- 1950
-
- January 1950
- Record snow fall for one month, 313 inches. 73 inches fell in
one 48 hour period.
- July 2,1950
- Rescue of boy below Sinnott Memorial Overlook.
- August 10, 1950
- Bruce Brandell reports beavere workings on Copeland Creek.
Five inch diameter fir all but gnawed down. Trees in the vicinity are stripped
of bark, but no dams or houses found. Probably Mountain Beaver.
- Summer 1950
- Seasonal Naturalists Donald and Dorothy Farmer band 160 Clark's
Nutcrackers.
White pie plate displayed below Sinnott Overlook in 128 feet of water to demonstrate
how far one can see below the surface of the Lake.
The movie, Canyon Passage, filmed partially in Jacksonville, has included
in it a scene showing Indians riding up out of the Caldera and attacking a
wagon train on the Rim Drive. The movie stars Ward Bond, Loretta Young,
Brian Dunlevy and Dan Daily.
Ruth Hopson Keen, 4138 S.W. Fourth Ave., Portland, OR 97201, (222-1430)
becomes the first lady Ranger Naturalist. Ruth worked the month of June, then
taught at the Park under Dr. Rule. She gave her programs in the Lodge and
lived for two summers with the Leavitts.
- October 15, 1950
- Superintendent Leavitt reports that due to labor unrest and
quarrels, Lodge manager Price has fired his son-in-law who headed up the
Company's improvement program, along with a number of other employees.
- October 16, 1950
- Recovery of a Clark's Nutcracker at the head waters of the
Lewis River on Mt. Adams, Washington. The bird had been banded by Dorothy
Farmer at Rim Village, September 1, 1950.
Season 1950 Visitation: 328,041 - a new record.
- 1951
-
- 1951
- Sometime during the early 1950's future Supreme Court Judge, Sandra
Day O'Connor visits Crater Lake during the winter. Photos are taken of her
playing in the snow with her college roomate.
- 1951
- Quilwart Pond named by Park Naturalist George Ruhle. He weighed the
possibility of using the name I Saetes, the scientific name of Quilwart, but
what with its Greek orinin, settled on the simple name of "Quilwart". The
small lake was formerly known as "Lost Pond" to the handful of people who had
visited the pond in previous years. Apparently fingerling fish had been
planted in the pond in the early 1930's but large numbers of Pellicans
soon consumed them.
- June 1951
- A female bear spotted with four cubs.
- June 6, 1951
- Superintendent reports that 2,540 acres are soon to be added to
the Oregon Caves National Monument in order to perserve hundreds of
magnificent Ancient Port Orford Cedars. Opposition by loggers defeated the
plan and the area was soon clear cut. The Monument is now a 500 acre island
of Old Growth Forest.
- July 6, 1951
- Over $1,000 taken from three vehicles. The suspects are
apprehended in Hot Springs, New Mexico.
- August 19, 1951
- The Lake level is now 11.1 feet above the October 1, 1942
lake level.
- Summer 1951
- The Farmers band 36 Clark's Nutcrackers.
$30,000 is spent in adding rooms to the Sleepy Hollow Cabins. Eight are
rebuilt and winterized, and four are remodled. Jim Kilburn, Park Electrician,
completely re wires all of the houses.
- July 17, 1951
- The South and West entrance stations are combined at Annie
Springs.
- August 1951
- Large concentrations of California Tortoise Shell butterflies are
seen fluttering past Mt. Scott. The first detailed study of Sphagnum Bog are
begun.
- August 5, 1951
- The Park ranger staff manage to head off a proposed parachute
jump into the Lake.
- September 27, 1951
- Regional Architect, Charles Lundgren notes in his Lodge
report that the building is sagging. Dry rot is weakening support beams. The
Chinese quarters above the kitchen are in poor condition. The garbage cans
near the kitchen should be fenced and screened.
- October 15, 1951
- Lodge Manager Price is not allowed to return to work
becasue of ill health.
