The following year Superintendent Thomson elaborated further on the administrative difficulties facing park management. The number of employees in the park ranged from a minimum of four in winter to a maximum of 75 in summer. Up to 70 temporary employees were added to the park rolls from June to October, including a maximum of ten rangers. Administrative problems facing the park included:
The Park season is from July 1st to September 20th but travel sets in when the road is free of snow in May or June and persists until snow permanently closes the Park in November or December. The rail head is Medford 79 miles from Park headquarters, the long truck haul of supplies and personnel adding to administrative difficulties and cost. The Park area is rugged and very heavily forested, presenting a serious fire hazard during the dry season. The heavy increase in travel has strained Park facilities, particularly as to campgrounds, water supply, and sanitation. In personnel we have been seriously cramped, being limited in permanent employees to a disbursing agent, a stenographer, and one permanent ranger.
Park visitation had multiplied “seven or eight times” during the past two decades, while appropriations had “little more than doubled.” Thus, the “disparity between administration and demands upon it” was “becoming increasingly apparent.” [43]
During 1929-30 the park staff was organized into departments, each with clearly defined responsibilities under the supervision of Superintendent Solinsky. The park’s organization reflected the expanded scope and increasing complexity of park operations. The administrative department employed a chief clerk and a senior stenographer. This office staff was augmented during the summer by two clerk-stenographers and one telephone operator. These personnel handled general office work, correspondence, financial matters, information, timekeeping, and other administrative duties. The engineering department was in charge of Engineer Ward P. Webber who was connected with the Park Service field headquarters office in San Francisco and loaned to the park during the travel season This department was in charge of roads and trails and improvements and maintenance, snow removal, and building construction and maintenance. The sanitation department, consisting of four men, handled garbage and refuse removal and kept the campgrounds clean. The protection department headed by Chief Ranger W.C. Godfrey included ten to twelve seasonal rangers whose duties were road patrol, information, guide, and lecture service, compilation of travel statistics, communications and campground services, entrance travel checking, fish planting, wildlife protection, and insect and fire control. The information or educational department, which was in charge of lecture, guide, interpretive, and museum services, was under the supervision of Park Naturalist Earl U. Homuth (replaced by F. Lyle Wynd in July 1930), assisted by three temporary ranger naturalists. A master mechanic headed the mechanical department (consisting of two to three seasonal mechanics) and was responsible for keeping park vehicles, trucks, and equipment in repair. The maximum number of employees on the work-force at one time in 1930 was 160. [44]
Medical and first-aid services were provided in the park for employees, as well as visitors, for the first time during the summer of 1930. Dr. Fred N. Miller, head of the University of Oregon’s health service program, provided such services under contract. His sister Elizabeth Miller, who was affiliated with the Public Health Service of the Pennsylvania State Department of Health, aided Miller during the summer season. Tents were set up at Government Camp, the park headquarters area at Anna Spring, where the medical services were dispensed. Miller would continue to provide such services during the summer seasons under contract until the early 1940s when he engaged in medical services for the war effort. Throughout this period in the park he was paid by monthly deductions from the paychecks of employees of the park, concessioner, and road contractors operating in the park. [45]
