My name is Pete Foiles. I was a permanent ranger at Crater Lake from December 1939 to October of 1942. Prior to that time I had been a seasonal ranger in Rocky Mountain National Park where the superintendent was David Canfield. Dave was a former Crater Lake superintendent and when my name came up on the register he recommended me to the people at Crater Lake. They selected me and I am sure glad that they did because it turned out to be three of the best years of my life.
When I went to Crater Lake in December of 1939, it was one of those years when they had a real light snow. I guess this was the only time that it happened. I was able to get up and see a good deal of the rim before the snows started. When they did start, we received lots of snow.
Prior to my arrival to Crater Lake the permanent ranger force consisted of just three people. The Chief ranger, Carlisle Crouch, along with Jack Frost and Brent Finch as the other two rangers. When I showed up, I made the third permanent ranger. It was quite a bit smaller force than I was used to at Rocky Mountain, which was bigger park and had a lot more people on the staff. It was really an experience. The snow was probably one of the things that stand out. Most of the park was closed in the winter time, but prior to my arrival they had made the decision to keep the road to the rim open in the winter time (1). That became a real attraction for tourists; they wanted to see that much snow. The park had three rotary snow plows and, as I recall, about nine snows plow operators who worked pretty much around the clock to keep the road open. They kept about 26 miles of the road open in the park. The real justification was so that they would not have to have the expense of opening the road up in the spring. The total snow depth was something like 55 feet on an average. One year they had as much as 72 feet of accumulated snow fall, I think.