Season 1951 Visitation: 306,668
- 1952
-
- 1952
- Dick Brown of San Diego, California begins his long career at Crater
Lake. Dick holds the record for holding the most seasonal and permanent
positions in the Park. (1952-1957) Seasonal Naturalist, (1957-1960) Assistant
Chief of Interpretation, (1960-1963) Interp Chief at Muir Woods, (March 1963-
1966) Chief of Interp at C.L., (1966-1970) Chief of Park Research, (from 1970
& until retirement) Chief of Research at Point Reyes.
- March 15, 1952
- Ernest P. Levitt, Park Superintendent since 1937 retires to
Central Point, Oregon. At the time of his retirement, Mr. Leavitt had served
the longest of any employee within the National Park Service; 46 years. In a
lettere dated August 11, 1978 Mrs. Kathrine Leavitt writes, "I have lots of
interesting memories - some about the bears. They were in our home twice -
resulting in the death of the second one. Also one wrecked the upolstery in
Mr. Leavitt's car the day before he was to meet the director. Mr. Leavitt
formed a children's bottle brigade to pick up bottles and debris in the Park
after gasoline rationing was over and visitors came in droves scattering
bottles along the roadsidess and leaving Kleenex blossoms on the schrubbery."
- March 20, 1952
- Record snow depth of 218 inches on ground at headquarters. The
averate seasonal maximum snow depth at Headquarters usually is 155 inches.
- April 1, 1952
- John B. Wosky enters duty as Superintendent. Wosky had been
appointed to the position on March 3.
- April 27, 1952
- Dr. and Mrs. Arnold Toynbee visit the Park.
- May 31, 1952
- Two cars colide, 0.7 miles above Headquarters. Six people are
injured, with two ambulances being called out of Klamath Falls. A coyote is
killed by a car on the South Road.
- July 1952
- Heavy rains and rock slides wash out completely the lower sections
of the Lake Trail, three days before opening date. So much permanent
reconstruction was required on the the Trail that it remained closed the
entire summer.
- July 19, 1952
- Albert Marston Jones, 56 of Concord, Calif. and Charles Patrick
Culhane, 52, of Detroit, Mich., are found murdered on the South Road, 3.5 miles
north of the south boundary. Both men were executives with United Motors
Service, a subsidiary of General Motors. The case has never been solved. The
two men, taking a shortcut through the Park, had driven on ahead of their
wives, agreeing to meet at a summer cabin at Union Creek. The men's wives
found the car the men had been driving, a green 1951 Pontiac, parked along
a turnout overlooking Annie Creek Canyon. The doors to the car were standing
open. When the missing husbands could not be found, the rangers were alerted.
The two bodies were found a short time later, about a quarter of a mile off
the road, in an open stand of Ponderosa Pine. Both men were found with their
hands bound with rope, their shoes removed and powder burns to their heads,
indicating an execution style of murder. The two men had been gagged but not
tied up. Their stockings were clean which indicated they had not walked after
removing their shoes. While Jones's shoes were lying nearby, Culhane's shoes
were never found. In the excitement of the discovery, dozens of people
trampled the murder site, destroying much of the evidence. Since the entrance
rangers during these years recorded every license number of every car entering
the park, the FBI began a massive investigation, taking years to trace each
tag number. Some people were even tracked to Europe. Several local suspects
were identified, but lacking hard evidence, no arrests were ever made.
Virginia Jones Cota, A.M. Jones' daughter, always felt that the killing of the
two men was actually a murder, made to look like a robbery. Even thought over
$300 was taken from their wallets and their watches taken, the men's luggage
was left in the car. In a letter to his daughter one month before he was
murdered, Jones wrote, "Things are worse than they have ever been." In a
letter dated, Sept. 29, 1990 to the Mail Tribune, but never mailed, Ms. Cota
writes, "I know who was responsible for my father's murder. I don't know
the murder's name, but I know the organization that arranged for my father's
death. I just don't believe the story that it was a simple robbery. I have a
feeling there was so much more to this, that the people who killed them knew
them."
- August 1952
- Flocks of California Tortoise Shell butterflies are seen migrating
through the Park.
- August 11, 1952
- The 7th arrowhead ever found in Crater Lake is found by a
Park visitor near Discovery Point.
