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1930
January 22 1930 Death of Steven Mather, first director of the National Park Service.
January 14 1930 Sno Go snowplow. Price of $12,000. ($160,000 in 2013 prices)
No. 58
F58, 15057, 1-14-30 (ship date)
- C. Solinsky, Supt.
Crater Lake National Park, Medford, OR
2-1-55 – same location
January 31 1930 Man from Illinois applies for a job as the Captain of the Phantom Ship.
February 17 1930 Chief Ranger Godfrey reports that last Friday night was so cold the surface of the Lake froze over with ice, a rare occurrence and the snow throughout the Park froze into a solid ice mass. “This is the third time in the past 10 years that the lake has frozen.” A morning breeze the next day started the water to moving and broke up the thin ice.
March 18 1930 From the Medford Mail Tribune: Army Birdmen, Captain A.W. Steven of the army air service and Col. John D. Coghill spend six hours above Crater Lake attempting to take photos of Mt. Rainier, over 300 miles to the north. By flying at 20,000 feet the two airmen hope to set a new long distance record for photography. The officers were forced to use oxygen to suppliement the rarified air as they hovered above the lake waiting for intermittent clouds to clear way. Col. Coghill piloted the plane.
Spring 1930 Paul Wright is once again at the Park with a new and improved snowplow, after his earlier attempts in 1927. This time he is competing against two other designs. On hand to witness the snow blowing trails are: park service’s chief engineer – F.A. Kittredge; Crater Lake’s Superintendent – Elbert Solinsky; and representatives from Mt. Rainier and Yosemite. The Snow Go was chosen over the Wright machine and the other contender. Wright filed for bankruptcy in 1934 having failed to sell his snowblowing machine.
November 3 1930 Golf Balls Land in Crater Water (Medford Mail Tribune)
Vern Shangle, Medford’s golf minded photographer, claims the honor of driving the first golf balls into Crater Lake. He did his golf ball driving from the point where the Sinnott Memorial is located. The first ball failed to make the distance, but the next five landed in the lake, approximately 100 yards out. Gordon Warner and “Red” Day acted as timekeepers and reported it took the balls from 17 to 20 seconds to reach the water.
Quite a crowd of local people and government employees assembled at the Rim to watch the feat.
Winter 1930 Emil Nordeen comes within 34 seconds of winning the Ft. Klamath to Crater Lake ski cup.
Winter 1930 Ranger Rudy Luech, 25, claims to be the first person to ski around Crater Lake in one day. (See: April, 1985)
April 11 1930 Former Lodge operator and owner, Parkhurst, dies in Portland.
May 24 1930 The earliest a car has ever reached the Rim of Crater Lake, due to the work of a new snowplow.
By Ron Brown? ?November 13, 2009? ?MEDFORD, Ore. Medford Resident Paul Wright was familiar with the problems of snow removal. ? ?As a mechanic at Crater Lake National Park in the 1920’s, he saw firsthand the annual battle to blast and shovel ice and snow several feet deep each year to clear Rim Road for summer tourists. In the mid-twenties he put his knowledge and mechanical skills together to design and build a plow that could chew through the mountains of ice and snow blocking Cascade highways. In July 1926 Wright obtained a patent and began rounding up the $2,000 to build a prototype. Several prominent Medford businessmen signed on and bought stock. For their investment they were given half interest. Wright contracted with Willamette Iron and Steel in Portland to build the first model. With its unique counter rotating drums to chew through the ice and snow it made its debut near Union Creek on May 10th, 1927. “It had tough manganese-steel blades on counter-rotating drums that would tear into the ice and break up the hard compact ice that you have up around the mountains here and at Crater Lake,” Former Southern Oregon Historic Society Archivist Bill Alley said in an interview in December of 2000.
