business to watch, it was hardly the atmosphere we normally associate with a National Monument."[1]
As the decade of the 1950s closed, the military's role in basin affairs became more entrenched. By 1957, Johnwill Faris would report that the armed services sought "designation of over 100 square miles [40 percent] of the Monument as a '20–30 mile impact area.'" The Army had also carved across park service land the route to the infamous "instrumentation station NE-30," again "without consent of the [NPS] and in most instances without its knowledge." The Holloman commander then sought access to "sections 6, 7, and 18 [Township 17 South], [Range 8 East]," for use as a "'ground launch area.'" Fred Seaton, secretary of the Interior, wrote to Defense secretary Charles E. Wilson that month that the military's desire for "unlimited physical use of the Monument" negated NPS plans for Mission 66 expansion. The issue of unrestricted access caught the attention of Bruce M. Kilgore, editor of the privately published National Parks Magazine. Kilgore and his National Parks Association conceded that "when a matter of national security is involved, even our wonderful system of national parks and monuments may have to give way." But the editor, who considered himself one of many "sincere Americans," also held that "the convenience of the Army is not sufficient excuse for allowing our already diminishing heritage of national parks and monuments to be used for military target and testing purposes." Kilgore asked Secretary Seaton to apprise his "100,000 members and others over the country who read our magazine" about the status of military intrusion at White Sands, and admonished further: "Be very hesitant in allowing any unproven claims by military agencies to serve as justification for loss of part or all of the White Sands National Monument."[2]
Seaton's response to Kilgore reflected the temper of the times: the continuation of the Cold War, the shadow of the anticommunist mentality known as "McCarthyism," and the presence in the White House of the former Supreme Allied Commander in World War II (Dwight D. Eisenhower). The Interior secretary outlined the "modest" beginnings of missile impacts in the 1940s and early 1950s, only to be superseded by "great technological advancements." Negotiations between Defense and Interior always resulted in the latter giving way, and in the recent case, said Seaton: "It appears that, in the interest of national defense, it would not be practicable … to impede or prevent reasonable continued activity of the guided missile program." The secretary promised Kilgore's readers: "You are assured that this unusual development will not act as a precedent in other cases and we are aware of none like it." Seaton had not known of Luis Gastellum's admonition in 1953 to Johnwill Faris about the the frequency of military incursions onto park lands, and hence his conclusion: "It is hoped that the above
- ↑ SWNM Monthly Reports, January, May 1954; Memorandum of Charles E. Krueger, NPS Park Landscape Architect, to the Chief, NPS Western Office, Division of Design and Construction, March 6, 1956, RG79, NPS, WHSA Files, Denver FRC.
- ↑ Fred A. Seaton, Secretary of the Interior, to Charles E. Wilson, Secretary of Defense, January 12, 1957; Bruce M. Kilgore, Editor, National Parks Magazine, to Seaton, May 1957, L30 Land Use White Sands Missile Range (WSMR) History 1950s File, WHSA Library.
