A Guide To the Craters of the Moon National Monument, Idaho

Stearns, Harold; United States Geological Survey

Describes the geology, lava flows, tree molds, bombs, and indian history of Craters of the Moon. "An area of about 60 miles in diameter, 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."1 Undoubtedly Irving's description has reference to the area now known as the Craters of the Moon region of Butte and Blaine counties, Idaho. About 39 square miles2 of this unique volcanic area was proclaimed the Craters of the Moon National Monument by President Coolidge on May 2, 1924. It is administered by the National Park Service of the Department of the Interior. The address of the custodian of the Monument is Arco, Idaho. During the summer season several cabins are available for those who wish to remain in the Monument overnight.The Monument is reached by a drive of 26 miles from Arco southwest along the Idaho Central Highway. It is easily accessible to tourists on the way to or from Yellowstone National Park. Upon entering the Monument the road leaves the dusty sagebrush desert and enters an area of barren black cinders and lava. Here it winds among the smooth cones and across strips of rough, fresh-looking rock. The similarity of the dark craters and the cold lava nearly destitute of vegetation to the surface of the moon as seen through a telescope gives to these peculiar features their name. The Monument comprises the most interesting and recent part of a vast lava field that covers hundreds of square miles and merges westward into the Columbia Plateau. This plateau covers about 200,000 square miles.A marvelous view of this desolate lava waste is obtained from the summit of Big Cinder Butte, which rises to an altitude of 6,516 feet and ranks among the largest purely basaltic cinder cones of the world. To the east stretches barren black lava until it fades into the desert haze. Nothing breaks its monotony except one group of grass-covered cones which were not inundated by the floods of lava and which now stand together as a yellow island in a sea of black. Farther east rises Big Butte, the sentinel of the Snake River desert. A little beyond and to the northeast of it, seeming to float in the blue haze, are two smaller peaks known as the Twin Buttes. These peaks have been majestic watchmen on the plain since the first eruptions of lava in the Monument.To the southeast from Big Cinder Butte extends a double line of cinder cones, many of them grass-covered and all of them vents of volcanic flows which unite farther south into one great lonely and uninhabited field of lava. Black Top Butte, the farthest in this march of cones, lies approximately 11 miles southeast of Big Cinder Butte. Still farther away are yellow grass-covered cones, and in the distance are barely discernible the snow-covered Portneuf and Bannock mountains.

A Guide To the Craters of the Moon National Monument, Idaho

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