Mount Rainier Administrative History

PART FIVE: CONTENTIOUS YEARS, 1945-1965

XVI. MISSION 66 FOR MOUNT RAINIER (continued)

ROADS AND TRAILS

When the NPS initially spelled out Mission 66 for Mount Rainier, the development plan included an estimated $4,265,000, or 42 percent of the estimated total investment, for construction and improvement of roads. The main projects were (1) completion of the Stevens Canyon Road, (2) construction of the new winter access road to Paradise (now called the Paradise Loop Road, because it allowed traffic to flow in a loop through Paradise Valley during the summer), and (3) improvement of the Westside and Mowich Lake roads. This constituted the third and final spate of road-building in the development of the park.

Road development was central to the basic thrust of Mission 66, which aimed to head off overcrowding by dispersing visitors more widely around the park. Most day-use visitors were highly mobile, dependent on their cars, and essentially roadbound. NPS planners thought that by modernizing the park infrastructure to suit the day-use visitor, they could keep traffic flowing, reduce the feeling of crowding, and thereby increase the park's visitor carrying capacity. To this end, the driving tour would be encouraged; the car, the road, and the wayside exhibit would increasingly frame the common visitor experience at Mount Rainier. The Park Service's March 1956 press release on Mission 66 for Mount Rainier said as much when it announced that "numerous scenic overlooks, picnic areas and campgrounds provided in the 10-year program will encourage the dispersal of visitors over a wide area and [will] reduce the damaging overcrowding at Paradise and other popular centers within the park." [63] A memo on Mission 66 dated August 31, 1956, expressed even greater enthusiasm about the potential for roads to disperse the public: "This entire road system will be treated in such a way that the visitor will enjoy numerous scenic, recreational, and interpretive experiences as he drives through the park." [64]

Stevens Canyon Road

Although the completion of the Eastside Road in 1940 had finally given the park a through-road, few park visitors used the road connections with U.S. Highway 410 and U.S. 12 to make a grand loop around Mount Rainier. To fulfill the longstanding idea of an around- the-mountain auto trip it was necessary to tighten the loop. That was the main purpose of the Stevens Canyon Road. Motorists would be able to make a complete trip around the mountain leaving Seattle or Tacoma in the morning and returning the same day. A secondary purpose was to connect the two main centers of the park at Paradise and Sunrise in order to improve administrative efficiency.

Local business interests saw the completion of the Stevens Canyon Road as a potential boon. If it were possible to explore both sides of the park without having to drive out of the park, they reasoned, then Mount Rainier might attract more of the kind of destination tourists that the park's boosters had always desired to attract. For the Rainier National Park Advisory Board's Elmun R. Fetterolf, it seemed that "the completion of this highway will do much to hold visitors within the park area." [65] The RNPC was skeptical about what the through-road would do for its hotel business, but it entertained high hopes for a lucrative around-the mountain transportation service. Martin Kilian, owner and operator of the Ohanapecosh Hot Springs concession, believed that the completion of the Stevens Canyon Road would bring substantially more business to the southeast corner of the park. [66]

Completion of the Stevens Canyon Road was the most anticipated Mission 66 project for Mount Rainier. This is opening day, September 4, 1957. (Richard Neal photo courtesy of Mount Rainier National Park.)

No one could predict with any certainty how the completion of the Stevens Canyon Road would affect visitor use. Some park planners anticipated that the Stevens Canyon Road would entice a considerable percentage of day-use visitors to enter the park from one side and exit from the other, thereby spreading use more evenly around the park. Others thought that an overnight center in the lower part of Stevens Canyon would be needed to draw people away from Paradise and Sunrise, or cautioned that the new road might attract large numbers for the first few years and then fall into disuse. [67] The Mission 66 committee optimistically predicted that completion of the Stevens Canyon Road would "revolutionize the present travel pattern within the park." [68] Skeptics predicted--most accurately as it turned out--that the vast majority of day-use visitors would continue to drive to either Paradise or Sunrise and return by the same road.

