WCi~'~, L\.'PI . ' Smi~ THE SMITH BROTHERS' CH RON 0 LOGICAL HISTORY L- , . i.. r - , . ' THIS COLLECTION OF HISTORICAL TRIVIA IS ' - RESPECTIVELY DEDICATED TO THE MEMORY OF CRATER LAKE NATIONAL PARK 1 S "FATHER", WILLIAM GLADSTONE STEEL, OF WHOM IT HAS BEEN SAID THAT HE SPENT TWO HOURS EACH DAY FOR 50 YEARS WORKING ON HIS CRATER LAKE TRIVIA COLLECTION. - l.s. II A CHRONOLOGICAL HISTORY AND IMPORTANT EVENT LOG OF CRATER LAKE NATIONAL PARK Including significant Crater Lake records and "firsts" (over 1200 entries) Original compiled ... 1968 Revised ............. August, 1972 Revised .•........... September, 1972 Revised ......•...... August, 1973 Collected and edited by: Revised ..•.......... August, 1974 Revised· ........•.... July, 1975 Larry B. Smith Revised ............. August, 1977 L1 o yd C • Sm i th Revised ............. August, 1981 Revised .......•..... July, 1982 Sources: Interviews and oral history Past periodicals Superintendent reports Park files Nature notes Steel Points Steel Scrapbooks Park Technical files The Enchanted Lake Our National Park Policy Local newspapers The Crater Lake Story I Mazama Yearly Report-1897 I . Paul Herron Park Archives William Steel ' . I I: '. r Fi rs t a word .. .. Thi s document is a living organism. Entries were be ing added all winter as the pages of thi s history ~~ing retyped . This accounts for items being out of chronological order or the double entri es that vary slightly in text. Oral rememberences al so cause what seem to be contridictions. (Different people remember past even ts in different ways.) These inconsistentci es will be r emoved during the next revision. Records of pa1ticul ar events may or may not have been superceded in subsequent years. Old and out dated reccrds ha'ie been left in because they v1ere a si gnificart happening of that particul ar year. Special thanks go to Larry Hakel, the park ' s last Red Cone District Ranger for having first suggested the need for a Chronological History of Cr.1ter Lake back in 19 68 .( Lan·y, most recently ha~ been Chief Ranger \\ {/, at Shenandoah National Park . ) ~~~ THE SEA OF SILENCE ••• The plan is now to build, have the government build, a drive around the lake, so that all these points may be considered in a single day from a carriage. And a great hotel is planned! And a railroad must be made to whisk you through the life-and vigor-giving evergreen forests of Arden. Well, so be it, if you must so mock nature and break this hush and silence of a thousand centuries, but I shall not be here. No hotel r . or house or road of any sort should ever be built near this Sea of Silence. All our other parks have been surrendered to hotels and railroads. Let us keep this last and best sacred to silence and nature. That which is not owrth climbing to is not worth seeing. From "The Sea of Silence" by Joaquin Miller Sunset, September, 1904 (The Steel Scrapbook, Vol. I) !l . I l . I'. , I went to Oregon in 1872 with my parerts and inunediately began seeking the sunken laJte I had read about in Kansas. For nine years this search continued, before I found anybody who had ever heard of it. There were no railroads, and it was not until 1885 that I ~as successful in getting there. To me the first view was over~helming. As I ~ooked about, there were no claims of any scrt on any of the land. A deep sense of personal responsibility overcame me and I determined to save it for ~uture generations. How, I.did not know, but the idea of a national park appealed to me. A petition to the presi­ dent was prepared, asking that ten townships be withdrawn from the market, until legislation could be secured for a national park. President Cleveland granted the petition. Senator Dolph introduced a bill in the senate to create Crater Lake National Park. February 2, 1888, the senator wrote to me that the opposition was overwhelming and suggested that the lands be given Oregon for a state park. I objected and told him if such a bill was introduced I would come to Washington and exert myself to the utmost to defeat it, which had the effect of the senator dropping the entire matter. For 17 years I persisted and finally a bill passed both houses and on May 22, 1902, President Roosevelt approved it and Crater Lake National Park was really on the map. The present road from the hotel to the Easterly side of the park, a distance of 13 miles to Kerr Notch, has numercus bad curves and two long, heavy grades. This road passes through forest, out of sight of the lake, in an uninteresting region and