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1997
January 1997 For the first time in seven years, rangers conduct winter lake research by conducting water quality research from their base station on Wizard Island. The Park had stopped the winter sampling excursions in 1990 because the research boat was no longer safe, but they now have a new boat.
January 18 1997 A Milwaukee, Oregon woman is killed when the snowmobile she was operating strikes a tree, on the North Road, between the North Entrance Station and Hwy 138. Mary Stewart Lanz, age 62, was at the park with members of her family. Oregon State Police initially investigated the accident. The Park Service was not alerted until several hours after the accident. Another snowmobile accident occurred about an hour later within in a mile of the first accident. One person was seriously injured. Because of heavy rains, the snow pack was extremely icy.
February 4 1997 The Mail Tribune quotes a Medford pilot who reported seeing “three strange lights” near Crater Lake. The pilot was flying a small plane from Bend to Medford when he spotted the U.F.O’s. He said he also saw several military jets pursuing the strange lights. A loud sonic boom rattled windows and set off car alarms up and down western Oregon the evening of the 4th. Was it a meteor, or an explosion, sonic boom or a visitor from another world?
March 24 1997 Randall Payne, establishes one of the first National Park portal web sites for the national parks, titled: The Unofficial Guide to the National Parks concentrating on Crater Lake, Rainier and Olympic and eventually expanding to include all national parks of the Northwest, including Montana. Randall wanted to get information out on the web to enhance efforts to protect the parks.
June 1997 A report in Oregon Business Magazine places Crater Lake National Park 4th in state visitation after the Oregon Coast Aquarium (1.3 m), Bonneville Dam (1.1 m), Portland Zoo (1.1 m), CLNP (.5 m).
June 23/25 1997 Mark Buktenica, Crater Lake’s aquatic ecologist, announces a new clarity record using a Secchi disk of 43.3 meters (142/144 feet). This is the clearest the Lake has been since the first measurement in 1896. Most lakes only measure 16 feet. Some of the factors for the rise in clarity could possibly be: a cyclical decline in the fish population, less plant plankton in the winter, the fact that the Lake is cold for its entire depth, and that Lake rose 4 feet this past winter. (See August 5, 1969 where Dr. Doug Larson claims a world clarity record of 45.0 meters.)
June 27 1997 Quoting Chief Ranger George Buckingham, the Mail Tribune reports that so far the public has accepted the doubling of entrance fees at most National Parks and Park areas. “They are OK with the fee as long as it stayed at Crater Lake. Crater Lake will undertake 18 improvements projects with the revenue, including the restoration of the Watchman Fire Lookout, plant new vegetation and replace the ugliest entrance signs known to mankind. The key is to replace or improve things people can hear, feel, see, and touch.” The Park keeps 80% of every entrance dollar.
Summer 1997 Additional research boat, the Ouzel, is lowered into Crater Lake. 19 foot, aluminum
- SAFE boat, rigid foam collar for extra floatation 175 h.p. outboard engine, manual boom arm and winch for water sampling.
July 11 1997 A German Park Visitor’s ribs are fractured as he slides down snowy Watchman Peak and tumbles into a rock outcrop. Stephan Weiss, 38, is flown by Helicopter to Providence Hospital in Medford. Weiss slipped in and out of consciousness as he waited for the airlift.
July 15 1997 Beat tours are halted at Cleetwood Cove due to a fuel spill. Some fuel spilled onto the ground, but there was no indication of any fuel entering the Lake. Shut down for 5 days.
July 23 1997 Fire scorches an acre of Wizard Island Mail Tribune? Medford, ?By DOUG IRVING
Firefighters on Tuesday mopped up a fire that burned about an acre of Wizard Island in Crater Lake National Park. The fire started late Monday morning and smoldered through Tuesday afternoon. It blackened manzanita brush, grass and four trees in steep terrain on the 600-acre island.
Fire investigators believe the fire could have been caused by a cigarette, park management assistant John Miele said. The fire started next to a trail and was man-caused, he explained.
“A person shouldn’t have been smoking on the island in the first place,” Miele said. “It’s too hot and dry.”
Boat tours of the lake continued on schedule during the fire, but the island was off-limits to tourists Monday and Tuesday.
The boat tours had resumed Saturday, after being suspended for almost a week because of an eight-gallon gasoline spill July 13 at Cleetwood Cove.
Five firefighters boated to the island around 11:30 Monday morning, said incident commander Chris Chiverton. They dug containment lines around the fire with hand tools and used bladder bags – backpacks filled with water – to keep the fire under control.
The firefighters camped overnight on the island and were joined Tuesday morning by six more firefighters. They spent Tuesday walking the area, shoveling dirt onto the cinders and breaking up burning logs.
“It’s just grubbing, grubbing, grubbing,” Buckingham said. “It’s hot and dirty and unexciting. It’s not even as much fun as gardening.”
The island fire was the second in the park in as many days. A small blaze Sunday burned .17 acres and was linked to an illegal campfire.
“Both of these fires were man-caused,” Miele said. “People that use parks and campgrounds need to obey the rules.”
