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1925
May 1925 Road paving begins on the Klamath Falls to Medford road.
May 5 1925 Orson Stearns, first recorded white man to touch the waters of Crater Lake dies in Ashland.
July 9 1925 John D. Rockefeller visits the Park. Ray Wilbur, Secretary of the Interior announces that the U.S. Government will spend $1 million paving the Rim Road around Crater Lake.
July 23 1925 Willard Von Nome of the American Museum of Natural History becomes alarmed when he learns that the government plans to promote legislation to cut off the southwestern part of the Park and allow the forests to be opened up to lumbermen. Steel claims that the lower elevation forests create a fire danger and should be excluded from the Park.
September 20 1925 A bronze plaque is dedicated in memory of John Wesley Hillman. Will Steel places the plaque on a large boulder near Discovery Point. A heavy snowstorm that deposited more than a foot of snow at the Rim held down attendance, forcing the ceremonies into the Lodge. Speakers included Will Steel and Capt. O.C. Applegate. (The plaque is stolen in 1968 and mailed back to the Park by a police department on the Oregon Coast. Package opened by Larry Smith)
September 5 1925 Betty Brinton, 15 years of age, claims to be the first woman to swim from the Lake Trail to Wizard Island. (Reported by her sister, who followed along in a rowboat, Margaret Coates, 145 Mountain Circle Dr., Sumner, Washington. 98390.
March 12, 2004
Dear Sir,
I hope all is well with you and yours.
Old folks move slow, me and when you involve more old folks it goes slower. Nancy, the daughter of Aunt Betty Brinton has located a picture and write-up about Aunt Betty Brinton’s Labor Day Weekend, 1925, swim in Crater Lake. The article does not show the date or the full name of the paper. A copy of the article is enclosed.
I am sure there are no more than four family members that have any interest in the swim that Aunt Betty made in 1925. Of the original six Brinton’s, Margaret Coates is the only surviving member. Margaret Coates in an Alzheimer’s Patient in Puyallup, Washington. I am Margaret’s son-in-law. I appreciate the time and effort that the two of you went to getting the information and putting it together.
Daniel M. Rhoades
36113 Indian Wells Drive
Newark, California 94560 (510) 793-2666 farmallh@aol.com
Mr. Smith, Sir,
I have sent your brother a copy of the story which has a picture. I think you are the individual I talked with in 1980, after seeing a copy of the Crater Lake History laying on the counter of the Ranger Station. Twenty-four years later I am able to provide verification of the swim and on the correct spelling of Aunt Betty’s name. As I have said, I appreciate all that you two have done. I have not been to Crater Lake since 1980. As Jackie Gleason said, “One of these days’.
Thanks a jillion – Inflation you know.
Daniel M. Rhoades.
Nov. 2009 – O yes, “MY SWEET SUZIE’S”, of 47 very nice years, Aunt Betty (Brinton) Levenseller. Larry, I would say there are only six people that are aware of Aunt Betty’s swim in 1925. The only reason I am aware of the swim is my Mother-in-law Margaret (Brinton) Coates told me about it in the 1960s. I was at Crater Lake in the 1980s and was unable to find any record of the swim. In the 2000s I decided to start fishing around and finally uncovered the copy of the New York Times article I was looking for to confirm the swim and submitted it to one of the Smith Brothers. Yes, I know playing in the Lake is not safe and records are to be broken by someone and the danger at the Lake is great. I was twenty -three years old before I realize the reason I was called Dusty Rhoades. And I lived on a gravel road. Yea, I know I am very slow. Thanks for your effort and the info One third of the Rhoades Brothers, Daniel M. Rhoades
October 25 1925 Photo from the New York Times – “THE FIRST TO BRAVE THE ICY WATERS OF CRATER LAKE: MISS BETTY BRINTON of San Rafael, who Swam Two Miles From Shore to Wizard Island, a Feat Never Before Attempted by Visitors to the National Park. Photo by: Fred W. Kiser.
The photo is from the Sunday, October 25, 1925, New York Times, Sports, Rotogravure Picture Section. The print is located in the upper left corner of the UC Berkeley’s Library print, of the picture from ProQuest’s Historical Newspapers collection.
September 29 1925 The “Eugene Register Guard” says, “If Hillman deserves a bronze tablet, then Steel deserves a statue.”
November 22 1925 From Superintendent Col. Thompson Another interesting item is the projection of a new road from Government Camp to the rim of the lake on a maximum grade of 6% per cent to replace the present 10.9 per cent grade. Surveys completed by park engineers have been tentatively approved by the bureau of public roads and it is expected that work will be undertaken next spring. The proposed road is about a mile longer, follows the general direction of the present road to a point half-way up the climb, when it turns westward across a hump and emerges at the rim 200 yards west of the Community House. This point of emergence was selected by the landscape architect and will give visitors a highly dramatic first view of the entire lake and crater panorama. Future plans include an esplanade along the crater edge, a kiosk with scenic finders, telescopes, etc., on Victor Rock, and other logical improvements aimed at driving home the crater and its lake not only as a spectacle, but as a geological story.
December 1925 The Park’s weather station is discontinued at Annie Spring. It is reestablished at a Rim location in November of 1926 at an elevation of 7,086 feet. During the next four years it remained at the Rim, but for some unexplained reason several fairly extended periods of data are missing.
Season 1925 For the first time in its history; Crater Lake entertained guests from every state in the Union.
Annie Spring Bridge built, a 3 span timber structure, 78 feet along. Also the upper end of the Crater Lake Highway receives a heavy coat of shale to proved a solid base for future paving and dust control.
22,500 Silver Salmon are liberated in the Lake.
Season 1925 Visitation: 65,018 visitors.
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