PIPE SPRING Cultures at a Crossroads: An Administrative History

The Greening of Pipe Spring

Under the care of Leonard Heaton, the 40 acres that comprised Pipe Spring National Monument was quickly being transformed from a cattle ranch into a little Garden of Eden. The Park Service's 1925 removal of landscape features associated with cattle ranching was just the first of many landscape changes that took place at Pipe Spring after it was made a national monument. In fact, Leonard Heaton's tenure as the monument's caretaker was just the beginning of the gradual "greening" of Pipe Spring. While a certain amount of both native and introduced plant growth had always been associated with the presence of the springs and ponds at the site, it was only after the site became a monument that planting and irrigation significantly increased. Prior to that time, water had been used primarily for stock-watering purposes and for domestic consumption. At an unknown date, the Heaton brothers (presumably during their ownership) constructed a pond "just north of the present public campground," Leonard Heaton wrote ca. 1945. [604] Built on sandy soil, Heaton reported, it was unsuccessful as a reservoir, for water "soaked out through the bottom." [605] In 1926 and 1927 two new ponds (referred to as the upper and lower meadow ponds or pools) were constructed southwest of the fort by Leonard Heaton, apparently with the approval of Mather and Pinkley. [606] They were gravity fed by water from tunnel spring. Grant Heaton reported in 1997 that Leonard built these to irrigate his garden. [607] Water flowed by gravity to a large grassy meadow where Heaton pastured his livestock, south of these ponds. Heaton's main garden, kept with permission from the Park Service, was located just below the irrigated meadow. (The Heaton brothers' pond and the upper meadow pond were both done away with - or as Heaton put it, "leveled off " - by the Park Service in 1932. [608] The ponds' removal coincides with a severe drought in the region as well as with a highly sensitive time of water negotiations between the Park Service and the Office of Indian Affairs, described in Part IV.)

Grant Heaton reported that Leonard and Edna kept horses, a milk cow, some sheep, chickens, ducks, and geese. [609] In fact, in January 1931 Heaton reported that he had 220 chickens. [610] From time to time, even a few young deer could be found living on the monument. [611] A small corral, barnyard, and barn were located northwest of the meadow ponds, just below the monument road. The Heaton family's two chicken houses, originally located east of the meadow, were eventually relocated to a more remote site near the monument's southern boundary, east of the two main cattle corrals. [612]

In early 1926 Heaton planted a few peach trees and some gooseberry and currant bushes on the south side of the field and around the corrals. Later that year he planted more fruit trees and some grapevines. In the spring of 1927, Heaton set out 54 apple and plum trees south of the fort and 25 elm trees to the west along the fence south of the monument road. He also planted 500 grapevines. [613] The main spring provided an ample supply of water which Heaton took full advantage of, cultivating and irrigating as much of the land encompassed by the monument's boundaries as the Park Service would permit.

Other landscape changes took place over the winter of 1927-1928. In December 1927 Heaton worked on improving the approach road west of the monument. [614] Another change related to the safety issue of livestock crossing the old monument road to reach their watering holes. For many years the main troughs and watering holes had been located north of the old monument road and due west of the fort. Grant Heaton reported that cattle for a 10-mile radius would water there. [615] In March 1928 Leonard Heaton reported a change: "The cattlemen have made the water pond south of the road, so the cars will not be bothered by cattle on the highway this summer." [616] In August 1928 Heaton repaired the monument's south boundary fence, which also helped to keep out livestock.

Weather conditions, motorists, and auto campers also made their mark on the landscape. Heaton reported in March 1928 that with the arrival of spring weather, he had 28 campers and an average of 12 cars passing each day. Spring rains, however, brought muddy roads. The next month an average of four cars a day passed the monument. Due to a scarcity of rain in April, the dirt road from Fredonia west to the Utah line was "full of dust and pot holes," Heaton reported. [617] If the truth be told, there was only a rare, totally unpredictable, and small window of time when the condition of the dirt road passing the monument could be called "good," since its state was so subject to weather conditions and infrequent maintenance. In April 1929 motorists encountered a more unusual problem: high winds had created sand drifts four to five feet high south of the monument. Union Pacific had to send its snowplows to clear the road in time for the beginning of its travel season. In July 1929 Heaton wrote, "We are still having dry and windy weather here. No storms as yet, and the roads are getting almost impossible to travel on account of the deep ruts and sand." [618]

Blowing sand and dirt created more than just a road problem. Heaton was continually challenged to keep the stuff out of the fort and to keep the windows clean. "We have had west winds that have drifted the sand and dust about every day," he wrote in the summer of 1929, "so that it has been almost impossible to keep the old fort clean of dirt." [619] One of the most effective ways used to reduce the dust problem around homes in such arid regions is to plant trees or other vegetation, thus Heaton's planting activities also served a practical function in addition to creating a more attractive site for tourists.

Despite the difficulty motorists encountered reaching Pipe Spring because of poor road conditions, auto camping was quite popular at the monument. A report from Pinkley (cited earlier in this section) indicated that in July 1925 he had two areas graded for camping, one at either end of the fort ponds. [620] Most camping took place east of the ponds. The ground to the east of the ponds is considerably dryer due to a seep spring near the west cabin. [621] During every night in June 1929, there were usually two or three cars whose occupants camped at Pipe Spring. [622] The travel season in the region usually ended about mid-September. During the month of October, traffic consisted primarily of deer hunters en route to the Kaibab National Forest. In November 1929 only three or four cars passed by the fort each day; nearly all were local traffic. [623] Even after the opening of the Zion-Mt. Carmel Highway, campers continued to stop at Pipe Spring. At the end of May 1932, Heaton reported, "There has been a total of 43 campers this month, the most I have seen since last fall." [624]