Lake Roosevelt Administrative History

Wayside Exhibits and Interpretive Trails

Wayside exhibits along highways or at campgrounds and boat launch ramps are important at LARO because visitors often go directly to recreation sites, bypassing visitor contact stations. LARO's Mission 66 prospectus mentioned that a number of observation points with roadside exhibits would be developed along Lake Roosevelt to supplement the information available at the proposed visitor centers (this fit in with the overall Mission 66 program Servicewide). The 1958 Museum Prospectus listed twelve interpretive sites, mostly along heavily traveled roads. By 1964, LARO personnel saw the value of providing safety and other information to visitors at launch ramps, and they proposed exhibit shelters at North Marina and at Fort Spokane. They also recommended signs to interpret the geology, natural history, history, and ecology of the area. [57]

By 1975, much of this work was still in the planning stages. The Interpretive Prospectus of that year talked about the need for visually identifiable wayside exhibits in various locations, including ones at launch ramps "where we want to hit water users with a punchy safety message." In the late 1970s, LARO signed a contract with Harpers Ferry Center for eighteen wayside exhibits for the Fort Spokane grounds and the six major launch ramps. The exhibits at the ramps were kiosks with three main panels plus side panels. By 1985 these panels were fading, and they were replaced in 1987. The new panels included a map of LARO on each central panel plus information on boat safety inspections, personal flotation devices, and emergency phone numbers. [58]

LARO embarked on a park-wide bulletin board plan in 1990. Park personnel used cyclic funding to replace exposed plywood bulletin boards with boards with locking Lexan doors, cork backing, and standardized layouts. The total number of existing bulletin boards was sixty-four. The plan called for bulletin boards at each boat ramp, campground fee payment station, restroom building, and concession facility in the NRA. [59]

LARO has a few short trails, most serving interpretive rather than purely transportation purposes. Self-guided trails within the recreation area were considered in the 1950s for the Fort Spokane, Spring Canyon, Kettle Falls, and North Marina areas. District Ranger Don Carney established the Bunchgrass Prairie Nature Trail at Spring Canyon in 1974 and wrote a trail booklet about the plants and geology of the area. The trails at Kettle Falls and Fort Spokane were developed in 1979 with information on local history along both trails. The wayside exhibits for the trail at St. Paul's Mission were installed in 1984. [60]

In 1980, the NRA's six trails totaled less than four miles in length. These consisted of Bunchgrass Prairie Nature Trail, Lava Bluff Trail, Fort Spokane Interpretive Trail, Fort Spokane Campground Trail, Kettle Falls Interpretive Trail, and St. Paul's Mission Trail. Former South District Interpreter Lynne Brougher notes, "We want to go beyond these. . . high visitor-use areas. There's a lot of history to be told out there." The park currently has plans to add more wayside exhibits in several new areas such as Hawk Creek. These would include interpretive messages on geology and local history. [61]

Publications

Little written information was available for early visitors to LARO. In 1957, the park offered a mimeographed information sheet and a map prepared by the Roosevelt Lake Log Owners Association that listed visitor facilities, but an official Park Service map and guide to the area had not yet been created. A boater's guide was prepared in the 1960s, and a free fourteen-page Park Service booklet was available by 1964. The early 1970s version of the boating guide provided safety information, a guide to specific locations and features, and information on geology, launch ramp locations, navigation lights, inundated towns, and customs inspections. In 1975, park staff prepared a folder on fish and fishing at Lake Roosevelt patterned after a Glacier National Park brochure. By this time the NRA had an official Park Service folder. Harpers Ferry Center developed a two-color folder for LARO in 1970. A four-color folder replaced this in 1984, emphasizing water recreation opportunities within the recreation area. [62]

LARO also contracted for historical publications on the area. Researcher David Chance prepared a booklet in the late 1970s on the military period of Fort Spokane, published by the Pacific Northwest National Parks Association. In 1975, park staff produced four free leaflets on Fort Colvile, St. Paul's Mission, Kettle Falls, and Fort Spokane; these were all revised in 1980. These handouts were upgraded to site bulletins in 1992, and site bulletins on Grand Coulee Dam and on the Laser Light Show were written in cooperation with Reclamation that year. [63]

LARO began publishing The Lake Roosevelt Mirror, its visitors' guide in newspaper form, in 1979, and it has been published most years since then. Until 1983, the Pacific Northwest National Parks and Forests Association printed the newspaper, and concession operations have also provided some funds. Then, because of a Servicewide policy change, the newspaper was no longer a special project and had to be funded by a percentage of the sales revenues generated at park sales outlets. LARO's percentage obtained in this way did not equal the costs of the newspaper until 1986. [64]