Q & A : Park Supervisor Feels Right at Home With Will Rogers

Susan Ross, 44, superintendent of Will Rogers State Historic Park, Topanga State Park and Los Encinos State Historic Park in the San Fernando Valley.

Claim to fame: Assumed post in November, making her among fewer than a dozen women park superintendents in the nation’s largest state parks system.

Background: Before becoming a state park ranger 11 years ago, she taught education at Virginia Commonwealth University, where she obtained a bachelor’s degree in English and a master’s degree in education. She is a native of Richmond, Va.

Interviewer: Staff writer Ron Russell.

Q: It has been nearly 57 years since Will Rogers died. What accounts for people’s fascination with his former home?

A: We get about 250,000 visitors a year and they come for a lot of reasons. Some just want to see the house. We have docent tours, and we also make electronic headsets available for the people who prefer self-conducted tours of the house and grounds.

A lot of people come to hike, to picnic, to play organized games, and just to get away from the pressures of the city. There are 186 acres for people to roam. The two-mile loop trail that goes to Inspiration Point is very popular.

Q: Some of the docents appear to have stepped out of an old Rogers film. Any of them groupies?

A: (Laughter) I don’t think they would be offended by that. They make it their business to know as much about him as possible. They add something really special to the experience of coming here. I recognized it right away when I took the job and asked if anyone would like to give me a personal tour. One of them quietly corrected me by saying, “I think what you mean is maybe we would like to invite you to visit with Will.”

Q: How did the state come to own the ranch?

A: It was deeded to the state after the death of Betty Rogers (Will’s widow) in 1944. Will had bought the property in 1922 and built a cottage as a weekend getaway from their home in Beverly Hills. The family moved to the ranch in 1928. And of course Will was still living here when he died in a plane crash (in Alaska with friend and aviator Wiley Post) in 1935. They essentially transformed the cottage into the 31-room ranch house you see today.

Q: Do you ever hear from the family?

A: Will’s daughter, Mary, died several years ago. Will Jr., who is about 80, lives in Arizona, and Jimmy, who is 76, lives in Bakersfield. Jimmy visits the ranch occasionally, the last time being a few weeks ago when he was in town for the (state Parks Commission) hearing dealing with the (proposed new) general plan for the park. Both sons are still very much interested in what’s going on here and how the place is cared for.

Q: I’ve heard it said that Rogers’ heirs retain the right to take back the property if certain conditions aren’t kept. Is that true?

A: Yes. The state’s commitment basically was to preserve the ranch as it was when Will lived here. Obviously it’s never going to become a bed and breakfast.

Q: Jimmy and Will Jr. have expressed public unhappiness recently over the way the property has been maintained. Is it serious enough that they would seek to change the state’s trusteeship?

A: I don’t believe so. Their concerns are ones that we share and are trying to deal with effectively.

Q: For example?

A: For example, they’re not pleased with the condition of the stables. The park continues to lease space there, as part of the concept of keeping the stables active in the way they were when Will lived here. Jimmy has expressed concern about damage to the stalls and would like to see the horses moved out.

The stables are on the National Register of Historic Places, and that presents a challenge for us. When a horse kicks a piece of wood and defaces it, or we need to replace something, the repair has to be with authentic material, and that’s expensive. A possible compromise is to reduce the number of horses here, and open part of the stables as an interpretive area.

Q: From your perspective, why has the proposed general plan become controversial?

A: Probably because for the first time it takes a look at multiple uses of the park’s historic core, especially the polo field. Will was an avid horseman and polo player. But over the years we’ve had requests from many, many community groups to use the polo field for other purposes, so that we’ve had this pattern of use that was never intended.

Q: Such as soccer?

A: Such as soccer. We also get requests from organized softball leagues, baseball leagues, rock concerts, you name it. The general plan distinguishes between what we call the prime historic zone of the park (the ranch house, stables, golf fairway, polo field and environs) and other areas.

We feel that organized recreational activities, such as soccer, team softball, baseball, volleyball matches--that sort of thing--are not appropriate in the historic zone.

Instead, we want to encourage activities that are in keeping with the historic theme of the park. That’s not to say that picnicking, or, you know, playing Frisbee or croquet or any of those kinds of activities are inappropriate for the park. We’re just moving them from the historic zone to other areas.

Q: You’re saying the park has strayed from its original mission?

A: I think some people would argue that point today. I think the soccer and other non-historic uses would support that opinion.

Q: Is there room for compromise on the soccer issue?

A: Well, we have our bottom line, which is that soccer is not an appropriate activity in terms of the historic themes that we attempt to interpret here. The general plan calls for phasing out soccer. It doesn’t specify how long that will take.

We’ve met for some time with representatives of the American Youth Soccer Organization (which uses the polo field) and others who will be affected. We want to try to accommodate them in the best way that we can. We’re not just going to lock the gate on them the day the general plan is approved. Ultimately, however, they will need to find a suitable site for their activities outside the park and we’ve said we will work with them to help them do that.

