James Kezer

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 James Kezer Oral History Interview

Interviewer: Stephen R. Mark, Crater Lake National Park Historian

Interview Location and Date: At James Kezer’s residence in Eugene, Oregon, January 26, 1997

Transcription: Transcribed by Renee Edwards, August 1998

Biographical Summary (from the interview introduction)

James Kezer is an emeritus professor of biology at the University of Oregon. A world authority on salamander chromosomes, Dr. Kezer did pioneering work in the field of amphibian cytogenetics. He is also an excellent field naturalist, a calling no doubt aided by having spent the summers of 1951 and 1952 in Crater Lake National Park.

This interview took place at his residence in Eugene, where he continues to engage every visitor with boundless enthusiasm and a living room that also serves as concert hall. As current editor of the long-time serial Nature Notes from Crater Lake, I could not resist his suggestion to team up and produce a special on Sphagnum Bog. It is a chance for me to reacquaint myself with a fascinating corner of the park and an opportunity to work with a former editor only 47 years removed from the job.

Materials Associated with this interview on file at the Dick Brown library at Crater Lake National Park’s Steel Visitor Center: Taped interview; file includes correspondence, copies of articles, and photographs.

To the reader:

James Kezer is an emeritus professor of biology at the University of Oregon. A world authority on salamander chromosomes, Dr. Kezer did pioneering work in the field of amphibian cytogenetics. He is also an excellent field naturalist, a calling no doubt aided by having spent the summers of 1951 and 1952 in Crater Lake National Park.

This interview took place at his residence in Eugene, where he continues to engage every visitor with boundless enthusiasm and a living room that also serves as concert hall. As current editor of the long-time serial Nature Notes from Crater Lake, I could not resist his suggestion to team up and produce a special on Sphagnum Bog. It is a chance for me to reacquaint myself with a fascinating corner of the park and an opportunity to work with a former editor only 47 years removed from the job.

Stephen R. Mark

February 1999

James Kezer Oral History Interview

Where were you born and raised?

I think that the best thing to do is to let you look over the literature that I have provided, is the that okay?

Yes, that is fine.

As I said before, one of the articles tells about the time I was in the park and what led me there. The other one has to do with my research on the salamander chromosomes and the circumstances that led me into this type of research. As a graduate student at Cornell, it turned out to be my Ph.D. thesis. The article tells about the circumstances under which I discovered about how to get at the salamander chromosomes very easily by a squashing process (1).

What brought you to Cornell from your position as a high school teacher? Is it because you just wanted to pursue your research?

Yes, that was the idea. I was teaching high school in Summit, New Jersey. I wanted to continue my education and learn more. Trying to advance myself, you might say. I had known about the program at Cornell and the possibilities the summer school offered me. I went up there and liked it so much that I decided to enroll for a masters degree. I focused on biology and chemistry. After I had completed that degree, I quite the job at Summit High School and enrolled for a Ph.D. All of that is in this literature in some detail.

Over the phone we talked about you coming out to Crater Lake. How did you choose Crater Lake as a place you might like to work?

That is such a interesting story. I was at a AAAS meeting, over Christmas and it was at that meeting that I met Doc Ruhle (2). Do you know Ruth Hopson?

Yes, I met her about five years ago (3).

Okay, so you know Ruth. Well, as a matter of fact, Ruth was at this meeting. She and I were together and there was Doc Ruhle. Ruth said quite casually, “Doc, here is a man you ought to have on your staff at Crater Lake.” He said, “Okay.” He sent the application form to me. I filled it out and was hired. It just goes to show that an accident can lead to one of the great experiences of your life.

Had you thought about the National Park Service before that time?

No, I hadn’t thought of it at all. It was so remarkable. What a wonderful experience I had.

Was being a little older than some of the staff any hindrance?

My age? No, I was peppier than most of the young people there. I had no limitations at all on my physical ability.

You felt pretty comfortable with a number of other staff members who taught at universities, like Don Farner?

Yes, Don was in charge of the naturalist program (4). This was awfully lucky of me. He realized that in old Jim Kezer he had a good companion. He was the type of individual who wanted to utilize all your abilities to help further the park program. It was Don who put me in various positions, like editing Nature Notes. Yes, it was my first contact with Don Farner. And he turned out to be one of my great friends.

Did you see much of Doc Ruhle that first summer?

Doc was there all the time, we saw him every day.

How many naturalists were there?

