Craters of the Moon Administrative History

Chapter 8:
INTERPRETATION

THE PROGRAM: PERSONAL SERVICES

Although the monument's physical landscape lends itself to a self-guiding format, managers have attempted to provide group activities that give a sense of one-to-one interpretation. These activities have involved guided walks, tours, campfire talks, and special programs. This type of interpretive approach continues to evolve since it requires proper funding, staffing, and visitor interest to maintain, unlike the self-guiding programs which tend to be more cost effective but lack the in-depth interpretation possible through personal services.

Personal Services:
GUIDED WALKS

One of the earliest forms of interpretation at the monument was guided tours of the area's features. Custodians in their capacity as lone managers during the 1920s and early 1930s engaged in this form of visitor service because of low visitation and lack of well-developed roads, trails, and signs. Custodian Paisley, for example, personally guided visitors through the monument, as he stated, taking "special pains to point out all of the attractions of note." In this regard, the custodian owned an added incentive, since Director Mather had granted him the special privilege of operating an exclusive guide service. While private services of this type arose later (Limbert briefly operated a guide service in 1927), subsequent managers employed similar interpretive activities, greeting visitors, familiarizing them with the area, and when possible leading them through it. [39] In this capacity, managers attempted to relate to individuals the area's significance and regulate, to a degree, resource impacts.

Guided hikes, however, did not officially join the interpretive program for several more decades. Reasons for this stem from the fact that staffing did not keep pace with rising visitation prior to World War II, and that the war years saw decreases in both personnel and visitation. By the early 1960s, bolstered by Mission 66 developments and expanded staffing, the monument's interpretive program once again included guided walks. In the summer of 1961, Superintendent Henderson experimented with nature walks and scheduled one conducted hike to the caves area on Sunday mornings. Henderson felt they were popular enough to increase to three a day if the monument could hire more naturalists. His optimism was short-lived. Two years later, Daniel Davis and his staff increased the walks to once a day on weekends, yet lack of visitor interest discontinued the activity by 1964. Attempts to develop guided walks, though, continued. At the suggestion of former Chief Park Naturalist Ed Menning, Superintendent Roger Contor reintroduced the activity on experimental basis in the summer of 1965. [40]

After several years experimentation paid off. Park Naturalist Dennis L. Carter reported that conducted hikes were quite successful, attendance was high, and they would be made a regular aspect of the interpretive program in the summer of 1968. They were to receive the primary attention of day-time personal services since the auto caravan had been discontinued two years earlier. The main interpretive emphasis would be natural history, since geology was well covered through other media. [41] The North Crater and Great Owl Cavern Trails were the main routes used. [42] By the summer of 1970, the monument had initiated a hike to Buffalo Cave, which, Superintendent Fritz announced, proved popular enough to become a regular feature of the program. [43] Fritz reported several deciding factors for the success and scheduling of these activities--climate and staffing. While daily morning walks were well attended, the monument abandoned an attempt at a mid-afternoon trip because the "combination of hot sun, the strong winds, and our transient visitation at this time of the day apparently made it rather undesirable." Attempts at creating an early-evening walk failed since the monument was understaffed (although day-use visitation patterns suggested a reason for this failure as well). [44] Other walks up Inferno Cone and to the Big Craters-Spatter Cones, North Crater, and Devil's Orchard have been attempted since the 1970s but suffered from low attendance and were cancelled; exploring lava tubes (or caves) seems to have provided more incentive for visitors. [45]

Today the nature hikes follow largely the same format as established in the early 1970s. High visitor interest, attendance, as well as the cool cave environment are determining reasons behind three daily Cave Area walks in the summer season. Though these walks do not provide enough time for in-depth interpretation, their popularity and practicality make them important services. Balancing this out, more in-depth coverage is offered on the two-hour walk to Buffalo Cave, which targets campers who wish to take a hike during the cool morning hours. [46]

Naturalist hike in the North Crater Flow, ca. 1963.
(CRMO Museum Collection)