<Begin Segment 13>

KL: You've kind of glanced over and into a little bit the National Park Service's interactions with other Owens Valley stakeholders like Inyo County government, just private Inyo County citizens, Department of Water and Power. Are there any memorable things you want to bring out about how that worked or why it was important?

ER: Well, when I arrived in Death Valley in '82, I can say I inherited an area that was pretty weak on public relations. And I started going to Inyo Associates, which is an organization -- have you ever been to an Inyo Associates meeting?

KL: Yeah, but if someone watches this, they may not know what it is, even.

ER: Okay. The thing that I found at the time I was there, that was a meeting that we'd always count on some of the elected officials there, the county commissioner's there, the head of DWP, the sheriff, very key people, but then were some private citizens there, too. And I felt that was a very key meeting for me to attend once a month. And if I couldn't go, I sent one of my division chiefs. And I think I really helped our communications and our rapport in the area. And it helped me as a superintendent, there were some people, sometimes I'd give a little report on how things are going in Death Valley, here are some of the issues. And sometimes there'd be something kind of critical, but we had a chance to discuss it briefly there at a social dinner. It bothers me a little bit, I don't think, if you've been there, I don't know that Death Valley is represented today as it used to be. But I think that needs to happen in communities. People, the park officials, the superintendent and key staff need to be involved in the community. I recall at Death Valley, we got a letter with a hundred people from the little town of, oh gosh, what's the name of the little town out west of Death Valley?

KL: Shoshone? Oh, west.

ER: (No J-Trona). It's Trona. Strange little town. And we got a petition with I don't know if it was eighty or a hundred and something names on it, opposing some things in Death Valley. And I thought, my gosh, we haven't really interacted with Trona, we got this big old petition. And it was dealing with mining issues. So Bob Mitcham was my chief mining engineer, I said, "Bob," I called over there, I can't remember the name of the woman, she's the one who signed, here's the petition, she's the one who organized it. So I called her and I said, "We've got to talk." And she said, "Well, every such and such, once a month at the senior citizen, we have a luncheon. Why don't you come and speak?" So Bob Mitcham and I went over, and we had a chance. I mean, we were in the hotbed of people that signed petitions against what we were proposing in Death Valley. But it really turned things around, because we got to sit there and break bread with them. We talked about the issues, and we understood their role better, they understood ours. And that, we found issues all around Death Valley that we had to work on. And I think any of these areas, when you talked about any other sites with the Native Americans, whoever's in charge there or involved, needs to get around all these little pockets of lack of support or support just so everybody understands each other. And that was something that I really worked hard on in Death Valley. It sounds like maybe it's just dropped off a little bit. One thing, I know the job is tougher now, superintendents have to travel more, they've got less money. But I always found a way to try to do it. In fact, one thing that I... have they chosen a superintendent yet for Death Valley?

KL: There's an acting.

ER: Just an acting. Because I attended, when I was down there last, and I know they've had a lot of problems locally with some internal problems with the 49ers and Xanterra and all that, and I thought I should write to the regional director and say whoever you pick better be strong on public relations. Be willing to go out of your way to meet with people, friend and foe, and to listen to 'em and get their take on it. Maybe you don't agree on things, but maybe if you understand why you disagree... and I felt it's like of a little weak now on Death Valley, and it was very weak when I got here thirty years ago. [Laughs] Wow, before you guys were born?

KL: So I'm going to cut like a page and a half of things so that we can respect your time. But the last question that I'll ask you is how does your vision of... when Manzanar was first established, the thinking that you had about staff, about planning, about facilities management, even questions like staff housing or whether there would be a law enforcement presence, how does that thinking from the mid-'90s compare with what has developed at Manzanar? What do you recommend as far as going forward?

ER: Well, I don't remember the details, but I guess I'm really pleased to see how things have happened. And I assume... I doubt that there's any need for staff housing in Manzanar, but I assume the staff, whether you live in Independence or Lone Pine or out in the country someplace...

KL: And Big Pine and Bishop.

ER: Yeah. But it seems... and the law enforcement, I'm not sure, do you have a law enforcement specialist? But you have the concurrent jurisdiction with the county, so they handle... are they responsive if you get an emergency or some issue, you get good support quick? And, see, there's a good place where public relations is really important in Inyo. You've got the county commissioner there in charge of your area, and someone from the sheriff's department and local police, as long as you've got a good working relationship with them, then you don't really maybe need that next level.

KL: Alisa, anything you wanted to get to? We need to have time to clean up, too.

AL: Yeah, I had a couple questions. One is kind of a follow-up to something Kristen alluded to, which is the balance of the history at Manzanar. Obviously right now we're very heavily focused on Japanese American history. There are some locals who feel like at some point they were promised -- and maybe they were -- that it was going to be the story, there would be sort of equal air time for the town of Manzanar, the Owens Valley Paiute. Just sort of your recollections of those discussions and your perspective on that.

ER: As I recall, all those need to be addressed, but I think I was in the point that the big fifty percent or so or more has got to be the Japanese American. I mean, that seems, it's got to always be the big story. But down there at another level, maybe ten percent or twenty percent should be the apple orchards and the ranching, the Native American. I would hate to see any of that have equal weight. It seems like those are... when you look at the history, just like when you go to Death Valley, you learn a little bit about the rocks and a little about you build the story. And it seems like there you've got to tell a little bit of the story of the valley, of the Owens Valley and the Native Americans and all, but I think that's got to be much subordinate to the main theme of the internment camp.

<End Segment 13> - Copyright © 2015 Manzanar National Historic Site and Densho. All Rights Reserved.