Did the staff change much from 1966 to ’67?
Yes, it changed considerably. With just one seasons experience I was suddenly a veteran. Dwayne Curtis and Ted Arthur who returned. Rod Cranson started in 1967. Bill Wilderson, who had met Bob Bruce and myself on a Garfield Peak hike in 1966, started at Crater Lake and is now one of the veteran seasonals at Olympic. He went to Olympic in 1968 or 69 and he has been there ever since. He has almost 30 years of experience at that park. Bruce Kaye was working in 1967 as a boat driver but by 1968 he joined the naturalist staff. He is now a permanent park naturalist at Theodore Roosevelt. He is Glen Kaye’s brother.
Were there any special events held in 1966 because it was the 50thanniversary of the National Park Service?
I don’t recall anything special other than the naturalist-led Garfield Peak Hike stopping over at the plaque of Stephen Tyng Mather to discuss the National Park Service and his role in the National Park System. That year was also the end of the “Mission 66” program in the NPS. I recall we had lots of field trips. I think Dick Brown took me personally under his wing and so we went on trips together to Hart Mountain, the Lava Beds, and into the Three Sisters Wilderness Area. Though him I learned a lot about the ecology and geology of this region.
Were they weekend trips?
Yes, these weekends, or if it wasn’t a weekend, he would just call Bob Bruce and he would make allowances in the schedule.
One of the things that were really interesting was that we seldom had more than 50 percent of our time devoted to visitor contact. This allowed us to be fresh. We had a substantial amount of time to prepare programs and special projects. We would either be sorting slides, or assisting with the museum and library, or having outdoor field research projects.
Adolph Faller and Marion Jackson, who were here during the 1966 season, had as their special project the plant ecology of Wizard Island. They subsequently published on that topic a few years later (3). I can recall being on Wizard Island and helping them walk transects and identify the plants.
