O-SenseEvery year, Americans take roughly 2.2 billion domestic trips, most for pleasure and many for business. A bit more than one in seven of the total visits are to the various national parks, the gems of the American landscape.
National parks are an American creation. The first in 1872 was Yellowstone and today there are 59. The powerhouses are well-known spots like Glacier, the Everglades, Zion, Great Smoky Mountains (the most popular), Death Valley, Redwood, Mesa Verde, Grand Canyon, Yosemite and Arches (my favorite). But, there are less well-known ones like Great Basin in Nevada and Dry Tortugas (a Civil War fort on an island) off Florida.
Twenty-seven states have a national park in their borders. Idaho has only a slim, fairly insignificant slice of Yellowstone. Idaho is the only western state without its own national park despite its undeniably spectacular scenery.
That may change if a group of rural residents centered in Butte County (the county seat is Arco) get their way. They are pushing to convert a portion of Craters of the Moon National Monument into a full-fledged national park.
Craters of the Moon is a striking place consisting of wide-ranging lava flows that cover over 600 square miles. The lava was spewed out only 2,000 to 15,000 years ago. The area contains the most spectacular black basaltic lava beds in the continental United States and is dotted with volcanoes, caves and incredible wildflowers. The Apollo astronauts trained there before the moon flights.
President Coolidge in 1924 designated 54,000 acres as a national monument to “preserve the unusual and weird volcanic formations”. In 2000 over 600,000 additional acres were added by President Clinton.
The area is geologically active and future eruptions are inevitable (I hope in my lifetime to see a red glow on the horizon from an eruption).
The current proposal is to turn the original 54,000 acres set aside by Coolidge into a new national park.
Local advocates believe a national park designation will attract far more tourists, giving the local economy a needed shot in the arm. Butte County is Idaho’s third smallest county with around 3,000 residents and its population is shrinking because of limited local economic opportunities.
Boosters of the idea have significant local support. Butte County voters embraced the concept last fall in a public vote (57% in favor). Eight county commissions in the region have backed the idea as have three communities.
The Idaho Farm Bureau opposes the idea. Their primary concern is the trucking of hay through the area on Highway 20/26 (which runs from Arco to Carey). They fear a national park might lead to sharp limitations. Advocates downplay that threat by noting that President Franklin Roosevelt deeded the road itself to Idaho in the 1940s, placing control in state hands.
This year supporters have pushed the Legislature to pass a joint memorial addressed to the U.S. Congress (creation would be done by Congress). The Idaho Senate approved the measure by a vote of 20 to 13 (most of the opponents were from North Idaho). As I write this on Friday the measure is sitting in the House State Affairs Committee and may not get a chance to be heard on the House floor this year.
If that stands, it is a shame. This is a locally-driven plan to boost the economy in one of Idaho’s struggling rural areas. The supporters of turning Craters of the Moon into a national park deserve a wider hearing in Idaho and, eventually, in Washington, D.C.
Steve Taggart is an Idaho Falls attorney specializing in bankruptcy (www.MaynesTaggart.com). He has an extensive background in politics and public policy. He can be reached atThis email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. .
