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1972
March 1972 Government assessment report places the value of all government buildings in the Park at $479,610 in preparation of the sale of the Steel Circle Residence Area to the Crater Lake Lodge Company.
March 5 1972 Miss Jean Steel, daughter of Judge and Mrs. William G. Steel, passes away in Walla Walla, Washington. Miss Steel worked at Crater Lake as Park Commissioner, following her father’s death, before joining the Veterans Administration in Alaska and Washington State.
May 1972 Rangers Bruce Kaye, Paul Crawford, Jim Holcome, and Dave Panebaker become involved in a conflagration with two brothers at Annie Spring Entrance Station. Jim Holcome’s finger is broken. The brothers are charged with assaulting Federal officers and fined $25.00.
May 22 1972 70th Anniversary party celebrating the 1902 establishment of Crater Lake as now the Nation’s 5th oldest National Park.
July 1972 Donald L. Spalding, General Superintendent of the Klamath Falls NPS Cluster Office, transfers to Buffalo National River in Arkansas.
July 1- August 15 1972 Fifteen bears removed from the Park during a study to determine the effects on the bears’ eating habits following the closing of the Park’s garbage dump. One cub suffocates in a garbage can that was being used for a cage. Two of the bears released outside the Park were immediately killed by two hunters.
July 5 1972 Visitor Increase Noted – MT – A 2 per cent increase over last year in travel in Crater Lake National Park was reported today by Supt. Einar Johnson for the first six months of 1972. The total as of June 30 was 129,045 visitors. Heavy holiday travel also was noted by Johnson. The Park Service crews hope to have the Rim Drive open this weekend.
July 9 1972 Two additional 60 passenger, $30,000 (some sources report $45,000) tour boats are added to the ever growing Crater Lake navy. The two boats, the “ Ralph Peyton” and the “Jim Griffin” (Crater Lake Lodge owners) were built during the winter by the Rudy Wilson Boat works of Portland, Oregon and trucked to Discovery Point. The two lake launches were air lifted, minus their engines, from Discovery Point parking lot to Wizard Island by a Sikorsky Sky Crane logging helicopter. The Peyton and Griffin will replace the aging launches “Fisher” and “Minn”. On the return trips, the helicopter brings out the Ranger’s patrol boat, which was sent to Olympic National Park, and an O.S.U. Research Boat. (The Griffin is renamed the “Glen Happel” in 1983 following the sale of Crater Lake Lodge.) Mrs. Kathy Peyton dutifully christened the two launches with two bottles of Champaign moments before the airlift began.
July 8 1972 The old East Entrance is reopened with entrance fees being charged for the first time in 14 years. The Forest Service spends $10,000 and the NPS $1,000 rebuilding the connecting road from the Sun Mountain Highway to the East Park Boundary. Park officials felt that with the new one-way road system now in effect, people would want a closer Eastern entrance or exit instead of being forced to circle the entire Lake.
Summer 1972 Direct dialing telephone system established for calling into the Park.
New $43,000 Sleepy Hollow sewer system constructed to replace the aging and failing 1920’s septic tank system.
The beautiful dark Headquarter’s woodwork is painted white because “it looks old, and is too dark and depressing. Repaint it!”
The Park’s new Master Plan is approved.
The Mazama Sewer Lagoons constructed, along with a new Annie Spring water reservoir and pipelines for the anticipated expansion of Mazama Campground and the construction of a new trailer village. ($227,000)
Reconstruction of the Watchman parking lot and overlook ($84,000). Because of the heavy use of peeler core logs being used around the ancient and badly eroded White Bark Pine grove, the area has since been known as the “Corrals”.
U.S. Commissioner’s office abolished. Frank Van Dyke is retained as Park Magistrate.
Sept. 13, 1914
A kindly Providence saved Mrs. R.F. Van Dyke of Phoenix and her seven-year-old son Frank from death at the dangerous Southern Pacific crossing near the gas plant Friday afternoon when northbound freight No. 228 crashed into a horse and buggy Mrs. Van Dyke was driving. Mrs. Van Dyke lies at Sacred Heart Hospital with a fracture of the skull in a precarious condition, and her son is suffering from a broken thigh and contusions. The buggy was ground to bits and the horse killed. Mrs. Van Dyke was carried a quarter of a mile on the cowcatcher before the engine could be stopped.
