Roger Wolcott Toll
- Cornelius Amory Pugsley Silver Medal Award, 1936
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- Roger Wolcott Toll (1883-1936) received the Pugsley Silver Medal "for his services in the National Park Service." A premature death is always a tragedy, but there existed a feeling that the NPS lost a future director when Toll was killed in an automobile accident in 1936. He was not only an able administrator, but was also an explorer and scientist of note. He was born October 17, 1883, in Denver, Colorado, one of three mountaineering sons of a pioneer Colorado family, and educated at Denver University. He graduated in 1906 from Columbia University earning a degree in civil engineering.
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- Following graduation, Toll traveled around the world and then started working in Boston for the Massachusetts State Board of Health. In March 1908, he worked with the Coast and Geodetic Survey, and for a short time, surveyed the coastline of Cook Inlet in Alaska. In 1908 Toll returned to Denver, becoming chief engineer of the Denver City Tramway Company. During World War I, he served in the army and attained the rank of major.
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- According to Horace Albright, Toll "had come around the Interior Department to talk about national parks" while working in D.C., and Albright had kept in touch with him even after Toll had left the army and moved to Hawaii. During a trip to the islands in the spring of 1919, Albright suggested that Stephen Mather contact Toll as a possible candidate for the vacant superintendent's position at Mount Rainier National Park. Mather was impressed and hired him for the job. Toll joined the NPS in May 1919. In his two summers there, Toll demonstrated that he was a man of unused ability and devotion. Thus, two and 1/2 years later, when a vacancy arose as superintendent of Rocky Mountain National Park Toll was offered it and welcomed the opportunity to return to his home state. Road and trail work during his tenure included the construction of the Bear Lake Road, the North Inlet trail, the Lawn Lake trail and the North Longs Peak trail. Among his other Park duties were supervision of construction of a gas station, warehouse, employee residences and other buildings in the utility area.
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- Toll was an avid member of the fledgling Colorado Mountain Club and gave unstintingly of his time to this organization. He was a charter member, one of the 24 organizers, a member of the first board of directors, leader of many trips and active member of the earliest outing committees. There had to be something worthwhile and permanent in everything that he undertook. He originated the Club's system of trip reports and designed the Club's peak register cylinders, made of bronze, which proved to be effective on all 14,000-foot peaks.
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- Of great and lasting value was his compilation and editing of "Data on Colorado Mountaineering." This work was completed in September 1915, and for the first time made available a mass of information relative to the Rocky Mountains of Colorado, with particular emphasis on major peaks. In 1919 "mountaineering in the Rocky Mountain National Park,"was published by the government printing office; and in 1923 -- The Mountain Peaks of Colorado," was published by the Colorado Mountain Club. In addition, he wrote occasional articles in Trail and Timberline describing various ascents of Mount Rainier and other peaks. One of his most helpful pieces of work was the assembling of maps from the Wheeler survey and other early collections which had passed out of print. He also maintained a log of his own trips throughout the park citing trail conditions, routes, and natural history. He was the first person to climb all fifty of the highest peaks in the Rocky Mountain National Park.
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- One of Toll's talents was his ability to establish good relationships with other governmental agencies. A difference of opinion, to him, never meant antagonism. Those who at times opposed his plans frankly stated that never was his judgment or action based on self consideration; always he was guided by what he felt was right.
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- In all his treatment of individuals he chose the course which was the most considerate and kindliest. On February 1, 1929, Toll followed Horace Albright in the positions of Yellowstone superintendent and field assistant to the NPS director. Roger Toll's legacy to the NPS lay not so much in his superintendencies, but in his superb firsthand investigations and reports on proposed areas to the park system. He maintained an office in Denver, working from there in the off-season each winter on the inspection of proposed parks and monuments, boundary extensions, and other concerns. No other individual had as much first-hand knowledge of national scenic resources as Toll. He visited difficult to access regions on foot and on horseback. He compiled over a hundred reports for proposed sites in meticulous detail. Among the areas which benefited from Toll's work were Death Valley, Joshua Tree, Big Bend, and the Everglades. Horace Albright credited Toll with having "explored, photographed and described in reports most of the canyons of the Colorado from the headwaters in the Rockies to the California line."
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- In early 1936, Toll served on a six-person commission, which included George Wright, Conrad Wirth, and Frank Pinkley to investigate the possibility of establishing international parks, forest reserves, and wildlife refuges along the Mexican-American border. On February 25, while on their way to investigate the Ajo Mountains in Arizona and the adjacent Mexican territory, both Toll and George M. Wright, chief of the NPS wildlife division, were killed in an automobile accident nearing Deming, New Mexico.
- Source:
- Albright, Horace M. and Cahn, Robert (1985). The birth of the National Park Service: The founding years, 1913-33. Salt Lake City, Utah: Howe Brothers.