In the 30s there were accusations made, especially with the motor ways, that development was destroying potential wilderness.
I would think that this would come up particularly in a place like Crater Lake because of the cabins that were built, either by the CCs or maybe a little earlier than that. There was quite an extensive network of roads. Incidentally, they were pretty good roads, too. They were not paved or anything of the sort, but they were very comfortable roads, a good many of them, to go on. And you had no problem going around them in a two wheel drive pickup. You didn’t have to use four wheel drives on any of them. I’ve been over every foot of the motor ways that we had in this park and there was none of them that I would ever have considered that I was going to get stuck anywhere with a two wheel drive pickup.
I don’t know how closely involved you were with the 1970 wilderness recommendations for this park, but does that seem kind of ridiculous in light of the history of motor ways here?
You know, I didn’t have anything to do with it, but I did look down my nose at it, what I knew about it. I thought it was kind of silly, because here you do have roads linking all over. This is not a wilderness area. And very frankly, I still do not consider it a wilderness area. I’d have to be hard pressed to say that Crater Lake is a wilderness area. The use may be that way, and I’m not opposed to closing up the motor ways… I think it’s a fine point, really.
The recommendations have just stayed on the table ever since then, and nothing has ever come from them. Even though, apparently, they’re managed as such.
Can you get through on those motor ways anymore?
Par regulations say it’s illegal to drive on them. Possibly, in an emergency situation, like snowmobiles, still allowed for rescue, but not as recreation, no.
You wrote, “What were the duties as (WASO) branch chief?” Well, I was Chief of the Branch of Visitor Activities Management, which is a big title. There were two branches there under the Division of Ranger Activities. There was a Branch of Resource Management. Lyle McDowell was the chief of the other branch and I was the Chief of Visitor Activities. You mentioned, “Did I ever have a role responsible for service policy?” Darn right, quite a bit to do with service policy which has gone far beyond what we ever envisioned. But as far as law enforcement and fire arms and this sort of thing, we had a tremendous amount to do with it. I had one man that really worked with me. I had two and three people in the branch with me, but Bob Murphy, who’s retired now- lives up just north of Yellowstone- was my right hand man. We had a lot to do with cooperation with park police and working out training and this sort of thing. The first concentrated law enforcement training was done while we were in there. We got it started both at Harpers Ferry, and at Grand Canyon. We called the park police in on it and we had regular cooperation. The park police were only too happy to do it; this was the first time they’d ever really been asked. It was the forerunner of the park police being put out into the regions, too. I presume they still are, I don’t know. We had a park policeman who was usually a captain or a major out into every region to work with park protection and law enforcement in all the park areas. So it was a start and I feel pretty good about it.
