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Once the new administration was in office Chamberlain recommended Steel to Secretary of the Interior Franklin K. Lane for the position of park superintendent at Crater Lake. On June 13 Lane formally requested Arant’s resignation and appointed Steel to the superintendency effective July 1 . While Lane admitted that a Democrat from every Oregon county had applied for the position, he stated that Steel “brings home the bacon.” [9]

Arant protested that he was in the classified civil service and continued to defy Lane’s order, transacting official business and refusing to turn over possession of government property to Steel. Finally in mid-July a U.S. Marshal and a deputy arrived at the park to enforce the government’s orders to remove Arant. The scene was described by Steel to Senator Chamberlain on July 22:

. . . Friday evening Leslie Scott, U.S. Marshal, and one Deputy, arrived from Portland to support me and enforce my orders as Superintendent. Saturday morning we called on Arant, who was both defiant and insolent. Against him was pitted the diplomacy and determination of Scott, who showed great patience and constant wisdom. After a time Arant was given until 8 o’clock Sunday morning, at which time we again filed into the Superintendent’s office in the Headquarters building, where we found Mr. and Mrs. Arant, his brother, two sons and his lawyer, a Mr. Carnahan, of Klamath Falls. Arant was as defiant and insolent as ever.

Scott carefully explained conditions, asserted his authority, which was denied by Arant’s lawyer, and made very clear his determination to enforce my orders as Superintendent, warned Arant and Carnahan of the consequences of any interference, again showed great patience and displayed rare diplomacy. When all other means had failed, I demanded immediate possession of the office and all government property in the Park, which was indignantly refused. I then ordered Arant’s forcible removal, when he swelled up and said, “I would like to see somebody try to remove me from my own home.” However, in less than one minute he was passed through two doors and landed in the front yard. He returned immediately and was again ejected without ceremony but with dispatch.

I instantly took possession of the desk and papers, following which a generally turbulent condition continued until after 2 o’clock, when Arant and his attorney realized that a cyclone had struck them and they were effectually ousted. . . .

Parkhurst and Arant met at Fort Klamath yesterday, when Arant made an unprovoked and disgraceful assault on Parkhurst in the presence of Mrs. Parkhurst.

Arant, his brother and family, and one son are still here, by my sufferance, occupying government buildings, while they finish a contract of Arant’s brother, to repair a bridge, work on which was commenced late last season. It seems he has already received his pay, which at least looks irregular. [10]

Subsequent to his forced removal as park superintendent, Arant initiated legal proceedings against Lane. The courts, however, upheld Lane’s contention that Arant was a political appointee and as such could be removed from office. [11]

After Steel had settled into his new job, he reflected on the political struggle that had taken place. On August 16 he confided to a friend:

Yes, I had quite a fight. In the first place my appointment was bitterly opposed by the Southern Pacific, the Klamath Development Company, a very rich California corporation that controls the Klamath region and the Northwest Electric Company of Portland, another very rich corporation. Besides that I was opposed by four Democratic candidates, to say nothing of the then incumbent. Notwithstanding the fact that I am a Republican and refused to deny it, I had the support of the Democratic State Central Committee, and leading Democratic politicians of the state, nearly all the banks and business men of Portland, the leading Democratic newspapers as well as the Republican, every member of the state government, including the Supreme Court and every state commission, together with every member of the Legislature but two, one of whom was not asked to sign the petition and one refused. [12]

Years later Horace M. Albright confirmed the political background to the appointment of Steel as park superintendent. In his The Birth of the National Park Service: The Founding Years, 1913-33 Albright wrote:

Crater Lake’s superintendent William F. Arent [sic] was a politician who had begun his patronage job in 1902, and now needed to be replaced. We hired Will Steel, who had virtually founded the park. . . . What Steel lacked in administrative know-how he made up for with his love of the land and his ability to work with the concessioners and the people in the area. [13]