After the death of Steel in 1934, his daughter Jean Gladstone Steel was appointed park commissioner. She would remain in that position until the early 1940s. [32]
During the 1940s the U.S. Commissioner’s position at Crater Lake became a matter of controversy between the Department of Justice and the National Park Service. The position was vacated during the war when the Department of Justice asked for the commissioner’s resignation as an economy measure due to the reduction in park visitation and restricted park operations. After the war U.S. District Court Judge James A. Fee refused to appoint a new commissioner. His refusal affected Park Service law enforcement and irritated Superintendent Leavitt. In June 1947 Leavitt reported on the need for a U.S. Commissioner:
. . . it was found that we had an entirely different class of visitors to the park last year, people who had little or no appreciation of what the parks represented or what they stood for, so that there was a wanton disregard of the park rules and regulations and they did not take kindly to requests to obey these rules and regulations when they were called to their attention. We needed a U.S. Commissioner in the park last year as we have never needed one before, and there is every reason to believe that this need will continue in future years. . . .
For a year the National Park Service has been urging the Department of Justice to appoint a U.S. Commissioner for the park. The appointment, which is in the hands of Judge James Alger Fee of Portland, has been held up. Judge Fee has insisted that the Commissioner selected should be a law-trained man. It has not been practicable to secure a law-trained man who would be willing to “bury” himself in the park where his jurisdictional duties would be very light and where he would be too far away from a city to conduct a law practice on the side. If he remains in the city, he would be too far away from the park to satisfactorily handle the duties of his position there. The Superintendent has urged that a person without law training be appointed to the position, experience in the past indicating that such a person can handle that position satisfactorily.
When Congress passed a new judicial code on June 16, 1948, the legislation vested in the U.S. District Court for the District of Oregon discretionary authority to appoint a U.S. Commissioner for Crater Lake. Since the section dealing with Crater Lake was phrased in permissive language, Judge Fee continued to refuse to appoint a commissioner. He based his refusal on the ground that Congress had granted to the park commissioners authority that was unconstitutional:
In the first place, it puts a judicial official under the control of the Secretary of the Interior as to residence. In the second place, it requires that the commissioner, if appointed, be vested with the powers to try what are euphemistically called minor offenses on government reservations. In the third place, I believe that the section is unconstitutional because of the fact that there is an attempt to confer upon a commissioner so appointed power to forfeit property. This power can only be conferred upon a United States District Judge. [33]
Since nothing could be done to force Fee to appoint a commissioner, Secretary of the Interior Oscar L. Chapman took the matter to the Judicial Council for the Ninth Circuit of the U.S. Court of Appeals of which Chief Judge William Denman was the head. Writing on February 8, 1949, Chapman detailed the reasons why it was important to have a U.S. Commissioner at Crater Lake:
The basic need for a special commissioner for Crater Lake National Park arises from the fact that the United States has exclusive jurisdiction over the Park. This situation, coupled with the fact that we are now getting approximately a third of a million visitors to the Park annually, results in a great many law-enforcement problems dealing chiefly with violations of Park laws and regulations. A commissioner residing in or near the Park, who can handle these cases promptly and efficiently, is urgently needed. The lack of a special commissioner necessitates considerable travel to distant points away from the Park since it is necessary to take arrested persons before the United States Commissioner in Klamath Falls, Oregon. Such Commissioner, if there is sufficient evidence, bonds the person over for trial by the Federal District Court in Portland, Oregon. This procedure results in an increase in expenses and a loss of time on the part of personnel. Administrative difficulties in connection with Park administration are multiplied. An excessive loss of time for persons who are charged with violations of Park laws and regulations also results from the lack of a commissioner. In many cases the persons charged with violations must return to their work or engagements on the day following their arrest. This becomes almost impossible when there is no Park commissioner available to handle their cases promptly. The situation is complicated further because there is no jail in the Park. As a result, the rangers must spend considerable additional periods of time with arrested persons, which time is urgently needed elsewhere in the administration of the Park. [34]
