Page:Michael Welsh - Dunes and Dreams, A History of White Sands National Monument (1995).pdf/61

 Chapter Three have $50,000, which he wanted to apply to the monument as well. He found it ironic that the park service could not finance "a custodian's residence, public comfort station [restroom], water and sewer systems, equipment shed and administration building." More revealing was the fact that "the Government has not called on Mr. Garton … for abstracts." Happer had no "specific information concerning the amount of money to be spent or the nature of the project to be undertaken." Pinkley wanted Garton Lake to have only "fencing and the construction of a few relatively inexpensive dykes" for the wildlife refuge, and he regretted supporting the purchase in December without knowledge of the lavish funding provided by the Resettlement Administration.

The pace of New Deal spending, countered by NPS desires to approve projects through channels, propelled Garton Lake into turmoil. Evidently other federal agencies had similar complaints against the RDP. In early November 1935, Ralph Charles sent a quick note to his father with rumors of suspension of all resettlement work. Yet Ralph Charles also learned that federal officials wanted White Sands ready to restart Garton Lake at a moment's notice. John Happer proceeded to acquire Mr. Garton's abstract of his deeds and patents. Happer saw mention of several oil leases on the Garton property held by out-of-state residents, but believed that these had been proven worthless, and that quit-claim deeds could be secured rather easily.

Once the funding for Garton Lake had been restored, Tom Charles discovered the full magnitude of political involvement in the project. Several WPA contracts in the Alamogordo area had started that fall, depleting the source of competent labor. This affected Garton Lake when Happer informed NPS that his assistant would be Frank Cunningham, an elderly man whom Tom Charles had known for nearly thirty years. Cunningham would be responsible for all survey work on the White Sands RDP, even though Charles reported: "He may be the best surveyor in the state, but if he is I do not know it." When confronted by NPS officials about Cunningham's qualifications, Happer said, in the words of Jack Diehl: "It was not any concern of ours … and … that he was on that job." Tom Charles then clarified the issue for the NPS: "[Cunningham] is rather diplomatic in handling men, gets along well with the Bronson Cutting faction politically, and I do not take it as a life and death matter whether he is the engineer out there or not." Pinkley then concurred, telling Diehl: "We will just have