Were the Oregon Caves a place that you returned to in 1952, or were all your trips over there the first summer?
I do remember having gone back. I stayed there over night, as I recall and the two rangers who were in charge got me to give an evening talk. The idea was to have me discuss the salamanders that I collected.
What was an evening naturalist program at Oregon Caves like at that time?
They had one program each evening. I really don’t know the format of most because I gave only one talk there.
Back at Crater Lake, I read a Nature Notes article by Lou Hallock telling about the tremendous snowfall the winter between the two summers you were there. Was that any hindrance in 1952?
It certainly was! That put a big damper on our program. It even stopped the boat rides.
I guess I didn’t read that.
It’s in an article by Warren Fairbanks. The title of the article would lead you to believe that it is about fish. Fish were discussed, but only incidentally. He tells about the big snowfall and how the trail crew had a hard time getting a path down to the lake cleared. When they did get the path cleared and the boat rides were ready to start for the summer, the path collapsed on them. There was a big rain and the mud blocked the path, so they never did get it open again. There were no boat rides that summer at all.
None at all?
No! The man who ran the boats was Paul Herron. Do you know anything about him?
I know that he worked for the concessionaire for many years.
He worked for the concessionaire but he was really a farmer from Kansas. He came out from Kansas in the summer to run those boats.
Did you do boat tours?
The first summer I was there. We had that as a regular assignment. I think we had to do the boat tours once a week. They had a naturalist on the boat. We gave explanations as the boat cruised around the lake.
Was Warren Fairbanks the only one doing like research? I know he was on the lake quite a bit a little later on, but I don’t know a whole lot about him.
Well, I can tell you something about Warren. He was originally a student at Washington State University in Pullman at the time that Don Farner was there. The connection between Warren and the park was probably established through his association with Don Farner. I can’t tell you that for sure, but I think that is sort of a logical conclusion.
