No Laughing Matter

With true grit in her voice, Donna Raymond calls Will Rogers the most important man this country ever produced. As a docent at Will Rogers State Historic Park, the 71-year-old takes pride in offering a glimpse into the life and times of the Depression-era humorist through tours of his pristine Pacific Palisades ranch.

In quiet moments, she feels as if she can even hear the footsteps of the old cowboy philosopher in his beloved rustic ranch house and horse stables that offer sweeping views of Los Angeles and the Santa Monica Mountains.

“Will Rogers endures, even 60 years after his death,” she said. “The things he said fit in perfectly even today. He’s a man of his time.”

But Raymond and others worry that the sprawling ranch Rogers built will not be so enduring.

The state has decided that the 186-acre park needs more money-making activities. State officials have big plans to double the park’s attendance to about 1 million visitors a year. They want to turn part of the historic stables into a museum and store and want to attract special events to the site, such as rodeo days and celebrity-studded fund-raisers.

Parks officials say the move is part of a new statewide management philosophy that will give superintendents more leeway to run the parks they supervise. Under the new plan, park managers will be asked to devise ways to make their parks financially self-sufficient.

But park users and docents like Raymond--who have long been accustomed to the quiet nature of the bucolic seaside gem--are highly skeptical of the state’s grand plans and fear that officials are veering too far away from the general plan for the park that was approved in 1992.

“They’re going to have to McDonald’s-ize Will Rogers’ legacy in order to create large enough concessions to pay for it,” said Randy Young, a leader of the nonprofit Will Rogers Cooperative Assn., which runs the park’s equestrian services.

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Some volunteers feel so strongly about the proposed changes that they’re threatening to quit.

“My major concern is that the whole park will go belly up,” said Raymond, president of the association. “The state is going to run millions of people through here. They’re going to try and drain the place. They’re just in it for the money and I don’t think many of us can live with that.”

That kind of talk troubles Will Rogers Park Supt. Susan Ross, who works to balance such competing park interests as polo players, horse boarders and historical buffs.

Contrary to the gossip, she quips, there is no plan to rename the place “McRogers Park.” “I’ve even heard we’re opening a 7-Eleven store on the grounds.”

The static, she said, is motivated by people’s love of the park, “combined with a healthy fear of change and an even healthier skepticism of government.”

Ross said many of her ideas have already been given the nod by park users in community meetings when they approved the long-range general plan. One goal is to establish a museum that she hopes will attract visitors from around the world.

More controversial, she hopes to open a store the size of a horse stall that would sell postcards, books and even tack supplies, a plan that some complain puts the interests of horse users above all others.

Bill Branch, treasurer of the cooperative association, says there is no mention of a horse supplies store in the general plan.

“Usually, the state is quite militant in protecting such places. . . . I don’t think there are good reasons to build a store on a historic site,” Branch said. “That’s what’s causing our revolt.”

He also questions what he describes as the state’s goal to increase the number of horses boarded at the park from 32 to 40 and to restart riding lessons.

“All this would be OK for some state beach or RV park, but you have to remember that this stable has been deemed a historic landmark,” he said. “You have to be cautious of that historic quality. Because if a horse kicks out the wall of a barn, it’s not just any wall, but the wall of a barn that Will Rogers built.”

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Ross waves off such criticism. “Most people here know my track record, they know I love and care for the park the same way they do,” she said. “I can accept their fear, but it’s unfounded.”

Beginning in May, the state will take over operations of the park’s equestrian services--including the stables, corrals, polo field activities and riding instruction--ending a three-year tenure by the nonprofit cooperative association.

Currently, the concessions pay for a little more than half of the $625,000 a year in state funds it takes to run the park. By taking over the horse concession, officials hope to bring in an additional $100,000. Through other programs they hope one day that the park will pay for itself.

Park officials said the extra revenues generated from new activities will help everyone realize the goals hammered out in the general plan, such as completing much-needed renovations to the 31-room ranch house Rogers called “the house that jokes built.”

Ross acknowledges that there may be some hurt feelings from some cooperative members in losing control of the horse concession, but is sure time will heal all wounds: “When we get our programs into effect, people will see that it will not mean the end of this park.”

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Members of the cooperative group, however, don’t want park rangers to become fund-raisers, but remain caretakers whose first priority is to protect a precious state resource.

Young and others say that to walk the grounds of the historical landmark is to understand why park-goers say they will fight to protect the home of an American legacy.

In the 1920s and ‘30s, Rogers became America’s first mass media star in a career that incorporated stage, screen and radio. His daily column of wry political commentary was syndicated by more than 400 newspapers, and until last spring was reprinted in 183 of them.

He developed the horse ranch in the 1920s when he began to tire of domestic life in Beverly Hills and lived there with his family until his death in an Alaskan plane crash in 1935. His late widow, Betty, willed the ranch to the state in 1944.

Today, the park continues to attract history fans who are curious about the possible sources of the Rogers humor. Horse enthusiasts as well as hikers and cyclists enjoy the well-marked trails.

At a recent strategy meeting, Jim Rogers, the late comedian’s only surviving child, gently scolded those representing competing interests at the ranch where he was raised. “My father loved horses,” he told them, “but he hated conflict.”

In an interview, the 81-year-old Bakersfield rancher said there are too many selfish interests competing for power, people who should allow Ross to do her job.

He said his father would not have been pleased at the haggling over his precious ranch. “If he were here, my father wouldn’t take sides. He’d stay out of it.”