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1929 Will Steel and wife move to Medford from Eugene.
Winter 1929 Third annual Crater Lake Ski Race from Ft. Klamath and back. The silver winner’s cup is presented to Emil Nordeen, of Bend, Oregon in the winning time of 5 hours and 57 minutes. The tall cup was one of three made in Pittsburgh, PA. One of the trio was awarded to Charles Lindburg, while the third was bought by Charles Curtin, U.S. Vice President under Hoover. Mr. Nordeen was born in Sweden, above the Arctic Circle, in 1888 and had not skied for 20 years when he entered the 1929 race.
January 25 1929 Planning is begun for a definite roadway and promenade along the rim in Rim Village. A log parapet is planned for the control of parking until stone curbing is put in.
January 25 1929 The Annie Springs snow survey course established. Each month rangers weigh and measure the snow at Annie Springs and at Park Headquarters.
February 16 1929 Elbert C. Solinsky enters on duty as the new Superintendent of Crater Lake National Park.
Beginning with Solinsky’s administration, the Park administered Oregon Caves National Monument fro March 3, 1930 until June 30, 1969. The Park also administered Lava Beds National Monument from August, 1933 until July 1, 1936.
June 20 1929 Rudolph Luech begins his 9-year ranger career at Crater Lake. (See Godfrey entry for Nov. 17, 1930) Ruddy works at the Park until 1937.
July 1 1929 The staff of the Educational Division in Crater Lake National Park has been increased this year to afford greater service to the public, and also to leave more permanent record of the work accomplished.
Mr. Dale Leslie, of Eugene, Oregon, has been assigned as a Ranger-Naturalist. Miss Mabel Libbard, who has had several years of experience in the Yosemite, is in active charge of the Temporary Museum. Mr. Frederick L. Wynd is assisting especially in the preparation of material for the manual of Information.
The temporary museum in the Community House is rapidly developing into a focus of interest for the public. A relief model of the Park has been added, together with temporary cases to contain the bird specimens prepared by Dr. Loye Miller, and the insect and rock collections which are being rapidly increased. The cut flower collection numbers over sixty identified species. Many valuable exhibits are awaiting the construction of a more permanent building. Two hundred visitors a day view the temporary exhibits.
July 2 1929 Launch Larch Boat at Lake “The Crater Lake”, a forty-passenger launch, which will be used on Crater Lake this summer was launched at noon today.
The heavy launch was let down the mountainside on the snow with the aide of heavy ropes, where an experienced pilot will take charge.
Guests at the lake will have the opportunity of making trips over the lake in the new launch as soon as the snow melts so that the trip might be made to the water’s edge.
The boat is painted white and green, and is an exact duplicate of the launch which was lost when slides from the mountain pushed it into the lake several years ago.
Ray Telford of this city has been working on the launch for the past two months. It was taken by motor to the lake yesterday. (Evening Herald, Klamath Falls, Oregon)
July 3 1929 Horses and donkeys are available to those who want to ride instead of walking from Government Camp to the Rim.
July 5 1929 Dr. R.L. Wilbur, Secretary of Interior, and Horace Albright, National Park Service Director, visit the Park.
July 25 1929 Landscape architect E.A. Davidson orders six foot wide walks be staked as diagonal paths to augment circulation along the promenade. The first planting soil is secured.
August 1929 Castle Crest Wild Flower Garden opens. Warmest day on record with 92 degrees measured at Annie Spring.
August 1 1929 The rudder of the Cleetwood is in William Steel’s possession. He plans to present it to Crater Lake when a permanent museum is established.
August 4 1929 Mrs. Lee Fourrier, champion endurance swimmer becomes the first person to swim Crater Lake. Lee entered the waters at a little cave north of the Wine glass at 4:20 pm, heavily greased and emerged 6 1/2 miles distant, at 8:34:43, 4 hours, 18 minutes and 43 seconds later. The swim was delayed until special permission from the Superintendent could be obtained. Swimming in the Lake has been forbidden for years. Even though Mrs. Fourrier held the world’s endurance swimming record of 57 hours, she claimed this was the “hardest swim I ever made. The water was like ice. I was ready to climb out after an hour, and if it hadn’t been for the crowd on the opposite shore, I would have given up.”
If this is true, then Eleanor Holmes, English Channel swimmer, is the second one to swim Crater Lake.
In 1928, a cross-town rivalry in San Bernardino brought national prominence to the city when Pickering Park (site of the present-day Inland Center Mall) swim instructor Nyle Austin challenged Harlem Springs swim instructor Lee Fourrier to a swimming endurance contest.
