So that was Southwest Region now rather than Midwest?
Yes, the Southwest.
Would that have been because of his experience with some of the other recreation areas in the region?
I don’t know. Dan was so mad about it that he would be just livid whenever we would get together. First of all, he didn’t like the political pressure. That was when politics were the name of the game, as it is today. It was literally crammed down his throat; he said, “I don’t have any money and I don’t have any personnel and I’m not going to give you any.” Well, I had to have staff, I had to have money, had to issue contracts and so what could I do? I had this down in writing, so I just called George up and I said, “Hey, we have a problem in Santa Fe.” He said, “You don’t have any problem in Santa Fe. What do you need?” I had all that I needed, because with that pressure you don’t fool around with, so we just did it. That brings us up to almost Crater Lake and Redwoods. I guess that would be about ’67.
Did you get any inkling before you were to move to Crater Lake that you were going?
No.
It was a transfer done at the Washington level?
I had completed the project, the visitor center, the dam, the lake, the whole smear, everything but water. We didn’t have any water. Jerry, gosh can’t remember his name, Bureau of Reclamation Chief says, that their best engineering estimate was that it would take a hundred years to fill the lake. I said you got to be kidding, what are we building this thing for? At any rate, that was their estimate. We had our stuff all done and so Mr. Hartzog and I were talking and he said did you get that finished? And I said yep. He said send me a letter. So, I sent him a letter outlining what we had done. The conclusion at that bottom was that we expect this thing to be filled in a hundred years. Oh boy, you know he wasn’t known for patience, neither am I. He said, “I have a problem out in the Redwoods and I want you to go out there.”
The transfer to Crater Lake was really because of the Redwood situation and it just gave you a base?
I assume that. Hartzog had already selected Lenny Volz to come into Washington. I assumed this happened, at any rate, the vacancy occurred and he wanted someone right now. We were just happened to be having a regional conference and he came to the conference and that is when he told me about it. He gave quite specific instructions. You will set up a Medford office and that is where you will work. You will run the park, when you have time. I’m sending you a new Chief Ranger. To save time, there is always a chain of events at that level. They were closing Flaming Gorge, so Paul needed a job. He said you have a Chief Ranger named Paul Larson. I said okay. He said, “By the way, I want a new master plan for Crater Lake in your spare time.”
