The legislative struggle to add the Diamond Lake extension to Crater Lake National Park continued for several years. The McNary bill died in the Senate Committee on Public Lands in 1918, but he reintroduced the legislation (S. 2797) on August 15, 1919, calling for an extension of some 94,880 acres. On April 5, 1920, the Senate passed the bill, but it encountered opposition in the House Committee on Public Lands. The opposition was based on Forest Service objections, claiming that the extension area was “more valuable for commercial use of one kind or another than for recreation uses of those who visit the park.” Among the commercial uses contemplated by the Forest Service were grazing and use of Diamond Lake as a source for power generation. Local citizens supported the Forest Service because of the good hunting prospects of the region and the agency’s willingness to lease Diamond Lake shore property for construction of summer cabins and recreational concessions.
The Senate bill failed to be reported by the House committee, and on July 18, 1921, McNary introduced a new bill (5. 2269) to provide for expansion of the park. As this third bill entered the legislative arena, Mather supported it in ever more strident terms. In his annual report for 1921 he stated:
Progress in the development of Crater Lake Park will shortly be retarded if Diamond Lake is not added. This remarkable lake, with its stately forests, its broad sandy beaches, its rugged mountains, and its unexcelled opportunities for bathing and fishing, naturally belongs to the park. Physically it is a part of the park, but legally it has no relation to it. In the extension of hotel and camp facilities and transportation lines this region is essential to the success of a comprehensive development. The utilities of the present park should have opportunities to encourage visitors to remain longer in the country. This can not be brought about unless more attractions are available. Diamond Lake has all that will ever be required to round out a park trip. It will diversify a tour almost as much as any national park in the system, and in so doing will add tremendously to the pleasure of a visit to southern Oregon.
It will be very easy to build a road from Crater Lake to Diamond Lake; in fact, several automobiles traversed the route of the road during September. The first automobile over the route carried Vice President E.O. McCormick, of the Southern Pacific Lines, and Superintendent Sparrow. The trip was made on September 1 . I have been advised by both of these gentlemen that the cost of building a road between the two lakes will be very small.
Opponents of the extension plans, which appear to be few in number, contend that Diamond Lake is required for power purposes, and that surrounding lands are needed for grazing. Upon careful inquiry I can not find that these objections are worthy of serious consideration; certainly the immediate recreational advantages of the region far outweigh the future possibility of utilizing the lake for power storage, and as for the grazing argument, there never has been much pasturage of live stock about the lake, and it is inconceivable that in order to meet the wishes of a very few owners of cattle and sheep a great project of this kind, national in character, should be condemned . . . . [74]