National Park Service officials were impressed with the demonstration and ordered it be used that summer to clear the record snow still blocking access to the park. It took the park’s five-ton bulldozer to shove the Wright Plow through the snow pack. Despite several delays the road was cleared in time for a July 1st opening. ? ?”The Park Service bulldozer wasn’t really powerful enough for the machine to work properly. And those were the little obstacles he was unable to overcome. And it just never became a commercial success,” Alley said. ? While the Wright Plow was a good idea, advancing technology and the Great Depression probably kept investors from finding a manufacturer willing to produce the machine. Wright filed for bankruptcy in 1934, and no other Wright Plows were ever built. ? ?The Wright Plow may not have lived up to its expectations, but the tinkering of another Southern Oregon inventor did achieve financial success and has become a legend worldwide. ? ?Emmett Tucker always had a knack for the mechanical. Born on Jumpoff Joe Creek in Josephine County in 1892 and raised near Trail he was very familiar with having to walk through deep snow. As a young man he tried to figure an easier way to get through winter snows. Finally, in the 1930s he designed and built the Tucker Sno-Sled. It was powered by a twin cylinder Indian Motorcycle engine. In the early 40s he started making snow vehicles in California. But he longed for the hills of Southern Oregon, and after the war moved the company to Medford where it still makes what is arguably the best-known tracked snow vehicle in the world. ? ?”My grandfather wanted to build a quality machine. He wanted to be sure whoever was out in that machine went out and came back. And being in the snow business, it’s very hazardous out there,” said Emmett Tucker’s Granddaughter Marilee Sullivan in an interview from September of 2000. ? ?Tucker really made its name with the 1957 Trans-Antarctica expedition. The 2,000-mile trip tested the strength and durability of the machines from Medford, and ensured the Sno-Cat’s reputation for innovation and reliability. The first Sno-Cats were gas powered, but now most are diesel engined and built to order from the company’s plant on South Pacific Highway in Medford.
According to the company’s website, the newest Tucker Sno-Cat is the Tucker-Terra model. It has four all-rubber tracks that can be run on the snow, pavement or dirt and can be used for everything from snow grooming to airport runway snow removal.
June 1930 Dr. Wiggam, of Stanford University and Professor Poutney of Humboldt College sights a large timber wolf walking leisurely along the edge of a median above Headquarter, carrying a marmot it his mouth.
“From time to time reports having come to us of wolves being seen in various parts of the park. Owing to the vagueness of the descriptions of the animals seen, and the uncertainty of the authenticity of their source, little credence has been placed in these rumors.
About the middle of June, a report of a wolf came to us which could not be doubted. Dr. Wiggam, Curator of the Dudely Herbarium at Stanford University and Professor Poultney, head of the Science Department at the Humboldt State Teacher’s College were closing field work in a meadow just above Park Headquarters, when a large timber wolf walked leisurely along the edge of the meadow carrying a marmot in his mouth, and owing to their scientific training and experience, no doubt can be entertained but that the animal seen was really a wolf. This may be regarded as the first authentic record of a wolf being seen in the park since the Educational Division began operation here in the season of 1928.”
June 1930 Weather station relocated from Rim Village to Park Headquarters with an elevation of 6,475 feet. Here records have been fairly continuous with only brief periods of missing observations, except during W.W. II when most of the Park’s activities were suspended.
June 1930 President Hoover announces plans to visit Crater Lake and other Western Parks. Date of visit, if it indeed happened, has not been determined.
In Hall Elliott Wert’s 2005 book, “Portrait of the Private Man and His Life Outdoors”, there is mention of Herbert “Bert” Hoover visiting Crater Lake during August 1926. Hoover was Commerce Secretary at the time in the Coolege Administration and was spending two weeks fishing the wilds of his boyhood Oregon. Working his way south along the Cascades to Diamond Lake, Hoover and his wife, Lou, were joined by Herbert jr. for several days of successful fishing in the newly stocked Cascadian lake.
