Great Basin National Park, page 2.

proposed in 1956 by Darwin Lambert, then editor of the Ely Times, and Weldon Heald, another leading conservationist. Their plan would have preserved and protected 240,000 acres.

Mr. Watson, a geologist, recalls that the so-called "mineral wealth" of the Mt. Washington-Lincoln Canyon consists of a single pegmatite "lens" with approximately 100 Hederite crystals sprinkled in clear quartz. That, laughably, is the "strategic beryllium deposit" that the Kennecott Company cited to kill the original Great Basin Park bill 25 years ago.

Passage of S. 2506 by the Senate would create such a divergence with the House that a conference committee agreement would be highly unlikely. Passage of a Senate park bill without the eleven new Wilderness areas on National Forest lands also included in H.R. 3302 would likely result in the same conference stalemate. Respectfully, we hope the members of this subcommittee will not lend themselves to a strategy designed to assure that neither a National Park or new Wilderness will be established in Nevada by this Congress.

I thank you for the opportunity to express our views,

which are strongly held.

Senator HECHT. And I thank you for testifying.

Mr. Robert Jacobsen.

STATEMENT OF ROBERT R. JACOBSEN, LURAY, VA

Mr. JACOBSEN. Mr. Chairman, my name is Robert R. Jacobsen. I would like, if I may, to abridge and summarize my comments to help you save time here.

Senator HECHT. Please do.

Mr. JACOBSEN. Although I currently live in the Shenandoah Valley of Virginia, I am a former resident of White Pine County, NV, where I lived and served from August 1963 to August 1964 as a superintendent of Lehman Caves National Monument. I recently retired from a full career with the National Park Service in the operations and management of national parks, my last assignment being superintendent of Shenandoah National Park.

At an earlier time I served as the chief of the Branch of New Areas for the National Park Service during the time of the great expansion in the late sixties and early seventies. But my job at Lehman Caves as superintendent, and this was 20 years ago, was primarily that of safeguarding the underground and surface resources of the monument, and in interpreting the story of these resources to the visiting public.

But working as I did in the shadow of Wheeler Peak, and living and socializing with the Bakers, and the Griggs, and the Gondors, and the Dierdons, and the Robisons, I learned that there is a much larger story than the story of the underground and the surface of 640 miles. It is the story of the Great Basin itself.

The people who came to Lehman Caves were yearning to learn, and it is a fascinating story, not just the story of the bugs and the birds and the bushes, but the story of the geology of the area, the hydrology, the ecology, and equally although it has received very little attention today is the human history, the story that can be told in the Great Basin of the early Indians, of the efforts of early explorers, the story of historic trails and travel routes, and then of the settlement of the area by the people who came either to find peace carrying religious banners, or trying to wrest a living from this lonesome landscape. This included the prospectors, the miners, and the stockmen.

I knew from the questions that were raised to me at Lehman Caves that the public was interested in these things. They were fascinated in what we were able to tell from our small vantage point. I know that if this story of the Great Basin were to be told, that it would greatly enhance the image of the area from that of, as I say, a lonesome landscape and desolation, to that of a fascinating portion of our land surface.

My plea to you today is that as the boundaries are drawn, and I think these can be expanded with only minimal damage to special interest groups, that you leave the National Park Service with a manageable unit or units; that you allow space for the future developments, for visitor use which surely will come to such an area; and include as many of the natural environments and historic seam areas as is possible, both for the safeguarding of these resources, but also to permit a credible interpretation and story-tell

ing so that the visiting public can be told the overall story of the Great Basin.

I appreciate the chance to be here.

[The prepared statement of Mr. Jacobsen follows:]

Statement of Robert R. Jacobsen

before the Subcommittee on Public Lands, Reserved Water
and Resource Conservation concerning the proposed
Great Basin National Park, Nevada

Mr. Chairman

July 18, 1986

My name is Robert R. Jacobsen. Although I am retired and currently live in the Shenandoah Valley of Virginia, I am a former resident of White Pine County, Nevada where I lived and served from August 1963 to August of 1964 as the superintendent of Lehman Caves National Monument.

You will recognize that period as an earlier time when the Wheeler Peak area was seriously considered for designation as a Great Basin National Park. Indeed, during that time this body recommended and passed a bill for its establishment.

I was a staunch supporter of a Great Basin National Park then as I am now for these two reasons. The first was, and is, to better safeguard that extraordinary sample of the Great Basin's natural and cultural resources, which are not adequately protected elsewhere in the public domain and, secondly, to provide a totally credible platform from which the fascinating stories of the Great Basin region might be collected and shared with the American public. I could not and can not think of a better way to accomplish these objectives than by designating the Wheeler Peak area as a national park, and by transferring its management and operation to the National Park Service.

Living and working within the shadow of Wheeler Peak, as we did, and living and working with the people and the communities that neighbor the area, gave my family and me a real appreciation and understanding and love for the Great Basin and its blend of natural, cultural and human resources and opportunities. Narratives of the area are unique, whether the story line is geology, hydrology, ecology or human history; and the more familiar that we became with its individual components - to include the stories of its formation and exploration and settlement, and the efforts of past and present generations to find peace or to wrest a living from its mountain ranges and broad valleys - the more aware we became of the real need and the exciting opportunity that exists to gather, compile and share this information with others. Surely there is no better way to accomplish such a task than by identifying and designating a notably special portion of the Great Basin as a national park.

The Wheeler Peak area through numerous studies of the Great Basin has emerged as the outstanding candidate. For not only does it have the natural endowments to be the exemplar representative of the Great Basin region, but it contains sufficient remnants and the not yet

disqualifying scars of early and contemporary human use that would also

allow the great sagas of the prospectors and miners and stockmen to be told.

One might logically ask, in that the Wheeler Peak area is already in federal ownership, "What would be the benefit of giving it national park status and of transferring its management to the National Park Service?" I would answer that three reasons come immediately to mind:

1. The "national park" designation, and all that it stands for, is essential to adequately safeguard its included resources. Being a national park serves to notify the nation and the world that this is a very special place that deserves special care and attention, and that a visit to this remote area is well worth one's time and effort.

2. The U. S. Forest Service is ill-prepared, through its lack of professional staffing, to undertake the necessary historical and sociological research and the resource preservation that is necessary to tell the story of the Great Basin. Furthermore, it does not possess the environmental and aesthetic sensitivity that is necessary to safeguard and interpret the natural and cultural resources of the area.

The latter portion of my last point was clearly demonstrated by an incident that occurred on Wheeler Peak in 1964, when the Forest Service willfully cut down a Bristlecone Pine that we all believed might be the oldest living thing on the entire Earth. I remember the occasion well as I stepped across my jurisdictional boundary at Lehman Caves to intercept the USFS saw crew that had been sent from Ely to cut the tree, and to explain the outrage that their action would be. Although the tree was not cut that day, and the decision was referred to a higher level for review, the Forest Service subsequently cut it down. And it proved to be, as all of us had expected, centuries older than any other living being yet discovered. Its 4,844 annual rings made it more than two thousand years older than the oldest living Giant Sequoia trees in California.

3. The National Park Service is eminently well qualified to undertake the necessary task - as the work that is needed conforms precisely with the mission that this agency has been performing with distinction for 70 years. Furthermore, through its long term management of Lehman Caves National Monument, it already possesses an onsite presence and a base from which a Great Basin National Park might begin its operations.

I greatly appreciate this opportunity to come before you and to speak in behalf of this exceptional area which means so much to me. It lies within a unique region which richly deserves to have this small portion of its unusual resources set aside and preserved and interpreted so the fascinating and important stories of the Great Basin can be told.