America West: Craters of the Moon NM (Idaho)

For much of this area's early history the lava lands were a mysterious blank spot on maps. But the Northern Shoshone (Native American Indians) are known to have passed through the area on their annual migration to the Camas Prairie to the west. They left behind well-worn trails and rock structures like windbreaks and mysterious stone circles on top of the lava.

In the 1800s, European-Americans in search of gold or farm and ranch lands mostly avoided the lavas. Early traces, some still visible along US20/26/93, were left by the emigrants who followed Goodale's Cutoff of the Oregon Trail. In the 1850s and 1860s pioneers took this alternate route to avoid conflicts that had flared up with the Shoshone along the Oregon Trail's main route.

Craters of the Moon finally became known through sheer curiosity. Federal geologists explored here in 1901 and again in 1923. Also in the 1920s a taxidermist and Idaho promoter, Robert Limbert, made three epic journeys through the lava. His lectures and articles about these lava lands helped to publicize the area and contributed to the establishment of a national monument here in 1924. In 1970 Congress designated much of the national monument a wilderness, one of the first in the National Park Service. In 2000 most of the Great Rift and associated lava fields were added to the national monument. In 2002 Congress established the national preserve. Today the National Park Service and the Bureau of Land Management, along with the American people, share the responsibility for taking care of this special place.