“Leaving the McKenzie, the fishermen traveled up through the Cascade Mountain to Diamond Lake – a tranquil alpine setting. There the Hoovers were joined by their son Huber, and all fished for larger rainbow trout. Many big trout in the lake were the result of a stocking program begun in 1910, the kind of program Hoover ardently supported. That evening, the little party of fishermen drove the short distance south to Crater Lake Lodge, one of the West’s magnificent hostelries. Fishing in the was not considered good, as the trout were quite small. However it was a wonderful place to relax, dine, and take leisurely strolls-to soak up the natural beauty. Leaving early in the next morning, the fishing party drove to Grants Pass. Obviously Hoover did not take much time for leaisurely strolls along the Crater’s Rim.
Hoover once stated: “Fishing is when democracy comes in for the final test. All men are equal before fish.”
June 12 1930 Fire crew responds to minor building fire.
Old Lake Trail (The Sparrow Trail) located behind the Lodge is closed.
July 1930 Sales of the Crater Lake ash trays are growing in volume. The receptacles are made of the famous Lake’s pumice and are embossed and present a very desirable souvenir of Oregon’s marvel. It is reported that tourists, seeing the ash trays on display at the Chamber of Commerce building in Medford, often draw up to the curb and make a purchase.
July 1930 Thirty men are hired to work on insect infested trees.
July 29 1930 Former Superintendent and Mrs. Arant of Ashland, visit Crater Lake for the first time since Mr. Arant’s violent firing in 1913.
July 29 1930 The Park’s post office is established in the Lodge.
July 30 1930 10,000 lodgepole pines are treated for pine beetle kill. New axe record set. Two woodsmen, Bob Mayhue and Bill Montgomery fall 139 lodgepole pines in less than 7 hours
August 15 1930 Celebration held honoring the 45th anniversary of W.G. Steel’s first visit to Crater Lake. Steel said, “I have accomplished that which I set out to do, and now I am very happy.”
August 24 1930 Beaumont DeLosh dies of a heart attack while climbing up the Lake Trail.
August 1930 The Park Superintendent and staff conduct extensive survey around the Rim looking for sites to be considered for possible erections of observation stations.
August 1930 Congress to appropriate $1,000 to purchase the Steel Scrapbooks consisting of nine volumes. Steel’s Scrapbooks and hobby of collecting place names now contain 57,800 names and weighs 600 pounds. Steel spends one hour each day working on his trivia collections.
Large numbers of California Tortoise Shell Butterflies noted in the Park, especially on the East side.
3,000 Rainbow Trout and 7,500 Silver Salmon liberated in the Lake.
Six major fires burn 30 acres.
September 7 1930 William Steel’s 76th birthday. “Blundering through this wilderness of sin and corruption, tasting of its wickedness, forgetting my duty to God and man, striving to catch bubbles of pleasure and the praise of men, guilty of many transgressions, I now look back on this my 76th birthday, and my heart bounds with joy and gladness, for I realize that I have been the cause of opening up this wonderful lake for the pleasure of mankind, millions of whom will come and enjoy it and unborn generations will profit by its glories. Money knows no charm like this and I am the favored one. Why should I not be happy?” William Gladstone Steel
October 13 1930 Slight earthquake felt.
November 17 1930 Chief Ranger William Godfrey dies near Pole Bridge Creek after attempting to travel by foot from the South Entrance to Annie Spring, in a snowstorm, after his car became mired in a snow drift. He left a wife and three children. A search party found him alive, but he died soon after his rescue. “Garden of the Gods” was changed to “Godfrey Glen”.
The following oral story was told to the authors by former CLNP ranger, Rudolph Luech, 88, May 16, 1992. Thirty inches of snow had fallen during the month, trapping a number of winter visitors and knocking down the phone lines into the Park. Chief Ranger Godfrey, in an effort to find out how everyone was doing, drove from K. Falls to the West Entrance, but found the road blocked by snow. The Chief then drove back around to the South Entrance and spent the night in his car. Early in the morning of the 17th Mr. Godfrey called the phone operator at Ft. Klamath from a nearby phone informing her of his decision to ski into the Park in hopes of meeting a snowplow. Meanwhile Ranger Luech, after learning that most of the trapped visitors were from Medford, directed the snow plow to open the West Road. Upon returning to the Annie Springs Checking Station, Luech checks the phone and finds the lines repaired. The Ft. K operator informs Rudy that the Chief was in the process of skiing into the Park. Since Godfrey hadn’t arrived a search party was organized. The group, led by Rudy, found Godfrey around 11 p.m. The Chief only lasted a few minutes before dying in Luech’s arms, probably of hypothermia.
