Craters of the Moon Administrative History

Chapter 7:
RECREATION MANAGEMENT

WINDSHIELD TOURISTS AND EXTERNAL THREATS

Recreation management shifted somewhat in the mid-1950s with the onset of the Mission 66 program. Although Superintendent Aubrey Houston raised the idea of constructing a winter sports area at the monument as a method to raise revenues for needed development projects, the Park Service instead concentrated on the development program outlined by Mission 66. [22] The 1956 Mission 66 prospectus symbolized the theme of automobile tourism. Driving rather than hiking was now the American public's preferred mode of access. In this plan, Superintendent Everett Bright noted that improved roads and trails, as well as interpretive programs, would assist in boosting recreational opportunities. [23]

Subsequent management plans concentrated on improving recreation where visitor use would most likely be felt--in the traditional and primary visitor activities. An extension of the loop road around Big Cinder Butte represented one way to expand on sightseeing and interpretation; another was to create more entrances and lighting in the developed caves, and to remodel the present campground into a picnic area and construct a campground twice as large in the northern unit. [24]

Although these plans did not unfold as conceived, they demonstrate Craters of the Moon's management philosophy of encouraging recreation in the lava landscape. A further statement of this commitment, for instance, has been the monument's promotion of primitive outdoor activities in the newly created wilderness in 1970. A more recent variation has been to allow backcountry hiking, biking, and possibly skiing in the foothills of the northern unit. [25]

Recreation within Craters of the Moon's boundaries is more easily controlled than those outside them. To date Craters of the Moon has avoided the clashing values of recreational development and the preservation of natural and cultural resources within the monument because no conflicts have arisen. Currently, the threat of external development revolves around the potential of such developments to occur. The Blizzard Mountain Ski Area, a small operation near the northeastern boundary, for instance, never posed a real threat having run intermittently since its inception in 1962. Superintendent Roger Contor even noted that the ski area's existence relieved the monument of the pressure to development such an installation. [26] On the northwestern boundary, development of a tract of 2,700 acres of private land in the Big Cottonwood drainage has simmered for more than a decade. Development concepts include winter and summer resort activity, which, given the right economic climate, could severely impact monument resources. And as recent comprehensive management plans have addressed, regional recreational developments could also affect the monument. [27]

All things considered, Craters of the Moon contains a variety of outdoor pursuits for visitors in a relatively small landscape. The loop drive and attendant trails enable tourists to sightsee as well as to take short hikes to and among the monument's outstanding features. Wilderness and backcountry areas add a more primitive dimension to recreation. As recent development plans indicate, the nature of the visitor is changing. Overnight camping in a day-use area has increased, the appearance of recreational vehicles has surged, and the visitor season has expanded. As a result, the general development plan calls for expanding campground facilities and renovating the monument's road system to accommodate these trends. While it is difficult to predict the future, these trends seem to indicate that the traditional center of recreational activity, the frontcountry, will feel the greatest effects. [28]

Auto camping at Craters of the Moon National Monument, ca. 1931.
(CRMO Museum Collection)