NATIONAL PARK SERVICE
                           MORNING REPORT

To:        All National Park Service Areas and Offices

From:      Division of Ranger Activities, Washington Office

Day/Date:  Wednesday, November 1, 1995

Broadcast: By 1000 ET

INCIDENTS

95-716 - Baltimore-Washington Parkway (D.C./Maryland) - MVA with Fatalities

The operator of a Toyota traveling southbound on the parkway at a high rate of
speed just after midnight on October 29th lost control of his vehicle and
struck a tree in the median.  Both the driver and passenger were ejected from
the car and were pronounced dead at the scene.  A second vehicle was seen
traveling southbound with the Toyota at the time of the accident, and it's
believed that the drivers were drag racing.  Park Police criminal investigators
are conducting a follow-up investigation.  [Bill Lynch, RAD/NCFAO]

95-717 - Joshua Tree (California) - Rape

During the week of October 15th, park staff were informed that a rape had
occurred at Indian Cove campground the previous week.   A park investigator,
working with local sheriff's office detectives and Naval Criminal Investigative
Service agents, located the 15-year-old victim and several witnesses and
identified and interviewed suspects.  A Marine was subsequently arrested and
charged with the rape under state law.  When the victim declined to testify,
the suspect accepted a plea bargain and plead guilty to contributing to the
delinquency of a minor.  He was fined $100, sentenced to 60 days in jail, and
ordered to register as a convicted sex offender.  [Todd Swain, CI, JOTR]

RESOURCE MANAGEMENT

El Malpais (New Mexico) - Geological Assessment

The United States Geological Survey has funded a four-year, cost-sharing
project to study the lava flow emplacement process for the park's nine major
flows.  The principal investigator is Ken Hon, who has spent three years with
the USGS at the Hawaiian Volcano Research Lab studying active lava flows. 
Hon's preliminary assessment suggests that the park's volcanic story will have
to be substantially revised - simple cinder cones were found to be complex
shields with final cinder eruptions, a rafted block of lava was found seven
miles from its original vent (unless further studies detect a closer one), and
unusual occurrences were found in many other locations.  The project will
essentially provide the park with a half-time geologist for the next four
years.  Hon's first year will be spent primarily on updating interpretive
materials.  [Ken Mabery, ELMA]

OPERATIONAL NOTES

No notes.

OBSERVATIONS

Quotes submitted for consideration for the Morning Report should pertain to
either the National Park Service or closely related issues, such as wilderness
and conservation, and should include the author and the date and source of the
quote.  A mailing list has been created for periodic dissemination of the
master list of quotes to date to interested parties.  If you'd like to be on
that list, please send a note to this address. 

Here's today's entry, submitted by Colonial superintendent Alec Gould:

"The preservation of historic sites for the public benefit, together with their
proper interpretation, tends to enhance the respect and love of the citizen for
the institutions of his country, as well as strengthen his resolution to defend
unselfishly the hallowed traditions and high ideals of America." 

                                                     President Franklin D.
                                                     Roosevelt, writing in
                                                     support of historic sites
                                                     legislation, 1935

Prepared by the Division of Ranger Activities, WASO, with the cooperation and
support of Delaware Water Gap NRA.


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