- August 19, 1952
- An insepection report notes that the dining room ceiling in
the Lodge is seriously deteriorated. The Lodge's septic tank is reported to
be inadequate and effluent discharges in seepage trenches allow effluent to
run in considerable volume down the mountain to Munson Valley. Sewage disposal
at the Lodge is totally inadequate and its correction calls for emergency
action before reopening next season.
- Summer 1952
- The Crater Lake (Mazama) Newt is extensively studied. Hundreds has
been observed massing under debris. Since the newt is not found anywhere else
in the world and since they were not in the Lake prior it its formation, this
has become one of the most clearly dated cases of subspeciation available
anyplace in the world.
42 Clark's Nutcrackers banded by the Farmers.
The Lake level is now 6 feet below the 1873 level. The government boat house,
constructed in 1942, 18 inches above lake level, is now so nearly submerged,
the the gunwales of a row boat will just slip under it's eaves.
- September 1952
- The south Entrance Kiosk sustains $300 in damages after being
struck by a car.
- September 26, 1952
- New Mt. Scott Lookout completed at a cost of $12,682,
replacing the old 1924 building.
Season 1952 Visitation: 323,410
- 1953
-
- 1953
- Harry and "Pop" Smith purchase the Crater Lake Lodge Company. The Harner
Report recommends that the Lodge should be rehabillitated rather than being
replaced. With proper care and the spending of $72,000, the Haner Report
estimated the useful life of the Lodge could be extended another 20 years.
- June 17, 1953
- Roger Tory Peterson, famed bird author, visits the Park.
- June 12, 1953
- Edmond Clark of Cave Junction, Oregon, falls to his death in
Castle Creek Canyon while trying to take a photograph.
- August 6, 1953
- The Mather Memorial Plaque is permanently installed on the Rim
Wall between Sinnott and the Lodge. The NPS apologizes for its oversight in
not installing the plaque 30 years earlier as promised.
- October 3, 1953
- Roof of Rim Community Building catches fire - $100 worth of
damage.
- September 6, 1953
- Rescue of injured person below Rim Village.
- November 1, 1953
- New superintendent, Fred Johnson, transfers in from Lassen.
Former Superintendent Wosky transfers out to Hawaii Volcanoes National Park.
- Season 1953
- Forty one bears counted in the Park, 22 adults and 19 cubs.
Season 1953 Visitation: 332,835
- 1954
-
- 1954
- Medford lawyer, Frank J. Van Dyke, appointed as Park Commissioner, a
position that he holds for nearly 30 years.
Teen-age girl falls to her death while hiking along the Rim between the
Sinnott Overlook and the Lodge. Her sister works at McLoughlin Junior
High School in Medford.
- July 19, 1954
- Fatal heart attack.
- August 7, 1954
- Dr. Earl Bush, Carver of the "Lady of the Woods", visits the
Park for the first time since 1917. Dr. Bush is surprised at how the "lady"
had deteriorated and eroded so much in 37 years. (See 1917)
- Mid 1950"s
- A woman is killed when the car her husband is driving strikes a
tree on the West Road. She is declared dead by her doctor husband.
(Oral story to the author by Ranger Stein.)
- August 29, 1954
- Thomas J. Williams enters on duty as Park Superintendent.
- Summer 1954
- Two acre forest fire suppressed in the norteast corner of the Park.
- Fall 1954
- The NPS designs a new museum building to be located downslope from
the Community House. The new building ins to be connected to the Sinnott
Memorial by an underground walkway. The new walkway would allow a glassed-in
Sinnott for all-year use. Construction planned for 1957, but the money was
never appropriated. A new visitor center is designed with a two story winter
viewing tower on the north end to replace the Kiser Studio. Never built.
Season 1954 Visitation: 370,554 - A new record.
- 1955
-
- 1955
- Present Annie Spring Bridge is completed. Park traffic had been routed
above the spring on a narrow winging road for 14 years. (See April, 1942.)
Also constructed was a new machine shop, the 1st new building in the Park
since the CCC days.
