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1968
Winter 1967-68 Record low snowfall of 365 inches. Lake level falls .11 inch, the first measurable decrease of the Lake’s level during the winter months.
A new Ranger boat is slid down to the Lake, West of Rim Village. The boat was removed by helicopter in 1972 and sold to Olympic National Park.
March 7 1968 Thomas J. Williams, former Crater Lake NP superintendent, recalls his time at Crater Lake, shortly before his retirement, March 7, 1968. (Rest of article is missing.)
June 15 1968 Two 17 year-old teenage boys from Michigan are stranded on a cliff, 300 feet below Garfield Peak while attempting to climb down to the Lake. Attempts to rescue the boys from above fail because of the danger of knocking loose dangerous rocks. Immediate rescue by helicopter was impossible because of the lack of light, but two sleeping bags are tossed to the two stranded hikers in order to make their night more comfortable on their seven foot long ledge. The two are airlifted off the next morning. The boys refuse to pay the rescue bill of several thousand dollars, but try to cash in on their experience when the wire services send their story out national wide.
From Lloyd Smith – written November 5, 2007 – I was going through some old Crater Lake files and found these clippings. I was involved in the rescue Monday morning. We started at daylight and my job was to keep people away from the chopper as it took off from the parking lot. IT spent the night on the flats below the Lodge. I have slides I took of the operation, but did not get the rescue. I think these shots were taken by that nutty photographer out of Medford. Ken Knackstead. He had glasses as thick as Coke bottles and he was up on Garfield climbing out on crocks in shinny shoes. Everybody was afraid he was going to pitch over the edge as he was trying to get as close as possible. AP or the Oregonian called him and sent him there. The kids spent the night down in the caldera wall so everybody knew there was going to be a helicopter rescue the next day. The helicopter tried to get them that night, but it was too dark by the time they got up to the park. They dropped them sleeping bags and a radio. Then landed for the night.
The pilot was just back from Vietnam and they had not used this helicopter for rescue. They rigged it up but when they got the kids up to the door the strap was too long and they had to leave them hanging outside and fly to the pumice flat below the Lodge. I took photos of it and the Oregonian asked to send them the roll on Greyhound. When they got it I forget to tell them I had rolled b/w film in color canisters and they thought it was color. I world have had a shot in the paper! I was so disappointed.
In a message dated 11/6/2007 12:28:01 P.M. Eastern Standard Time,
I was on that boat with you and Dave Lange.
And I’m the one who first talked Dave into getting a seasonal job with the NPS. We both attended SJS, had many of the same professors, and he heard me talk at San Jose State about the great time I had during my first season at the park when I reported back during the fall semester of 1966. I’ve lost track of him, but last saw him and his wife when we invited them out for dinner in Whitefish, MT outside of Glacier NP in 1998. Our trip to Glacier NP occurred after my first week VIPing for Steve Mark and Marsha McCabe at CRLA. Dave became very good friends with Dan Sholly. Owen Hoffman
From: franksooth@comcast.net [mailto:franksooth@comcast.net]
Sent: Tuesday, November 06, 2007
To: Pkrnger@aol.com
Subject: Re: Rescue June 18, 1968
Hi Owen: I remember this incident of the guys stuck on a ledge. I vaguely recall someone saying later that they had not been “stuck,” but rather wanted to experience the thrill of being rescued, possibly by helicopter. I believe they were heavily fined for rescue costs…several thousand dollars. Both were Minnesota college students. I remember hauling the six or seven-member rescue team and their equipment from Cleetwood Cove to the wall below the ledge in the Whaler, a distance of 2-3 miles perhaps. Jack was running the boat. We were huddled behind, sitting on equipment boxes.
I too worried about sinking as we crossed the lake. Looking at my old Crater Lake data sheets, the lake’s surface temperature on June 14, 1968 was 6.8 degrees C (44 degrees F), certainly quite chilly for a nighttime swim back to Cleetwood. We were fortunate that the wind didn’t pick up and produce some sizeable waves…we would have been swamped…. and sunk. It was getting dark when we returned to Cleetwood with the rescue party, and if my memory serves me well, it was pitch black going up the trail to the rim.