Oh, roughly ten, I’d say. There were maybe five Ph.Ds there that summer. This was back before there was a lot of research money available. The people connected with the universities were much more interested in coming to the park at that time than later on when they could get grants to do research in their field.

Other types of research money, like foundation grants, were difficult to obtain?

At that time, yes. Research money did not become readily available until about the time of Sputnik (5). One that happened it became very easily available. All you had to do is apply for it.

One of the things I saw in the Nature Notes was that you spent some time at Oregon Caves your first summer.

The reason for going to Oregon Caves was to visit Bigelow Lakes with Don Farner. Do you know the Bigelow Lakes? Yes, sure you do. Well, there was and probably still is a population of Dicamptodon ensatus there in the Bigelow Lakes. That is the Pacific Coast giant salamander, as I’m sure you know. The population there in the lake was a neotenic population, which are salamanders that fail to metamorphose. The salamanders in this population had become enormously large without metamorphisis. Don knew about this population. He had apparently seen it on one of his trips there. He brought some thyroxine from his lab that summer he and I were working in the park. The idea was that these larvae would be treated with some solutions of thyroxine to see if they could be metamorphosed. You see the metamorphosis of an amphibian is determined by the thyroid  gland and by thyroxine.

He and I made this trip to the Bigelow Lakes, and collected these animals, brought them back to Crater Lake, and treated them with thyroxine solutions. We were unable to metamorphose them completely. We were able to get certain metamporphic  effects, like reduction of the external gills, along with some other types of characteristics. But we were never able to get them to completely metamorphose into the adult type of morphology. We figured that these salamanders had grown so long as larvae that they had developed a different type of physiology that made  them resistant to this metamorphosing substance. I think that he and I went back there together at least one other time. I went back there on my own one other time, too.

At any point did you try to update the amphibian list? I know that Richard Bond had done some work in the mid-1930’s. Did it need updating by the early 1950’s because of an expansion proposal for Oregon Caves at that time?

Yes, that expansion is something that is mentioned in one of the “Nature Notes” articles by Marvin Wilson. No, we weren’t paying any attention to other types of salamanders around there. It was entirely an interest in this neotenic population.

I was sent over to Oregon Caves as one of my very first assignments after I arrived at Crater Lake. The idea was to put identification tags on the plants that were over there.

On the Cliff Nature Trail?

It must have been. That was my first contact with the Oregon Caves.

Were the Oregon Caves a place that you returned to in 1952, or were all your trips over there the first summer?

I do remember having gone back. I stayed there over night, as I recall and the two rangers who were in charge got me to give an evening talk. The idea was to have me discuss the salamanders that I collected.

What was an evening naturalist program at Oregon Caves like at that time?

They had one program each evening. I really don’t know the format of most because I gave only one talk there.

Back at Crater Lake, I read a Nature Notes article by Lou Hallock telling about the tremendous snowfall the winter between the two summers you were there. Was that any hindrance in 1952?

It certainly was! That put a big damper on our program. It even stopped the boat rides.

I guess I didn’t read that.

It’s in an article by Warren Fairbanks. The title of the article would lead you to believe that it is about fish. Fish were discussed, but only incidentally. He tells about the big snowfall and how the trail crew had a hard time getting a path down to the lake cleared. When they did get the path cleared and the boat rides were ready to start for the summer, the path collapsed on them. There was a big rain and the mud blocked the path, so they never did get it open again. There were no boat rides that summer at all.

None at all?

No! The man who ran the boats was Paul Herron. Do you know anything about him?

I know that he worked for the concessionaire for many years.

He worked for the concessionaire but he was really a farmer from Kansas. He came out from Kansas in the summer to run those boats.

Did you do boat tours?

The first summer I was there. We had that as a regular assignment. I think we had to do the boat tours once a week. They had a naturalist on the boat. We gave explanations as the boat cruised around the lake.

Was Warren Fairbanks the only one doing like research? I know he was on the lake quite a bit a little later on, but I don’t know a whole lot about him.

Well, I can tell you something about Warren. He was originally a student at Washington State University in Pullman at the time that Don Farner was there. The connection between Warren and the park was probably established through his association with Don Farner. I can’t tell you that for sure, but I think that is sort of a logical conclusion.

Was Fairbanks a seasonal employee while you were there?