- Spring 1955
- Dozer operator, while clearing snow in the cafeteria area, drives
his cat through the roof of a cold water cabin.
- September 1955
- Bear killed because it has lockjaw.
- September 1, 1955
- Glenn Happell begins working on the maintenance crew for the
Crater Lake Lodge Company. Years later, Glenn is promoted to President of the
company. For thirty years, Mr. Happell drove daily from his homes in
Central Point and Ashland, mostly during the winter.
- September 4-10, 1955
- 27 fires in nine days, burning 31 acres. Most of the
fires were caused by lightning. This is the firs time a bulldozer is used
in the Park to fight forest fires.
Season 1955 Visitation: 343,839
- 1956
-
- May 11, 1956
- A ten year development plan is presented to the NPS by the Smiths.
The concessioners have found that their volume has increased since taking over,
with profits and use of the Lodge showing gains each summer.
- Summer 1956
- Present Goodbye Creek Bridge is completed. Traffic had been
routed above the creek on a small wooden bridge. (See April, 1942.)
Construction begins on Mazama Campground (Loops A, B, C, and D.) A major
addition of a dining room and a winter warming area is added to the Rim
Cafeteria. The bridge is rebuilt during the early 1980's.
- Summer 1956
- Photographer falls to his death while attempting to photograph the
Phantom Ship at Sun Notch.
Mission: 66 instituted. Mission: 66 is a national, ten year program to update
National Park facillities. Crater Lake would never be the same again. Roads
were rebuilt, permanent housing added and new life was added to the older
historic buildings.
- July 1956
- 90 degree temperature measured at Headquarters. One of the hottest
days on record.
- June 1956
- The old two-bedroom log cabin, located near Highway 62 in the old
Annie Spring Campground, was burned to the ground. The logs were so punky,
a screwdriver could be shoved through the logs.
- August 25-26, 1956
- The first authorized use of scuba gear on the Lake and at
Wizard Island.
- December 27, 1956
- Seasonal Ranger, Joe Meeker, marries Marlene Randall,
daughter of the A. Sup., in the lobby of the Headquarters building. When the
Episcopal priest asked how long the ceremony would last meeker replied,
"Depends on how hot the fire is in the fireplace." Joe became a nationally
published author of essays concerning the philosophy of preserving and
enjoying nature.
Season Visitation: 359,840
- 1957
-
- January 1957
- Jeff Adams, Maintenance Superintendent, begins his 23 year
career with Crater Lake.
- August 27, 1957
- Paul Herron, Crater Lake boat operator for 26 years, returns
to the Park following his heart attack. Paul continues to assist the company
as a part-time machinist until 1980. Paul was especially proud of his record
of no boating accidents during his years in charge.
- Summer 1957
- Due to the relocation of Highway 97, the use of the East
Entrance has fallen to less than 4% of the total visitation to the Park.
Officials feel that this reduction in entry use warrants the closing of one
of the Park's original entrance routes.
The Rim Village parknig lot is enlarged.
- Summer 1957
- Evening ranger programs are begun in the Great Hall of the Lodge.
The programs continue for 20 years until they are removed to the old Rim
Center (Community Building). Eventually, during the 1980's the programs are
discontinued altogether.The Lodge is sleeping 300 people each night, including
90 employees.
Season Visitation: 330,499
- 1958
-
- June 19, 1958
- Ranger's uniform torn by a bear while attempting to chase it
way from the Rim Parking lot.
- July 6, 1958
- Hans W. Thielsen, great grandson of Hans Thielsen for whom the
mountain was named, visits the Park.
- July 24, 1958
- Oregon Congressman Charles Porter introduces a bill in Congress
that will enlarge the Oregon Caves National Monument to 2,910 acres, up from
the present size of 480 acres. Opposition by the Forest Service and logging
interests defeated the proposed addition. The area in now a large clear-cut.
- August 1958
- Richard M. Brown, John Wirty and Warren Fairbanks take core
samples from the "Old man of the Lake" and determine the the old floating log
was 273 years old ehen it slid upright into the Lake.
- August 6, 1958
- Rescur of a boy 350 feet above the Lake.
