William Gladstone Steel
Encyclopedia
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Crater Lake
Crater Lake is a caldera lake located in the south-central region of the U.S. state of Oregon. It is the main feature of Crater Lake National Park and famous for its deep blue color and water clarity. The lake partly fills a nearly deep caldera that was formed around 7,700 years agoby the...
", referring to the creation of Crater Lake National Park
Crater Lake National Park
Crater Lake National Park is a United States National Park located in southern Oregon. Established in 1902, Crater Lake National Park is the sixth oldest national park in the United States and the only one in the state of Oregon...
in Oregon
Oregon
Oregon is a state in the Pacific Northwest region of the United States. It is located on the Pacific coast, with Washington to the north, California to the south, Nevada on the southeast and Idaho to the east. The Columbia and Snake rivers delineate much of Oregon's northern and eastern...
, United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
. A native of Ohio
Ohio
Ohio is a Midwestern state in the United States. The 34th largest state by area in the U.S.,it is the 7th‑most populous with over 11.5 million residents, containing several major American cities and seven metropolitan areas with populations of 500,000 or more.The state's capital is Columbus...
, he worked in the newspaper business before becoming a mail carrier. He campaigned Congress for 17 years to designate Crater Lake as a national park.
Early years
William Steel was born on September 7, 1854, in Stafford, OhioStafford, Ohio
Stafford is a village in Monroe County, Ohio, United States. The population was 86 at the 2000 census.Stafford is served by the Monroe County District Library from its administrative offices in Woodsfield, Ohio.-Geography:...
, to Elizabeth Lawrie and William Steel, Abolitionists who were active in the Underground Railroad
Underground Railroad
The Underground Railroad was an informal network of secret routes and safe houses used by 19th-century black slaves in the United States to escape to free states and Canada with the aid of abolitionists and allies who were sympathetic to their cause. The term is also applied to the abolitionists,...
. The family included his brother, George A. Steel
George A. Steel
George A. Steel was an American politician and businessman in the state of Oregon. A native of Ohio, he moved to Oregon in 1862 where he became postmaster of Portland and helped build a railroad line among other business ventures...
, who became Treasurer of Oregon,, and his sister, Jane, who attended St. Mary's School in Medford, Oregon
Medford, Oregon
Medford is a city in Jackson County, Oregon, United States. As of the 2010 US Census, the city had a total population of 74,907 and a metropolitan area population of 207,010, making the Medford MSA the 4th largest metro area in Oregon...
, in defiance of the Ku Klux Klan
Ku Klux Klan
Ku Klux Klan, often abbreviated KKK and informally known as the Klan, is the name of three distinct past and present far-right organizations in the United States, which have advocated extremist reactionary currents such as white supremacy, white nationalism, and anti-immigration, historically...
. In 1872, the family moved from Ohio
Ohio
Ohio is a Midwestern state in the United States. The 34th largest state by area in the U.S.,it is the 7th‑most populous with over 11.5 million residents, containing several major American cities and seven metropolitan areas with populations of 500,000 or more.The state's capital is Columbus...
to Portland, Oregon
Portland, Oregon
Portland is a city located in the Pacific Northwest, near the confluence of the Willamette and Columbia rivers in the U.S. state of Oregon. As of the 2010 Census, it had a population of 583,776, making it the 29th most populous city in the United States...
. Steel became an apprentice pattern maker before entering the newspaper business in 1877. In 1880, he became a mailman in Portland, and spent time as a supervisor for the letter carriers. He then worked with his brothers to develop the Fulton Park housing development and build an interurban rail line to Oregon City
Oregon City, Oregon
Oregon City was the first city in the United States west of the Rocky Mountains to be incorporated. It is the county seat of Clackamas County, Oregon...
.
First visit to Crater Lake
Steel claimed he heard of Crater Lake from a newspaper story printed in 1870. Steel finally traveled to Crater Lake 15 years later in 1885, traveling by railroad and then stagecoachStagecoach
A stagecoach is a type of covered wagon for passengers and goods, strongly sprung and drawn by four horses, usually four-in-hand. Widely used before the introduction of railway transport, it made regular trips between stages or stations, which were places of rest provided for stagecoach travelers...
to Fort Klamath. After that, he walked 20 miles, arriving on August 15, 1885.
