Lake Roosevelt Administrative History

Radio Communications

Communication has presented a challenge to Park Service staff at Lake Roosevelt since the beginning. Many of the problems stem from the physical nature of the park, a narrow band of land and water stretching more than 150 miles, bounded by hills and mountains. Inadequate budgets also contributed to communication difficulties in this remote area.

In 1947, Reclamation helped the Park Service install a radio antenna, with two more added the following year. Park Service staff initially maintained a radio room in the Federal Guard building in Coulee Dam but later moved the base station to the North Marina. The equipment was old, however, and in 1950, Superintendent Claude Greider reported that the results remained unsatisfactory after three years of trying to make the outdated equipment work. He decided not to spend any more money or time at that point, preferring to wait for an improved system. That may not have come until 1962 when Superintendent Homer Robinson reported that the park had received $234,298 for a complete communications system. It was to include three base stations, twelve mobile radios, and five portable stations. He believed that coverage should be complete, improving both operations and administration for LARO. [44]

That system was deemed inadequate nearly ten years later due to increasing interference with the radio signal. At that time, Reclamation took care of maintaining the system but did no preventative maintenance. The regional office approved a Project Construction Proposal for a high-band radio system for the entire park in February 1971. Over the next year and a half, representatives from both the Western Service Center and the DSC came to LARO to analyze the park's needs. They recommended a new system with a repeater on Monumental Mountain, southwest of Colville, and a second one in the hills above Jones Bay. Superintendent Burgen submitted justification for the new system in October 1973, saying that the radios were needed to cover the NRA because only five of the twenty-five developed sites had a telephone. Repairs on the radio system in the last fifteen months had cost close to $2,000, causing a great deal of down time. In addition, interference during the critical summer months came from as far away as Arkansas. Don Everts remembered one time when he had tried for half an hour without success to reach Kettle Falls from the south end of the lake. Finally a person who was hearing both sides broke in to ask Don if he needed help in relaying the message. It turned out to be the regional office in Santa Fe, New Mexico. [45]

One of the main improvements in the radio system in the 1970s was the addition of a repeater station within the park boundaries. Because the Park Service lacked the authority to purchase any land, Superintendent Burgen turned to the Mount Rainier Natural History Association for help. In 1974, the Association paid $330 for one-quarter acre of land on the plateau above Keller Ferry and donated it to Reclamation, who then put it under the administration of the Park Service. LARO staff constructed a concrete block building and erected a 160-foot radio tower that year. Reclamation's repeater on Monumental Mountain was "in various stages of obsolescence" at this time, and it asked permission to make a couple of additions to the new Park Service repeater to allow the agencies to share frequencies. Burgen turned down the request, however, saying that the Park Service needed to be able to control confidentiality in its transmissions, a special concern of law enforcement. He offered to occasionally loan portable units to Reclamation instead. Installation of the new radio system, including new base stations and mobile units, continued at least into mid-1975. At the turn of the new century, LARO still maintains a repeater on Monumental Mountain. The other repeater has been moved from Creston Butte to Johnny George Mountain on the Colville Reservation. [46]

Paul McCrary, Homer Robinson, and Al Drysdale installing equipment in the radio transmitter building, March 1961. Photo courtesy of National Park Service, Lake Roosevelt National Recreation Area (LARO.HQ.MENG).

The most recent significant change in the radio system at Lake Roosevelt has been the mandated reduction in bandwidth in all federal VHF radio channels to be completed by 2005. By the summer of 1998, however, all radio equipment at LARO was still the old wideband type and included three fixed-base stations, one mobile base station, nineteen remote-controlled units, one bay-communication console, one commercially powered repeater, three solar-powered repeaters, eight marine radios, forty-five mobile radios, and seventy portables. At that time, LARO staff was interested in cellular phones as possible replacements for the radio system, since close to 75 percent of the park could be reached with cellular service. The park had six cellular phones in 1998 and anticipated increased use in the future. [47]

Staff at LARO have used radios for many purposes over the years. In 1998, there were forty full-time equivalents, twenty seasonals, and ten volunteers who needed radios, with the heaviest use occurring from May through September. First priority was law enforcement, followed by fire protection, maintenance, natural resources, and administration. Law enforcement personnel at Lake Roosevelt needed to communicate not only with each other but also with other law enforcement agencies outside the park. LARO approached the Stevens County Sheriff in 1975 to arrange for direct communication from the park to both the Sheriff and State Patrol. Since the Park Service planned to purchase units for some vehicles that year, LARO hoped to buy ones that would be compatible with nearby agencies. LARO continued to establish cooperative relationships with local agencies during the 1980s, including the Stevens County Department of Emergency Services in 1984, Lincoln County Fire Protection District #7 in 1987, and Stevens County Fire Radio System in 1989. When Reclamation eliminated its dispatch services, on which the Park Service had depended, LARO contracted in 1996 with Lincoln and Stevens counties to take over dispatch full-time. [48]

Computers and Electronic Mail

The advent of computers and electronic mail, or email, changed communications at LARO. Email now supplements telephone communication, enabling staff to send and receive written messages at their convenience. In addition, email within the National Park System has altered communications among parks and regional offices, frequently replacing traditional written communications sent through the postal system.

LARO purchased its first computer, a Datapoint 1800, in 1982. Employees soon developed programs for use within the park. The system expanded rapidly two years later with the addition of a Wang word processing system with terminals in maintenance, administration, and the office of the Superintendent's secretary. The used equipment was acquired from the regional office, saving close to $25,000. The original Datapoint computer enabled LARO to transmit the payroll to the regional office electronically by 1984. The park developed a five-year computer plan that year. [49]

Computers, designed to save time with work, actually led to a backlog of work in 1988. By that year, nearly every office in the park had a work station, and employees all wanted to learn to use the new technology. The administrative staff had gained expertise on computers, mostly outside normal working hours, teaching themselves and others. "We crossed our fingers and forged ahead as a team," wrote Superintendent Kuiper, "sharing knowledge and learning as we progressed." The administrative personnel then spent extra time tutoring other staff, leaving lower priority tasks undone. This caused a backlog of work by the end of the year that the park realized would take considerable time to clear up. Still, they had seven new work stations up and running that year, "thanks to this pioneering spirit!" LARO hired its first computer specialist in April 1991. [50]

Electronic communications within and among offices became available in the late 1980s and 1990s. The Park Service installed SEADOG nodes in three districts in 1989 but still had no way to share data between offices. Instead, staff carried diskettes among the twelve work stations at Headquarters, a method they found "annoying, but tolerable." [51] LARO installed a Local Area Network at Headquarters in 1992 and followed with one in the North District in 1994-1995 and one in the South District in 1996. Electronic mail became available in 1992 at LARO Headquarters and the District offices. A router installed two years later allowed the park to link up with the Department of the Interior network. The router also improved the speed and efficiency of electronic mail between LARO and the Seattle Support Office and enhanced utilization of the budget programs, Federal Financial System and the Federal Pay Pers System. In addition to adding new capabilities to the computer system, LARO upgraded individual computers so that nearly all of the older 286 models had been eliminated by 1995. The park also moved to change all of the technology to work in the Windows-based system, training some of the staff in this program in 1996. [52]