Native Americans and Mormons Fremont-culture Native Americans lived near the perennial Fremont River in the northern part of the Capitol Reef Waterpocket Fold around the year 1000. They
irrigated crops of
maize and
squash and stored their
grain in stone granaries (in part made from the numerous black
basalt boulders that litter the area). In the 13th century, all of the Native American cultures in this area underwent sudden change, likely due to a long drought. The Fremont settlements and fields were abandoned. Many years after the Fremont left,
Paiutes moved into the area. These
Numic-speaking people named the Fremont granaries
moki huts and thought they were the homes of a race of tiny people or
moki. In 1872
Almon H. Thompson, a geographer attached to
United States Army Major
John Wesley Powell's expedition, crossed the Waterpocket Fold while exploring the area. Geologist
Clarence Dutton later spent several summers studying the area's geology. None of these expeditions explored the Waterpocket Fold to any great extent. Following the
American Civil War, officials of
the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in
Salt Lake City sought to establish
missions in the remotest niches of the
Intermountain West. In 1866, a quasi-military expedition of Mormons in pursuit of natives penetrated the high valleys to the west. In the 1870s, settlers moved into these valleys, eventually establishing
Loa,
Fremont,
Lyman,
Bicknell, and
Torrey. In 1933, Pectol was elected to the presidency of the Associated Civics Club of Southern Utah, successor to the Wayne Wonderland Club. The club raised $150 () to interest a Salt Lake City photographer in taking a series of promotional photographs. For several years, the photographer, J. E. Broaddus, traveled and lectured on "Wayne Wonderland". In Proclamation 2246, President Roosevelt set aside of the Capitol Reef area. This comprised an area extending about north of present
State Route 24 and about south, just past Capitol Gorge. The
Great Depression years were lean ones for the National Park Service (NPS), the new administering agency. Funds for the administration of Capitol Reef were nonexistent; it was a long time before the first rangers arrived.
Administration of the monument Administration of the new monument was placed under the control of
Zion National Park. A stone ranger cabin and the Sulphur Creek bridge were built and some road work was performed by the
Civilian Conservation Corps and the
Works Progress Administration. Historian and printer
Charles Kelly came to know NPS officials at Zion well and volunteered to watchdog the park for the NPS. Kelly was officially appointed custodian-without-pay in 1943. He worked as a volunteer until 1950, when the NPS offered him a civil-service appointment as the first superintendent. During the 1950s, Kelly was deeply troubled by NPS management acceding to demands of the
U.S. Atomic Energy Commission that Capitol Reef National Monument be opened to
uranium prospecting. He felt that the decision had been a mistake and destructive of the long-term national interest. It turned out that there was not enough ore in the monument to be worth mining. In 1958, Kelly got additional permanent help in protecting the monument and enforcing regulations; Park Ranger Grant Clark transferred from Zion. The year Clark arrived, fifty-six thousand visitors came to the park, and Charlie Kelly retired for the last time. During the 1960s (under the program name
Mission 66), NPS areas nationwide received new facilities to meet the demand of mushrooming park visitation. At Capitol Reef, a 53-site campground at Fruita, staff rental housing, and a new visitor center were built, the latter opening in 1966. Visitation climbed dramatically after the paved, all-weather
State Route 24 was built in 1962 through the Fremont River canyon near Fruita. State Route 24 replaced the narrow Capitol Gorge wagon road about to the south that frequently washed out. The old road has since been open only to foot traffic. In 1967, 146,598 persons visited the park. The staff was also growing. During the 1960s, the NPS purchased private land parcels at Fruita and Pleasant Creek. Almost all private property passed into public ownership on a "willing buyer-willing seller" basis. Preservationists convinced President
Lyndon B. Johnson to set aside an enormous area of public lands in 1968, just before he left office. In Presidential Proclamation 3888, an additional were placed under NPS control. By 1970, Capitol Reef National Monument comprised and sprawled southeast from
Thousand Lake Mountain almost to the
Colorado River. The action was controversial locally, and NPS staffing at the monument was inadequate to properly manage the additional land.
National park status formation The vast enlargement of the monument and diversification of the scenic resources soon raised another issue: whether Capitol Reef should be a
national park, rather than a
monument. Two bills were introduced into the
United States Congress. A House bill (H.R. 17152) introduced by
Utah Congressman
Laurence J. Burton called for a national park and an adjunct
national recreation area where multiple use (including
grazing) could continue indefinitely. In the
United States Senate, meanwhile, Senate bill S. 531 had already passed on July 1, 1970, and provided for a national park alone. The bill called for a 25-year phase-out of grazing. In September 1970,
United States Department of Interior officials told a house subcommittee session that they preferred about be set aside as a national park. They also recommended that the grazing phase-out period be 10 years, rather than 25. They did not favor the adjunct recreation area. It was not until late 1971 that Congressional action was completed. By then, the
92nd United States Congress was in session and S. 531 had languished. A new bill, S. 29, was introduced in the Senate by Senator
Frank E. Moss of Utah and was essentially the same as the defunct S. 531 except that it called for an additional of public lands for a Capitol Reef National Park. In the House, Utah Representative
K. Gunn McKay (with Representative Lloyd) had introduced H.R. 9053 to replace the dead H.R. 17152. This time, the House bill dropped the concept of an adjunct Capitol Reef National Recreation Area and adopted the Senate concept of a 25-year limit on continued grazing. The Department of Interior was still recommending a national park of and a 10-year limit for grazing phase-out. S. 29 passed the Senate in June and was sent to the House, which dropped its own bill and passed the Senate version with an amendment. Because the Senate was not in agreement with the House amendment, differences were worked out in
Conference Committee. The Conference Committee issued its report on November 30, 1971, and the bill passed both houses of Congress. The legislation—"An Act to Establish The Capitol Reef National Park in the State of Utah"—became Public Law 92-207 when it was signed by President
Richard Nixon on December 18, 1971. == Dark Sky Park ==