Lake Roosevelt Administrative History

Landscaping and Roads, Fort Spokane

The two main Park Service roads on the upper bench of Fort Spokane lead to the employee housing and maintenance shop/district offices and to the parking lot near the guardhouse. As early as 1960, the Regional Office and park staff recognized the need to prevent modern developments from intruding on the "historic scene" by screening the modern buildings with plantings and a fence. The Regional Office recommended using the historic road from the highway to the guardhouse as the main entrance road, but LARO Superintendent Robinson, employing rather convoluted reasoning, objected because the historic route would "intrude very heavily on the historic scene since it will cross an open field." He favored a more "attractive" approach, shielded by a planting of box elder trees. The road was built to run straight from the state highway to the guardhouse, with parking directly in front of the guardhouse. The historic road ran a couple hundred feet to the south, midway between the guardhouse and the barn. [79]

LARO's 1975 Interpretive Prospectus emphasized the need to remove Park Service housing, the maintenance shed, and the visitor parking lot from the historic area. Most of this has not yet been accomplished. The park did remove overhead phone and power lines at the residences in 1975 and screened the houses with native vegetation a decade later. In 1978, however, the District Ranger proposed moving the parking area farther from the guardhouse, and in 1985 the entrance road was relocated to the historic road alignment to the south. The old road was reseeded to fescue and wheat grass the following year. The 1991 Comprehensive Design Plan for Fort Spokane reiterated that the service and facilities road needed to be removed from the historic site proper because it seriously compromised and jeopardized the design integrity of officers' row. [80]

When the Park Service obtained Fort Spokane, LARO Superintendent Homer Robinson tried to "clean up" its appearance. The grounds were planted to non-native grasses, and brush and weeds were removed. In the 1970s, however, the approach changed. Seventeen acres that had been cultivated to alfalfa by local farmers since 1967 under a special use permit were no longer permitted for agricultural purposes after 1976; this stopped an activity that had "clobbered" many of the building sites. The lawn around the guardhouse, however, remained. The 1975 Interpretive Prospectus recommended that after the foundations had been marked, the grounds should be returned to their appearance during the military era — tufts of grass growing under ponderosa pines. [81]

Plan of Fort Spokane during the military era, with modern roads as they existed in 1982. The parking lot has since been relocated to the west side of the guardhouse. Map courtesy of National Park Service, Lake Roosevelt National Recreation Area (Bill Schieber to Gary Kuiper, 28 July 1982, file H32 National Register of Historic Places, LARO.HQ.ADM).

Lack of funds and other management constraints prevented LARO from immediately implementing its goal to revegetate the Fort Spokane grounds to their 1880s appearance. Letting the land lie fallow from 1976 forward created problems with fire hazard and noxious weeds, led to negative public comments, and presented an appearance that detracted from Fort Spokane's historic integrity. The revegetation of ten acres, including the main fort grounds, finally began in 1984. A 1980 University of Idaho report outlined a detailed program for restoring the plant community on the parade grounds and the area around the stables. The goal was to replace knapweed and cheatgrass with Whitmar bluebunch wheatgrass and hard fescue. The seeding did not establish well, so a 1985 study recommended ways to establish and maintain the desired species. A plan to return approximately sixty acres to a cover of drought-resistant grasses was approved, and the ground was reseeded in 1986. Most of the lawn around the guardhouse was removed and seeded with fescue/wheat grass. [82]

The 1985 design proposal for Fort Spokane's historic landscape identified significant historic landscape patterns, components, and remnants that defined the historic integrity of the fort. It also proposed ways to increase visitor understanding of the site. Recommendations included removing Park Service administrative facilities, revegetating grasslands, building picket fences and a wood and wire fence around the complex, establishing ornamental plantings, constructing a concession stable, corral, and trails, partially reestablishing the apple orchard, reestablishing the baseball diamond, and reconstructing the historic entry gate. The 1991 draft comprehensive design plan for the site integrated landscape, buildings, interpretation, and archaeological stabilization issues. Fort Spokane staff began a series of projects aimed at enhancing the interpretive environment at the site, such as stabilizing ruins and foundations, building the entry gate, constructing an interpretive trail, and modifying the access road and parking area. [83]

One element of the design plan that ran into problems was the reestablishment of the fruit orchard dating from the Indian school period. Concerns included the labor-intensive nature of the project and insufficient archaeological testing of the ground that would be disturbed. Some elements that have been completed are the reconstruction of the historic entrance gate at Fort Spokane, reseeding the grounds to native grasses, and grafting historic trees. Because no photographs of the original entrance gate were found, the park used the 1878 gate at Fort Sherman in Coeur d'Alene, Idaho, as a model. The new gate was not built in the same spot as the original because of the location of Highway 25. The gate was dedicated in 1997 with a cannon salute. It helps define the fort grounds and attract people to Fort Spokane, but it is not directly used in interpretive programs. [84]

Interpretive Trails at Fort Spokane

In 1962, LARO Superintendent Robinson proposed a one-way loop road that would pass by each of the four buildings on the upper bench at Fort Spokane, with wayside signs at each building and at the entrance to the complex. The Regional Office, however, suggested a trail instead so that no road obliteration would be needed at a later date. Robinson agreed to have a rough trail built across the cultivated area to each building, but he doubted that visitors would walk the distance necessary to see the foundations of officers' row. [86]

The resulting 1.66-mile trail led to two of the restored buildings and also to a number of building foundations, some of which were defined by boardwalks or gravel. During the early 1970s, LARO staff debated the stops and the text and photographs to go on interpretive signs for this trail. Finally, in 1978 metal and wood signs made at Harpers Ferry Center were installed, and the Sentinel Trail officially opened to foot traffic in 1979. The new trail and its wayside exhibits made the old booklet on the Quartermaster Trail obsolete, along with the old numbered posts. The Sentinel Trail is the recreation area's most popular trail. [87]

Ranger-led walk at Fort Spokane's quartermaster stable, ca. 1964. Photo courtesy of National Park Service, Lake Roosevelt National Recreation Area (LARO 2963).

In 1985, LARO Superintendent Gary Kuiper requested assistance from Regional staff in preparing an improved interpretive trail plan for Fort Spokane. Much of the trail was obliterated by then, and some obsolete wayside exhibits needed to be replaced. Decisions were made to develop a new trail as approved in the Interpretive Plan (rerouted because the entrance road to Fort Spokane had been changed) and to replace the old wooden routed signs with anodized aluminum exhibits to match the newer ones on site. The laminated 2x4 exhibit bases were replaced with low brick pedestals made by the Job Corps Center at Moses Lake. Six exhibits remained the same, five required text revisions, and eight new ones were added. The new trail was established in 1987. LARO rerouted part of the Sentinel Trail again in 1993 based on the Comprehensive Design Plan for Fort Spokane, but visitors still had to "wander through the weeds to find the wayside exhibits." [88]

LARO established the bluff trail south of Fort Spokane in 1974, and it was used both for guided walks and for casual hikes. It was rerouted a few years later to make it more accessible. The wayside exhibits along the trail discussed area geology, the military period, and the Indian hospital. Other trail-related work included replacing non-historic boardwalks with a gravel path. [89]