How about as a draftsman, where did you learn your line work, and the lettering and stuff? Was that earlier, with the Park Service?
No, that was architectural training.
When you were in school?
Oh yeah, I never learned nothing at the Park Service, no. When I was going to school in St. Louis in the ’20, I used to work at night time for an architect at drafting. I was pretty good at it. So, I was a fairly good draftsman when I got out of college. No need for mentioning that, is there?
It was something I was interested in just looking at all the master plans and why they look so similar, but the line work is very….
Oh, that’s a drafting technique.
I will say that while attending Washington University in St. Louis I had done considerable drafting on buildings, on landscape plans during my spare time and on my weekends working for private individuals, which enabled me to earn my way through school. I’m going back here, it says, what did you do when you worked at CRLA? At CRLA in the early spring of 1933 there was considerable activity and progress with the CCC, PWA, and CWA programs of the Federal Government. I’m saying something that…you’re not asking me that questions, but here. You’re asking about Munson Valley. As I mentioned there was much activity and force during that first summer of ’33 we devoted extensive activity to landscaping the Rim Area as well as the Park Headquarters at CRLA. But, plans had previously been prepared for the development of the Rim Area and the Park headquarters area which is the basis of our planning schedule. We were fortunate in having three or four very competent landscape architects working under our supervision at CRLA. These competent landscape architects directed the CCC young workers, and obtained extensive amounts of plants, top soil, peat moss, and other plants material from Munson Valley. All this material was transmitted from Munson Valley up to the Rim Area— a distance of some three miles plus. Hundreds of truck loads of material were delivered each week. And this landscaping program which started about 1933, or thereabouts, continued ever summer until about the fall of 1940, when I left CRLA. This embraced some eight or nine summers where the landscape crews were able to do this tremendous task. They had to take advantage of the short seasons to do their trucking, hoeing and planting. I don’t think they did much after 1940.
