Smith History – 147 News from 1994 Champion Crook Caught

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1994

1994       The Llao Rock Research Natural Area (RNA) is established and is closed to public entry whenever the area is covered by less than one continuous foot of snow. The Llao Rock RNA is located along the northwest caldera rim and encompasses 435 acres. The closure shall be in effect whenever signs are present designating the closure and when so posted on the park website (click here to go to the park website current conditions page).

Justification: Prior to the last decade, Llao Rock received minimal recreational use. However, it has recently become increasingly popular and has even been mentioned in several media sources as a hiking destination. The Llao Rock RNA was designated to protect rare plant species and preserve Whitebark pine (Pinus albicaulis) communities, subalpine pumice and ash fields, and an alpine community mosaic. The increased visitor use has led to damage to sensitive resources which the RNA was designated to preserve and protect.

Four RNAs are established: The Pumic Desert RNA covers 2,950 acres.

The Llao Rock RNA covers 435 acres and is closed to the public.

The Desert Creek RNA covers 1,830 acres

The Sphagnum Box RNA covers 160 acres and protects 170 identified plant species.

April                        1994       The NPS issues a new draft of a proposed winter use management plan.  Winter visits to the Park during the past ten years have been increasing 3% per year, where summer visits have been decreasing slightly.

May 9                     1994       Five public hearings are held around the state to present findings and solicit responses to Crater Lake’s new Development Concept Plan/EIS and Winter Use Plan.  Many issues affecting Park management are discussed including:  Protection of the Ponderosa stand, density of development, Habitat protection, protecting older growth Hemlock, snow removal, visual protection zones critical to visitor experiences, etc.

May 12                   1994       After having spent 10 years in prison for stealing over $100,000 from campground cars (including Mazama Campground several times) during the 1980’s, Harold Mark Huddleston of Portland is again arrested for a $200,000 campground car clouting spree spread out over five state area.

MAREZ, Sun Staff Published Saturday, May 21, 1994 Police Trail Nation’s No. 1 Campground Thief GRESHAM, Ore. (AP) — Authorities have arrested the man they consider the nation’s No. 1 campground thief. Now they’re faced with the laborious task of cataloguing the thousands of items he allegedly snatched.

The list includes about 10,000 compact discs, 5,000 knapsacks, dozens of fishing poles, sleeping bags, coolers, pairs of sunglasses, a chainsaw, jewelry and five $400 tickets to Barbra Streisand concerts. There are an estimated 50,000 items in all — six pickup truck loads worth of property taken from cars parked at campgrounds around the West. And police have to list each item by hand. “Imagine going through these boxes of CDs and listing every individual CD by artist and title,” Sgt. David Lerwick said. “It’s a monumental task.” Harold Mark Huddleston, 51, described as the nation’s No. 1 campground thief, was arrested last week after raids on his home in Gresham and a storage garage in Hillsboro.

Huddleston has been convicted eight times on burglary, drug and stolen property charges stretching back to 1963. He has served time in prisons in Oregon, California, Oklahoma and Utah. He was serving a 15-year sentence when he was paroled in 1991. Since then, authorities in California alone have connected him to 1,200 car break-ins, and losses of more than $1 million. “This guy is a genuine career criminal, a sociopath with a true criminal minds,” said Kelly C. Carroll, Huddleston’s probation officer in the 1970s. “He made life miserable for people at these campgrounds because he’d been doing it for two decades and they couldn’t stop him.”

Huddleston fashioned a wire tool he was able to stuff down the back of his jacket. At the campground, he would pry up the car roof and use his tool to crank open the window while the owners slept in their tents nearby. Lerwick said he was confronted several times by campers, but was able to talk his way out of trouble. “He would tell them he was homeless and looking for food or drugs so they wouldn’t report the theft and he’d get away with it,” Lerwick said. ” He’s a very convincing individual. Very sincere.”

Authorities got a break when Huddleston moved into the same Gresham apartment complex as police Sgt. Larry Ward, who noticed Huddleston’s odometer showed he routinely made weekend trips of about 3,000 miles. Ward shared his information with California state park supervisor Jeffrey Bovee, who also was investigating the case. What followed was a jurisdictional mess that took three years to work out, Lerwick said. Huddleston’s wife, Pamela Huddleston, 42, said her husband has a legitimate business dealing in used CDs and devotes his weekends to his daughter’s high school athletic competitions or visiting his mother. “They’re dreaming,” she said.

Lerwick said officers searching Huddleston’s house shouted with joy when they discovered marked items planted in a car at a California campground. One of them was a marked copy of “Redhead Kingpin — and the FBI.” “It was great. I’ve never seen so many officers smile at one place,” he said. “Even though the work is drudgery they’re happy because they’re able to put Huddleston in jail. And he should stay there a long while.

August                   1994       Running of the 19th annual Crater Lake Rim Runs

Men:         6.7        Presley Pyle, 22, Crater Lake                           36:26    13.0

Mickey Losinski, of Klamath Falls, OR             1:21:40

26.2

Martin Balding, 57, of Susanville, CA          3:11:41 (3rd win, 16 straight run)

Women    6.7        Barb Bjerke, 46, of Klamath Falls, OR              49:23    13.0

Nikki Rafie, 32, of Tigard, OR                            1:33:36

26.2

Becky Reitinger, 36, of Ashland, OR                3:52:04

August 25              1994       Lake scientists announce that a new record for lake clarity, eclipsing a mark set in 1937.  An 8 inch black and white Secchi disc was visible at a depth of 40.8 meters.  The recording in 1969 was 39 meters.  In August 1991, a reading of 20.3 meters or 67 feet was recorded. Previous highs for water clarity were all recorded at the end of droughts in 1937 and 1969.  Doug Larson’s record 45 meter reading was accomplished with a one-meter wide disc.

September 3         1994       Father and son are left on Wizard Island. After taking flotation devices from the boathouse and oars, the two cut the big boat dock loose and attempted to paddle to beneath the Lodge. Instead the spend a windy, rainy night out on the Lake. The storm prevented a night rescue.

November             1994       Greatest November snowfall ever recorded at 190.5 inches.  Twice the normal average.  The greatest single monthly reading for the last eleven years!

Season                  1994       Total of 44 fires.  All except three are lightning caused.

Season                  1994       Friends of Crater Lake and Park staff build a two mile reroute of the Pacific Crest Trail, connecting the existing PCT to an alternative Rim Trail, giving hikers a view of the Lake.

December 29        1994       Three earthquakes with magnitudes of 2.3, 2.6 and 2.4 occur near Rim Village within 20 minutes of each other on the afternoon of Dec. 29, 1994. The two largest of those were felt by people in the park. A 1997 USGS Crater Lake hazards report indicated they occurred along a system of regional faults.

 1994       Publication of: Vertical distribution of a deep-water moss and associated epiphytes in  Crater Lake, Oregon,” by C.D. McIntire, H.K. Phinney, G.L. Larson and M. Buktenica, Northwest Science, Vol. 68, No.1, 1994, pages 11-21.

Season                  1994       28,000-lake launch passengers took boat rides on the Lake.

Fiscal Year            1994       ONPS Budget set at: $2.7 million

Visitation                1994       500,080  (Online says: 454,215)

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