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1988
January 1988 Five Lake researchers spend five days on Wizard Island studying the Lake. The biggest surprise was to learn that fish spawn in January.
January 21 1988 The Portland Oregonian comes out in favor of preserving the Lodge for the benefit of the public. “Crater Lake is a major attractor of tourists to Oregon and a major contributor to the economic health of Southern Oregon. Its role ought not be restricted to five months a year. Thus, the need for a fifth alternative: restoring the historic lodge for year-round accommodations.”
January 26 1988 At a hearing held in Medford, the NPS was told by many in the audience that “Crater Lake Lodge is a historic treasure and needs to be retained in some form. NW Regional Director, Charles Odegaard responded by saying, “ I will make the best decision I am capable about making. Hearings were also held in Klamath Falls, Roseburg and Portland. Several people felt the Lodge should be retained, but turned into an interpretive center.
February 1988 The past seven months have seen the lowest accumulative snowfall on record.
February 25 1988 NPS Northwest Regional Director, Charles Odegaard announces that Crater Lake Lodge will be restored for summer use and a new 60-room year-round lodge and visitors center will be built on the Rim. The total project is estimated to cost $33 million. Lodge rehabilitation costs set at $6.8 million. (The final price tag by 1995 nears $21 million for the old lodge and the costs for the new hotel soars over $66 million.) The key features of the project include: A three-level, 2.5-acre parking structure for about 640 vehicles. An adjacent lot would serve recreational vehicles and tour buses; a new pedestrian walkway, including an underpass below Rim Drive; the existing 400-car parking lot and another 100 parking spaces along the rim would be removed and replaced by natural vegetation. New housing for 98 seasonal employees would be built at Mazama Village, plus a 5,000-foot concession workshop and storage building. A new headquarters building would be built near the south entrance. A smaller dormitory, warehouse, museum storage and offices, plow shed and shuttle bus barn would also be built there.
Consulting engineers had inspected the old Lodge and recommended that it be closed, but last minute repairs by the NPS allowed the building to open for the summer. But because of the weakness of the Great Hall and the possibility of collapse, all “living weight” had to be removed from the upper stories above the Great Hall. No rooms were allowed to be rented above the Great Hall and all furniture and beds had to be removed. People were allowed to gather in the Great Hall and the dining room continued to be used for the summer. The engineers were afraid to sign off on allowing the building to be used because they were afraid of losing their licenses should the Great Hall collapse.
Mark Hatfield was an Oregon Republican Senator (1967-1997) who was involved in several Crater Lake National Park issues. He investigated the 1975 water crisis incident with the Hatfield committee, helped launch a GAO study in 1980 that found health and safety hazards in parks, including Crater Lake Lodge, and it’s need for extensive renovations. Senator Hatfield was also instrumental in attaining land for a boundary expansion in 1980 and in helping to stop geothermal testing and possible construction of a geothermal energy plant on nearby Forest Service land. Senator Mark Hatfield, as chairman of the Senate Appropriations Committee, worked tirelessly to obtain federal dollars to help with the $21 million rebuilding costs. When the first appropriations ran short, Senator Hatfield was able to gather support for further appropriations.
March 28 1988 Karen and Mike Riplinger of Eugene, Oregon, are rescued by helicopter after being lost for seven days in a snowstorm while attempting to ski around the Lake.
April 21 1988 Three peregrine falcon chicks are born on a rocky cliff overlook the Lake. This is the first successful natural hatching of Park peregrines in eight years. The hatching is the culmination of a seven-year effort to reestablish falcons at the Park.
May 12 1988 Jim Milestone, resource specialist reports that both the newly hatched falcon chicks and the mother are missing and believed dead. “It’s a big, big loss,” Milestone said. “It’s a major disappointment.” Great horned owls may have attacked the birds.
1987 – 1988 Snowfall: 369 inches, 31 feet.
June 15 1988 Crater Lake gains special protection from geothermal drilling by being designated by Congress as a “significant” thermal feature. The designation protects the areas around the Park from leasing if drilling will hurt the thermal features.