has no attractive features for strangers, except one outlook, which is attainable elsewhere. No money should be spent in improving it, for the reason that it is only a matter of time when a road will be built inside the rim, from the hotel to the base of Kerr Notch, on a four percent grade, a distance of four miles instead of 13 as of the old road. A tunnel should then be bored from the water to the rim road on a grade of five or six percent and the debris used to fill in along the shore line, for parking, turning, boat houses, or other conveniences. At present less than 20 per cent of visitors climb down to the water, but with such a road the sick, the weak and the halt will go, then take boats over the lake in a daze of bewildering sensations, as they view the surroundings. This is not all. There is probably not a spot on earth of equal size, that will thrill visitors equal to this. Long after the season opens, the rim road is closed, for the reason that back of ~he Watchman great drifts of snow remain, 40 or 50 feet deep, whereas, if the road over that mountain was abandoned a..~d a new one constructed airectly in front of it, it would be, possible to open the rim road with the beginning of the season, to say nothing of the thrill of passing directly above the lake, 1,500 feet, and yet with absolute safety, behind stone walls. !Imrever, the crowning glory of the park will consist of an automobile road to the top of Mount Scott, 9,000 feet high, from which one beholds Central Oregcn, l : from the Columbia river region far down into California and from the Blue Mountains to the Pacific ocean. Walls will encircle the summit, where 200 cars or more can park with perfect safety and the occupants enjoy the entrancing thrills of moun­ l tain climbers without their hardships and dangers. I . Then will come a road inside the rim, near the water, crossing to Wizard Island and up to its crater and encircling it. There inspired thoughts of rev­ erence for the God of Abraham wjll sine His praises and depart in peace, evermore also singing the praises of this wonderful lake: and its environs. Crater L~Y.~ Yesterday, Today and 7o~orrow STEEL ?OI:l':;~:.> .Junior Ly Will iu.rr1 ~;2.;;:.dstone Steel Au~u;, 1., ! ri'l.5 WILD LIFE IN CRATER LAKE PARK by Alex Sparrow Superintendent, Crater Lake National Park Of the animals in Crater Lake Park, the bear are the best known, o~ing to their friendly disposition, which is encouraged by permitting them to feed on the garbage near the camps. In only one instance has a bear had courage enough to be troublesome, and he was killed because he had broken into several buildings at Government Camp when food on the dump was scarce; but there is not a case on record of campers being disturbed by them. An occasional cougar has been seen; but constant warfare is waged against these marauders. Dogs must be used to hunt them, as it would be an accident to find one in any other wa:y •. Coyotes are often heard but seldom seen. It would be hard to estimate the destruction of birds and small mammals traceable to these cowardly pests, and every effort is being made to exterminate them by fair means or foul. 1921 r: l r. CRA '11ER LAh."E SPECIAL EVENTS LOG March 29 1832 Birth of John Wesley Hilman in Albany, New York 1832 Mt. McLoughlin named by Donald McKay in honor of Dr. John McLoughlin who is affectionately known to the West as "The Father of Oregon". (Locally the mountain has been known as Mt. Pitt.) December 12 1843 General J.C. Fremont and his guide Kit Carson pass within sight of Mt. Scott. 1846 Fremont's exploritory party is attacked by I4dians whiled camped at KlB.!Jlath Lake. Four whites are killed. Kit Carson with 15 men make a retaliatory raid on an Indian Village near the lake, burn­ ing it to the ground. 1846 Mt. Scott named after Captain Levi Scott, a member of the Oregon Constitutional Convention. He was with Jesse and Lindsay Apple­ gate during their initial exploration of southern Oregon and northern California in 1846. 1846 Mt. Thielsen named by John A. Hurlburt for Hans Thielsen May 6 1846 General Fremont visits Klamath Lake and an India..~ attack is provoked. JG.a.math Indians kill three men. In Fremont's reports there is a story of a "great sunken hole" or "hole in the grcund". There is little evidence to connect this with Crater Lake. July 19 1852 John Diamond and one companion climbed what is now known as Diamond Peak and discovered Diamond Lake while searching for an emigrant trail from southern Oregon to eastern Oregon.