Winter activities were popular at Crater Lake and Fort Klamath during the winter months of the 1920s and 1930s.
Ski jumping brought together participants and spectators. The jumpers skied down a ramp and that propelled them into the air and judges awarded points for the length and style of the jump and successful landings.
The Fort Klamath Winter Carnival of 1927- 1928 featured ski jumping. By the 1930s, the Winter Sports Carnival at Crater Lake added ski jumping, increasing the attendance to 4,000 spectators. The number of visitors watching the events and the well-being of the participants required the hiring of additional rangers. They aided injured participants and provided crowd control near the lake edge.
The ski jump at Crater Lake was located south of the park boundary near the present-day Annie Creek Sno-Park. In 1938, a bus took skiers to the jump area, where a 900-foot rope tow pulled them to the summit of Knob Hill.
The record ski jump at Crater Lake remains 151 feet.
Sources: LaPlante, Margaret. Images of America Crater Lake National Park. Arcadia Publishing, 2013, pp. 111-12; “Bus Bound for Ski Jump at South Entrance to Crater Lake NP, 1938." Crater Lake Institute, 1938, www.craterlakeinstitute.com/www.craterlakeinstitute.com › bus-bound-for-ski-jump-at-south-entra; Gibbons, Tim. "Fort Klamath to Crater Lake Ski Race, 1927-1938." The Oregon Encyclopedia, 2018, oregonencyclopedia.org › articles › fort_klamath_to_crater_lake_race; "Ski Jumping." Wikipedia, 2019, en.wikipedia.org › wiki › Ski jumping.
