Crater Lake Bears by Lloyd Smith
Very few people have witnessed this. When Larry [Smith] and I first started working at Crater Lake in 1959 the park dug garbage pits and dumped the park’s garbage into the pits and burned it each day. Sometimes our garbage people would wait until the end of the day to burn to be nice to the bears. The garbage from the lodge and cafeteria were rich in dumped food.
The bears turned into entitled pigs and would all descend into the pits near headquarters and rummage through the burning garbage.We used to go down after work and watch the bears and shoot photos. When friends visited we would take them to the pits. The first photo is of me trying to “feed” the bear. We were young and not afraid. The bears had a regular run; they would start in the Mazama Campground then stop by the burning garbage and then head up to the Rim and scavenger the food in the Rim Campground. At one time I counted 21 bears around the garbage pit and in the trees. The park knew they had a problem.
They put out bear warning pamphlets to put your food away in the campground. They made the bear-proof garbage cans. They closed the Rim Campground. Then they decided to close the pits and trucked the garbage out of the park.
Now you had druggie type/entitled bears used to free food…much better than leaves and berries. We had some people hurt. I have done first aid on bear injuries. One night a camper asked me if I could get a bear out his van that was going through his food boxes. I have been chased by a bear. Slowly the park trapped the bears and moved them outside the park. Some were tranquilized and moved. Some were shot…no other choice. The mothers had trained their kids to beg. We had them storming to the cabins looking for food.
Helen even chased one out of our cabin entrance with a broom. One day Helen was in our cabin and Kenneth was playing in the sandbox they had in the area for kids. Helen looked out and saw a bear walk between our cabin and Kenneth. Helen remained calm and the bear kept on walking. The bear was more interested in food rather than kids.
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