Page:Michael Welsh - Dunes and Dreams, A History of White Sands National Monument (1995).pdf/71

 Chapter Three ever-ambitious Alamogordo chamber of commerce urged Charles to remind the 4C's promoters in the northern part of the state to include venues south of Albuquerque.

Charles' fascination with the Cabeza de Vaca story, like his persistence in supporting establishment of the monument, had worn down the skepticism of others. In January 1937, Joe Bursey, director of the state tourism bureau (and publisher of New Mexico Magazine), had rejected a similar article from Charles because of the far-fetched notion of Vaca's wanderings northward. But Charles read certain passages in Vaca's journals that described environmental features akin to the basin: the southern edge of the buffalo country; the presence of pinon (pine nuts more common in northern New Mexico); and the general belief among historians that Vaca had to cross the "Llano Estacado" ("staked plains") of west Texas, somewhere north of El Paso. Charles even corresponded with the famed Borderlands historian, Carlos E. Castaneda, the Latin American librarian at the University of Texas, Austin. Castaneda, the proponent of Spanish contributions to a state more enamored of its Anglo accomplishments (most notably the 1836 Texas Revolt and its defense of the Alamo), agreed to help Charles establish the Vaca-Tularosa linkage with access to his own research, entitled, Our Catholic Heritage in Texas.

The Vaca story had by late 1938 become more acceptable to park service officials, perhaps because of passage in Congress in November of a $200,000 appropriation to fund 4C's pageants, one of which the organizers hoped to stage at White Sands. Yet Charles encountered strong opposition within the NPS for printing and selling his own literature on the dunes. Tourists for years had asked for some publication giving the essential historical and ecological data of the monument. In November, Charles notified Pinkley that he had shipped to a local printer the text and photographs for his pamphlet. The SWNM superintendent knew that the park service could not stop Charles if he sought no profit from the sale. He also disliked Charles' use of official NPS photographs, including George Grant's pictures (about half the prints). Pinkley then suggested that Charles contact Dale S. King, NPS naturalist and executive secretary of the newly created "Southwestern Monuments Association." This latter group would publish and distribute literature on the region's park service units, and its fund raising capacity meant that Charles "would be freed of any personal expense" in his promotion of the dunes.