The son gives the following version of the accident, according to Dr. Conroy. His mother drove on the track without seeing the approaching train. Workmen employed on the Pacific highway shouted a warning, and this confused Mrs. Van Dyke. An attempt was first made to go ahead and then back up. All the time the workmen were shouting advice. Frank told the doctors they did not know whether to go forward or backward.
The engineer of the freight, when he realized an accident could not be avoided, averted and closed his eyes to shut out the picture. As soon as the heavy train could be stopped, the train crew rushed to the assistance of the injured mother and son. They were brought to this city and rushed to Sacred Heart Hospital, where doctors Conroy and Thayer gave medical aid. One of the bones of the skull was pressed against the brain of Mrs. Van Dyke, and an operation was performed. Unless infection arises, she has a fighting chance for life.
Summer 1972 Construction of the Concession’s employee dorm is begun on the slope below the Lodge.
Summer 1972 The Park Service forces the Lodge to remove their stock of life-size marijuana plants after several are found “growing” along the Cleetwood Cove Trail and out by North Entrance. The plastic replicas were a popular item among Lodge employees.
August 7 1972 Toyota sedan kills a two-year-old female bear on the South Road near Annie Creek Falls.
Shipping now only $4.99 per order, no matter how many you buy. The Lodge Company’s boathouse is destroyed by a disastrous fire on Wizard Island. Rudy Wilson, boat builder, attributes the fire to a “faulty generator”. (When Dispatch Ranger Larry Smith called Rudy to inform him of the Island fire, his exact words were: “That generator.”) A spark from the muffler of the generated, vented through the rear wall fell on a rotten log, smoldering for several hours and finally bursting into flames about 8 p.m. Fire crews were immediately dispatched, but because of the distances involved, three hours passed before the initial attack began. The fire loss is estimated at $50,000. Since the boathouse had been built in a heavy grove of 400-year-old Shasta Red Firs, to help camouflage the building, dozens of the giant trees were destroyed in the 5-acre forest fire. Lodge owner, Ralph Peyton, blamed the boathouse fire on lightning so that the insurance claim could be settled faster and the company would not be held responsible for irreplaceable damage done to one of the most photographed areas in the World.
August 9 1972 Fire destroys a pickup and camper on the West Road. The flaming vehicle sets the road on fire.
August 1972 A herd of 30 to 40 elk is estimated to be feeding in the Union Peak area.
West entrance resident cabin torn down. Built in the 1920s.
August 9 1972 Lodge employee dorm construction begins between the Rim Campground and the Lodge. The government plans called for it to be built next the Cafeteria, but Ralph Peyton, Lodge owner decided on his own, without government permission, to move it so as to be better hidden from public view and not further clutter up Rim Village.
August 15 1972 Three young boys rescued from inside the Rim below the Lodge.
August 16 1972 The newest tour boat, the Peyton, breaks loose from its mooring at Cleetwood Cover during a snow storm, tearing a four foot hole in the bow as it crashes into rocks lining the shore. ($5,000 worth of damage.)
August 16 1972 The underground power cable supplying Rim Village shorts out between Headquarters and Rim Village. The Lodge and Cafeteria are without light, power, or heat for the next 36 hours. A snowstorm strikes the Rim area as rain and fog engulf the Park. Lodge patrons end up sleeping in the lobby, as the giant fireplace becomes the only source of heat. Candles are lit throughout the Lodge creating an enormous potential for fire. Meals are being cooked on white gas camping stoves. The residents take the whole emergency in stride and seem to enjoy the new challenge.
August 17 1972 George Weetman, Lodge Employee, is struck on the back of the head and robbed of $7 while carrying a bag of linen to the laundry in the Lodge basement. At the time of the incident, the basement was dark due to an electrical failure. Weetman was unconscious for over an hour.
