Smith History – 63 News from 1910

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1910

January 17            1910       The U.S. Forestry Bureau will spend $10,000 on Crater Lake next year.  Over half the sum will be spent improving the roads.

March                     1910       Hodson Auto Co.

Medford has more automobiles than any place of its size in the world. This fact has been published repeatedly, and has never been denied, as far as we know. Yet in July 1906 there were six machines in the town, now there are more than two hundred.

The Hodson Auto Company are the pioneers in this industry in Medford, and have always made the Buick car a specialty.

Mr. Hodson was the first one to put an automobile on the rim of Crater Lake; the car that made the trip was a two-cylinder Buick.

The road to Crater Lake at that time was in terrible condition, in fact there were places where there was no road at all, but the little Buick made the trip and returned home none the worse for the journey.

 Mr. Hodson has been very active in the “good roads” movement and has devoted much time and money in the improvement of this road.

The Rogue, March 1910

June                       1910       William Steel of the Crater Lake Company completes arrangements for an auto stage line between Medford and Klamath Falls via Crater Lake.  A crew of men followed Steel’s road inspection tour to work over difficult spots along the road.  Seven machines will be in use, with the trip to the Lake taking 9 hours.  The fare to be charged will be $25.  An extensive advertising campaign is being planned.  Seely Hall of Medford is hired as one of the new drivers.

June 16                  1910       Alfred Parkhurst, the Lodge company’s major stockholder, visits the Park and announces that the new hotel will now be made from stone.  The Lodge will be ornamented in design, be 150 feet long, have glassed porches facing the Lake, and contain four great stone chimneys. (MT)

July 1                     1910       Alfred Parkhurst states that the “guest hall” will be 50 by 80 feet in size, with a great fireplace at either end.  At the west end a huge fireplace will be built for outdoor campfires. (MT)

July 7                     1910       Automobile stage service to Crater Lake thrice weekly is inaugurated.  Comfortable tents with oil heating stoves are available for those who wish to camp.

July 25                   1910       In an Oregonian interview, Frank Keyes, Loge building contractor, states that the Lodge will be constructed of stone throughout.  The material is to come from one of the “nearby volcanic ledges” and will be hauled about half a mile.  Although rough, it is supposedly splendid building rock but is a little difficult to handle.  “A large amount of cement will be used.”  In each room, there will be a large fireplace and mantle “like the old-timers of the backwoods country were used to.”

August 24              1910       Forest fire situation becomes so alarming and dangerous in the mountains adjacent to the Park that for a period of two weeks or more there is scarcely any travel to Crater Lake.  Roads are very dusty.  Superintendent Arant recommends that three good road sprinklers be purchased.

October 9              1910       Two Rim roads proposed, one for autos and one for horse drawn vehicles.

1910       5,000 visitors.  Fishing reported excellent.  Rainbow trout 14 to 20 inches.  50,000 Rainbow Trout are liberated into the lake.

Hiram Copeland of Fort Klamath employed by the government on the crew that blazed the boundary line around the Park.  The work was finished in the vicinity of the South Entrance, and it was “Uncle Hiram” Copeland who made the boundary monument now standing there.  He died soon after the survey was completed.  The Park’s Copeland Creek was named in his honor.

While boatmen rowed Ann Shannon Monroe, an authoress, about the Lake, a strong wind arose in the vicinity of the bay now called Danger Bay.

First part of the Lodge construction begins on the Rim at a cost of $75,000.  The lodge will contain the largest fireplace in the state.  Main part of the Lodge will be built in 1912.

Superintendent’s residence built at Anna Spring. Large forest fires in the Park. Two men lost in the forest of the park and are never found.

Two Locomobles, 40 horsepower, seven passenger auto stages are put in operation between Medford’s Hotel Nash and Crater Lake.  The trip fare remains at $25.00.  “Automobile Rim Road boulevard around Crater Lake will be constructed.  A wagon road also will be built nearby.”

Summer                1910       Iva Clark (Park), 16 and brother Theo Clark, 14, from Portland, while canoeing on the Lake, end up spending the night on Wizard Island because of bad storms and high winds.  Their mother spends the night at the Lake shore, below the Lodge thinking her children have drowned.  She met them with tears and blankets when they paddled back in the morning.

Ranger Springs (or Ranger’s Springs) named by the Forest Service. A camping spot for the summer fireguard was located here, overlooking the Seven Lakes Basin and relatively near the Devil’s Peak Fire Lookout.

November 7          1910       From the Medford Mail Tribune. John Grieve of Prospect reports that a Chicago tourist on a world tour becomes stranded at Crater Lake. E.W. Brown “Starting north felt the call to visit Crater Lake. He made the rim of the lake al right but was unable to make the descent to the water line. He tried to take the trail for Prospect in 8 feet of snow. For three days and nights the young man struggled through the slush and snow without food or fier. Finally when almost ready to lie down and die he was found by a party of cattlemen. He was brought to the Grieve home in Prospect to recover. Brown was crazed by his awful awful experience. After three days he was able to tell his story. He will continue his global tour as soon as he is fully rested.”

Season                  1910       716 guests accommodated at the Park’s two hotels.  Four trails in the Park, one runs from the wagon road 3 miles south of the Lake to Garfield Peak, Applegate Peak, Sun Creek and Sand Creek and Mt. Scott, 10 miles.  One trial runs from Anna Spring to Union Peak, 5 miles, and one runs from Anna Springs to Beebe Prairie for 8 miles.  All trails, except the Lake Trial are little more than horse tracks.  The Lake Trail measures 3, 580 feet in length.  Season: 3,736 visitors.

1910    No one’s sure when white pine blister rust arrived at Crater Lake. But the disease quickly made its way south after being introduced to Vancouver, British Columbia, in 1910 with a nursery stock of infected trees from France. White pine blister rust has flourished in the cool and wet climes of the Northwest, but it’s taken off in the Rocky Mountains, where the disease is most prominent. Diana Tombeck, a biology professor at the University of Colorado at Denver, said she’s studied blister rust for 30 years and is astonished at the spread of its destruction.  “I never dreamed I’d be facing local extirpation” of whitebark pine, she said. Maybe 20 or 30 or 40 percent of the trees will die, but that’s OK. It’s better than 99 percent.”  (Written – 2009)

Season             1910         5,000 visitors

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