Crater Lake’s 1948 operations prospectus recommended that the NPS should be prepared to: “eventually condemn the existing public accommodations on the Rim and refuse to permit any rebuilding of such accommodations within the park area with the possible exception of a lunch room which could be located as to provide year-round, ample meal service and would not encroach upon the featured portion of the park”.
March 11
Superintendent Leavitt writes that hotel accommodations should be provided outside the Park and all concession facilities at the Rim should be condemned.
April
Park Superintendent Leavitt and his staff finds themselves without postage money after Congress cuts the NPS’s postage allowance by 60%. Mail outs for informational requests is cut back. The NHA comes to the rescue with the loan of a few stamps to help with pressing matters.
April 16 1948
Snowfall for April sets a new record with 93.5 inches being recorded. The previous record had been 91 inches in April of 1932.
May 10
In an internal letter, the NPS observes that the fire escapes at the Lodge are inadequate. To use them, a guest would have to get access to an often locked room and then step up on a chair to reach the window sill.
June 3
NPS Director Drury writes that the removal of the Lodge should be made a condition for granting a new concession contract in 1960.
August 6
Fatal fall of Lodge employee near Vidae Falls.
August
The Rim Drive is finally opened. A storm closes the Drive about 4 weeks later.
Summer
The regional NPS office recognizing the high fire danger of the lodge attempts to close the building as a public hazard, but political pressure keeps it open for another 40 years. During the 1960’s and 1970’s the building bedded down 300 employees and guests. Fire escapes included knotted ropes leading out to ladders nailed onto the roof. Fire escapes and a sprinkler system were not added until the late 1970’s.
September 18
The North Entrance Station is demolished in a collision with a visitor’s car.
December
Record snow fall for December of 196 inches.
Season Visitation: 243,533
