As a result of Mather’s continuing lobbying efforts Senator McNary introduced legislation (S. 4283) on April 6, 1918, to provide for the transfer of some 92,800 acres of national forest land to the control of the National Park Service for addition to Crater Lake National Park. The proposed extension included a 3/4-mile strip of land on the western boundary as well as the principal nine-mile northward enlargement to include the Diamond Lake region (see map below). In support of this bill Mather noted:
When the park has been enlarged as proposed by this measure an opportunity will be afforded for developing to a very much greater extent the camping facilities of this region. Diamond Lake will lend itself to development as a fishing resort of great importance and other recreational features will be added that will, in a few years, make this park as great a resort as most of the very big national parks. This is its manifest destiny. Furthermore, the enlargement of the park will make conditions more satisfactory from the point of view of the development of first-class transportation, hotel, and camp accommodations, because the traveling public can be induced to spend more time in the park than ordinarily is the case at the present time. More roads will be built, opening up unusually interesting territory, and providing circle trips that will delight the traveler. A road connecting Crater and Diamond Lakes would be a natural development. The addition will also afford better opportunities to protect the wild life of the park.
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. . . .[72]
Map showing the proposed enlargement of the Crater Lake National Park.
