How did funding procedures [PCP versus current system] change for NPS construction projects during the Vietnam War era? Did money for park housing disappear in the late 60s?
No, there never was any. The thing that really happened, and this is pretty harsh commentary on the Park Service, but it’s an absolute fact. You can fight anybody over this. The quality of housing in a national park is directly dependent upon the superintendent’s willingness to have good housing. If he wants it, he’ll get it. If he doesn’t want it, he won’t. Housing, if it’s important to that superintendent, will happen. If it is not important, it will not.
Do you think some of the previous superintendents at Crater Lake expected that move out of Munson Valley rather than try to go for new housing in Munson Valley?
Yes, they don’t give a rat’s ass about housing. It’s that simple. The question of whether you have good housing in Munson Valley or whether you have good housing down at Annie Creek or wherever the heck you want to put it. However you want to do that, and I argued both sides of that. The important issue for me was getting not just good housing, but very, very good housing for Crater Lake, My feeling was that you have to do that if you are going to get and keep good people and keep the faith. Everybody wants to sweep that issue, living at Crater Lake, under the rug. They have never, with rare exceptions, really got out and tried to deal with the problems of why people go nuts at Crater Lake.
And why the turnover is so high?
I don’t know if that’s true. Maybe that’s a good thing. The problem that a lot of folks don’t realize is that they say Crater Lake is not as awful as Alaska. There are areas in Alaska that are worse. There are some studies out there, in the files somewhere, that say something along this line. It said that Crater Lake may be the most difficult area in the National Park Service to live in because of Medford. Because if you are living in Alaska, and it’s awful and terrible, everybody that you are around for hundreds of miles are all living in this condition that is awful. At Crater Lake, it’s awful. But all you have to do is jump in your car and drive 80 miles to Medford and suddenly, it’s nice. And the ability to go out and see what is out there on the other side of the world, and then knowing you have to back into the middle of winter, is absolutely, psychologically devastating.
