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| Oregon State Highway Commission advertisement, 1951. Courtesy of Pat Solomon, Oregon Department of Transportation Archives. |
The launch of Mission 66 came in early 1956 with issuing a “prospectus” for each park, one detailing problems that proposed projects could address. The one for Crater Lake included how a new trail might disperse crowds who might otherwise access the shore from Rim Village and pointed to the advantages of the new location. One was aspect, since the southern exposure could reduce, or possibly eliminate, the hand clearing of snow so prevalent on the Crater Wall Trail. The cove below lent itself to building a marine railway for launching and retrieving boats, something that might obviate the need for dock facilities. As for park trails in general, NPS planners added more general language about improving and marking the Oregon Skyline route, but they also cited a need for “numerous” self-guiding trails to better distribute visitor use away from the developed areas.144
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| Visitors on the Crater Wall Trail in the 1950s. National Park Service photo. |
