171 The numbers for 1958 (7,000) and 1968 (15,667) come from a memorandum sent by Superintendent Don Spalding to Regional Director John Rutter, February 1970, 3. A figure of some 30,000 for 1977 appeared on a typed sheet tided “Day Use of Trails” included in the 1977 report by the park’s resource management crew.
172 Superintendent’s Annual Report 1978, 6. The superintendent (James Rouse) had formerly been the region’s resource management specialist and wilderness coordinator, though he simply continued staffing the trail crew and backcountry patrols begun during the tenure of his predecessor, Frank Betts.
173 Constance M. Toops, Crater Lake National Park Trails (Crater Lake: Crater Lake Natural History Association, 1980), 4.
174 The trail had formerly followed the old wagon road spur toward the Cafeteria, thus requiring hikers to cross the Munson Valley Road below Rim Village. The Smith Brothers Chronology notes its “reopening” in 1977 “after many years of disuse,” SBC 2009, 182.
175 Superintendent’s Annual Report 1978, 12.
176 T.J. Adams to Superintendent Don Spalding, December 9, 1968 and Frank J. Betts, Superintendent, Pacific Northwest Region Maintenance Project Proposal (written by Adams), May 1, 1978, park maintenance files.
177 Toops, op. cit.
178 Superintendent’s Annual Report 1978, 6.
179 Superintendent’s Annual Report 1979, 6. Routes were shown on most of the winter editions of the park’s newspaper Reflections, whose printing was funded by the Crater Lake Natural History Association.
180 Larry Smith and Lloyd Smith, The Smith Brothers’ Chronological History, 2009, 188. The ski service’s rental inventory came from the Rogue Ski Shop in Medford.
181 Superintendent’s Annual Report 1980, p. 6. The report also provided use statistics for the period of 1977-80. Day use for skiing went from 657 in 1977 (which was the lowest snow year on record to that time) to 7,302 three years later, while hiking grew from 25,437 in 1977 to 27,746 in 1980. Overnight use during the same period (which did not distinguish between summer and winter) grew from 2,429 in 1977 to 2,962 in 1980.
182 Richard West Sellars, Preserving Nature in the National Parks: A History (New Haven, Connecticut: Yale University Press, 1997), 217-235.
183 Stephen R. Mark, Administrative History, Chapter 18: Research (Seattle: Government Printing Office, 2003), 774.
184 Most of the transferred land had been subject to the USFS process called RARE II (Roadless Area Review and Evaluation), which had been invalidated by a court decision in 1979. Senator Mark Hatfield asked the NPS and USFS to work out how much of the acreage would come into the park and then drafted legislation for this purpose in 1980. At least one disused segment of trail (an example being the Thousand Springs route, most of which had mostly been superseded by roads) came into the park, but was not actively used as a hiking trail.
185 Paul A. Larson, Acting Superintendent, to General Superintendent, Klamath Falls Cluster Office, October 1, 1969, 1. The NPS was initially against the trail, but reversed itself three years later; Einar Johnson, Superintendent, to Irving E. Smith, District Ranger (Prospect District, Rogue River National Forest), September 25, 1972, backcountry vertical file, park library.
186 The date of construction is uncertain, though it appears to be after 1972 given the exchange between the above referenced correspondence between Johnson and Smith. The trail is referenced in the 1980 edition of the park’s trail guide by Toops (21). This link also allowed PCT users an alternate route by way of national forest road 281 to Lake West and a trail from the south shore of Diamond Lake, then to Mount Thielsen.
187 Superintendent’s Annual Report 1982, 13; SAR 1983, 9.
188 Jeffrey P. Shaffer, Crater Lake National Park and Vicinity (Berkeley, California: Wilderness Press, 1983).
189 [Robert E. Benton], Crater Lake National Park 1984 to 1990, Construction Ramifications, 14, Miscellaneous Annual Reports file, Park Historian’s office. Reconstruction largely consisted of replacing wooden cribbing on switchbacks in the trail’s lower sections. A short path from the North Junction parking area was pioneered by the trail crew in 1987. It soon widened into a “network” of social trails and has yet to be addressed.
