4A COTTAGE GROVE SENTINEL September 28, 2016
O PINION
Offbeat Oregon History
Former Albany newsman saved Crater Lake
for a state park
BY FINN J.D. JOHN
For the Sentinel
I
n Oregon, there’s one place
where you’re allowed to fi sh for
free — and you’ve got a former Al-
bany newspaper owner to thank for
that.
It’s in Oregon’s famous Crater
Lake where you can wet a line with-
out paying The Man. Yet very few
people ever do, because the lake is
one of the largest bodies of water in
the state — not in terms of surface
area, of course, but it’s so deep it
holds an enormous amount of water
— and the fi sh colony isn’t big.
It’s free because the fi sh aren’t ac-
tually supposed to be there. Crater
Lake never had fi sh in it before, and
that’s part of why its water is so clear
and brilliantly blue.
So how did the fi sh get there? Well,
that gets back to the newspaper man.
His friends called him Will Steel, but
when he founded the Albany Herald
in 1880, his name was listed as Wil-
liam Gladstone Steel.
Steel was originally from Ohio,
where his family participated in the
Underground Railroad before the
Civil War; his family later moved to
Portland, and he graduated from high
school there in 1873.
Seven years later, Steel went into
the newspaper business, founding the
Albany Herald as a Republican chal-
lenger to the town’s dominant news-
paper, the States Rights Democrat.
The Herald would soldier on for
half a century before being absorbed
into its rival to form today’s Albany
Democrat-Herald; but its founder
didn’t stick with it nearly that long.
By 1885 he was back up in Portland
working as superintendent of mail
carriers, a job secured for him by his
brother, who had the plum political-
patronage job of Postmaster there.
In that summer, Steel took a va-
cation from his job to make his fi rst
journey to Crater Lake. He took a
friend with him, and by chance met
up with two other pilgrims, including
Capt. Clarence Dutton of the U.S.
Geological Survey – who would in
later years be probably his most valu-
able ally in the fi ght to preserve the
lake.
Upon his return, Steel soon found
that he no longer had a job with the
Post Offi ce. After 25 years of Repub-
lican dominance, the White House
had been won by Democrat Grover
Cleveland, and political plums like
the Postmastership of Portland were
not to be left in the hands of Republi-
cans. The Steel Brothers were out.
But for Will, the timing couldn’t
have been better. Suddenly at loose
ends, he was free to act on the power-
ful feelings his visit to the lake had
inspired. Back east he raced to Wash-
ington, D.C., where, with Dutton’s
support, he convinced the president
who’d fi red him shortly before to
block settlement in the area until it
could be surveyed. Then Steel re-
turned to Portland, hired a survey
crew and had three boats built and
hauled to the lake, where they fl oated
out on the water to take soundings.
Steel found he hadn’t brought
enough line. He suggested that the
lake might in fact be bottomless. Fi-
nally, with more line, the crew found
the deepest part — at just shy of
2,000 feet.
After getting Steel’s report, Con-
gress introduced a bill to preserve
the lake and 36 square miles of the
surrounding terrain as a national
park — and the fi ght was on. There
were a lot of trees on those 36 square
miles, and several companies wanted
to turn those trees into money. There
was also plenty of opportunity to run
sheep on the land, particularly in the
eastern part, and the grazing interests
were if anything more intransigent
than the timber seekers.
Steel fought tirelessly for his park.
Realizing that outdoorsmen (yes,
men — remember, this was the late
1880s) could help his cause, Steel de-
cided to stock the lake with trout. So
he offered some kids in Rogue River
a dime for each minnow they caught.
They brought him 600. A very wor-
ried (and out-of-pocket) Steel asked
them what they wanted for the lot,
and they requested four bits. Re-
lieved, Steel gave them each a buck
and took the minnows 45 miles to the
lake. At each stream, he stopped to
freshen the water, but most of them
were dead by the time he got to the
lake. Still, 37 of the original 600
survived to initiate the present-day
problem there – although most of the
fi sh in the lake today are descendants
of the tens of thousands of hatchery
fi ngerlings with which the lake was
stocked in the early 1900s.
Steel also, during that time, found-
ed the Oregon Alpine Club — a di-
verse outfi t composed of campers and
outdoorspeople of all sorts — possi-
bly with the same idea in mind: More
appreciators of nature meant more
support for his lake. A few years
later, he organized the state’s famous
Mazama Club, open only to people
who’d climbed Mount Hood.
Finally, after a 17-year fi ght with
the timber and grazing interests in
Congress, Steel saw his dream real-
ized. In 1902, Congress offi cially
made Crater Lake the nation’s fi fth
national park.
By that time, Steel’s was the name
most associated with the park. With-
out his efforts, it almost certainly
would not have happened; and when
he started styling himself the “father
of Crater Lake” no one objected.
But it wasn’t all roses and laurels
and victory laps. When the park was
created, the government passed over
Steel and named William Arendt, a
rancher from Klamath Falls, to the
Please see OFFBEAT, Page 11A
LETTERS TO THE EDITOR
Swinging bridge
outrage
dition.
The obvious question is where the
original report and recommendation
was sitting for the past 14 years? In the
private sector this negligence wouldn’t
be tolerated! But hey, we are talking
about our own city government. The
obvious people who should know are:
the City Manager, the Director of Pub-
lic Works and the City Engineer. Just
makes sense, right?
We as community members are owed
an explanation regarding what hap-
pened and who is responsible for this
fi asco.
Let’s hope that the involved people
take full responsibility in the name of
transparency. If not, then they should
start looking for another job.
