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1981
1981 Harold Mark Huddleston, Hillsboro, Oregon is sentenced to 10 years in federal prison for steal $100,000 in traveler’s checks and other valuables from campground cars. Huddleston and his gang hit Mazama campground at least 14 times. (See May 12, 1994)
January 18 1981 Paul Heron, age 77, long time boat operator at Crater lake, dies in Klamath Fall, Oregon. Paul began working at Crater Lake as an auto mechanic in 1933. He was placed in charge of operating the Lodge Company’s boats two years later. Mr. Herron made “several thousand” hikes up and down the Caldera wall during his 28 summers at Crater Lake. He retired in 1961 following a massive heart attack, but Paul continued to work part-time for the Lodge Company in an advisory position as a machinist until his death. Paul named the Old Man of the Lake.
January 21 1981 Over $10,000 in jewelry stolen from the Cafeteria during a midnight burglary. The case seems to be an inside job and has not been solved.
March 1 1981 The second annual Dutton Creek Ski Race is won by Reider Peterson, 41, of Ashland, in the time of 31:55 minutes. Brian Smith, age 11, skis the race in 58.45, shaving 22 minutes from his 1980 time.
April 1981 Roger Rudolph enters on duty as the Park’s new Chief Ranger, transferring in from Yellowstone National Park. He is quoted as saying, “I couldn’t be happier. I think I have died and gone to Heaven.”
April 1981 Renovating Crater Lake Lodge will become number one on the list of jobs to be accomplished during 1983 in the Northwest Region of the NPS. The plans call for gutting the building’s interior and then rebuilding from the ground up with new fire-retardant materials, new plumbing and bigger rooms. Cost estimates run at about $6.5 million. $150,000 alone will be spent this summer on improving the fire alarm system.
April 2 1981 Monte Hawk, 21, from South Dakota is found dead, inside of his car at the Ponderosa Pine Picnic Area. Hawk had committed suicide by asphyxiation from Carbon Monoxide. Monte’s death note stated that since public schools were interested in allowing prayers in schools, it was “time to throw in the towel… I’m filled with much despair for this perverse society in which we’re forced to eeck out a living. When one of the fundamental tenants of our Constitution separation of church and state is so blatantly challenged, I can only hang my head and cry…There’s a thin line between genius and insanity. I believe I’ve walked both sides of that line at times.”… A quantity of porno and sado masochistic magazines was found in his car. A partial burned pile of porno magazines was found along side his car. The vehicle had been reported stolen on March 21.
His note went on…. I’d much rather my children, if indeed I had any, be witness to two humans making love than see two humans attempt to kill each other. Also, one need only turn on a t.v. to see the mess we’ve made of things so far. When our nation’s Chief executive publicly advocates the teaching of a religious belief in classrooms alongside of science fact it’s time to throw in the towel. Personally, I’d rather be known as the “evolved son of a money” than a degenerate son of sinners. (Re: Adam and Eve) When one of the fundamental tenants of our constitution separation of church and state, is so blatantly challenged, I can only hang my head and cry. The ultimate irony of history must be the historic fluke, which correlated though Christianity, sex with “sin”; indeed a crying shame, also. Mom and Dad, I know you’ll probably never understand me, but I want you to know, though I often questioned your methods of raising me I have never had the slightest doubt as to your motives which were plain and simple and purely love. Thanks for trying so damn hard. There’s a thin line between genius and insanity. I believe I’ve walked both sides of that line at times. Mary, don’t blame yourself for any of this – it didn’t have anything to do with our “relationship.”
April 3 1981 The Oregon Legislature passes a joint memorial calling for the retention of the Lodge.
April 28 1981 Nuckolls Construction, Inc. of Roseburg is awarded a $306,965 contract for interim rehabilitation work on Crater Lake Lodge. Work is to include shingling on the Lakeside, construction of a south fire escape, rebuilding two other fire escapes, and the extension of a stairwell and the changing of inward swinging doors. Fire retardant materials will be installed in the halls and the large chimney, once the largest in Oregon, will be chinked to prevent smoke leakage. This will be the first replacement of the 60-year-old shingles.
Spring 1981 Water year: Precipitation of 75.33 inches.
May 2 1981 Stone house #24 is damaged by fire when a cardboard box placed, on the oil heater, bursts into flames. The fire was spread around the first floor when an attempt was made to beat out the flames.
May 5 1981 Crater Lake Lodge is listed on the National Register of Historic Places. The Lodge’s fireplaces and chimneys are now exempted from building codes because of the listing.
May 10 1981 A biologist from the Predatory Bird Research Group at the University of California, rappels down to a Peregrine falcon nest, removes three eggs and replaces them with two newly hatched chicks. One egg died during incubation, but the other two eggs hatch after the shells were protected from drying out by a special waxing process that thickens the shells. One female now “consorts” with a male from Yosemite.
