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1961
March 30 1961 W. Ward Yeager enters on duty as Park Superintendent.
June 28 1961 Work begins on the rebuilding of the road from Annie Springs to Rim Village. Completion is set for the fall. (The project ends up taking four years.) The contract sets the expenditure at $433,205. The new Mission 66 program in the Park calls for $5,966,199 to be spent on construction projects by 1972. $4,492,140 will be spent on buildings and utilities, with $2,474,093 to be used building roads and trails.
July 1 1961 Long-time seasonal, Larry Smith, of Phoenix, Oregon, begins work as a seasonal maintenance laborer, transferring to the Ranger Division and Law Enforcement in 1964. He spends 23 summers at Crater Lake
July 9 1961 The Medford Mail Tribune, reports that erosion causes Bear Rock, a teddy-bear shaped landmark near Discovery Point, to fall into Crater Lake.
August 1961 National Geographic writer and photographer, Walter Edwards, spends several days in the Park researching and photographing for an article.
From former chief of interpretation BruceBlack: brucesitka<brucesitka@aol.com>
Date: November 14, 2010
Subject: park boat
In August of 1961, National Geographic photographer, Walter Edwards, visited CLNP, along with his wife Mary, to photograph the park and produce an article.
His nickname was Toppy. He and his wife invited our family to join them in the Lodge for dinner one evening and I said that our family was going to camp on Wizard one night. (Mary loved the kids). Next day, I mentioned this to the superintent, Ward Yeager. He suggested that we use the old NPS boat, which we were happy to do. (That was the beginning of a long friendship with Toppy.)
The article was published in the July 1962 issue. Ed. Note: There is a great photo in the article of the Black family in the old Ranger boat floating around the Phantom Ship.
August 14 1961 The Oregon Journal reports that the Park Service has programmed $350,000 to purchase and remodel the Lodge into a Visitors’ Center. “The improvements will not be completed until 1963.”
August 16 1961 Park Rangers aid in the investigation of a fatal auto accident on Highway 230. (Now Hwy 138)
August 26 1961 The pilot of a Navy Crusader jet parachutes in the Lake and is rescued from his small inflatable boat by Ranger Glen Kaye. The jet, after completing a short circle of the Rim, goes into a gentle downward glide and destroys itself near Timber Crater. The exploding jet starts a forest fire. The Lake had been covered over by a heavy overcast, when, suddenly looking skyward, the members of Ranger Kaye’s boat tour group witnessed the parachuting pilot burst through the clouds. Being a Navy plane, the pilot was well equipped for water landings. The pilot’s wing buddy, buzzed the Lake, shortly afterward, making sure that the rescue had been successful. The two Crusaders had taken off minutes before from Kingsley Field in Klamath Falls, when one of the jet’s fuel lines shook lose, spilling fuel and causing the flame out.
Fighter Jet Pilot Ejects, Lands in Crater Lake Friday February 8, 2008
By Kernan Turner
Welcome to As It Was: Tales from the State of Jefferson
On Aug. 26, 1961, Navy pilot Bill Boardman dropped into Oregon’s Crater Lake, unannounced – and by luck.
He had been flying an F-8 fighter from Miramar Naval Air Station near San Diego to Whidbey Island, Wash., when the plane’s fuel leaked out a wheel well. Boardman told a reporter that when the gauge went to zero and the engine quit, he ejected from the aircraft over a dense forest. When his parachute opened, he spotted Crater Lake below him. Boardman had never heard of Crater Lake before that moment, but he got to know it very well. He splashed into the water, inflated an emergency raft and climbed aboard. Three park employees who witnessed everything jumped into a boat with Ranger Lynn Williamson and rescued Boardman.
The pilot told the Klamath Falls, Oregon, Herald and News in 2002 that he had a lot of fun over the years telling his story to incredulous listeners. To put it in his words, “The odds of it are just so outlandish. I tell some people and they think I’m lying. Ironically, Boardman, who ejected from two other jet fighters, sold aviation insurance after he left the Navy.
Today’s episode of As It Was was written by Kernan Turner, the program producer is Raymond Scully. I’m Shirley Patton. As It Was is a co-production of JPR and the Southern Oregon Historical Society. To share stories or learn more about the series, visit asitwas – dot.org.
