What led to your interested in the group?
I don’t remember exactly. It seems to me that I was intensely interested in the Friends of the Three Sisters almost from the time when I moved to Eugene. There must have been individuals there who were my contacts, such as Ruth Hopson. Ruth provided my introduction to the Obsidians, and they were interested in the Three Sisters controversy as well.
They were?
Yes.
I was thinking about Karl Onthank. I know he was very prominent in the Friends of the Three Sisters, and so was his wife.
Karl and his wife were the spark plugs in that organization. They were both very close friends of mine.
And wasn’t Will Eaton a contact with the Obsidians (17)?
Will Eaton?
He once wrote to us for information in connection with an Obsidian trip.
He might very well be. Both Will and his father, Bill, were mainstays of the Natural History Society. Both of them have been president of the society. Those organizations were all closely related because, if you belonged to one you belonged to all of them.
I’ve got a recruitment letter from Doc Ruhle. It lists the general duties of ranger naturalist, and states that they would also have to be available for occasional fire fighting and rescue work. Were you involved in any of those duties during your two summers there?
Firefighting. It was my first summer and late in the season, after our summer activities had ceased. We had a fire in the park. I had an opportunity then to be one of the fire fighters. Actually it was a lightning strike and there was a snag that was smoldering. It wasn’t really a serious fire at all.
What did you do on your weekends? Were you able to leave the park if you wanted to?
You could leave the park if you liked to, but I was so completely fascinated by that park that I didn’t want to leave. I had lots of extra duties besides the routine ones. Working with getting the public ready and things like that. These were duties that I simply loved so I didn’t get out of the park very much at all.