June 24 1981 Superintendent Jim Rouse and Reg. Hydrologist Don Barrett watch as a large timber wolf walks in front of their vehicle at Lost Creek Campground at 5:20 in the evening. Attempting to photograph the animal, they approach within 20 yards.
July 1981 Due to budget problems, the resident YCC program is replaced with a nonresident Job Corps program.
July 8 1981 Ranger Lloyd Smith physically arrests Lodge employee, Neil Neet of Eugene, Oregon for disorderly conduct, public drunkenness and assault in the Lodge Dorm after Neet threatened the life of several employees. Mr. Neet was lodged in the Jackson County Jail.
By Lloyd Smith, June 2017: I was working the evening patrol at the park and we received a radio call that a lodge employee, Neil Neet, had gone over the edge and was threatening to kill people. He had burst into a Bible study in the dorm and threatened to kill them and then left the building. Neil had been a busboy at the lodge restaurant and as he cleaned tables he was pouring the drinks left on the table into a jar and then was drinking this hot concoction. They called it “priming the pump”. He became very drunk and violent and out of his mind.
Another ranger and myself went to his room in the lodge attic, but he was not there. We then received word Neil was back in the employee dorm causing trouble. We drove over there and found him in the lounge. When I confronted him I told him to stop and he told me the last police officer that confronted him was sent to the hospital. He turned and started to leave. I had my Kel Light in my hand so I reached up and put in on the front of his neck in a chokehold and took him to the floor. Then I pressed his neck into the floor with the Kel Light and two rangers put their knees into his back and legs. I did not lose my Stetson. He mumbled to me that if we got off of him he would let me handcuff him. I then arrested him and took him to the Jackson County jail for the night. The next day he appeared in court (public drunkenness, assault and disorderly conduct) with me and then after court and the leveling of fines he was released and being the nice ranger that I was I drove him over to a friend’s house on Crater Lake Avenue. I took his photo as I left.
July 11 1981 Ranger Marion Jack dispatches (shoots) two domestic sheep found grazing at the Cloud Cap viewpoint. The sheep had been observed living in the Park for the past two years.
July 27 1981 Second latest opening of the Rim Drive. The snow is allowed to melt out, rather than being plowed because of cost considerations.
Summer 1981 Teri Thomas spots cougar droppings and tracks along Sun Creek while studying her research plant plots. Two years previously Teri had collected cougar droppings near Lightning Springs. (The Back Country fire crew located and made casts of cougar tracks along the Pacific Crest Trail during the summer of 1964 or 1965.)
1981 Three more wolf sightings in the Park, mostly around Lost Creek. Two of the sightings are by Chief of Maintenance, Marion Clark.
1981 The Hillman Crater Lake Discovery Living History program is cut because the Park’s budget can no longer afford Hillman’s horse.
1981 An Inclinometer is installed on the Rim, near the Lodge. Readings do not indicate any significant movement of the Rim, but the meter did detect a small movement, putting the Lodge in some danger of eventually falling into the Lake.
1981 Studies show that snow loads on structures in Munson Valley are calculated at up to 500 pounds per square foot.
August 1981 Visibility studies in the Lake with an 8 inch white disc reach 29.1 meters. In the 1930’s and the 1960’s, an eight inch white disc was visible in the Lake to a depth of 39 to 40 meters. A one meter white disc is visible down to 32.5 meters, while in the 1960’s; the one-meter disc was visible down to 44 meters, or 106 feet.
Rather than scattering the ashes of famed geologist Howell Williams over Crater Lake as first requested by the family, Park Superintendent Jim Rouse places the ashes in a silver container and drops it in the Lake near the water gauge at Cleetwood Cove.
August 1981 I saw a wolf just outside the park boundary as I drove up the Sand Creek road toward the
Pinnacles from the Sun Pass road in August 1981. I did not submit a sighting report at the time, nor did I say anything about the sighting to anyone. The animal I saw at Sand Creek was nearly three times the size of any coyote. I’m glad that there were no radio collars on Southern Oregon wolves at the time. There are too many ears listening to wildlife these days.
Long live the wolves, wherever they may wander. Ron Warfield, former Chief of Park Interpretation, written February 2018
August 7 & 8 1981 Two consecutive days of 91 degree temperature set a new record for Park Headquarters. Local temperatures in Medford reach 114 to 115 degrees.
August 8 1981 538 runners take part in the sixth annual Rim Run. Many runners shorten their anticipated distances because of the record heat.
6.5 Pat Fox beats his time from last year 34:29.7
Karen Bushey of Klamath Falls 45:47 (number 47 overall) 13.1
Matt Doty of Merlin, Oregon 1:23.10
Eileen Clangus of Sacramento 26.2
Richard Stewart of Arcata, California 2:51.26
Bob Jones, Crater Lake Lodge 2:52.03
Joan Reiss of Sacramento, California 3:28.26 (a new women’s record)
August 8 &9 1981 The mean temperatures at the Panhandle weather station reach 99 degrees F.
