The year saw the completion of the Mile-high Highway between Klamath Falls and a point 6 miles below Ashland on the Pacific Highway. This fine macadam highway, together with the equally well maintained highway between Klamath Falls and our south entrance, was used by a greatly increased proportion of Park visitors.
The McLeod Cascade Gorge section of the Crater Lake Highway out of Medford to our west entrance was completed this year. This road is now completely widened and is surfaced except for the 6-mile stretch between Silver Camp and our west entrance.
The Dalles-California Highway is completed from Klamath Falls to a point beyond intersection with the 4-mile spur connecting with our east road; northward toward Bend, however, it was bad going.
In addition a number of construction/development projects were commenced in the park during 1924. New trails were constructed from White Horse Bridge to the Nutcracker and from Government Camp in Munson Valley to the Lady of the Woods. Telephone service was improved by the installation of four high-power instruments and construction of a parallel line between Anna Spring and Government Camp, making two simultaneous conversations possible. A wing was added to the log cabin (built several years earlier by the U.S. Corps of Engineers) used as the office of the superintendent at Government Camp to provide additional space for a general office, enlarged registration and record-keeping facilities, and an information desk area This latter project was in line with the park’s long-term objective of moving all administrative offices and park operations activities from Anna Spring to Government Camp (which would soon become known as park headquarters) because of its relative proximity to the visitor facilities at the rim. A Community House was constructed at the Rim Campground using funds that had originally been appropriated for a new superintendent’s home. The structure was designed to provide a setting for dancing, lectures, and other visitor entertainment. [9]
Paltry park appropriations permitted little new construction in the park during 1925, with the exception of projects to improve the south and west entrance roads to the park. This work was described by Superintendent Thomson:
. . . The 6.8 miles of the Medford entrance was realigned, grades and curvatures reduced, and two bridges replaced with fills; the 8.1 miles of the Klamath entrance was also corrected and similarly freed of unnecessary hazards. A penetration macadam pavement, 16 feet wide, was laid over about 8 miles–a dustless road bed that will transform park travel. It is expected that the 18.3 miles authorized will be completed before mid-season next year, providing pavement as far as Government camp. This work was carried on with a minimum of detours.
Other than these road projects new construction was limited to the building of a garage and considerable improvements to the park telephone and sanitary systems. The latter included construction of a new comfort station and septic tank and laying of a new 2,700-foot 4-inch pipeline from the pumping station to the rim tanks. [10]
In 1926 National Park Service engineers revised the road program for the park that had been devised by army engineers some years before. The new plans were coordinated with the Bureau of Public Roads, which took over road construction in the park on January 1, 1926, with District Engineer C.H. Purcell of Portland in charge. The revised plans provided for improvement of existing roads by regrading, resurfacing, and realignment.” [11]
Upon the joint recommendation of the district engineer and the park superintendent road surfacing at Crater Lake was changed from penetration-pavement to crushed rock macadam treated with light road oil. This change was made primarily in the interests of economy. Both the west and south entrance roads were thus surfaced by August 10. A “thorough clean-up of the debris incidental to road construction was effected to a distance of 75 feet out from the ditch slopes.” Thus Mather was able to report “that these two roads are now dustless and the entire right of way rid of all debris, giving grasses and wild flowers opportunity to bloom–a tremendous improvement over former conditions.” Simultaneously, parking areas were widened and guard rails installed, “bringing these roads up to high park standards.”
The 6.5-mile stretch of highway between Silver Camp and the park’s west entrance was macadamized with state and federal funds. This completed the hard surfacing of the “Crater Lake Loop Road,” extending some eighty miles from Klamath Falls to the Pacific Coast Highway several miles south of Ashland.
