Craters of the Moon Administrative History

Chapter 4:
LAND ISSUES AND LEGISLATIVE HISTORY

The Northern Unit:
THE 1928 PROCLAMATION: ADDING THE NORTHERN UNIT

Still to be worked out after the monument's creation was the question of boundaries. Establishment recognized the need to preserve and protect the lava formations along the rift zone, yet ignorance of the isolated district remained the primary barrier to designating appropriate lands. Work to rectify the problem began in 1925 when Max Gleissner of the USGS, with the assistance of the Idaho Bureau of Mines and Geology, conducted a topographical survey of the monument. In 1926 Stearns himself returned to complete his earlier geological reconnaissance and to begin a boundary revision study. In March 1927, he submitted his recommendations for boundary adjustments to the Park Service, enlarging the monument by about thirty-five square miles. Compared with the original boundary, this one gave the area "a more regular and geometric shape," hence making it "much more easily defined and administered." Furthermore, the document's main purpose was to exclude any undesirable land, and more importantly, to include "all of the scenic and [scientifically] important features that were left outside of the original boundary." [1]

In doing so, Stearns chose lands that were significant but also economically worthless; the geologist emphasized that except for a quarter mile, all of the proposed addition was covered with lava. The expanded boundaries, for instance, embraced such well-known sites as Amphitheater Cave, the Bridge of Tears, a large section of Vermillion Chasm, and all of the Blue Dragon Lava Flows. But "the most important and critical extension" was a "single square mile on the northwest corner of the monument." Section 34, T. 2 N., R. 24 E. contained Grassy Cone, a small section of the aa highway flow, and more significantly, access to a feasible water supply for camping. Except for scattered waterholes in the lavas, the monument was otherwise arid, and the geologist predicted water shortages and contamination, and hardship for tourists and campers alike. Thus, Stearns proposed that the Park Service create a campground in the more shaded and lush basin below Grassy Cone, file surface rights to Little Cottonwood Creek, build a reservoir at the spring above the Martin Mine, and pipe the water to monument land. Rather than have the Park Service acquire the water source for itself, Stearns believed his method would cause the least amount of conflict. He had chosen a section of the public domain that possessed mostly valueless timber, mineral, and grazing land, which was not the case a few miles north. [2]

Nonetheless, Stearns realized that soon the monument would require more water and a more secure source. Aware of this reality as well, the Park Service dispatched Civil Engineer Bert H. Burrell the following summer. Burrell believed that the monument's development and tourist appeal hinged on having an ample water supply. The one recommended by Stearns was not enough, and Burrell proposed expanding the boundary north to include the Little Cottonwood Creek watershed, namely the "numerous springs" of the stream's headwaters. In addition to water quantity, the engineer was concerned about water quality, asserting that his location would run less risk of contamination from livestock and wildlife than the chosen by Stearns. Several days after the engineer filed his July 21 report, water levels in the monument's waterholes dropped and in some cases disappeared. This crisis, as a result, caused the Park Service to immediately seek expansion, incorporating both Burrell's and Stearns' recommendations. [3]

To this end, on July 23, 1928, President Calvin Coolidge enlarged Craters of the Moon National Monument "for the purpose of including...certain springs for water supply" as well as the addition of features of scientific significance. The proclamation increased the monument's size from thirty-nine to eighty-three square miles. The expanded area, unlike Stearns' proposal, included Sections 16, 21, 22, 25, 26, and 27 of T. 2 N., R. 34 E., around four thousand acres of the Pioneer Mountain foothills, of which the Little Cottonwood Creek watershed comprised twenty-three hundred acres. [4] As with the founding proclamation, this boundary adjustment passed quietly, the only point of controversy arising later, when the NPS attempted to construct an administrative water system.