D. APPROPRIATIONS FOR CRATER LAKE NATIONAL PARK: 1902-1916
Appropriations for Crater Lake National Park remained small and barely adequate to maintain park operations during the 1902-16 period. Congress allocated annual sums of only $2,000 for fiscal years 1902, 1903, and 1904, thus forcing the park to operate at a bare minimum subsistence level without sufficient funds for necessary improvements or protection services. Appropriations for the park increased to $3,000 per year during 1905-07. After the park received an extraordinarily generous appropriation of $7,315 in 1908, annual appropriations for the years 1909-13 were again lowered to $3,000. [6]
The low level of appropriations prevented necessary development and effective administration and protection of the park. The lack of adequate park funding was a continuing source of irritation to Superintendents Arant and Steel. In September 1911, for instance, Arant reported on the needs of the park at the National Park Conference held in Yellowstone:
Now, referring again to the matter of appropriations for the Crater Lake National Park, I would say that with a sufficient amount appropriated for the purpose there would be no difficulty in maintaining a good administration over the affairs of the reserve. The appropriations that are made are for the protection and improvement of the park, but the funds provided are not sufficient for either the protection or the improvement. There has been no more than $3,000 appropriated any year excepting one, and that amount must cover every expense of the reserve, including all salaries as well as all other expenses.
The amount available for the roads, trails, and bridges in the park this year is $850. Exclusive of any consideration for the construction of new roads, there should be an appropriation of at least $20,000 for the proper protection of the reserve.
That, of course, would include the protection of the game; of the timber from forest fires, and other damages; the establishing of a sufficient number of ranger camps upon the lines of the park, and the maintaining a constant patrol throughout the reserve; the protection of the natural objects and curiosities in the park, and a general administration over all of the affairs of the reserve. [7]
During the nearly 4-1/2 years of Steel’s superintendency, he pressed for increasing appropriations to provide for adequate administration and development of the park. Congress was more responsive than in earlier years, and appropriations increased from $3,000 in 1913 to $7,540 in 1914. The rising level of park funding continued in 1915 and 1916 with appropriations of $8,040 and $8,000 respectively. [8]
Biographical Sketch of William A. Arant
William F. Arant was born on September 29, 1850, in Tazewell County, Illinois, the son of Jesse T. and Mary Jane (Emmett) Arant. The family, which would eventually consist of twelve children, resided in Illinois until March 12, 1852, when they left for Oregon, crossing the plains in ox-pulled wagons. They arrived at the Sandy River in September and located in Linn County. After a year they moved to Douglas County, where Arant’s father secured a “donation claim” of 320 acres some seven miles northwest of Roseburg in September 1853. Arant’s father devoted his entire life to farming and stock raising.
Arant acquired a common school education and worked on the home farm during his youth. On October 29, 1871, he married Emma L. Dunham, who had come to Oregon with her family in 1864 from her birthplace in Livingston County, Missouri. In the fall of 1872 he moved his family to Klamath County, where he engaged in farming and stock raising for some thirty years. He became active in Republican Party political circles in southern Oregon. His father had been a member of a local militia company known as the Minute Men during the Rogue River Indian War in 1855, and he followed his father’s footsteps by serving in the state militia for five years–one year as private, one year as company bugler, two years as first sergeant, and one year as guidon sergeant. During the Modoc Indian War in 1872-73, he served as a teamster in the employ of the U.S. Government and engaged in furnishing supplies to the troops. In 1892 he won the championship medal as the finest shot of Troop B, Oregon National Guard, one of the two cavalry troops in the state. On June 7, 1902, he was named superintendent of Crater Lake National Park, being recommended for that position by Representative John H. Tongue, Senator John H. Mitchell, Governor T.T. Greer, the Republican Congressional Committee, First District, the secretary of state, and the secretary of the treasury. He assumed his full-time duties several months later and served as superintendent until July 1, 1913.
During those eleven years he wintered at his home in Klamath Falls, devoting attention to his private farming and stock raising interests.
