Scotts Bluff Administrative History

PART II:
Operating The National Monument (continued)

MAINTENANCE: THE SUMMIT ROAD AND ROCK SLIDES

Rock slides along the summit road have occurred since the road was first built during the Depression. The fear that a major slide might someday injure or kill people is a constant concern for Scotts Bluff administrators. There have been many solutions proposed, the most radical being to abandon the road and construct a sky train or lift up to the summit.

In late 1965 and early 1966, a major step was taken to stabilize the cut rock slopes above the summit road. Concentration was placed on the area of the bluff between the second the third tunnels. A bid of $29,831.50 by a local contractor was accepted in the fall of 1965 to scale loose overhang material from the bluff walls. The project was supervised by the Bureau of Public Roads and the final phase was completed by May 1966. A tinted gunite, or shotcrete, layer was applied to a potion of the wall in hopes that the hard covering would eliminate dangerous rockfalls. [47]

A review of the work was conducted in October 1966. The tinted gunite, upon thoroughly drying, failed to assume either a consistent, uniform color, or blend in naturally with the sand- and siltstone. The reviewer commented, "Although the shot-crete [sic] treatment is holding well, its appearance is much less than satisfactory since the coloring agent left an effect similar to a pinto horse." [48]

Two separate rockslides occurred on August 12, 1967, and both times visitors' cars were trapped above the slides for two hours while one lane of the road was cleared by hand shovels to allow the visitors to drive away. These slides blocked the road between the second and third tunnels, beyond the previous stabilization work. Contractor's equipment was used and by noon, the next day, the road was cleared of debris. Superintendent Holder reported:

These occasional slides will continue to occur, and it appears to be impossible to pin-point the potential trouble spots. Nothing short of back sloping and guniting the entire wall will solve the problem, and this would no doubt be prohibitively expensive. An engineering study, however, would be welcome. [49]

Architect Vance L. Kaminski from the Midwest Regional Office was dispatched to survey the problem. He noted that the poor color match of the gunite patch "still appears as a scar on the hillside," and added:

Attempts to stabilize the slopes have apparently been only partly successful. A potentially hazardous condition still exists. We have been fortunate that a car was not driving by at the moment one of these major slides occurred.

I suggest that we open the subject to further study, and include the possibility of abandoning the road entirely, and using an aerial tramway to transport visitors to the summit. [50]

Two years later, on June 27 and 28, 1969, the A. C. Smith Company of Scottsbluff scaled a dangerous overhang from the summit road above the 1966 gunite blanket for $885.75. [51] On April 1, 1970, D.C. Harrington, Chief of the Federal Highway Projects Division of the Federal Highway Administration, informed the Park Service that the four-year old gunite patch was deteriorating and should be removed. He recommended taking the failing shotcrete off, sealing the surface walls with a waterproofing substance, and then applying a thin membrane solution. For added safety, Harrington suggested that "cable drapes" of chain link fencing suspended on cables over the bluff above the road to control any future rockfalls. [52]

The Midwest Regional Director concurred that the 1966 patch had failed, but only authorized the removal of the gunite, to clean or scale any loose material, and to leave the bluff exposed. [53]

The gunite patch, which continued to break, bulge, and shift, did not wait for the contract for its removal to be awarded. Without warning, the center quarter section of the gunite broke loose and crashed onto the roadbed below. As with past rockslides, no cars were traveling on the road beneath and no one was injured. With one lane blocked and another portion of the gunite loose and threatening to fall, the entire road was closed. The A. C. Smith Company was paid $768.62 over the next two days to remove the debris. The cost for removing the remaining gunite was set as high as $30,000. [54]

The next major scaling project was a $2,000 contract in 1975. An operations evaluation team reported on the problem:

It would seem to us that any legitimate effort to increase the safety of visitors along the bluffs road by scaling these rocks would require a much more concentrated and expensive effort than this. In addition, we would doubt that even the most massive effort to clean the cliffs of falling rock hazards would be absolute. Consequently, we wonder if minimum efforts such as the proposal for the $2,000 scaling job aren't just "window dressing" or just a show of good faith to protect us from tort claims. [55]

A major rockslide occurred in late August 1980. An estimated 5,000 tons of debris in depths up to 30 feet blocked 150 feet of roadway. One family from Seattle was trapped at the summit for several hours until a narrow path could be cleared. Emergency funds of $5,000 were appropriated from the NPS Washington Office to clean up the slide. The road, constructed from cement, was not badly damaged, but 20 feet of curb and sidewalk were crushed and needed to be replaced. The summit road was closed to visitors for eight days. [56] The most recent rockslides of significant size occurred in the summer of 1982 when approximately 500 cubic yards of material became displaced over a period of 10 days, once again trapping visitors for a short time. The park subsequently adopted a policy of temporary road closures following extremely heavy rains. [57]

