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1978
1978 $250.000 is appropriated for reroofing the Lodge. The project doesn’t begin until the summer of 1981.
February 11 1978 The Crater Lake Wilderness/Cross Country Ski Race is resurrected after a lapse of 40 years.
Gary Dilesky of Hillsboro, Oregon wins the 14 (or it could be 16 mile), “B” ski race in one hour and 54 minutes.
David Beck of Klamath Falls wins the “C” ski race in one hour and 48 minutes.
73 year-old Pete Hedberg, winner of the 32 mile, 1933 Crater Lake – Fort Klamath Ski Race, skis the 14 miles on his old-fashioned cumbersome wooden skis.
Mr. E. Nordeen, 88 years old and former winner, visits the ski race and tells stories about his skiing adventures. (See 1929 entry)
February 20 1978 The Fulton’s mail delivery suburban flips over on the South Road.
March 29 1978 Six rangers lower the Park’s inflatable rescue raft over the Rim and into the Lake for a practice exercise. The first record of winter boating on the Lake. On one of the Lake expeditions, the crew crosses the Lake and overnights in the Wineglass cabin.
March 31 1978 The NPS reports that the new Annie Spring water system has cost $452,596. A total of 1,617 tort claims have been submitted against the Park due to illness caused by the sewer overflow. The loss has totaled $398,614, with several claims still pending. The only lawsuit filed against the government has been filed by the Crater Lake Lodge Company to indemnify them against future claims. (In 2017 a drilled well replaced the Annie Creek water source.)
May 21 1978 Hank Tanski, new Assistant Chief of Interpretation, EOD’s. Hank holds the position for 10 years before transferring to John Day NM. (And retiring from the NPS in 1997)
June 1978 Freddy (possibly Freda) the red fox takes up residence along the Rim Village Rock Wall. He/she makes a living off of numerous Golden Mantle Ground Squirrels. The sight of G.M.G.S. tails and feet sticking out of the fox’s mouth sickens many Park visitors.
Summer 1978 Rangers Marion Jack and Vic Affolter, while on horseback patrol, hear something large crashing through the forest at the old PCT entrance on the West Road. A pinecone is tossed through the air and the strong odor emanating from whatever it was is over powering. The horses become very nervous and skittish.
Summer season 1978 Steve Thomas, heavy equipment and snowplow operator, begins working seasonally at Crater Lake. Steve becames a permanent in 1988. As of 2010 Steve has completed 32 years at Crater Lake and still enjoying his job and the Park very much.
July 1978 Assault by a Forest Service employee on Rangers Hershel Henderly and Jim Donovan at Rim Village. The visitor’s vehicle was chased by several armed rangers to the West Road, where the subject was subdued and arrested with force. The subject was released the next day by the courts and given a light misdemeanor sentence and small fine.
July and August 1978 And during the 1979 season, Dr. Doug Larson, using 350 water samples, identifies 99 species of Lake algae. Most are rare, with only 6 or 7 species being predominate. Obtains a Secchi Disc reading of only 67 feet, or about half the clarity distance measured in 1969.
July 14 1978 A Park visitor runs up and down Wizard Island in 18 minutes after forgetting his tripod at the top. The tour boat was waiting for him.
July 24 to
September 21 1978 A large lightning storm sets several fires in the Park and surrounding area. Two of the fires are allowed to burn. The Sun Creek fire burns 1.5 acres. The Crater Peak-Goodbye Fire eventually burns 540 acres and kills 10% of the mature trees in the path of the flames. Basically the fire is a ground fire, so much brush and accumulated fuels are burned out. Large animals, such as elk are soon seen in the area as the flames cool down. The fire was named “Goodbye” as it was now good-bye to the old fire management plan of attacking and putting out every forest fire. Depending on where the fire is in the Park, its cause and season of the year, some fires will be allowed to burn themselves out naturally. Since the Goodbye fire was within sight of visitors entering the Park from the South, a large sign was placed on the road saying, “Natural Fire, Do not report.” Rangers were also stationed along the road to explain to visitors the reasons for allowing a naturally caused fire to burn.
July 29 1978 John White, NPS seasonal employee, runs from Headquarters to the top of Garfield Peak and back again without stopping, in 45 minutes.
August 1978 A new water system and pipes are installed at Lost Creek Campground.
