The Timpanogos Cave Historic District is significant under Criterion A at the local level in the area of Exploration/Settlement and at the national level in the area of Conservation and under Criterion C at the national level in the areas of Architecture and Landscape Architecture. The district’s significance under Criterion A is derived from its associations with the late nineteenth-century discovery and early exploration of Hansen Cave by local lumbermen and miners and the early twentieth-century effort to conserve the Timpanogos Cave System as a nationally important natural and scientific resource. The contributing resources within the district that are significant under Criterion A were built as part of the area’s initial development as a tourist site in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, its development under US Forest Service protection and management from 1921 to 1933, or its development by the NPS under two significant twentieth-century federal funding programs: the New Deal (1933–1942) and Mission 66 (1956–1966).6 Buildings and landscape elements designed and constructed from 1921 to 1966 are significant under Criterion C as examples of NPS Rustic and Mission 66 architectural forms and styles.
The district also has significance under Criterion D at the state level in the area of Ethnic Heritage: Native American. A single pictograph documents an ancient Native American presence in the Monument. No prehistoric (Precontact Period) cultural materials and features have to date been identified in association with the pictograph; however, the presence of the rock art indicates that Native Americans were present within the area of the present-day Monument. Any as-yet-unidentified archeological deposits have the potential to yield important new information to help more accurately date the pictograph and to document ancient lifeways and activity. Archeological features associated with nineteenth-century tourism and the development of the Monument have the potential to contribute to a greater understanding of the historical development of the region.
This documentation expands the existing Timpanogos Cave Historic District to encompass 130 acres of the 250-acre Monument and provides additional relevant information about the district’s development and significance. The period of significance for Criteria A and C extends from the construction of the first major access road through American Fork Canyon in 1878 to the completion of the Mission 66 development program in the Monument in 1966. The period of significance for Criterion D is about CE 500–CE 1300, which corresponds to the Formative and Fremont eras.
