PIPE SPRING Cultures at a Crossroads: An Administrative History

Interpretation

Much of the historical research and preparation of written histories undertaken during this period was done for the purpose of improving the monument's interpretive programs and exhibits (see earlier section, "Historical Research"). Probably in the late 1940s, Leonard Heaton prepared a 12-page report entitled "Guide for Lecture to Visitors." [1489] This guide provides perhaps the best idea of what Heaton talked to visitors about during the post-war period and into the 1950s. It appears neither to have been heavily influenced by nor patterned after Woodward's 1941 report, although the latter was referenced. Heaton's guide included many anecdotal stories from "old-timers," along with other historical data. (In June 1948 Erik Reed had stressed to Superintendent Smith the importance of Heaton writing down the stories told him by "old-timers.") The guide is a valuable record, particularly with regard to landscape changes. It discussed the history of the fort's construction; changes to the fort and associated cabins since the monument's establishment; location and use of the site's springs; the area's geology; current use of water from springs; history of the fort and meadow ponds; the Whitmore-McIntyre dugout; the location of corrals, fencing, road, fields and gardens; origin of building materials for fort; the pioneer method of making shingles; and the Deseret Telegraph Line. The section on the telegraph line included a lengthy narrative about an incident in which the telegraph system saved the horses (and what is also implied, the lives) of those at the fort in the early 1870s from the Navajo. The story, told in great detail, described the Navajo as war-like, blood-thirsty, superstitious horse thieves outwitted in a particular incident by Anson P. Winsor and the Utah Territorial Militia, with thanks to the telegraph system. [1490] It is easy to imagine Leonard Heaton telling such a story to enthralled monument visitors!

While there is no real change in the interpretive themes at Pipe Spring National Monument during the 1940s, the Park Service began to internally express its desire to use the site to tell the larger story of Euroamerican settlement in the arid Southwest. [1491] Many Park Service officials viewed the Mormon aspect of the history as secondary. On the other hand, Latter-day Saints saw a much more people and place-specific story. For them, Pipe Spring's significance was its role in Mormon history, and the purpose of interpretation was to commemorate the sacrifices and successes of the Mormon people in particular in the broader history of western settlement. The site was also useful to illustrate distinctive Mormon systems, as conceived of and directed by the Church leadership: the cooperative, polygamy, the colonizing, evangelizing, and civilizing mission of settlers. As long as the Park Service let this story be told - the way those of this tradition wanted it told - then harmony was maintained. Tension developed later, however, when the Park Service partially succeeded in shifting the emphasis from the "Mormon story" to the more "generic" western story of settlement and cattle ranching.