Construction of the Stevens Canyon Road had begun in 1931, with most of the right-of-way reaching completion by World War II. After an eight-year hiatus, construction of the Stevens Canyon Road resumed in 1950. Between 1950 and 1952, contractors built bridges at the Muddy Fork and Nickel Creek, viaducts below Stevens Creek, a tunnel near the Muddy Fork, and masonry retaining walls and parapets. By the summer of 1952, the road was passable to trucks and was used to a limited extent for administrative purposes. [69] Mission 66 provided the last burst of funds to bring the project to completion, 25 years after it was begun. By then, the Stevens Canyon Road was no longer the biggest item in the park's road construction program; this honor belonged to the new winter road from Narada Falls to Paradise. But the long anticipated road had the highest public profile. The road was opened to the public in the summer of 1957.

Paradise Loop Road and Parking

Mission 66 for Mount Rainier included construction of a new road from Narada Falls to Paradise. The road began at Marmot Point and ascended the mountain by switchbacks to the relatively level ground known as Barn Flat which stretched to the south of the Paradise Lodge. The road had a dual purpose: in summer, it would form a loop with the existing road through Paradise Valley, easing weekend traffic congestion; in winter, it would provide a safer route to Paradise, obviating the need to use the avalanche-prone section of road at the lower end of Paradise Valley.

The Paradise area had always been plagued by a shortage of parking, and it was clear that the new road would not alleviate this situation by itself; additional parking space must be developed, too. Mission 66 aimed to double or triple the amount of parking. The main question was whether to put the additional parking space underground, on the surface, or in a multi-level enclosed structure. The architectural model for this last option was the new, eleven-story Downtown Center Garage in San Francisco. To build a large parking garage in a national park was a novel concept and certainly pointed up the dimension of the parking problem. Although the plans for underground or multi-level parking were eventually rejected in favor of additional parking space on the surface, it is worth reviewing the arguments for and against such a development.

The main argument in favor of underground or multi-level parking was that either one would take up less ground surface and reduce the amount of scarring of the landscape. The plan for underground parking envisioned two or three sublevel floors of parking underneath a new day-use building; it would be the least obtrusive, visually. The plan for an above-ground parking garage envisioned a concrete structure similar to the one in San Francisco, but with exterior walls made of reinforced concrete in order to brace the building against inclement weather and snowloads. Another advantage to both of these designs was the fact that they would obviate the need for snowplowing the existing parking lot or any additional parking lots. [70]

The disadvantages varied between the underground and above-ground parking garages. The main drawback of the underground parking garage was that it was thought to be prohibitively expensive--perhaps $3 million (in addition to the cost of the day-use building above it). The above-ground parking garage would be expensive, too--perhaps $2,250,000 for 1,200 parking stalls. But it had the further disadvantage that it would be unsightly and unappealing to use. The aesthetics of parking would be especially important during the summer, when visitors would have a choice of parking in the open air near the Paradise Inn or driving into a parking structure. Certainly they would prefer the former. If the government were to build a parking garage and try to recover some of the cost by charging parking fees, it would not do to have the parking garage serve as overflow parking, standing empty and not drawing any revenue most of the time. [71]

Westside and Mowich Lake Roads

Mission 66 for Mount Rainier provided the clearest statement of policy on road development for the west side in twenty years. It can be viewed as a turning point for that section of the park. The Westside and Mowich Lake roads would be improved, but they would not be extended or joined together as originally intended. The area in between the ends of these two roads would be retained in a wilderness condition. The Park Service' s emphasis on wilderness values on the west side was not seriously contested until many years later, when road and campground closures brought protests from some user groups.

It will be recalled that the original plan was for the Westside Road to connect with the Carbon River Road, forming a leg in the eventual around-the-mountain road. Later, the steep topography around Ipsut Pass convinced NPS officials to modify the plan such that the Westside Road would exit the park near Mowich Lake. Rather than forming a leg in an around-the-mountain road, the Westside Road would create a spectacular loop drive intersecting the west side of the park. To get this started, Pierce County was encouraged to build a road to the park boundary west of Mowich Lake, and the NPS would complete the Westside Road via the North Puyallup Canyon, Sunset Park, the Mowich River, and Mowich Lake. In 1931, road crews completed clearing work on the right-of-way approximately half the distance from the North Puyallup River to Sunset Park; in 1932, the road was opened to cars as far as the North Puyallup River. At the other end of the road, meanwhile, the county had a passable road completed to the park boundary by 1933, when the new park entrance was dedicated in honor of Dr. William Tolmie's visit to the area exactly one hundred years earlier. But then people began to express doubts about the project.