Q: Do you find it somewhat uncomfortable to be at odds with soccer enthusiasts?

A: I think that they are very well organized and that part of their strength comes from their commitment to their activity, and that’s commendable. But I have a responsibility in terms of park management to look at what the original purposes of this park were. Again I have to come back to our mission, which is to interpret the life of Will Rogers as a historic figure.

Q: I take it the issue won’t be resolved until the commission meets again in March?

A: That’s true. And (the commission) listened very hard (at its January hearing) when people from the soccer organization and others testified. But at that same hearing there were also hikers who talked about reaching the top of Inspiration Point only to hear the sounds of whistles and megaphones and things like that. So there are both sides, and again, my job is to keep our mission in the forefront.

Q: What are some of the other proposed changes?

A: We need more parking, and we want to move the parking we now have near the ranch house about 250 yards to the south and restore the existing parking lot to its grassy condition. There would be a new visitor center and gift shop, which would get us out of the historic garage and the quarters above it, which are now used for park offices. That will also enable us to move one or two of Will’s old vehicles down to the garage from storage elsewhere.

We’re so cramped at the present time that we’ve had to use Jimmy’s old upstairs bedroom in the ranch house as office space.

Q: What effect has the state budget crisis had on the park system?

A: Systemwide, the budget cuts we’ve taken over the last several years have cut us to the quick. There are buildings with leaky roofs, outdated restroom facilities, campground developments have been postponed, facilities that need painting, grounds that need tending and on and on.

For the southern region, our equipment budget has been slashed 80% and our operating budget has been cut 50%. That means, for instance, if you need a garbage truck, a law enforcement vehicle or a piece of equipment to flush out a chemical toilet, you just have to do without.

In human terms, we’ve been in a hiring freeze for a year and a half. In the three parks I oversee this has really been a blow because we were already operating with numerous positions unfilled, and as we’ve lost others, we’ve not been able to replace them.

Q: I noticed that the entrance station was closed when I drove into the park. Is that budget-related?

A: So you noticed that. In this park, as elsewhere, we’re not able to collect entry fees during all the hours we should because we don’t have adequate resources to keep personnel at the entry stations.

Q: There are fewer than a dozen women superintendents in the California state park system. Has being a woman helped or hindered your career?

A: The short answer is both. What has helped me as a female is that I have worked very hard and I am very good at my job. And that has definitely been an advantage.

On the other hand, I’m not by nature a boss. I have a very anti-autocratic, participatory style in an organization which borrows much from the military. Let’s just say that so far, I like the way my career has gone.

More than anything, coming up through the ranks as I did, starting as a ranger 11 years ago, has helped me get a better perspective on what my responsibilities are.

Q: What was it like starting as a ranger?

A: In all honesty, I had no idea what the job actually involved. I had just come out of academia, (teaching education at Virginia Commonwealth University), and all of a sudden I was on the sand down at Doheny State Beach (in Orange County).

I had this image of the ranger as someone who took small groups of students on backpacking trips and things like that. That first assignment felt more like being a cop.

Q: How so?

A: Remember we’re talking about Southern California, the beaches in the early 1980s. There were a lot of drug and alcohol problems. I never had to disarm anyone, but I’ve had to take people into custody who were either driving drunk or who had just passed out in the middle of the park. Before then, I had no idea the amount of law enforcement being a ranger called for.

Q: It must be a real challenge to preserve a park in an urban area like Los Angeles. Ever feel you’re losing the battle?

A: You have to keep things in balance. Because we draw heavily from one of the largest urban areas in the country there are so many impacts. “Loving it to death” is a phrase that’s used within the park profession a lot. Just the sheer number of people who come here pose a threat to the park if we don’t keep a handle on things.

We have something special here. There are many parks designed to meet the recreational needs of the communities where they are located. But there is only one Will Rogers home.

Will Rogers

Will Rogers (1879-1935) began his adult life as a cowhand and went on to become a stage and film star, and the author of a syndicated column of homespun humor and shrewd comments on current events that appeared in more than 350 newspapers.

In 1926, he toured Europe as President Calvin Coolidge’s ambassador of goodwill, resulting in a collection of witticisms he called “Letters of a Self-Made Diplomat to His President.”

“All I know is what I read in the papers,” a favorite Rogers performance line, became a byword of the 1920s.

Born on an Oklahoma ranch, he left school as a teen-ager to become a cowboy in the Texas Panhandle, drifted off to Argentina and later turned up in South Africa as part of Texas Jack’s Wild West Circus.

After becoming famous in the Ziegfeld Follies, he was persuaded by movie mogul Samuel Goldwyn to leave New York and come to Hollywood in 1919. By 1935, when he died in a plane crash, the self-styled cowboy philosopher had a wide following as a radio commentator, columnist and movie star.