Eivind
ScoyenEivind
ScoyenEivind T. Scoyen (1896-1973) received the Pugsley Medal in 1958 “For distinguished service and exceptional competence in furthering the objectives of the National Park Service in conservation of the Nation’s scenic and cultural heritage over a period of forty years, and more specifically for his significant contribution to the MISSION 66 programs.” He rose from a youthful seasonal worker in Yellowstone Park trails to become the NPS associate director.
Scoyen was born in the old “blockhouse” overlooking Mammoth Hot Springs in Yellowstone. This had been the first headquarters building constructed in any national park and in the beginning in 1879 it served as both office and residence. It was constructed by the U.S. Army who was responsible for administering Yellowstone when it was established as a national park. A new command post, Fort Yellowstone, was subsequently constructed by the Army in 1891 and the blockhouse was used exclusively as a residence.
Eivind’s older brother, Clarence (Pop) Scoyen, was born a year before him in 1895 and the two boys were raised in Yellowstone. Their father was a telephone lineman in the park. His fate is uncertain. He was from Norway and he either left his family and returned to that country prior to Eivind Scoyen’s birth, or he died shortly before Eivind was born. In order to raise her family, Mrs. Scoyen took a job as matron in the hospital at Fort Yellowstone, and remained in that position for 25 years.
The blockhouse was not well-constructed. It was drafty and had a leaking roof. Further, it was located on top of Capital Hill, so as to be in a strong position to repeal Indian attacks, and water had to be hauled up to it from the bottom of the hill. Scoyen later recalled:
Living on the summit of Capitol Hill was interesting by any standards which you care to select. Modern usage coined the term “hostile environment.” That fitted exactly the summit of that hill. For more than half the year the vast expanse of the Park was buried under deep snows brought by savage blizzards, and subject to some of the lowest temperatures in the United States, outside of Alaska. And the “Hill” suffered Yellowstone climate at its worst. Snowfall, however, was blown off the ground the second it lit.
The Army almost completely ignored housing for its civilian employees in those days and did little to help Mrs. Scoyen maintain a home in the old blockhouse for her two infant sons. About 1899, the family moved to one of the old buildings in Camp Sheridan which had been constructed at the foot of Capitol Hill. Later, when the Army moved that building to make way for a new water flume, the Scoyens returned to the blockhouse. Still later, the family moved into one of the old McCartney hotel structures at Mammoth- -the first hotel in Yellowstone.
The Scoyens kept some chickens in a cellar of the blockhouse and some cows at the base of Capitol Hill and sold the milk to Mammoth residents. Both boys, when old enough, were assigned the chores of milking and delivering the milk on foot, horseback, or with horse and wagon. They did not have to carry water up to the barrels kept at the blockhouse. The army water-wagon took care of that. Scoyen recalled:
There was no water supply on the top. We had 3 or 4 fifty gallon whiskey barrels and on stated days an Army escort wagon refilled them for us. The barrels hardly lasted any winters and ruptured with sub-freezing temperatures. Whiskey barrels were easy to find around the Post for replacements.
Scoyen started school in Mammoth with his brother when there were only five pupils. Life at an army post, even a quiet one such as Fort Yellowstone, was not without excitement and glamor for boys. The sunset gun boomed each evening not far from the blockhouse. Inspecting officers (all the Army brass headed for Yellowstone whenever they could) reviewed the troops on the parade ground below Capitol Hill.
In 1902, his mother married Scoyen’s step-father who was an army teamster; thus the boys remained very much a part of the army family. But their childhood in Yellowstone also made them life-long dedicated conservationists. Both would find their futures bound up with the National Park Service when it eventually took over the administration of the national parks. The great outdoors, the area’s scenic grandeur, and appreciation of its fauna became an integral part of him. Connie Wirth later observed, “The fact that his family were government employed for the protection of the first National Park in the world and my personally knowing of no other with such an inheritance impel me to label him, ‘The first of the second generation of National Park employees’.”
Given the lack of schools in the area, he was sent to the Lutheran Normal High School at Madison, Wisconsin. From there he went on to study at St. Olaf College in Northfield, Minnesota, and serve in the U.S. Navy. During the summers, Scoyen returned to work in Yellowstone on park trails and also for the local weather bureau. One of the Scoyens’ boys prized mementos was a July 1915 copy of the U.S. Department of Interior Regulations Governing the Admission of Automobiles into the Yellowstone National Park for the Season of 1915:
Cars and trucks could only leave between designated half-hour periods, speeds were limited to 12 miles per hour ascending, 10 m.p.h. descending, 8 m.p.h. on curves and on good roads to 20 m.p.h. Horse drawn vehicles had the right of way. Horns had to be sounded at curves. Fines for arrival at any point before approved lapse of time included: $0.50 per minute for each of the first five minutes; $1 per minute for each of next 20 min.; $25 fine or ejection from the park, or both, for being more than 25 minutes early. Cars must be not less than 100 yards apart. Fees for admission included $5 for runabouts or single-seated cars, $7.50 for five-passenger cars and $10 for 7-passenger cars.