Landscape Architect Ernest A. Davidson offered the most forceful criticism of the Westside Road in 1934. He wrote,

Surely the most rabid road enthusiast will agree that highways enter a satisfactory number of spectacular canyons about Mt. Rainier when he finds that roads and highways enter Nisqually Canyon, Stevens Canyon, Cowlitz Canyon, Ohanapecosh Canyon, White River Canyon, Carbon River Canyon, Tahoma Creek Canyon, South Puyallup Canyon and North Puyallup Canyon... .This has carried highway development far enough for a small park. [72]

Others expressed similar concerns, and road development on the west side was all but suspended. On September 9, 1938, Secretary of the Interior Ickes advised that no further road construction would be authorized in Mount Rainier after the completion of the Stevens Canyon Road, and Director Cammerer had the master plan revised accordingly. [73]

Responding to public pressure after World War II, Superintendent Preston and Landscape Architect Vint proposed to complete the six miles of road from the park boundary to Mowich Lake so that Pierce County would have something to show for its investment. [74] Regional Director Tomlinson argued that this would only excite more demand--demand for completion of the Westside Road as envisioned earlier, demand for overnight accommodations at Mowich Lake, and possibly even demand for development of another ski area at Spray Park. In short, Tomlinson visualized all the difficulties of Paradise being duplicated on the northwest side of the mountain.

The surfacing of the road will head us squarely into all the difficulties of a dead-end road which would open one of the choice areas of the park nearer to centers of population than any of the other developed areas of the park. Not only will pressure develop for overnight accommodations, but there will be increasing demand for facilities for winter use of the area. [75]

Tomlinson won his point, and the road was not opened to Mowich Lake until 1955. By then, it was evident that there would be no serious pressure for overnight accommodations or ski facilities in that area.

Mission 66 provided funds for repairs and resurfacing of the whole length of the Westside Road.

Trails

Park staff predicted in 1955 that backcountry use would increase over the next ten years but to a lesser extent than total visitation. [76] Citing the fact that the park already had 290 miles of trails, Mission 66 for Mount Rainier gave trail development low priority. The Mission 66 development plan did include two major trail projects, however.

The first trail project was to build a new trail between Paradise and Indian Bar. The trail would replace sections of the Wonderland Trail which had been obliterated by the Stevens Canyon Road. Some wanted a highline route along Stevens Ridge. The highline route was rejected, however, which left this southern segment of the Wonderland Trail within sight and sound of automobile traffic on the Stevens Canyon Road. [77]

The second trail project, called the Tatoosh Trail, was intended to connect the Pinnacle Peak Trail and the Eagle Peak Trail. Starting at the saddle of Pinnacle Peak, the trail was to traverse along the crest of the Tatoosh Range to the shoulder of Eagle Peak, providing a spectacular alternative route between Reflection Lake and Longmire. (The existing route paralleled the road except where it went up the lower Paradise River Valley, below Ricksecker Point to Narada Falls.) For reasons that remain unclear, the Tatoosh Trail was never built.

Taken together, these two projects appear to have been aimed at mitigating the effects of the Stevens Canyon Road on wilderness use. The Mountaineers had expressed concerns about the completion of that road. Had the two trails been built, they would have given Wonderland Trail hikers a spectacular highline route all the way from Longmire to Summerland, with only the single road crossing at Reflection Lakes. Instead, with neither a trail along the crest of the Tatoosh Range nor a trail over Stevens Ridge, hikers of the Wonderland Trail had no alternative but to take the old Caner Falls Trail from Longmire to Reflection Lakes and the new Stevens Canyon Trail from Reflection Lakes to Box Canyon. From the standpoint of the around-the-mountain hiker, the south side segment of the Wonderland Trail left much to be desired compared to the west, north, and east sides after the opening of the Stevens Canyon Road.