Navy pilot drops in to Crater Lake, again
Herald and News Klamath Falls, Oregon August 27, 2002 By LEE JUILLERAT
Navy pilot back at Crater Lake 41 years after ejecting into its waters.
CRATER LAKE — Forty-one years after literally dropping into Crater Lake, Bill Boardman dropped by for Monday’s Crater Lake National Park first-ever alumni reunion.
Boardman’s only previous park visit was Aug. 26, 1961, when he parachuted into the lake from his F-8 Crusader fighter jet shortly before it crashed and burned at nearby Timber Crater.
“It’s kind of chilling to see the lake. And to think that I actually did it, is hard to comprehend,” said Boardman of his unique lake entry. “It’s kind of spooky.” Boardman, then a 25-year-old Navy pilot, and Dave Best, in another F-8, were flying from Miramar Naval Air Station near San Diego to Whidbey Island, Wash.
“We were steaming up the coast having a grand time,” recalls Boardman. “We were looking forward to Saturday night in Whidbey Island.”
He remembers routinely checking his fuel gauge during the flight. But the routine evaporated when Boardman noticed the gauge suddenly indicated he was rapidly losing fuel.
“This is not good,” he remembers worrying.
Boardman radioed Best, and turned to head back toward Kingsley Air Force Base at Klamath Falls. Best, who flew alongside, reported that fuel was streaming out of Boardman’s wheel well. Because of a thin overcast, the planes dropped from an elevation of 35,000 feet above sea level to 20,000 feet.
“The gauge went to zero and the engine quit,” Boardman remembers. “I said, ‘Well, where am I going to eject? I look around and all I can see are trees. I thought I was over dense forest. Getting out of an airplane is always a big surprise.”
Boardman remembers ejecting, wondering where he would land and, suddenly, seeing the massive bowl of Crater Lake below him.
“I had never seen the lake, heard of the lake. It was a frightful sight. I thought, ‘How am I going to get out of this sucker?’ Those are steep sides. I had a pretty good ride down, and time to assess the situation.
“So I go into the water, pretty close to right here,” said Boardman, pointing to an area between Rim Village and Wizard island. “I dropped to the surface, popped my vest, inflated the raft, and hopped into the raft.”
Boardman’s descent into Crater Lake wasn’t unseen. Greg Hartell of Klamath Falls, then 20 and working his third year as a park seasonal, and two others were working at the newly opened Cleetwood Cove boat-launch center.
“We were down at the lake because of a storm that had broken part of the dock’s loose,” remembers Hartell.
“We saw his partner flying toward Cleetwood Cove and at the same time saw the parachute. We thought it was an unoccupied plane,” remembers Hartell, who feared it was out of control and about to crash. “We hesitated because we didn’t know which way to run.”
When the plane banked skyward, Hartell realized the pilot had been trying to gain their attention. He and the others jumped in a boat and began motoring.
“We took a bearing on the canopy and headed out there,” said Hartell.
A permanent park ranger, Lynn Williamson, joined them.
After landing and climbing into the raft, Boardman was comfortable and, considering the situation, confident. Best flew his jet into the caldera — Boardman guesses he was only 12 feet above the water — to check on his friend.
“He waved at me and he wagged his wings and flew out of there. He takes off. I figure, well I’ll sit here for awhile. I figured they’d send a helicopter. Instead of a helicopter, here comes the Park Service in their little boat,” remembers Boardman, adding with a chuckle, “They pulled up and somebody said, ‘Can we help you?’ ”
Boardman figures he was in the lake 15 or 20 minutes, which Hartell believes is correct. But Hartell thinks Boardman was about three-quarters of the way between Cleetwood Cove and Wizard Island.
Boardman said he regarded the emergency evacuation from his plane, his jump and time in the lake as “pretty matter of fact.” He had earlier ejected from another disabled jet. He landed uninjured in a Southern California field, “and there was a doctor standing there.”
Neither Boardman nor Hartell remembers much about the boat ride back to Cleetwood.
“I was running the launch so I don’t recall much,” said Hartell.