August 10 1981 Following a period of record heat, the Lake warms to new record highs near the Wineglass.
Top inch: 19.4 degrees C or 66.72 degrees F
One foot down: 15.2 degrees C and Ten feet down: 14.2 degrees C.
August 12 1981 Crater Lake Lodge’s former owner, Ralph Peyton, wins his $1,082,205 lawsuit against the U.S. Government and the National Park Service in Federal Court with U.S. Magistrate Edward Leavy issuing the award. The Lodge was sold in 1976 for 1.6 million, but had been valued at 2.6 million prior to the water contamination crisis. Leavy ruled that, “the Park Service was negligent in its design, location, construction and maintenance of the Park’s water system.”
August 13 1981 Zoeanne Olsen, P.O. Box 2022, Fremont, California, 94536, great-great granddaughter of Annie Gaines, visits the Park and takes a boat ride. Annie Gaines died one month after giving birth to Mrs. Olsen’s great grandmother.
August 19 1981 A camper-caused fire spreads to 1/8 of an acre near the summit of Garfield Peak. Three men spend the night on the peak working to extinguish the blaze in a small grove of 400-year-old White Bark Pine.
August 22 1981 Bob Hillman, Pasco, Washington, great great great grandnephew of John Wesley Hillman visits the Park.
August 22 1981 Roger Wade, 33, 1245 W. Almas, Fresno, California, reports seeing an upright type of Sasqash animal cross 50 yards in front of his car, three miles west of Annie Spring, on the West Entrance road. Roger described the animal as being upright, 6 foot tall, with light brown and cinnamon hair. The animal crossed the road from south to north, left to right.
Written statement from Roger Wade: I backtracked to confirm this morning’s 9:00 sighting of something running across Highway 62. I discovered what appeared to be large footprints. One of the prints seemed to give the impression of a middle toe being the longest, which is characteristic of Sasquashes. I marked off a couple of prints with sticks and stones. While tracking through the woods, I found human footprints where someone had run down a hill. I don’t know whether this is significant or whether these two incidents are related. But here is the information anyway. The clothes are still lying where I found them, 50 yards or so from the roadway, on the same side as the turnout. The large footprints are located near, 15 yards before, the first turnout on 62 after you leave the Park entrance and head toward Union Creek. (Just about exactly 4 miles from the Park Entrance.)
August 27 1981 A Jeep Wagoner and travel trailer are completely destroyed by fire on the North Road between North Junction and Pumice Desert. 10-year old Brian Smith, captures the fire on film as the propane tank explodes.
August 27 & 28 1981 A 2800-acre Klamath Basin forest fire burns the Park Electrical Transmission lines. The Park runs on emergency generator power for two days until the overland lines are reconnected.
September 4 1981 Edmund Heinz, age 62, of Fremont, California, dies of a massive heart attack in Cabin F behind the Rim Cafeteria. CPR was administered for 45 minutes on the way to the hospital, but to no avail.
September 5 1981 Seasonal Ranger Lloyd Smith “retires” from Crater Lake National Park after working 21 summers for the NPS. Lloyd worked: four summers on Maintenance, one summer as a trail boss at Rocky Mountain National Park, one summer at the North Entrance, was the Park’s first campground patrol ranger working in Mazama Campground for one summer, and then he worked 15 summers as a law enforcement Patrol Ranger. Lloyd set the Park Seasonal Housing record of 11 summers in the same house, Stonehouse #30.
September 26 1981 Eleven-year-old Brian Smith runs up the Cleetwood Trail in 10 minutes flat. (Brian later sets a new long distance running record at his school in the 3,000.)
November 24 1981 Dennis Dalton of Klamath Falls pushes his 1980 Chevette auto into 300-foot deep Annie Creek Canyon, 1.5 miles inside the South Park boundary. Claiming that the car had been stolen earlier in the day, Dalton hoped to obtain insurance payments because he had fallen behind in his car payment. A PP&L electrical repair crew spots the car in the canyon and Dalton’s fraud scheme is exposed.
December 11 1981 480 acres of the new Park extension is proposed for transfer back to Winema National Forest because the timber had already been sold, prior to the 1980 boundary extension. The legislation also includes $31,000 to fund a Lake study to find out why the waters of Crater Lake is becoming cloudy and less clear. Congress adjourns before action is taken and the land swap is still pending.
Season 1981 Visitation: 536,719. Studies indicate that 85% of Park visitors remain in the Park less than 8 hours and 65% remain less than 4 hours. 3,800 people pass through Rim Village daily. Less than 15% remain overnight and less than 5% stay 2 or more nights.
Entrance station and campground revenues reach $181,000.
Winter 1981/1982 Greatest amount of precipitation for water year – October – September 91.5 inches. Average precipitation is 66 inches.
Fiscal year 1981 $300,000 spent on fire and safety improvements on Crater Lake Lodge.
Season 1981 Visitation: 536,719 (Online says: 503,404)
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