Arthur Carhart: Wilderness Prophet

6: My Disappointment Comes from Expecting Too Much

107 Introduction: The Study and Development of Land Surfaces for Human Use Carhart spent December and early January preparing for the National Con­ fer­ence on Parks, set to be held in Des Moines, Iowa, on January 11–12, 1921. As a native Iowan and the Forest Service’s sole recreation engineer, Carhart was an understandable choice to represent the Forest Service, however unof­ ficially. James Good, chair of the House Appropriations Committee, had been a Republican congressman from Iowa since 1909, so he was a lobbying target for Carhart and his allies in state and federal forest agencies. After a brief visit with his parents in Mapleton, Carhart continued his homecoming campaign by returning to Ames, where on January 7 he addressed the Iowa Conservation Association, whose president was L. H. Pammel, chair of the Botany Department, and whose secretary was G. B. McDonald, pro­ fessor of forestry. The next day the recreation engineer addressed a student My Disappointment Comes from Expecting Too Much At the start, if you don’t know already, I can state flatly that I have the most thorough dislike for burocracy that one can have. I’ve been inside and outside and I don’t like the thing that is burocracy. I’ve tried to analyze it, to get my own definition as to where that pertains. A bureau starts out to do a public service. For a time that spirit dominates. The intent of the organiza­ tion’s being is dominant in its actions. At some point the perpetuation of the bureau becomes the guiding spirit, and then we have burocracy. Some day I hope to write a novel on this subject. —Carhart to Joe Penfold, December 21, 1964 C h a p t e r si x My Disappointment Comes from Expecting Too Much 108 group of would-be landscape architects. Carhart told his former professors that he planned on attending the conference in Des Moines. He asked them why the agenda was limited to national parks instead of covering broader national recreation problems. Pammel and McDonald agreed that Forest Service rec­ reation also deserved a spot on the agenda. Pammel suggested that Carhart should speak about forest recreation during the session he was to chair.1 Earlier that winter, as Carhart prepared for the National Conference on Parks, he had ghost-written an internal memo2 from District 2 Forester Col. Allen Peck, drawing Chief Greeley’s attention to the recent “action of the American Society of Landscape Architects [ASLA] in modifying the duties of the standing committee on National Parks, so it is now the Committee on National Parks and National Forests. This action has been brought about through the interest of Prof. J. S. Pray of Harvard, who has been corresponding with our Recreation Engineer, Mr. Carhart.” The memo went on to say that this action by ASLA represented a chance for the Forest Service and the National Park Service to cooperate. “Peck” urged Greeley to write to ASLA president Frederick Law Olmsted Jr.3 The memo closed with a recommendation that the Forest Service should hire more ASLA members as consultants—such as Frank Culley at Squirrel Creek. I Did Not Say One Word against the National Parks As soon as he returned to Denver from Iowa, Carhart wrote a memo for Peck detailing his version of what had happened at the conference. Newspaper accounts about his clash with Stephen Mather were already circulating nation­ ally. The January 12, 1921, headline in The Des Moines Register was “Forest and Park chiefs clash,” and the Rocky Mountain News picked up the story immedi­ ately. Like the clash itself, the memo gave Carhart the opportunity to test his wings—and to demonstrate his growing narrative skills. Carhart’s “L Supervision Memorandum for the Forester,” dated January 17, 1921,4 details that he went to Des Moines merely to find out “whether it was in effect not so much a conference on Parks as a conference on outdoor recreation of National scope.” Professors and others in attendance assured him it was the latter and urged him to speak about “the extent of recreational use in the Forests.” However, he had still demurred, remarking that if the confer­ ence really were to be about parks only, he would sit in only as an interested landscape architect. During the roll call, Carhart identified himself as a mem­ ber of the Forest Service who was also representing the Colorado Mountain Club. [18.222.163.31...