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.
