William C. Godfrey

William Godfrey was chief ranger at Crater Lake National Park. He transferred to Crater Lake NP from Yosemite National Park on May, 1929. Godfrey was born June 8, 1890, in Armsby, Pennsylvania. On November 18th, 1930, he died from exposure while on a patrol trip.

Photo: Chief Ranger Godfrey

 

June 20             1929     Rudolph Luech begins his 9-year ranger career at Crater Lake.  (See Godfrey entry for Nov. 17, 1930) Ruddy works at the Park until 1937.

February 17        1930     Chief Ranger Godfrey reports that last Friday night was so cold the surface of the Lake froze over with ice, a rare occurrence and the snow throughout the Park froze into a solid ice mass.  “This is the third time in the past 10 years that the lake has frozen.”  A morning breeze the next day started the water to moving and broke up the thin ice.

 

November 17       1930      Chief Ranger William Godfrey dies near Pole Bridge Creek after attempting to travel by foot from the South Entrance to Annie Spring, in a snowstorm, after his car became mired in a snow drift.  He left a wife and three children.  A search party found him alive, but he died soon after his rescue.  “Garden of the Gods” was changed to “Godfrey Glen”.

 

The following oral story was told to the authors by former CLNP ranger, Rudolph Luech, 88, May 16, 1992. Thirty inches of snow had fallen during the month, trapping a number of winter visitors and knocking down the phone lines into the Park.  Chief Ranger Godfrey, in an effort to find out how everyone was doing, drove from K. Falls to the West Entrance, but found the road blocked by snow.  The Chief then drove back around to the South Entrance and spent the night in his car.  Early in the morning of the 17th Mr. Godfrey called the phone operator at Ft. Klamath from a nearby phone informing her of his decision to ski into the Park in hopes of meeting a snowplow.  Meanwhile Ranger Luech, after learning that most of the trapped visitors were from Medford, directed the snow plow to open the West Road.  Upon returning to the Annie Springs Checking Station, Luech checks the phone and finds the lines repaired. The Ft. K operator informs Rudy that the Chief was in the process of skiing into the Park.  Since Godfrey hadn’t arrived a search party was organized.  The group, led by Rudy, found Godfrey around 11 p.m. The Chief only lasted a few minutes before dying in Luech’s arms, probably of hypothermia.

 

Godfrey’s death was certainly a blow to all who knew him. Coming so unexpectedly as it did, I was particularly shocked. He was a dandy fellow and a prince to work with. His habit of hiking off alone on any and all wild goose chases finally got him. He did the same thing when we were in the Park together in 1929. Always out alone with a mightily poor constitution to carry him thru. Both he, Patton, and several others caved-in the day we moved into the Park from the west entrance. Without knowledge of snow and the individual’s possibilities in bucking it, it is a real danger. Solinsky and I made the same kind of trip that Bill attempted, leaving Ft. Klamath at 7:30PM we arrived at Anna Spring at 1:30AM. I never attempted it again. (No author noted on article.)

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The following newspaper account of William Godfrey’s misadventure and death was found in the Crater Lake headquarters files.

 

BILL GODFREY

The death of William C. Godfrey, chief ranger of the Crater Lake Park service, in a blizzard near Anna Springs last night, has cast a cloud of gloom over the entire community.

“Bill” was a veteran of the park service, having held a responsible position at Yosemite before coming here. Before that time he had been a member of the U.S. Forest Service.

He was a man of fine character, well read, high minded and determined. When he set out to do a thing, he took a genuine pride in doing it. It was this quality so characteristic of the service to which he belonged which was responsible for his death.

Bill felt that he should be at Anna Spring camp. He tried to get through from Medford, but had to turn back. So he tried it from the south entrance, via Fort Klamath and, in spite of the unfavorable weather, he was determined not to turn back again.

It is easy to say Bill was foolhardy, that he overestimated his own strength and underestimated the strength of the elements. But such a judgment fails to take into account the code of the service to which he belonged, and the dominant elements of his character.