When the soldiers were withdrawn from Yellowstone, Scoyen joined the new ranger force that took the place of the cavalry troops. Horace Albright became superintendent of Yellowstone in 1919 and recalled:
I soon noted his capacity for hard work, the fulfillment of difficult assignments, his knowledge and love of all the features of the park and his popularity with his fellow rangers and other employees of the Park Service and the concessionaires. He was indeed a versatile and capable young man, always dependable, earnestly ambitious and possessed of an attractive personality. He was physically big and strong. Long hours in the saddle or afoot on the trails made him an outstanding ranger.
In 1921 Eivind Scoyen was placed in charge of the Old Faithful (Upper Geyser Basin) district. Early in the season, the First Assistant Secretary of the Interior, Edward C. Finney, visited the Yellowstone with his wife and their two daughters. Eivind and Berenice, the vivacious elder daughter of the Finney’s, were attracted to each other. Two years later they were married, Berenice leaving all the advantages of a government officer’s daughter in the social whirl of Washington to live in the poor quarters of a park ranger.
Meanwhile, Scoyen was made assistant chief ranger of Yellowstone Park and, in 1923, was promoted to chief ranger of Grand Canyon National Park where he remained for four years. While he was there, the problem of the Kaibab deer became acute. Elimination of natural predators had created a situation where the deer herds grew in numbers exceeding 20,000 head while, due to drought conditions in some years, their range produced far too little food to sustain them and thousands died of starvation. Hunting had not been permitted in the Kaibab National Forest. A group of top wildlife scientists studied the problem, both the Forest Service and Park Service rangers cooperating along with others from other fields. They recommended hunting seasons as well as the capture and transfer of deer to other localities suitable for them. To highlight the problem and to gain support for this controversial solution, at Director Mather’s request, Scoyen took two Kaibab deer back to Washington, D.C. for a meeting of NPS superintendents. At a banquet attended by George Lorimer, the famous editor of the influential Saturday Evening Post, one of the deer was released and much to the great editor’s delight, it ate the salad on his plate. Albright later stated, “Undoubtedly, this event influenced the editorial policy of the Saturday Evening Post relating to the acceptance of the scientific committee’s recommendations regarding management of the Kaibab deer.”
In 1927, chief ranger Scoyen was appointed to be the first superintendent of Zion National Park. With this superintendency, Scoyen began his steady advancement to the most senior positions in the NPS. He was at Zion until 1931 when he was transferred to Glacier as superintendent. In several years at this third largest national park, he developed a notable record in park protection and administration, combating some of the worst forest fires ever to plague the Park Service, and he accomplished important public relations inroads with Canadian officials and with the Montana communities near the park. When Scoyen was superintendent of Glacier Park, both United States senators for Montana spent their summers in the park, one on property he owned, the other on a leased tract quite close to his colleague. These influential legislators had high regard for Scoyen.
In 1938 Scoyen was assigned as superintendent of Sequoia National Park in California, and subsequently to the newly created Kings Canyon National Park. Further advancement followed for Scoyen when he was appointed associate regional director in Santa Fe. He remained there from 1943 until 1947. Returning to California, he served as superintendent of both the Sequoia and Kings Canyon Parks until he was summoned to Washington by Director Conrad Wirth to be his associate director. Wirth later recalled:
He started at the bottom and rose to the very top of the National Park Service. I say that advisedly, because although he filled the second position, that of Associate Director, during six years of my administration as Director, he was actually as much the Director as I was. When I was appointed Director I felt very strongly the need for a new face in the Washington office. I needed a man who knew park management and the requirements and problems from A to Z, a man with sound judgment; above all, a field man’s man, one well known and held in high regard by the front line troops, the area superintendents and their staffs. Eivind Scoyen met all these requirements with top ratings. He really didn’t want to come to Washington, the field was his love, and it took me several years to get him to come in. Even then he said he would stay no longer than a couple of years, as he intended to retire. However, during the period of persuasion, we were in close communication. He finally came to Washington in 1956, at the beginning of Mission 66, and stayed six years, until he retired in January 1962.
Wirth had no field experience in the NPS, so Scoyen’s career and strengths complemented his own. Wirth noted:
Eivind and I had a deep understanding of each other, even without the exchange of words. The Wirth-Scoyen administration was a true partnership. It must have been somewhat like the relationship that prevailed during the Mather-Albright period.”