Were you in favor of continuing organized events like the Rim Run, ski race, or the Masons meeting?
That’s kind of interesting. The Masons say, of course, that they have a personal letter from Harry Truman that gave them the right to do their stuff over there. After a long time, I don’t know remember how many years, but after some number of years, I finally got to see the infamous letter. Of course, it doesn’t say that at all. My feeling is, so what. It’s a long-time use and it disturbs virtually no one. I would never have tried to move the Masons out. I would have, had I stayed there any longer, probably been after them for some bucks to do some work over there on the area that they used (67). They have a lot of money. I think we probably could have made some group campsites, say a couple or three, that would encompass the area that they used. Then when they weren’t using them, which was only one week in the year, it was available for all the merit of other group-type uses that would have fallen in there. So as far as the Masons were concerned, they were nice people and they didn’t cause us any harm and they really did like the park. I thought that there was no problem there.
The ski race, the ski thing. I feel bad and again. . . I thought it was a real important thing, but it never went the way that I had hoped [it would]. I would have hoped that the ski race would have evolved into what it was back in the ‘301s, a real honest-to-goodness run from Fort Klamath all the way to the rim (68). I could have supported that 100 percent. I think it was consistent with the park and they really did like the park. I thought that there was no problem there.
I think it was consistent with the park and what we were trying to do in promoting things like cross country skiing and so on. I think it would have been a wonderful thing to have done. It could be that it never could have happened simply because apparently there isn’t as much snow around there these days as there was in the 30’s, at least not in Fort Klamath.