It is essentially the same code, and the same character, that led our forefathers on the successful conquest across the wilderness and our dough boys across the Hindenburg line. Bill Godfrey’s tragedy is merely another example of the fact that there are heroes of peace as well as of war. The rewards for the latter far exceed the rewards of the former, but the qualities of courage and self sacrifice, behind them, are fundamentally the same.

The article goes on to say that Godfrey was 41 years old and had been chief ranger of Crater Lake National Park since April 1929. Previously he was assigned to Yosemite National Park for 2 years and before those 6 years in the Forest Service, including service with the Fremont National Forest in Lakeview, Oregon.

For some reason, known only to himself, Godfrey tried on foot to buck his way through deep snow to Anna Springs with only light clothing and no gloves and against the advice of people with whom he had talked just hours before by telephone at Fort Klamath. He collapsed just 2 miles short of Anna Springs and was found dying from exposure at 9 p.m. by a rescuer, Rudy Luecke. He lived for only several minutes after being found and tried vainly to say something to his rescuer. Significantly, the search party was all using skis so Godfrey’s chances in the deep snow on foot were hopeless. (No source given)

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Rudolph F. Lueck, Box 333, Springfield, Utah 84767                                                       July 5, 1986

Dear Superintendent Robert Benton,

On May 28, last, my wife and I visited your Park, and although we did not meet you we did meet Chief Ranger Phillips, and we had a most enjoyable few hours with him.

We picked up a flyer issued by the Nat. Hist. Assoc.  I was happily surprised to find, on page 8, a picture that I had taken over 50 years ago.

I had the pleasure of knowing William Gladstone Steel for many years during the time that I spent at Crater. In later years we also knew his daughter who followed him as United States Commissioner at the Park. There have been many changes made in the area, some good, some bad. I do know which one wins.

It may be of interest to you to know that I was the person that found Chief Ranger William C. Godfrey, after his vain attempt to get to the Park. He died in my arms, in the snow, some distance below Annie Springs, on the 30^th of November, 1930.

Thank you for the favor of sending the Nature Notes, if you can

Sincerely yours, Rudolph F. Lueck

 

 

 

Additional details on the death of Chief Ranger William Godfrey

Crater Lake Chronicles
Sun, 1 Jul 2007

Hi Larry Smith

I just spent time reading your chronicles of Crater Lake National Park. The account of the death of William Godfrey in Nov. 1930, is a familiar one to me. My mother, Gladys Darling Brewer, was the telephone operator on duty at the Ft. Klamath Telephone Office at the time Godfrey was on his way to headquarters. He called from somewhere along the route to tell anyone at headquarters that he was on his way and if he didn’t reach there at a certain time, they were to send out a search party. My mother kept calling the Crater Lake office, the calls were answered by a caretaker who was hard-of-hearing, and he kept saying to call back later because he couldn’t hear the message.

As a consequence, by the time the rescuers were sent, they were too late.

My mother was also the first telephone operator at the Crater Lake Offices at Headquarters and worked there several years. If you can find the exact years she worked there, I would love to be able to write down those dates. (Thanks in advance!!!)

I was first linked to your site because “Google” listed it as a source of information of the death of Larry Peyton & Beverly Allen who met at Crater Lake during the summer of 1960 and were later killed in Portland, OR, in Nov. 1960. Larry was the son of Ralph & Katherine Peyton who were in the concessionaire partnership at Crater Lake with Jim & Janet Griffin. During that summer, Larry worked on the boat crew and Beverly worked at the gift counter in the Cafeteria Bldg.

I worked as a seasonal employee from the summer of 1959 through the summer of 1962, first for Harry Smith, et al, then for the Peytons & Griffins.

My family ranch (and where I grew up) is along Highway 62 about 2 miles from the south entrance to Crater Lake National Park.  So I remember and was interested to read the account of the murders that took place just beyond the South Entrance in the summer of 1952. I have always been curious about the solving of that crime.

Thanks for the interesting reading,
Darla Brewer Novak
Chico, California

Performance poet, master gardener, mountain man, astral traveler, loving husband, father and grandfather, beloved friend of many, William Clair “Smokey” Godfrey, Jr. passed away June 6, 2012.

