Craters of the Moon National Monument and Preserve

Paleo-Indians visited the area about 12,000 years ago but did not leave much archaeological evidence.[14] Northern Shoshone created trails through the Craters of the Moon Lava Field during their summer migrations from the Snake River to the camas prairie, west of the lava field.[15] Stone windbreaks at Indian Tunnel were used to protect campsites from the dry summer wind. No evidence exists for permanent habitation by any Native American group.[15] A hunting and gathering culture, the Northern Shoshone pursued elk, bears, American bison, cougars, and bighorn sheep — all large game who no longer range the area.[15] The most recent volcanic eruptions ended about 2,100 years ago and were likely witnessed by the Shoshone people. Shoshone legend speaks of a serpent on a mountain who, angered by lightning, coiled around and squeezed the mountain until liquid rock flowed, fire shot from cracks, and the mountain exploded.[16]

Big Southern Butte was used as a landmark by pioneers.

Pioneers traveling in wagon trains on the Oregon Trail in the 1850s and 1860s followed an alternative route in the area that used old Indian trails that skirted the lava flows. This alternative route was later named Goodale's Cutoff and part of it is in the northern part of the monument.[17] The cutoff was created to reduce the possibility of ambush by Shoshone warriors along the Snake River such as the one that occurred at Massacre Rocks, which today is memorialized in Idaho's Massacre Rocks State Park.[18]

After gold was discovered in the Salmon River area of Idaho, a group of immigrants persuaded an Illinois-born trapper and trader named Tim Goodale to lead them through the cutoff. A large wagon train left in July 1862 and met up with more wagons at Craters of the Moon Lava Field.[17] Numbering 795 men and 300 women and children, the unusually large group was relatively unmolested during its journey and named the cutoff for their guide.[19] Improvements to the cutoff such as adding a ferry to cross the Snake River made it into a popular alternative route of the Oregon Trail.[19]

In 1879, two Arco cattlemen named Arthur Ferris and J.W. Powell became the first known people to explore the lava fields.[20] They were investigating its possible use for grazing and watering cattle but found the area to be unsuitable and left.

U.S. Army Captain and western explorer B.L.E. Bonneville visited the lava fields and other places in the West in the 19th century and wrote about his experiences in his diaries.[15] Washington Irving later used Bonneville's diaries to write the Adventures of Captain Bonneville, saying this unnamed lava field is a place "where nothing meets the eye but a desolate and awful waste, where no grass grows nor water runs, and where nothing is to be seen but lava."[21]

In 1901 and 1903, Israel Russell became the first geologist to study this area while surveying it for the United States Geological Survey (USGS).[14] In 1910, Samuel Paisley continued Russell's work and later became the monument's first custodian. Others followed and in time much of the mystery surrounding this and the other Lava Beds of Idaho was lifted.

The few whites who visited the area in the 19th century created local legends that it looked like the surface of the Moon. Geologist Harold T. Stearns coined the name "Craters of the Moon" in 1923 while trying to convince the National Park Service to recommend protection of the area in a national monument.[22]

Robert Limbert, a sometime taxidermist, tanner, and furrier from Boise, explored the area, which he described as "practically unknown and unexplored ..." in the 1920s after hearing stories from fur trappers about "strange things they had seen while ranging the region".

The black soil on Inferno Cone exhibits the properties Limbert wrote about.

Limbert wrote:

I had made two trips into the northern end, covering practically the same region as that traversed by a Geological Survey party in 1901. My first was a hiking and camping trip with Ad Santel (the wrestler), Dr. Dresser, and Albert Jones; the second was with Wes Watson and Era Martin (ranchers living about four miles [6 km] from the northern edge). The peculiar features seen on those trips led me to take a third across the region in the hope that even more interesting phenomena might be encountered.[23]

Limbert set out on his third and most ambitious foray to the area in May 1920, this time with Walter Cole and an Airedale Terrier to accompany him.[23][24] Starting from Minidoka, Idaho, they explored what is now the monument area from south to north passing Two Point Butte, Echo Crater, Big Craters, North Crater Flow, and out of the lava field through the Yellowstone Park and Lincoln Highway (now known as the Old Arco-Carey Road).[19] Taking the dog along was a mistake, Limbert wrote, "for after three days' travel his feet were worn and bleeding".[24]

A series of newspaper and magazine articles written by Limbert were later published about this and previous treks, which increased public awareness of the area. The most famous of these was an article that appeared in a 1924 issue of National Geographic where he called the area "Craters of the Moon," helping to solidify the use of that name. In the article he had this to say about the cobalt blue of the Blue Dragon Flows:

It is the play of light at sunset across this lava that charms the spectator. It becomes a twisted, wavy sea. In the moonlight its glazed surface has a silvery sheen. With changing conditions of light and air, it varies also, even while one stands and watches. It is a place of color and silence ...[3]

Management sections. Together the NPS Developed Area and NPS Wilderness Area made up the 1970 to 2000 extent of the Monument.

