CHAPTER THIRTEEN: Construction, Development, And Planning Activities In Crater Lake National Park: 1916-Present

The comments by Mather concerning the need for appropriations to carry out the development program are interesting in light of a general statement on the poor condition of existing park facilities prepared by Superintendent Thomson in 1926. The statement was prepared to justify higher park appropriations requests from Congress. The statement contained the following observations:

There is a good hotel but approximately 90% of Park visitors fend for themselves, throwing very heavy loads upon our 10 camp grounds in the way of water supply, garbage disposal, sanitation, fuel, and policing. There is a stage concession, but 99% of our visitors arrive in their own automobiles.

The administrative problems involving future expenditures are, principally: housing of employees; storehouses; a slight increase in personnel; water supply and sanitation; and the continuing of road improvement. A construction program of $35,000 per annum for 5 years should adequately provide for all predictable requirements. . . .

Heretofore, Crater Lake National Park has been rigidly limited to 2 or 3 minor structural improvements annually;

appropriations have lagged far behind proportionate increase of travel and functions; improvements have been few and on a scale to barely gather up the slack here and there. Structures are nearly all ramshackle, built years ago to meet the temporary needs of road gangs engaged in 1913 to 1917 in road construction; these buildings have long outlived their usefulness and must be replaced with modest structures in keeping with new requirements and harmonious design. Consequently, 1926 finds Park facilities, as a whole, materially behind demands in every department. [15]

The NPS Landscape Division developed further plans in 1926-27 to provide for “naturalization” of the rim area. Until that time parking along the rim was unrestricted, the common practice being for motorists to park their automobiles anywhere they desired. The result of indiscriminate parking and heavy pedestrian traffic, along with the poor, sandy condition of the soil, rendered the entire area between the road and the rim “an unattractive sand waste.” The soil was composed of a high percentage of volcanic pumice which was constantly shifted by the wind. Thus, it became the goal of the NPS Landscape Division to restore the rim area, especially between the foot of Garfield Peak and the cafeteria, so that it would resemble “much of its original beauty” and be in harmony with its natural surroundings. It was the goal of NPS landscape engineers that the area be planned “so that thousands of visitors” could use it “without further permanent damage” to its inspirational beauty. [16]

Meetings were conducted in 1927 to implement the development plan for Crater Lake. The discussions were attended by NPS Assistant Director Horace M. Albright, Superintendent Thomson, representatives of the Bureau of Public Roads, and various officials of the National Park Service. As a result of the meetings Thomson observed in his annual report that this

year Crater Lake stood just at the cross roads between the old and the new; the removal of the last “teams have right-of-way” road sign was a symbol of the progress that is gradually bringing this Park nearer the standards imposed by modern conditions. When plans, now underway, are completed this Park will possess a well-rounded layout.

During the summer of 1927 Thomson approved plans for the development of the rim area and for “reclaiming the Rim Area from its present oppressive dustiness to a semblance of nature.” The plans provided that the park concessioner would construct and operate a badly-needed cafeteria and general store. A small group of rental cabins would be built, the structures to be extended as needs developed. These structures would occupy “a small desert in the campground, not otherwise useable, in line with our firm policy to protect the Rim from additional structures.”

The plan for “naturalizing” the rim area provided for an asphalt trail to be laid “along the edge of the Rim the full length of the Village.” Between this promenade and a park revetment the soil was to “be restored to natural grasses and wild flowers.” A wide parking area alongside a thirty-foot dustless road was “designed to distribute visitors perfectly.” As most park visitors spent virtually all of their stay at the rim, the “bringing of this area into orderliness” was, according to Thomson, “probably the most desirable single improvement possible at this park.”