You went to Vidae Falls and then the scenic way.
You bet ya. That was not much used as far as that’s concerned. The fact is, I don’t think it was closed to the public, but it wasn’t an announced road to take. It was a kind of a nature-type road. If you wanted to go see flowers, or something of this sort, perhaps the naturalists would tell people to go that way. It wasn’t a road that was really told to the general public, but it was certainly a shortcut to get there. You had to go clear up to Kerr Notch and come back down again. Then I spent quite a bit of time at the south entrance at the entrance station. I did a little bit of time on the west entrance too, not much, it was mostly the south and the east. There were two of us here at those times that were trying to get Permanent Ranger status. The other one was a fellow by the name of Duane Fitzgerald. He had graduated from Oregon State in forestry about two years, I think, before I graduated. Two or three years. He lived in the log house which has been demolished long ago down at the Annie Spring junction (3). He had a wife and a small boy. His boy was just about the same age as our boy was. Both he and I were trying to get permanent status here at Crater Lake. So come fall, we were told we would be able to stay for awhile. The old Grazing Service was taken over, as I recall, by the Bureau of Land Management in the fall of 1946. There were two men, and I am sure that they were in Bend at the time, that was looking for jobs. But by nefarious and foul means they discouraged these man by telling them how bad the winters were at Crater Lake, how they lived in isolation, how they could be snowed in at times, how there was no place for children, there was no place for schooling, and this sort of thing. Of course, both of these men turned the appointments down up here. So that left the road open for both Duane Fitzgerald (we called him Dewey and he called himself Dewey) and I. We were both appointed. At that time, it was called a temporary appointment pending the establishment of a register or “taper” appointment. Now we were on that taper appointment clear up until 1949 when a Civil Service exam was given for Park Rangers. There had been no Civil Service exam given for Park Rangers since, I think, 1939. Then of course, the War situation came along. Rangers were going off to war and there were the older ones, or the partially infirm ones, that were still staying in the parks. But there was no examination, so here we were after the War and I don’t know why it took so long for a Civil Service exam to be put together, but it was in 1949 before a Civil Service exam was given. It was early 1950, I think, before we were finally removed from this taper appointment. Now anyone that had a taper appointment was automatically blanketed into the Permanent ranks of the Park Service after they took the examination. But if they failed the examination, well then they had problems. I know of at least one Park Service person, and I’m sure he’s dead now, and I’m sure it was common knowledge. His name was Jack Wade and he was working at Mesa Verde, he failed the examination. I don’t know how he got on the Park Service, but he did. I think his son works for the Park Service now, second generation. But it was, as I say, early 1950 before we actually had permanent solidified appointments. Now we were getting pay and benefits all the same. We got pay raises the same as anybody else did.
