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1915
January 25 1915 The Oregon Legislature cedes exclusive jurisdiction over to the National Park Service.
February 10 1915 Alfred Parkhurst, concessioner, states that there are nine rooms on the second floor and nine rooms on the third floor of the Lodge that are supplied with hot and cold water. These rooms will be extra well furnished and are worthy of an extra charge of 50 cents a day. Parkhurst would like to charge 25 cents a day for heating stoves and an extra 50 cents for baths.
February 19 1915 Crater Lake discovery party member, John W. Hillman, dies in Hope Villa, Louisiana.
March 1915 Park entrance fees increased to $2. The Park had planned on $5.00 but decided to reduce the fee. $5.00 for a season’s entrance permit.
March 31 1915 From the MT The Medford Presbyterian church auditorium was filled Tuesday evening to hear Will Steel’s lecture on Crater Lake National Park, illustrated by colored views. It was a very interesting lecture, and the pictures were fine. Mr. Steel told, in a very forceful way, about the difficulties in getting appropriations adequate to the needs of the park, but explained that everything now points to hard surfaced roads from Medford to and through the park in the next few years. While the house was comfortably filled, many were kept away by counter attractions and inclement weather, so that some who didn’t attend are asking for a return engagement and the Knights of Pythias, under whose auspices the lecture was given, may conclude to repeat it.
April 1 1915 In a letter to the Secretary of the Interior, Superintendent Will Steel suggests that he be allowed to transfer $867.50 from the Lake Trail building account and $100 from the fish food account, and that the Interior Department add $1,500 so that a new $2,097 telephone line could be built from Klamath Falls to Prospect, connecting to Park Headquarters, the Lodge, the Watchman Fire Lookout, the Pinnacles entrance and a ranger’s station on Cloud Cap. (The Interior Department could not spend money outside the Park, so a permit was granted to Klamath Telephone & Telegraph Co. to build an eight mile line through the Park. In exchange for the allowing the line, the Telephone Company agreed to give the Park 100 days of free message time.)
April 3 1915 An article in the Saturday Evening Post states that golf links are proposed for the area east of the Lodge and that cottages will take the place of tent houses at the Rim.
June 15 1915 Camp Arant officially changed by the Interior Department to Anna Spring Camp.
June 15 1915 ARANT’S EFFORTS TO OUST STEEL END IN FAILURE (Medford Mail Tribune)
W.F. Arant’s efforts to oust Will G. Steel as superintendent of Crater Lake park and reinstate himself have resulted in failure. Arant, who was former superintendent, was removed for cause by Secretary Franklin K. Lane two years ago, and refused to vacate the office. It took the United States marshal and a score of deputies to eject him. Arant claimed that his office came under civil service rules, and since then has regularly demanded his pay as superintendent and brought suit for reinstatement and pay back.
Justice Stafford, of the district of Colombia supreme court, Saturday passed upon the case. The court finds that Arant was not within the classified Civil Service, not having been appointed after examination, but being a personal appointee of the Secretary of the Interior, and therefore subject to removal at the will of the secretary.
Justice Stafford, who ruled against Arant, is the same judge before whom Binger Hermann was tried on the charge of destroying his letter books when retiring from office of Land Commissioner, and H.P. Gately, Arant’s attorney, is Hermann’s son-in-law. Gately gave notice of appeal.
Arant Camp in the Crater Lake National Park, named after former Superintndent Arant of Klamath Falls, has been officially changed by the department of the interior to Anne Springs, and will be so designated.
Response from Park Historian Steve Mark – Larry, This is where footnotes are a handy device. Neither the Arant nor the Steel appointments were civil service; instead both were the equivalent of political ones. Steel cast Arant in a bad light, but there is no evidence he was a bad superintendent. His practical abilities often exceeded Steel’s, especially with road and bridge work. To be fair to Steel, the department didn’t spring its budget complexities until 1914 or so, and it only got more complicated when Sparrow took over in 1917. In any event, it should be noted that the Hermann was never convicted of any wrongdoing while Commissioner of the GLO. It helped him that President Roosevelt backed away from pursuing the “small fry” once some of the big fish were convicted in the various land fraud trials.
July 3 1915 The new Crater Lake Lodge formally opens in honor of Governor Withycombe and the first meals are served. Governor’s Bay on Wizard Island named by Steel in honor of the Governor. The opening date was planned to coincide with the San Francisco World’s Fair.
July 1915 Famous visitors during the month include, Mrs. John Philip Sousa, Mrs. Mary Lea, one of the world’s richest women. (Worth $40 million) and Stephen Mather, director of the National Park Service. Mather reports that the roads are crude and that the concessions are poor.
August 7 1915 William Jennings Bryan and party visit the Park. Bryan announces support of Steel’s road project to be built inside the crater wall from the Lodge to Kerr Notch. Bryan promises to use his influence in Congress. Steel also recommends the building of a powered elevator from the Lodge to the lakeshore.
August 15 1915 Gilbert H. Grosvenor, National Geographic Editor, visits the Park.
August 15 1915 Oregonian Newspaper August 15, 1915 Crawfish are planted
Commission Provides for Trout in Cater and Diamond Lakes
The State Fish and Game Commission has just finished planting in Crater Lake 5000 crawfish from Odell Lake with a view to propagating food for the trout. This step was found necessary because to the manner in which trout have been multiplying in Crater Lake in recent years.
The commission also planted 3000 crawfish in Diamond Lake to make provision for the trout with which the latter lake has been stocked.