- August 12, 1958
- Boletus frustosus is collected by Jim Trappe, research forester,
on the summit of Union Peak. This is the highest elevation that the plant has
been reported for their range.
- August 25, 1958
- New service station and employee dorm (located at the edge of
Steel Circle) opens for business.
- August 1958
- The Old Standard Oil Log Service Station, across the road from
Park Headquarters and the new station, is torn down.
- Summer 1958
- Park visitor's small trout is grabbed by a Bald Eagle as the
fisherman tries to beach the fish. The eagle swallows both the fish and the
hook. The Park Ranger, on duty on the boats, catches the eagle and removes
the hook.
Construction begins on the new Cleetwood Lake Trail. The new location was
selected because of its lower elevation, and southern exposure allowing an
earlier opening of the trail each year by several weeks. The old Lake Trail
had a northern exposure, was 50% longer and was subject to increasing erosion
and land slides.
- Summer 1958
- Steel Circle housing area constructed. Buildings #17 and #227 are
built.
- September 1958
- A new Annie Springs entrance station is built, including a
seperate office building and comfort station. (A very dated design.)
- October 4, 1958
- A new weighing type of recording rain guage is installed at
Park Headquarters. The guage had to be modified to meet the specific weather
conditions existing and Crater Lake.
- October 30, 1958
- Maximum Lake level reached at 6179.6 feet above sea level.
Second highest recorded level. Normally the Lake averages elevations 10
feet lower, at 6170 feet.
- October 1958
- Proposed that a rock shed be built on Dutton Cliff.
- Late 1950's
- U.S. Represenative from Oregon, Charles Porter of Eugene visits
Crater Lake and proposes that the Government build a cable car from Rim
Village to the boat landing. When public out cry points out the visual damage
that a tram tower would cause, Porter proposes an elevator. The man soon loses
his seat and retires.
Season Visitation: 333,853
- 1959
-
- 1959
- Ralph Peyton and Jim Griffin acquire the Crater Lake Lodge Company from
the Smiths. Negotiations begin with the new concessionaires for the NPS to
buy the Lodge for $285,000 and convert the building into a visitor center.
The new concessionaires are to take the purchase price and construct a new
motel accomodating 250 people adjacent to the cafeteria building. A new access
road is planned from the south that would diverge from the existing road
below Rim Campground and allow visitors to avoid the congested plaza area as
they made their way to the new visitor center.
- May 31 1959
- Lloyd Smith begins work as a seasonal maintenance laborer and
construction worker. Lloyd transfers to the ranger division, and law
enforcement in 1964. smith eventually works 22 summers for the Park.
- Summer 1959
- Both the North Junction stone Entrance Station and stone ranger
cabin are torn down. The cabin was located on the Rim, at the junction of
Rim Drive and the North Road. The entrance station was located at the
road "y".
Annie Spring in encased with stone to obtain save drinking water for
Mazama Campground.
The "Fisher", a former tuna bait boat, is lowered over the Crater wall. The
excursion boat is named for Don Fisher, the first superintendent of Lava Beds
National Monument.
R.E. Williams and party, using sonar, map the Lake's bottom. The depth of the
Lake is officially changed from 1996 to 1932 feet. The 64 foot difference
between the new reading and the 1886 reading is attributed to the Lake's
thermoclines (temperature caused currents), causing a large bow in the
original sounding wire when stretched out over 2,000 feet.
- Summers 1959-1960
- Felicia Wirts, Ph.D, becomes the second lady ranger at
Crater Lake. Felicia's husband John, Ph.D., worked at the Park during the
summers of 1955 and 1957.
- Fall 1959
- Old Lake trail in front of the cafeteria is closed and abandoned.
- October 4, 1959
- Otto M. Brown enters on duty as Superintendent.
- October 4, 1959
- Rescue of young lady off of Hillman Peak.
- October 13, 1959
- Rescue of young boy near Old Lake Trail.
- December 10, 1959
- The latest date on record of measurable snow beginning to
fall.
Season 1959 Visitation: 340,989
(Next stop 1960's)