Museum exhibits were housed in the Exhibit and Administration buildings and the Sinnott Memorial. Simple displays on human and natural history were shown in the Exhibit Building, while the Sinnott Memorial interpreted visible geologic features with a rock collection, large color transparencies, paintings, and photographs. Interpretive panels salvaged from the 1959 Oregon Centennial Exposition in Portland were displayed in the lobby of the Administration Building.
New plastic plant labels were used to identify plants in Rim Village and along the Garfield Peak, Discovery Point, and Castle Crest Wildflower Garden trails. A mimeographed guide to the Castle Garden trail was introduced in August and used by some 2,370 visitors.
The park naturalists continued to conduct a variety of guided tours. Daily nature walks, each averaging 25 visitors and 2-1/2 – 3 hours in length, were conducted each morning and were attended by some 1,659 persons. The rim bus trip which had been conducted by a naturalist during the 1957, 1958, and 1959 seasons was dropped from the interpretive program because of the questionable nature of the activity as a part of the interpretive program, the limited contacts, and the shortage of manpower. Naturalists conducted morning and afternoon launch trips around Crater Lake that were attended by 1,783 persons.
Naturalist talks were attended by 51,177 visitors. Thirty-minute slide-illustrated talks at the lodge followed twenty minutes of variety entertainment presented by concession employees. Campfire programs, attended by about one-half of all park campers, were presented each summer evening at the Community House in Rim Village and at the temporary campfire circle in Mazama Campground.
Research continued to be conducted by park naturalists. Field investigations were carried out on the behavioral patterns of the golden-mantled ground squirrel. Field work for a sedimentation study of Crater Lake was conducted and collected samples were analyzed at the University of Minnesota to learn more about the bottom environment of Crater Lake, its history (including old water levels), and post-collapse volcanic activity. [45]
Various studies were conducted at Crater Lake during the 1960s that provided data for inclusion in the park interpretive program. One of the most significant research projects was a comprehensive parkwide survey of archeological resources conducted by a University of Oregon field party headed by Wilbur A. Davis, Assistant Curator of Anthropology at the Museum of Natural History in Eugene. The purpose of the project was to determine the extent of aboriginal occupation and utilization of the park area. Materials recovered during the survey consisted of a few flakes and projectile points, leading to the conclusion that the area was a suboptimal habitat for aboriginal groups dependent upon hunting and gathering subsistence economies. [46]
In addition to NPS-sponsored research Crater Lake increasingly became the focus of university studies in the 1960s and early 1970s. Examples of such projects included: Carlton Hans Nelson, “Geological Limnology of Crater Lake, Oregon” (unpublished M.S. thesis, University of Minnesota, 1961); Elizabeth Laura Mueller, “Introduction to the Ecology of the Pumice Desert, Crater Lake National Park, Oregon” (unpublished M.S. thesis, Purdue University, 1966); and John Walter Lidstrom, Jr., “A New Model for the Formation of Crater Lake Caldera, Oregon” (unpublished Ph.D. dissertation, Oregon State University, 1972). These scholarly studies contributed to the information data base of the park and to more knowledgeable park interpretive programs. [47]
The Crater Lake Natural History Association continued its efforts in support of the park interpretive program during the 1960s. Profits from the sales of publications, the total of which exceeded $7,000 for the first time in 1964, were used to publish interpretive literature, sponsor publication of various park books, and purchase items for the park library. Among the most popular publications sponsored by the association in the 1960s were the “Castle Crest Nature Trail” guide booklet, The Shrubs of Crater Lake by Dr. Charles Yocum, and a revision of Along Crater Lake Roads (1953) by Dr. George C. Ruhle.