Yes, he was a seasonal naturalist. Later on he became the regular [Chief] Park Naturalist (6). He had an interesting reason for reigning for resigning that job. He was married to a person who was very religious and she resented being in the park during the winter, because other member of the park staff drank. She did not approve of drinking at all. Warren was married to a widow who had children of her own, stepchildren of  Warren’s. Warren resigned and he got a job at an eastern college.

I don’t know the circumstances of Harry Parker following Doc Ruhle.

Well, Doc Ruhle transferred to Hawaii Volcanoes [National Park]. It was something that happened during the winter of 1951-52. Doc had intended to kept right on there in the park. He had all sorts of plans. Apparently he had a unexpected opportunity for a transfer so he grabbed it and went over there. He had a different sort of experience in that wonderful place than he did at Crater Lake. Doc was a good friend of mine, but I never did hear from him again. That was a case of losing a  friend, so to speak.

Was Harry Parker at Crater Lake in 1951?

He transferred from Yosemite when Doc Ruhle was moved to the Hawaiian Islands. Frankly, Harry Parker was a very strange individual and somebody that I really just don’t understand at all. He came in with a chip on his shoulder. Nothing you did he liked. As a matter of fact, he told me not to come back to Crater Lake anymore. Why, I don’t know. I certainly treated him nicely.

Was that also the case with other seasonal naturalists?

They all went to jobs in various colleges and universities. There might have been various reasons why they didn’t return.

I know that between the first and second years you were there that a change in superintendents occurred. Was the park very different under John Wosky versus how it had been under Mr. Leavitt?

No, I think it was just the same sort of administrative polices. Leavitt had been in the Park Service for a long period of time. It had been his career in life. He was getting ready to retire and he was quite an old man.

I know he had been in the National Park Service for 40 some years.

See, there you are. The new man who took over. I don’t recall ever having met him.

I wanted to know who named the Sphagnum Bog.

The Crater Springs bog? Wasn’t it on the map?

Sphagnum Bog wasn’t on the map until the next edition appeared [in 1956], much like Quillwort Pond.

Quillwort Pond was named by Ruhle. You remember that in the Nature Notes article, he stated that he’ll suggest the name to the authorities in Washington. As for the Crater Springs bog, I really don’t know.

In the article, you talk about a bog that is covered with sphagnum moss. I thought the name might have arisen from what you saw.  Did you ever meet Elmer Applegate?

I never did. I knew that name when I was working in the park from having gone through the literature.

He knew the park area so thoroughly, and it is strange that he never did get out there.

It is an oddity, isn’t it? To get out to the bogs was fairly difficult. You had to go along a Forest Service road and you had to have keys to the gates. It wasn’t the kind of place you could reach without any trouble at all.

You came from the Forest Service side? You didn’t go out on one of the fire roads from the rim?

I thought that I got there on the only road available. Was there more than one?

There are some fire roads that might have gotten you near there, but I don’t know what kind of shape they were in at that time.

I had a vehicle loaned to me by the park. I drove it out there and I had gotten as close to the pond areas as I could. I had noticed that pond area on the map. I hiked the rest of the way. The naturalist staff had really never gone out there to look at those plants.  Any member of the naturalist staff would have immediately noticed those carnivorous plants. They are very obvious.

It seems odd with so much talent on the staff that nobody would have noticed that bog symbol on the map and investigated.

It may have been that it was not very easy to get out there. As a matter of fact, my opportunity to go out there arose because that I remained at the park in the fall after others had left. I stayed there longer than any other ranger naturalist. There were no lectures being given, so you were sort of on your own. I then had the liberty to go out there and explore. That was when the carnivorous plant discovery was made.

Did you go out there by yourself?

The first time that I went out there I had two of the rangers with me, Larry Bisbee and one other. They are listed in my article. I went out there again on my own.

How did you meet other staff who would be willing to go with you to the bog? In the Mess Hall?

Yes, that is right. We had a mess hall at that time. Do they still have that, or have they abandoned it?

It’s been converted to ranger offices.

Are the people who come to work during the summer on their own as far as food is concerned?

Yes.

We had a real nice mess hall at that time and it was possible for you to get acquainted with all the other individuals that were working in the park. It was one of the nice aspects of being there. You could get acquainted with so many different kinds of individuals, including the trail crew. The individuals in the trail crew were sort of a motley sort of group, don’t you know.

Were they there most of the summer?

The trail crew people? Yes, they were there the whole summer.

