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About the Crater Lake NP Oral
History Series
Can you say something about your experiences at Crater Lake?
I can’t recall all the times we visited Crater Lake. It was
many times. I don’t think it was annually, but certainly many times during the
course of the year. I remember one time we came to Crater Lake from Glacier
Point. The tubes had been drenched from a heavy rainstorm. They were too heavy
for use. But Hank Tanski and John Salinas got us all sorts of heavy weight
materials, about forty pounds of steel that we could us to rebalance the tube
so that the telescopes could be brought back to use as the Rim. They put
traffic cones on the parking areas to reserve the spaces for our telescopes and
we could give slide presentations in the Community House after the formal talks
given by park naturalists. It was very important for us to do these slide
programs, because it allowed us to talk to the public about what it is they are
about to see. I believe that it is essential to have a slide program that
introduces the public as to what they are about to see through the telescope,
before actually allowing them to look through the eyepiece. [JD refers to this
as “flushing them down the tubes.”]
I am forever grateful for the assistance at Crater Lake. Hank would even let me stay in his home at Park Headquarters and let us take
showers. He arranged for subsidizing our meals ($7.00 if we ate on our and
$12.00 if we ate in the restaurant). It was just marvelous. It was wonderful
when Hank Tanski was there. I don’t recall whether or not we were made official
volunteers in the parks, however.
Over how many summer did the Sidewalk Astronomers visit Crater Lake?
I can’t recall, but certainly it was many summers in a row.
We would stay for about sixteen days and have several assistants, but far fewer
than our maximum number of about eight Sidewalk Astronomers. Unfortunately, we
have no written account of our activities at Crater Lake and no photographs. We
never used cameras. I’ve never owned a camera. I think our first visit was in
the late 1970s and our last was in the 1990s. I enjoyed giving public slide
programs at the Community House at Rim Village and then to talk to those who
were curious enough to stay our after dark and climb the ladder to the eyepiece
of the telescope.
We would put people in lines and tell them that if they
wanted to see more after reaching the eyepiece, to get back in line. One time a
lady came to us, climbed the twelve foot ladder to the eyepiece and said, “I’ve
seen them dumb stars” and it was the ranger! [laughter]. We usually start with
Saturn, and then after awhile the mothers with little kids go to bed. Then we
show some of the clusters and galaxies for those wanting to see more and stay
out later.
One year we had been in the park for some time. I noticed
that the back of my van was filled with new supplies of food. I had no idea
where this food came from, so I inquired around. I asked the ladies who worked
at the Lodge. It turns out they were the girlfriends of the boys who worked on
the boats. It was the boat crew who went out and purchased for us a totally
fresh supply of food. They had been to the grocery store and bought sandwiches,
fruit, and all sorts of delicious stuff. They had put all of that food in the
back of my van. It was wonderful. God bless them .
We used to do the boat trip and while down on the lake, used
our hands to scrape up the pollen floating on the surface of the lake and then
consume it. It was very good food, but no delicacy. It’s the biggest pollen
source that I’ve ever seen. I remember coming to Crater Lake in early July and
having thirty foot snow banks. We would put our milk in the snow banks. I’ve
been at Crater Lake over the fourth of July more than once.
One time at Crater Lake, we had our telescopes set up at the
Rim Village area. A man came up to me and said, “These look like Dobsonians.”
I said, “Yes, and I’m Dobson.” The man replied as he shook my hand, “It’s not
often you get to shake hands with a Newton!” [laughter]
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About the Crater Lake NP Oral
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