For the first time since 1935 virtually all park employees, except for a minimum number of administrative and protective personnel to secure government property, were moved out of the park when it closed for the winter on November 23, 1942. Many of the personnel were transferred temporarily to Olympic National Park and other western national parks. Equipment and machinery from the park garage were moved to Lava Beds for overhaul and repair by the park mechanic, who was transferred there for the winter. [65]
As the months passed the war had an increasing impact on park operations and administration. During the summer of 1943 Superintendent Leavitt commented on the situation:
Crater Lake was just beginning to realize the returns from seven years of year-around operation. The administrative, protection, construction and maintenance forces were built up to a point where an efficient organization for summer operation was assured, which served as a nucleus around which to build the seasonal summer force. With the closing of the park for the winter, the protective and maintenance divisions have been so greatly reduced in numbers that we are now facing the difficult task of protection of the park with a very limited force of trained and efficient personnel . As war conditions have brought this about, we face our problems cheerfully, determined to do the best we can with what we have. [66]
In May 1944 Acting Superintendent Richard J. Smith elaborated further on the effects of the war on park operations:
1. Instead of an all-year park as in prior years, snow removal operations have been discontinued and the park permitted to become blocked by snow during the winter season from approximately November 1 to June 15. Our snow removal equipment was loaned to the U.S. Army.
2. Park travel declined from 273,564 visitors during 1941 to 100,079 in 1942, and to 27,656 in 1943. Of the 27,656 visitors in 1943, 6,392 were members of the armed forces.
3. The park permanent staff has been reduced from 25 to 9 permanent employees, including the complete abolishment of the interpretative division for the war s duration, and administrative, protective, maintenance, repair and operation services curtailed to a minimum basis. The entire park organization is devoted primarily to protection of the park from fire during the summer months.
4. Surplus trucks, tools, equipment and supplies were transferred to war agencies.
5. For the duration of the war the park concessioner has suspended all public service operations in the park–transportation, lodging, meals, boat service, etc.
6. Special courtesy and consideration has been given to the men and women of the armed forces who find it possible to visit the park.
Men from the field of education made up the seasonal ranger force and high school boys constituted the fire protective organization. [67]
With the approach of the end of the war, NPS park, regional, and Washington Office administrators engaged in lengthy debate whether Crater Lake should be reopened as a summer or year-round operation. Political pressure, generated by various organizations, influential individuals, and nearby communities, was building for resumption of year-round operation of the park. In a memorandum to the Region Four Director on October 6, 1944, Superintendent Leavitt analyzed the options of the Park Service in responding to these pressures:
If the Service were in a position to resist this pressure on the ground that it was detrimental to the park and contrary to park policies–an argument which is applicable in resisting the pressure for grazing, for example–we might be able to maintain Crater Lake as a summer park only, but we have no such argument to justify such a policy, in view of the successful operation of the park on an all-year basis for more than seven years. . . .
About the only justification that we can make against all-year operation is:
1. The difficult living and working conditions in an area of such heavy snowfall. . . .
2. That the cost of administration, protection, operation, maintenance and repair during the winter months is an excessive expense when compared with the relatively small number of visitors that take advantage of the facilities the park has to offer during the winter season. . . . [68]
