A new comprehensive system of park roads was surveyed and located under the direction of Major J.J. Morrow of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers in 1910-11. [16] Funds for the road system had been procured as a result of lobbying efforts by Steel and legislation sponsored by Senator Jonathan Bourne. The proposed road system, the estimated cost of which was $700,000, consisted of the following: one from the south boundary of the park to the park headquarters, a distance of eight miles; one from the west line to the park headquarters, a distance of seven miles; one from the park headquarters to the lake, a distance of five miles; one from the east boundary of the park via Sand and Wheeler creeks by way of the Pinnacles to the rim of the lake south of Mount Scott, a distance of nine miles; and one from the east boundary of the park north of Mount Scott via Cascade Springs to the rim of the crater where the Crater Lake Company was building its hotel. In addition, a proposed road completely encircling the lake was surveyed. This 35-mile drive, most of which would be “immediately upon the rim of the crater,” would be, according to Arant, “beyond question one of the grandest scenic roads in the world.” An appropriation of $50,000 for the construction of park roads in 1912 enabled Arant to begin planning for these roads! the most important being those from the west and south since they were the most heavily used routes.
There were sixteen bridges and culverts, ranging in length from 16 to 104 feet, on park roads by 1910. All of the bridges were constructed of wood and had not been painted, thus requiring replacement. Arant recommended that the larger bridges be replaced with steel arches and concrete abutments.
While the preliminary planning for the new park road system was underway, Superintendent Arant turned his attention to another problem facing the park–wildlife protection. As early as 1908 he had observed that wildlife was increasing in the park and had made recommendations for greater protection of game animals. He noted:
The number of valuable game animals appears to be increasing. Deer and black bears, lynx and coyotes were plentiful during the past summer, and panthers were seen in small numbers. There have been no depredations by these predatory animals. Of the smaller game and birds, there are squirrels, chipmunks, pine martins, fishers, grouse, timber pheasants, oriole, black-headed jay, camp robber or Rocky Mountain jay, and the snowbird. Broods of young ducks have been observed upon Crater Lake, also flocks of wild ducks resting from their migratory flights, but it is thought the elevation of the lake, 6,177 feet above sea level, gives a climate too cold for the natural habitat of wild waterfowl. When the snow falls, all game animals, with possibly the exception of the black bear and small fur-bearing animals, as well as all birds, migrate to a lower and warmer climate. In view of the fact that no wintering grounds are now available in the park, the superintendent recommends the extension of the park boundaries to include a lower section of the country on the slope of the Cascade Mountains, to afford the necessary protection to game.
In 1911 Arant proposed that a feeding ground be established for bears during the summer. He predicated his recommendations on the belief that by feeding and protecting the bears they would “soon become tamer and more numerous.”
By 1912 Arant had come to the conclusion that a game preserve should be established on the north and west sides of the park in the surrounding Cascade National Forest. His basis for this proposal was:
There is not a great variety of game animals or birds in the park. Black and brown bears, some smaller fur-bearing animals, such as the pine marten, the fisher, and several varieties of squirrels, including the fine silver gray, comprise the principal valuable game animals of the reserve. There are a good many blacktail deer in the park in the summer, but they, as well as the other animals and the birds, are compelled to migrate to lower and warmer climate during the winter season . . . .
For the protection of the game which make their home in the park in the summer months–more especially the deer and the birds–I would recommend the creation of a game preserve adjoining the park on the north and the west; by this means they would have the same protection in the winter as in the summer when they stay in the mountains included in the park.
As has been said, a national park should not be made a game preserve to set up standing, living targets on its borders, nor should it be used to tame the deer so they will become the easy prey of the deer skinner when the deep snow compels them to go down and outside of the park in order to live through the winter. . . .
The area embraced within the proposed lines lies wholly, or almost wholly, in the Crater National Forest, extends well down on the western and lower slopes of the mountains and hills, where the snowfall of the winter is light, and would make an ideal wintering ground for the deer and other animals and birds of the park and, so far as is known by the superintendent, there are no settlers nor private holdings within its boundaries.
Combined with this proposal was Arant’s recommendation to exterminate certain predatory animals in the park. The four species that Arant targeted were panthers or cougars, bobcats or lynx, gray or timber wolves, and coyotes. He estimated that these animals killed ten deer for every one killed by hunters. When the deer were driven to lower elevations by winter weather these animals would follow them and “prey upon them.”
