Craters of the Moon Administrative History

Chapter 3:
HISTORICAL BACKGROUND

SETTLEMENT AND SHIFTING PERCEPTIONS

In the late 19th and early 20th centuries, settlement proved to be an important process in fostering an appreciation for the volcanic landscape. The area's scenery and geological formations could be contemplated only when the region was no longer geographical space to cross and survive. To bring about this change in perception, a certain amount of prosperity, security, and comfort were essential.

Though thousands of emigrants bypassed the monument for the Pacific coast and Idaho mining districts in the 1860s, the advent of mining in the Wood River and Lost River regions in the early 1880s created pockets of civilization around the present-day monument. A year after the discovery of the Horn Silver Mine in 1884 by Frank and Samuel Martin, the boom towns of Era and Martin sprung up. Both were located in the Lava Creek mining district, along the northern border of today's monument. They were typical mining towns and sported a full line of services--dance halls, saloons, laundries, and post offices. By the end of the century and the crash of the silver market, the towns died, although the Martin townsite maintained a post office until 1940. [9]

This activity also influenced the growth of more permanent settlement as well, attracting the livestock industry to southern Idaho to supply new communities such as these with meat and wool. In the Little Wood River Valley southwest of Craters of the Moon, the ranching and agricultural settlement of Carey was established in 1880. Northeast of the monument in the Lost River Valley, the town of Arco began as a stage stop and supply junction along Goodale's Cutoff in 1879, servicing the Blackfoot to Challis and Wood River routes. In the late 1870s and 1880s livestock successfully occupied the valley, but extreme winters later in the decade devastated the cattle business. Afterwards farming predominated in the more fertile lowlands, while sheep and cattle grazing were primarily left to the hillsides. A community slowly formed around the Arco junction, and after relocating twice, Arco was permanently established at its present site in September 1901 with the arrival of the Oregon Shortline Railroad from Blackfoot. [10] The railroad spanned the sixty miles of desert between the two towns to tap the mining districts of central Idaho, thus contributing to the development of the Lost River Valley in ensuing years.

Irrigation was perhaps the most significant development that aided settlement and altered the "barren and useless" image of the lava region. It transformed the sagebrush plains into a veritable "garden" at the turn of the century. After Idaho achieved statehood in 1890, reclamation projects under the Carey Act of 1894 and the Newlands Act of 1902, in addition to other homestead legislation, [11] increased agricultural settlement and production on the Snake River Plain. In the Lost River country surrounding Arco, homestead entry opened under the Carey Act on September 14, 1909. With it and subsequent irrigation projects, the population near Craters of the Moon expanded. In 1910, for instance, some 320 people resided in Arco, and in similar numbers in outlying areas. [12]

After making the region a home, many of valley's residents were soon displaying a heightened interest in its lava formations, and avoidance gradually turned into curiosity. As one early resident recalled, Craters of the Moon "was known to people of the region for years. They called it `big craters' or some such name." But it was passed by prospectors "hunting the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow," or by those in "other occupations without particular notice." With this mind set and the daily grind of living on the lava plains, they never "dreamed that they [the craters] would ever become...objects of interest...." [13]

Attention to the Craters themselves initially assumed a pragmatic form. In 1879 and the 1880s, for example, local ranchers Arthur Ferris and J.W. Powell investigated the lava fields for water sources to supply several hundred head of cattle. Thought to have been the first white men to enter the volcanic interior, they hoped to collect a reward for their discovery. Powell documented their exploration by erecting a stone marker at the Vermilion Chasm waterhole. Another sign documenting their penetration into the lavas was a cow's shoulder bone found in Buffalo Cave; it bore both Ferris and Powell's names and the inscribed date of 1885. A cement water trough near Little Prairie Waterhole stands as one of the few reminders that livestock grazing met little success in the harsh environment. After nearby settlers found no substantial grazing lands or water supplies, they generally left Craters of the Moon alone. As a result, lands worth farming or ranching around the monument filled, and as the open range closed, the monument's lava fields stood silent and undeveloped, "islands" of "desolate wastes." [14]

Formal interest in the area's uniqueness awaited the 20th century. Science discovered the region in 1901 when Israel C. Russell led the first government exploration of the area's northern section for the United States Geological Survey. He named the region "Cinder Buttes," and was so impressed that he returned in 1903. [15] Government investigations lapsed for several decades, and for a time the interior remained virtually unknown.

In the meantime, however, area residents had grown more inquisitive and discovered the region for themselves. The most well-known local explorer was Samuel A. Paisley. A recent Arco arrival and the future monument's first custodian, Paisley traveled across the lava terrain for the first time in 1910. Enthusiastic about the formations he encountered after several trips, he helped promote the area. In the years leading to its establishment, for example, he escorted interested parties to the volcanic sites, and along with nearby ranchers and civic groups, built trails to some of the popular attractions and erected signs. [16] Furthermore, the lava region held a mythical and mysterious image in local minds that generated intrigue. As the story of the "Lost Valley of the Lavas" suggests, the expanse of unexploited volcanic landscape was thought to contain a hidden valley of lush grass, abundant water and wildlife--the stuff of legends. [17]

Although there is little evidence about the extent of public activity and exploration of Craters prior to the early 1920s, Paisley's services suggest that residents from the surrounding communities were beginning to view the region for its scenic and recreational values. With the advent of automobiles, the lava formations were more accessible, and more people drove to see them using Goodale's Cutoff, now a primitive road linking Arco with Hailey. One account describes a Sunday outing by a "party of Arcoites [who] visited the ancient craters and their surroundings, viewing the scenes where the Devil and Mother Earth cut up `high jinks' when she was young and gay and giddy." The popularity of the area was not restricted to sightseers alone. For leading the group was someone other than Paisley. Era Martin, the nephew of Frank Martin, was the designated guide. His ranch adjoined the present monument's northern boundary, and his knowledge of the lava beds was acute, his "interest in its curiosities...contagious." [18]

However scant, these narratives evince a shifting opinion in the first two decades of the 20th century. Recognition of the volcanic landscape as unique was causing the previous aversion to the Craters to fade. Less concerned with other destinations, and more settled in the region, people modified the opinions expressed by earlier observers. As individuals grew to better understand the lava fields, "scenic" and "scientific" replaced "desolate" and "dismal."