Was the idea to construct a tramway down to the water taken seriously by the park staff? Did seasonal naturalists have to deal with questions about it?
That was quite an event. We had a lot of questions, particularly at Sinnott. There was a media blitz, I think, primarily through the newspapers in this area, about the possibility of constructing a tramway (17). To me, that was an abomination. I spoke out very strongly against it. But invariably, in the Sinnott, after the talk was given and you would open it up to questions someone would always ask, “When’s the tramway going down?” I was very opposed to it and probably had a much stronger view on it than others. But it was a matter of some concern during the early 1960s.
The superintendent and a lot of the park staff were very strongly opposed to it?
Speaking of superintendents, I did want to interject a couple of things. I remember my first superintendent was Tom Williams. He certainly was a great person and wasn’t a desk-bound superintendent. He was everywhere. He would appear at Sinnott, he’d be up at the Exhibit Building, and he might be at a campfire program. I remember the year he left we had this tremendous picnic just below Cold Springs. He was certainly a great guy. There are some people that just really stick out in your mind, and he was one of them. I felt the same way about Ward Yeager. He was a fine person. It seemed that they brought in superintendents to Crater Lake that were close to retirement, maybe to give them a higher GS rating or something of that nature. One of the sorriest times was a gentleman that came in from Montana, I believe from Glacier, and he died of a heart attack.
Dick Nelson
Yes, Dick Nelson. He was just a very, very fine, superb individual. Both my wife and I thought highly of him and felt real badly when that occurred.
