Not everyone who remained on the small NPS staff in wartime agreed with the idea that visitors came to Crater Lake attracted by park features, with the lake being foremost. Chief Park Naturalist George Ruhle observed that a large percentage of visitors came to Crater Lake due to its status as a national park, one which happened to be along their intended travel route. In his “Comments concerning the 1942 Master Plan,” Ruhle related that there was the need to change the answers given about guided trail trips, fishing, horse rentals, and having just one way to reach the water. To that end, he proposed a series allowing for 5, 10, and 15 mile hikes. Although the trails should not be well-developed and certainly not paved, they had to reach objectives. Ruhle listed 11 destinations as a start: Red Cone, Llaos Hallway, Union Peak, Crater Peak, Boundary Springs, Cascade Spring, meadows near Lightning Spring, Red Blanket Canyon, Timber Crater, Watchman from Rim Village, as well as Dutton Cliff from Crater Lake Lodge. In being no fan of the parking area and trailhead built for the Castle Crest Garden on Rim Drive, Ruhle wanted the route to start at Park Headquarters and go to the talus and then down to the wetland. He also thought visitors, knowing the risks after having read posted warning signs, could visit the lakeshore by way of Wineglass or Kerr Notch, and even from Cloudcap via the Pumice Castle.132
The next master plan revision came less than two years later, but reflected none of Ruhle’s views, perhaps because he had entered military service in 1943. Leavitt and Crouch had since come out squarely against public use of four “incipient” trails leading to the lake. These included a trace down Kerr Notch, an animal track called the “Bear Trail” from Rim Drive to Cleetwood Cove, a beaten path used by fishermen at the Wineglass, and remnants of the old Lake Trail below Crater Lake Lodge.133The development outline, which accompanied the master plans, had since evolved from interleaved sheets bound among full sized drawings into a narrative with charts and other features of a report, mostly in response to a directive from President Franklin Roosevelt in 1943 that stipulated the NPS and other federal agencies should undertake planning efforts aimed at postwar conditions. This meant that managers of individual park units compile data on existing and proposed facilities such as trails. Leavitt thus listed 18 routes as existing, with 11 as proposed—though four of those simply involved oiling the most popular trails. A new Crater Wall Trail was held in abeyance after a meeting in Drury’s office, while the others proposed were designated either low priority or lacked even a funding request.134
Funding for any new projects, let alone one involving trails, was nonexistent during World War II and in very short supply in the first few years afterward.135 Annual visitation rebounded quickly after the lows of the war years (due to gasoline rationing and no snow removal from highways), setting a new record of almost 290,000 in 1947. With every indication that it could well continue upward, the NPS made Crater Lake an “all year” park in 1948 as a way of promoting winter recreation. With studies of possible downhill ski areas showing only marginal results at best, local enthusiasts had to make do with a rope tow at Rim Village set up on winter weekends. Cross country skiers had used portions of the Rim Drive since the 1930s, but park rangers began marking trails such as the route down Dutton Creek by 1949.136