Meanwhile, the city management
may be interested in purchasing anoth-
er golf course?
CONTACT YOUR
ELECTED
OFFICIALS
Phone: (541) 682-4203
Fax: (541) 682-4616
United States House of
Representatives:
Oregon State House of
Representatives:
Cottage Grove City Hall: 942-5501.
www.cottagegrove.org/
Rep. Cedric Hayden (REP)
District: 007
900 Court Street NE
Suite H-288
Salem, OR 97301
Phone: (503) 986-1407
Fax: (503) 986-1130
Email: rep.cedrichayden@state.or.us
Rep. Peter A. DeFazio (DEM)
District: 004
United States House of Representa-
tives
2134 Rayburn House Offi ce Building
Washington, DC 20515-0001
Phone: (202) 225-6416
Fax: (202) 225-0032
Email: http://www.house.gov/formde-
fazio/contact.html
According to the recent Sentinel re-
porting, the City was informed in 2002
by OBEC that repairs to the swinging
bridge should be done as soon as pos-
sible.
That’s 14 years ago, folks! Noth-
ing was done. Then, again on Sept. 14
of this year, the same consulting fi rm
stated that the bridge is in critical con-
Cottage Grove Mayor Tom Munroe:
942-5501.
Cottage Grove City Councilors:
George Zajic
Cottage Grove
United States Senate:
Mike Fleck, At Large: 942-5501
Oregon State Senate:
Kenneth Michael Roberts, At Large:
942-5501
Jake Boone, Ward 1: 653-7413
Jeff Gowing, Ward 2: 942-1900
Garland Burback, Ward 3: 942-4800
Sen. Floyd Prozanski (DEM)
District: 004
900 Court Street NE
Suite S-319
Salem, OR 97301-0001
Phone: (503) 986-1704
Fax: (503) 986-1080
Email: sen.fl oydprozanski@state.or.us
Sen. Ron Wyden (DEM)
District: 0S1
United States Senate
230 Dirksen Senate Offi ce Building
Washington, DC 20510-0001
Phone: (202) 224-5244
Fax: (202) 228-2717
Email: http://wyden.senate.gov/con-
tact/
Amy Slay, Ward 4: 942-5501
Governor:
Lane County Commissioners:
Faye Stewart, East Lane Commis-
sioner
Lane County Public Service Building
125 East 8th Street
Eugene, OR 97401
Kate Brown
160 State Capitol
900 Court Street
Salem, Oregon 97301-4047
Phone: (503) 378-4582
Fax: (503) 378-6827
Sen. Jeff Merkley (DEM)
District: 0S2
United States Senate
404 Russell Senate Offi ce Building
Washington, DC 20510-0001
Phone: (202) 224-3753
Fax: (202) 228-3997
Email: http://jmerkley.senate.gov/web-
form.htm
Eat nutrient-rich apples this fall
BY JOEL FUHRMAN, MD
For the Sentinel
C
risp, juicy apples are a
fall tradition. Take advan-
tage of the bountiful selection
$ PUUBHF ( SPWF 4 FOUJOFM
116 N. Sixth Street · P.O. Box 35 · Cottage Grove, OR 97424
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of apples
available
this
time
of
year.
There are
hundreds
of varieties
to sample.
They range
from red to
yellow to green, crunchy to ten-
der, sweet to tart and simple to
complex.
Apples contain a wide vari-
ety of phytochemicals, many of
which have been found to have
strong antioxidant activity. They
are particularly high in querce-
tin, a fl avonoid antioxidant. Epi-
demiological studies have linked
the consumption of apples with
reduced risk of some cancers,
cardiovascular disease, asthma,
diabetes and obesity. Not only
can eating an apple a day help
keep the doctor away, an apple
a day might keep the pounds
away too; adding apples to the
diet has been shown to enhance
weight loss. To optimize phyto-
chemical content, it is important
to eat the pigment-rich apple
skin, not just the fl esh. Choose
whole, organic apples over ap-
plesauce or apple juice.
Apples are also a rich source
of pectin, a type of soluble fi ber
that is found in plant cell walls
and tissues. This soluble fi ber
works to lower cholesterol by
reducing the amount that is ab-
sorbed in the intestines. Studies
have shown that the pectin in
apples interacts with other apple
phytonutrients to achieve an
even greater reduction in cho-
lesterol. Researchers have also
discovered that apples can boost
intestinal health by increasing
the numbers of healthy gut bac-
teria that feed on apple pectin.
Portable and easy to pack,
apples are great to include in
your on-the-go meals. For an
easy dessert, enjoy them baked
with a sprinkle of cinnamon and
nutmeg. I like to dice an apple,
toss it with baby greens, some
chickpeas, maybe a handful of
walnuts or pumpkin seeds and
then top it off with fl avored vin-
egar or perhaps a dressing made
from nuts and seeds.
Experiment with the many
different varieties of apples to
discover which ones are your
favorites. Have fun seeking out
your local organic apple grow-
ers, farm stands and farmers
markets and look for different
types of interesting apples. They
do not have to look perfect. The
smaller and more imperfect they
look, the better they taste. If you
go apple picking and get lots of
them, don’t worry — you can
store them for several months.
Just wrap each apple in a pa-
per towel to prevent them from
touching each other and store in
a closed cardboard box in a cool
place such as the basement or
garage.
Dr. Fuhrman is a #1 New
York Times best-selling author
and a board certifi ed family
physician specializing in life-
style and nutritional medicine.
Visit his informative website at
DrFuhrman.com. Submit your
questions and comments about
this column directly to news-
questions@drfuhrman.com.
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