Tag Archives: Crater Lake

Historic People, Smith Photos, Uncategorized

Rangering in the ’80s at Crater Lake National Park

April 18, 2021 eifert

Park Rangers do many things at their jobs, including helping people in distress. Crater Lake is a very long way from normal medical service, so when something happens, a heart attach from the high altitude at the Rim or falling off a bicycle, these first-line of safety are the boys in green! Thanks to Lloyd and Larry Smith for these photos.

Other pages in this section

*** previous title *** --- *** next title ***

Historic People

The Eidson Family Goes to Crater Lake – Twice

October 14, 2020 eifert

Crater Lake Institute receives all sorts of memorabilia from family visits or the CCC units that worked there. This one is especially nice for the quality of the surviving scrapbooks of two visits, one in 1958 and the second in 1964. The bear poster was a handout at the park gate.

Earl and Alice Eidson

This from their daughter: Their names were Earl and Alice (Robin) Eidson. They met at Fresno State College, where Earl was attending on the GI Bill after WWII – he was in the 86th Infantry Division, active in both theatres. She was born in Great Falls, Montana but the family moved when her father got a position as a flight instructor in Tulare, CA. They were married after my mom finished college in 1951 in Fresno, and they moved to Salinas, CA where Dad first taught math and history at junior high, then math at high school.

He stayed in the reserves as a sergeant major until Fort Ord retired his unit, which I mention only because I’m sure you can imagine what it was like to get in trouble with your father the retired Sergeant Major/math teacher: the whole neighborhood knew. The first time they went to Crater Lake – the 1953 trip – was part of a trip that took them to Victoria, Canada and then heading home. It was Crater Lake, Olympia, Salem, and Columbia River Gorge, Vancouver and Victoria.

Bevan-gate-pass-front

Bevan-gate-pass

Crater Lake Informational Brochure 1952-1

[Crater Lake Institute has this 1952 edition in their collection. See it here]

My dad’s mom was a native Californian, and so he had some 24 great aunts and uncles in California. My great grandfather was a cattle rancher and inspector who, among other things, worked on the hoof and mouth eradication in 1929 in Yosemite/Tulare; one of my great uncles was a ranger at Kings Canyon, and I have three cousins who were born in Yosemite Valley.

If Dad’s family was thinking about taking a drive, there was always a relative to visit (Winters, Manteca, Alpaugh, Gridley, Firebaugh, Button Willow…), trees in bloom somewhere, or a birthday to celebrate – and I’m so fortunate that there was also a photo or two to take. It was my dad’s father who had the photography bug – and passed it on all over the family. I grew up playing with empty film canisters and reels.

The 1963 trip [the second trip] was to visit my mom’s relatives in Great Falls, Montana; they also visited the Great Salt Lake, Sale Lake City, Las Vegas, Carson City, & Helena.

Here’s the park permit from 1963 and a photo of my dad, my brother and me at the park then. I would have been three, my brother seven.

Family shot on the Rim. The author peaks at the lake in front of dad.

Crater Lake Institute was happy to get this personal view of the park. While we focus on the inner workings, staff and history of Crater Lake, this other side is just as important. Thanks for sharing, Jimmy Rae.

***previous title*** — ***next title***

Historic People, Historic Photos, Smith Photos

Bug in the Tree

June 9, 2020 eifert

1975 a Volkswagen bug is driven off the road and into the canyon one mile below Rim Village. The car rolled several times and the driver was thrown from the car. The driver, who had been drinking, is unhurt, but the car is a total loss.

A soldier, who was on leave, had just purchased the car and was not yet covered by insurance, Lloyd Smith, the investigating ranger wrote in 2017: “One thing about being a ranger with a camera you get to record some pretty interesting stuff. If I remember this story correctly the young man had just gotten out of the Army and he bought this Volkswagen for $900. He came to Crater Lake and spent the evening drinking on the Rim at the bar. He tried to drive down the curves below the Rim and drove off the road. It rolled several times and he was thrown out of the passenger’s window when it hit the trees. We found him below his vehicle. We hauled him up the slope and took him to the hospital . . . the verdict . . . all ok. . just drunk. We brought him back to HQ and put him to bed to sleep it off. He did not have insurance on the car. The next day my twin brother, Larry, and I went back to investigate it more and to clean up. We found some brick-like objects wrapped in aluminum foil. Our first thought was drugs. Oh, oh. But they turned out to be fruit cake.”

***previous*** — ***next***

Historic People, Historic Photos, Lake Photos, Limnology, Smith Photos

1967 – Ranger Boat Sinks

April 21, 2020 eifert

August 29 1967 The Park’s old wooden Ranger boat is sunk near Wizard Island, after using a sledgehammer to knock holes into the boat’s sides and bottom.

