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1992
February 11 1992 The Mail Tribune reports in a headline, “Crater Lake officials push Rim Village plan”. The NPS is renewing their efforts to win support for their plan to develop Rim Village. Despite objections from members of Congress, the agency argues that their massive plan is the best way to respond to the needs of park visitors, improve on outdated or nonexistent facilities and remove hazards that threaten the lake’s pristine environment. Superintendent Morris claims, “Crater Lake is the only major national park in the country with no complete visitor center.”
February 24 1992 The MT reports that the NPS’s new Rim development plan have soared to $93 million. $5.5 millions has already been spent on planning and another $6.8 million will be spent before the year is over. By the end of this year, the NPS will have spent a total of $23.6 million on sewage system improvements, utilities, lode renovation and planning for future construction. Rep. Les AuCoin of Oregon said, “I acknowledge that this is a big price, but the nature of a big investment is it yields big dividends.” AuCoin feels the potential return of $6 million a year to southwestern Oregon’s economy. Skittish over rising costs for the project, Congress last year told the Park Service to come back with a list of alternatives by going through the entire plan. The NPS asked for $35 million in fiscal 1993 and $35 million more in fiscal 1994. AuCoin suggested starting out with $10 million to $15 million and spreading the funding out over more time. A study indicated the center would draw 400 extra visitors a day, with ripple effects that would spread $6 million a year from Bend to Medford.
March 13 1992 The MT reports that representatives from four Northwest environmental groups have launched a campaign to stop development at the Park, with a letter pressing key members of Congress to oppose financing for a hotel and other proposed construction. Dave Morris, Park Superintendent responded by saying, “I can understand where they’re coming from philosophically, but from an actual environmental impact point of view, it’s a hard argument to make.”
March 16 1992 Two skiers from Grants Pass, Ron Miller, 18, and Alex Stevens, 26, miss the North Junction and accidentally ski around the North Rim. After building a fire and eating in the Palisades area, they turn around and are found by Park rangers at 2 a.m.
March 31 1992 A section of the West Rim Road opens to traffic. The earliest cars have been able to drive partially around the Rim.
Spring 1992 Contract for phase two of the Lodge reconstruction project is awarded to a Portland Company for a bid of $8.9 million. The new lodge will have 71 rooms when completed. Each room will be enlarged over the old ones. The project should take two to three years. Landscaping and outside restoration will be a third phase. The Park Service is still “studying” the erosion problem behind the Lodge. One scientist says the slippage is great, while two other colleges say the rate of sliding is virtually nonexistent…”at least during the life of the new lodge.”
114 rooms – 294 guests, plus 90 employees living on the top two floors, reduced to 94 rooms. The “Grand Lodge” that Will Steel imagined in 1910 finally became a reality in 1995.
May 4 1992 Eight inches of measurable snow on the ground at Park Headquarters. Average snow level at this time of the year is 110 inches.
May 9 1992 East Rim Drive opens, followed two days later by the opening of the complete West Rim Drive. By far the earliest Rim Drive opening in history.
May 15 – 17 1992 “Crater Lake National Park: Still Beautiful at 90”, A symposium celebrating the Park’s 90th Anniversary, held at Southern Oregon State College, in Ashland, Oregon.
May 17 1992 The MT quotes Andy Kerr, of the Oregon Natural Resources Council, as saying, “Crater Lake National Park is a sacred place, threatened from within and without and the NPS should defend it. The most serious threat is the U.S. Forest Service. The USFS seeks to surround the Park boundary with clear cuts. They’re doing pretty well at it.” He went on to encourage Park employees to leak information to the press. “Leaking makes you feel better. “ His vision of the Park is a pristine place where private vehicles are banned; buses, bicycles and feet take Park visitors to sightseeing spots.
May 18 1992 The Portland Oregonian reports that a state of Oregon tourism survey has found that Crater Lake is the state’s 7th most visited attraction following Multnomah Falls (1.5 M), Washington Park Zoo, Tillamook Cheese Factory, and the Bonneville Dam.
May 22 1992 Crater Lake’s 90th Anniversary as a National Park.
May 24 1992 Limnologist Douglas Larson of the U.S. Army Corps claims in an article in the Oregonian, that decades of stalling the installation of new sewer facilities for the Rim Cafeteria Building has muddied the waters of Crater Lake. “Something has happened to the Lake since July of 1969 when Oregon State University measured the Lake’s clarity with a Secchi disk reading of 144 feet, setting a new world’s record for temperate lake clarity. Readings obtained during the summer of 1978 were all less than 100 feet. Perhaps the scientists had placed too much faith in the NPS, believing that the agency would diligently protect the lake at all costs.”