 

William was born March 27, 1931, in Pasadena, California, to Elizabeth Hopf Godfrey. A few months before he was born, he moved with his mother to California from Oregon after the tragic death of his father, William Clair Godfrey Sr., head park ranger at Crater Lake National Park.

                                                He spent his childhood living in Yosemite National Park, where, among other things, he served as an assistant to Ansel Adams.

William married Esther Harrop in 1965 in New Milford, Connecticut, and soon afterwards moved back to California, to the idyllic Carmel-By-The-Sea, where he worked as a tree surgeon and they raised their four beautiful children. After his wife’s passing in 1984, he moved with his two youngest children to Fairfield, where he has delighted many with his glorious gardens which he has created across the town,and inspired audiences with his fanciful stories and poems, which have been published in Lyrical Iowa and most recently in Freddy Fonseca’s compilation of local poetry, “This Enduring Gift.”

He is survived by his four children: Amanda Thiele of Houston, Texas, Ben Godfrey of Sonoma, California, Suzanna Mullenneaux of Fairfield, and Alex Godfrey of Santa Rosa, California, and his five grandchildren.

August 8           1980     Rudy Luech, Box 333, Springdale, Utah, 84767, a former ranger at Crater Lake from June 16, 1929 until June 1936, visits the Park and stays overnight in the guest room in the Old Ranger Dorm.  Luech was with Chief Ranger Godfrey when he died in a snowstorm on the South Road in 1930.  (See the 1930 entries about William Godfrey.)

July 1              2007   FW: Crater Lake Chronicles

From: <NOVAKD42@aol.com>
Date: Sun, 1 Jul 2007
Hi Larry,

I just spent time reading your chronicles of Crater Lake National Park. The account of the death of William Godfrey in Nov., 1930, is a familiar one to me. My mother, Gladys Darling Brewer, was the telephone operator on duty at the Ft. Klamath Telephone Office at the time Godfrey was on his way to headquarters. He called from somewhere along the route to tell anyone at headquarters that he was on his way and if he didn’t reach there at a certain time, they were to send out a search party. My mother kept calling the Crater Lake office, the calls were answered by a caretaker who was hard-of-hearing, and he kept saying to call back later because he couldn’t hear the message.

As a consequence, by the time the rescuers were sent, they were too late.

My mother was also the first telephone operator at the Crater Lake Offices at Headquarters and worked there several years. If you can find the exact years she worked there, I would love to be able to write down those dates. (Thanks in advance!!!)

I was first linked to your site because “Google” listed it as a source of information of the death of Larry Peyton & Beverly Allen who met at Crater Lake during the Summer of 1960 and were later killed in Portland, OR, in Nov. 1960. Larry was the son of Ralph & Katherine Peyton who were in the concessionaire partnership at Crater Lake with Jim & Janet Griffin. During that summer, Larry worked on the boat crew and Beverly worked at the gift counter in the Cafeteria Bldg.

I worked as a seasonal employee from the summer of 1959 through the summer of 1962, first for Harry Smith, et al, then for the Peytons & Griffins.

My family ranch (and where I grew up) is along Highway 62 about 2 miles from the south entrance to Crater Lake National Park.  So I remember and was interested to read the account of the murders that took place just beyond the South Entrance in the summer of 1952. I have always been curious about the solving of that crime.

Thanks for the interesting reading,
Darla Brewer Novak
Chico, CA

Related Links

• Smith Brothers’ Chronological History of Crater Lake National Park: 1930 – Scroll down to November 17.
• The Battle Against Bark Beetles in Crater Lake National Park: 1825-1934 – Events from 1930-31: Bill Godfrey
• Forest Ranger Dies in Woods – November 18, 1930 – William C. Godfrey, chief forest ranger in the Crater Lake National Park, was reported to have died last night of exhaustion after battling on foot through Forty-four inches of snow from Fort Klamath, on his way to government camp.
• Concerning The Control And Eradication Of The Mountain Pine Beetle, Nature Notes From Crater Lake, By Godfrey, Stetson, Solinsky, Wynd, Patterson, 1930

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