The current proposal for wilderness designation in Crater Lake National Park, according to its 1986 Statement for Management, incorporates three principal concepts. These are that: (1) nonwilderness extends 200 feet beyond the edge of all development including motor vehicle roads; (2) all park areas not currently falling within this 200-foot corridor around development are recommended for wilderness designation; and (3) the entire lake surface is recommended for willderness designation except for four acres at Cleetwood Cove and four acres at Wizard Island where boat docking and storage occur. The Park Service has taken the position that the existence and continued use of the concessioner-operated tour boats and the lake research boats do not preclude the lake surface from wilderness designation (NPS Management Policies, VI-7, 1978). Thus, the current acreage within the park recommended for wilderness designation is 166,149. [54]
C. ACQUISITION OF MAJOR PARK INHOLDINGS
When Crater Lake National Park came under the administration of the National Park Service there were nearly 2,000 acres of private inholdings in the reservation. The existence of private inholdings in the national parks was viewed by NPS officials as an impediment to effective management. Thus, NPS Director Mather made it a priority of his administration to acquire such inholdings. In terms of Crater Lake National Park the two principal private inholdings to be acquired were the Yawkey and Gladstone tracts.
1. Yawkey Tract
Using Public Works Administration (PWA) funds the federal government acquired a fee simple title to 1,872.36 acres of land owned by the Yawkey Lumber Company in the southeastern corner of the park on August 7, 1940. The acquisition under condemnation proceedings, which amounted to $6,560.26 or $3.50 per acre, was subject to the right of the Algoma Lumber Company to remove the timber on approximately 123 acres of land in the SE 1/4 of Section 8 and the N 1/2 NE 1/4 of Section 17. Final judgment on the transaction was rendered on December 4, 1940. [55]
The purchase of the Yawkey Tract was a culmination of sixteen years of effort by the National Park Service. In May 1924 NPS Director Mather expressed interest in acquisition of the property. Three months later C.C. Yawkey, President of the Yawkey Lumber Company with offices in Wausau, Wisconsin, responded by offering a property exchange:
The land which we own in the Park amounts to nearly 2000 acres, and applying the stumpage price at which land has been sold both on the Indian Reservation and in the National Forests, the value of this timber would be something like $250,000, and you can readily see that we would not feel warranted in deeding this to the Government.
However, we have this suggestion to make: The Government has land adjoining our tract in the Cascade National Forest, which, as I understand it, is on both sides of our tract, and if there is anything that adjoins us so that it would leave our timber in a compact tract, we would be willing to make an exchange thousand for thousand and value for value.
There is also timber along our east line in the Klamath Indian Reserve for which we would be willing to trade. [56]
The proposal was not acceptable to the Park Service, and on September 25, 1924, Mather informed Yawkey:
That while your land is nominally within the Park it is not in a location which receives any tourist travel. Under the circumstances it seems advisable not to attempt anything in the way of a trade as you suggested. [57]
