Yeah, that must have been why we’ve found a drawing for a winter viewing platform in the maintenance files.
The NPS had keep the Miracle Mile open because it was the only easy way of viewing the lake. They always kept the road open to Discovery Point. It was kept open up through probably the middle 70’s. The snowplow operators called it the Miracle Mile because it was a miracle they could keep it open. But the wind blows through there so much that the snow never really gets real deep, despite drifting, so they could pretty well get it cleared out. You could just drive out there during the wintertime.
So a lot of people didn’t try to look at the lake.
No, because you just drive out there and could see it real easily. There were no snow berms at all around Discovery Point.
That must have been why there was a campground relocation study done in ’43 about moving the rim campground to an area near Discovery Point where the drifting isn’t bad and they could keep the campgrounds open longer.
Oh, I see. It would have been terrible to put one out there, but practically it was a good idea. About the third week of July was when they got that thing (campground) opened up on the rim. You remember there was a campground right behind the Headquarters. You can still see the roads below the Superintendent’s house right up around the creek area. That was the preseason-campground. People would come up there and camp. It wasn’t a really developed campground, but they allowed people to camp there while waiting for the snow to melt on top. When that melted out in the last park of July, people’d start camping up at the rim.
