This plan had at least one advantage to the National Park Service in that by nightfall all visitors cars are removed from the park and are out of the way of our snow plows when clearing snow from roadways and parking areas, etc. It has a second advantage of holding down crowds to some extent during winter months which makes it easier for the National Park Service to take care of winter visitors.
There is some complaint, however, on the part of skiers in our gateway cities who would like very much to be able to secure meals and lodgings in the park, and stay in the park over weekends. Experience has shown that the cost of furnishing such service is out of all proportion to the revenues received. [53]
During the late 1940s long-standing problems between the National Park Service and the Crater Lake National Park Company came to a head. In June 1949 Superintendent Leavitt reported:
The principal concessioner in Crater Lake National Park has been noted for many years for his reluctance to cooperate with the National Park Service in providing the best possible service to the pubIc at reasonable rates and in the development of good public relations with park visitors and nearby communities. The concessioner has failed to give full understanding and recognition that it is an arm of the government, designed to give service to the public under the general regulations and supervision of the Service.
For the past two years, the principal stockholder has been desirous of selling his stock interest to a person who would take over the active management and principal ownership of the corporation. He has not been successful in the sale of this stock and the confusion that has resulted recently from changing policies regarding concessioner operations in the park has not made the task of finding a new owner any easier. [54]
One of the attempts by R.W. Price, president of the Crater Lake National Park Company, to sell the concession occurred in April 1948. It was announced that the company was being sold to the Michael E. Lee family of Oakland, California. A former real estate operator in Portland before moving to California, Lee had considerable experience in hotel management. The financial negotiations, however, fell through the following month, and R.W. Price, who had wanted to retire, continued as president and principal stockholder of the firm. [55]
Crater Lake National Park Company
| Year | Net Worth Beginning of Year |
Income | Expense | Net Profit (Loss-) |
Rate of Return |
| 1938 | $79,877.33 | $86,726.40 | $90,955.67 | $-4,229.47 | -5.29% |
| 1939 | 74,782.84 | 103,818.07 | 95,621.95 | 8,196.12 | 10.95% |
| 1940 | 83,068.96 | 100,613.49 | 97,913.18 | 2,700.31 | 3.25% |
| 1941 | 84,973.85 | 112,085.93 | 109,290.74 | 2,795.19 | 3.29% |
| 1942 | 87,769.04 | 23,254.80 | 49,757.91 | -26,503.11 | -30.20% |
| 1943 | 61,707.33 | 3,965.08 | 14,189.61 | -10,224.53 | -16.57% |
| 1944 | 51,482.80 | 2,467.77 | 4,497.46 | -2,029.69 | -3.94% |
| 1945 | 49,453.11 | 10,042.04 | 8,380.39 | 1,671.90 | 3.38% |
| 1946 | 50.794.27 | 200,016.04 | 175,942.87 | 24,073.17 | 47.39% |
| 1957 | 84,867.44 | 256,385.39 | 242,169.02 | 14,216.37 | 18.39% |
| Totals |
|
$899,375.26 |
$888,709.00 |
$10,666.26 |
|
| Yearly Average |
$69,886.70 | $89,937.53 | $88,870.90 | $1,066.63 | 1.53% |
Memorandum for the Director, Chief of Concessions, June 23, 1948, RG 79, Central Files, 1933-49, File No. 900-06, National Park Service, Rates Crater Lake Park Co., 1948.
Large numbers of tourists were attracted to Crater Lake during the winter of 1949 when the lake froze over for the first time in recorded history. The lake was solidly frozen to depths ranging from 2 to 12 inches and snow-covered from February to April. The freeze aroused “widespread interest,” and, according to the Annual Report of the Director of the National Park Service, “visitors to the park, many of whom were attracted there by this unusual occurrence, beheld an expanse of white in place of the sapphire waters so justly famous.” [56]
