… was proclaimed by President Calvin Coolidge on this date in 1924.
A sea of lava flows with scattered islands of cinder cones and sagebrush characterizes this “weird and scenic landscape” known as Craters of the Moon. Craters of the Moon National Monument and Preserve contains three young lava fields covering almost half a million acres. These remarkably well preserved volcanic features resulted from geologic events that appear to have happened yesterday and will likely continue tomorrow…
In 1924 the National Park Service began the job of protecting the park and welcoming people to experience this area. In 2000 the Monument was expanded to include most of the Great Rift, the source of the lava flows that created this unique landscape. Today’s more than 750,000 acre National Monument and Preserve is co-managed by the National Park Service and the Bureau of Land Management.