In large part due to Limbert's work, the 54,000-acre Craters of the Moon National Monument was proclaimed on May 2, 1924 by U.S. President Calvin Coolidge to "preserve the unusual and weird volcanic formations".[3][24][1] The Craters Inn and several cabins were built in 1927 for the convenience of visitors. The Mission 66 Program initiated construction of today's road system, visitor center, shop, campground and comfort station in 1956 and in 1959 the Craters of the Moon Natural History Association was formed to assist the monument in educational activities.[25] The addition of an island of vegetation completely surrounded by lava known as Carey Kipuka (air photo) increased the size of the monument by 5,360 acres (22 km²) in 1962.[25]

Since then the monument has been enlarged. On October 23, 1970, Congress set aside a large part of it—43,243 acres (175 km²)—as Craters of the Moon National Wilderness, protecting that part under the National Wilderness Preservation System.[26]

From 1969 to 1972, NASA visited the real Moon through the Apollo program and found that its surface does not closely resemble this part of Idaho. NASA astronauts discovered that real Moon craters were almost all created by meteorites while their namesakes on Earth were created by volcanic eruptions.[22] Apollo astronauts performed part of their training at Craters of the Moon Lava Field by learning to look for and collect good rock specimens in an unfamiliar and harsh environment.[27][28]

For many years, geologists, biologists and environmentalists have advocated for expansion of the monument and its transformation into a national park. Part of that goal was reached in 2000 when the monument was expanded 13-fold from 53,545 acres (217 km²) to its current size to encompass the entire Great Rift zone and its three lava fields.[29] The entire addition is called the Backcountry Area while the two older parts are called the Developed Area and Wilderness Area. Opposition by cattle interests and hunters to a simple expansion plan led to a compromise of having the addition become a national preserve in 2002 (which allows hunting, not ordinarily permitted in national parks and monuments in the U.S.). Craters of the Moon National Monument and Preserve is co-managed by the National Park Service and the Bureau of Land Management, both under the Department of the Interior.[29] In March 2017, the Idaho Senate voted in favor of petitioning Congress to designate Craters of the Moon a national park.[30]

This scoria field shows typical conditions at Craters of the Moon.

All plants and animals that live in and around Craters of the Moon are under great environmental stress due to constant dry winds and heat-absorbing black lavas that tend to quickly sap water from living things. Summer soil temperatures often exceed 150 °F (66 °C) and plant cover is generally less than 5% on cinder cones and about 15% over the entire monument.[35] Adaptation is therefore necessary for survival in this semi-arid harsh climate.

Water is usually only found deep inside holes at the bottom of blow-out craters.[13] Animals therefore get the moisture they need directly from their food.[36] The black soil on and around cinder cones does not hold moisture for long, making it difficult for plants to establish themselves. Soil particles first develop from direct rock decomposition by lichens and typically collect in crevices in lava flows. Successively more complex plants then colonize the microhabitat created by the increasingly productive soil.

The shaded north slopes of cinder cones provide more protection from direct sunlight and prevailing southwesterly winds and have a more persistent snow cover (an important water source in early spring). These parts of cinder cones are therefore colonized by plants first.

Gaps between lava flows were sometimes cut off from surrounding vegetation. These literal islands of habitat are called kīpukas, a Hawaiian name used for older land surrounded by younger lava. Carey Kīpuka is one such area in the southernmost part of the monument and is used as a benchmark to measure how plant cover has changed in less pristine parts of southern Idaho.[37]

There are 375 species of plant known to grow in the monument. When wildflowers are not in bloom, most of the vegetation is found in semi-hidden pockets and consists of pine trees, cedars, junipers, and sagebrush. Strategies used by plants to cope with the adverse conditions include:[38]

• Drought tolerance by physiological adaptations such as the ability to survive extreme dehydration or the ability to extract water from very dry soil. Sagebrush and antelope bitterbrush are examples.
• Drought avoidance by having small, hairy, or succulent leaves to minimize moisture loss or otherwise conserve water. Hairs on scorpionweed, the succulent parts of the pricklypear cactus, and the small leaves of the wirelettuce are all local examples.

