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W. G. Steel writes to President Roosevelt thanking him for his assistance in getting Crater Lake National Park established. Steel had been working locally for seventeen years working for the area’s preservation. Steel invites the president on a two-week outing to Crater Lake.
1902-05-10
Representative Tongue informs W. G. Steel that he received a letter from Gifford Pinchot stating that Theodore Roosevelt is in favor of the Crater Lake bill. Pinchot has seen Secretary of the Interior Ethan Allen Hitchcock, who said he will speak with David Bremner Henderson about giving the bill a chance. Tongue acknowledges that times are critical for the bill, but he is doing the best he can.
1902-04-18
The Oregonian states that Theodore Roosevelt is in favor of Representative John F. Lacey’s bill to transfer “the management and control of forest reserves from the Interior to the Agricultural Department, and to create and maintain game preserves in the public land states.” The article concludes that Roosevelt will soon announce the addition of land that will double the area of Yellowstone Park and extend the Teton forest reserves in Wyoming in order to protect big game animals that live there.
1902-04-04
Gifford Pinchot informs W. G. Steel that he will arrange to accompany Joseph Silas Diller to present Grace H. Russell Fountain’s picture to Theodore Roosevelt if he can arrange it. He thanks Steel for the invitation to the Crater Lake trip beginning August 6, 1902, but Pinchot does not know where he will be then and cannot accept on those grounds.
1902-04-02
Gifford Pinchot informs W. G. Steel that Representative John F. Lacey will be the best person to see about the creation of Crater Lake National Park, as they are both from Iowa. Pinchot hopes there will be no problems getting the bill passed. Any influence from Oregon will be looked upon favorably by President Roosevelt.
1902-03-04
Gifford Pinchot writes to W. G. Steel, detailing the reasons why a national park should be established around Crater Lake. First, it is “one of the great natural wonders of this continent.” As a well-known resort, valued for recreation and scenery, Crater Lake can be managed and protected as a national park, rather than as a forest reserve, since there will not be any timber production. The chairman of the Public Lands Committee, Representative John F. Lacey, is in favor of passing the bill to create the park.
1902-02-18
President Roosevelt is traveling to Portland, Oregon, and stopped briefly in Ashland, Oregon, where he delivered a brief address. Roosevelt spoke with admiration for the assembled members of the Grand Army of the Republic and described the founders of Oregon as “men who did things.”
1903-05-27
Stephen R. Mark forwards an e-mail exchange regarding where Theodore Roosevelt signed the legislation that created Crater Lake National Park, which some people believe happened at the Baldwin Hotel in Klamath Falls, Oregon. According to Nancy Hori, Roosevelt was on the East Coast when the legislation was signed so the event could not have occurred at the hotel.
1999-11-18
Representative Thomas H. Tongue has secured the necessary legislation for the creation of Crater Lake National Park.
1902-04-25
Local lore has claimed that Theodore Roosevelt signed the legislation creating Crater Lake National Park at the Baldwin Hotel in Klamath Falls, Oregon, and that Roosevelt visited Crater Lake. There is no evidence for these claims and the only Roosevelt to visit Crater Lake was Eleanor Roosevelt in 1934. Jimmy and Rosalyn Carter visited the lake in 1991 and had a trip similar to the average visitor.
2000
The Theodore Roosevelt Association claims that a well known photograph of Theodore Roosevelt at Crater Lake is not actually Roosevelt. The photograph came under scrutiny as the National Park Service prepared to celebrate the centennial of Crater Lake National Park. Local lore claims that Roosevelt visited Crater Lake and the Baldwin Hotel in Klamath Falls, Oregon, but written evidence is lacking.
1999-12-14