Domain of the Cavemen: A Historic Resource Study of Oregon Caves National Monument
Mark SR and National Park Service - Pacific West Region. 2006. Domain of the Cavemen: A Historic Resource Study of Oregon Caves National Monument. Historic Resource Study. Seattle, WA
Fostering appreciation of historic resources as worthy of preservation is dependent on people seeing them as part of their heritage, and thus worth keeping. This study thus aims to convey the larger story behind material manifestations of the past, especially those still evident in a rugged corner of the Siskiyou Mountains, so as to show their significance or value to the present. A larger goal of this Historic Resource Study is to shed additional light on how cultural perceptions of nature and the resulting trends in tourism have shaped Oregon Caves and the area around it over the span of more than a century. This is a way of attempting to break the habit, which is all too common in agency-funded historical studies, of presenting the park as an island surrounded by a sea where there is litde life other than some directive coming from the administering bureau's central offices. A Historic Resource Study should also allow for showing how larger forces (in this case, those beyond the NPS) have affected a place like Oregon Caves and in so doing, allow for building a "land bridge" between the monument and the social, political, and economic patterns governing its historical context.
- Type
- Published Report
- Authors
- Mark, Stephen; National Park Service - Pacific West Region
- Date of Issue
- 2006
- Units
- HIST , ORCA
- Keywords
- Additional research, Archeology, Attempts to recast the monument, Beginnings of a recreational infrastructure, Boosterism's Public-Private Partnership 1816-1933, Camp Oregon Caves NM-1, CCC projects at Oregon Caves, Changes in the forest, Cultural collision and its consequences, Decline from Rustic Ideal 1944-1995, Developing a "private" show cave, Development of Grayback Campground, Discovery of the Oregon Caves, ehistory, Eligibility for the National Register of Historic Places, Expanded concession facilities, Exploration and westward expansion, Highways to Oregon Caves, History, Improving a Little Landscape Garden 1834-1943, Interpreting the past at Oregon Caves, Into a void, Locked in a Colonial Hinterland 1851-1884, More visitors and new constituents, New Lights but an old script, NPS master plans for Oregon Caves, Other vehicles for shaping visitor experience, Postwar park development, Recommendations, Social and economic transition, The advent of federal land management, The Closing of a Frontier 1885-1915, The Marble Halls of Oregon, Transfer to the National Park Service