Syringa in North Crater lava flow crack

• Drought escape by growing in small crevices or near persistent water supplies, or by staying dormant for about 95% of the year.[12] Mosses and ferns in the area grow near constant water sources such as natural potholes and seeps from ice caves. Scabland penstemon, fernleaf fleabane, and gland cinquefoil grow in shallow crevices. Syringa, bush rockspirea, tansybush, and even limber pine grow in large crevices.[39] While dwarf monkeyflowers (photo) carry out their entire life cycle during the short wet part of the year and survive in seed form the rest of the time.

Wildflower bloom on the Devil's Orchard trail.

A plant commonly seen on the lava field is the dwarf buckwheat (Eriogonum ovalifolium var. depressum) (photo), a flowering plant 4 inches (100 mm) tall with a root system 3 feet (0.91 m) wide.[12] The root system monopolizes soil moisture in its immediate area, resulting in individual plants that are evenly spaced. Consequently, many visitors have asked park rangers if the buckwheat were systematically planted.

Wildflowers bloom from early May to late September but most are gone by late August.[40] Moisture from snow-melt along with some rainfall in late spring kick-starts the germination of annual plants, including wildflowers. Most of these plants complete their entire life cycle in the few months each year that moisture levels are good. The onset of summer decreases the number of wildflowers and by autumn only the tiny yellow flowers of sagebrush and rabbitbrush remain. Some wildflowers that grow in the area are the arrow-leaved balsamroot, bitterroot, blazingstar, desert parsley, dwarf monkeyflower, paintbrush, scorpionweed, scabland penstemon and the wild onion.

Years of cataloging by biologists and park rangers have recorded 2000 species of insects, 8 reptiles, 169 birds, 48 mammals, and even one amphibian (the western toad). Birds and some rodents are seen most frequently in the Craters of the Moon area.[36] Brown bears once roamed this area but have long ago become locally extinct. Traditional livestock grazing continues within the grass/shrublands administered by the BLM.

Golden-mantled ground squirrel at Devil's Orchard

Most desert animals are nocturnal, or mainly active at night. Nocturnal behavior is an adaptation to both predation and hot summer daytime temperatures. Nocturnal animals at Craters of the Moon include woodrats (also called packrats), skunks, foxes, bobcats, mountain lions, bats, nighthawks, owls, and most other small desert rodents.[36]

Animals that are most active at dawn and dusk, when temperatures are cooler than mid-day, are called crepuscular. The subdued morning and evening light helps make them less visible to predators, but is bright enough to allow them to locate food. Some animals are crepuscular mainly because their prey is. Crepuscular animals in the area include mule deer, coyotes, porcupines, mountain cottontails, jackrabbits, and many songbirds.[36]

Some desert animals are diurnal, or primarily active during the day. These include ground squirrels, marmots, chipmunks, lizards, snakes, hawks, and eagles.[36]

Many animals have a specific temperature range where they are active, meaning the times they are active vary with the seasons. Snakes and lizards hibernate during the winter months, are diurnal during the late spring and early fall, and become crepuscular during the heat of summer. Many insects and some birds also alter their times of activity. Some animals, like ground squirrels and marmots, have one or more periods of estivation, a summer hibernation that allows them to avoid the hottest and driest periods.[36]

Several animals are unique to Craters of the Moon and the surrounding area. Subspecies of Great Basin pocket mouse, American pika, yellow-pine chipmunk, and yellow-bellied marmot are found nowhere else.[36] Lava tube beetles and many other cave animals are found only in the lava tubes of eastern Idaho.[36]

In May 1980 wildlife researcher Brad Griffith of the University of Idaho started a three-year study to mark and count the mule deer in the monument.[41] The National Park Service was concerned that the local herd might grow so large that it would damage its habitat. Griffith found that this group of mule deer has developed a drought evasion strategy unique for its species.[41]

The deer arrive in the southern part of the pre-2000 extent of the monument mid-April each year once winter snows have melted away enough to allow for foraging. Griffith found that by late summer plants in the area have already matured and dried to the point that they can no longer provide enough moisture to sustain the deer. In late July after about 12 days above 80 °F (27 °C) and warm nights above 50 °F (10 °C) the herd migrates 5 to 10 miles (8.0 to 16.1 km) north to the Pioneer Mountains to obtain water from free-flowing streams and shade themselves in aspen and Douglas-fir groves.[41] Rain in late September prompts the herd to return to the monument to feed on bitterbrush until snow in November triggers them to migrate back to their winter range. This herd, therefore, has a dual summer range. It is also very productive with one of the highest fawn survival rates of any herd in the species.[42]

Afternoon winds usually die down in the evening, prompting behavioral modifications in the herd. The deer avoid the dry wind by being more active at night when the wind is not blowing.[43] In 1991 there was a three-year average of 420 mule deer.[43]