October 2010 – Owen Hoffman writes: Larry, That was the old Naturalist’s research boat that was owned by the NPS. In the summer of 1967, it was deemed unusable and beyond repair.

It was sunk to make room for the OSU Boston Whaler, which had been recently lowered into the lake by sliding it down over banks in late Spring of 1967, to use the NPS boat house on Wizard Island for winter shelter and storage.

The old Naturalist’s research boat was featured in the 1966 edition of “America’s Wonderlands” by National Geographic. It was photographed in the vicinity of the Phantom Ship with Bruce Black’s wife and daughters on board.

In 1967, our professor of limnology at OSU, Dr. Jack Donaldson, used the OSU Boston Whaler to tow the Naturalist’s research boat from its boathouse out into deeper waters where it was sunk. The boat was sunk by Park Ranger Larry Hakel. He used a sledge hammer to punch holes through the weakened hull of the boat. Doug Larson and I went along to watch and help as needed. Doug took photos.

The boat was last observed peacefully at rest on the lake floor by Mark Buktenica, who was inside the submersible Deep Rover. This happened sometime in 1988 or 1989.

Letter to the authors from Dr. Doug Larson, October 18, 2010

Here are some photos that I took at Crater Lake in the summer of 1967. That summer, the Park Service decided to get rid of a boat that was stored on Wizard Island. Apparently the boat had been given to the Park Service years earlier to haul tourist around on Crater Lake. According to Dick Brown, Chief Park Naturalist, the boat had been used to smuggle alcoholic beverages from Cuba to Florida during the Prohibition Era. The boat was intercepted by the Coast Guard, confiscated, and later given to the Park Service.

Because of the unusually dry weather and high fire danger that summer, the Park Service ruled out burning the boat on Wizard Island. Instead, they decided to have it sunk in about 300 meters of water along a transect roughly halfway between Wizard Island and Crater Lake Lodge.

Photo 1 shows the boat parked on the shore of Wizard Island near the entrance of the shed where it had been stored, apparently for many years. Before the boat was towed out to the Lake, we filled the bottom with rocks.

When I (Lloyd Smith) worked on the trail crew at Crater Lake National Park we used the Ranger (Naturalist) Boat for some of our lake duties. From former ranger Owen Hoffman: In the summer of 1967, it was deemed unusable and beyond repair. It was sunk to make room for the OSU Boston Whaler, which had been recently lowered into the lake by sliding it down over snow banks in late Spring of 1967, to use the NPS boat house on Wizard Island for winter shelter and storage. The old Naturalist’s research boat was featured in the 1966 edition of “America’s Wonderlands” by National Geographic. It was photographed in the vicinity of the Phantom Ship with Bruce Black’s wife and daughters on board….cont…

Photos 2 shows us towing the boat toward its final resting place. The towboat is the OSU research vessel, a Boston Whaler powered by two 35 HP outboard motors. Owen Hoffman, grim-faced and wearing the red hardhat and orange sweatshirt, sits in the stern. Jack Donaldson, barely visible and wearing a plaid shirt, far left, operates the research Rod Cranson’s head, inside of the tan-colored hard had, appears in the lower right-hand corner of the photo.

Photo 3 shows the crew preparing the boat for sinking. Note that the engine, a 12 or 16-cylinder job, has been left in the boat to help keep it submerged on the Lake bottom. Four people are shown in this photo. The person nearest the camera and wearing a tan hardhat and olive-green shirt is Naturalist Ted Aurther. Next to him, with his back to the camera and wearing a red hard hat, is a Park Service employee, Larry Hakel. The third person, wearing a red hardhat and orange sweatshirt is Owen Hoffman. The fourth person, whose straw hat is the only thing showing, is Jack Donaldson. Both Hoffman and Donaldson are leaning well into the boat.

Photo 4 shows four or our crew making final preparations for sinking. The person wearing the tan-colored hardhat and blue sweatshirt is Rod Cranson. Own Hoffman, red hardhat and orange sweatshirt, holds the rope tethered to the tourist boat. Jack Donaldson, straw hat and plaid shirt, watches Larry, wearing no hat, preparing to perforate the tourist boat’s hull with a sledgehammer.

Photo 5; Holes appear in the tourist boat’s hull as Larry swings his hammer. Rod Cranson captures this destruction with his camera. Photos 6,7 and 8 show the boat steadily sinking. I show these last three photos when I give talks about our research at Crater Lake. I say that there are days for limnologists on the lake when everything seems to go wrong. —- Dr. Doug Larson