Howard Arant

Print Friendly, PDF & EmailPrint Friendly

Howard Arant Oral History Interview

Above photo: William Arant, Howard Arant’s grandfather and first superintdent of Crater Lake.

Interviewer: Stephen R. Mark, Crater Lake National Park Historian

Interview Location and Date: At his residence in Medford, Oregon, November 30, 1988

Transcription: Transcribed by Chris Prout, August 1997

Biographical Summary (from the interview introduction)

Howard Arant had the double distinction of working at Crater Lake from 1928 to 1934 and being the grandson of the first park superintendent, W.F. Arant. I met him and his wife early in my employment as park historian, after becoming aware of their collaboration on two articles in the Table Rock Sentinel published by the Southern Oregon Historical Society during the mid 1980s. After visiting them at their Medford residence in August 1988, I saw them again for a short taped interview about three months later. Died 1997.

Materials Associated with this interview on file at the Dick Brown library at Crater Lake National Park’s Steel Visitor Center

Taped interview; notes only for previous conversation with him and wife Lu 8/23/88. Loaned a number of photos for copying. Slide taken of him at time of interview. The transcript of that interview is short, in part because a large portion of the information they shared appears in my field notes, and the fact that both Mr. and Mrs. Arant had colds that day.

To the reader:

Howard Arant had the double distinction of working at Crater Lake from 1928 to 1934 and being the grandson of the first park superintendent, W.F. Arant. I met him and his wife early in my employment as park historian, after becoming aware of their collaboration on two articles in the Table Rock Sentinel published by the Southern Oregon Historical Society during the mid 1980s. After visiting them at their Medford residence in August 1988, I saw them again for a short taped interview about three months later.

The transcript of that interview is short, in part because a large portion of the information they shared appears in my field notes, and the fact that both Mr. and Mrs. Arant had colds that day. Nevertheless, the following transcription is an important addition to the record along with some Crater Lake photographs that the Arants graciously allowed the park to copy.

Stephen R. Mark

(Crater Lake National Park Historian)

November 1997

This is an oral history interview with Howard Arant in Medford on November 30, 1988. 

Where did you grow up?  

I was born in Ashland [Oregon] in 1912 and lived in the valley all my life. I spent some years in Klamath Falls, but basically it has been in the Rogue River Valley. I lived in Ashland, Talent, and Prospect, and since 1950 I’ve been in Medford.

What is your educational background? 

I went to school in Ashland for first and second grade. We then moved down into the Talent area and I went to school there until seventh grade. In 1927, we moved to Prospect. I graduated from high school at Prospect in 1931. I attended Southern Oregon Normal School, which is now Southern Oregon State College, in the years of ’31, ’32 and  ’33. I was within one quarter of graduating there.

How did you get your first job at Crater Lake? What were your duties?  

From 1928 until 1932, I worked in the park service at Crater Lake National Park in the summertime while I was going to high school and college.

The major projects that I worked on were road construction, roadside beautification, and clearing brush and debris from the roadside and making the park more beautiful.

How long did your employment last each year?  

My experience with the park service was confined to the years 1928 through 1932. After ’32, I went to Klamath Falls and was endeavoring to find employment where I could work the year round. In 1933-34, that was not easy. Finally, I did get to working full time in Klamath Falls at various jobs. I worked on the railroad for a while. I drove a construction truck for a while. I had so many jobs that I can’t even remember how many there were.

I don’t remember anyone from the Prospect area who was working in the park service at the time that I was except my father, C.F. Arant. It was temporary work. There were very few people that had permanent jobs. Some of the ranger force were full-time men. One of the temporary rangers that came from the Prospect area was Clarence Gray, and he served as a temporary ranger in the park service at Crater Lake and also in Lava Beds National Monument. I was not real well acquainted with very many of the rangers. One of the fellows that I knew was Bernie Hughes, and I believe that he was a pro football player with either the Detroit Lions or the Chicago Bears. I can’t remember which one of those teams he was with. There was Ferdie Hubbard, and others that come to mind were Bill Montgomery and John Day. John Day’s brother Ben worked there also, but they were from the Medford area.

What were your major projects in 1928, 1929, 1930, 1931, and 1932? 

The summer of 1928 I was employed building road right on the Rim from where the cafeteria is now down to the lodge. We were grading and making road bed and making a fill at the south entrance of the lodge. We were using four mule teams and Fresno scrapers. For a while, I drove one of those teams of four mules. It was really hard work for a kid.

