<<
1981
1982
1983
>>
March 1
Kei Yasuda of Glendale, Oregon, wins the third annual Dutton
Creek Ski race in the time of 33:49 minutes. Brian Smith, 12, of
Jacksonville, Oregon sets a new Junior record of 46:10 minutes.
May
The original, hand made metal chandelier, rehung in the
Headquarters building lobby, ten years after the building was
“modernized” with recessed fluorescent lighting.
May 3
The Park’s pair of nesting Peregrine falcons begin their
incubation of three eggs.
May 13
Two Peregrine falcon chicks are flown from California to replace
the three unhatched eggs. The chicks fledge successfully. Tests
show that the three eggs had died a week earlier.
June
YCC non-resident camp, based in Chiloquin, begins work in the
Park. Camping fee raised to $5 in Mazama Campground.
Water year: 623.5 inches (52 feet) of accumulated snow recorded.
June 19
An earthquake registering 2.0 or 2.5 “rocks” the Park. This is
the first record of quake since 1945.
June 30
Two men who had been drinking, are injured as their car flips
over one mile south of Headquarters.
July 1
The North Entrance road opens.
July 3
Stan Diller, 702 W. Casino, Everett, Washington, nephew of Dr.
J.S. Diller, visits the Park. Diller claims that he is the first
member of the Diller family to visit Crater Lake since Dr.
Diller explored the area back in 1896.
July 4
Cleetwood Cove plowed out, and the trail is opened.
July 5
A 70 mile, high speed chase begins on the West Road as Ranger
Tom Young attempts to stop a speeding Datsun pickup driven by
Larry Alexander of Klamath Falls, Oregon. Alexander was arrested
and treated for facial cuts and a broken arm following an
altercation with police following his collision with a stop sign
in downtown Klamath Falls. A Klamath Falls police car was
heavily damaged during the chase which involved five police
agencies.
July 5
Plane wreckage and three skeletal remains are discovered by a
hiker near Huckleberry Campground, one mile west of Crater Lake
National Park. The plane had disappeared on February 26, 1975,
during a snow storm, with a Klamath Falls high school teacher
and two of his students on board.
July 9 to 10
Brian Smith, age 12, and Greg Tinseth, age 11, of Jacksonville,
Oregon pull in 33 Kokanee salmon and one Rainbow trout from
Cleetwood Cove after Chief Ranger Rudolph states, “Let’s get
those fish out of the Lake.”
July 11
Lake tour boats begin operation, the latest seasonal opening in
memory.
July 12
Ralph Peyton and the Crater Lake Lodge Company file an
additional $117,515 lawsuit against the National Park Service
claiming that the Government was at fault for the 1975 outbreak
of water-born illnesses associated with the sewer overflow into
the Park’s water system.
Using six shots, Ranger Tom Young dispatches an injured beaver
near North Junction. The beaver had been hit by a car and was
blind in one eye. The beaver could possibly have come up from
either the Lake, National Creek or Boundary Springs. This was
the first ever recorded sighting of a beaver on the Rim of
Crater Lake.
July 14
Over $1,000 taken in cash and goods from five cars in Mazama
Campground.
July 19
Second major car clout of the season in Mazama Campground. Seven
cars clouted for over $3,000 in lost cash and equipment.
July 23
The “Square Knots” square dancing club from Newberg, Oregon,
dance two square dances of two squares on the dock of
Wizard Island. The club performs the first organized square
dance inside the Rim of Crater Lake.
July 23
Two grand-daughters of Jacksonville’s pioneer newspaper man, Jim
Sutton, visit the Park and take a boat ride. Sutton named Crater
Lake. (Kathryn Sutton Schultz, 24001 Muirl Avenue, #329, El
Toro, California 92630 and Wave Sutton White, 3233 Treat Circle,
Tucson, Arizona, 85716)
July 23
Twelve year old Brian Smith catches 37 Kokanee salmon off Wizard
Island in five hours.
July 28
Rim Drive is allowed to melt out and open “naturally”. An
attempt to save money.
July 30
Eight deer are spotted swimming single file, in the Lake, below
Sinnott Overlook, heading West.
August
K.C. Publications publishes the new book, Crater Lake, The Story
Behind the Scenery, written by Larry Smith, Ron Warfield and Lee
Juillerat. The book was dedicated “to all who find Nature not an
adversary to conquer and destroy, but a storehouse of infinite
knowledge and experience linking man to all things past and
present. They know conserving the natural environment is
essential to our future well-being.”
August 2
The second phase of the reconstruction of the last four miles of
the West Rim Drive is begun. The project is expected to take at
least two summers.
August 7
The snowbank that had partially blocked the Rim Promenade near
the Old Lake Trail, in front of the Cafeteria Building, finally
melts out. One of the latest Rim snow melts on record.
August 7
462 runners enter the 7th annual Crater Rim Marathon. 78 runners
complete the full distance with 285 running the shorter 6.7 mile
section.
Winners:
26 miles Dr. Al Glidden, 38, of Klamath Falls, Oregon 2:48:10
Jeanne Otteman, of Klamath Falls, Oregon 3:47:14
13 miles Dave Hall, of Klamath Falls, Oregon 1:19:14
Cheryl Martin, 15, of San Diego, California
1:48:38
6 miles Tracy Garrison, 15, of Klamath Falls, Oregon 34:08
Marnie Mason, 16, of Klamath Falls, Oregon 41:12, a
new women’s record
August 7
Monica Honz, 24, becomes separated from her hiking and research
party near Timber Crater, and wanders the northern section of
the Park for 27 hours. Monica spends the night in a tree after
spotting four bear. A ground and air search is launched the
following day and Honz is spotted and rescued by helicopter.
