Extensive construction and development activity continued at Crater Lake during 1932. An extensive program was undertaken at Government Camp to provide for more ample employee housing and aid park operations. The structures erected included two employees’ residences for the park superintendent and park naturalist, a ranger dormitory, combination machine shop/utility shed/oil house, and comfort station. These buildings shared a number of design elements that contributed to their unobtrusive, environmentally-sensitive rustic appearance, including the use of stone masonry, steeply-pitched roofs pierced by dormers and masonry chimneys, and multi-paned sash windows. The building projects, which were carried out under the guidance of the aforementioned Sager, has been called “one of the most comprehensive rustic architecture programs ever undertaken by the National Park Service.”
This rustic architecture program at Crater Lake has received considerable attention from National Park Service historians and architects. The principal study of such architecture in the parks was prepared in February 1977 by William C. Tweed, Laura E. Soulliere, and Henry G. Law. The authors of the study made the following observations about Crater Lake:
Despite the large number of structures under construction, Sager attempted to achieve high rustic quality in each and every structure. Responding to local geological and meteorological conditions, he chose as a central architectural theme for the government headquarters area, the use of massive stone masonry and steeply pitched shingle roofs.
The superintendent’s residence, the naturalist’s residence, and the ranger’s dorm, all built during the summer of 1932, shared these features. In each structure Sager continued his experiments with the use of wall stones of unprecedented size. He had first attempted this type of work at Crater Lake in the construction of the Sinnott Memorial museum in 1930-1931. Some of the stones incorporated into the government headquarters buildings were as large as 15 cubic feet in volume. . . .
When completed, the stone buildings with their steeply pitched green shingle roofs had an undeniable air of solidity about them. Some of the irregularly shaped stones near the bottoms of the walls were up to five feet across, and even the smaller stones placed near the top of walls were often two or three feet in diameter. The relationship of the walls to the underlying geology was obvious. The sharply pitched green shingle roofs bore clear resemblance to the pointed spires of the conifer snow-forest of Crater Lake. The buildings were practical, too. The steep roofs shed snow easily. The second story dormer windows were high enough to stay above the deep snowdrifts of winter, and the stone walls provided excellent insulation against low winter temperatures.
The oil house and machine shop buildings shared design features with the three residential structures just described. The Watchman Lookout, however, was a more complex project. Located atop one of the highest points on the lake’s rim, the lookout was to be both a trailside museum and a fire lookout. The resulting structure admirably filled both purposes. The flat roofed first floor, built of massive stones, housed the museum room, rest rooms and a storage area. The second story, which rested on only a portion of the irregularly shaped first floor, was a four-sided, glass enclosed observation room. Both the roof of the observation room and the catwalk running around it were made of logs. The effect was striking. The lookout seemed to be a part of Watchman peak. [24]
Roads and trails also received attention during 1932. New trails were constructed from the Rim Road to the Watchman Lookout Station and from the rim area to Discovery Point. The Watchman Trail was approximately one-half mile in length, five feet wide, and constructed on a grade of fifteen percent. The Discovery Point Trail was approximately 1.5 miles in length, five feet wide, and had no grades exceeding twelve percent. Both trails were oiled.
Various improvements were made to the Rim Village area. Stone parapet walls were completed, new sidewalks were laid, and the revegetation program was continued. Log railing was replaced by stone curbing, the log rail being used to replace the former small guard railing along the south entrance road and at the large turn between Annie Spring and Government Camp.
Road construction under the administration of the Bureau of Public Roads continued to be the focus of considerable activity in the park during 1932. Both the Lost Creek-Kerr Notch and Diamond Lake Junction to north park boundary roads, as well as the road from the rim to the north park entrance were completed by the fall. Sections of the Rim Road were surfaced.