August 1978 While on late patrol, Ranger Lloyd Smith spots a large bon fire on the top of Llao Rock. Picking up Ranger Larry Smith who had just completed his evening Lodge program, the two of them proceed on around the North Rim. Walking up to the top of Llao Rock, they find three University of Oregon students having an all night Pot Party in a grove of Whitebark Pines, while burning 500 year-old trees on top of one of the highest spots in the Park at 8, 046. The group was charged with illegal drug use, camping out of site, and destruction of natural resources. A large quantity of marijuana was also confiscated from the guy’s van.
August 12 1978 Third annual Rim Run. 457 runners, 82 that are National Park Employees. Nine finished the full 26-mile run.
Rim Run Winners
Men: 6.5 Greg Spruill Springfield, Oregon 33.41
13.0 Darcy Burleson Phoenix, Oregon 1:13.11
26.2 Thom Burleson Eugene, Oregon 2:37.29
Women: 6.5 Carol Kohleim Crater Lake, Oregon 47:13
13.0 Darcy Burleson Chico, California 1:39.24
26.2 Sally Edwards Chico, California 3:33.49
August 13 1976 Large landslide scars the face of Cloudcap and “Chief Red Cloud’s” face.
August 22 1978 NPS Director, Bill Whalen, visits Crater Lake for two days.
August 24 1978 Massive air and ground search conducted by the National Guard and volunteers in search for a Cessna 182 that disappeared in the Crater Lake area with three on board, February, 1975. The search concentrates on a 50 square mile region in the southwestern portion of the park and the Northeast corner of Jackson County. The results were negative.
August 27 1978 Jim Rouse, Crater Lake’s 21st superintendent, enters on duty.
Jim Rouse looking back – written in 2009
The opportunity to remove those tour boats (Ban the Polluting, Noisy Boats) on Crater Lake came and went without much public voice to remove them, back in about 1972, (I believe). I was the Wilderness Coordinator for the Pacific Northwest Region, responsible for preparing the wilderness proposals, arranging for public hearings and preparing the final recommendations for the Regional Director to submit to WASO. So, along with Mount Rainier, Olympic, Mount McKinley, Katmai and Glacier Bay, we also had Crater Lake to prepare.
The proposed wilderness for Crater Lake did not include the lake because of the existing motorboats (Concessionaires). I fully expected that our very vocal wilderness supporting organizations would rise up in protest over the lake not being included; and would demand that the boats be removed. Members of the Wilderness Society, the Sierra Club, Friends of the Earth, Friends of Crater Lake and others expressed their total support for wilderness in Crater Lake N.P., but did not voice objections to the tour boats. They did say there should be no more, and would like to have had their cake and eat it too. Meaning, they felt the lake should be wilderness, but since the boats were an established use, they could be allowed to continue.
Needless to say, a few others and I were disappointed at this outcome, and the recommendations had to go forward without the lake in wilderness.
Now, some might think that when I later went to Crater Lake as Superintendent, 78-84, that possibly I could have made a change in this. However, after an approved GMP, the Wilderness Review, and lack of public support to remove the boats, it just couldn’t happen. We did all we could to prevent any fuel pollution from the boats, and we required U.S. Coast Guard inspections, and relied on our onboard Ranger/Interpreters to not only give the visitors an excellent geological/and unique understanding of the Crater Lake formation, but also to serve as a constant monitoring of boat use. My hat goes off to the many exceptional interpreters we had performing this role. However; I totally agree with Owen and Jerry, and others who believe that Freeman Tilden, and in the case of Crater Lake, William Gladstone Steele, would have preferred that the highest quality of visitor experience to Crater Lake is to view it from the Rim without the visual, out of place, boats on the lake, and their sounds.
My thanks to Art Allen, my old planning stable-mate back in the Eastern Service Center in 67/68 for allowing me this opportunity to report a bit of background on this controversial issue. Don’t give up, for perhaps through another NPS Management Policy directive specific to this issue, anther opportunity may come again. But, it will be tough to get the support of the public on long established use.
August 1978 An older couple, because of a misunderstanding of the boat schedule, is left overnight on the Island. They light a huge fire that is easily seen from Rim Village, but because of the danger of running a boat at night, rescue is held off until first light. The woman in the group promises to really stir things up in Washington “because of top connections.” Superintendent Rouse treats the two of them to breakfast at the Lodge.
September water year Precipitation for the water year: 55.58 inches.