The widely-publicized competition was held at the Arrowhead Springs pool because of its large dimensions and comfortably cool water temperature. It’s hard to imagine anything less interesting than watching two women slowly paddle around a pool for hours, but the event attracted a steady stream of spectators.
The ladies entered the pool on May 21, 1928, and 32 hours and 20 minutes later, Miss Austin emerged from the water as the women’s swimming endurance world champion. (the San Bernardino Sun)
CO 40 HOURS OF MARATHON UP AT MIDNIGHT Swimmer Continuous Valiantly At I o’Clock This Morning As Temperature Drops Collapsing In the Colton Municipal plunge, Mrs Lee Fourrler, seeking to lower the world’s endurance swimming record, was taken from the water at 2:18 o’clock this morning. She was unconscious as she was lifted from the water and was rushed to the Ramona hospital. For 42 hours and 18 minutes, Mrs. Fourrier, had been In the water. She broke the Pacific Coast record of 35 hours held by Lyle Austin of San Bernardino but failed In her effort to lower the world’s record of more than 50 hours.
Summer 1929 During the construction of the Sinnott Memorial Overlook, a carpenter working on the building of the over-look’s flat roof, tells of how he drove a bucket of golf balls off the flat surface off the roof toward the Lake. He remembers only one ball making it into the water. The new Overlook building was the first federally-funded museum in a national park. Its design borrowed heavily from the Yavapai Observation Station at the Grand Canyon. (Nov. 3, 1930 entry)
Business reversals forces Fred Kiser to give his photos studio building in Rim Village to the NPS.
The Lake Launch “Min” is lowered west of the cafeteria down a snow chute. The Fisher is also lowered here in 1958. The Min was almost destroyed when it slid out of control down the pumice chute. The “Min” was named for Mrs. Minnie Price, wife of the Lodge manager. The boat was air-lifted out by the Navy in 1972 and given to a Sea Scout Troop in Klamath Falls.
John Day, noted mountain climber and World Age Class Record Holder in several events, tells about the time he and another ranger were digging a water line across the Rim Village parking lot. A very “proper-type” woman approached them and asked why Crater Lake was so blue. Knowing that the Lake was to be stocked with fish the next day, John and his friend told the lady to be on the Rim the next morning and she would be able to watch the men carry bluing in buckets down the Lake Trail. Several weeks later the two rangers were called in front of the superintendent to explain a letter of complaint that had been received in the Washington offices. The lady was worried that the Park was destroying the Lake by artificially bluing the water.
Summer 1929 [Editor: The following is a excerpt from Kenny Moore’s work in progress on the life of Bill Bowerman, Cofounder of Nike, who worked at Crater Lake in 1929. Bill Bowerman would become one of the richest men in America.]
“The (Medford) football team went up to work on road crews at Crater Lake National Park,” Barbara said, “and a ranger asked, ‘Anybody know trees?’ Bill didn’t really, but he raised his hand and that summer he cruised the park timber and marked beetle-infested trees to be cut.” Crater Lake stuns everyone into cowed spirituality. If the ancient Greeks had passed here, it would have been an oracle. When you come over that granite rim and the huge maw opens before you, six miles of hypnotic sapphire, you fight the urge to leap and plummet. You are astounded to be there at all, only 7000 years after its ex- plosive genesis; The crater’s cliffs plunge 1000 feet to the surface, another 2,000 to the bottom. Even when you hike the mile and a quarter down to the edge and gaze into those waters, it’s not a lake for fishing. It’s a lake that lays bare how uncaring mountains are. It is a cobalt glimpse into the abyss. A drink from Crater Lake is cold and clear, tasteless in its purity, and makes you feel you’re participating in a sacrament, drinking in remembrance of the fire and violence of creation. And as you drink, you realize it is a huge blue eye, and as you peer into its depths, the depths stare blankly, indifferently back.
Summer 1929 $17,500 spent treating 23,544 beetle-infested trees, covering 6,055 acres.
Summer 1929 The building of a new East Entrance Road from Dolber on the California Highway Hwy 97), is begun.
Summer 1929 The temporary Goodbye Bridge is replaced with a heavy peeled Hemlock log bridge measuring 240 feet long and 74 feet high.
1929 – 1937 Chris Schiffer – N.P.S. rock foreman supervises most of stone work construction at Rim Village.
September 1929 A new administration building is authorized for the Rim. Will be built out of native stone and logs.
Was never built.
November 3 1929 Rangers stop a car whose occupants had been passing forged checks.
November 1929 Lodge boat sinks while being towed.
Season 1929 Visitation: 127,146 visitors. (Internet says: 128,435)
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