The park naturalists continued to conduct a variety of guided tours. Daily nature walks, each averaging 25 visitors and 2-1/2 – 3 hours in length, were conducted each morning and were attended by some 1,659 persons. The rim bus trip which had been conducted by a naturalist during the 1957, 1958, and 1959 seasons was dropped from the interpretive program because of the questionable nature of the activity as a part of the interpretive program, the limited contacts, and the shortage of manpower. Naturalists conducted morning and afternoon launch trips around Crater Lake that were attended by 1,783 persons.
Naturalist talks were attended by 51,177 visitors. Thirty-minute slide-illustrated talks at the lodge followed twenty minutes of variety entertainment presented by concession employees. Campfire programs, attended by about one-half of all park campers, were presented each summer evening at the Community House in Rim Village and at the temporary campfire circle in Mazama Campground.
Research continued to be conducted by park naturalists. Field investigations were carried out on the behavioral patterns of the golden-mantled ground squirrel. Field work for a sedimentation study of Crater Lake was conducted and collected samples were analyzed at the University of Minnesota to learn more about the bottom environment of Crater Lake, its history (including old water levels), and post-collapse volcanic activity.[45]
Various studies were conducted at Crater Lake during the 1960s that provided data for inclusion in the park interpretive program. One of the most significant research projects was a comprehensive parkwide survey of archeological resources conducted by a University of Oregon field party headed by Wilbur A. Davis, Assistant Curator of Anthropology at the Museum of Natural History in Eugene. The purpose of the project was to determine the extent of aboriginal occupation and utilization of the park area. Materials recovered during the survey consisted of a few flakes and projectile points, leading to the conclusion that the area was a suboptimal habitat for aboriginal groups dependent upon hunting and gathering subsistence economies. [46]
In addition to NPS-sponsored research Crater Lake increasingly became the focus of university studies in the 1960s and early 1970s. Examples of such projects included: Carlton Hans Nelson, “Geological Limnology of Crater Lake, Oregon” (unpublished M.S. thesis, University of Minnesota, 1961); Elizabeth Laura Mueller, “Introduction to the Ecology of the Pumice Desert, Crater Lake National Park, Oregon” (unpublished M.S. thesis, Purdue University, 1966); and John Walter Lidstrom, Jr., “A New Model for the Formation of Crater Lake Caldera, Oregon” (unpublished Ph.D. dissertation, Oregon State University, 1972). These scholarly studies contributed to the information data base of the park and to more knowledgeable park interpretive programs. [47]
The Crater Lake Natural History Association continued its efforts in support of the park interpretive program during the 1960s. Profits from the sales of publications, the total of which exceeded $7,000 for the first time in 1964, were used to publish interpretive literature, sponsor publication of various park books, and purchase items for the park library. Among the most popular publications sponsored by the association in the 1960s were the “Castle Crest Nature Trail” guide booklet, The Shrubs of Crater Lake by Dr. Charles Yocum, and a revision of Along Crater Lake Roads (1953) by Dr. George C. Ruhle.
An interpretive prospectus was approved for Crater Lake in May 1972. The document, developed by Denver Service Center and park personnel, was intended as a guide for the orderly development of an interpretive program in the park by inventorying the park resources, identifying its thematic elements, and recommending appropriate facilities and services through which the message could be communicated to the public. An “interpretive concept” was developed to provide a philosophical framework to govern the direction of the park program:
An interpretation of Crater Lake National Park should convey more than the known and supposed circumstances of its origin. Although geologic fact and theory are especially compelling when they relate to something of the magnitude of Mount Mazama and Crater Lake, they are unlikely to occupy a visitor’s thoughts longer than his encounter with the next natural marvel on his vacation agenda. Striations left by a glacier which grew warm and died 10,000 years ago cannot long hold one’s attention when he is confronted by the icy spectacle of Mount Rainier. Nor can a long-silent and cool volcanic artifact vie for a visitor’s thoughtful consideration when he is standing amidst steaming fumaroles and boiling mudpots.
Certainly, interpretation should lead to a better understanding of the geologic forces of volcanism and mountain building, and lend meaning to the pure beauty of Crater Lake. But the real value of this story is its commentary on the mechanisms of change. The significance of the changes that sired Crater Lake thousands of years ago are timely and relevant to the present. Interpretation should contribute to an awareness of how, if we do not learn to understand and guide the forces of change which we are capable of perpetrating, we may be engulfed by great upheavals in our world and our lives, as surely and swiftly as were 17 cubic miles of this ancient mountain.
If interpretation is approached in this way–if the skeletal components of fact and theory are skillfully articulated, and firmly bonded by a relevant concept–a more lasting and meaningful response to the Crater Lake experience will result.
According to the prospectus the park interpretive program was to accomplish three objectives. The goals were to (1) provide information and orientation services; (2) facilitate the physical interaction of the visitor with the environment; and (3) foster the intellectual involvement of the visitor by providing those facilities and services necessary to meaningfully interpret the natural values of the park. To realize these goals, major program objectives were proposed to include the following:
