I’d like to check out that and Sand Creek truck stop on 97, because I think that may have been his originally.
I know he bought a dance hall somewhere and lugged it up and used the lumber off of it, I guess. The cluster office and all of the area’s support personnel really should be outside the park.
Was there a notable change in the operation once the cluster office closed?
Yes. It just got horribly cramped. People left and right. “I don’t want to be here. My home is in Klamath Falls.” Jeri Ziegler bailed out as quick as she could. That big tall procurement officer bailed out. [Adams] bailed out. Ernie Borgman bailed out. They didn’t basically have anybody that showed up at the park, except maybe one or two. Then they transferred the Chief of Interpretation back into the park about ’77 or ’78 (54).
Now who was the Chief?
John, I was trying to think of his last name. He was down at the cluster office almost then years. A real nice looking guy, real friendly, but no power (55). He basically took care of the books.
Did [Ranger] Tech jobs extend into Interpretation, too? (56)
Yes.
The Rangers talk about them as something they would rather forget.
For a while, GS-7 was running the whole interpretation program and that was it. One person had to run the whole naturalist program up there. So you can see why there’s such a period in there where not a whole lot was done. They had a GS-11 at the cluster office who supported the program, but was rarely ever on site. You never saw him except during the training of interpreters.
I suppose that would affect other units in the cluster like Oregon Caves.
The Caves are basically run by the concessionaire, so it’s a concession park if there ever was one. John Miele, bless his soul, is a wonderful man but he wasn’t very forceful (57). I guess he’s doing a pretty good job at Crater Lake, isn’t he?
