1924 |
Calvin Coolidge proclaims Craters of the Moon National
Monument, bringing to a close several years of public lobbying.
NPS Assistant Director Horace M. Albright inspects the monument and
plans for its administration.
|
1925-1927 |
Custodian Samuel A. Paisley, the monument's first
custodian, improves the loop drive so visitors can see monument's
principal sites, establishes the first headquarters at Registration
Waterhole, and creates the first museum display.
|
1927 |
Water levels in the monument drop, prompting the
original headquarters to be relocated near the present campground.
The monument's concession is built. Crater Inn and several cabins
are located across from the new headquarters.
To add a water source and to include exemplary features, the Park
Service completes an expansion study.
|
1928 |
Calvin Coolidge signs a proclamation expanding Craters
of the Moon to twice its original size.
|
1930 |
Herbert Hoover signs a proclamation to add a spring in
Section 28 but it is left out of added portion.
|
1931 |
Land exchange act is passed to eliminate private
holdings in northern unit, leading to the completion of the water system
this year.
Custodian Burton C. Lacombe enters duty, marking the first career
agency employee.
Custodian Lacombe establishes the monument's first grazing policy by
designating a stock drive path in the north end.
|
1933-1939 |
Land exchanges are finalized.
The New Deal comes to the monument. Emergency work relief programs
improve visitor services by repairing and building roads, trails, and
structures.
|
1935 |
The monument's first seasonal ranger enters duty, and
the first museum prospectus is written.
|
1936 |
An act passes to excise the majority of Section 16 from
the monument's northern unit, eliminating grazing, mining, and
administrative threats and burdens.
The Park Service conducts formal studies to extend the monument's
road system to the south.
|
1941 |
Franklin D. Roosevelt signs a proclamation transferring
a strip of highway in monument to Idaho State, leading to the
improvement and realignment of the roadway.
|
1942-1945 |
World War II sends the monument into decline.
|
1949 |
The National Reactor Testing Station (later known as
Idaho National Engineering Laboratory) is established near Arco,
bringing growth to the region surrounding the monument. This
occurrence, along with the postwar travel boom and highway improvements,
increases visitation to Craters of the Moon and causes its management to
enter a critical stage after years of neglect.
|
1952 |
Craters of the Moon's first permanent ranger position
is created and filled.
The Park Service acquires two tracts of school lands within the
monument.
|
1956 |
Mission 66 arrives at the monument, making it one of
the first in the region to received the program's blessings. The
comprehensive program forms a watershed in the area's management. Among
the changes, a new headquarters complex is constructed, the road system
is paved, the administration is reorganized, and the concession service
is eliminated.
|
1959 |
As part of the Mission 66 plan, the Interpretation
Division is created and staffed by a park naturalist. The monument's
natural history association is also formed.
|
1961-1967 |
The Mistletoe Control Program runs its course
destroying thousands of limber pine and raising protests from monument
managers concerned about the ecological impacts.
|
1962 |
The destruction of the Devil's Sewer lava tube and
degradation of the spatter cones symbolize decades of unchecked impacts
to geologic features.
President John F. Kennedy signs a proclamation adding the Carey
Kipuka, demonstrating the monument's commitment to preserving all
elements of a volcanic environment.
|
1963 |
Superintendent Daniel E. Davis ends the "Posse Dash"
during Opening Day ceremonies to protect sensitive volcanic
resources.
|
1964 |
Park Naturalist Edgar P. Menning writes the first
interpretive prospectus.
|
1964-1966 |
A new era in resource management dawns with the
preparation of a revised master plan, a wildlife management plan, a
wilderness study, and the first resource management plan.
|
1966 |
The first archaeological reconnaissance is
undertaken.
|
1967 |
The first mule deer study is completed.
After decades of negotiations, the Park Service acquires title to the
Martin Mine lands, the last of the private lands within the
monument.
|
1969-1973 |
Superintendent Paul Fritz proposes expansion of the
monument and park status, resulting in a draft master plan.
|
1970 |
Congress creates the Craters of the Moon Wilderness,
the first in the park system along with Petrified Forest National
Park.
|
1974 |
Goodale's Cutoff is entered in the National
Register.
|
1976-1977 |
To prevent sheep trespass, the first fencing project in
the northern unit is completed.
|
1978 |
The monument issues a special-use permit to Curtis
Barker with the hopes of resolving the sheep trespass problem.
After being combined in the early 1970s as Interpretation and
Resource Management, this division is separated by Superintendent Robert
J. Hentges.
|
1982-1984 |
The spatter cone rehabilitation project takes place to
restore the cones after years of deterioration.
|
1983 |
The second mule deer study is finished.
|
1984 |
Changes in federal regulations abolish the special-use
permit and force the monument to seek options in the trespass grazing
issue.
The monument signs a cooperative law enforcement agreement with the
state of Idaho to protect the mule deer herd from illegal hunting.
|
1987-1992 |
Monument expansion and park designation resurface. The
movement, headed by Congressman Richard Stallings, leads to a NPS study
and legislation.
|
1988 |
The Park Service submits a northern unit boundary
revision proposal to the Department of the Interior as a way to solve
grazing, hunting, and other resource protection issues.
To combat continued trespass grazing, the monument completes a second
fencing project in the northern unit.
|
1991 |
A U.S. Attorney General ruling on the trespass grazing
issue leaves boundary revision as the only viable solution.
Idaho National Engineering Laboratory and the monument sign an
agreement to jointly fund gaseous pollutant monitoring. The agreement
caps at least ten years of work by monument managers to develop a
comprehensive air quality management program.
|
1992 |
The Department of the Interior and the state of Idaho
sign a water right agreement, ending six years of negotiations as part
of the Snake River Adjudication.
A second archaeological study begins.
The monument creates a Resource Management Division.
The Park Service produces a general management plan for Craters of
the Moon, the first such document to comprehensively address issues and
problems facing the monument's resources, visitors, and facilities in
over twenty-five years.
|