Judson Dean Howard

Judson Dean Howard ( 1878 – 1961) was an American millwright, chemist, and speleologist known as the "Man Behind the Monument" for his campaign to federally protect Lava Beds National Monument in California.

Biography

Early life According to the National Park Service, Howard was born in Fort Atkinson, Iowa on January 9, 1875. It was created under the auspices of the 1906 Antiquities Act.

Although park files contain some information on his explorations and discoveries, he remains something of an enigma. The only mark he left behind are names he painted inside many of the caves he named. Howard contributed the earliest photographs of cave interiors, but did not like to be photographed himself.