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CLOUDY Temp: 37 °F Wind: CLM at 0 mph Saturday, April 26, 2003 SECTIONS Home Page Local News Sports Business Obituaries Life Opinion - Politics AP News Weather Classified Archives Site Map EXTRA HomeLife Magazine W3 Magazine Jobs @ Mail Tribune Tempo A & E Oregon CarZone Wellness Connection Real Estate Newspaper in Education Prime Times Outdoor Journal Personals Movie Times TV Times E The People CLASSIFIEDS Find a Car Find a Home Find a Job Find Everything E SOUTHERN OREGON Automotive Communities Entertainment Publications Recreation Calendar ABOUT US FAQ What's New Advertise Home Delivery Classified Ad Contact Us Media Kit Email Story to a Friend August 26, 2002 ‘Rare jewel’ turns 100 Crater Lake National Park supporters celebrate centennial, rededicate stewardship By JEFF BARNARD The Associated Press Crater Lake National Park marked the end of its first 100 years on Sunday by throwing open the gates for an open house and promising to use scientific research and education to protect one of the nation’s original natural crown jewels for 21st century. Smoke from forest fires shrouded the dazzling blue lake inside a collapsed volcano so that it looked like a hand-tinted antique photograph, but did not diminish the enthusiasm of drummers and dancers from the Klamath Tribes, whose ancestors saw Mount Mazama erupt about 7,700 years ago, or the estimated 1,000 people attending ceremonies in the Rim Village parking lot. "Crater Lake is a rare jewel born out of the furnace and fury of Nature’s sometimes destructive fires," said Sen. Gordon Smith, R-Ore. "In this place we are reminded that nature can heal the land." Klamath Tribes Chairman Allen Foreman said he hoped the spirit of the creation of Crater Lake National Park would be used to heal the environmental degradation of the Klamath Basin from logging, agricultural pollution, and grazing. "There is a powerful spirit in Crater Lake," Foreman said. "That power will show us the path to restore the entire Klamath Basin." Non-Native Americans got their first look at Crater Lake in 1853, when a lost party of gold miners stumbled onto it. It was largely forgotten until an Army expedition explored the area in 1883, and a former Kansas farm boy named William Gladstone Steel decided it needed to be preserved from exploitation. He spent the next 19 years lobbying Congress to designate it a national park. Finally, with help from President Theodore Roosevelt, Congress gave in. And on May 22, 1902, Roosevelt signed the law creating the nation’s seventh national park. The park’s centennial fell on May 22, but was celebrated Sunday, Founders Day in the National Park Service, so that the deep snows of the high Cascades would be melted. The Ashland City Band played marches, the Oregon Youth Chorale sang the National Anthem, and after all the speeches, visitors munched on cookies shaped like the arrowhead logo of the National Park Service. The past century was honored with the restoration of four structures at Rim Village, which had deteriorated during decades of inadequate federal funding: the Sinnott Memorial Overlook, which has a new exhibit area featuring a video of how the lake was formed; the Kaiser Studio, a former photographer’s studio serving as a visitor center; the Community Building, where the work of artists in residence is on display, and the old comfort station. Park Superintendent Chuck Lundy pledged that the Crater Lake Science and Learning Center, scheduled to be completed in 2005 in the old superintendent’s residence, will preserve the park through the 21st century by promoting scientific research and sharing it with schoolchildren. "It will give us a chance to connect with the people of this state and the Pacific Northwest in a way we haven’t seen in a long time," Lundy said. By 2004, crews will begin ripping out the Rim Village parking lot, so the sea of cars and windshields that has greeted visitors for generations will be replaced with natural landscaping and a year-round visitor center with a second-story lookout for winter viewing. Lundy called on people who love the park to help decide what will go into a time capsule that will be kept in the new visitor center to be built at Rim Village. Crater Lake was a place of power for the Klamath Tribes. They explained the volcanic eruption of 12,000-foot Mount Mazama as a battle between a god of the underworld, Lao, and a god of the overworld, Skell. Lao won, and Skell had to retreat to the underworld, with only his head showing above the water as Wizard Island. Printer Friendly Version Email Story to a Friend Subscribe Archive: Click to Search Mail Tribune Home Local News | Sports | Business | Obituaries | Life Opinion - Politics | AP News | Archives | Site Map E Southern Oregon | Classified Copyright © 1997-2003 Mail Tribune. All rights reserved. Privacy Policy | Terms & Conditions Website Feedback A D V E R T I S E R S