Great Basin National Park claims long history by Mark LaPointe, Outpost Staff In this package: Cloistered oasis is treasure Grab Highway 50 kit Visitors escape stress No seasonal boundaries Baker guards gate An eye on the future   If the six-hour drive to the park seems long, it's nothing compared to the journey taken by the park itself and the many people who sought to preserve its treasures. Although the area now known as Great Basin National Park was first discovered by Europeans in 1776, it was centuries before the United States federal government granted the land the special designation of National Park. According to National Park historians and several books describing the birth of the Great Basin National Park, throughout the mid part of the 19th century federal agents like Army Capt. John C. Fremont as well as Mormon pioneers and gold miners explored the region and began to chart out some of its finer features such as Wheeler Peak and Lincoln and Jeff Davis Peaks, named for the nation's two opposing leaders during the Civil War. But in 1869 Absalom Lehman settled in Snake Valley and would discover the caves (really a singular cave) that bear his name and eventually lead the park to its present-day designation. Lehman may have unwittingly begun to build national interest in the area when he publicized the cave and began to offer tours to "fine gentlemen and ladies" The Lehman Caves are actually one large cavern with a series of "rooms." Photo by Karin Winters In 1922, the Lehman Caves National Monument was founded by a proclamation issued by President Warren Harding in an effort to protect the unusual limestone caverns and their rare geologic features. From that point on, through the park's management by the National Forest Service and several attempts to turn the area into a national park, the area was hotly debated. Cattle ranchers were fearful that a national park designation would affect their coveted water rights and several miners held dearly to their interests to harvest the land's minerals. Nonetheless, after years of negotiation, the park was finally designated the Great Basin National Park on Oct. 27, 1986, by President Ronald Reagan in a strong decision to protect the biological and geological diversity of the vast great basin region. Today debates still arise over grazing and water rights, but the local interests and the National Park Service seem to live a peaceful coexistence. Next     copyright 12/10/97 Nevada Outpost http://www.jour.unr.edu/outpost Nevada Outpost is produced by students at the Reynolds School of Journalism, University of Nevada, Reno Copyright 1999 Nevada Outpost http://www.jour.unr.edu/outpost  TOP