I can just imagine Mark Buktenica and his seasonals working in the lab. It’s not something Mark likes to do. If you are not thinking about the chemistry that is happening at the time that you are doing it, it’s pretty dull. I enjoy it, because I realize what this means. I really enjoy watching all the numbers as they come out of these devices we use up there. For two years (1986-87) they didn’t have me. I returned in 1988 because I could run the boats, the tractor, the lab and they didn’t have to worry about it. I could handle a lot of the background work. The 1989 season was exactly the same thing. I also didn’t need housing since I brought my own trailer up to the park.
How complex was the unmanned submersible in 1987?
I don’t know a lot about that. The video produced in 1987 with a remote vehicle (ROV) probably helped in getting the money for the submarine program. I’m a little out of that loop. I just know that we had the unmanned submersible, the ROV, available to us. In case something happened, we could go down and work the remote vehicle, the rover. That is as close as I saw the ROV operate, but it was never used during the submarine program.
Several months ago we discussed the three factors that came into play that allowed the submarine to come to Crater Lake.
I guess I was at the top of Cleetwood Cove Trail, when I saw the car caravan go by. It was filled with BLM people.
They lease minerals?
It was like a parade. I realized later that this was the beginning of some exploration that was taking place near the park. Why was there an underwater research program designed and funded for Crater Lake? The three reasons that I came up with were these: number one, the park was under some threat—either real or perceived-it doesn’t matter. People were drilling into the hot rocks below the lake, in very close proximity of the park. What Cal Energy was hoping to do was find a source of geothermal energy. Planes were flying over and crews were taking samples on the ground. They were doing everything they could to pinpoint the spot to put some wells. I’m not sure how many feet or miles they drilled. That would be east of Mount Scott. Those wells are all locked up now. I don’t know if they have been filled in or anything, but I know that they have been secured so that no one could misuse them. They’ve more or less abandoned those wells. As I said, number one in those years was a threat. The Park Service felt that this could be detrimental to the park and Crater Lake specifically. The second reason was that there were people working in the park at the time, Bob Collier and Jack Dymond, who had done underwater exploration. They had a good feeling for the lake system, the physical nature of the upwelling and the heat coming up from the bottom of the lake.
