In 1961, Crater Lake was one of the first four parks selected for this experiment in planning. A proposed visitor center was a key component of the package that included Rim Village. A new access road from the south (which followed portions of the army route as it entered Rim Village) was planned to diverge from the existing road below Rim Campground and go to the lodge. This would allow visitors to avoid the congested plaza area as they made their way to the new visitor center, housed in the adapted lodge. [63] The proposed “concession area” around the plaza, the adapted lodge, and a second access road through Rim Village continued as the main focal points when Superintendent W. Ward Yeager submitted the park development schedules for the update of the package master plan in early 1964. [64]
An administrative reorganization of the national park system into natural, historical, and recreational areas resulted in Crater Lake being classified as a natural area after 1964. This classification was interpreted by the agency to mean that the park would reflect as little evidence of human activity as possible. A package master plan was drafted in July 1965 which aimed to provide a workable traffic pattern for Rim Village. Additional parking for the proposed visitor center in the lodge was a key component, as was additional parking space to service the concession facilities. Included in the plan’s principal recommendations was a proposal for Rim Village becoming a day use area. The lodge was to be acquired by the NPS for demolition or conversion into a visitor center, and the concessioner was to develop overnight accommodations away from Rim Village. [65]
The five year extension that Peyton and Griffin had been granted expired on December 31, 1965. Although the concessioners were able to get a one year extension for the 1966 season, Superintendent J. Leonard Volz made the installation of an automatic sprinkler system in the lodge a condition for granting a new contract. [66] Volz also raised questions about the future of the lodge in a memorandum to Regional Director Edward Hummel. Focusing on fire safety and the lodge’s proximity to the caldera, Volz tied NPS ownership of the lodge to moving park headquarters out of Munson Valley. [67]
One of the reasons that the proposed headquarters move was generating more enthusiasm than it had in the past was that Volz was the first superintendent of the park to live in Munson Valley year-round. The first drawings of a new headquarters located at the park’s south entrance had been done by Lange and Davidson in 1942, but cost studies in 1948, 1955, and 1961 resulted in rejection of the idea, [68] Volz pursued the plan because the Medford winter headquarters were disbanded in 1965 and there was now the possibility of getting overnight accommodations out of Rim Village. Some of the buildings in Steel Circle were to be exchanged for the concession’s interest in the lodge, provided that the Steel Circle buildings were remodeled as motel accommodations. [69]
Director George Hartzog’s visit to the park in August 1966 led to the concession appraising the NPS buildings in Munson Valley so that an anticipated exchange for their property at Rim Village could take place. [70] Hartzog wanted to convert Rim Village to a primarily day-use area by consolidating the functions of key structures and razing others. He favored reconstruction of the lodge into a low-profile structure that would utilize the existing stone masonry and provide about 50 high-quality rooms. Volz later reported to Regional Director John Rutter that it would take two seasons to convert the lodge, but that overnight accommodations must first be provided elsewhere before the lodge conversion could begin. To Volz, this also meant that park headquarters had to be moved to a new site before work could start on converting the Steel Circle apartments to motel units. [71]
