Hank Tanski?
Hank Tanski was there, but Hank never helped me in the boat (20). When I started in ’78 the Park Service agreed to provide me with an assistant. They did not allow me to go out on the lake alone. I had enough sense not to go on the lake alone because I needed someone to help me in the boat. Hauling up rope was a two-man job. Sometimes a volunteer would come down with me from Portland but generally the park provided me with the people. Mike Gilmore and John Salinas helped me. I’m trying to think of other folks. Hank Tanski and a guy named Pat Smith did some scuba diving for me in August, 1980 (21). We collected vegetation and they took photographs. The Corps provided me with an underwater camera to take photographs and they took photos around Wizard Island. A guy named Dave Hartesveldt was out there with Scuba gear, too. I’m trying to think of two other people who helped me out in the boat. Dan Sholly and a guy named Bruce Wadlington went down with us a couple times.
A guy named Rick Kirchner also helped me in the boat. I’ve got pictures of Rick and a guy named Seth Phalen in the boat. There was a woman who helped me out in the boat, but I can’t remember her name. She was from California, but I can’t remember her name. Working out of the raft was at times hazardous because a three horsepower engine with two people in the boat loaded down with equipment made our progress across the lake really slow, especially when the winds would kick up. I was with Rick Kirchner one time and we got caught in a thunderstorm out there. We fought mountainous waves just trying to get back to Wizard Island. I didn’t think we were going to make it. We didn’t have survival suits, just life vests. Lightning was flashing over and the waters were a deep sea green. We’d go down into a trough and over the crest of the wave and down into another trough and it was pretty bad. When you went out on the Jake you really had to watch the wind. You could risk being swamped. The problem out there was that no one could help you. After two years we finally got radios out there, but sometimes they didn’t work. Other times we could radio for help if we needed it, but a lot of good that did when there wasn’t anyone around to help you.
In the summer of 1978 I used the raft exclusively since we didn’t have any other boat. In ’79 the USGS brought in a boat that we named the African Queen. We lowered it into the lake in May. I have pictures of this operation; we slid it down a snow chute. The USGS expressed interest in the lake because there was a guy from Woods Hole, a guy named VonHertzen or something, who apparently wanted to do some studies on the lake’s thermal properties. It was a geophysical study of some sort, but focused on thermal properties, so they got this boat called the African Queen. It was available to me sometimes, but not all the time, so I’d end up using the raft sometimes because the GS people were out there doing their thing. I occasionally had access to the African Queen. It was about 20 feet long, an aluminum pontoon boat. I think we purchased a winch for it, so we were able to hand crank stuff, and it was a little more advanced than the wooden thing that we used from the raft. When we launched the African Queen in May, 1979, Dan Sholly and Bruce Wadlington went down with us. They bought survival suits for us. The water was really cold and there was a lot of snow. Dan Sholly jumped into the lake with a survival suit and I have a picture of him floating on his back out there.
