So Sims and then Betts?
Sims would bring people into his office. He’d have all day to talk to you. He’d gather up kids and talk. And his wife was the Secretary-Treasurer of the NHA. She did a good job and had a desk right in the Ranger Office. From where the Superintendent’s office was, you’d walk through to where the library was, and that would be her desk. He’d always come in about twenty of five and stand there, waiting for her to finish up the books so he could go home. He always gave her a ride from Steel Circle over to the Administration Building and back again. Once thing they did do was spend a lot of time at the evening programs. She was always with him and rode in the government car. They were together a lot. Last I heard he was in the regional office.
Was that unusual for Superintendents to go to evening programs?
Yes. Mr. Benton announced that he would never be seen at an evening program. He said that publicly. I heard him during one of my training schools. He said that was not his place, I guess, to go to evening programs.
I know that some of the regional office people went to evening programs last summer when they were up for the operations evaluation (20). I didn’t know whether that was unusual or not.
Rouse went to evening programs a lot (21). But his wife didn’t live in the park that much. She would come and go. They had a house in Corvallis. She seemed to enjoy it there a little bit more than at Crater Lake. Well, you couldn’t have dogs when they arrived. They had a poodle that just had to live at the house, so he changed the rule for the first time since the park had been established, so that employees could have animals.
That was Rouse?
Yes. Rouse changed it. And that was to placate his wife. And then she ended up not living in the park, at least not very much. He was a very lonely man. Can I talk a little more about Sims?
