Administrative History
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Craters of the Moon
Administrative History |
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Chapter 9:
DEVELOPMENTS
The Physical Plant:
BUILDINGS AND VISITOR FACILITIES
Like other developments, the history of structures and visitor facilities reflects the monument's environmental conditions and administrative evolution. Because of limited land space and a commitment to inflict the least impact on monument resources, the Park Service confined administrative buildings and visitor facilities to one location, the headquarters area. In addition, headquarters development evinces best perhaps the long history of neglect prior to the Mission 66 program. It suggests that the monument has indeed had two lives, for few structures remain of the period before Mission 66 construction, yet that does not diminish the significance of that early era.
The Early Years
All told there have been three headquarters sites. The first lasted from 1925 to 1927, and was situated at Cinderhurst Camp in the saddle between North Crater and Paisley Cone. Custodian Samuel Paisley chose this place because it was near the loop drive and Registration Waterhole. With few sources of water in the monument as convenient and plentiful, this location was vital for early visitors who "roughed it" in the desert environment. The area's buildings were modest at best. Paisley, lacking a construction budget, erected at his own expense a tiny wood-plank cabin that functioned as office and residence, registration booth, and interpretive center. To aid in interpretation, he constructed a small museum display case filled with lava specimens. Later, as funding allowed, he built two pit toilets and a small registration booth. [58]
As suggested by the first headquarters "complex," water was central to the headquarters design and the monument's survival. Recognizing this, Paisley urged the Park Service to develop a water system from the springs of Little Cottonwood Creek to the headquarters area. When planning the headquarters development in 1927, Civil Engineer Bert Burrell agreed with Paisley and recommended construction of a new site designed to take advantage of a new water system in a central location. The site envisioned for this was in the vicinity of the present campground. Here, a centralized and small compound would not only streamline administrative duties, but also provide the conveniences to which visitors were accustomed: running water, a modern campground, comfort stations, and a concessionaire's services.
In late July 1927 the monument waterhole levels dropped drastically and upon Burrell's advice, the new custodian, Robert Moore, relocated the headquarters to its second location, near the present-day campground entrance. It was sited on the west side of the recently constructed entrance road, directly across from the newly constructed Crater Inn, its three cabins, and gas station. The Park Service had insisted on this "dry site" for the concession to avoid depleting the finite water supply in return for a hook-up to the system when it was finished. Forced to haul water from Martin, the concession owner supplied water to both monument managers and visitors for four years. [59]
It was here as well that the monument designated its new campground. The former administrative site lacked the space for extensive auto camping, and the new area, the same as today's, offered room for 75-to-150 car camps. [60] Burrell chose this place over the northeast base of Grassy Cone as recommended previously by geologist Harold Stearns. Stearns included this section in his boundary expansion study because it was near water, the highway, and trees for shade--all ideal for camping. Burrell thought otherwise; it was too close to the highway, too far from the monument's main features and headquarters to administer properly, and too small an area for development. More importantly, it would have been too expensive to pipe water to the proposed campground as well as the headquarters area. [61]
By summer's end, Craters of the Moon's headquarters area consisted of its main components--custodian's cabin, outhouses, concession, and campground--all of which, with few additions, remained in place for the next thirty years. The main administrative theme of this era was improving and adding to these few facilities. Judging from the condition of its buildings, for example, one could say that Craters of the Moon existed in a destitute state until the mid-1950s. Small and remote, the monument indeed seemed to be a "second-class" site in terms of Park Service attention. Custodian Moore complained of the primitive working conditions in October 1929, wondering why the agency had not taken better care of what was to be "one of the most Scenic Wonders of the U.S." In this period of low appropriations and economic depression, the custodian had to make do with Paisley's one room, tar-papered shack, which served as living quarters and office. Small and cramped, "this shack is a great conductor of heat and cold...and the dust blows in when the wind blows, and some of it blows out too." [62]
Unfortunately for Moore, no improvements took effect until his departure. Coinciding with the completion of the water system and the era of trained managers, new quarters were not built until 1931. Trying to attract qualified ranger and friend Burton LaCombe to take the custodian job at the monument, Director Horace Albright agreed to fund construction of a new residence. Albright's consent came at the bidding of Yellowstone National Park Assistant Superintendent Joe Joffe, who related that the "most disgusting feature of the monument is the Government layout." More important was the fact that LaCombe's wife expressed profound disappointment in the monument's living quarters, adding impetus for a new structure. This latter reason underscored a new era in management at Craters of the Moon, one in which families would accompany staff to the isolated area, and thus heighten the need for adequate quarters and tolerable living conditions. A single-story, four-room log cottage was completed in early November 1931 near the campground entrance. LaCombe and his wife moved in after living the summer in a tent on the monument grounds. [63]
At this time, the Park Service also increased the monument's structures to assist in its administration. The log equipment shed (the log warehouse) was erected on November 13, 1932. [64] Moreover, a major step toward adding to the "comfort of the public," and tied directly to the presence of a water system, was the monument's first comfort station. Constructed ten years after the monument's establishment, the log comfort station, located in the campground, was completed on September 24, 1934, and paid for by Public Works Administration funds. [65]
The comfort station was one of several buildings contemplated in the master plans of the early 1930s, but funding limitations deferred a number of proposed structures, including a new administration building, residence, and checking kiosk to a later date. As of 1938, those needs were still unmet. Region Four Landscape Architect Earnest A. Davidson believed that these projects could be achieved through Civilian Conservation Corps assistance but both skilled labor and materials would be difficult to find. The winding down of the New Deal programs and the coming of World War II contributed to further setbacks, leaving the monument's facilities "hardly what could be adequate for present usage," Davidson said. [66]