The helicopter dropped food and sleeping bags to the two guys that evening, then rescued them the next morning. As the helicopter was landing near the lodge–with one of the rescued guys suspended in a harness underneath–its twin rotors produced a tornado of dust. People waiting near the helicopter-landing zone scrambled but still got covered with swirling dirt and debris. Quite a sight. Unfortunately, I didn’t have my camera with me. Best regards, Doug Larson
From: Pkrnger@aol.com
To: Lloyd Smith,
If you remember, it was my research boat you refer to. Or, at least the research boat from OSU. It was a Boston whaler. Dr. Jack Donaldson was on the lake that day, with Doug Larson and myself. We had spent the night on the lake sampling for zooplankton, but had attempted to assist this rescue. Our efforts were called off due to the difficulty of terrain in getting materials up to the boys, although Jack wanted to try a solo attempt. I think Larry Hakel made the final decision to not proceed. (Actually it was Chief Ranger Buck Evens.) Owen
From Larry Smith- Written November 2009 – I was working Dispatch at HQ when the call came in about the two stranded boys. I handled the radio traffic through the evening. Rangers tried to reach the boys from the Garfield Trail, but there were two many loose rocks. It was hikers up on the trail that first heard their cries for help. They had become stuck after trying to hike down to the water. So a rescue helicopter was called out of Medford. When it was determined that the helicopter was not going to have enough light to do a safe rescue, Chief Ranger Buck Evans came into my office with four old fire crew sleeping bags. He wanted me to type up two notes saying they were going to be rescued in the morning. And he wanted two bundles made up, with notes inside. Two bundles incase one falls into the lake. I made the bundles and typed up the notes and they were whisked to the Rim. The helicopter flew by the boys’ tiny shelf and tossed the first bundle. The boys missed and the bags rolled down the slope. A second pass was made and the boys caught the bags this time. It was the one with the radio.
From former park ranger David Panebaker: May 2017 – The helicopter was a Kman H-43A SN 58-1856. I believe it was Rosenbalm Aviation in Medford that operated the helicopter. It was later operated by Command Helicopters and it crashed Sept. 3, 1972 in Jacksonville, OR. There was 1 fatality and the helicopter was destroyed. The helicopter was built for rescue and unique design with to rotor blades turning in opposite directions. Now they have the Kamax which I’ve seen on fires. They also have unmanned Kamax helicopters now in the experimental stages. They are heavy lift helicopters and are real quiet.
June 16 1968 Elaine Davenport and Bruce Hanklen of Medford are married in the Community Building at Rim Village.
July 1968 Ranger Nancy Jarrell and a group of Park employees investigate the North Junction Cave. The cave had been uncovered when the North Road was built back in the 20’s. For over 40 years the lava tube cave had been covered over by planks. Nancy crawls and slithers 500 feet into the lava tube. After getting cold and wet, the group turns around. Nancy reports that the cave showed no evidence of ending. The Park’s road crew later plugs the cave’s entrance with a truckload of rock.
From geologist Charlie Bacon – October 17, 2015 – I recall hearing something about this cave long ago. I’d be surprised it was technically a lava tube, given that it must be in Llao Rock rhyodacite. It more likely would be an extensional fracture in the lava, or possibly where the lava flowed over snow or even ice that subsequently melted out. True lava tubes are conduits within solidified lava flows for flowing lava that can become caves when lava drains from them, most commonly in basalt.
From Beth Horn – October 17, 2015 – Thanks for the quick response. Both Kirk and I recall exploring it during the summer of 1965. Nancy’s recall is correct – you had to slither because the entry was very small! I don’t recall anyone calling it a lava tube at the time, but not sure what it was called. When I went in there were several Park naturalists in the group. There were planks covering the entrance.
Crater Lake National Park: Geologic Resources Management Issues Scoping SummaryCaves: There are over 40 caves in the park that have not been inventoried and mapped. One cave was closed by the development of a road. There is a need for research on bats and other fauna. The park should work with the National Speleological Society (NSS) to develop a program of systematic inventory and research of the caves.
July 28 1968 The Douglas County Pelicans conduct the first organized SCUBA dive in Crater Lake. The Club dives to about 100 feet.
August 11 1968 Major thefts from employee rooms in the Lodge. Dorm rooms have no locks. Several rooms were entered. Nine employees suffered losses of money, watches, tools, and personal items totaling over $300.
August 11 1968 Lodge owner, Ralph Peyton, attempts to bring federal FBI charges against two park visitors found taking showers in the employee quarters. The FBI and Rangers Larry Hakel and Larry Smith convinced Mr. Peyton, that since there was no breaking and entering and since Liane Chu and Jeff Bragg of California and Texas had been invited in by a (now former) Lodge employee, there had been no crime committed.