CAMPGROUNDS AND PICNIC AREAS

Mission 66 for Mount Rainier included plans to develop 1,200 new camping and picnic sites, or nearly four times what the park already had. The goal was to be able to accommodate 3,500 additional visitors per day by 1966. Two key components of the plan were to separate day use and overnight use areas, and to locate the latter almost entirely at low elevations. As in the case of road development, NPS planners expressed optimism that new campgrounds and picnic areas could disperse use more widely through the park. These developments would "enable the Park to absorb two or three times its present travel, satisfy more fully the needs of all visitors, and do so without further encroachment upon or impairment of the primary scenic areas." [78]

In 1956, the park had eight campgrounds and nine picnic areas, some of them quite small and primitive. There were three campgrounds at high elevations (one at Paradise and two at Yakima Park), and five at low elevations (Longmire, Ohanapecosh, White River, Ipsut Creek, and Tahoma Creek). The Mission 66 development plan proposed to expand the five campgrounds at low elevation, while keeping the campgrounds at Paradise and Yakima Park small with a view to eliminating them altogether eventually. It also proposed new campgrounds and picnic areas at Sunshine Point, Mowich Lake, and Klickitat Creek, and new picnic areas at Stevens Creek, Box Canyon, Cayuse Pass, and Tipsoo Lake. [79]

This scheme was modified somewhat in the course of the ten-year program. A new campground and picnic area were laid out at Paradise in the meadow known as Barn Flat, and the old campground was abandoned. The old CCC-built campground and picnic area at Sunrise (near Shadow Lake) was rehabilitated and the smaller campground beside the visitor center was converted to a picnic area. At Ohanapecosh, a steel bridge was built across the Ohanapecosh River and several new loops were added to the campground. Additional loops were added to the south and east sides of the Longmire campground, and the Ipsut Creek and White River campgrounds were enlarged as planned. Small campgrounds were established at Mowich Lake and Sunshine Point. Plans for the campground and picnic area at Klickitat Creek were abandoned, and instead a large campground and picnic area was built at Cougar Rock, two miles up the road from Longmire. [80]

Campground and picnic area at Sunrise, July 1960. Mission 66 called for the development of 1,200 new camping and picnicking sites mostly at lower elevations in order to disperse visitor use and alleviate crowded conditions such as seen here. (J. Boucher photo courtesy of Mount Rainier National Park.)

MUSEUMS AND WAYSIDES

The Mission 66 development plan sought to integrate all areas of park development into a unified whole. As part of that plan, the Mission 66 committee crafted an interpretive program for the park that would serve the day visitor better and would assist with the overall goal of spreading use more evenly throughout the park. The interpretive program had two main elements: a decentralized museum plan that divided the park story between four museums at Longmire, Paradise, Sunrise, and Ohanapecosh; and an emphasis on wayside exhibits that facilitated self-guided automobile tours of the park. Mission 66 was a turning point in the evolution of Mount Rainier's interpretive program both in terms of design and funding.

Like other elements of the Mission 66 development plan, the interpretive program sought to take into account changes in the visitor use pattern since World War II. Statistics compiled on the number of visitor "contacts" made by the interpretive program from 1940 to 1956 demonstrated the declining effectiveness of the interpretive program in the face of this changing pattern of visitor use:

Visitor Contacts by Interpretive Program, 1940-1956

Travel Year	Total Visitors	Percent of Visitors Contacted by Interpretive Program
1940	456,637	70.6
1941	476,776	59.4
1942	343,575	56.1
1943	124,474	73.2
1944	135,277	50.4
1945	304,227	69.1
1946	470,903	65.2
1947	519,698	58.8
1948	570,053	69.4
1949	584,004	42.9
1950	573,685	72.1
1951	873,877	38.2
1952	877,388	46.7
1953	768,015	60.0
1954	794,955	61.2
1955	839,214	48.7
1956	850,747	45.3

Not only was total visitation rising in proportion to the number of naturalists on the park staff, but the number of local visitors was increasing in proportion to the number of out-of state visitors. It was the out-of-state visitors who were most likely to stay overnight in the park, attend interpretive programs, and visit the park museums. Local visitors were most inclined to come only for the day and make their own way around the park. Local visitors might take advantage of wayside exhibits or, at most, stop at a museum. Wayside exhibits and museums seemed to be the best means of serving this group.

