Lake Roosevelt Administrative History

Cooperating Association

Cooperating associations developed throughout the National Park System to provide high-quality publications and maps for park visitors. These associations sell interpretive items such as books, maps, and scientific or historical studies that help visitors appreciate the parks. The income from sales is donated back to the park for interpretive services and research. The cooperating association for LARO was formed in 1962 as an affiliate of the Mount Rainier Natural History Association (later the Pacific Northwest National Parks and Forests Association and now the Northwest Interpretive Association). For many years, its sales at the various outlets in the NRA's visitor centers remained quite low. [130]

Projects funded by LARO's cooperating association have been diverse. They have included American Indian cultural demonstrations, booklets on the history of Fort Spokane, the Fort Spokane trail guide, marine fueling, scientific equipment, a walleye fishing pamphlet, the park newspaper, materials for the park library, historic film footage, postcards and slide strips, site bulletins, and a sales clerk and part-time business manager. New sales outlets established at Reclamation's Visitor Arrival Center in 1990 and at the Dry Falls Visitor Center in 1992 led to greatly increased sales. The production and sale of two videos, one on the Ice Age Floods and another on Grand Coulee Dam, also led to significant increases in revenues. By the mid-1990s, gross sales exceeded $100,000 per year. [131]

Conclusion

LARO's interpretive program has evolved greatly over the years since 1962, moving from a focus on water recreation to natural and human history. The living history program at Fort Spokane has been popular since it began in the 1970s. Tribal participation in interpretive programs is growing, and the earlier emphasis on the military history of Fort Spokane has been broadened to a more multi-cultural approach. In the 1990s, interpretive staff began to interpret Ice Age Floods features. Recreation area staff no longer help orient visitors at Reclamation's Visitor Arrival Center near Grand Coulee Dam, but they do work at the Dry Falls visitor center. Environmental education programs such as the Lake Roosevelt Floating Classroom are now an important part of LARO's overall interpretive program.

The interpretive division at LARO is now surmounting its decades-long legacy of not being taken seriously. Park staff outside interpretation are beginning to understand the need to educate visitors, including area residents, before they arrive and once they are in the recreation area. The interpretation division at LARO has grown since the late 1980s. The administrative side of the division is evolving, along with the ideas about which stories are important to tell. [132]

LARO's interpretive staff is currently evaluating its traditional services to determine how to better serve park visitors, most of whom are repeat visitors from the region and thus do not fit the typical Park Service visitor profile. Expansion of current programs and wholly new programs are being considered. Aspects of the history of Fort Spokane that are likely to be interpreted by new exhibits include the Indian hospital and the history of the area before the fort was established. These will probably be addressed in the Long-Range Interpretive Plan that is currently being prepared. [133]