It was learned that Mr. Peyton had quarreled with Mr. Bragg and Miss Chu earlier, calling them communists, and accusing Miss Chu of being a prostitute. They were angry over the accusations. Mr. Peyton said that he has to chase longhairs just like them from the Lodge almost every night.
August 30 1968 The body of murder victim, George S. Mear of Florida, is found by a family camped at Mazama Campground, while out searching for firewood. Mear was apparently beaten and stabbed to death outside of the Park, stuffed into a sleeping bag liner and dumped just off the access road into the Pole Bridge gravel quarry. Mear had just been mustered out of the Army and was spending the summer traveling across the country with hopes of landing a job somewhere by fall. The FBI determined that Mear had been dead for about 3 days and that he had eaten a Chinese dinner prior to his death. His stolen car, minus his camping equipment and camera was found several weeks later on a side street in Fresno, California, with his camera equipment showing up in a pawnshop. No motive has been established and the case has not been solved.
When Billy Baker, the first ranger on the scene radioed that the victim was a male, Dispatcher Larry Smith asked how he knew this. Baker, rather impatiently radioed back, “I can see the hair on his legs” (sticking out of the sleeping bag liner). (Story from the author who was the dispatcher during this incident.)
September 1 1968 Stabbed Body Found in Crater Lake Park – H/N – Unidentified Man Let in Woods By Annie Creek – FBI officials today were continuing investigation of Crater lake National Park murder. The body of an unidentified man was found Friday afternoon in a heavily wooded area of the park; however, authorities said it had not been determined whether the murder actually had been committed in the Park.
The FBI clamped a tight lid on secrecy on many details of the cause; however, this much was evident: The man’s body was found zipped into what appeared to be the lining of a sleeping bag. It was discovered by a camper who Don Spaulding, park superintendent, said the FBI was not identifying.
Klamath County medical examiner’s office definitely established the case as homicide, and said the man had been stabbed in the right back. The blade pierced his lungs and right chest. The victim hemorrhaged but continued to breath for a while before his skull was caved in two locations, FBI reports substantiated that he had been beaten severely about the head. The victim was identified as a white male adult, approximately 20 – 26 years of age, 5 feet five to six inches tall, weighing 140 lbs, of medium build, light complexion, with dark brown hair.
He was clad only in an Army “Eisenhower” jacket, a reddish-colored sports shirt and medium blue pants. He had no under clothes nor shoes. All identification had been stripped. The body had been stuffed head first into the sleeping bag liner and was discovered about 60 to 70 feet off of a side road, some two to three miles southwest of Annie Creek Campground but about 10 miles inside the park boundary.
The victim had been dead at least three days to a week. Fingerprints and a dental chart are being submitted. The bag was described as brown, single size, similar to Army issues. Since Crater Lake National park is federally controlled, the investigation is being handled solely by the FBI.
Summer 1968 As an experiment, the NPS campgrounds at the Everglades and Crater Lake National Parks are turned over, for the first time, to their respective park concessionaires. Following extreme and adverse public reaction and complaints, the two campgrounds are returned to the National Park Service the following year.
Summer 1968 Larry and Lloyd Smith, seasonal rangers, begin compiling an Important Event Log of Crater Lake National Park.
Richard Brown bands 14 Clark’s Nutcrackers.
Summer 1968 The “Paul Herron” lake launch is completed by Portland boat builder, Rudy Wilson on Wizard Island and takes her maiden voyage around the Lake. Work begins on a second lake launch. All materials, including the engines, are flown in by helicopter.
December 27 1968 Several Clark’s Nutcrackers are sighted in Rim Village that had been banded, July 30, 1950. This gives Crater Lake a World’s Record for a Nutcracker of at least 17 years, 4 months and 28 days, with an additional unknown period from hatching to banding. Also sighted were birds with a minimum longevity of 16, years, 9 months, and 17 days (banded July 31, 1952) and 14 years, ten months and 17 days (banded August 1, 1952). The three birds were even more bold and docile than their younger neighbors. Since these birds have had a long history of feeding on visitor handouts of peanuts, potato chips and bread, maybe junk food is good for them after all.
Season 1968 A Phillips and Van Denburgh study finds that the Lake has a volume of 17.3 x 1000000000 cubic meters of water. There is an annual supply of 11.1 x 10000000 cubic meters, with evaporation removing 3.1 x 1000000 (40%) and a seepage loss of 7.9 x 1000000 cubic meters (60%). Seepage annually removes 6.35 x 1000000000 grams of dissolved solids.
Visitation 1968 478,271 visitors (Online says: 578,300)
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