Another important feature of the Mission 66 development program was the "visitor center." The idea of placing visitor information, park interpretive exhibits, and day-use facilities together in one building and encouraging park visitors to make the visitor center their first stop in the park was a significant innovation. The visitor center was an effective tool for managing visitor circulation and use, and other federal and state agencies and even private enterprises soon adopted it. [81] By the end of the Mission 66 era, Mount Rainier had two new visitor centers at Ohanapecosh and Paradise.

Museum Development

Mission 66 for Mount Rainier called for the development of three main visitor centers at Paradise, Sunrise, and Longmire, and three smaller establishments at Ohanapecosh, Crystal Creek, and on the south bank of the Nisqually River by Skate Creek Road. Of the six, only the first four would have museums. The latter two sites, located outside the park boundary, were later dropped from the plan. [82]

Anticipating that the typical day use visitor would have a very limited amount of time to peruse the museum exhibits, the plan called for a select number of exhibits in each museum that would focus on one aspect of the Mount Rainier story. At Paradise, the museum exhibits would emphasize the glacier story of Mount Rainier. The visitor center at Sunrise would present the story of volcanism at Mount Rainier. The Ohanapecosh visitor center would give the story of the lowland forests. At Longmire, the museum exhibits would emphasize the national park idea and local history. [83]

The origins of this plan could be traced back to Park Naturalist Brockman's museum prospectus of 1939, which was never fully implemented due to lack of funds. Park Naturalist Stagner updated the prospectus in 1947. The only significant change in museum design from that prospectus to the Mission 66 development plan was to reverse the subject matter of the museums at Paradise and Sunrise, presenting the glacier story at Paradise and the volcanic story at Sunrise. Stagner' s presence on the Mission 66 committee gave the Mount Rainier interpretive program a strong measure of continuity from the Brockman era to the Mission 66 era.

Mission 66 was imprecise about the facilities that would house these museums. The Sunrise museum was moved from the first floor of the south blockhouse to the camper's shelter in the late 1940s or early 1950s after the latter building was enclosed, and this became the Sunrise visitor center. At Ohanapecosh a new visitor center was completed in 1964. [84] But the visitor centers at Longmire and Paradise were more problematical. The initial press release on Mission 66 for Mount Rainier stated that the administration building at Longmire would be expanded into a visitor center. A subsequent press release on April 27, 1956 indicated that a new visitor center building would be constructed at Longmire, located such that it would face the mountain. As discussion of the administration building continued, however, Superintendent Macy and Assistant Superintendent Curtis K. Skinner argued strenuously against remodeling and expanding this old building to serve as the visitor center. Not only was the building situated without a view of the mountain, but the boulder facade on the walls would make it very difficult and costly to expand. [85] Eventually it was decided to forego construction of a new visitor center and an extensive remodel of the administration building. Instead, the existing museum building was moved across the plaza so that it would be near the administration building, and visitor services were divided between it and the front room of the administration building.

The visitor center at Paradise was the most controversial. Originally, the museum was to be housed in the Paradise Lodge, which would undergo extensive remodeling to serve as an all-season day-use building or visitor center. The Park Service's plans for Paradise became so embroiled in politics, however, that this plan was dropped in favor of the development of a large, new visitor center (described above).

