After some deliberation the House Committee on Public Lands reported favorably on the bill I on March 24 with the recommendation that Albright’s boundary revisions be inserted. [15] As amended the bill encountered little opposition in Congress. It passed the House on April 18, was referred to the Senate Committee on Public Lands and Surveys on April 19, and received a favorable report without amendments on April 26. [16]
After passage by the Senate on May 9 the bill was signed into law (47 Stat. 155) by President Herbert C. Hoover on May 14, 1932. Thus, 973 acres were added to the park, the addition becoming popularly referred to as the park’s “southern panhandle.”
The boundary change, which added some 973 acres to the park, had ramifications for the Park Service in terms of road maintenance. In response to inquiries from the Oregon State Highway Commission, Superintendent Elbert C. Solinsky stated on July 14, 1932:
It is true that our park boundary has been extended to include approximately 973 acres along the southern boundary. This addition includes a section of the state highway between Fort Klamath and the old park boundary. I believe approximately three miles of this highway have been added to the park and are now a part of the park highway system and subject to maintenance from Park Service funds. Unfortunately this year no allotments have been provided for the maintenance of this section. In fact practically no funds are available for road maintenance of our park roads. For that reason we will not undertake any maintenance work on the new section added by this boundary change this year. [17]
Some years later Superintendent Earnest P. Leavitt observed that considerable friction had developed between the Park Service and the Forest Service during negotiations for this addition to the park. Among other observations, he stated that:
. . . originally it was contemplated that the addition would be along section lines and would be a sizeable area. Before the addition was worked out, however, the Forest Service officials in charge became provoked at the National Park Service and determined that they would agree to only the very smallest area possible that was necessary to preserve this stand of ponderosa pine. The result is that we have a very narrow and irregular tongue of land extending south from the park boundary. [18]
5. An Act to Authorize the Acquisition of Additional Land in the City of Medford, Oregon, for Use in Connection with the Administration of the Crater Lake National Park (47 Stat. 156–May 14, 1932)
The Medford property acquired by the park in 1924 had become inadequate for park needs by 1932. The Park Service had built a warehouse (46 x 80 feet) on lot 3, block 2 of the central subdivision of the town which had been acquired in 1924. Each winter virtually all park equipment was taken to this property to be overhauled and placed in condition for the next season’s operation. By 1932 the storage space for this equipment had become inadequate and the warehouse and yard greatly overcrowded, causing considerable delay and inconvenience in maintenance operations.
The lot (lot 4, block 2) adjoining the warehouse property became the property of Medford in the early 1930s. Park Superintendent Solinsky began negotiating with town authorities concerning donation of the lot to the Park Service for use in connection with the existing warehouse site. Assessments and interest against the lot amounted to nearly $1 ,000, and before the town could donate the lot it would be necessary for the matter to be placed on the ballot in the November election. The cost of the ballot measure was estimated to cost $300. However, it would be possible for the town to sell the lot to the government without the approval of the citizenry, and, accordingly, town officials offered the lot for the nominal sum of $300. [19]