The reason I was interested in that my wife is a current member of the trail crew after being a naturalist for six years.

She is? You mean she’s out there and helping to clear trails and things like that? Well, what a gal!

I should ask you about the congregation of newts in 1952?

I located two big aggregations of newts. The second of those two aggregations was found in the park after the programs had ceased for the year. I had access to a boat to look around the edges of the lake. One of the fellas working on the lake operated the boat for me. He and I hiked down there and picked up this boat, and we were rowing around the lake. It was then I found this enormous aggregation of newts gathered together. I collected them (7). You still have them there in the park collection, do you not?

Yes. You mentioned that there was no life history on the Mazama newt. Was that something you were thinking of doing at one point?

Well, of course, I was very much interested in salamanders, as you can see by the life history I have given you. It’s something that fascinated me during my graduate school days. As you look over the life history material, you will find out that my Ph.D. thesis was on the salamander chromosomes in an attempt to see if the chromosomes in the various species of salamanders will give us an insight into the evolutionary pattern of that particular group of amphibians.

I know that the Mazama newts is endemic. You talked at some length about the period when one species separates from another.

That is right. In the article there was discussed that particular thing, towards the end of it.

I know that the Mazama newts is endemic. You talked at some length about the period when one species separates from another.

That is right. In the article there was discussed that particular thing, towards the end of it.

Was that something that seemed to be worthy subject to pursue later on?

No, I don’t think so. It was something that was right there at hand and as far as I was concerned, the end of the investigation. There is an interesting sidebar to that. Don and I wanted to have the Crater Lake newts looked over by a man who knew more about amphibian taxonomy than we did. We also wanted a collaborator for the paper. The individual that we picked out was the logical choice from the standpoint of his location. That was Bob Storm at Corvallis (8). Don wrote to Bob and asked him if he would be willing to collaborate with us and examine the Crater Lake newts. In other words, to be our amphibian authority on them. We asked him to be third author on our paper. Do you know that we never heard from him at all (9)? It was on that basis, then that we shipped the newts to the herpetologist at the University of Kansas, Edward Taylor.

I wondered about that connection.

Well, Don had been on the faculty at the University of Kansas. He took the job there right after he got out of the Army. He went from there to Washington State in Pullman, and was in contact with Edward Taylor through his association with the University of Kansas. It was through that contact that these newts were then shipped to Taylor. I was leaving the park at that point, so I could stop over in Lawrence and work with Taylor. That’s exactly what I did, and Taylor looked them over. Actually, he just sort of glanced at them. He didn’t of over them very carefully at all, and by no means looked at all of them. He saw only a few and then gave us his advice on what to do with them.

Was that while you were still at the University of Missouri?

I was just heading for the University of Missouri.

You mentioned over the phone about your appointment at the University of Oregon. How did Ralph Huestis play a role in that? 

Well, do you know that Ralph Huestis played a very prominent role in my getting the job here? He and his wife, Geraldine, visited the park the first summer that I was there. He met me at that time. He must have realized that old Jim Kezer was the man for his department, so he offered me a job at the University of Oregon which I had to turn down because I had already signed a contract with the University of Missouri. I told him that if another job opened up here I would certainly be interested in applying for it. Sure enough it did. Another job opened up and that was how I finally came to the University of Oregon.

What year was that?

It was around 1954.

What led to your investigation at Whitehorse Bluff?

Yes, that’s an interesting thing. At that time, in the place where we had offices at Park Headquarters, we had a flower display. There were a whole series of vases lined up and labeled. That is something that nowadays they wouldn’t even allow. They wouldn’t allow you to go out there and pick any kind of flowers in the park. Each morning, so that exhibit was nice and fresh, it was necessary for one or more of the rangers to go out and get the plants. You had to get these plants from a place that was out in the wilderness because you wouldn’t want to be picking anything where people would see that the flowers were being removed. Whitehorse Bluff became an area chosen to gather plants for exhibition. It was Don Farner who guided us to those Whitehorse Ponds that turned out to be so interesting from the standpoint of the salamander eggs.

Did you also see the clams and shrimp in that area as wells?

The fairy shrimp were there in those ponds. I believe an article by Warren Fairbanks had some information. I don’t remember clams! Did he get those, too? We were always searching around for anything to do with natural history that could be included in the publication.

Did having a longer season allow you to get the articles for Nature Notes and compile them?

