Craters of the Moon / A Guide to Craters of the Moon National Monument, Idaho

A Guide to Craters of the Moon National Monument Idaho
Produced by the Division of Publications National Park Service
U.S. Department of the Interior Washington, D.C. 1991
National Park Handbooks are published to support the National Park Service’s management programs and to promote understanding and enjoyment of the more than 350 National Park System sites, which represent important examples of our country’s natural and cultural inheritance. Each handbook is intended to be informative reading and a useful guide before, during, and after a park visit. More than 100 titles are in print. They are sold at parks and can be purchased by mail from the Superintendent of Documents, U.S. Government Printing Office, Washington, DC 20402. This is handbook number 139.
Craters of the Moon: A Guide to Craters of the Moon National Monument, Idaho/produced by the Division of Publications, National Park Service.
p. cm.—(Official national park handbook; 139) 1. Craters of the Moon National Monument (Idaho)—Guidebooks. 2. Geology—Idaho—Craters of the Moon National Monument—Guidebooks. I. United States National Park Service. Division of Publications. II. Series: Handbook (United States. National Park Service. Division of Publications); 139. F752.C7C73 1991 917.96'59—dc20 89-13670CIP ISBN 0-912627-44-1
Rock or rope? Folds of lava rock look like coils of irregular rope. Lava flows of this type are known as pahoehoe, a Hawaiian word pronounced pah-hoy-hoy and meaning ropey .
Light playing on cobalt blue lavas of the Blue Dragon Flows caught the inner eye of explorer Robert Limbert: “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....”
Limbert explored the Craters of the Moon lava field in Idaho in the 1920s and wrote those words for a 1924 issue of National Geographic Magazine . “For several years I had listened to stories told by fur trappers of the strange things they had seen while ranging in this region,” wrote Limbert, a sometime taxidermist, tanner, and furrier from Boise, Idaho. “Some of these accounts seemed beyond belief.” To Limbert it seemed extraordinary “That a region of such size and scenic peculiarity, in the heart of the great Northwest, could have remained practically unknown and unexplored....” On his third and most ambitious trek, in 1924, Limbert and W. C. Cole were at times left speechless by the lava landscape they explored. Limbert recounted his impressions in magazine and newspaper articles whose publication was influential in the area’s being protected under federal ownership. In 1924, part of the lava field was proclaimed as Craters of the Moon National Monument, protected under the Antiquities Act. It was created “to preserve the unusual and weird volcanic formations.” The boundary has been adjusted and the park enlarged since then. In 1970, a large part of the national monument was designated by Congress as the Craters of the Moon Wilderness. It is further protected under the National Wilderness Preservation System.