Postwar Planning and Development, 1942-55
Annual visitation at the park during the 1941 season set a record of more than 273,000, so Leavitt began to rethink circulation at Rim Village in view of the impacts associated with concentrating services there. Losing the one remaining CCC camp due to American involvement in World War II once again pushed concerns about the expense and problems with opening and maintaining the Crater Wall Trail to the forefront of park planning. Leavitt pointed to the need in March 1942 for studying a site located some 2,000 feet west of the boat landing as a small harbor, in addition to finding a safe and inexpensive way of reaching it.130 Since 500 to 800 man days of CCC labor had been allocated each year to opening the existing trail, Leavitt reasoned that more expensive NPS or contracted manpower might bring a tramway or elevator into consideration as an alternative if trail realignment proved to be difficult or impossible. The realm of possible options to reach the water even included construction of a tunnel from Park Headquarters until NPS Director Newton B. Drury nixed any means of reaching the water other than a trail from further consideration in early 1944.131
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| The old giving way to modern means of experiencing national parks, 1942. Drawing from Yellowstone Nature Notes, National Park Service. |