No, I don’t think the length of stay had anything to do with it. I was sort of the logical person to tap to do that job, and I liked it. I enjoyed it very much.

You had publications experience before that?

Oh, yes. I had published papers in my field of research. I wasn’t all that similar to Nature Notes, however.

You mentioned Don Farners’ connection with the University of Kansas. Did he continue that connection when he published the bird book?

Yes, that was the background behind how the bird book got published there at U of Kansas (10). They have a very active publishing unit, so it was easy for Don to get them to consider his manuscript.

Did you help him with his bird observations?

No, I had nothing to do with those. I’m not a ornithologist. I just don’t know enough about birds to be of any help at all there.

Why did you and he continue a Crater Lake tradition of publishing your paper on amphibians and reptiles in the American Midland Naturalist?

I can tell you about that. Don had been collecting information about the amphibians and reptiles at Crater Lake Park for some years. He started going to Crater Lake when he was just a graduate student at the University of Wisconsin, so he was there for years. Don was the sort of individual who believed in publication. He wanted that information to get into the literature. In that case, he accumulated information on the amphibians and reptiles of the park and was looking for an eager partner in order to put it in a form for publication. Well, I turned out to be that eager partner. He wanted to get somebody who was more knowledgeable about amphibians and reptiles than he was. The manuscript was turned over to me and I was supposed to find a publisher for it. I happened to have an old friend from my days in graduate school, who was the editor of the Midland Naturalist at that time, so it was a very logical publication. I sent him the manuscript and he was very glad to have it. He thought it was just the sort of thing for them.

It didn’t have anything to do with continuing a Crater Lake tradition of publishing in that journal? I know that papers by Applegate and Wynd on the park’s plants appeared in the American Midland Naturalist.

You know, I wasn’t aware of that. As far as I knew, Don and I were the only contributors from the park to the American Midland Naturalist. I didn’t realize that other papers had been published there dealing with the park.

Did you know Wynd at the University of Oregon?

Yes, I did. He was an assistant to the head of the department for one year. I got acquainted with him at that time. As I talked with him, I learned that he had been at the park and at one time had been the head naturalist there.

Yes, in the late 1920s.

Did you know him at all?

He died just before I came to the park in 1988. He had written us a letter about the history of park roads, but passed away before I was able to send him a response (11).

He was sort of embittered, having been kicked out as the assistant head of the department (12). Sandy Tepfer, who was the department head at the time, gave him this job. That kind of thing hurts you.

One time we were having lunch together over in the [Erb Memorial] Union. At that time I found out that he had been the park naturalist. It was an interesting discovery for me, of course.

He became naturalist after another man, Earl Homuth, suddenly left in 1928. Wynd was the head naturalist in 1929 and 1930 (13).

One of the interesting things about him was that he patented a botanical discovery and it really paid off for him financially. He was independently wealthy and didn’t have to work. He remained in Eugene after ceasing to have anything to do with the department.

I was thinking about another naturalist, Chuck Yocum. Did you know him very well?

I knew him very well. He was at the park both summers that I was there. Chuck was a valuable person for us to have because he was an artist. You saw his illustrations in our publication.

Did he precede you in being on the staff?

No. He was on the staff at the university in Pullman at the time that Don Farner became dean of the graduate school. I believe it was that contact that brought Yocum to Crater Lake. As I said, he was such a valuable person because of his artistic ability. I remember his drawings of the quillwort. He was a wonderful person to have around if you were illustrating a journal.

This came to mind because of some publications that came from Crater Lake and I thought of Doc Ruhle’s road guide. Was that in use at the time you were there?

It seems to me that I remember the Doc Ruhle road guide, but it is hazy in my mind. That was the kind of thing that Doc Ruhle could do very well. He wasn’t a biologist, you know. His Ph.D. was in chemistry. The explorations around the park involved biology, but Doc was the kind of individual that was very eager to pick up on any kind of information other people were capable of giving him.

Was there anybody on the staff that had geology as their field?

There was a seasonal ranger naturalist who was a geologist. I can’t give you his name, it’s just off the tip of my tongue. He wrote an article in one of the Nature Notes about the rocks of Crater Lake.

Was it possible to use slides in your evening programs at that time?

Yes, it was. The slide collection was very poor. It was something that Doc Ruhle did not emphasize. He thought that you shouldn’t give a slide show, but give a talk instead. There must have been some slides there during his regime but not a large accumulation. When Harry Parker took over, slides truly went to town because he had Ralph and Florence Wells there with all their photographic equipment. They made marvelous slides, so the collection began to boom.

