Historic People, Historic Photos, Lake Photos, Limnology, Smith Photos

1967 – Ranger Boat Sinks

August 29              1967      The Park’s old wooden Ranger boat is sunk near Wizard Island, after using a sledgehammer to knock holes into the boat’s sides and bottom.

October 2010 – Owen Hoffman writes: Larry, That was the old Naturalist’s research boat that was owned by the NPS.  In the summer of 1967, it was deemed unusable and beyond repair.

It was sunk to make room for the OSU Boston Whaler, which had been recently lowered into the lake by sliding it down over banks in  late Spring of 1967, to use the NPS boat house on   Wizard Island for  winter shelter and storage.

The old Naturalist’s research boat was featured in the 1966 edition of “America’s Wonderlands” by National Geographic.  It was photographed in the vicinity of the Phantom Ship with Bruce Black’s wife and daughters on board.

In 1967, our professor of limnology at OSU, Dr. Jack Donaldson, used the OSU Boston Whaler to tow the Naturalist’s research boat from its boathouse out into deeper waters where it was sunk. The boat was sunk by Park Ranger Larry Hakel.  He used a sledge hammer to punch holes through the weakened hull of the boat.  Doug Larson and I went along to watch and help as needed.  Doug took photos.

The boat was last observed peacefully at rest on the lake floor by Mark Buktenica, who was inside the submersible Deep Rover.  This happened sometime in 1988 or 1989.

Letter to the authors from Dr. Doug Larson, October 18, 2010

Here are some photos that I took at Crater Lake in the summer of 1967. That summer, the Park Service decided to get rid of a boat that was stored on Wizard Island. Apparently the boat had been given to the Park Service years earlier to haul tourist around on Crater Lake. According to Dick Brown, Chief Park Naturalist, the boat had been used to smuggle alcoholic beverages from  Cuba to Florida during the Prohibition Era. The boat was intercepted by the Coast Guard, confiscated, and later given to the Park Service.

Because of the unusually dry weather and high fire danger that summer, the Park Service ruled out burning the boat on Wizard Island. Instead, they decided to have it sunk in about 300 meters of water along a transect roughly halfway between Wizard Island and Crater Lake Lodge.

Photo 1 shows the boat parked on the shore of Wizard Island near the entrance of the shed where it had been stored, apparently for many years. Before the boat was towed out to the Lake, we filled the bottom with rocks.

When I (Lloyd Smith) worked on the trail crew at Crater Lake National Park we used the Ranger (Naturalist) Boat for some of our lake duties. From former ranger Owen Hoffman: In the summer of 1967, it was deemed unusable and beyond repair. It was sunk to make room for the OSU Boston Whaler, which had been recently lowered into the lake by sliding it down over snow banks in late Spring of 1967, to use the NPS boat house on Wizard Island for winter shelter and storage. The old Naturalist’s research boat was featured in the 1966 edition of “America’s Wonderlands” by National Geographic. It was photographed in the vicinity of the Phantom Ship with Bruce Black’s wife and daughters on board….cont…

Photos 2  shows us towing the boat toward its final resting place. The towboat is the OSU research vessel, a Boston Whaler powered by two 35 HP outboard motors. Owen Hoffman, grim-faced and wearing the red hardhat and orange sweatshirt, sits in the stern. Jack Donaldson, barely visible and wearing a plaid shirt, far left, operates the research Rod Cranson’s head, inside of the tan-colored hard had, appears in the lower right-hand corner of the photo.

Photo 3 shows the crew preparing the boat for sinking. Note that the engine, a 12 or 16-cylinder job, has been left in the boat to help keep it submerged on the Lake bottom. Four people are shown in this photo. The person nearest the camera and wearing a tan hardhat and olive-green shirt is Naturalist Ted Aurther. Next to him, with his back to the camera and wearing a red hard hat, is a Park Service employee, Larry Hakel. The third person, wearing a red hardhat and orange sweatshirt is Owen Hoffman. The fourth person, whose straw hat is the only thing showing, is Jack Donaldson. Both Hoffman and Donaldson are leaning well into the boat.

Photo 4 shows four or our crew making final preparations for sinking. The person wearing the tan-colored hardhat and blue sweatshirt is Rod Cranson. Own Hoffman, red hardhat and orange sweatshirt, holds the rope tethered to the tourist boat. Jack Donaldson, straw hat and plaid shirt, watches Larry, wearing no hat, preparing to perforate the tourist boat’s hull with a sledgehammer.