By the early 1940s, the monument added to the headquarters area one temporary frame cabin for a ranger's quarters. The most notable additions, at this time, were four more log cabins built by the concession operator. [67] For the first time in monument design, Custodian McCarty argued against the use of log building materials, "as there is hardly a tree in the whole area, particularly in the vicinity of these cabins," making the log construction "entirely inappropriate." Instead McCarty favored "the use of lava rock masonry, of which there is a great quantity available" at the monument, which would also be less expensive than logs hauled from more than two hundred miles away. Assistant Regional Director B.F. Manbey agreeing with the custodian suggested that future construction at the monument be modeled after lava structures at Lava Beds National Monument; they seemed appropriate and to "blend in with the natural surroundings." [68]
The Park Service incorporated these and othe suggestions into a long-range planning process for the headquarters in the 1940s, which culminated in the Mission 66 program. By far the most penetrating analysis of the administrative developments was Regional Director Tomlinson's 1943 report that provided the essential "why" to future design. Writing during the war years, a time of low appropriations and low visitation, the regional director did not believe any major additions or changes were necessary at the time. In the future, however, he thought the current headquarters should be relocated about half a mile northwest to a site higher in elevation and at the junction of the monument highway and entrance road. His reasoning reflected that of Burrell's in 1927; given the monument's small staff, this "drive-through," central design was necessary to check visitors, collect entrance fees, issue auto permits, control traffic and provide information in a more efficient manner. The highway site was also appealing because it could expand the monument's intperpretive program; the slightly higher elevation offered a near-panoramic view of the lava flows, a good vista with which to introduce visitors to the monument. Other practical matters such as snow removal played a role in his decision, since the highway department plowed this section of road at no cost to the agency. [69]
The preliminary master plan of 1943 embodied Tomlinson's suggestions, calling for a new headquarters complex, with one building for offices and museum, and two five-room residences, near the highway just to the west of the current entrance road. The custodian's residence would then become staff quarters, and only one additional dorm and storage facility would be required. The plan, echoing McCarty's and Manbey's suggestions, also stipulated a change in building materials, ones which would be more sympathetic to the monument's environment as well as more practical. For all future buildings, lava, rather than logs, was to be used for its natural effect and its insulating qualities. [70]
The plans, however, lay dormant during the postwar years. Regional Architect Sanford "Red" Hill's statement in 1946--that Craters of the Moon was isolated and appeared to be neglected by the Park Service--held true for the following decade. Beginning in January 1950 Superintendent Aubrey Houston attempted to steer the monument toward improvements. He enunciated that the combined highway improvements, postwar travel increases, and a regional population boom were pressing the area beyond its administrative capacity. Stating that most of the monument's facilities were "substandard and obsolete," limiting his ability to hire more rangers to his staff, Houston advocated enacting Tomlinson's plan. His 1950 master plan renewed the regional director's proposal, noting that a concessioner wing be added to the structure. In this way, Houston believed, the Park Service could get rid of Crater Inn's unsightly buildings and "improve the appearance of the Government area as well." [71]
Agency planners agreed that the headquarters should be located at the junction of the monument highway and entrance, yet the location of the residential and utility area posed problems. The small land space might crowd the buildings. There were also considerations of snow drifting and development costs. The Park Service considered two alternative sites for the residential and utility areas. The first site was on the hill north and above the highway, and the second was near the former eastern entrance, above the highway as well, near today's group campground. Houston recommended the original location because it was the most practical compared to these two sites. Although limited in space, it was more cost effective, requiring less construction for utilities and roads; the alternative sites were also too far from the proposed administration area to manage the monument well. In order to make room for the new developments, the master plan recommended moving the entrance road to the west, dividing the headquarters complex, with the residential and utility area to the east and the administration building to the west. [72]
Even though a new headquarters area had been planned, lack of appropriations stymied construction, and Houston spent the next several years fighting for funding to achieve even a modicum of improvement. Attesting to this struggle, the superintendent reported in the spring of 1951 that with little or no preventative maintenance for ten years, the hard winter of 1950-1951 led to the disintegration of some buildings and the dilapidation of others. At this point, it was cheaper to build new ones than to repair the old ones. More importantly, inadequate housing was continuing to hurt the monument's administration. Recently, "three prospective Rangers declined appointment to the vacancy here because the only house available has no water and sewer system." [73]
Faced with severe reductions in Park Service budgets for construction and rehabilitation in the early 1950s, the superintendent managed to secure maintenance funds to improve the condition of monument buildings. Houston, seeking to satisfy one of his principal concerns, acquired several temporary buildings (shacks and fram tents) and remodeled them for employee housing, shop buildings, and a new office. For a time, Houston considered housing staff in the Crater Inn guest cabins. Despite these slight improvements, permanent housing was still insufficient; these structures were only good for the summer season, and the extreme winter conditions made it imperative to build year-round structures for a year-round duty station. Although construction projects met some needs, most proposals for additional residences, a kiosk, campground redesign, and new headquarters were put off until "later years." [74]
Mission 66
Those years arrived with Mission 66. As detailed in the 1956 prospectus, the headquarters in the mid-1950s consisted of the original structures with the addition of the temporary buildings serving as administrative office, housing, sign shop, and storage. In order to finally expand staff and meet the demands of climbing visitation (100,000 in 1955, having doubled in five years), the document proposed implementing the headquarters designs planned for over a decade. [75] In a sense, then, new facilities constructed during the Mission 66 era had the greatest impact on monument management, for they were intimately related to both visitor services and park personnel.
