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About the Crater Lake NP Oral
History Series
What was your first visit to a park?
It must have been Death Valley National Monument because the
mirror of the 24-incher was not yet aluminized, it was only silvered. And the
man who slivered it wrecked the edge, so I was to read the curve for refiguring
and I hadn’t got it done until the last day because we came into Death Valley through a blizzard which tied up several thousand motorists in the passes. We
needed to take it to a dark sky location to see what the telescope could do.
It was in 1971 and we went out every two weeks which coincided with the
opposition of Mars. Because we went out every two weeks, we could see the
entire surface of the red plant.
Getting the 24-incher completed was all due to the tenacity
and commitment of Brain Rhodes. I think we took it first to Glacier Point [in Yosemite National Park].
We typically would stay for two weeks at the park, and make
sure someone was with the telescope during the day. We were most concerned that
no one turned these telescopes into the sun. That was one of the big problems
with a telescope left out during the daylight hours in the parks. One time in Death Valley we witnessed parents allowing their children to play inside the telescopes.
One time at Glacier Pt. we saw children playing inside the telescopes and
climbing on them. Sometimes they would throw things into them.
At Zion and Yosemite national park we received a stipendium
from their natural history associations and were treated as official
Volunteers-in-the-Parks. I think we have visited a total of about twelve
national parks and monuments. We are still active each winter at Death Valley because Bill Clarke there made us unpaid employees, which allowed the group to
be covered for insurance purposes and we could camp without being charged fees.
Was there anyone in particular who recognized the
potential of the Sidewalk Astronomers as park partners and park volunteers?
At Crater Lake one of the naturalists, Hank Tanski, made us
Volunteers-in-Parks and got us a food allowance. When the treasurer of the
natural history association at Zion heard that more than three thousand people
had used our equipment in six days and nights, he wrote us a check for $500.
Dave Karraker in Yosemite really understood how things should be done. He saw
the value of the Sidewalk Astronomers and wanted to have us give our slide
shows in an amphitheater that would eventually replace the location of the
portable toilets at Glacier Point. He envisioned that we would have several
telescopes arranged along pathway where the old Glacier Point Hotel had been,
and have people walk from telescope to telescope. A Sidewalk Astronomer
volunteer would be at each telescope to make fine adjustments and tell the
viewer what they were seeing. Sadly, Dave Karraker left Yosemite and this idea
never was truly realized. He once said that if the National Park Service were
to have a formal night sky program, the Park Service would have to purchase the
telescopes, house them, and then have to hire someone to maintain the
telescopes. But with the Sidewalk Astronomers, they could tour more than just
one national park for only $5,000 a season.
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About the Crater Lake NP Oral
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