One of the jobs that I worked on in those early days was the road between the north edge of the lake at about Cleetwood or in that area. It was a just a single-track road out through the Pummy [Pumice] Desert to the North Entrance. My job was helping the powder monkey blow out the stumps where they were taking some of the curves out of the road (1). I would dig the holes down around the stump and load the powder into it. We would get anywhere from five to ten of those stumps all ready to go. Then the powder monkey would run down from one direction and I would go down the other direction and we would set these charges all off. We would count them as we went so that we would know if there were any that hung fire. I don’t think we had any that hung. At least I don’t remember having to go back and dig out any of the charges that didn’t go.

I believe that about the time that I was working on the road on the Rim my father was working on the trail that they built from the water’s edge up to the top of Wizard Island (2). In those days, the trail down to the water took off at about the lodge, maybe between the Sinnott Memorial and the lodge proper. That trail was a mile long and those fellows walked down to the water, rode a launch over to the island, and worked on the trail until about 4 o’clock. Then they would come back down, get on the launch, come back, and walk up that mile back to the lodge. So they were really putting in a good day’s work, too.  As I’m trying to recount the happenings and events that took place during my employment there, it dawns on me that was 60 years ago. Only the highlights of the things that we did stick out in my mind.

Which CCC camps did you work in at the park? What jobs were you assigned to during this time?  

The only one of the superintendents that I can really remember was El Solinsky. He was a very well-thought-of man. All of us really liked El. At a later date, when he got in trouble, we didn’t think it was all his fault. He [Solinsky] was instrumental in directing some of the work with the CCC camps. When I showed up there in the camp, El was lining out who was to do what. When he saw me, he immediately tabbed me for the driver on the supply truck that hauled the supplies from Medford to Wineglass camp at Lost Creek, and the Headquarters Camp (3). So there was a lot of work that the CCC fellows did that I wasn’t involved in.

The only thing that really comes to mind was the bug [insect control] work. We were doing a lot of the eradication of the pine beetle in the lodge pole pines. I remember particularly one of the fellows from Illinois. A tree that they were falling had a leaner in it and he ran the wrong way when the tree started to fall. This leaning tree fell on him and broke his pelvis. So we carried him out of the woods to my truck, put him on the truck bed, took him back down to the camp, and put a folding army cot up on the truck bed. We phoned to Medford for an ambulance to come and get him. I brought him down [to] the East Entrance and across the cutoff road by Wood River up to the Fort Klamath road (4). I met the ambulance at about where Cold Springs camp is (5). We transferred him to the ambulance and then we went on back to camp.

Another of my experiences in the park with the CCC boys that really comes to mind was building the trail up Mount Scott. It was all hand work. A lot of the outcroppings had to be dynamited to get the trail graded out as wide as it was supposed to be. I hauled lunches, tools, and dynamite up to that trail. At that time, we could drive the trucks right up the trailhead at the foot of the mountain. I’ve tried to find out if you can go over there now because I would like to hike that trail again. But it’s quite a ways across Pummy Desert to get to that trailhead.

How did you know Ike Davidson? What were your experiences connected with the Solinsky trail?

What was determined in the courts was a manipulation of finance. It was never determined that they ever stole any money. All they did was not follow procedures as well as they should have. As I remember it, Solinsky was incarcerated for three years, and I believe that I Ike Davidson got six months. There was another man, Erwin, that was involved in that same thing (6). The way that I got involved was in order to get money to build a boat, as I remember it, they padded the payroll and cashed some checks and got the money to build this boat with before the money from the appropriation became available to them. There was one of the checks, just for one week’s work, that had been drawn with my name and had been endorsed and crashed.

It was in 1934 that I was sent to Portland to be a witness on that trial. It went on for about a week and I never did get on the stand. They got it done before they ever got around to call me. So I had a trip to Portland, cooled my heels in a hotel room for a week, and didn’t even get to see any of the trial.

How well did you know your grandfather? Did he leave many records of his business or personal life behind? Can you describe your grandmother?

My grandfather, W.F. Arant, was the first superintendent of Crater Lake National Park. He served from 1902, I believe it was, until 1913. That was before my time, and I never did know my grandfather very well. He was a real hard man for a kid to get acquainted with. He lived in Klamath Falls much of the time until he moved to Ashland. By that time we had moved to Prospect, so I didn’t really get acquainted with him very much. I was far better acquainted with my grandmother because she lived for several years after my grandfather died. She also spent some of her later years in my father’s house, so I got better acquainted with her than I did m grandfather.