What Hartell remembers is Williamson insisting that Boardman’s gear was government property, so he refused to allow Boardman to give it to Hartell and the other seasonals. But on the hike up the 1.1 mile long trail, which gains 700 vertical feet, Williamson changed his mind, and gave away the gear to some thrilled kids.
Hartell was frustrated again a few days later when lodge employees took the launch and located Boardman’s helmet — “And there we were, beat out again.”
“I dropped my helmet because one of the dangers of parachuting into water is trying to gauge your distance, of depth perception,” explained Boardman. “You don’t want to unhook from your parachute too soon.”
Although confident because of his training, he admits the parachute drop was unnerving.
“You’re going into this big hole in the ground with water — yeh, it gave me concerns.”
After the hike up to the rim, Boardman was driven by Williamson until they met up with Oregon State Police, who drove him to Kingsley.
“Of course,” remembers Hartell of news reports that featured Williamson, “he got all the press.”
“And I got drunk at the officer’s club,” quipped Boardman.
His sleep was interrupted early the next morning by a telephone call. News reports of his crash and rescue had carried back to his family in Ohio, and his worried father was on the line.
Investigators went to the crash site and determined a cracked fuel line caused the accident.
Boardman, who was not injured, soon returned to flying. And six weeks later had to bail from another jet after its wing came off.
“There was no Crater Lake, only the desert, and I got out of that just fine.”
Boardman spent five years in the Navy, plus eight in the reserves. He was recalled to active duty in 1968 during the Pueblo incident. Best, the pilot who flew alongside Boardman 41 years ago, was also recalled, but was killed in a flying accident.
After three ejections, Boardman eventually, and ironically, made a career selling aviation insurance. Age 66, he’s now retired and living in Seattle.
“I’ve had a lot of fun with the story over my life,” said Boardman of his one-of-a-kind Crater Lake tale. “The odds of it are just so outlandish. I tell some people and they think I’m lying.”
He decided to attend Monday’s reunion, which drew more than 400 former park employees and friends, after meeting a former park ranger who put him in contact with park historian Steve Mark, Hartell’s son-in-law. Boardman and Hartell exchanged letters, and agreed to meet at the reunion.
“I’d not been to Crater Lake until today,” said Boardman. “The funniest part of the story is one of the first people I met when I go into the lake 41 years ago is Greg. And today when I’m standing in line one of the first people I meet is Greg.”
Just like many others at Monday’s reunion, Boardman and Hartell had lots to talk about.
Summer 1961 Rock falls from cliff near Discovery Point, completely destroying a travel trailer being towed by two lady schoolteachers. The Chief Ranger rules that the accident was an “Act of God”, which absolved the Park of any financial responsibility. (Story from the author.)
Summer 1961 In order to stabilize the fisher population in Southern Oregon and at Crater Lake, resource managers introduced East Coast fishers in the region. The fisher (Martes pennanti) is a small carnivorous mammal native to North America. It is a member of the mustelid family, commonly referred to as the weasel family. The fisher is closely related to but larger than the American Marten (Martes americana). The fisher is a forest-dwelling creature whose range covers much of the boreal forest in Canada to the northern fringes of the United States.
Summer 1961 Litter Patrol pick-up destroyed by fire when the driver allows the rear wheels of the truck to drop into the fire pit of the Park’s garbage dump. (Ruins witnessed by the author.)
Summer 1961 Future Crater Lake Superintendent, Al Hendricks, visits the park and takes a boat trip. Young Hendricks was “particularly impressed with the clarity of the water”. (See: January 31, 1995)
Summer 1961 Chief Naturalist Dick Brown and Medford resident Gene Parker discover a grove of Pacific Silver fir in the northwest corner of the Park. Four of the firs grow within the boundary of the Park.
Summer 1961 and 1962. Susanne Twight, being the Park’s only female Interpreter Ranger, receives extra attention as visitors wonder if she is an airline stewardess. (The Army-type of cap did not help the image.) Frequently Susanne was asked, “What are you?” These types of questions left Susanne “feeling rather like a new species of insect which had just undergone examination and classification.”