July 7 1988 Hank Tanski, Assistant Chief of Interpretation, transfers to John Day NM after 10 years of service.
July 12 1988 A boatload of Park visitors is stranded on Wizard Island due to high winds and 7-foot waves. The group reaches the top of the Cleetwood Trail around midnight. Rangers used a small tractor and trailer to pull four people up the trail. One woman had twisted her ankle, one person was nauseous, and two others complained of fatigue.
July 26 1988 A lightning strike on the north side of Mt. Scott burns 0.1 acres. The fire is monitored as a prescribed natural fire. (Dubbed the Prophecy Fire)
August 2 1988 An Aerospatiale Super Puma helicopter lowers a one-man submarine to the boat dock on Wizard Island. NPS fish biologist, Mark Buktenica was quoted as saying, “ This is a fantastic opportunity…a once-in-a-lifetime chance.” Deep Rover, weighing 7,200 pounds will spend the next three weeks exploring the depths of Crater Lake looking geothermal vents, among other things. The three week summer research project will cost $225,000.The sub has a top speed of 1.5 knots.
Following several dives, Jack Dymond and Robert Collier, both oceanographers from Oregon State, describe the bottom of Crater Lake as being a moonscape of underwater cliffs from 50 to 150 feet tall, scattered rocks, mineral deposits and fields of sediment. Dymond was quoted as saying, “I found it an extraordinary experience I have ever had.” At 1,200 feet the scientists could turn off the Deep Rover’s battery powered lights, look up, and still see blue light filtering through the surface. “That is quite an incredible depth for light to penetrate,” Collier said. “It is one of the more amazing things to me.”
The Old Man of the Lake, Crater Lake’s famous floating verticle log, had became a local celebrity, and a legend rose up that he controlled the weather. Naturally, the scientists who helicoptered a small submarine into the lake in 1988 to study the geothermal activity downplayed such an idea. To them, the Old Man was a navigational hazard, so they tied him up near Wizard Island—but the moment they did, the sky grew dark, and a storm blew in. Humbled, the scientists quickly released the Old Man, and moments later, the skies miraculously cleared.
August 8 1988 According to the MT last Friday Oceanographer Jack Dymond becomes the first person to see the bottom of Crater Lake.
August 13 1988 The 13th running of the Crater Lake Marathon.
- 7 miles Don Clary, 31, 34:50
13 miles Ric Sayre, 33, of Ashland, OR 1:09:20 (broke 10 year-old record)
26 miles Don Stearns, 27, of Bend, OR 2:47:17 (has now won all 3 events)
Dawn Welch, 40, of Grants Pass, OR 3:18:22 (new women’s record)
August 14 & 15 1988 Deep Rover locates moss growing in the Lake at 700 feet below the surface, setting a new World’s record for underwater plants, surpassing the old moss depth record of 425 feet.
August 1988 Park Biologist, Mark Buktenica describes the feeling of diving into the Nation’s deepest lake:
“I was sitting alone in Crater Lake, 600 feet underwater in a small submarine name Deep Rover. I had just completed collecting rock samples along an underwater edge of Wizard Island, and I had 135 pounds of rocks in a basket attached to the front of the submarine. Unknown to me at the time, a couple of O-ring seals were leaking throughout the dive. Water seeping through the seals into the submarine, combined with condensation from my breathing, created an uncomfortable amount of water on the floor. My feet were near the front of the vessel, and as I prepared to start to the surface with the rocks, the submarine tilted forward. As the submarine tipped, the water level at my feet rose rapidly, giving the distinct impression that the submarine was filling with water. Garbled and intermittent communications with the surface crew aggravated the situation. Everyone operated expertly and efficiently; Deep Rover and the rock samples were recovered smoothly. Actual dangers and repairs turned out to be minimal, and the submarine dove again the next day.”
