On January 18, 1933, President Herbert Hoover established White Sands National Monument building the visitors center, offices and accommodations for the park rangers, etc and those are still in use today. The first year of operation 12,000 people came to visit the park. By 1948, the park was getting over 100,000 visitors per year. And by 1965, 500,000 were dropping by to check out the white sands. Four years there have been over 600,000 visitors to the park. Let me invite you to come out and visit if you have not seen it…It is beautiful…Once no. 3 son had a visitor, a third cousin from Alabama, who came out to visit over spring break, in March, a miserable time to visit New Mexico. That year the sand storms had been vicious. The cousin wanted to see it, so we went. Arriving at the park, the wind had shifted on up to high  gear. The young man got out in it and loved it. I wondered how can he love this? Then he told us he was a student of World War Two and he especially liked to read about and study the German General Rommel. I thought at the time, you never know, do you, you just never know. He told us about his reading on Rommel as we were standing in the blowing sand, visualizing Rommel and his tanks racing across Africa, doing battle. That was a good lesson for this Alabama boy to experience the blowing sand, and a good and unexpected lesson for me and my son. You can drive your car back through the white, shifting sands, which except for spring winds, are fairly still, white and extremely beautiful. Come visit New Mexico and see for yourself……Pete