I noticed in some of the reports that there would be a morning boat tour and an evening boat tour.
As I recall, they had a shorter trip that went to Wizard Island and around the Phantom Ship and then back. It was a shorter trip. That’s my recollection, but with the understanding that my recall is somewhat fuzzy on that boat trip. I have some slides at home of the boat trip, and one of them indicates the boat was literally full and almost overflowing. So we did have a good response. We thought that having a boat landing out at Cleetwood would have quite an impact that people would be discouraged driving over there. I believe it was 13 miles from the Rim Village, if I remember correctly. But, it didn’t seem to affect the number of visitors who took the boat tours. I was concerned when they put the larger boat on, that they, meaning the concessionaires, might be overestimating [the boat tour’s popularity]. But it seemed to make sense. The trips were pretty well-attended for the most part.
Was there a noticeable change when they took the row boats out?
Not to my knowledge. I don’t think it did. I don’t think that had any impact [on boat tours] whatsoever.
The reason I asked that question about how the boat tour developed was I talked to a man who was literally the first one to give a boat tour, in 1931, and it was sort of an all day event at that point. They went over to the island, climbed to the top, came back down again, and then started around the lake.
I see. Well, that was the days when I guess people were more rugged. I have some problems with climbing up to the top of the island. I think for some people its okay. For others, you know, it might be a little bit strenuous. But if they got down that trail [to the lake] and out again, I suppose they could do the island. It just bothers me to get too many people in a given area, which then receives too much use.
I notice a question here about the North Junction. That was a duty post that, for a lot of people, was really the pits. It was somewhat controversial among the staff. I did quite a bit of it, and didn’t mind it too much. The thing I liked about it is that you were out there and you were working with visitors that were probably getting their first glimpse of the lake. Invariably, they were just awed by what they saw. It was just a natural setting to capitalize on that feeling of awe and surprise and elation where a person if, by using that response, could, really do a good job of imparting information and a greater appreciation for the area. But a lot of people felt, oh, you’re out there by yourself. I guess it’s all attitudinal and how you look at your job. [But] if you realize that, hey, you’re there to serve the visitor and make their park experience more meaningful.
