Despite Arant’s concerns, however, there were no arrests or officially reported violations of park regulations during the 1910-12 period. In 1910, for instance, Arant observed that the regulations were “seldom intentionally violated,” but he noted that it was “difficult to prevent the cutting of the bushes and boughs for beds about the camping places, and to keep persons from painting, carving, and writing names and other things upon rocks, trees, banisters, or boats or other objects.” In 1911, however, one man was “ejected from the park with the admonition not to return without permission from the Secretary of the Interior or the superintendent of the park.”
Enforcement of the regulations against carrying firearms through the park was a continuing problem as the road through the park was the only one between the settlements located on the west side of the park and the hunting grounds of the Cascade Mountains on the other. The guns were taken at the superintendent’s office, checked, and returned upon presentation of a coupon when the visitor was ready to leave the park. As there were sometimes as many as fifty guns in his office, Arant requisitioned gun seals in 1911.
During the years 1910-12 there were no serious forest fires in the park. Numerous fires in the surrounding forests, however, often threatened the park forest lands, especially during periods of dry weather. These fires, as well as the fact that smoke from them made it impossible to obtain good views of the lake, hampered park visitation in 1910 and 1911. During those same years the park itself had a number of small fires, some of which were caused by lightning while a significnt number resulted from the carelessness of park visitors.
To provide for more effective park administration and improve the park’s ability to respond to fires a telephone system was installed in 1910. The service was extended from Fort Klamath to the superintendent’s headquarters by the Klamath Telegraph and Telephone Company. This service was initiated pursuant to a special use permit granted to the company on April 5, 1909. The agreement granted the Klamath Falls-based company the right to construct, use, operate, and maintain a commercial telephone line, approximately eight miles in length, across the park, entering the reservation 3-3/4 miles west of its southeastern corner, thence along the road running from Fort Klamath and connecting with its office in Klamath Falls. The permit provided that the company would transmit free of charge over its lines all messages of the government coming into or going out of the park or from one part of the park to the other. The telephone line was to be operated at least 100 days per year. A private line was extended from the park headquarters to the camp at the rim of the lake by the Crater Lake Company. [13]
The Crater Lake Company continued to operate its concessions (a list of authorized rates for 1912 may be seen below) in the park during 1910-12 under its five-year lease. As revised the company s charter provided for two concessions, one for maintaining the two permanent camps and operating gasoline launches and rowboats on the lake and the other for transporting passengers through the park in automobiles. A license fee of $10 was charged on each of the three automobiles (one Locomobile, 40-horsepower; one Stoddard Dayton , 45-horsepower; and one Studebaker, 40-horsepower) used in the transportation. By 1912 the company was operating five automobiles, and on September 16 of that year Arant announced that 101 persons had already taken advantage of those services.
| Authorized rates, Crater Lake Co. [1912] [Address Crater Lake, Oreg., during tourist season, Portland, Oreg., remainder of the year.] |
|
| Board and lodging, per day | $3.25 |
| Single meals at Crater Lake and Camp Arant | .75 |
| Beds | 1.00 |
| Row boats: | |
| Per hour | .50 |
| Per day | 2.50 |
| Launch ride around the lake | 2.50 |
| Launch charter, per hour | 5.00 |
| Trip to Wizard Island | 1.00 |
The two camps operated by the company continued to attract increasing numbers of tourists during 1910-12. The camps came to be referred to as “camp hotels” since sleeping accommodations were provided in floored tents. By 1911 guests at Camp Crater were provided meals in a temporary wooden 30- by 40-foot building, while the company had under construction the stone and concrete hotel which Steel had interested Parkhurst in building. Less elaborate “camp hotel” facilities were in operation at Camp Arant by 1911. The total number of guests at the “camp hotels” more than doubled from 716 in 1910 to 1,464 in 1912.
