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1909
Winter/Spring 1909 Superintentent Arant reports that heavy winter snow has destroyed many of the Headquarter buildings at Anna Aprings. His report clamins that 25 feet of snow was measrured at Anna Springs in January. The two-story office of the Superintendent – measuring 24 feet by 30 feet – completely collapsed. The 24-foot by 48-foot barn also fell under the pressure of the snow. “Nothing was left standing.” The witner snow also damaged other outbuildings including the two-story blacksmith and tool shed.
The Park was required to purchase 15,000 feet of lumber and $150 worth of nails to rebuild the buildings stronger than before. Nineteen miles of roads were repaired, and 16 briges were rebuilt for a total cost of $1300.
March 23 1909 A photographer traveling with the Southern Pacific farm demonstration train says, “Oregon’s greatest resource, the one thing that will make and keep her world famous, is Crater Lake.”
March 261909 W. H. Hodson of the Hodson Auto Company is one of the most enthusiastic men in Medford over the passage of the Crater Lake road bill. He says it will be worth thousands of dollars just from the advertising the town has received through getting the appropriation.
He states that the auto men will build the bridge over Union Creek this spring and improve the road to the lake at their own expense, so that travel will be better to the lake this summer than ever before. Medford Mail, March 26, 1909, page 1
July 20 1909 The first lodging in the Park consists of tent houses on the Rim (Camp Crater) and at Camp Arant (Anna Springs) there is a small hotel, store and gas station, built by the Crater Lake Company. After choosing the site where the Mazamas gathered in 1896, Steel supplies the funds to begin construction of the Crater Lake Lodge. (The Lodge of the Imagination.) Work was slow due to labor disputes, supply problems, and financing difficulties. Steel plans to have an electric plant available for lighting.
July 25 1909 The “Medford Mail Tribune” reports that snow has finally disappeared from the road to Crater Lake and travel there will soon begin. “Visitors this year will probably exceed last year’s record of 5,000”
Workmen are installing wooden pipes for the new Rim water system bringing up water from Munson Springs.
July 30 1909 Phil Loosley, who recently returned from Crater Lake, tells that all kinds of things are doing up that way. Chief among the good things being done are the road improvements which Mr. Hodson, the Medford auto man, is putting in on the road leading to the lake. The rocks are being removed, chuckholes filled and the high places in the center of the road leveled to be out of the reach of automobiles. He is also building a bridge across Union Creek. “Crater Lake Road,” Medford Mail, July 30, 1909, page 3
July 30 1909 BRIDGED UNION CREEK.
William Hodson and “Happy” Harrington returned yesterday from Union Creek, where they have just completed a bridge across that stream. Mr. Hodson, who is one of the proprietors of the Hodson Auto Company of this city, has put this bridge in at his own expense, and by putting it in he has made it possible for automobiles to travel the entire distance to Crater Lake with their cars. Medford Mail, July 30, 1909, page 5
August 21 1909 A telegraph line has been installed from the developing Rim Village area to Park Headquarters at Annie Springs.
September 9 1909 From the Medford Mail Tribune: IMPROVEMENTS AT THE LAKE New Hotel Will Be Started This Week – Telephone Line to Rim. “The new hotel on the rim of Crater Lake will be begun this week and the telephone line from Klamath Falls is now finished up to the rim,” said Paul Board, who has been working as mechanical engineer for the company during the summer.
“Crater Lake is a fine place and I don’t believe that a grander boat ride can be had than a moonlight launch ride on the lake. It is certainly worth all the trouble of getting up there.”
“I have seen many beautiful sights, but that is the finest, and in a few years Crater Lake be the most famous resort in the world. I have talked with quite a few of the visitors there who have traveled all over Europe, and everyone said that this was the best and grandest sight. ‘Why,’ said one, ‘if I had only known that such a marvelous sight could be seen in my own country I never would have gone abroad, but then it was not advertised, so how could I know about it. I have enjoyed my visit out here and now I must leave for my home in Covington, Ind., to finish school.’”
Season 1909 $1,100 spent repairing buildings, roads and purchasing tools. Forest fires were numerous and damaging in the surrounding forests. Employees consist of the Superintendent and one ranger. Problems with campers cutting tree boughs for beds. Two camprounds in park. One at Camp Arant, near the Superintendent’s headquarters and one at Camp Crater on the Rim. Camp Crater first opened July 20, 1909. 419 persons accommodated at camp Arant and 125 persons at Camp Crater. 4,171 people registered at the entrance station. It is estimated that another 900 did not register.
1909 Two concessions are in operation in the park. One for lodging (two hotels) and one for transporting visitors in and around the park. Both concessions were owned by the Crater Lake Company. The new Lodge’s foundation has been completed.
Administration building and a ranger’s cabin built at Anna Spring.
Steel goes before Congress seeking $10,000 with which to make a preliminary survey of a system of roads for the Park, which was soon secured. The survey work was completed in 1912.
Season 1909 Visitation: 4,171
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