🇺🇸 WEEKLY AMERICAN HERITAGE: Craters of the Moon National Monument

(Explore the history and landscape of the United States with us as we approach the 250th anniversary of American Independence. Get out your homeschool atlas and almanac and follow along!)

Idaho is our homeschool state-of-the-week, so why not spend a few minutes today with your students learning about one of Idaho’s most important natural and historical places: Craters of the Moon National Monument and Preserve, which protects the ancient volcanic landscapes of the Snake River Valley.

“The awesome effects of volcanism are evident throughout Craters of the Moon National Monument and Preserve. Over the past 15,000 years, lava eruptions created a rugged landscape that provides habitat for a surprising diversity of plants and animals in a high desert ecosystem.”

Rocks from relatively recent volcanic eruptions dominate the landscape of Craters of the Moon National Monument and Preserve. Plants and animals began occupying the area while the once molten lava fields were still cooling. Some, like the big horned sheep and grizzly bear have been gone for almost 100 years. Most continue to thrive here. Windblown soils provide an important habitat for the plant communities that thrive here including the widespread sagebrush steppe plant community. Difficult access due to rugged terrain and a lack of water discouraged people from altering the landscape with the roads, buildings, farms, and powerlines which occupy much of the present day Snake River Plain.

Craters of the Moon National Monument and Preserve encompasses the entire Great Rift volcanic rift zone. It contains a huge concentration of volcanic landforms and structures along the more than 50-mile zone of fractures and eruptions. A composite field made up of about 60 lava flows and 25 cones, the Craters of the Moon Lava Field is the largest of its type in the lower 48 states. It is also the largest and most complex of the late Pleistocene and Holocene basaltic lava fields of the Eastern Snake River Plain. It has nearly every type of feature associated with basaltic systems, and roads or trails offer convenient access to examples of most of them. (nps.gov)

You can find a wealth of additional information about the Monument’s history, landscape, location(s), and visitor facilities on the webpage for Craters of the Moon National Monument and Preserve from the National Park Service, and also on the Monument’s page on Wikipedia.

Explore America’s National Parks, National Historical Parks, National Historic Sites, National Monuments, and more via Wikipedia and via the U.S. National Park Service’s website today.

What American treasures will you and your students be exploring in your homeschool this Hercules Term? 🇺🇸

❡ The great globe itself: This is one of our regular Homeschool Geography posts featuring important natural and historical sites in the United States. Print your own copy of our River Houses American Heritage Calendar and follow along with us, and add your name to our weekly mailing list to get great homeschool teaching ideas delivered right to your mailbox all through the year. 🌎

❡ We set to-day a votive stone: If you want a wonderful long-term history and geography project for your homeschool, explore the Historical Marker Database online (hmdb.org) and make a plan to find all the markers that are listed in your local area. Add any new ones you know of that are missing, and add new photos or descriptions for the ones already included. Your students will gain a better appreciation for your local community and will learn a wealth of new information about history and geography. 🏛

❡ Print this little lesson: Down at the bottom of this post you’ll find a special “Print” button that will let you create a neat and easy-to-read copy of this little lesson, and it will even let you edit and delete sections you don’t want or need (such as individual images or footnotes). Give it a try today! 🖨

❡ Books in the running brooks: You can always turn to your River Houses atlas and almanac for more information about any of our homeschool states-of-the-week. The almanac has detailed profiles of all the U.S. states and territories, and the endpapers of the atlas are indexes that will show you where all of the individual national and regional maps may be found. 📚

❡ Homeschool calendars: We have a whole collection of free, printable, educational homeschool calendars and planners available on our main River Houses calendar page. They will help you create a light and easy structure for your homeschool year. Give them a try today! 🗓

❡ Support our work: If you enjoy our educational materials, please support us by starting your regular Amazon shopping from our very own homeschool teaching supplies page. When you click through from our page, any purchase you make earns us a small commission at no extra cost to you. Thank you for helping us to keep going and growing! 🛒

❡ Join us! The aim of the River Houses project is to create a network of friendly local homeschool support groups — local chapters that we call “Houses.” Our first at-large chapter, Headwaters House, is now forming and is open to homeschoolers everywhere. Find out how to become one of our founding members on the Headwaters House membership page. 🏡