Wayside Exhibits

Wayside exhibits fitted neatly with the intent of Mission 66 to disperse visitor use around the park. According to the Mission 66 development plan:

The road system will be given full interpretive treatment, with integrated roadside exhibits, informational signs, and markers. The idea behind this is to use the natural scene, interpreted by roadside exhibits and markers, to reveal a progressive story of the Mountain, its features, and their origin. This method of interpretation is well adapted to the characteristic day use pattern and to the mobility of visitors to this Park. The trip around the Mountain will become a continuous experience in seeing, understanding, and appreciating the natural scene. This development, too, will play its part in dispersing use, taking some of the load from Paradise and Sunrise, holding the visitor for a longer period along the road and in roadside developments, and making more of the Park interesting, appealing, and meaningful. [86]

Park officials originally viewed wayside exhibits as a stopgap measure with which to compensate for inadequate museum facilities and naturalist staffing. In the late 1940s, wayside exhibits were established at Tipsoo Lake and in the Kautz Creek flood area. Park officials were surprised by the immense popularity of these two exhibits, and began to consider that the "outdoor museum" idea might be the most effective means of communicating interpretive material to the public. [87] As Stagner observed in his museum prospectus of 1947,

The effectiveness of such devices in implanting an idea is enhanced by the fact that its exhibit material is the real object--not a photo or a model--but the natural feature itself; and by the fact that one idea only is presented in a single exhibit. Attention of the spectator is concentrated on only one object and that object is the real thing. A wayside exhibit is a supplement or an aid to a natural exhibit in place. [88]

Information booth near Box Canyon of the Cowlitz. A central goal of Mission 66 was to facilitate self-guided driving tours with wayside exhibits and information stations such as this. The interpretive program was redirected toward the day visitor. (Tyers photo courtesy of Mount Rainier National Park.)

Stagner proposed nine new wayside exhibits, which he considered to be only a modest start "considering the travel and recreational habits of the average visitor." These were (1) Nisqually forest exhibit, (2) Puyallup Canyon exhibit, (3) Longmire homestead cabin rehabilitation, (4) Nisqually Trail trailside exhibit, (5) Canyon Rim exhibit, (6) Reflection Lakes exhibit, (7) Box Canyon exhibit, (8) Tipsoo Lake exhibit, and (9) Carbon River forest exhibit. In addition, he proposed to establish "viewfinders" at Ricksecker Point and Sunrise Point, and "text signs" at Christine Falls, Narada Falls, Glacier Bridge, Ohanapecosh Hot Springs, White River Bridge, and beside the andesite columns on the road to Sunrise. [89] A decade later, most of these had been completed and the master plan called for a dozen more. [90]

The Park Service's enthusiasm for wayside exhibits may have reached a peak in the mid-1950s as the Stevens Canyon Road neared completion. This section of road was supposed to draw people away from Paradise and Sunrise, so it was not surprising that wayside exhibits should figure prominently along its length. At the lower end of the Stevens Canyon, the road crosses the Box Canyon of the Cowlitz. NPS officials planned to have a short trail to this remarkable natural feature, together with a picnic area, restrooms, and information station. Detailed plans were under way as early as 1954. By 1959, two years after the road opened, it was reported that Box Canyon was receiving a good deal of use, presumably taking pressure off other areas in the park. [91]

Mission 66 did not abandon the more traditional elements of the interpretive program--the guided walks and evening lectures--but it tried to maximize visitor contacts by putting ranger-naturalists where the day use visitors could be found. Thus, on summer weekends ranger-naturalists were posted at popular scenic overlooks and waysides like Ricksecker Point and Box Canyon in order to provide information to the steady stream of visitors who pulled off the road for a few minutes. A study made in July and August 1958 revealed that nearly half the motorists on the Stevens Canyon Road stopped at Box Canyon, typically for twenty to twenty-five minutes, and that this was one of the "finest contact areas in the park," with nearly one-fourth of the questions asked by visitors relating to natural history. [92]

As the park administration assigned more interpreters to wayside duty in order to reach the day-use visitors, campfire programs were limited to the larger campgrounds, and guided walks were offered only intermittently. Several self-guided nature walks were developed. The park's original self-guided nature walk, Trail of the Shadows, was improved with numbered sites along the trail matching numbered paragraphs in a leaflet the visitor could pick up free of charge at the trailhead.