Craters of the Moon Administrative History

Chapter 8:
INTERPRETATION

MISSION 66

Plans to improve the monument's interpretive capabilities climaxed with the Mission 66 program. Interpretation constituted a main focus of the management and development program. As Superintendent Everett Bright detailed in the monument's Mission 66 prospectus, the continued lack of facilities, personnel, and increased visitation caused Craters of the Moon to fall short of its interpretive objectives "as a scientific and recreational area." The approximately 120,000 visitors in 1956, for example, certainly experienced the monument in a physical and scenic sense but received virtually no educational experience, no real appreciation of the site's importance, no expanded understanding of what they were encountering. The Mission 66 interpretive concept remained unchanged from previous proposals, though the intent differed slightly. Managers wanted to help the visitor achieve a better knowledge of the area's resources and in doing so foster a sense of public responsibility to protect those resources.

As part of the Mission 66 program, the Park Service drafted a new museum prospectus and sign plan for the monument in the summer of 1956, and improved the monument's road and trail system by 1957. A combined visitor center and headquarters was finished in 1958, containing a lobby, museum, and offices. The visitor center formed the conceptual and structural heart of the interpretive program.

The interpretive design theme proposed and implemented by Mission 66 concentrated on self-guidance; it envisioned the visitor confronting the strange environment along the highway, pausing at several pullouts, and entering the monument to learn more about the volcanic landscape. The first stop was the visitor center itself, located strategically near the entrance, where audiovisual media and discussion with trained personnel introduced the public to the area. Upon leaving the information center, the visitor then traveled through the monument along an improved loop drive. The newly paved road circulated cars in one direction for most of the tour. Waysides and signs informed visitors about the sites, and those individuals wanting to explore the monument by foot could do so on several self-guided trails which were in place by the early 1960s. Personal activities such as guided walks, auto tours, and evening programs also complemented the physical improvements. [22]

Administratively, Mission 66 provisions led to an important stage in the interpretive program. Plans called for the creation of an interpretation division; prior to the late 1950s the superintendent and chief ranger shared the responsibility for running the program. Steps to alleviate this obstacle took place on July 8, 1956 when, in lieu of creating a permanent naturalist position, the Park Service split the ranger position into half-time duties as ranger and naturalist. Robert Zink, the monument's ranger who received this classification, stated that this new designation merely affirmed the double duties he had been active in for several years, leaving interpretation in the same status. [23] By July 1959, Superintendent Floyd Henderson created a permanent park ranger-naturalist position at the monument in order to better manage interpretation. And in October, David C. Ochsner assumed the position of the monument's first park naturalist, transferring from Olympic National Park. With his arrival, the monument officially had an interpretation division. [24]