Page:Michael Welsh - Dunes and Dreams, A History of White Sands National Monument (1995).pdf/78

 66 officials learned that the Justice Department lacked evidence to prosecute Stephens. By spring 1939, Stephens had returned to work, and the WPA incident had passed.

Sitting in Alamogordo, Tom Charles read the Stephens indictment far differently. The legal action had occurred because Michael Reardon, a WPA foreman at White Sands, had testified against his supervisor. Charles knew Reardon as "a Dempsey appointee" (a reference to Democratic U.S. Representative John J. Dempsey). Stephens told Charles that he would have to resign because of the political pressure; a scenario that led the custodian to warn Pinkley not to appoint the new ranger, Johnwill Faris, as supervisor of the WPA project. "I am writing you at once," said Charles to the superintendent, "because I am deathly afraid of it." He called the situation at White Sands "a WPA cesspool" that did not need NPS intervention. Charles then asked Pinkley to "get an entirely new [custodian]," rather than Faris. "A local democratic politician who stands high with Chavis [sic] and Hatch could take Rearden [sic] to a cleaning," the longtime Republican wrote, "but a Park Service Ranger wouldn't have a Chinaman's chance." Charles asked "for Johnwill's sake, and incidentally for your sake and mine, don't connect him with that job," as it "would just be trouble, trouble, trouble." Looking out on the New Mexican political landscape, Charles warned that the forces at work in state government would not change, as "a man [Reardon] who will go before a Federal grand jury and indict as good a boy as Johnie [Stephens] without any provocation will do anything."

Perhaps because of Charles' admonitions, the NPS moved quickly to resolve outstanding disputes over land and water claims in and around the monument. In February 1939, Vernon Randau of the Santa Fe office, Tom Charles, and NPS attorney Albert Johnson met with Oliver Lee, the previous owner of Dog Canyon ranch, to determine the history of Judge Lawson's purchase and usage of the property's spring water. Lee advised a rerouting of the White Sands pipeline to avoid damage from flash floods in the narrow ravines of the Sacramento mountains. Then in late February, another local rancher offered to sell his water rights to the park service. Andrew J. Taylor claimed that his property lay closer to the dunes, and could reduce the length of the pipeline by almost eight miles. Because Judge Lawson had yet to relinquish his claim, Taylor's offer, while dubious, had to be surveyed. Taylor wanted $16,000 for the rights to one spring in Dog Canyon, and $20,000 more for other springs in San Andreas Canyon. NPS staff rejected Taylor's plan, holding that Lawson's water was the most efficient and economic alternative for cost and distance.