August 16 to September 15 1982
The completion of a four foot widening and pavement overlay of
the West Rim Drive from the Wizard Island Overlook to the North
Junction.
August 20
The Park’s “Cluster Office” or also known as: “The Klamath Falls
Group”, or as the “Crater Lake Administration Office” is
formally closed. All furniture, files and personnel are moved to
Crater Lake. Several long term employees choose to take either
early retirement or park transfers rather than moving to Crater
Lake.
In order to accommodate the combining of the Klamath Falls
office with the Park offices, Resource Management (two offices)
are moved above the Fire Hall into the old “Nat Hall” . The
building is promptly renamed “Rat Hall”. The large “School Room”
in the Ad Building is divided into three offices and all
remaining offices and employees, except for the Superintendent’s
office shift up and down the halls. Basically these moves are a
repeat of the major office shift that occurred in 1964 and again
in 1969.
“Nat Hall”, the Interpretive Division, is moved into the
downstairs of the old, and fast deteriorating Ranger Dorm. A
snow tunnel is built out to the parking lot ensuring year round
access.
August 22
The Redwood Alliance, a pro environmental group, releases
balloons near the updraft of the cooling tower of the Humboldt
Bay Nuclear Plant in Eureka, California while research the
airborne drift of radioactive steam emissions. A broken balloon
and card are found, the following day on the south face of
Wizard Island, near the top of the cone, by a Park visitor. The
balloon and card are turned over to Ranger Larry Smith who mails
the card back to Eureka.
August 29
Patrol Ranger Alice Siebecker attempts to stop a slightly
speeding, 1982 Volvo on the South Entrance Road. The driver
refuses to stop and Alice gives chase. As Alice’s patrol car
comes up from behind, the Volvo suddenly explodes, runs off the
road, flies through the air and hits a pumice embankment 500
feet from the road. The driver, Amdris Merzejuskis, a German
national, is instantly killed. The body remained in the wrecked
car for four hours while the Jackson County Sheriff bomb squad
and the F.B.I. check the car over for hidden explosives. The
explosion was a military type of hand grenade which was being
held in Merzdjuskis’s hand at the time of explosion. The
German’s left hand was blown off, along with the victim’s
face. Found during a search of the car was a knife, and a
pistol, both stored in the driver’s door and a rifle was found
in the trunk. Also found was several sets of identifications,
all false, and two California license plates. The Volvo had been
stolen from a car rental company out of San Diego, California. Merzejuskis
is wanted in Texas for drug smuggling charges and had served
time in federal prison. Amdris had either planned to use the
grenade against the Park Ranger and had accidentally dropped the
device or he used the grenade to commit suicide. Alice leaves
the Park Service and returns to her former career of violin
making.
August 31
The Federal Government agrees to settle out of court a $90,000
law suit filed against the government by former Lodge owner,
Ralph Peyton stemming from the 1975 sewer/water problems. Peyton
claimed that he had already paid out $81,989 in judgments to
Park visitors who had either stayed or eaten at the Lodge and
that he had paid out an additional $35,525 in legal fees. By now
76 claims have been settled and two more cases are still under
arbitration.
Summer
Dr. Charles Bacon, USGS geologist publishes a summary of his 4
years of geologic study at Crater Lake titled, Eruptive History
of Mt. Mazama, Cascade Range, U.S.A.
Don Morris, of the University of California, finds that the
water visibility of Crater Lake is about two times clearer than
the water of Lake Tahoe
September
Glen Happell, 68, General Manager for Crater Lake Lodge Company
retires after working in the Park for 27 years.
September 8
Congress enacts Public Law 97-250 giving back 480 acres of the
new Park additions to the Forest Service because of a previous
timber sale on the land. The law also requires that the
Secretary of the Interior is to promptly instigate studies to
determine the status and trends of change in the water quality
of Crater lake and to immediately implement action necessary to
assure retention of the Lake’s natural pristine water
quality. Every two years a report will be prepared, reporting
the results of the studies. In anticipation of the Act’s
passage, a 26 foot Monarch boat was purchased and launched on
the Lake.
September 9
A 100 acre prescribed burn set in the Panhandle area.
Fall
A Klamath Indian shoots a cow elk in the Panhandle area.
October 20
Ron Dirigar, the Park’s new purchasing agent of only four days,
found dead in Stone House #31. Dirigar apparently died of an
epileptic seizure. Ron lived alone, except for his large dog.
December
Heavy snow and winds topple 191 trees onto the West Entrance
Road.
Season
New park folder written and printed, replacing the 20 year old
blue mini-folder.
949 Park visitors participate in the ranger led winter snow shoe
hikes.
14,561 visitors ride the boats. 55 government seasonals working
for the Park.
21 larceny theft incidents result in a loss of $9,109 to Park
visitors.
Total revenue from the entrance station and campground
operations amounts to $200,272.
1,748 snowmobiles enter the Park. Three lightning caused fires
burn 127 acres.
Season Visitation: 484,283
<<
1981
1982
1983
>>
