It was still there until just a couple of years ago.
That baby would come on and blow papers off our desks. It was like a whirlwind up in that top office. As you walked into the big main room that we called Rat Hall, there’d be some rooms to the right and left, a bathroom, an office or two, and an audio room where we could make our music tapes for evening programs. The museum was in one of those west-facing offices.
Was there a place for photographic work? I know there were some dark room supplies?
The dark room was in the Administration Building at the top of the stairs. As you walk in turn left and go to the top of those stairs. The person who issues keys is in the spot where there was a dark room at that time (10). I spent a lot of my free time in the dark room.
Were the permanent interpreters in the Administration Building, too?
They were right in the center office looking out over the parking lot. Not the back parking lot, but the one right out front. Hank and Pat both had desks right next to each other. Maybe it wasn’t healthy for those two to be so close together for so long. In the winter I was intermittent, so I would do snow shoe walks. I would go up on the weekend and usually stay with Hank. He was single and had room for a guest (11).
The ski patrol was being started in the early eighties.
I don’t remember a whole lot about the ski patrol. Marian Masters could probably fill you in on that (12).
Were the snowshoe walks taken from the Cafeteria or did you open up the Rim Center?
It was the Rim Center. All the snowshoes were hanging up in the back, or were left on the floor of the Rim Center. Visitors would walk in at one o’clock and they would meet the ranger. It would be cold in there, but there would be no reason to start a fire because we wouldn’t be in the building very long. We would show them how to put the snowshoes on, and we would go out for a hike. When I was around there was a concession that rented skies and probably some snowshoes. They were in the Rim Center also. The folks who ran the ski service lived in Grants Pass. They moved to the cafeteria when the Rim Center was closed to rent skis and things like that. They had a whole section, the left side of the cafeteria, so 40 or 50 feet was counter. They would have all their skis and stuff sitting right there.
