VI. Steps Leading Toward
Establishment of Crater Lake National Park
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Q.
Park Boundaries
In 1914 the
northward extension of Crater Lake National Park to include Diamond Lake, a
popular fishing resort twenty miles away in the Umpqua National Forest, and
Mount Thielsen, was proposed by the park superintendent. Legislation to this
effect was first introduced on April 6, 1918, by Senator Charles McNary of
Oregon as Senate Bill 4283, 65th Congress. The primary purpose of the proposal
was the transfer of a tract of more than 92,000 acres to the National Park
Service for inclusion within Crater Lake National Park. Future plans for the
additional land would include its development as an important fishing resort,
expansion of camping facilities, and other recreational features to be added
later.
The feeling of the
director of the National Park Service was that,
like the proposed extension of the Yellowstone
National Park, the addition of the Diamond Lake region to Crater Lake would give
to the national park system something that was intended by nature always to be
the property of the Nation and to be developed as a recreational area for all
the people.
[48]
The bill
passed the Senate on April 5, 1920, and was referred to the House. At that
point, Secretary Edwin T. Meredith of the Agriculture Department sent a letter
to Chairman Nicholas Sinnott of the House Committee on Public Lands opposing the
measure based on certain projected economic uses of the region that he felt
overshadowed its scenic and recreational values. These economic plans included
grazing, possible use of the lake as a storage reservoir, and some limited
commercial lumbering. The secretary felt strongly that
this lake is no different whatever from many other
lakes within the National Forests. It has no particular scenic value, nor is it
an unusual lake in any respect as is the Crater Lake. It is not especially
valuable for scenic attraction, nor is it such a natural phenomena. . . .
It was Meredith's opinion that the recreational
possibilities of the area "can just as efficiently and more economically be
handled under National Forest management. . . ."
[49]
The appearance of this official opposition and
objections by sportsmen on the local level effectively killed the proposal by
ensuring its disapproval by the House. Diamond Lake, which had been stocked with
rainbow trout by the state of Oregon, ultimately became one of the greatest
fishing spots in the region, harboring on its shores the largest rainbow trout
egg-taking station on the continent, producing over seventeen million trout eggs
annually.
[50]
Although the
question of Diamond Lake's future was kept alive and was the subject of many
discussions for several more years, it was finally announced in 1926 that
the president['s] co-ordination committee,
considering the inclusion of Diamond lake in Crater National Park, decided
against the inclusion by a unanimous vote. . . . In a brief speech . .
Congressman H.W. Temple of Pennsylvania, chairman, stated that the committee was
still considering the alteration of the boundaries of Crater National park but
that recommendation designating new areas to be taken in would not include
Diamond lake.
[51]
The park
boundaries as established in 1902 have remained essentially the same except for
a short southward extension of 2-1/2 miles along the approach road added in 1926
to preserve in its virgin state a narrow strip of ponderosa pines.
On December 19, 1980, Congress approved the
addition of 23,000 acres to Crater Lake National Park. This land was transferred
to the park by the U.S. Forest Service in an attempt to preserve it as part of
the American wilderness system.
Illustration 10. "Map Showing the Proposed
Enlargement of the Crater Lake National Park." From Report of the
Director of the National Park Service, 1918.
