The growth of park visitation was encouraged by the continuing development of improved visitor facilities in the rim area. In 1927 Park Service officials and representatives of the Crater Lake National Park Company and the Bureau of Public Roads developed a plan for rim area development. The plan provided that the concessionaire would construct and operate in the next year a cafeteria with a connecting general store for the sale of camping supplies and a group of rental cabins in the campground area away from the rim edge. Other improvements scheduled were an asphalt trail along the edge of the rim the full length of the village area; restoration of the soil between this promenade and the revetment to natural grasses and wildflowers; and construction of a wide parking area alongside a thirty-foot dustless road.
During 1928 the rim area was vastly improved. It was opened at the west boundary by the completion of a new road emerging at the rim edge. From there a new oiled drive led to the new cafeteria/general store and cabin group, campground, and lodge at the opposite end of a half-mile plaza. On each side of the boulevard an 18-foot parking strip was provided for several hundred automobiles. Along the edge of the rim a wide asphalt promenade was built for pedestrians and between this and the log parapet limited parking along the boulevard was an area of varying width graded for plant restoration. The group of fifteen housekeeping cabins was opened on July 15, and the new cafeteria/general store on July 20. A new Crater Wall trail was constructed from the west end of the Rim Campground to the lake “on high standards to permit the use of saddle animals, enabling many thousands to enjoy the lake who were heretofore denied that pleasure by physical incapacity.” The trail was opened on July 6 with Secretary of the Interior Ray L. Wilbur leading the first party ever to descend to the lake on horseback. That same year the company added a veranda on the lake side of the lodge, introduced a 35-passenger launch on the lake, and made saddle horses available for rental. [26]
As a result of the rim area development in the 1920s park visitor facilities and accommodations became centered in what was referred to as Rim Village. A Park Service circular for 1930 described the physical development of the village:
A large majority of visitors first reach the rim of the lake at the Rim Village. This is the main focal point of park activities, containing the lodge, post office, cafeteria, general store, studios, a rental cabin group, auto service, emergency mechanical services, ranger station, etc. From the Rim Village a number of the most important trails take off, including the spectacular new trail, just completed, down the crater wall to the lake shore, where launches and rowboats are available for pleasure trips and fishing excursions. This fine trail is 6 feet wide and on a holding grade of 12 per cent, permitting its use by people unaccustomed to much physical effort. For those who prefer not to walk, saddle horses and saddle mules are available for this and other trail trips. The trail to the summit of Garfield Park, directly overlooking the lake and giving a magnificent panorama of the Cascades, also takes off from the Rim Village, as does the trail to the Watchman, and another trail to Anna Spring.
A fine free camp ground, equipped with hot and cold shower baths and modern sanitation, is located here on the rim; its community house, comfortable with fireplace and with a small dance floor, is the center of evening recreation. A near-by cafeteria and general store cares for campers as well as for users of the rental cabins which are grouped near by. [27]
The introduction of modern snow removal equipment in the park during the winter of 1929-30 aided the increasing park visitation. In 1930, for instance, the equipment permitted opening of the park on April 14, the earliest date for travel to be checked in the park’s history. The new removal equipment allowed the park to publicize its intention to keep the park open until December, thus affording visitors the opportunity to view the lake throughout the fall season. [28]
