Smith History – 94 News from 1941

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1941

1941      For the past five years, one quarter of a mile of buildings stood along the road at Vidae Falls, which formerly housed the construction crew that built the Rim Road from Headquarters to Vidae Falls.  Another abandoned road construction camp for 100 men stood at the old gravel pit and crusher site under Anderson Bluff.  The men were housed in tent houses, with a 40-foot by 60 -foot mess hall.

1941      Permanent ranger force living in the Park:  Jack Frost, Pete Foiles, Clyde Gilbert, Carlyle Crouch.

February                1941      Winter search for three skiers.  The search is successful.

April                        1941      A private in holding, the Gladstone tract of 73.65 acres is purchased.

 The Wineglass CCC Camp is closed.

July 23                   1941      20,000 Rainbows are planted in the Lake.  This becomes the last fish planting anywhere in the Park.  Over the last 31 years 1,656,000 fish have been planted in the Lake.  Kokanee, the most abundant species in the Lake, was apparently mistaken for Silver Salmon fingerlings and introduced in the 1930’s.  Only Rainbow and Kokanee have survived in large numbers, although occasionally a Brown Trout is caught.

Summer                1941      In a paper published in 1941, (“Establishment of Kokanee in Crater Lake, Oregon,” Journal of Wildlife Management, Vol. 14: 190-193), Orthello Wallis and Carl Bond reported that Dr. F.F. Fish of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service collected four “unusual” fish in 1939.  The fish were delivered to Wallis and Bond at Oregon State College.  They identified the fish as Kokanee salmon, Oncorhynchus nerka, identification confirmed by Carl Hubbs of Scripps Institution of Oceanography. The Kokanee were apparently few in number, since none were found again until 1947.  Even though there was no record of the Kokanee being stocked in the lake, Wallis and Bond speculated that this species was reproducing and had become established there.

October                  1941      A weighing-type recording rain gauge is installed at Headquarters.  Because of the very heavy snowfall, this type of gauge had only limited success.

December 2          1941      One-day precipitation of 5.06 inches.

Season                  1941      Visitation: 273,564 (Online says: 274,002)

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