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1990

January 18            1990       A team of scientists fly on to Wizard Island to continue research on the quality of winter water in the Lake.  They will take readings on the clarity of the Lake water, temperature layers in the water and the mixing between layers.  This is the fifth winter expedition to Wizard Island.

1989 – 1990 Snowfall: 331 inches, 28 feet.

July 4                     1990       Hedi Archibald, a passenger that was seated in the middle of the rear seat of a vehicle driven by James Peters, was injured slightly (bruises) as the result of an accident that occurred when the vehicle driven by Peters, drove off of the established roadway by crossing the northbound traffic land, traveling another approximately 15 feet where the vehicle impacted with a large tree. Heidi’s mother and father seated to her left and right in the rear seat were killed as a result of the collision. The driver, James Peters, is still in a coma in critical condition. Peter’s wife, Doris is hospitalized, but will be released soon. The exact cause of the wreck is unknown.

Faith Archibald, 55 and her husband Paul Archibald, 58 Klamath Falls, died July 4, 1990, in an automobile accident at Crater Lake National Park.

She was born in Nova Scotia, Canada. Faith and Paul were married Oct. 1, 1955, in Trinity  Church, Boston, Mass., and moved to Klamath Falls from Boston in 1982.

Both were members of St. Paul’s Episcopal Church.

Survivors include their son, John, New York; daughters, Heather Mendoza And Holly and Heidi Archibald, all Klamath Falls; her sisters, Maiseie Crowther, Sacramento, Calif., and Jean Rose, Nova Scotia.  (Obit H&N)

August 28, 1991, H/News – Hefty lawsuit blames Ford in deaths of Klamath Falls pair at Crater Lake.  A lawsuit filed in U.S. District Court blames Ford Motor Co. for manufacturing a car that lacked safety features that might have saved the lives of a couple who died in a July 1990 accident.

suit seeks $20 million in punitive damages, alleging the auto maker knew the vehicle the couple was riding in was not adequately equipped to save lives in a collision.  Paul and Faith Archibald died July 4, 1990, when the 1983 Ford Escort in which they were back-seat passengers drifted off a road in CLNP and struck a tree. The Archibalds were wearing seat belts. The other three passengers survived, including their daughter, then 10, who was sitting between them and who was not wearing a seatbelt.  The couple has four surviving children.

July 27                   1990       A woman falls 700′ to her death at Discovery Point at 3:20 p.m.  The only eyewitness, besides her three children (Jeremy, 16; John, 7; and Brittany, 5) was former Crater Lake ranger, Bruce Black, who saw the fall from Wizard Island.  Bruce resides at 850 N.W. Antelope Place, Corvallis 97330. The body of Della Marie Zielinski, 33, of Mead, Washington was recovered the next day.  The Zielinski family had walked out beyond the warning signs to a narrow, rocky, spine-like ridge to gain a better view of Wizard Island. The mother was holding the youngest child when she lost her footing.  The woman tossed the youngster to her teenage son as she fell to her death.

Spokane Woman Killed In Fall From Cliff At Crater Lake Park       AP

CRATER LAKE NATIONAL PARK, Ore. – An Eastern Washington woman was killed in a 700- foot fall from a cliff overlooking Crater Lake, park officials say.

The body of 33-year-old Della Marie Zielinski of Mead, a Spokane suburb, was recovered early yesterday.

Park Superintendent Robert Benton said the accident occurred about 3:30 p.m. Friday at Discovery Point, on the lake’s west side.

Benton said it took most of the night for park rangers and ambulance crews to recover the body because of the steep terrain. The body had to be lowered from the cliff onto the lake and brought by boat to Cleetwood Cove on the lake’s north side.

Benton said Zielinski’s three children witnessed the fall. They were identified as Jeremy, 16, John, 7, and Brittany, 5. The circumstances of the fall were being investigated.

The rim of the caldera, or crater-like basin of the ancient Mount Mazama, is unstable beyond designated viewpoints overlooking Crater Lake.

Park officials said the fatality was not the first of its type at the park. However, they could not recall the most recent accident. A 14-year-boy from Delaware died in a 600-foot fall July  4, 1977, below Crater Lake Lodge. A 26-year-old Californian died Sept. 11, 1976, when he  leaped 600 feet from the Sinnott Memorial Outlook to his death.

Season                  1990       Crater Lake Lodge Company grosses $2.7 million in sales and earns a profit of 28 percent.  Its contract called for a 2 percent return to the Federal Government, which works out to $50,000. The company also pays $695 per year rent for the five government comfort stations at Mazama Campground.  The rent for the new lodge will be purposely kept low so as to encourage the Lodge Company to invest in supplies and operationally equipment.

Season                  1990       A Lodge reconstruction study finds that: the roof joists were built from single 2×4’s with three-foot centers.  The roof, with its annual winter snow load was 300% over stressed.  The engineers are wondering what kept the Lodge from total collapse.  Present Lodge has 125 rooms.  The rebuilt Lodge will have 71 rooms.

Summer                1990       Lake study results in the lowest reading ever of a Secchi Disc in Crater lake: 20.5 feet.  110 species of Diatoms are identified, with 5 major species.  Researchers found 1,000,000 Diatoms per liter.

20 to 50 million gallons of sewage are generated each summer at Rim Village.  Conclusion: The sewer leach field west to the Cafeteria is thought to be contaminating the Lake.

October                  1990       Grigory Galazy, a Lake Baikal scientist and director of the Baikal Ecological Museum, along with another Russian scientist visit Crater Lake.  The visit comes two month after a Soviet-American team found evidence of a hot vent field in Lake Baikal.  The vent area lies about 1300 feet down.

1990       (or it could have been 1989) A C-130 cargo jet was seen flying inside the caldera so low that the jet blast blew a ranger’s hat off.

October 11            1990       Rick Attig, writer for the Bend, Oregon, Bulletin, claims that Park Superintendent Benton is allowing his friends to float tube fish in the Lake.  Since no private boating is allowed, “folks who saw (a fisherman) bobbing around the sapphire-blue lake …and waving to passing tour boats seemed a little perturbed…I called Bob Benton, who patiently explained that he personally approved the three-night stay on the island and that the unusual camping and fishing outing actually was a ‘research’ trip.”  The researcher, Dr. Philip Paden, of Paden Eye Care Center of Medford, said, “There were some very big rainbows in there, mostly 17 to 21 inches.  I only caught about one fish an hour. You can’t imagine what it’s like to be floating there, to be able to see so deep into the water.”

Superintendent Benton was operated on by Dr. Paden for cataracts. During the course of post op conversations, the topic turned to fishing in the Lake. Superindent Benton offered Dr. Paden a chance to float fish the Lake for three days as a “research” project. Dr. Phil spent three days on the island with his float tube catching mostly very long and skinny Rainbows. It was determined that the Rainbows mostly eat the much smaller and stunted  Kokanee Salmon. Dr. Phil stated after his three days on the island and special boat run to retrieve him and his girlfriend, “My mistake was waving at the tour boats as they passed. That is what drew all the negative attention.”  While on Wizard Island, Dr. Phil spotted a pine martin running among the Shasta firs.

Fiscal Year            1990-91 ONPS Budget for the Park is set at $1.9 million

Season                  1990       Visitation: 462,152  (Online says: 384,941)

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