By 1934 road maintenance had become a critical problem for park operations. Lack of adequate maintenance of hard surface roads, coupled with the heavy visitation of the previous several years, had caused the roads to become potentially dangerous. During the year funds became available to purchase a road patching machine and commence repairs “which consisted mainly of patching the more dangerous chuck holes that had developed in profusion.” [12]
Low appropriations and staffing levels prevented the park from instituting a comprehensive building maintenance program for many years. Following the visit of Secretary of the Interior Harold L. Ickes in 1934, however, a major program was authorized for rehabilitation and completion of existing park structures. In January 1935 a survey was made of nearly 60 park buildings [a copy of the survey may be seen below] Superintendent of Construction E.E. Etherton, analyzing “how the Government can complete, repair, and improve its property to the condition in which such property should be, to safeguard its investment, and also to prevent the buildings from falling further into disrepair or obsolescence.” The general conclusions of Etherton as to the condition of park structures were appalling and led to calls for greater appropriations for building maintenance and the correction of these problems. Etherton described in rather stark terms the dilapidation of park structures. He observed that the
condition of the buildings in the park is such that thorough modernization is not only impractical, but too costly. There is not one that is completed, all are in dire need of repairs, and many will have to be improved to meet the demands placed upon them. It is difficult to conceive how an organization could have allowed such squandering of money on physical improvements, supposed to be permanent, yet permit them to continue in their present state so long. Chimneys have been built into nearly every building, yet there is but one that is not a serious hazard to fire and life.
Mice, pack rats, and gophers infest and run rampant through the buildings. I have seen a gopher with her litter sitting on the apparently solid stone walls, disappear through the wall. Smoke exudes through another stone wall, and a stream of water turned into another, apparently solid, continued to flow. Previous to the past season the stones of the exterior walls were set in place without being bedded in mortar, and were backed with a thin layer of concrete, mixed by incompetents, and not bonded to stonework with reinforcing. Rot, rust, and decay go unchecked. The electric substation, through which several thousand volts of electricity flow, is a serious hazard to life, as are the third floor sleeping quarters in two of the dormitories. Hundreds of meals are served each day; workmen, professional men, college professors, eat at the public messhall, where there is no refrigeration for food, and the meals are prepared in an antiquated kitchen. The dormitories are equipped with insanitary wood troughs to wash in, and there are still several very insanitary shower baths. The temporary employees residence area, commonly known as “Scabtown”–not an entirely inappropriate name for the area–is a disgrace to the park and the Government.
Although not entirely self-liquidating, there is no place where the Government could spend money to greater advantage than in rehabilitating the physical improvements in this park. Not only would it be a boone to the many employees, but also to the many hundreds of thousands of citizens who will visit the park in the future. [13]
