William Gladstone Steel was born in 1854 in Ohio, to an immigrant from Scotland. During his early life, Mr. Steel moved around the country some to include Kansas, Oregon, and New York. Throughout his life he filled many different roles such as iron manufacturer, newspaper man, letter carrier, and realtor to name a few. Possibly Mr. Steel’s favorite position however, was as a National Park superintendent in Crater National Park. Mr. Steel played an instrumental role in the creation and preservation of Crater Lake National Park which is one of America’s precious natural treasures.
Mr. Steel is known as the father of Crater Lake National Park due to his extensive and ferocious advocating in the creation of the park. His affection for the Crater Lake area began when he was a 16 year old school boy in Kansas and read a newspaper article describing an extraordinary sunken lake in Oregon. He determined to visit Crater Lake, but it wasn’t until 15 years later that he was able to make that trip a reality.
Mr. Steel finally reached Crater Lake in 1885, and was not disappointed. He was so moved by the sheer
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His first order of business was to remove the possibility of commercial development and turn Crater Lake into a National Park. Doing so was not a small feet, and took 17 years of hard political fighting. He was not an expert in public policies, but he strove to use every resource that he possibly could to achieve his goal. Immediately upon his return to Portland, Mr. Steel met with Hon. Binger Hermann who was a Congressman from Oregon. The Congressman encouraged Mr. Steel to draw up a petition to President Grover Cleveland asking for the creation of a national park. Mr. Steel used much of his own money, and certainly a great amount of time in circulating the petitions, and writing to newspapers requesting the story of Crater Lake be published around the