August 27 1972 A new, prefab boathouse is flown by helicopter to Wizard Island, in 15 prebuilt sections, replacing the 1962 boathouse burned three weeks earlier. The boathouse was increased in size without first obtaining permission from the National Park Service. The helicopter also airlifted out an old Lake launch, the “Min”, named after Minnie Price, wife of the Lodge owner (1921 – 1954). The Min was trucked to Klamath Falls and given to a local troop of Sea Scouts.
Also lifted out was the “Fisher”, which was burned at the Park’s old garbage dump. Two Park Service chemical comfort stations were airlifted to the Island, replacing two old pit toilets.
September 1972 A large passive telephone microwave reflector is flown to the top of Garfield Peak by helicopter replacing an older and smaller reflector. (Replaced again in September, 1995)
Government Report: “There are ninety buildings in the Park owned by the government, with 75 constructed prior to 1935”.
October 1972 Following the expenditure of thousands of planning dollars, the Mazama trailer village and campground development is officially deleted from the Park’s Master Plan.
November 1972 John Fulton, heavy equipment operator and B&U Foreman, retires after working 26 1/2 years at Crater Lake. John, hired in April of 1946 holds the longevity record at Crater Lake National Park for a permanent employee. Following his retirement, John obtained the Park’s mail contract and continued to drive to the Park daily from Chiloquin until health problems forced him to retire for the second time in 1981. John had worked in and around the Park for over 35 years.
1972 – 1974 – 2009 Steve_Mark@nps.gov Subject: Wilderness designation 05/16/2008
Steve, Did Crater Lake ever have its proposed wilderness areas officially designated and when? Larry Smith
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From: <Steve_Mark@nps.gov>
Date: Mon, 2 Jun 2008
To: Larry Smith <twinhiker@gmail.com >
Subject: Re: Wilderness designation
Larry,
The wilderness areas were never officially designated and are still pending (meaning we manage them as if they are wilderness until Congress decides one way or the other).
Steve
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From: “Larry Smith” <twinhiker@gmai.com>
To: “James S. Rouse” jsrouse@fidalgo.net (Former CRLA Superintendent)
Sent: Monday, June 02, 2008
Subject: FW: Wilderness designation
Jim, Here is the answer to the wilderness question for CLNP. Larry Smith
=============
Thanks Larry for tracking this??? on the Recommended Wilderness for CRLA. for me. I was afraid that there had not been the final step of Congressional designation. I believe it was about 1972/74 that we (I packaged up our recommendations on schedule, after our hearings and public review) and we sent them to the Wash. D.C. office. (I put in a lot of time and energy on that project and wrestled with directions on “Wilderness Guidelines” from the Wash. office.)
One of the disappointments to me in the preparation and public review process was the issue of the boats on Crater Lake as non-compatible with the essence of wilderness. Therefore I could not include the lake. And I had expected and hoped that the Wilderness Society, Sierra Club, Friends of the Earth organizations would support the idea of removing the boats from the lake, and have it designated as wilderness. BUT NO — THEY DIDN’T. They wanted wilderness, but wanted to keep the boats. I would have liked to have seen our Director bite the bullet on that one.
An interesting concept that advanced at the CRLA wilderness by “Dick Noyes”, I believe from the F.O.E. He suggested that the uniqueness of Crater Lake in the winter snow, offered an opportunity to establish a winter wilderness, (no snowmobiles), and all the park except the access to Munson Valley and Rim Village be then wilderness. In the summer, it could then revert to the proposal we were advancing. There wasn’t very much support for the idea, and we did not advance it. Novel, though.
I would like to discuss the issues of man-made facilities in the proposed Wilderness and background on that, which can be linked to the North Cascades. Our recommendations went before Sen. Frank Church’s committee in about 1972. Guidelines changed after that. But that is another bit of background effected CRLA and other proposals.
More at another time. Wish some supporters would get to some Congressional folks and get this matter established before other threats come in on the scene.
Thanks for listening.
Jim Rouse – Former CLNP Superintendent
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Visitation 1972 Record number of visitors visit the Park exceeding the former record set in 1962 by 2,000
Visitation: 594,343 (Online says: 566,655)
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