August 3 1997 Wouter Korver of Utrecht of the Netherlands runs to the top of Mt. Scott in 25 minutes and 57 seconds.
August 31 1997 Inspired by Al Smith’s (Lodge House Boy) 1939 trek around Crater Lake, Larry Smith hikes around the Crater in 14 hours. 40 miles via Lost Creek and Grayback.
(See Al Smith – Summer – 1939)
7:15 touched HQ flagpole
8:00 Rim Village
9:30 Watchman
10:15 NJ
11:50 Cleetwood
12:50 Wineglass
2:30 Mt. Scott
3:05 Pumice Castle
5:15 Lost Creek
7:50 Vidae Falls
9:20 touched the HQ flagpole.
September 14 1997 Multi-million dollar award. 1995 Crater Lake helicopter crash resulted in death, $29 million award. A federal jury awarded more than $29 million to the family of a West Linn man who died in a helicopter crash two years ago in Crater Lake. The eight-person jury in U.S. District Court in Portland unanimously awarded the sum Friday to the estate of Edward Tulleners Jr. after a weeklong trial against American Eurocopter Corp. Tulleners, a businessman, was on a trip to Las Vegas for his 45th birthday in September 1995 when the seven-passenger helicopter crashed into the lake. The crash also killed the pilot, George W. Causey, 52, of Enumclaw, Washington. Attorney James D. Huegli, who represented Tulleners’ estate, said he planned to present evidence that pilot error caused the crash. A week ago the helicopter company acknowledged responsibility. Witnesses had reported that the helicopter was flying just above the water, and then flew into the lake. The jury awarded $28.5 million in economic damages to the Tulleners estate, $175,000 in economic damages to Tulleners’ daughter, $500,000 in non-economic damages to Tulleners’ mother and daughter, and $6,180 in funeral and burial costs.
September 18 1997 Rim Village is placed on the National Register of Historic Places. Contributing structures include:
Sinnott Memorial, Kiser Studio, Lodge, Two stone comfort stations (on the plaza and behind the cafeteria building), and the Promenade stonewall. If and when the Cafeteria building is returned to its ca. 1928 – 1941 configuration, it then may be included in the listing.
October 31 1997 The 30-year concession contract with Crater Lake Lodge expires. Yearly “Letters of Agreement” will be issued until the Park’s Master Plan and Environmental Impact Statement is finalized.
Travel pattern studies have shown that less than 5% of Park visitors stay in the Park for two more nights.
November 21 1997 Howard Arant, 85, dies in Medford. Arant, the grandson of W.F. Arant, the Park’s first superintendent, was born in Ashland, Oregon, on March 24, 1912. His mother, Maude Boothby, was born in Prospect, Oregon, a daughter of the builder of the Prospect Hotel.
November 21 1997 Three teens, all from the Grants Pass area, become lost after an afternoon of snowboarding in the Dutton Creek area. The group wanders for most of the night in knee-deep snow. After walking four miles two of the boys are too exhausted t go on. One boy decides to continue walking. About midnight he spots the lights from the Annie Springs Entrance Station and calls for help. A NPS rescue team follows the boy’s tracks to find the other tow boards at about 1:30 a.m. Sunday.
December 10 1997 New draft copy of the Visitor Services Plan is released to the public. The plan calls for the changing of the traffic circulation at Rim Village. A new visitor center will be built on the site of the existing parking lot, to be surrounded by a new pedestrian promenade. The Cafeteria building will be reduced to the original size, but the other remaining historic structures (Sinnott, Kiser Studio, Community House, and the two stone comfort stations) will be restored and retained. The main parking lot will be removed to behind the smaller Cafeteria building. The goal is to recreate the design landscape that was originally put in during the 1930s. “Instead of what you see there now, with the vehicles, and pedestrians trying to dodge the vehicles, you’ll have a leisurely pedestrian friendly environment.”(J. Miele) Services at Mazama Village will be expanded. The Cleetwood Trail and dock area will be rebuilt with permanent facilities both on top and down at the water. The number of daily Lake tours will be reduced from 9 to 7. The estimated price tag will be $15 million, with $10 million coming from Federal sources.
December 12 1997 MT editorial concerning the new development plan: The…plan to move development off the Crater Lake rim and return Rim Village to a more natural 1930s look is a good idea that has been a long time coming. It’s a nice counterpoint to…”Pave Paradise and put up a parking lot.” Does this plan really spring from a National Park Service that only a few years ago was proposing more development right on the Rim? The answer is “yes”, and that’s good for the park environment, for the critters that live there and for the humans who visit there. It will be much easier to appreciate and contemplate the natural wonder if it’s a genuine outdoor experiences and not a tour of a big and dangerous parking lot.”
Winter 1997 Crater Lake entrance fee is raised to $10 per carload. Eighty percent of any increase in fees will be kept at the parks. Crater Lake presently raises about $500,000 in fees annually. It is estimated that $240,000 will be kept in the Park for maintenance and improvements. Most National Parks are doubling or tripling their fees, including traditionally “free” parks.
Fiscal Year 1997 $3,380,000
Visitation: 501,148 visitors (Online says: 451,548)
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