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1962
January 21 1962 Record low temperature of: minus 21 degrees.
February 13 1962 Lodge Concessioners, Peyton and Griffin want to match the money they will receive from the sale of the Lodge and put it toward construction of a new hotel. They are adamant that the new building should have a view of the Lake since they are give up a site with a view.
June 1962 Marion Jack, Science Teacher from Medford, begins his long, seasonal career at Crater Lake. Marion supplies the Park’s horse patrol for two decades. Marion figures there are pictures of him “all over the world.” (see: May 1985 – eventually sets the seasonal ranger record of 24 continous summers.)
June 25 1962 Rescue off Garfield Peak of an injured hiker.
July 1962 Two articles about Crater Lake and its formation, entitled, “Crater Lake Summer”, appear in the National Geographic. Patty Black, daughter of Chief of Interrpretation Bruce Black is featured sitting on the Old Man of the Lake.
August 30 1962 Natural death occurs in Mazama Campground.
Summer 1962 $21,000 is spent on the reconstruction of Sinnott Memorial Overlook. The rustic log construction is replaced with aluminum trim, a rockstrewn roof and rough sawn cedar boards. Typical 1960s design. Out with the old and in with the new.
The Government constructs a new steel pier/weir at Cleetwood Cove. The upper side of the Rim Wall is blasted to obtain fill material, which is quickly washed away during winter storms. The blast site has been unstable ever since. Dick Skivington, NPS foreman. Sealsonal crew: Larry Smith, Greg Hartell, Lloyd Smith, Henry Scott and Grover Jones.
The bulkhead/pier/weir lasted 48 years. Finally rust and rot forced its replacement during the summer of 2011 at a cost of over $900.000.
A two-year project of rebuilding the ten-mile South Entrance road begins as the melting snow retreats.
The Mazama amphitheater is completed. The amphitheater replaced a rather makeshift projector screen near “A” loop surrounded on one side by log sections for seats. Bruce Black, chief of interpration, chose the new amphitheater’s location, at the eastern edge of “D” loop, so the projection building could block late afternoon sun, thereby creating an option of starting ranger programs earlier in the evening. Siting was suggested by a former workmate who had worked for the Disney Corporation. (Steve Mark)
October 12 1962 Sleepy Hollow quarters #42 is extensively damaged as the result of two large Hemlock trees blown down during the Columbus Day wind storm. Many trees were blown down in the Park and across the state. This storm is remembered as one of Oregon’s greatest natural disasters. Thirty-eight people were killed, over 50,000 homes were damaged and many cities were without power for two or three weeks. Wind gust of over 100 miles per hour were recorded. Orchards were uprooted, barns blown down and hundreds of animals killed. The total cost of the destruction was near $200 million. More trees were leveled by the windstorm – 15 times as many – than by the 1980 eruption of Mt. Saint Helens.
The Columbus Day Storm
When it comes to wind storms in Oregon, the Columbus Day storm standsalone. Nothing before nor since has matched the intensity and damageof that storm, although a few have come close. The “storm” wasactually three storms in quick succession. The first formed as a trough off the coast of Oregon on the 11th; it moved northward, and then northwestward, and began to taper off on the 12th. The second(and most destructive) storm formed from the remnants of Typhoon
Freda, which moved northeastward from the Philippines, nearing the west coast early on the 12th. As it neared California, the storm nearly stopped moving, intensified, and began to slowly move northward just off the coast. As it moved, it wreaked havoc from northern California to British Columbia.
It was a monstrous storm, one that cut a swath of disaster from Northern California to British Columbia. When the winds died down, 46 people were dead, some 50,000 homes destroyed and more than $200 million in damage. In Corvallis, the wind was recorded at 127 mph that day.
Season 1962 Visitation: 592,124. A new record because of the Seattle World’s Fair.
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