Photo 5; Holes appear in the tourist boat’s hull as Larry swings his hammer. Rod Cranson captures this destruction with his camera.  Photos 6,7 and 8 show the boat steadily sinking. I show these last three photos when I give talks about our research at Crater Lake. I say that there are days for limnologists on the lake when everything seems to go wrong. —- Dr. Doug Larson

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Events

1988 Anderson Family Faces Wizard Wind

The Crater Lake Incident (as it’s become known by the Anderson Family) July 12, 1988

Submitted by Jim Anderson, 2020

On our epic month-long cross-country camp/drive vacation in 1988, myself, Linda, Lila and Kate arrived at the Crater Lake camping area late in the day. After a comfy night in our pop-up camper, we decided to hike down into the caldera and take the Wizard Island boat tour. We got an early start having packed a picnic lunch as this was to be an all-day adventure.  The hike to the lake involved an hour walk down a switchback trail clinging to the caldera wall on the North side of the lake.

The floating dock at lake level provided mooring for two ~40 foot open tour boats as well as a small fleet of rental rowboats. During the day a predicted cold front was to drop the July temperatures from the 70’s to the 50’s and generate a persistent wind out of the south. The wind was already picking up at the dock when we set off on a tour of this spectacular lake.

 

As we boated along the caldera walls whitecaps on the lake were beginning to build, but as we approached Wizard Island off the south side of the lake, the waves subsided due to closing the distance from the south rim. After disembarking, we hiked a spiral trail to the summit of Wizard Island. Wizard Island is a cinder cone volcano formed after the collapse of the emptied magma chamber under the much larger Mt. Mazama, the mountain that created Crater Lake. We lunched at the windy summit surrounded by some of the most beautiful mountain vistas in the world. Later in the afternoon after arriving back at the pier, we examined the sole human development on the island, a modest research station that housed a small contingent of environmental scientists studying the pristinely transparent water.

We boarded the return boat awaiting departure, but quickly noted that the park rangers were having a serious back and forth radio conversation with personnel at the crater wall dock. The previous tour boat was radioing that their boat had nearly lost people into the lake trying to disembark onto the floating dock, because of waves up to 5’ high.

The rangers made the decision to delay our return assuming that the winds would subside as evening approached. We were told that we possibly would have to spend the night if wind and waves didn’t abate. We were among some 15 or 20 tourists stranded on the island. Their major concern as we were to find out, was that there was only one Portapotty on the island providing for the research station and it could not handle all the tourists for a prolonged stay.  They were afraid that it could overflow and contaminate the pristine lake.

Evening turned to dusk and then to night with temperatures steadily dropping.  After more at times frantic radio communications, the rangers eventually made the decision to return us to the “mainland” as the wind had subsided somewhat. So finally, at 9 PM, they loaded us all on the boat, waves and all, and motored us back. What I most remember about the trip back was the stars. The air was so clear, and the lake so remote, that it seemed like a billion stars were visible with the total lack of light pollution and a moonless night.

It was an increasingly rough crossing and when we got back to the crater rim dock, we found that the Park Service was in emergency mode and had mobilized all their shifts.  We were met by dozens of Rangers with flashlights to help us off the boat. The dock was at the base of the crater and we still had to hike up the switchback trail now in total darkness. Rangers were posted all along the trail to light the way with lanterns and flashlights. It was 11:30 by the time we topped the rim and midnight by the time we got back to our tent camper.

This was the first time such a crisis had occurred in the history of this National Park. News reporters from the local TV station were providing coverage for the 11:00 local news and they were interviewing people that had been stranded.

We were exhausted by the time we reached the relative comfort of our camper and we decided to stay an extra day to recoup our strength. Even with that, we were all tired and cranky for much of the homebound 1.5 week return trip. The Crater Lake Incident as it became to be known, was the highlight of our vacation.

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Historic Photos, Smith Photos

1934 Hollywood Beauty Demonstrators Crash at Crater Lake

1934 press photo of Doris Sparks and Audrea Mardelle

 

Researched by Larry and Lloyd Smith

April 12 1934 The bodies of Doris Sparks, 27, and Audrea Mardelle, 33, Hollywood beauty demonstrators are found 150 below the East Entrance Road in Sand Creek Canyon.

The two women had driven around a road-closed sign and while turning their car around in the snow, the Chevrolet car plunged through a weakened guard rail. The two women had been the object of an intense search covering the Northwest for 6 months. Their bodies and the car were found by snow blower operators as the East Road was being opened. The broken guardrail led to a further investigation and the discovery of their wrecked car.

Fearing the two had driven into the Columbia River during a heavy fog, the local sheriff drug the river in several places searching for the car. An airplane search was also conducted.

Apparently the accident happened on November 12, based on their intended travel plans. They left Spokane on the 11th of November and drove all night, planning to meet friends in Klamath Falls the next day. The two beauty experts had asked a service station operator in Crescent, Oregon about road conditions to Crater Lake. He warned them to not attempt to enter the Park because of heavy snows. The Park Service, based on this information, searched Sand Creek Canyon in November, but no trace of the car was found at that time.

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