Godfrey’s death was certainly a blow to all who knew him. Coming so unexpectedly as it did, I was particularly shocked. He was a dandy fellow and a prince to work with. His habit of hiking off alone on any and all wild goose chases finally got him. He did the same thing when we were in the Park together in 1929. Always out alone with a mightily poor constitution to carry him thru. Both he, Patton, and several others caved-in the day we moved into the Park from the west entrance. Without knowledge of snow and the individual’s possibilities in bucking it, it is a real danger. Solinsky and I made the same kind of trip that Bill attempted, leaving Ft. Klamath at 7:30PM we arrived at Anna Spring at 1:30AM. I never attempted it again. (No author noted on article.)
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The following newspaper account of William Godfrey’s misadventure and death was found in the Crater Lake headquarters files.
BILL GODFREY
The death of William C. Godfrey, chief ranger of the Crater Lake Park service, in a blizzard near Anna Springs last night, has cast a cloud of gloom over the entire community.
“Bill” was a veteran of the park service, having held a responsible position at Yosemite before coming here. Before that time he had been a member of the U.S. Forest Service.
He was a man of fine character, well read, high minded and determined. When he set out to do a thing, he took a genuine pride in doing it. It was this quality so characteristic of the service to which he belonged which was responsible for his death.
Bill felt that he should be at Anna Spring camp. He tried to get through from Medford, but had to turn back. So he tried it from the south entrance, via Fort Klamath and, in spite of the unfavorable weather, he was determined not to turn back again.
It is easy to say Bill was foolhardy, that he overestimated his own strength and underestimated the strength of the elements. But such a judgment fails to take into account the code of the service to which he belonged, and the dominant elements of his character.
It is essentially the same code, and the same character, that led our forefathers on the successful conquest across the wilderness and our dough boys across the Hindenburg line. Bill Godfrey’s tragedy is merely another example of the fact that there are heroes of peace as well as of war. The rewards for the latter far exceed the rewards of the former, but the qualities of courage and self sacrifice, behind them, are fundamentally the same.
The article goes on to say that Godfrey was 41 years old and had been chief ranger of Crater Lake National Park since April 1929. Previously he was assigned to Yosemite National Park for 2 years and before those 6 years in the Forest Service, including service with the Fremont National Forest in Lakeview, Oregon.
For some reason, known only to himself, Godfrey tried on foot to buck his way through deep snow to Anna Springs with only light clothing and no gloves and against the advice of people with whom he had talked just hours before by telephone at Fort Klamath. He collapsed just 2 miles short of Anna Springs and was found dying from exposure at 9 p.m. by a rescuer, Rudy Luecke. He lived for only several minutes after being found and tried vainly to say something to his rescuer. Significantly, the search party was all using skis so Godfrey’s chances in the deep snow on foot were hopeless. (No source given)
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Rudolph F. Lueck, Box 333, Springfield, Utah 84767 July 5, 1986
Dear Superintendent Robert Benton, 28, last, my wife and I visited your Park, and although we did not meet you we did meet Chief Ranger Phillips, and we had a most enjoyable few hours with him.
We picked up a flyer issued by the Nat. Hist. Assoc. I was happily surprised to find, on page 8, a picture that I had taken over 50 years ago.
I had the pleasure of knowing William Gladstone Steel for many years during the time that I spent at Crater. In later years we also knew his daughter who followed him as United States Commissioner at the Park. There have been many changes made in the area, some good, some bad. I do know which one wins.
It may be of interest to you to know that I was the person that found Chief Ranger William C. Godfrey, after his vain attempt to get to the Park. He died in my arms, in the snow, some distance below Annie Springs, on the 30th of November, 1930.