Was the rim caravan still among the naturalist programs at that time?

I think it had been discontinued. I don’t recall anything of that kind at all.

What sort of field programs did you have?

There was only one hike and that went up Garfield. That was the hike that we did every day. It was the only opportunity in the schedule to take tourists on a hike and was a regular assignment each morning.

In reading about one of your programs which displayed the newts, were they returned alive after being shown to visitors?

Yes, I’m sure they were. There seemed to be a lot of interest. People were fascinated by them.  The concessionaire did not approve of the program. He did not think that was the sort of thing that should be done in the lodge (14).

Was there a program in the lodge every evening?

Yes, there were two programs. There was one in the lodge, a lecture there, and then one in the Community House.

Would there be more than one naturalist at the Community House? Was somebody on the piano leading the singing?

The only person on the staff who played the piano was Don Farner. He was a pianist of sorts, so he could play the songs that people sang at the programs. There were always two of us at the Community House. One to take charge and give the lecture and the other one to run the projector.

Did you lead the visitors in singing sometimes, too?

Yes. You were required to do it as a part of the regular routine. If you didn’t have any pianist there, you just went ahead and did the best you could.

Who had charge of the study collection at that time and where was it stored?

It was stored in the headquarters building (15). Probably in the same place it is now, eh?

It’s been moved over to the Ranger Dorm.

The person who had charge of it, I assume, would have been Don Farner.

When did Dick Brown show up? Was it that second year?

Yes, it was. He was brought in by Harry Parker. I think he had been associated with Harry Parker in Yosemite. He arrived with Harry and another man. The two of them came up with Harry Parker and both of them were very good. Of course, Dick Brown was simply terrific. An awfully good speaker and a highly intelligent individual as you can tell from his contributions to the publication. The other individual was awfully good too, but he would not contribute anything to the publication. I tried to put pressure on him, but didn’t succeed.

Did you stay in touch with Dick after you left Crater Lake?

I did indeed. Dick became a very close friend of mine. He became interested in the Eugene Natural History Society, and he attended some of their functions. During the time that Dick was head naturalist in the park, he would come up here each year to see if he could recruit people for summer jobs. He always stayed here in this house with me.

Did he ever tempt you into coming back?

No, I would never return. I had many other things that were much better to do during the summer.

I know that he was involved with the Friends of the Three Sisters. Weren’t you as well?

Yes. That was one of the reasons that he visited Eugene. One contact with Dick Brown I will never forget. It was the last time I visited the park, when I had visitors from St. Andrews University in Scotland. H.C. Callan, who was head of the biology department there, along with his wife and daughter, were here visiting me. They were very close friends. I had worked in his lab in St. Andrews a number of times. He was the world authority on lampbrush chromosomes and was one of the pioneers in that field. That was why I first came in contact with him. I took the three of them on a trip around our state. Our very first stop was Crater Lake Park. Dick took us in as his guest and gave us a place to stay in the house that he was occupying at that time. Interestingly enough, that evening there was a meeting of the park personnel. Callan, his wife, and daughter, attended that meeting with me. We had a chance to introduce these guests to all the people of the park. It was a lovely occasion.

Did you see Dick after that?

Yes, I did. I saw Dick fairly regularly until he moved to California, and then I lost all contact with him.

Where did you live in the park?

I lived there in the dormitory that was adjacent to the headquarters building. There was a place there for rangers and ranger naturalists.

Both Years?

Yes, both years. The first year I was in a room there where two others stayed. The second year I had a place to myself.

That was upstairs?

Yes.

Were the room fairly comfortable?

Oh, yes! I liked it. I felt that I was living the life of Riley. The married ranger-naturalists, who had families, lived in cabins. 

At Sleepy Hollow?

Yes.

What was the atmosphere in the park after that murder occurred on the south road [in 1952].

It sure put a damper on things, all right. They had the FBI coming to investigate and called us one by one for a conference. The FBI wanted to know where we were when that murder took place. It was something that put a somber note on your activities that summer. Also, the collapse of the trail down to the lake was a catastrophe. It wasn’t nearly as much fun as the previous summer had been.

Did you get a chance to go to the far corners of the park, place like Scoria Cone, Sun Creek, or Llaos Hallway?

