For thousands of years people mostly avoided the lava fields of Idaho. Artifacts indicate that native people passed through, but they did not remain for long due to the lack of water. Later the trails that the Shoshone-Bannock created around the northern edge of the lava provided a path for Oregon bound migrants and ultimately highway motorists. Eventually curiosity about this unknown area led scientists and others to seek it out. In the 1920s, Robert Limbert explored the area and shared his adventures with a wider audience through his photography and writing. In 1924, President Calvin Coolidge established Craters of the Moon National Monument, ushering in a new era of National Park Service management. Three other presidents expanded the boundary, leading to a much larger Monument and Preserve.

Ted Stout, author of the new book, Craters of the Moon National Monument, celebrates more than one hundred years of Craters of the Moon’s history with this engaging presentation. To illustrate the presentation, Stout draws extensively from park archives as well as collections at Boise State University, the USGS and other institutions.

This program will be livestreamed and recorded for later viewing. Click here to watch online. Books will be available for sale and a book signing will follow the program.

Ted Stout served as a park ranger from 1988-2020 at seven different national parks. He spent the last 17 years of his career as chief of interpretation and education at Craters of the Moon National Monument and Preserve. In 2022 his new pictorial guide to the one-hundred-year history of this national park was published.