Munson Valley Historic District CLR

The new cultural landscape report (CLR) for Munson Valley Historic District—listed in the National Register of Historic Places for landscaping and buildings—will inform future planning, design, and planting rehabilitation at the headquarters area of Crater Lake National Park.

Primary design problems included degraded vegetation from heavy visitation; mitigating the risk of wildfire to historic buildings; accessibility and connectivity to buildings and across Munson Valley Road; and damage to stone curbing, a signature design detail of the district.

The project included field documentation, site analysis of landscape characteristics and features (with a focus on the historic character of vegetation), both on-site and online workshops with NPS staff, and a period plan documenting the landscape at the end of the period of significance, which was 1949. Treatment recommendations and plans provide guidance for a range of rehabilitation projects compatible with the cultural landscape. Specific recommendations include new compatible and accessible walkways to better connect the Steel Visitor Center/Ranger Dorm to parking and other destinations, using low, temporary fencing to protect planting areas, and reestablishing a historic road axis for overflow parking and an all-season comfort station.

The CLR also includes a schematic planting and rehabilitation plan, with plant lists, details, specifications, and a maintenance and implementation schedule. The plan makes it possible for the Park to immediately begin rehabilitation of the district’s primary planting areas, which were a focus of the original design. Plants species—both native and historic—reflect those that were used historically and that will be resilient to future climatic changes.