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
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