Page:Michael Welsh - Dunes and Dreams, A History of White Sands National Monument (1995).pdf/79

 Chapter Three White Sands turned a corner in its quest for control of its water supply in the spring and summer of 1939, as Judge Lawson bowed to legal pressure by releasing his water rights. Coincidentally, the Lucero family (former owners of the land around Lake Lucero) asked the park service for permission to lease 23 1/2 sections (15,040 acres) of monument land for grazing. They had not exercised their grazing rights since the 1920s, but tried to restore their family's cattle business. The NPS believed that the Luceros could not make money on the land in question, and took no action on the request.

The successful closure of the land and water cases involving White Sands eased the problem of visitation in Tom Charles' last year as custodian. Johnwill Faris proved to be a more diplomatic park ranger than had Jim Felton, relieving Charles' anxieties about visitor contact. In the early months of 1939 the monument prospered, with word in January that Fox Pictures would come east from Hollywood to film "an Arabian scene." The movie boasted the talents of cowboy star John Mack Brown, and the prominent leading lady Cecelia Parker. This would be the first of dozens of films, and later television shows, set in the White Sands. Not to be outdone by Fox, the Southern Pacific railroad asked Charles for color slides to be mounted on display at the San Francisco World's Fair. Then Jack McFariand, a filmmaker from El Paso, wanted to come to the dunes to make a newsreel of the Fox production. He had shot footage at White Sands in 1925 for "Fox News," and thought that audiences would appreciate scenes of camera crews at work in the desert.

This momentum did not last, as in February Tom Charles received word that FDR's Bureau of the Budget (the predecessor of the Office of Management and Budget) had decided that "either automobile license or guide fees should be charged at the National Monuments." White Sands, "with its single entrance portal" to control traffic flow, and its high visitation, "presents one of the most favorable points at which to try out the fee" of 25 cents per person, or 50 cents per car, said Pinkley. Johnwill Faris demurred, citing a lack of staff to handle fees, and the absence of any completed museum exhibits. Tom Charles asked Pinkley to institute at once the 50-cent car fee so that visitors could become acquainted with the new policy "before the crowded season." Pinkley, in his usual fashion, told Charles that no new staff would be forthcoming. "We are just being asked," said the superintendent, "as we often are, to go ahead and do the impossible and we will … as we often do, go ahead and get it done somehow."