(From Crater Lake Nature Notes)
Diving to the deepest part of the Lake: By Mark Buktenica, Park Biologist: “I had the distinct privilege of conducting 17 dives in Deep Rover. As I slowly sank into the depths of the lake, I was engulfed in blue which eventually turned to darkness. The only sounds in the submarine were the creaking and popping of the hull as it adjusted to the increasing pressure and the persistent hum of the carbon dioxide scrubbers cleaning the air. The journey to the bottom could take up to 30 minutes; during which time my personal fears were easily extinguished by the intrigue and demands of the work. After reaching the bottom on my dive to the deepest part of Crater Lake, I shut off the scrubbers and instrument lights to better experience the solitude and quiet, and to briefly reflect on being the first person to visit the deepest part of the lake. After several moments, I looked up through the clear acrylic hull and noticed that the dive flag mounted on top of the submarine was visible, and silhouetted against a slightly lighter background. At 1,932 feet in depth my eyes could detect the vague light from the surface, a surprising testament to Crater Lake’s incredibly clarity. Yet there was little time for introspection. With less than six hours allowed per dive, I was fully occupied with monitoring electrical and life-support systems, operating the submarine, collecting samples, recording observations on tape and film, and communicating with the surface boat via an underwater wireless telephone. Although the submersible was designed to operate instinctively, many of the task I had to perform required extreme concentration and were mentally challenging, physically demanding, and sometimes frustrating. Most of the lake floor is covered by fine sand colored sediments, and operating the sub there was like flying at night over an uncharted desert.
August 15 1988 The Prophecy Fire, burning since July 26 has now covered 20 acres.
August 24 1988 The Prophecy Fire grows from 105 acres to 1,000 acres in one afternoon. By the time it was declared controlled on August 31, the fire-fighting costs ballooned to $700,000. The fire was declared officially dead on December 1, 1988.
August 25 1988 Entrance fees to all National Parks are suspended for one day. Charles Odegaard, regional director, dedicates the old superintendent’s residence as a National Historic Landmark.
Summer 1988 30 natural fires were suppressed. Two natural fires are allowed to burn covering 7.6 acres. One prescribed burn of 14 acres.
Summer 1988 Total of 63 acres burned in the Park.
Summer 1988 Last evening ranger program in the Rim Community House after holding programs in the building for 64 years.
October 29 1988 A hiker along the Pacific Crest Trail discovers the body of Douglas Cracker, one half mile north of Hwy 62. Cracker had died of a single shot to the head. In tracing Cracker’s movements, rangers discover that the young man had left his home in California on August 22 and later stayed in a Klamath Falls motel on the nights of October 7 & 8. On October 9, the motel managers drove him to Fish Lake so that he could hike the PCT, north. When no further word was received from him by October 19, the managers reported Cracker missing. Cracker was seen in the Rim Cafeteria on October 20. That afternoon he began hiking south on the Dutton Creek Trail. He set up camp on the PCT and stayed there one or two days before committing suicide. A note was found in his wallet. Between October 20 and 29 a black bear found the body and dragged it down-slope. Rangers McGuinness and Van Horn were the first rangers to respond to the hiker’s report, but they had to call for assistance when they determined that the bear was present nearby. The retrieval operation pretty much killed the Park’s Halloween party that Saturday night.
November 11 1988 A five-person research team is trapped on Wizard Island for a week by heavy storms. 50 mph winds kept the helicopter grounded.
December 1 1988 Three structures in Rim Village are listed on the National Register of Historic Structures. Two of the buildings had been slated for removal. This complicates the plans for Rim development.
December 20 – 23 1988 Brian Smith, 18, of Jacksonville, Oregon is trapped by a blizzard for four days behind Button Cliff, while attempting to ski around Crater Lake. It took Smith six hours to ski east out to the Dutton area, and three days to ski back to Headquarters. Stove froze, no water or hot food for most of his time out.
1988 Fiscal year: Park budget set at $1.7 million
Season 1988 Visitation: 473,669 (Online says: 443,430)
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