Excerpt from Cultures at a Crossroads: An Administrative History of Pipe Spring National Monument

While there was initial discussion about writing the monument's history using a thematic framework (having separate issue chapters on interpretation, tribal relations, and water matters, for example), it soon became apparent that a chronological format was a more appropriate and useful way to tell the Pipe Spring story. This is primarily due to the continually overlapping nature and complexity of monument issues. Beginning with Part IV, each chapter has an introductory section; most provide a historical context for the time period along with descriptions of changes in officials from the Washington, DC, to the local levels. Most introductions offer a quick snap shot of the years covered in the chapter, highlighting the most significant events.

No existing historical or ethnographic studies adequately provided a background for the types of research questions being asked in this study. While a small number of articles and booklets have been published about Pipe Spring's early history, my research revealed that a significant amount of error and contradiction existed in these secondary sources. Realizing that some of what I presented in Part I would not be in keeping with some other histories in use at the monument, I took great care to endnote source material. Not all questions about the site's early history have been definitively settled. Additional research into 19th century documents may yield more answers, but was far outside the scope of this administrative history.

One thing became apparent as soon as I delved deeply into the history of the monument, and that is that one could not comprehend its history or appreciate the complexity of controversial matters particularly about water without at least a general understanding of the history of the two neighboring communities: the Kaibab Indian Reservation and the Mormon settlement of Moccasin. While it was beyond the s00pe of this study to chronicle a complete history of either of those communities, references to them continually surfaced in monument documents, some of which is included in this history. Part I contains background information about the Kaibab Indian Reservation and Moccasin to facilitate the reader's understanding of later events. This study provides only scattered references, however, to economic and social conditions among these communities after the Great Depression. As those communities research and compile their own histories, the Pipe Spring story can only grow richer.

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