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William G. Steel served as superintendent of Crater Lake National Park from July 1913 to November 20, 1916. During his 3-1/2 years as superintendent Steel continued to spearhead efforts for the development of the park that he had done much to bring into existence. His dreams for the park, however, were tempered by the lack of adequate congressional appropriations.

During his tenure as superintendent the park staff grew slowly. A second seasonal park ranger was hired to aid Momyer in 1913. Two years later Momyer became the first permanent park ranger at Crater Lake and a guard was added to the protection force. Thus, the embryonic ranger organization in 1915 consisted of Momyer, First Class Park Ranger; F.J. Murphy, Temporary Park Ranger; and M.L. Edwards, Guard. [1]

One of the first projects carried out by Steel was to establish an enlarged park headquarters at Anna Spring. The name of park headquarters was changed from Camp Arant to Anna Spring Camp. During the summer of 1913 he had a small cottage moved to the main road and had it remodeled for “a convenient office building.” He observed:

Heretofore a small room in the superintendent’s residence has been used for both living and business purposes, which of itself was unsuited for public use; besides, it was fully 200 feet from the road. Within this office I have installed an excellent vertical filing cabinet and have all park papers and correspondence systematically filed. The front room is used by the chief ranger, who registers visitors and issues licenses to the public, whereas the back room is used by the superintendent. This arrangement permits of the entire upstairs being utilized for storing supplies, as sleeping quarters for employees, or for emergency.

The new office, however, became inadequate for park needs by 1915. In that year Steel commented on the need for a new administration building:

The park office has entirely outgrown its usefulness, in that it is totally inadequate for the purpose. The park office proper and the post office are located in a little room 8 by 12 feet, into which at times 40 to 50 people try to crowd and transact business. When the mail arrives on busy days it is simply a physical impossibility to transact business expeditiously or at all satisfactorily either to the public or the employees.

A new modern building should be provided, as soon as possible, of sufficient capacity to meet all requirements for many years to come. The business is increasing rapidly and facilities for the systematic handling of it should keep pace therewith. Aside from convenient facilities for handling a greatly increased business, provision should be made for the public in the way of toilets, waiting rooms, and other comforts and conveniences.