933.

Today there are 189 historical and archeological areas administered by the National Park Service. The National Register of Historic Places, including National Historic Landmarks, contains almost 25,000 areas having national, state and local historical significance. The Historic American Buildings Survey has recorded 30,000 sites, structures and buildings. Every state and territory of the United States has undertaken a Comprehensive Statewide Historic Preservation Survey. Two and a half million properties have been included in the state inventories, and grant-in-aid support for survey and planning in this undertaking totals approximately $122,000,000. About 6,800 acquisition and development grants for historical areas have been made for a total of $161,000,000.

The National Trust for Historic Preservation, which has been the recipient of major grants by authority of the Historic Preservation Act of 1966, developed inventories in 1974 and 1976 showing some 250 programs in 50 agencies involved in preservation. All who are familiar with the work of this important organization recognize the major contribution it has made in encouraging and assisting the private sector in historic preservation projects. It also owns and manages important historic properties.

Entrance sign and ranger station at Devils Tower National Monument. (Wayne W. Bryant/NPS)

These programs are highlights of the major elements of the historical preservation program in which the National Park Service has been deeply involved. Other important legislation has been enacted to strengthen this program including the National Historic Preservation Act as Amended, approved December 12, 1980. These legacies serve to show that much has been accomplished in the field of historic preservation since that ride to and from Camp Hoover nearly fifty years ago when Horace Albright conveyed his ideas for the expansion of the National Park Service mission in the field of historic preservation to President Franklin D. Roosevelt and Secretary of the Interior Harold L. Ickes.

National Park Service employees and alumni are rightly proud of the Service's role in these achievements, and it is highly appropriate that historic preservation be the theme of the 1982 Founder's Day Dinner.

Perhaps both employees and alumni will be encouraged to reread Horace Albright's account of the Origins of National Park Service Administration of Historic Sites (1971), and Ronald F. Lee's Family Tree of the National Park Service, both published by the Eastern National Parks and Monument Association. A two-volume work entitled Preservation Comes of Age by Charles B. Hosmer, Jr. Published in 1981 for the Preservation Press, National Trust for Historic Preservation, by the University Press of Virginia, also deals with the subject in great detail for the period 1926 to 1949. Hosmer mentions the names of many National Park Service employees who contributed much to this national effort to preserve the Nation's historical and cultural heritage. Conrad L. Wirth in his Parks, Politics, and the People, tells how many of these areas of the National Park System were developed for visitor use during the CCC program and Mission 66. His book, which covers many related subjects, was published in 1980 by the University of Oklahoma Press. William C. Everhart's recently revised book, The National Park Service, has been published by Westview Press (1982).

Sutton Jett joined the National Park Service in 1933 as a historian and filled several administrative positions of increasing responsibility before retiring in 1968 as Regional Director of National Capital Region in Washington, D.C. He is President of the White House Historical Association.

            Text from Commemorating Antiquities Act of 1906, August 25, 1982.

(A. Locklear)

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