[Ron] Oh really, at Platte?
Well, a little before that, I was key man in the state of Iowa. So I had to meet Governor Hughes. He became a Senator, of course. When we went to Washington we were right in with the Directorship and that is who we worked with. When you were in the Park Service you worked at the Associate Director level. You didn’t work down at the other levels of the operation, so you really learned how these folks function. When I arrived there Hartzog was installed, but that was not my first exposure to him. He was Superintendent of Jefferson National Expansion Memorial during the building of the arch. We were friends at that time, but not close friends, I’ve never considered myself a close friend to Hartzog, although we were friends and good friends.
I know the opening chapter in his book is devoted to that period where he is in St. Louis?
Right, he did a marvelous job there. When I went down to Washington he was just installed. In fact, I went to his installation about the first week I was there, taking over for Connie [Wirth] which was a real shock for everybody in the Service, you know.
You were surprised when he announced his retirement?
He didn’t announce his retirement, he was removed by the Secretary, Stuart Udall. The same as when George was subsequently removed. Weaves a funny web, my work in the newspaper business in Phoenix, because I knew the Udall family quite well. Judge Udall was head of the Supreme Court, because I used to do the legal publications. So, I knew some of the Udalls, those things help. At any rate, I was selected after that to go to Platte and I was a GS/ 12 at that time. So things were moving along at fairly a rapid pace.
Was Platte considered an important assignment?
I know the Secretary thought it was important, because Carl Albert was majority leader in the House of Representatives and that was his district. He had been brought up as a boy, traveled across the plains and camped at Platte Park. He felt damn strong about it, but at the same time the Bureau of Reclamation was building a dam which was just downstream form Platte called Arbuckle Dam. I had been there all of five days and three men came out to see me and asked me what I was going to do about this. One was Secretary Udall and the other was Carl Albert and Director Hartzog. I didn’t even know where the roads were, but I got them down there. We sat down at the motel that night—a lot of business was done in motels at that level. George didn’t say anything and the Secretary did the talking. He said, “ I want you to take over the Arbuckle Recreation Area.” I said, “Well, that’s an interesting name.” Yeah, he says eventually, we are going to change that to Chickasaw. Carl was nodding and he said, “That is exactly what I want, Don.” George said, “Don, you heard him, do it.” So, there we were and we did it. About three years, roughly, it took to accomplish it. Put it all together and the mater plan, and you know, the stuff you go through and the re-staffing. Did all the underground work, the boat ramps, sewage and water—all the stuff that had to be done prior to the time the lake filled. This was a Bureau of Reclamation project, which was also under Stewart Udall; this thing was greased solid all the way. But the Regional Director was Don Beard and Dan didn’t like recreation areas at all. So there was kind of a difficulty, but we had to do it, so we did it anyway.