From: Susanne Twight-Alexander <ouzel@teleport.com>
To: robmutch@yahoo.com
Sent: Monday, December 11, 2006
Subject: Crater Lake
Bruce Black has been forwarding your interviews and I’m really enjoying reading about what other people remember. I was a seasonal ranger/naturalist in 1961 and 1962. This probably isn’t crucial and I’m sure you don’t change people’s interviews but it was Walter Edwards from the National Geographic who took all those pictures. Several of us (seasonals) went with him on some of his photography trips. I kept in touch with Walter and his wife, Mary, for a number of years via Christmas cards after they left. She called him “Toppy”. Mary was a vegetarian and since they were at CL for about six weeks (I think) she said she could tell you exactly which vegetables they had each weeknight. Of course that was long before vegetarians held a rightful place at the dining table! They lived in Bethesda, Maryland. The Geographic article was published July 1962 and most of us felt that far more space should have been given to his excellent photos and fewer of people.
Susanne (Susy) Twight-Alexander
Well, here’s a start. I was born in Healdsburg, California and a year later my father went to work for California State Parks so I was raised in parks in northern California. Carpentaria (sp?) was the furthest south I believe. Burney Falls, Van Damme Beach, Calaveras (sp?) and Castle Crags (we lived at the Crags for 10 years, the longest time in one place). I graduated from Dunsmuir High School. Went to Shasta College one year, Humboldt State one year and graduated from UC Berkeley with a degree in Wildlife Conservation and an English minor. Worked two summers at Prairie Creek State Park during college years. I have 3 brothers, one of whom worked for National Parks for a number of years–Yosemite and Mt. Rainier. (Both of his kids were born in Yosemite and if you Google Mark Twight, his son, you’ll find all sorts of stuff about him and mountain climbing. That same brother taught at Penn State –something like recreation management. Another brother worked for the Forest Service and was later a private forester and still later worked for a lumber company. The 3rd brother, also outdoor oriented, ended up working for the state of Idaho, something to do with bringing businesses to the area I think. )
After graduating in spring of 1961 I started work at Yosemite as a reservations clerk with the Curry Company. Didn’t realize that Ted Arthur and I had a Yosemite choice in common. —-And it was Ted’s oral history that mentioned National Geographic–. I had applied for jobs at a number of national parks as a seasonal naturalist and two weeks after I’d started with the concession at Yosemite I got a job offer from Crater Lake. Decision time. I talked to the naturalist at Yosemite and he said, “What do you really want to do?” So I went home and rode a bus all night to Medford, took the supply truck to Crater Lake and moved into a cabin in Sleepy Hollow in April with about 10 feet of snow still on the ground. You can read about some of this in the August 1963 issue of the National Parks Magazine where I had an article published. I can make a copy for you if you can’t find it. I did quite a bit of studying about the area and also cataloged slides and other spring jobs that needed doing.
They didn’t know quite what to do with women in the service then. I wore a uniform that looked like an airline stewardess uniform, complete with pillbox hat, and wedge shoes and nylons–even when leading nature walks or riding around the lake in the boat giving talks. At the overlook, where it was often very cold, I’d wear long underwear rolled to just above my hem line.
I had a wonderful time there. It was a life-changing experience. I loved my little cabin–one room and a kitchen. Sometimes the maintenance staff would come around in the middle of the night because the electricity had gone off in a snow storm and they’d get me to turn my hot water heater off because they were going on a standby generator. There was a big culvert pipe leading from the road to my cabin, like a tunnel. The 2nd summer I arrived a little later in the spring but was still the first one there.
Barbara and Bruce Black were wonderful to me. They’d ask me over for dinner about once a week until the summer season opened and I moved into the ranger dorm and had more company. I got mononucleosis the 2nd week I was there but no one knew what it was and I was really sick. They took me into their home for a few days and then to Medford to see their doctor (who used to be the doctor at Yosemite and knew my brother). I was in the hospital a couple of days until diagnosed and then sent back to the park.
I was the only girl living in the ranger dorm and was housed in the guest wing but I ate dinner in the mess hall with all the rest of the seasonals. It was like having 30 brothers. On our days off some of us would go visit other national parks or hike locally. I went to Mt. Rainier, Olympic National Park, and Lassen. We’d drive most of the night, put our sleeping bags on the ground and get a little sleep and then start hiking. I remember walking in Becky’s restaurant with 5 or 6 guys and we’d have a steak dinner followed by huckleberry pie. But they dated the girls that worked up at the lodge.
