By contracting our dining hall, visitors have been furnished with regular or short order meals during the past two winters at rates that were reasonable. The food was excellent in quality and well prepared and seasoned.
As the dining hall houses the kitchen, dining room, and living quarters of the dining hail staff on the lower floor, and the park employees who do not have their families with them, on the upper floor, this building is kept serviced and heated 24 hours a day. Wash rooms and sanitary facilities were available for a much larger force than the park used. It was, therefore, easy to arrange the dormitory space on the second floor to accommodate 18 women, and on the third floor, to accommodate 24 men; thus the government, working through the dining hall operator, was able to furnish a cot and matress to overnight visitors at a charge of 25 cents, the visitor providing his own bed roll. Over night accommodations were accepted up to the capacity of these dormitories, reservations being made by the dining hall operator in the order of receipt of application.
In addition a permit was granted to the Yellow Cab Company to operate up to five taxicabs in transporting visitors from Medford to the park during the winter. [42]
Winter sports programs in the park continued to be conducted in line with National Park Service policy, “special facilities and meets” not being provided or encouraged. During the winter of 1938-39, however, the Chiloquin Ski Club was permitted to operate on an experimental basis a portable electric ski lift on the lower slopes of the “ski bowl” near the lodge. As a result of the popularity of the lift and its apparent lack of impact on park resources, Leavitt urged that the lift be permitted to operate again the following winter.
By providing such winter visitor services and accommodations Leavitt felt that the park was building “good will throughout the state and local communities.” At the same time he observed that there was “no great amount of warmth or friendly feeling among local groups for the park operator.” This animosity existed despite various improvements in concession services and general rate reductions put into effect in 1939. [43]
The two years before American entry into World War II were banner travel seasons at Crater Lake National Park. Visitation reached all-time records to date with 252,482 visitors in 1940 and 273,564 in 1941. The summer recreational opportunities that attracted visitors in increasing numbers were, according to Superintendent Leavitt, hiking, auto touring, camping, boating, and fishing. The park trails in their order of popularity were the Crater Wall Trail, Watchman Lookout, Garfield Peak, Wizard Island, and Mount Scott. Winter visitation exceeded totals for previous years by nearly 50 percent, aided in part by the operation of a portable ski lift and two small gasoline-powered lifts on most weekends by the newly-organized Crater Lake Ski Club. During these years the Crater Lake National Park Company installed new beds and mattresses in the lodge and made improvements to the housekeeping cabins, including placement of the beds and mattresses formerly in the lodge and installation of electric hot plates, oil heaters, and running cold water. Launch and rowboat facirities were improved. A permit was granted to the White Star and Hurry Cab Taxi Company in 1940 to provide transportation between Klamath Falls and Crater Lake during the winter months when the park concessioner was not operating its auto stages. [45]