Thank you for the favor of sending the Nature Notes, if you can
Sincerely yours, Rudolph F. Lueck
Additional details on the death of Chief Ranger William Godfrey
Crater Lake Chronicles
<NOVAKD42@aol.com>
Sun, 1 Jul 2007
twinhiker@gmail.com
Hi Larry,
I just spent time reading your chronicles of Crater Lake National Park. The account of the death of William Godfrey in Nov. 1930, is a familiar one to me. My mother, Gladys Darling Brewer, was the telephone operator on duty at the Ft. Klamath Telephone Office at the time Godfrey was on his way to headquarters. He called from somewhere along the route to tell anyone at headquarters that he was on his way and if he didn’t reach there at a certain time, they were to send out a search party. My mother kept calling the Crater Lake office, the calls were answered by a caretaker who was hard-of-hearing, and he kept saying to call back later because he couldn’t hear the message.
As a consequence, by the time the rescuers were sent, they were too late.
My mother was also the first telephone operator at the Crater Lake Offices at Headquarters and worked there several years. If you can find the exact years she worked there, I would love to be able to write down those dates. (Thanks in advance!!!)
I was first linked to your site because “Google” listed it as a source of information of the death of Larry Peyton & Beverly Allen who met at Crater Lake during the summer of 1960 and were later killed in Portland, OR, in Nov. 1960. Larry was the son of Ralph & Katherine Peyton who were in the concessionaire partnership at Crater Lake with Jim & Janet Griffin. During that summer, Larry worked on the boat crew and Beverly worked at the gift counter in the Cafeteria Bldg.
I worked as a seasonal employee from the summer of 1959 through the summer of 1962, first for Harry Smith, et al, then for the Peytons & Griffins.
My family ranch (and where I grew up) is along Highway 62 about 2 miles from the south entrance to Crater Lake National Park. So I remember and was interested to read the account of the murders that took place just beyond the South Entrance in the summer of 1952. I have always been curious about the solving of that crime.
Thanks for the interesting reading,
Darla Brewer Novak
Chico, California
Performance poet, master gardener, mountain man, astral traveler, loving husband, father and grandfather, beloved friend of many, William Clair “Smokey” Godfrey, Jr. passed away June 6, 2012.
William was born March 27, 1931, in Pasadena, California, to Elizabeth Hopf Godfrey. A few months before he was born, he moved with his mother to California from Oregon after the tragic death of his father, William Clair Godfrey Sr., head park ranger at Crater Lake National Park.
He spent his childhood living in Yosemite National Park, where, among other things, he served as an assistant to Ansel Adams.
William married Esther Harrop in 1965 in New Milford, Connecticut, and soon afterwards moved back to California, to the idyllic Carmel-By-The-Sea, where he worked as a tree surgeon and they raised their four beautiful children. After his wife’s passing in 1984, he moved with his two youngest children to Fairfield, where he has delighted many with his glorious gardens which he has created across the town,and inspired audiences with his fanciful stories and poems, which have been published in Lyrical Iowa and most recently in Freddy Fonseca’s compilation of local poetry, “This Enduring Gift.”
He is survived by his four children: Amanda Thiele of Houston, Texas, Ben Godfrey of Sonoma, California, Suzanna Mullenneaux of Fairfield, and Alex Godfrey of Santa Rosa, California, and his five grandchildren.
Season 1930 Crater Lake Lodge Company loses $2,000 for the year. $10,000 spent on Sinnott Overlook, completing its construction for a total budget of $32,500.
Early 1930’s William Steel spends most of his time during the summers, sitting and visiting with staff and visitors in the Headquarters area. His wife was a small, devoted, and sweet mannered lady. The Steels most likely spent their last year or so in one of the lower stone houses. Judge Steel was highly revered and honored by the Park staff. Of the uniformed staff – Steel was the only one to wear long pants; the rest of the staff wore breeches and riding boots.
Season 1930 Visitation: 157,693
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