I bought my first car, a Volkswagen Beetle, park service green, and had to borrow money to make the down payment. Once when I was late getting back from Medford, where I got it serviced, another seasonal covered for me at the campfire program until I arrived. Bruce held us all to very high standards and I was grateful for their support.
Campfire programs: we walked around the camp and invited people to the programs and built a bonfire. Then there was always group singing–lots of those old songs with gestures filling in for words. Home on the Range, all the oldie moldies but people really seemed to enjoy it. We traded off. The one who was giving the talk didn’t lead the singing although I do remember one night when the crowd asked me to lead instead of the fellow who was doing it! I was so nervous with my first talk that I finished in 17 minutes instead of half an hour but I got to where I really enjoyed it. I also enjoyed the nature walks because the people on them were excited about learning and it was fun sharing what I knew. Bruce made sure all of us had plant identification drills and we quizzed each other on Crater Lake facts.
When I did the boat trip (I asked to not do it the 2nd summer) often I’d get off and sit on the Old Man of the Lake and the visitors would take pictures–in my skirt and jacket and wedge shoes. During the Centennial we took the boat trip and I told the ranger/naturalist about this. She was a little shocked I think. When we pulled up next to the floating log she told the others in the boat what I used to do. From the back of the boat a man’s voice called, “Let her finish her tour.” I wasn’t about to–it’s changed shape a little, looks a little more rotten and who wants to fall into that cold water.
Once the chief ranger’s daughter–Jenny I think (chief ranger was Buck Evans and he used to be at Yosemite), and I backpacked along the snow covered road to Vidae Falls where there was a place the snow had melted out and we stayed overnight. Two employees saw my car and came hiking up the road with flashlights after dark, thinking I’d gone hiking and had gotten hurt–that gave us a start. Kind of them but they just had to turn around and walk back.
I couldn’t decide whether I wanted to be a full time park employee or whether I might like teaching. So from Crater Lake I went to Trinity County in northern California and taught in a 2-room school, grades
1-4. A few weeks after I started I received an offer from Zion National Park for a permanent job but I’d already taken a different path. Got married, lived in the Bay Area for a year and went to San Jose State and got a teaching credential while my first husband finished up a PhD at Stanford. Back to Trinity County and taught 5 grades in a one-room school. Had my first child. Taught 5th grade. Then decided that full time was not a good idea for me with kids—we had 3. We had a place we lived in the summer and weekends that was a log cabin 4 miles from the nearest neighbor but that’s another story. I served 7 years on the N. Coast Regional Water Quality Control Board, a volunteer position; worked at some part time jobs; got divorced, was elected county supervisor and served one term; met my current husband, who lived in Eugene, and here I am.
Went back to school and got a Masters in Environmental Studies from UO. Served 11 years on the Lane County Parks Advisory Committee; am currently a board member for the Willamette Resources and Educational Network (WREN)–we’re fundraising for a wetlands education center in W. Eugene; worked in development for NW Youth Corps for almost 4 years; worked for the Stewart Aquatic Center (92-degree pool, great for these gray days) for almost 5 years and am now working part time there. I love to hike and to backpack and cross-country ski. This is probably far more than you wanted to know.
People I worked with: Bruce Black, of course. Dave Dame the assistant naturalist. Ward Yeager was superintendant when I was there. Seasonals: Hans Nelson–with U.S. Ecological Survey?–maybe he’s retired by now, Doug Cheeseman (has his own ecological tours—I correspond with him about once a year), John Butler, Denis Bascom, Ed Paine, Ted Arthur. I’ll see if I have any old letters to my parents that might mention others. I know someone named Jim, who was a seasonal ranger, used to go hiking and on trips with us. We didn’t do as much with the married ones because they had families to consider but as single people we could just take off if our days off enabled us to.
September 13 1961 $297,000 is programmed to acquire the Lodge by the NPS. The building is to be converted into a visitor center, with construction starting July, 1963 and with completion by July of 1967. The project never happened.
November 25 1961 E.P. Leavitt, 76, Park Superintendent from 1937 to 1952 dies in Central Point. At this time he had served the longest of any employee within the National Park Service: 46 years.
Season 1961 Visitation: 415,568, a new record
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