Despite the lack of a full-time year-round park naturalist, Crater Lake continued to attract highly qualified seasonal naturalists from across the nation. Active searches were conducted to bring academically trained experts in various fields of science to the park each summer. In 1934, for instance, the seasonal ranger-naturalist staff consisted of the following:
E.I. APPLEGATE, BOTANY
Acting Curator, Dudley Herbarium, Stanford UniversityJ.S. BRODE, WATER BIOLOGY
Instructor, Santa Monica Junior CollegeB. CAMPBELL, ECOLOGY
Graduate Student, Johns Hopkins Medical SchoolR. HENDERSON, PROGRAMS
Instructor, Secondary Schools, Medford, OregonE.G. MOLL, AESTHETIC INTERPRETATION
Professor of English, University of OregonW.D. SMITH, PH. D., GEOLOGY
Professor of Geology, University of OregonC.R. SWARTZLOW, PH. D., GEOLOGY
Instructor of Geology, University of MissouriW.C. THOMAS, ZOOLOGY
Graduate Student, University of Southern CaliforniaH.H. WAESCHE, GEOLOGY
Instructor of Geology, Virginia Polytechnic Institute
Following the 1934 tourist season Acting Park Naturalist Warren G. Moody prepared a “Ranger-Naturalist Temporary Manual of Operation” to aid the park educational program. The manual was designed to provide seasonal personnel with data that had been used in various programs and guided tours. Included in the manual were sections dealing with Garfield Peak, Special Boat Trip, Wizard Island, Rim Caravan, Sinnott Memorial, and Community House. [19]
Facilities for the park educational activities posed problems for administrators during the mid-1930s. The Sinnott Memorial was used each summer, but “leaks in the roof and lack of funds to complete and improve the original construction prevented completion of the interior of the building as originally planned.” The Community House was ” partially broken in and badly wracked from heavy winter snows” in 1935 and was considered to be “unsafe.” Nevertheless, it continued to be used for evening programs and a temporary museum. [20]
Research in support of park educational activities became a significant component of the Crater Lake program during the mid-1930s. Botanical research for the classification of plants and flowers was conducted by Dr. Elmer I. Applegate, a nationally recognized authority and acting curator of the Dudley Herbarium at Stanford University who was hired on a temporary basis for several summers. He developed a checklist of 550 species of plants, flowers, shrubs, and trees and conducted a study of the trends of vegetation succession in the park. Ornithological studies were carried out by Drs. L.H. and A.H. Miller of the University of California, Los Angeles and Santa Barbara, respectively. Fresh water life research projects were conducted in relation to the species of plants and organisms in the lake. Geological research was performed by Dr. Howel Williams, professor of geology at the University of California, under the sponsorship of the Carnegie Institution of Washington. The Carnegie Institution also supported research by Dr. Edison Pettit and the Mt. Wilson Observatory as to the scientific explanation for the blueness of the lake’s water. Other research topics conducted by the ranger-naturalist staff included Mt. Mazama, caves and waterfalls, physiography, lake ecology, rodents, aesthetics, and place names. [21]
The various studies resulted in a number of publications. Examples of articles that appeared in scientific journals were Warren D. Smith and Carl R. Swartzlow, “Mount Mazama: Explosion versus Collapse,” Bulletin of Geological Society of America, XLVII (December, 1936), and F. Lyle Wynd, “The Floral Wealth of Crater Lake,” Natural History (June, 1937). In 1941 Howel Williams published Crater Lake: The Story of Its Origin, a book that has since gone through several revised editions.
In 1936 John E. Doerr, Jr., was transferred from Hawaii Volcanoes National Park to Crater Lake as permanent full-time park naturalist, and under his direction the educational activities of the park took on new life. A graduate of the University of Wisconsin with undergraduate and graduate degrees in geology, he had been associate park naturalist at Hawaii since May 1931. During 1936-37 progress was made on the interior museum room of the Sinnott Memorial as well as on new forest protection exhibits at the Watchman Lookout. An exhibit layout plan for the interior museum room in the Sinnott Memorial was prepared by Ansel F. Hall on April 6, 1937. The theme for the displays was “Interpretation of the Beauty of Crater Lake and its Surroundings,” thus putting into effect the general principles expressed earlier by Dr. John C. Merriam.[22]
