August 23
Richard DeYoung, 4594 Paradise Knoll, Castro Valley, California, age 40, runs the complete 33 mile Rim Drive taking four hours and 55 minutes. Richard used 2.5 liters of water, sipped at half mile intervals. DeYoung started his run at 6:15 a.m. from in front of Headquarters.
August 28
Crater Lake is experiencing its driest summer on record with only a total of 0.5 inches of precipitation recorded since June 13. Emergency fire presuppression funds are requested from the Regional office.
August 31
Scott and Pamela Burnett of Vancouver, Washington are remarried on Wizard Island. The couple had attempted the ceremony on September 3, 1979, but stormy weather had canceled the boat tours and the couple had to settle for an impromptu marriage ceremony at Cleetwood Cove. Judge Ken Odiorne of Chiloquin said that “this wedding was the most unique I have ever performed.” After failing to find any record of a previous Wizard Island marriage, the judge “entered their names in the Guiness Book of World Records.”
Jeff Adams, maintenance superintendent, retires after 23 years of continuous work at Crater Lake. Mr. Adams then begins another career as Liaison Officer for the contractors working on the Lodge.
September 22
The Oregon State Court of Appeals rules that a McMinnville, Oregon woman, who became ill after drinking contaminated water in the Park five years ago is entitled to $15,000 in punitive damages. Crater Lake Lodge Company and Ralph Peyton, president of the Company in 1975 had earlier been ordered to pay Janice Joachim $4,000 in compensatory damages and $15,000 in punitive damages. Peyton had appealed to the Appeals Court contending that the punitive damage award should not have been allowed.
October
The Park’s research boat, The African Queen, breaks loose in a storm and is destroyed against rocks at Cleetwood Cove.
October
Water Year Precipitation: 59.37 inches
Snowfall The Previous 40 year average has been a yearly accumulation of about 600 inches.
Season: 1975/76 505.7 inches
1976/77 244.25 (the lowest on record)
1977/78 395.64
1978/79 348.8
1979/80 425.55
1980/81 281.3 (the second lowest on record)
October
A remote signal seismograph is installed at Tututni Pass.
November 15
Seasonal Ranger Larry Smith makes an attempt to place the “Old Man of the Lake” into world competition in the Guiness Book of World Records as the World’s oldest floating log and as the World’s smallest officially closed Government area (3.9 square feet). But unfortunately the Guiness people write back saying that they do not have these types of categories.
December
Public hearings are held to determine the fate of the historic Crater Lake Lodge. The Park Service has determined that the building is worth restoring and asks Congress for $6.5 million in restoration funds.
December 15
The Federal Register lists the pumice grape fern (Bitrychium pumicola) and the Mount Mazama collomia (Collomia Mazama) as candidates for endangered and threatened species in the Park.
December 19
President Carter signs the Crater Lake expansion bill, adding 22,890 acres to the National Park. The legislation, proposed by Senator Mark Hatfield of Oregon, moved the boundary of the Park to include scenic attractions on adjacent Forest Service Lands that had been missed when the Park was first established in 1902. The Park now totals 182,180 acres.
December 27
A Grants Pass Courier news reporter calls Park headquarters to check on a story that had been reported to him about “lava bubbling up in Crater Lake and that the water temperature had climbed 30 degrees in one week.” Officials at the Park assured the reporter that the rumors were false and the man couldn’t believe that he had swallowed a yarn like that one.
Winter
Park Magistrate, Frank J. Van Dyke of Medford, retires after serving the park for 27 years. The Medford Magistrates office is combined with the Eugene office.
Season 1980
Visitation 484,256. Sixty three seasonal government employees worked at the Park during the summer.