I don’t recall exploring those, no. I was more involved in exploring wet places where salamanders and things and that kind of thing lived. I must have seen those places you mentioned, but they didn’t hold as intense an intense an interest for me.

Did any other area in the park, other than the ones we mentioned, hold your interest?

I was fascinated with all parts of that park. I stay deeply in love with it. As I said before, it was one of the greatest experiences in my life.

It must have given you a basis for comparison. We’ve talked about Gold Lake Bog and the Three Sisters. Were you able to extend your studies from what you had started at Crater Lake?

Oh, yes! The Gold Lake Bog was discovered by me. As far as I know, the bog and its biota were unknown. There was no record of it in the files of the Forest Service. I accidentally become aware of that bog at Gold Lake and later found that were five kinds of carnivorous plants and other rarities there. Botanically speaking, it was a treasure. There were two species of frogs there, Rana cascadae, and Rana pretiosa. After examining the species from the bog, we got the idea that they had hybridized. There were specimens that definitely seemed to be intermediate between the two species. The two species are very different. Rana pretiosa had a very brilliant under part which is red. I mentioned that in a publication on the bog that was written at the request of a federal agency. Dave Green went with me to the bog and he collected both species, including the animals that we thought were hybrids. He examined them and found some hybrids, too.

Did you do work in the Three Sisters Wilderness, like at Quaking Aspen Swamp?

The Friends of the Three Sisters made a trip out there a couple of times, and both times I was along and looked it over, but we didn’t do any extensive work at that site.

What led to your interested in the group?

I don’t remember exactly. It seems to me that I was intensely interested in the Friends of the Three Sisters almost from the time when I moved to Eugene. There must have been individuals there who were my contacts, such as Ruth Hopson. Ruth provided my introduction to the Obsidians, and they were interested in the Three Sisters controversy as well.

They were?

Yes.

I was thinking about Karl Onthank. I know he was very prominent in the Friends of the Three Sisters, and so was his wife.

Karl and his wife were the spark plugs in that organization. They were both very close friends of mine.

And wasn’t Will Eaton a contact with the Obsidians (17)?

Will Eaton?

He once wrote to us for information in connection with an Obsidian trip.

He might very well be. Both Will and his father, Bill, were mainstays of the Natural History Society. Both of them have been president of the society. Those organizations were all closely related because, if you belonged to one you belonged to all of them.

I’ve got a recruitment letter from Doc Ruhle. It lists the general duties of ranger naturalist, and states that they would also have to be available for occasional fire fighting and rescue work. Were you involved in any of those duties during your two summers there?

Firefighting. It was my first summer and late in the season, after our summer activities had ceased. We had a fire in the park. I had an opportunity then to be one of the fire fighters. Actually it was a lightning strike and there was a snag that was smoldering. It wasn’t really a serious fire at all.

What did you do on your weekends? Were you able to leave the park if you wanted to?

You could leave the park if you liked to, but I was so completely fascinated by that park that I didn’t want to leave. I had lots of extra duties besides the routine ones. Working with getting the public ready and things like that. These were duties that I simply loved so I didn’t get out of the park very much at all.

You didn’t visit Fort Klamath during your stay there?

No, I didn’t

I found a copy of Nature Notes in 1949 with your name on it in the park library.  The reason I found that significant was that two years before you arrived a man by the name of John Funkhouser wrote an article on amphibians of Crater Lake. I was wondering if you ever got a chance to meet him. I know you reviewed his work.

No, I didn’t meet him. I knew his work. I believe he became connected with a medical school in the Midwest, did he not?

I’m not sure.

Don Farner and I were aware of his work on the amphibians in the park and attempted to contact him. We wrote to him but never did get a response. We had a question about one of his amphibian observations in the park, and that was the reason we wrote to him.

I noticed that Farner didn’t have an article in the 1949 edition, so he might not have known this man, either, but Ralph Huestis was there at the time.

Ralph was there?

He had several articles that year. One of them became a separate Nature Notes, the only time a special edition has ever been done. It was on golden mantled ground squirrels (18).

Yes, I was the editor of that one as you may know. The manuscript was lying around at the park in the possession of Doc Ruhle. It was then given to me the first summer I was there, with the idea that I was to edit it and find the illustrations. And that’s what I did. As a matter of fact, that was my first contact with Ralph Huestis. I had never met him at the time. It was that summer, as I said previously, that he and his wife visited park. I got acquainted with him.

