On 8 October 1934, Dorgan submitted a development plan for Big Bend to Secretary of the Interior Harold Ickes—and became the first person to propose an international park on the Rio Grande. In this reply of 24 October, Acting Secretary of the Interior T.A. Walters referred Dorgan to the Texas State Parks Board if he cared “to go further into the question.” Dorgan never contacted the Board.

It is not known who wrote “Thot you might want this.” at the bottom corner of the letter, or if this note refers to the entire cache—held together with three paperclips.

In March 1935, El Paso Congressman R. Ewing Thomason submitted legislation in the House to establish a national park in Big Bend. On 27 February 1936, Thomason forwarded Dorgan “a letter that I have this morning received from the Secretary of State” with the hope that Dorgan “will find the information it contains of value.” Thomason and Dorgan corresponded from at least 1936 through 1941, with Thomason forwarding several letters to Dorgan from the Secretary of State.

This letter documents the fact that select Texas legislators were pursuing a “proposed park” separate from the National Park Service. In March 1935, Thomason proposed a “Big Bend National Park”, yet over two years later, legislators were still waiting to “be sure of the deal going through before we attempted to name it.” In January 1937, Senator H.L. Winfield and Rep. Albert Cauthorn (of Del Rio) submitted the “Winfield/Cauthorn bill” to the Texas legislature. Cauthorn pursued a $750,000 appropriation for land purchases in Big Bend, and on 19 May 1937, Rep. Delmar King updated Dorgan on the progress of land acquisition in the House. King referred to Cauthorn as “your Representative” and advised Dorgan that “after talking things over with several members of the House, I decided that it would not be best to make an effort to name the proposed park at the present time.” King’s letter reveals that two separate park campaigns existed in Austin: one to create a “Big Bend National Park” and another to create a park referred to here as “the deal.”

State Senator H.L. Winfield, of Fort Stockton, was the state politician most closely associated with the Big Bend park movement. As a member of the Committee on Banking and Finance, Winfield helped oversee the Big Bend land purchase program. In December 1938, he read a manuscript by Dorgan “with a good deal of interest” and informed Dorgan that ““I did not get a chance to talk to Governor O’Daniel about the Peace Park as I was with him such a short while, but I am sure he will be receptive to this suggestion.” The “suggestion” remains unknown, but within a month of writing to Dorgan, both Winfield and O’Daniel submitted bills requesting appropriations to purchase Big Bend.