No permanent management decision has been made to resolve the rockslide problem on the summit road. While many alternative actions have been suggested, the status quo remains the modus operandi, and park administrators continue hoping that no tragedy will occur. Another in a long line of stopgap measures, a 1983 cyclic maintenance project included some minor scaling and initiated an engineering study directed toward resolving the problem. [58]

GENERAL PARK MAINTENANCE: A CHRONOLOGICAL ACCOUNT

The NPS physical plant at the monument was largely complete by the beginning of World War II, and many additions and improvements have been made in the ensuing decades. What follows is a chronological account of maintenance projects worthy of note (excluding summit road stabilization) since the compilation of Harris' administrative history.

1959: Construction of interpretive signs was completed. The signs included five located in the ruts, of the Oregon Trail; the "High Point" sign on the summit; signs marking the Summit-Museum Trail and Jackson Campsite; routed aluminum signs at Mitchell Pass and the South Summit Overlook; the Hiram Scott bronze plaque on the summit; and an interpretive sign at Scotts Spring. [59]

1964: A precision chemical solution feed pump for water chlorination was installed in April. Contamination of the monument's water supply, which occurred each July since the beginning of the decade, was eliminated. [60] A move to standardize the "bewildering variety" of interpretive signs and markers was also initiated. Murray George of the Midwest Regional Office was dispatched to formulate a Sign and Wayside Exhibit Plan intended to formalize and standardize the monument's sign program. The effort marked the first attempt to accomplish this goal since the 1919 establishment. [61]

1965: A new trail to the amphitheater ("campfire circle") behind the visitor center was built. Two floodlights and four trailside lamps were also erected. [62]

Other trail construction involved the Summit Trail. The lower reach of the trail (Route 1) from Scotts Spring to the summit became "so deeply eroded by water, wind and pedestrian traffic" that it was a hazard to visitors. Not only this unpaved portion of the trail, but the section from the concrete stairway (Station 72) to the Saddle Rock turn (Station 65) was condemned as unsafe. Chief of Area Services Charles J. Novak reported to the Regional Office:

Overhead rock spalls, a high cliff with vertical and overhanging walls paralleling the trail's edge and unstable material along the cliff edge are the factors constituting the safety hazard. . . . Possibilities are not remote that trail users may be struck by rocks falling from the cliffs above them, they may step or fall over the edge of the cliff or the cliff edge may slide out beneath their feet. [63]

Novak recommended a bypass be constructed between Stations 78 and 63 to obviate the hazard. The bypass, completed by 1966, reduced the length of the Summit Trail by 1,000 feet. [64]

1966: Modernization of the public comfort stations, paving 600 feet of the Saddle Rock Self-Guiding Nature Trail, and rehabilitation of the William Henry Jackson Room were major maintenance projects in 1966. [65]

1967: The obliteration of the Mitchell Pass concrete pull-off on Nebraska 92 was completed. It marked the eradication of another visual intrusion on the historic setting of Mitchell Pass. [66]

1969: The Bicycle Trail paralleling Nebraska 92 linking up to a similar trail to be built by the city of Gering was paved with black asphalt. [67]

1972: The maintenance shop space was insulated and heated, and a new florescent lighting system was installed in the administrative offices. Emergency work was done on the Summit Trail. Neighborhood Youth Corps workers helped clean and patch 1.6 miles of the trail which was blocked and damaged by a rockslide. Repair work was also done on the summit road with 75 percent of it receiving crack and joint sealing. Another revamp of the sign program was done as the monument changed to a new Servicewide sign system. One-half of the interpretive signs were refinished. [68]

1974: The maintenance division facilities were augmented with the construction of a maintenance shop in the utility area. [69]

1975: The visitor center fire alarm system was improved and the symbolic (International) sign program was finished. [70]

1977: With the acquisition of the Country Club property, the clubhouse, pool, and outbuildings were obliterated and the reclamation of the area to native grassland was begun. [71] Fee collection was interrupted during September and October with the construction of a new fee collection station.

1980: Minor patching of a six-inch-thick concrete roof on the Superintendent's Residence (Quarters #11) was done. [72]

1981: With budgetary constraints, the maintenance staff was the smallest it had been for decades as most seasonal and contracted help was eliminated. Painting all of the structures in the headquarters area was done under the cyclic maintenance program. An addition to the maintenance shop, several new bays and a curatorial storage area, was constructed by NPS employees. [73]