What were the dates for I&RM?
It would have been from about late ‘sixties to about the middle ‘seventies.
So six or seven years.
Yes. I’m trying to think if it’s George Morrison was Chief of Interpretation. I think [Pat] Smith was the first chief to come back. George was the one that asked me to switch over to interpretation, so I did, and then he left that winter. I guess that was it. I think he was a GS-9. So that would have been ’75. Morrison left in ’76 and Pat Smith came in ’77. There was a wonderful man. He’s at Grand Teton now, but he was there for two or three years. Yeah, he came in as Chief of Interpretation and Sholly came in as Chief Ranger. Betts came in as Park Superintendent, and they had a few others they brought in. But those three set the tone for the park. I forget about mentioning Pat Smith. He did so much. He got new displays going, he got the park movie going, the Crater Lake book, the Story Behind the Scenery. He got that rolling. I was supposed to team up with Smith and do it. I ended up teaming up with Warfield instead. Warfield could get things done. Smith was an idea man, but he couldn’t always carry through on things, Warfield carried through and got things accomplished.
He got that other book, The Mountain That Used to Be, published.
Yeah, he did a lot of good writing on that, a great writer. He could have written that whole Crater Lake book (63). He deserved it, but I’d already been asked by KC Publications, so I guess Ron felt somewhat obligated.
When did the road guide go out of print? Was it first published probably in ’53?
It was out of print by the time I started working in ’77 at the Rim Visitor Center. They called it the IB, and then it became the EB. When I was working up there, it was the EB. Then Smith changed it to the VC. But IB was the information building (64). The EB was just what we called it for years and then Smith just changed it suddenly one day. The name EB comes from the big Sinnott Memorial sign that says exhibits. So that’s how the name got picked up as the Exhibit Building. Then in ’77 Smith got a new sign put out there saying Visitor Center. Then he put it right on the building. He says this will be the Visitor Center. He was great for the kind of stuff. He could just change things. He was that kind of guy, a real man of action. He probably did the best training that I’ve ever seen anybody do for interpretation. The guy really knew how to get the message across. But Warfield was an action man. Under him those publications were just pouring out. He got O’Hara in (65). He and his wife Becky made a tremendous team. Of course, things were in their favor. They had no children. They could devote hours and hours to this thing. And he did. He worked overtime and after hours and on his vacations.
