two Arco cattlemen

After gold was discovered in the Salmon River area of Idaho, a group of emigrants persuaded an Illinois-born trapper and trader named Tim Goodale to lead them through the cutoff. A large wagon train left in July 1862 and met up with more wagons at Craters of the Moon Lava Field.[14] Numbering 795 men and 300 women and children, the unusually large group was relatively unmolested during its journey and named the cutoff for their guide.[15] Improvements to the cutoff such as adding a ferry to cross the Snake River made it into a popular alternate route of the Oregon Trail.[15]
[edit] Exploration and early study

In 1879, two Arco cattlemen named Arthur Ferris and J.W. Powell became the first known people to explore the lava fields.[16] They were investigating its possible use for grazing and watering cattle but found the area to be unsuitable and left.

U.S. Army Captain and western explorer B.L.E. Bonneville visited the lava fields and other places in the West in the 19th century and wrote about his experiences in his diaries.[12] Washington Irving later used Bonneville's diaries to write the Adventures of Captain Bonneville, saying this unnamed lava field is a place "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."[17]

In 1901 and 1903, Israel Russell became the first geologist to study this area while surveying it for the United States Geological Survey (USGS).[11] In 1910, Samuel Paisley continued Russell's work and later became the monument's first custodian. Others followed and in time much of the mystery surrounding this and the other Lava Beds of Idaho was lifted.

The few whites who visited the area in the 19th century created local legends that it looked like the surface of the Moon. Geologists Harold T. Stearns coined the name "Craters of the Moon" in 1923 while trying to convince the National Park Service to recommend protection of the area in a national monument.[18]



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