Summer 1915 Truman Cook, age 22, of Portland, Oregon arrives at Crater Lake to work for the Lodge Company. He reports that the only motorboat on the lake was a 16-foot boat with a 3 hp inboard motor. The boat was stored in the boathouse on Wizard Island and was operated by the 16 year-old son of the concession manager during the season. In the boathouse was a half completed 36-foot boat. With the help of a house carpenter, Truman completes the boat. The 300-pound engine is skidded down from the Rim and installed on Wizard Island. When launched, the boat becomes the second motorized boat on the Lake and the first boat capable of carrying 20 passengers.
Ceremony in the Witches Cauldron By BILL MILLER for the Mail Tribune October 17, 2010 The dust fell like a gritty rainstorm on Truman Cook’s head. He wished he had a pair of goggles and maybe one of those white dusters the older men were wearing.
In early June 1915, the 21-year-old and six others were on their way from Medford to jobs at Crater Lake, bouncing over a rutted dirt road in an open-air automobile.
It was an all-day trip under clear skies with valley temperatures soaring into the 80s. But in the mountains near Crater Lake, there was snow and the road was blocked.
After a seven-mile hike from Annie Springs to the icy caldera rim where the Crater Lake Lodge still stood unfinished, Cook was assigned a tent and issued a supply of wool blankets.
His first assignment was to clear the snow-covered trail that zigzagged 1,000 feet down the caldera wall from behind the lodge to the water’s edge.
Later, when the weather began to warm, he and a helper rowed to Wizard Island, where they opened the boathouse and took out a 16-foot launch, at the time the only boat on the lake with a gasoline motor.
Also inside the boathouse was a partially built 36-foot motor launch that Cook had to finish before the late summer arrival of more than 200 members of the Knights of Pythias.
The Pythians were a fraternal order based on principles of friendship, charity and benevolence. Members took their example from the ancient Greek story of Damon and Pythias, whose friendship was so strong that each would willingly give his life for the other.
A long gray streak of dust rose in the morning sun as 106 borrowed automobiles, carrying 486 Knights and their families, lumbered toward the lake.
That evening, in a sheltered grove of hemlock and pine, illuminated by automobile headlights and two bonfires, members watched an amateur performance of the play “The Lesson of Friendship,” based on the story of Damon and Pythias.
The next morning, 227 men descended the steep trail to the shore of the lake. There, an arch had been erected, where each man was required to give the password before being allowed to ride a boat to Wizard Island. Only Cook and his helper, who piloted the boats, were given permission to travel without knowing the password.
After climbing 800 feet to the top of the island, the Pythian Knights gathered in the small volcanic crater that William Gladstone Steel, superintendant of Crater Lake National Park, had named the Witches Cauldron in 1885.
Steel was the first of 25 new members initiated into the Pythians that afternoon.
By 5 o’clock, everyone had been ferried back and almost everyone had made the ascent back to the lodge.
“One man who weighed about 300 pounds had to be helped up by his companions,” Cook said. “He didn’t make it until midnight.”
For the Knights, it had been a unique experience and would only be repeated a few more times in the coming years.
Cook had impressed his boss, who asked him to return for the 1916 season.
“But I had other plans and didn’t go back,” said Cook. “My one season at Crater Lake was a glorious and unforgettable experience.”
Truman Cook returned to Crater Lake in 1972 and said the old trail he had cleared that summer had completely disappeared. He died in January 1980.
Summer 1915 Sewer system installed at Park Headquarters. Ranger cabin built at the Ft. Klamath entrance. New Medford road constructed. East Entrance Ranger Cabin constructed for $993.50. Rim Road to Sun Creek completed.
September 9 1915 In a letter to Park Superintendent Will G. Steel, an official from the Department of the Interior questions some of the superintendent’s money requests:
Sir:
Your letter of the 31st ultime (final) has been received submitting statement of funds allotted and expended up to and including that time from the current park appropriation.
The allotment of June 9, 1915 for three temporary rangers at $75 per month each for three months beginning July 1, 1915 should be carried as $675 instead of $900. With this correction and the additional allotments of $50 made August 30, 1915 for repair of telephone lines, $500 authorized September 1, 1915 for repair of roads, trails and bridges, and $1.29 expended for telegraph charges, the total charge against the appropriation aggregates $7,491.29, leaving an unallotted balance of $508.71.
You call attention to the allotment of June 28, 1915 of $250 for repair and extension of Rim trail being entirely exhausted but do not state whether the trail has been completed. You also request an allotment of $150 for procuring and placing fresh water shrimps and pond snails in the lake.
(second page missing)
September 15 1915 A telephone line connecting Medford and Crater Lake is completed, according to Park Superintendent Will G. Steel.
The Medford Mail Tribune reports that: PHONE LINE TO CRATER COMPLETED
Superintendent Will G. Steel of the Crater Lake National Park returned from the lake Wednesday and reported that the telephone line connecting Medford with the superintendent’s headquarters has been completed and that it is now possible to telephone to the park from this city.
Snow and rain have fallen at the lake, slight flurries of snow, which melted as soon as it fell and showers which benefited the roads and made traveling better. Sunny weather again prevails.
Up to September 14, the total tourist travel at the park totaled 10,463 against 6,579 the year previous. The number of autos registered totaled 2,064 against 1,193 in 1914.
September 28 1915 CRATER LAKE SEASON CLOSES SEPTEMBER 30
The season at Crater lake will close Thursday, September 30, and there will be no accommodations at the hotel after that date, according to Superintendent Will G. Steel. Travelers to the lake are advised to arrange for accommodations at Prospect, covering the distance to and from the lake in a day. All national parks close Sept. 30. This is the glorious season of the year at the lake. There is little snow, and practically the same weather conditions prevail as in the valley. Superintendent Steel is now compiling figures and data on the year’s business that will show a substantial increase over previous seasons. (Medford Mail Tribune)
Season 1915 Visitation: 11,371 visitors.
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