May 29 1992 Park Superintendent, David Morris contests Doug Larson’s claim that the clarity of Crater Lake has been compromised by the Park Service’s ignoring evidence that sewage was contaminating the Lake. Mr. Morris stated that, “There is no evidence to suggest that a significant amount of sewage has entered the Lake. We have yet to pinpoint what, it any, man-induced activities have or are affecting the clarity of the lake”. (Oregonian)
1991-1992 Snowfall: 166 inches. (14 feet) Average snowfall for the past 10 years is 38 feet, which is 16 feet below the previous 60-year average of 54 feet.
June 1992 The NPS begins studies for the redesign of boat docking facilities at the base of the Cleetwood Cove Trail. The studies include the possibility of repairing and or replacing of facilities at the trailhead, and the replacement of old and decaying retaining walls along the trail. (See: Summer 2002. The bulk head was finally replaced.)
June 1992 Crater Lake Lodge Company begins an employee policy of random drug testing. One employee, Matt Rubsam, 20, is quoted as saying, “With something like the boat tour, it’s practical, but standing around bored behind a cash register? Come on!”
July 14 1992 A massive ground search of the Rim area below Rim Village looking for Glen Allen Mackie, missing since, October 1991. The ground search is to check out areas that a two-week aerial search has been unable to cover. No sign of the missing man.
June 19 1992 “Bear”, a chow dog, plunges 800 toward the Lake after his owner allows the dog to play on a snow bank in front of the Cafeteria Building. Rangers attempt a repelling rescue, but fail to locate the dog who is finally given up for dead. “Bear” shows up at Rim Village a week later. Speculation is that the dog ate ground squirrels to keep alive.
August 8 1992 17th Annual Crater Lake Rim Run Winners:
Men: 6.7
Nate McDowell, 34:24 13.0
Scott Martin, from Ashland, OR 1:17:45
26.2 Andrew Bielecki, 33, from Kapaa, Hawaii 2:56:27
Women 6.7 Cheryl Tronson, from Bend, OR 41:45
13.0 Jeanne Lansing, from Grants Pass, OR 1:38:43
26.2 Hilary Simmons, from Roseburg, OR 3:26:42
August 26 1992 The National Park Service estimates that it will take in excess of $2 billion to correct and repair aging National Park facilities. Last year these facilities saw more than 268 million visitors, an increase of 16%. The crowds are expected to grow to 360 million by the year 2000.
August 26 1992 The Grants Pass Daily Courier quotes the superintendent’s annual park report as saying, “If ‘91 isn’t better substantially (at Crater Lake Lodge), we’ll all have a real problem on our hands.” He called the concessionaire, “a slipshod operation that fell short of the established standard. The concessionaire has been chronically delinquent in accomplishing needed maintenance. Food quality …has been a perennial problem for several years.” (Sounds like a similar report 60 years ago.)
Summer 1992 A new sewer line connecting the Rim Cafeteria to the Munson Valley lagoons is installed down the center of the Rim access road. The removal of the last septic tank on the Rim comes 14 years after Dr. Doug Larson expressed concerns that the failing leech system was the source of nitrates found in the Lake. Columnist Alston Chase claims that the “official Park Service attitude is that there isn’t a problem, but we’re fixing it.”
September 16 1992 Kerstin Hadelka, 23, of Gelsenkirchen, Germany, falls to her death inside the caldera, just below Rim Village. She had been traveling in the U.S. for less than a week. She and her friend were hiking below the Rim in a dangerous and closed area. Her body was found about 300 feet above the Lakeshore. Kesrtin died of a broken back.
November 2 1992 The new Rim sewer project is completed at a cost of $480,000. The old and failing cafeteria septic system above Dutton Spring and Trail is closed.
November 16 1992 An Inspector General’s report cites Crater Lake and 33 other national parks for failing to provide proper ecological protection. The report says that the Park may have been able to prevent the decline of native bull trout, which is on the endangered list, by having kept a closer watch on fish and wildlife and acting earlier. A 1947 survey of Sun Creek found 3,000 bull trout. A 1989 survey found only 130 trout.
Season 1992 A drop of 12 feet in lake elevation in 8 years. Fastest drop in such a short time, beginning in 1986.
Season 1992 Crater Lake is again placed as the 7th most popular tourist attraction in the state, behind: Multnomah Falls, Portland Zoo and the Tillamook Cheese Factory.
Fiscal Year 1992 Fiscal Year: Park Budget set at $2.5 million.
Season 1992 Visitation: 511,500 (Online says: 461,669)
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