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Active park operations began at Crater Lake National Park soon after passage of the establishing act on May 22, 1902. William F. Arant of Klamath Falls was appointed park superintendent on June 7 (he received official notification of his appointment on October 13) at an annual compensation of $900. In the deficiency appropriation act of July 1, 1902, an allocation of $2,000 was made for the protection and improvement of the park as well as the extension and repair of its roads.

During June 1902 Arant established his first headquarters in the park at Bridge Creek Springs, some six miles from the lake. That month he visited the lake and principal camping places in the park and found large numbers of campers. He reported that no forest fires had been seen, no timber was being cut, and no park property or resources were being destroyed. As a result of conversations with campers and park visitors, Arant observed that there was “a strong sentiment” in “favor of preserving the natural picturesqueness of the reservation” and that all were “generally disposed to protect rather than to destroy.” To facilitate visitation to the lake he had surveyed a new five-mile road along the base of Crater Lake Mountain to the rim of the crater, and department officials had approved his plans. [1]

During his first full year as park superintendent Arant took steps to lay out the new road and enforce the rules and regulations of the park. With the help of a surveyor and other hired labor Arant surveyed and located the road during October 28-November 5, 1902, at a cost of $158. The new road followed the general location of the wagon trail blazed earlier in 1869 by the Sutton party. The completion of the survey coincided with the end of the working season as the snow depth levels in the park ranged between a few inches to nearly four feet at that time.

During the winter and spring of 1902-03 Arant made frequent trips through the park, sometimes in ten to twelve feet of snow, to ensure that the park rules prohibiting hunting and trapping were not violated. Arant again established camp in the park on June 18, 1903, as soon as the snow had disappeared from the lower grounds of the park.

Arant purchased a variety of materials and supplies for the operation of the park and the construction and improvement of the park roads in 1903. These purchases included: 21,816 feet of bridge lumber ($175.80); tools, implements, and building supplies ($111.05); Remington standard typewriter ($90); a boat and lumber for a boathouse ($100); and blasting powder ($300).

On June 20, 1903, Arant, with the help of thirteen men and three teams, commenced improvements on the existing main road through the park and hauling lumber for new bridge structures. Three of the worst hills were eliminated and replaced by “good easy grades,” and a new 50-foot bridge was constructed across Bridge Creek. The road was “otherwise improved” by “cutting out roots, taking out rocks, leveling up, etc.” In addition, the stretch of road in the vicinity of Bridge Creek was improved for a distance of one-fourth mile by “cutting out several short steep hills and a number of very short turns by building a new piece of road” which was “comparatively straight and level.”

On July 16 Arant moved his camp to the head of Anna Creek and began work on the new road to the lake, which had been surveyed the previous November. Before the total park appropriation for fiscal year 1904 was exhausted on August 20 a bridge (104 feet long and 30 feet high) was constructed across Anna Creek and two miles of the new road were completed.