During 1939 the Bureau of Public Roads made location surveys throughout the park, particularly between the rim and Annie Spring and immediately west and south of Annie Spring. The surveys were for the improvement of those early park roads which had become substandard for the heavy load of year-round travel they were carrying. [38]
One CCC camp operated at Annie Spring during the summers of 1940 and 1941. The number of enrollees was greatly reduced from that of earlier years, however, and the amount of work accomplished thus declined. The activities of the enrollees continued to include landscaping, motorway maintenance, fire fighting, fish planting, cottage construction, cleanup, snow removal, and woodcutting. During the summer of 1940, for instance, enrollees razed several old buildings, constructed a new public comfort station at park headquarters and a “portable” ranger station for the east entrance, began work on a two-story frame hospital building, and performed fire hazard reduction work on the recently-acquired Yawkey Tract. In 1941 CCC personnel conducted engineering surveys for water and sewer systems, fire protection projects, and new campground proposals, continued work on the hospital, and constructed a portable ranger station at the north entrance to the park.
When the 1941 summer season at Crater Lake was over, the Annie Spring CCC camp moved to Oregon Caves National Monument. On November 23, 1941, the camp was disbanded abruptly, thus ending CCC activity at Crater Lake and surrounding areas.
The 1940 summer season witnessed the completion of the PWA-funded projects to expand and modernize the park utility systems. The overhead electric transmission line to Annie Spring and the water, sewer, telephone, and electrical systems at park headquarters and the rim area were all completed.
The Bureau of Public Roads continued to oversee major road construction projects in the park during 1940-41. Both summers witnessed operations in quarrying and crushing rock in the park for material to metal base and surface twelve miles of Rim Road from park headquarters to Kerr Notch. The five-mile stretch of road from Goodbye Bridge to the rim was seal-coated with bituminous surfacing in 1941. In September of that year Goodbye Bridge was closed to traffic for safety reasons, a steep unpaved detour road and temporary detour bridge serving in its place. The log bridge across Annie Creek was reinforced in 1941 to enable it to withstand the strain of heavy traffic. During the winter of 1941-42, however, both bridges collapsed. [39]
Throughout the war years construction and development projects at Crater Lake were reduced drastically as a result of budget cutbacks, loss of personnel to the military and war industry, and termination of the CCC and other New Deal public works programs. The park was closed for the winter in November 1942, and for the remainder of the war park operations were confined to the summer months with minimum staff and equipment “on a purely protection and maintenance basis.” Thus, construction and development were largely eliminated from the park program during the war. [40]
Some small construction projects, however, were carried out in the park during the war years. In 1943, for instance, a new boathouse for protection of the government-owned launch was constructed “at a new and more practical location on Wizard Island.” An extension to the power transformer house at park headquarters was built to provide room for a stand-by gasoline-driven electric power generator, and the power plant and generator were installed. The new hospital building was nearly completed, and 24 bank protectors were installed on Rim Road. [41]
Despite the curtailment of construction and development projects in the park during the war, regional technicians and park personnel initiated various planning studies for future development work during the postwar era. These studies included:
