Crater Lake Special Events Log

The Smith Brothers' Chronological History of Crater Lake National Park

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 fot 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the agency argues that their massive plan is the best way to respond to the needs of park visitors, improve on outdated or nonexistent facilities and remove hazards that threaten the lake's pristine environment.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 majoy 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 imporvements, utilities, lodge 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 millon 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 represenatives 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 Supenintendent 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 31, 1992: A section of the West Rim Road opens to traffic. The earliest cars have been able to drive partially around the Rim.
March 16, 1992: Two skiers from Grants Pass, Ron Miller, 18 and Alex Stevens, 26, missed the North Junction and accidently 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.
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 line will have a 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 it is great, while two other colleagues say the rate of sliding is virtually nonexistent..." at least during the life of the new lodge."
May 4, 1992: Eight inches of measurable snow on the ground and Park Headquarters. Average snow level at this time of 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 US FS seeks to surround in the Park boundaries with clearcuts. 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 the 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: Limnologist Douglas Larson of the U.S. Army Corps claims in an article in the Oregonian, that decades of stalling installation of the new sewage facilities for the Rim Cafeteria Building has muddied the waters are 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 less than 100 feet. Perhaps the scientist place 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 contest Doug Larson's claim that the clarity of Crater Lake has been compromised by the Park Service's ignoring evidence that sewage was contaminating a lake. Mr. Morris stated that, "There is no evidence to suggest that a significant amount sewage has entered the Lake. We have yet to pinpoint what, if any, man induced activities have or are affecting the clarity of the lake." (Oregonian)
1991 -- 1992: Snowfall: 166 inches. Average snowfall for the past ten years is 38 feet which is 16 feet below the previous 60 year average of 54 feet.
June 1992: The NPS began his studies for the redesign of both docking facilities at the base of the Cleetwood Cove Trail. The studies include the possibility of repairing or replacing of facilities at the trail head, and replacement of old decaying retaining walls along the trail.
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 board behind cash register? Come on!"
July 14, 1992: A massive ground serch of the Rim area below Rim Village looking for Glenn Allen Mackie, missing since October 1991. The ground searche is to checkout 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 feet toward the Lake after his owner allows the dog to play on the snow bank in from the Cafeteria Building. Rangers attempt a repelling rescue, but fail to locate the dog who is finally given up for dead. "Bear" shows 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, Oregon 1:17:45; 26.2 Andrew Bielecki, 33, of Kapaa, Hawaii 2:56:27; Women 6.7 Cheryl Tronson, from Bend, Oregon 41:45; 13.0 Jeanne Lansing, from Grants Pass, Oregon 1:38:43; 26.2 Hilary Simmons, Roseburg, Oregon 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 %. Crowds are expected to grow to 360 million by 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 slip shod operation that fell short of the established standard. The concessionaire had been chronically delinquent in accomplishing needed maintenance. Food quality...has been perennial problem for several years." (Sounds like a similar report 60 years ago.)
Summer 1992: A sewer line connecting the Rim Cafeteria to the Munson Valley lagoons is installed down the center of the Rim access road. The rule of the last septic tank on the Rim comes 14 years after Dr. Doug Larson expressed concern 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 were fixing it."
September 16, 1992: Kerstin Hadelka, 23, of Gelsenkirchen, Germany, falls to her death inside the caldera, 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.
November 2, 1992: The Rim sewer project is completed at a cost of $480,000. The old and failing Cafeteria septic systems closed.
November 16, 1992: An Inspector General's report sites Crater Lake and 33 other National Park 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. In 1947 survey of Sun Creek found 3,000 bull trout. A 1989 survey found only 130 trout.
Season 1992: The 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 it: Multnomah Falls, Portland Zoo and the Tillamook Cheese Factory.
Fiscal Year 1992