<Begin Segment 6>

KL: So I have this list that you... well, actually, let me ask you about William Penn Mott. I meant to kind of ask you about him, and you said you have just a little bit of recollection of his take on Manzanar when he was director of the National Park Service.

ER: Yeah. I just got to know him when he became director, and I found him very positive about Manzanar. I can't think of anything... he was kind of a positive man, always upbeat. Sometimes a little crazy in his ideas, but I enjoyed his take on things. But Manzanar, yes, positive.

KL: Do you think he may have attended one of the pilgrimages?

ER: I almost feel like he did. And I know he's been out in that area. I wish I could be firm on that, but maybe somewhere in the records will show that he... but I feel he was definitely there.

KL: Well, moving on to Death Valley then, the challenges of that park are pretty well-documented, especially in the period that you were there in the '80s. And then you've already mentioned the Cow Creek historical connection, and, of course, the two sites are fairly close together. I wonder if you could just kind of reflect on when you were given the... well, not even given, but when you sort of took on that task of setting up Manzanar, what were the challenges, what were the benefits, how did that affect you and Death Valley?

ER: Well, I'm not sure it affected Death Valley, but as we got involved, a number of the staff did get excited as I mentioned, George Voyta, Ross Hopkins, some of the others, Sue Buchel was up there. But I think it just got us excited. I'd almost like to move into the problem I had of getting resources, and that's dealing with Stan Albright, is that appropriate to...

KL: Let me ask you, just briefly, what was Sue Buchel, did Sue Buchel have any kind of tasks related to Manzanar while she was at Death Valley, or was she just a supporter?

ER: Not really. It seemed like several of these people went up there and did some things, because we sent some interpreters over to work, well, be there, sometimes at a pilgrimage, and then also we had a program to send somebody over to the interagency visitor center to share information about the Park Service and Death Valley. But I don't know that any of us had any official documented function over there. But a lot of it is just the pleasure of doing it, it's all everybody's own time on Saturday or Sunday, Saturday for the pilgrimage.

KL: So even though Death Valley was pretty under resourced, and there was some antagonism even toward desert parks in general, the mood of the key staff at least was very supportive.

ER: Yeah.

<End Segment 6> - Copyright © 2015 Manzanar National Historic Site and Densho. All Rights Reserved.