Winter
$800,000 is programmed to begin remodeling the old Ranger Dorm to provide offices, curatorial space, a visitor contact station and a small auditorium.
$71,400 is spent each winter plowing the access road from Headquarters to Rim Village. If year round lodging and an Interpretation Center were added to Rim Village, the road clearing cost would rise to an estimated $230,000 or more. Related costs of maintaining a year-round lodge at the Rim are estimated to run at about $656,000. (All this cost for providing winter access for only 30 lodge rooms.)
March 23,24 & 25
A three day search is conducted for an overdue ski party (Finkbender & Walker). The lost party is discovered N.E. of Mt. Scott and rescued by a helicopter from the 304 Air Rescue Squadron.
March
Several public hearings concerning the future of Crater Lake Lodge are held around the state. Previous public hearings had determined that the public desired to save the historic structure, but cost estimates keep escalating. The estimated $8.6 million needed for the Rim Village reconstruction projects causes the NPS to reevaluate its position. The Park Service, facing reality, finally proposes that the 68 year old Lodge be demolished.
The Government’s preferred alternative to the Rim development is a $8.54 million expansion of the Cafeteria Building and the construction of a 58 room, year-round guest room addition. The money would also be used to remove several smaller structures, and the building of a new Rim parking lot back away from the edge of the Caldera, with the present parking lot being turned into a pedestrian mall. 32 housekeeping cabins and a central Lodge office and lounge would be built in the Goodbye area, with more cabins and a store being constructed at Annie Spring. A new sewer line would carry sewage away from Rim Village on down to Park Headquarters for treatment. The leach fields west of Rim Village would be closed. The old Annie Creek Campground is proposed to be reopened as a group campground.
March 20
The first public hearing on the proposed Rim Redevelopment opens in Klamath Falls with three others soon following in Medford, Roseburg and Salem.
80% of the people surveyed want the old Lodge saved.
April
The U.S. District Court and the U.S. Court of Appeals return to the Klamath Indians their ancestral hunting rights. The disputed area includes the eastern portion of Crater Lake National Park. A test case is expected soon.
The Park’s interpretive work center and Park library are moved from the Old Ranger Dorm into the second story of the Old Mess Hall. This is the work center’s sixth move in 18 years.
April 16
Robert E. Benton enters on duty as Cater Lake’s 22nd superintendent, transferring in from Bryce Canyon. Benton states, “Crater Lake has been neglected too long. Our time has come.”
April 17
A light plane, flying in dense fog and drizzle, crashes into 140 inches of snow, 1000 feet north of the northern boundary of the Park. The pilot, Joseph Kemery, 26, and his wife Heather, 22, are both killed.