My grandfather and my grandmother were in direct contrast to each other. He was a large man, 6-foot, 2-inches tall and weighed about 200 pounds. My grandmother was 5 feet tall and weighed about 98 pounds. But he small size didn’t detract any from her opinions. She was a fiery little Irish woman that you had to contend with if you crossed her up, as the United States Marshals found out when they went to remove my grandfather and grandmother from the headquarters building. When they were removed, she was the postmistress and she wouldn’t leave. She wouldn’t go out of the building. It took two United States Marshals to carry her out, which they did (7).

What was your grandfather’s involvement in the Modoc War? Were your father and uncles in the militia?  

As far as I know, my grandfather was not directly involved in the Modoc War. We have pictures of him, my father, and one of my father’s brothers in their militia uniforms. We have my father ‘s discharge papers from the National Guard, or what it was known as at the time, the Militia. He was discharged when he was 19 years old (8).

Was the Arant family acquainted with the Applegates?  

I think that my grandfather, father, and their family knew many of the old timers in the Klamath country, the Loosleys and the Applegates and so forth. As I remember it from some of the stories that  my father told when I was a wee lad, they didn’t think too much of some of the Applegate people. Just why, I haven’t the slightest idea. Politics probably entered into that considerable because I believe that the Applegate people were Democrats and my grandfather was a rock-ribbed Republican. That, I think, tells the story right there.

The last time we visited, you talked about your grandfather and his ideas about conservation. Did you grandfather ever articulate any of his ideas on conservation to anybody in the family?

He was basically a cattle man. Living that kind of life, he would just have to be an environmentalist. His ideas were to conserve the country and the area as nearly as it was when we found it without leaving too many tracks on it.

Is there any lingering bitterness toward Steel in the Arant family?  

The [differing opinions on conservation] was the crux of the whole thing between him and Will Steel. Steel appears, from all we can find out and all we can read, which is all we can go on because we weren’t acquainted with him personally, to be a developer and a promoter. He had a lot of schemes all over this part of Oregon to develop the land. It was just the opposite of what my grandfather wanted to do, and that is the reason why they locked their horns. So that would generate a lot of the ill will between our family and Steel because they were so opposed in their thinking.

Do you think that he would have been favorably disposed to development on the rim?  

I sometimes wonder just what my grandfather would think if he could come back now, 80 years after his experience in the park, and see the development – what it has done to the land, the access that there is, and how many people now are able to enjoy the wonders of the park. I just wonder what my grandfather would think about that.

I think that just about bring us up to date on my knowledge and memory of the park in the years that I worked there. As I said previously, it’s been 60 years since I was there and my memory doesn’t serve me as well as it would have a number of years ago.

What do you know about B.B. Bakowski? Did Bakowski take the photos of your grandfather that have been made into postcards?

We have some pictures related to Bakowski. One that comes to mind particularly is of my grandfather picking up his [Bakowski’s] camp, but they found no record of where he went or what happened to him. It’s always been a mystery of just how he disappeared, so I suppose that will always remain a mystery (9).

When we try to figure out and visualize how things were in those days, the only thing that we can do is to figure as well as we can what the personalities of the people were. My grandfather was a man who really loved nice things. He did wear good clothes. He drove good horses. His driving equipment, his buggies, were good. The things in his house were of top quality. But as far as wearing a uniform on the job, I don’t think he was inclined that way (10). In his work, in his thinking, I am sure that my grandfather would have been classed as a man’s man. As I remember, what little I knew of him, he was of that type. I remember him being a very severe, ramrod-straight military type of individual. I certainly wish that I would have been able to know him better. I think that probably some of our opinions would have been completely different had we known him, and also my grandmother.

Footnotes:

  1. Sometimes called the “Diamond Lake Auto Trail.”
  2. This took place in 1931.
  3. The CCC camp was consolidated at Park Headquarters in the 1933. The following year and through 1938, one camp was located at Annie Spring and the other at Los Creek.
  4. Down Sun Pass, across Dixon Road, to Highway 62.
  5. Formerly a campground located on the east side of Highway 62, near Pole Bridge Creek.
  6. The Chief Clerk, now called administrative officer.
  7. This took place when Will Steel succeeded in having himself appointed as park superintendent in 1913.
  8. W.F. Arant lived from 1850 to 1927.
  9. Bakowski disappeared during the winter of 1911-12 at Crater Lake after applying for permission to enter the park.
  10. There was no uniform requirement until 1917, though the Department of the Interior authorized the first uniforms in 1911. W.F. Arant opted for a badge worn on his vest.
Other pages in this section