How did Frank Howe get involved with the USGS sounding expedition of 1886? Did he get down to the lake at that time? Was he a part of any other topographic mapping survey?
That’s about Uncle Frank. His family lived in Massachusetts, including my father. When my father was about 14 years old, Uncle Frank, who was much older, came out here on sort of an exploratory thing. He was almost a frontiersman. He got a job as cook for the army crew, and he killed a deer up on the Rim. I suppose he was cook and hunter for them. And he killed this deer there and….
So he would have been with Captain Dutton?
I don’t know. He was in the first survey party.
In the first survey part?
His would have been in the 1880’s.
Okay. So he would have been attached to some of the topographic surveys?
It was an army party, but he was not in the army. He was a cook. He went back east and persuaded my grandfather to bring the family west. So they put all of our furniture and all of our belongings, everything they had, on an immigrant car. They just lived on it and they had a stove and they cooked and supplied their needs on this immigrant car. The railroad would bring them as far as was convenient, then they’d leave them there, and they’d pick them up again. They did not homestead. They bought a ranch in the Willamette Valley near Corvallis. Between Corvallis and Albany there was an electric railway station called Granger. That’s where their first homestead was.
What do you remember from your initial journey to Crater Lake and subsequent visits?
This was a family party in 1922. I was about 12 years old. Uncle Frank, his son, two of his brothers, and one other guy were among the party. We traveled in two Model T Fords.
Did you go down to Medford?
We went south to Ashland. We came over from Ashland in one day and made it as far as Fort Klamath. Then from there we went up to the lake and camped in a tent. It was a marvelous experience. They had a quartet that entertained there. They were summer rangers from the University of Kentucky, and they sang beautifully. They were recruited, probably, for that talent.
