During 1931 new educational activities were integrated with the observation, information, and lecture services at the Sinnott Memorial. The expanded activities were developed under the direction of the new park naturalist, Donald S. Libbey, and Ansel F. Hall, NPS Senior Naturalist and Forester. [15] A Naturalist Guided Automobile Tour was inaugurated. The tour consisted of a twenty-minute lecture on the geological history of Crater Lake followed by a directed 16-stop, three-hour circuit around the rim of the lake. Beginning on July 17 a program of four alternative lake boat rides was offered, ranging from a full day to approximately three hours under the title “Trips on Crater Lake with the Ranger-Naturalists.” Plans were developed for the printing of three leaflets to serve as guides for the parapet views at the memorial and the auto and lake trips. [16]
Park educational activities were placed under what was referred to as the Research and Educational Department in 1932. Libbey expanded the program with the assistance of three seasonal ranger-naturalists. It was necessary to assign individuals from the regular ranger personnel to assist in the work since there was an increase of more than 100 percent in educational contacts compared to 1931. Total contacts were reported to be 49,206 or 44.8 percent of the total visitors. Some 342 lectures with 6,971 persons in attendance were given along the parapet of the Sinnott Memorial. Park personnel participated in 22 radio broadcasts on the lone Medford radio station and gave two lectures outside the park, thus increasing public awareness of park activities.
Nightly lectures and daily field trips continued to be the mainstays of the park educational program. Chalk talks were introduced as an added feature of the lectures. The most popular field trip, according to Superintendent Solinsky, was the “conducted rim caravan tour.” Some 82 auto tours were conducted with a total of 365 cars and 1,276 persons participating. A new field trip was added to the program schedule, consisting of a 3-1/2-hour hike around the rim to the foot of Watchman Peak with a climb up the new Watchman Trail to the Watchman Lookout, a new structure housing forest protection exhibits.
During 1932 a number of individuals visited the park to aid the development of the park research and educational program. These included: Dr. Harold C. Bryant, NPS assistant director; Earl E. Trager, Branch of Research and Education; Verne E. Chatelain, historian, Washington Office; John C. Merriam, president, Carnegie Institution of Washington; Worth Ryder, University of California, Berkeley; and a committee of five with Dr. C.V. Boyer as chairman from the University of Oregon. [17]
Visits such as these continued to be made during 1933 and 1934. As a result several studies were prepared that analyzed the educational program in terms of the visitors’ experiences in the park. A study was undertaken to examine the park’s scientific features to develop an integrated program whereby visitors to Crater Lake could be brought into contact with both the aesthetic and scientific features of the park environment. The most significant study to result from such efforts was prepared on May 1, 1934, sponsored jointly by the Carnegie Corporation of New York and the University of Oregon. It was entitled, “Preliminary Report on the Crater Lake Project: A Study of Appreciation of Nature Beauty.” [18]
Park Naturalist Libbey was furloughed from the park staff in November 1933 to serve in the Emergency Conservation Work (ECW) program. For some three years that position was filled by temporary assignments. While the summer program continued, Superintendent Canfield observed that “development common to most parks as a result of emergency monies and technical assistants” was lost at Crater Lake “due to the absence of a year round head.”
