This was Dickinson?
No, this was Mott. And so we went over and we signed it away. And Briggle flat lied to me. There is just no doubt. I don’t know whether he was not knowledgeable and was just blowing smoke or whether he just flat told an untruth. But, on the contrary, Mott was absolutely adamant against concession ownership of campgrounds, including Crater Lake’s. He was absolutely, totally against it. But by then, the ink was on the paper.
I would have thought so because of his experience in California (23).
I was sold a bill of goods. Bill was an old friend. I like Bill, and I just can’t believe it of him that he would deliberately lie. So somebody may have steered him wrong, or who the hell knows what the agenda was. Only time will tell how, in the long range, that will work.
As far as the concession operation down there, it can work, it can work very well. There were things that I didn’t like that happened late in the ball game there, but that really isn’t the issue. The issue is, can it work?. Yes it can, and it can work well. It only depends on the players on both the park side and the concession side. The key. . . we lost a lot when we didn’t get that second lodge up on the rim (24). We lost a lot there, despite the money. The money would have been relatively easy to get. That wouldn’t have been too difficult. I don’t know what decision went into it. If Crater Lake was ever to achieve the grandeur and the statute that it deserves, something like that had to happen up there, That was really a decision made that I questioned. I don’t second-guess anything, but that one I do. The other thing is, will they carry out the original intent of the old lodge, which is to rebuild it. Will they really stay with the intent? If they stay with the intent that was so carefully drawn on that, that will be an ever stronger and stronger and stronger concession operation because it will develop a heritage, such as the El Tovar or the Ahwahnee or something. But who knows? I haven’t any idea what Dave or any of the people there now think.
Do you think that the complexity of the planning, since it takes place over such a long time horizon, is going to complicate things?
You know, again, we hark back to earlier questions in which I spoke briefly about leadership. If you have leadership in the places you need to have leadership, that really understands parks, yes, sure it will happen. If you end up with people that are not true leaders, that are really not committed to a cause, then perhaps not. [When] you have prolonged planning that goes [on] over a long, long, long period of time, it’s more difficult. That’s right, because you have to have more time to take potshots at you from all sides. Which is where you get into the leadership role. Is somebody going to stand there and, you know, and say the hell with you? You’re damn right we’re going to do this.
