________________________________________________________________________Richard S. Kem
We also built some canoe access points and two or three campgrounds. There were places
where National Park Service rangers would have a station. At Bandy Creek the Park Service
would contract out to livery men who would have the horses so that people who wanted to
come up and rent a horse could take one out from there. You could also rent canoes, and
there were some shops to buy some basic grub and that sort of thing. Big South Fork retained
its very rustic setting, and there was not a lot of construction.
Early on, Big South Fork became one of the administration's targets for reducing the budget.
Originally the recreation area project was to include something like 173,000 acres. The
administration objected to the total 8 million project and cut it back. It was cut back in
one of the early budget exercises to about 103,000 acres. One of the early things we had to do
was submit a proposal for reducing the project. That was relatively easy to do in that certain
real estate had already been procured and we could draw a line around that and clean up the
borders.
There were some unhappy supporters of the project, like Senator Howard Baker from
Tennessee, who had sponsored the project. He was also part of the administration, and
yielded. So, about one-third of the planned area was set aside for later acquisitions. We then
completed the reduced project. I visited there since it's been completed, and there are very
nice facilities but maintained in its rustic atmosphere. In addition, at Blue Heron there was a
coal tipple that has been restored. It was not completely rebuilt, but for the camp they put up
steel frameworks to represent where houses had been. Various buildings provide pictorials of
how it was back in coal-mining days. Nearby, maybe six or eight miles away, there is a town,
and there is a railroad link--the old railroad for taking coal out. They now run tourist trains
from the town to the restored tipple. After the train excursion in, you walk through the coal
town and then come on back out. In addition, there's a couple of overlooks from the rim that
you can look down into the deep gorge. It's a nice experience.
Q:
How did the Corps get that project in the first place? Are you familiar with the history of it
before you got there?
A:
No, not really. After all, Army engineers were the early saviors and developers of
Yellowstone and Yosemite in years past. We have those capabilities to build things and
procure real estate, so I think we were a natural to do the Big South Fork. The legislation was
written that the Corps would build it and then turn it over to the Park Service.
Q:
Okay.
A:
The trips down there were always interesting. Initially, when we went down there it was
treacherous getting down to the river level during a rainy day. There were many switchbacks
as the road cut down from the hills. When muddy, it was easy to slide off the road. It was
essential, then, that we build a road down to a high bridge across and a road up on the other
side if there was ever to be an all-weather access. Thus, we constructed Leatherwood Ford
bridge. This bridge also provided a nice link from one side to the other. People didn't have to
go the long way around.
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