Marvin Nelson

Was Marion Anderson there the whole time you were at Crater Lake?

Yes. He was here in Medford when I transferred in and he was still there at Crater Lake after I retired. He married that Mary Shearer and they’re in California now. They live in a retirement home near Napa. I’ve got the name of it in there if you want it. Marvin Hershey was a ranger at Crater Lake and he’s over at Napa, too.

Was there anybody else on the administrative staff that lasted as long as Marion Anderson and you?

I don’t think so.

Would other people just stay a couple of years and then go on to something else?

Well, my staff was pretty stable except for the superintendent’s secretary. The first one got sick and dropped out. The when we moved to Crater Lake, Rae-Marie Foley was the wife of one of the seasonals up there and took over as secretary up there. They’ve retired from Glacier by now.

 We talked about radio communication that time.

When I first came to Medford they had one of these great big cabinet radios and we had radio contact with the park through it. A company in White City, made arrangements with the Park Service and they put in that reflector up on Garfield.

The microwave repeater?

Yes. It worked a lot better than the radio.

Were power outages a problem up there with the above ground lines?

Occasionally, yes.

Before everything was switched to Crater Lake, how many times would you have gone up to the park over the course of a year?

Well, I was probably up there once a week.

For all day?

Yes.