Publicist
Steel was a member of the Portland Alpine Club, the first known alpine clubAlpine Club
The first Alpine Club, founded in London in 1857, was once described as:Today, Alpine clubs stage climbing competitions, operate alpine huts and paths, and are active in protecting the Alpine environment...
in the West, and then a member of the Mazamas after the Portland Alpine Club folded.
Steel not only spent time guiding influential people around the area and leading nature hikes, but he also gave campfire lectures about Crater Lake's flora, fauna and geography, much like a contemporary interpretive park ranger
Park ranger
A park ranger or forest ranger is a person entrusted with protecting and preserving parklands – national, state, provincial, or local parks. Different countries use different names for the position. Ranger is the favored term in the United States, Canada, and the United Kingdom. Within the United...
. Steel more than anyone else shaped the early public perception of Crater Lake. For example, he garnered a great deal of publicity for Crater Lake by hosting The Mazamas
The Mazamas
The Mazamas is a mountaineering club based in Portland, Oregon, United States, founded in 1894.-Name:The name Mazamas means mountain goat, from Nahuatl mazatl, deer. for etymology...
' convention and mountain climbing tour in 1896. Hundreds of people, including politicians, scientists and climbers, spent three weeks in the area. At the close of the convention, fireworks were lit on Wizard Island
Wizard Island
Wizard Island is a volcanic cinder cone which forms an island at the west end of Crater Lake in Crater Lake National Park, Oregon. The top of the island reaches above sea level, about above the average surface of the lake. The cone is capped by a volcanic crater about wide and deep. The...
and the group ceremoniously christened the volcano that once stood where the lake is, calling it Mount Mazama
Mount Mazama
Mount Mazama is a destroyed stratovolcano in the Oregon part of the Cascade Volcanic Arc and the Cascade Range. The volcano's collapsed caldera holds Crater Lake, and the entire mountain is located within Crater Lake National Park....
.
Steel and Native Americans
Steel's dismissive attitude toward Native Americans in the area was characteristic of the times but struck a chord with modern-day audiences. As Crater Lake's unofficial publicist, Steel distorted the relationship between American Indians and Crater Lake and presented an overly simplified version to the larger public. Klamath, TakelmaTakelma
The Takelma were a Native American people that lived in the Rogue Valley of interior southwest Oregon, with most of their villages sited along the Rogue River. The name Takelma means Along the River.-History:...
and Molala Indians used Crater Lake as a spiritual retreat and the surrounding area for hunting and gathering. Despite speaking with Klamath leaders, Steel perpetuated the crude idea of childlike and naive natives who simply feared a body a water and the gods that lived within the lake. He essentially helped transform a sacred place for local tribes into a summer vacation spot for white people.
Despite Steel's many accomplishments, some of his policies ran contrary to the conservation aspect of the National Park Service
National Park Service
The National Park Service is the U.S. federal agency that manages all national parks, many national monuments, and other conservation and historical properties with various title designations...
's (NPS) mission.
Steel as developer
Steel's lobbying led to the designation of Crater Lake as the sixth national parkNational park
A national park is a reserve of natural, semi-natural, or developed land that a sovereign state declares or owns. Although individual nations designate their own national parks differently A national park is a reserve of natural, semi-natural, or developed land that a sovereign state declares or...
. He was not the first superintendent of the park, but did manage to get the first superintendent ousted in what was known as the "Crater Lake Rumble". Steel believed it was important to develop the lake to bring the public to the lake, including selling the idea of a lodge and an encircling road at the crater's rim, but he also envisioned an elevator to take people to the lake's surface, and roads around the lake itself and to Wizard Island for cars. After three years, Steel was removed as superintendent of the park.
Later life
Steel was "honored, tolerated, and despised", and became known as "The Judge", described as a "one-man chamber of commerce".He last visited the park in 1932, and died in Medford in 1934.
Footnotes
- Harmon, Rick. Crater Lake National Park: A History. Oregon State University Press, 2002.
- Mark, Stephen R. "Seventeen Years to Success: John Muir, William Gladstone Steel, and the Creation of Yosemite and Crater Lake National Parks"
External links
- "Oregon Experience: About Steel," Oregon Public Broadcasting, opb.org Retrieved August 12, 2010.