The main phases of construction occurred between 1957 and 1958, and established the monument's headquarters in its third location. Different from roads and trail programs, though, building construction created an entirely new look to the monument landscape. For example, the Park Service removed all but two of the former headquarters structures--the mixture of wood and log buildings--by July 23, 1958. Crater Inn met the same fate. Although Mission 66 plans originally provided for a concessioner in the new visitor center complex, the Service decided that Craters of the Moon should be a day-use site because of its short-staying visitor, thereby ending the need for a concession. Crater Inn's ramshackle condition and long struggle to stay in business also influenced the agency's decision. Most managers thought of the lodge as an eyesore and were happy to see its swift departure. The last of Crater Inn's buildings, sold at public auction, left the monument in November 1958. [76] With the former building sites restored to natural condition, the log comfort station in the campground and the log warehouse in the boneyard, having been deemed useful, survived as the only reminders of the monument's early era.
At the same time that old structures were coming down, new ones were going up. On the new site near the highway, construction crews broke ground for the new headquarters complex in March 1957. Finally the structures essential to the demands of present and future administrations were becoming reality. The utility and maintenance building was finished in December 1957; the visitor center--housing lobby, museum, five offices, workroom, as well as staff and public restrooms--was completed on March 3, 1958. Five residences were ready the following August; these were three three-bedroom houses and garages, one duplex, and one four-unit apartment. [77]
During this time as well, workers also supplied the headquarters area with a fence, a drinking fountain, entrance kiosk, secondary water and sewage systems, and an irrigation system. The area was also landscaped, the volcanic environment altered to look like a city park with lawns, trees, and shrubs. The Park Service planted non-native vegetation, such as quaking aspen and Douglas fir, as well as native limber pines and plants to create this atmosphere. In doing so, the agency also attempted to add privacy to an otherwise open residential area--adjacent to the monument highway, entrance, visitor center, and campground. Unfortunately, most of the conifers died, and the deciduous trees fared only slightly better in the harsh environment. Although some shrubbery and trees screened the housing area from the public for privacy, the issue was never fully resolved. [78]
Having done away with the amenities of a concession, the monument upgraded its small forty-eight unit campground and picnic area by grading and paving the road and clearing and leveling camping spaces. Thirty picnic tables, twenty-five fireplaces, and a new comfort station were also added and fully operational by September 20, 1959. [79]
Surveying the new headquarters in 1958, Superintendent Everett Bright's comment about moving into the visitor center registered the significance of the new developments. "This is quite a change from the 10' x 14' one room tent covered frame shack which served as office and headquarters for the past twenty-five years." [80] The spacious new administration facility, compared to the rather spontaneous development of the past headquarters area, was more cohesive, modernistic, and well-designed.
Reciting the rationale of past proposals, agency officials believed that the new "layout" was a success because it offered a "much better relationship to the natural features" than in the past. The "gem stone" masonry blocks used in the construction of the new monument buildings, although not lava rock, blended well with the lava terrain, whereas the former wood structures had tended to stand out in the sparsely vegetated, volcanic landscape. The headquarters, situated on a gentle slope, bounded on the northwest by the highway and on the south by the campground, afforded outstanding views of the lava formations. And most of all, Service officials concluded that the site was a success because the headquarters conformed with the compact design theme. Their opinion was influenced by two things--the belief that the monument would only be "administered by a relatively small staff," and the fact that land space among the volcanic flows was limited. "Consequently," according to the Mission 66 master plan, "a compact development integrating operations, interpretation and Management produces better control, greater conveniences and a better overall operating efficiency. Furthermore a closely knit development of this sort located in a somewhat desolate area makes possible to group facilities closer together to gain architectural unity in the development." [81]
The Physical Plant
Roads |
Trails |
Buildings/Visitor Facilities
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