Smith Brothers 1914

May 18
Army road crews open a new road to the Rim to replace what had been built in 1905. This route reaches Rim Village just east of the present Employee Dorm and continues north to the Lodge, veering west from there to begin the Rim Drive.

July 12
The “Mail Tribune” reports that the Hall Taxi Co. will run a round trip to Crater Lake for $13.00. “This is exactly what the trip costs”, says manager Court Hall. Other reports say that that the driver, Seely Hall, charged $18. The taxi would leave Medford at 8 a.m. in a custom-built 1911 Cadillac and stop at Prospect for lunch, arriving at the Lake around 5 p.m. The driver also carried milk, eggs, vegetables and mail to Crater Lake Lodge.

Summer
A.C. Allen of Medford shoots the first successful motion picture of Crater Lake. According to Allen, most motion picture photographers of the day did not adjust for the high elevations and because of this their exposures were off. The scenes Allen shot of the Lake were included in a 30 minute promotional motion picture, “Graces Visit To The Rogue River Valley”, which was shown repeatedly at the Pan American Exposition in San Francisco, 1914 – 1915.

September 21
“After we discovered the lake in 1853, we mounted our animals, turned to the left, and rode past what is called Wizard Island where there was no snow. I was riding in the lead when my mule left the turf and got on the rocks. He flinched very visibly, supposing his feet were tender, I jumped off to relieve him of my weight, in doing so I stooped toward the ground, and I really thought I could feel heat issuing from the surface, anyway I called to the men say, “We were near Hell for I could feel the heat”. Everyone in the party thought the same thing, but until now I have never written about. J. W. Hillman, from a letter to William Steel.

October
Twenty miles of new government roads finished in the Park.

October 2
The Medford M.T. reports that Seely Hall and William Steel make a round trip to Crater Lake in only 17 hours.

1914 Season
An additional $75,000 was granted to the Park by Congress to be used to get road construction underway.
Steel and his family lived in the Park during the summers and eventually moved into a small log cabin located slightly to the southeast of the present Headquarters building. The cabin was torn down in 1934. The main road ran through the present parking lot and in front of Steel’s house. The Rim Road was moved east 100 feet to its present location when the Headquarter building was constructed. Steel would move to Medford during the winter to a residence located across the street from the old Post Office and Federal Building. The Steel family may have lived a summer or two in one of the lower Stone Houses, when they were first built.

Seth Bullis speeds to the Lake and back to Medford in the amazing time of one day. Most wagons required 5 days. A new Fort Klamath Road is built by the War Department. The East Road Shelter cabin is built on Fort Creek. 2,000 Rainbows and 15,000 Brown Trout are liberated in Crater Lake.

A shelter cabin is built at Devil’s Backbone. “The Government should acquire all hotels and lease the facilities.” (Steel)

Mr. Mark Daniels of San Francisco, who served as General Superintendent of the NPS, 1913 to 1915, designed and wore what was in all probability, the first regular Park Service Uniform.

Mark Daniels, part-time NPS landscape architect begins work on the design for a new grand lodge to be placed on the Rim. In his writings and description of the project, Daniels casually uses the term “Rim Village” as the location of Parkhurst’s new grand lodge.

Season Visitation: 7,056

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