Who supplied the photographs in that edition? Was it Ralph Florence Wells?

No. The Ralph and Florence were not there at the time. This was the first year. They came the second year. Those are in the file.

Did Ralph [Huestis] take some of those photos?

No, the pictures that were in the golden mantled ground squirrel volume were not Ralph’s at all. They were some that we had in the files. These had been taken previously by someone else. I don’t know who.

Was it considered unusual by Doc Ruhle or others on the staff to have a special number of Nature Notes just on one topic?

It certainly was unusual. I think that was the first time. Has it ever occurred again?

No, that was the only time.

Huestis prepared this manuscript and left it there. When Doc Ruhle found he had an eager individual there like Jim Kezer, he realized he had an opportunity.

You were reeled in pretty easily to be editor?

Oh, sure, I loved it. I figured it was a compliment.

So it was pretty natural that you would be the editor of the 1952 volume?

Exactly, I was right there ready for the picking.

I don’t know if you will remember about the costs of Nature Notes. Were these issues all that expensive to print? In fact, where were they printed?

I don’t know at all. The manuscripts were accumulated by me as the editor, and then I simply turned those things over to Doc Ruhle or to Harry Parker. They were then responsible for organizing the issue into its final form. They worked on Nature Notes during the winter and got it ready for publication.

Was it available before you left the park that fall?

It would not have been published until the winter. We would continue to accumulate manuscripts until the very end of the season. They were all presented to the chief park naturalist who was responsible for editing the publication.

Did the editor have much difficulty recruiting articles?

I would say no. During the Ruhle era, the ranger naturalists were given one day a week free to explore the park. In return they were asked to prepare a article for the publication. Nearly all of them did. There were just a few who failed to submit one.

I noticed that the 1951 Nature Notes was lithographed by Edward Brothers in Ann Arbor, Michigan.

Yes. That would have been up to the chief park naturalist to do that kind of administrative work.

Did you become a member of the association and receive the publication after you left the park?

I didn’t receive anything from them after I left.

Were there very many association members at the time?

I didn’t know anything about that at all. Does such an organization still exist? How many members do you have?

Yes, it does. If there are forty members, I’d be surprised. That’s most of my questions.

Well, you pretty much covered the whole area and it’s been very interesting, too. To think back over all these wonderful experiences, I’ve enjoyed it!

So have I.

And I’m glad we’re getting this down while old Jim Kezer is still here ready to report.

 Footnotes:

  1. See Will Eaton, “This Month’s Speaker,” Nature Trail ( Eugene Natural History Society) 17:2 (February 1983), p.2-4, And David M. Green and Stanley Sessions (eds.) Amphibian Cytogenetics and Evolution (New York: Academic Press, 1991), pp.1-6. Both are in the biographical file for Kezer.
  2. American Association for the Advancement of Science. George Ruhle was the Chief Park Naturalist from 1940 to 1952.
  3. See fieldnotes of interview with Ruth Hopson Keen, taken on February 9,1992.
  4. Farmer was the lead seasonal naturalist. Ruhle had no assistant with a permanent appointment.
  5. The Russian satellite which set off the so-called “Space Race” in 1957.
  6. Succeeding Harry Parker, who left in 1956. Fairbanks served in that capacity until 1958 and was replaced by Bruce Black.
  7. Kezer notes that, in this instance, a relatively large collection has scientific value. In contrast to the usual practice taking only small of an animal population, this collection indicates the extent of variation within an endemic subspecies at that time.
  8. Professor of Zoology at Oregon State College.
  9. Kezer recalls that Storm experienced difficulties in answering correspondence at that time, something that unfortunately prevented their collaboration. The two later became good friends after Kezer arrived at the University of Oregon.
  10. Farner, The Birds of Crater Lake National Park (Lawrence, KS: University of Kansas Press, 1952)
  11. See the biographical file on Wynd.
  12. The Department of Zoology at U of O.
  13. Until Donald Libbey filled the job on a permanent basis in 1931, all park naturalists at Crater Lake were temporary positions. Wynd’s position was equivalent to that of a lead seasonal naturalist.
  14. Apparently the concessionaire, Richard Price, objected to the jars containing the newts being shown by one of the two ranger naturalists doing the evening program.
  15. Administration Building.
  16. The bog is near Willamette Pass.
  17. The Obsidians are an outdoor club based in Eugene.
  18. It appeared in 1951.
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