Highway Closed to Crater Lake By Early Snows

Oakland Tribune
Oakland, California
November 22, 1925

By Colonel C. G. Thomson, (Supt. Crater Lake National Park)

Medford, Ore., After one of the most gorgeous Octobers that ever blessed Oregon, the snow finally closed Crater Lake National Park on November 3. The park now rests under its white winter mantle and travel is definitely suspended. Possibly the road may again become negotiable.

travel is discouraged by park authorities because windthrows are not being removed and adventurous motorists may find themselves blocked at any point. An unusual number of visitors took advantage of the splendid autumn weather to visit the lake, 1913 entering during October.

Friends of the park will be gratified to learn of two important developments in road construction. On October 6 Director Stephen T. Mather completed arrangements whereby the new road program at Crater Lake will be handled by the bureau of public roads, with District Engineer C. H. Purcell of Portland in charge. The high standards of the bureau of public roads will be attained at Crater Lake, with easy grades, fine alignments and good curvatures, so that travel in the park will be established on a high-gear basis and every safeguard provided. The paving program will be continued next year on the Medford and Klamath roads.

Another interesting item is the projection of a new road from Government Camp to the rim of the lake on a maximum grade of 6% per cent to replace the present 10.9 per cent grade. Surveys completed by park engineers have been tentatively approved by the bureau of public roads and it is expected that work will be undertaken next spring. The proposed road is about a mile longer, follows the general direction of the present road to a point half-way up the climb, when it turns westward across a hump and emerges at the rim 200 yards west of the Community House. This point of emergence was selected by the landscape architect and will give visitors a highly dramatic first view of the entire lake and crater panorama. Future plans include an esplanade along the crater edge, a kiosk with scenic finders, telescopes, etc., on Victor Rock, and other logical improvements aimed at driving home the crater and its lake not only as a spectacle, but as a geological story.

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