Boat tours on the lake were initiated in 1907 to provide an opportunity for visitors to better experience the lake and caldera. The boat tours were initially conducted below Rim Village to Wizard Island and Phantom Ship. Several different trail alignments from Crater Lake Lodge and the cafeteria building were constructed to the lakeshore and the boat tours in the 1 900s and 1920s. At the start of the boat operation there was one boat with a couple of tours per day. Several rowboats for visitor fishing and travel to Wizard Island were added in the early 1920s. NPS naturalists provided the first interpretive boat tours in 1931. They were all-day excursions that included docking at Wizard Island and hiking to the top of the volcanic cone. The boat tour enterprise was relocated to the Cleetwood area in 1960 on completion of a new south-facing trail. The new trail allowed for the expansion of seasonal use of the trail and boat tours and provided for a more enjoyable visitor walk because it was less steep, shorter, and safer. By 1972 four boats were in operation but the rowboats were phased out because of the hazardous wind conditions at the north end of the lake. The number of boat tours has increased from five in 1976 to the current level of nine plus a Wizard Island pickup. In addition, parking, restroom, storage, and limited food service facilities were developed in the 1 960s to meet the greater levels of visitor use and to enhance the visitor experience.
Two other concession services that warrant addressing are recreation equipment rental and transportation to the park. The rental of cross-country skies and snowshoes at the cafeteria building was attempted several times but was relatively unsuccessful because of the limited number of nonequipped visitors. In the early 1900s concession transportation to the park from Medford and Klamath Falls was a necessary and convenient service provided to visitors arriving in southern Oregon by train. This service continued until the late 1970s when extensive availability and use of the automobile and bus by visitors usurped this means of transportation.
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