September 8 1978 Gary Roden, 29, of Enumclaw, Washington, asks Ranger Hank Tanski for permission to leave his pack at the Visitor Center for a few hours while he explored the Rim Village area. When Gary did not return by closing time, Hank left a message and phone number on the door of the center and took the pack to Headquarters, returning to the Rim area several times during the evening, in search of Roden. Several days later, Hank discovered a postcard of Wizard Island in Roden’s pack saying, “I are on the island, and I’m not coming back alone.” This note, plus the report of several visitors say they had seen movement on the Island, prompted Tanski and Rick Kirchner to attempt a rescue in the Park’s Zodiac Raft that first required carrying the boat down the Cleetwood Lake Trail. As the craft arrived outside the boathouse, the door was flung open and Roden asked, “Are you looking for someone?”
Roden claims to have swum over to the Island with the idea of committing suicide by swallowing drugs, including cocaine. Roden had a change of heart and supposedly burned the drugs. He spent his first two nights in the Island’s crater, the next two nights under the trees and one night in the boathouse. He also thought that the Island would be a quiet place to play his silver flute, which he had brought with him. Roden stated that the water was two cold to swim back, and waited five days for his rescue. The only food Gary was able to find was a shriveled up orange in one of the boathouses. On the way back to Cleetwood, as Hank was offering Roden part of his lunch, he asked Hank, “Are there any fish in the Lake?” Since this is the number one question asked by visitors and since Hank had heard the question all summer, he said he felt like pushing Roden overboard. It was later determined that Roden was a mental patient from Salem. (Story from Hank Tanski as related to the authors.)
September 8 1978 Tana Hill and Chief Ranger Dan Sholly marry in the Lodge. They had planned for the ceremony to take place at Sun Notch, but inclement weather forced the marriage inside.
September 28 1978 A prescribed forest burn of 6,000 is set in the Park’s northeast corner, east of Timber Crater. The fire spreads at a speed of 35 feet per hour. By October 22, 2,600 acres had burned. A thick thermal layer of air over the area sends smoke into the Rogue Valley.
October 1978 Mrs. John Creaghan of Baton Rouge, LA, Granddaughter of John Wesley Hillman, visits the Park.
October 2 1978 Male bear destroyed by Ranger Mark Forbes near Mazama Campground.
October 11 1978 The prescribed burn set 13 days previously reaches 1,200 acres in size. Two previously naturally caused fires are allowed to burn.
October 18 1978 Superintendent James Rouse issues a new pet policy allowing permanent Park residents and employees to keep pets in the Park for the first time.
October 26 1978 80 people are suing Crater Lake Lodge because of the 1975 water problems.
October 30 1978 The top one-third of a nearly dead Mountain Hemlock tree breaks off during a windstorm, knocking holes in the roof and walls of Stonehouse #28. One of the logs pierced the upstairs bedroom ceiling, shattered a new chest of drawers, and sent plaster flying around the room. The larger log pierced the wall above the window frame in the pantry, crossed the pantry and shattered on the kitchen wall, narrowly missing Hank Tanski and Ron and Joy Mastrogiuseppe. Flying plaster drew blood from Ron’s upper lip. (Story from Hank Tanski as related to the authors.)
October 1978 Thirty pronghorn antelope are spotted by Teri Thomas at Desert Creek.
November 1978 Greg Weidel and Sara Shapira begin operation of the Crater Lake Ski Service. Greg and Sara live in a converted 1952 Blue Bird school bus parked in the center of the Rim parking lot. The ski service first used the Rim Cafeteria, and then the Rim Center for the next four winters and the V.C. in 1984. Greg and Sara named the “Hemlock Ski Trail” and the “Raven Ski Trail.”
November 1978 The Ashland Daily Tidings reports that the Civil Air Patrol notified Sheriff’s deputies that the patrol had sighted a “Help” sign spelled out on rocks in the Trapper Creek area of Crater Lake National Park. Deputies reported an unsuccessful search of the area.
November 9 1978 Multnomah County Circuit Court jury awards $19,000 in damages to Janice Joachim of McMinnville, Oregon. $4,000 in general damages and $15,000 in punitive damages. Mrs. Joachim became ill after visiting Crater lake Lodge in July of 1975. The Joachim suit if the first of nearly 100 that are still pending.
December 17 1978 A porcupine is discovered near Steel Circle, northwest of the power plant, with it’s underneath hollowed out and with mountain lion tracks in the surrounding snow.
Season 1978 Total fees collected at the entrance stations: $207,000, which is about 20% of the total Park budget.
Visitation 580,061 visitors (Online says: 553,374)
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