Early Research And Exploration
Until the beginning of this century, the Bale Mountains remained virtually unknown to European explorers and scientists. The first recorded visit was made by the German naturalist and explorer Carlo von Erlanger between 1899 and 1901. In the 1950s, the Finish geographer, Helmer Smeds, made three journeys to Bale and travelled from Goba through Rira to Delo-Mena and wrote an account of the altitudes, weather, early glaciations, vegetation and local pastoralism; and the British botanist Herbet Mooney, the main initiator of the National Herbarium in Addis Ababa, visited the Sanetti Plateau and the Harenna Forest in 1958-1959 where he collected various plant specimens and made notes about the habitat. O Hedberg’s research group, the first to move with a horse caravan across the central plateau, made observations about the vegetation belts and climatic conditions. Shortly thereafter, Leslie Brown made two journeys (in 1963 and 1965) to the Bale Mountains to investigate the status of the mountain nyala. Peace Corps volunteer Curtis Buer carried out the first organised survey of area before it became a National Park in 1969.