REGIONAL News: Fly, Fly, Fly the Boats!

We at SOREDI had a fun day on Monday witnessing the delivery of the new Grants Pass-based Katanacraft state-of-the-art boats to Crater Lake National Park. These boats are lighter and will be more fuel efficient than the previous ones, which are being decommissioned after years of faithful service.

So, how do boats get delivered down the steep and treacherous caldera? These valuable packages were delivered by an incredibly powerful tandem rotor Boeing 234 Chinook by Oregon-based Columbia Helicopter.

The staging area was on the north rim where the boats were carried across the lake and were let down with precision just off the shore of Wizard Island in Governor’s Bay. It was a stellar view from the lodge side of the rim, and the weather was ideal. Once each boat successfully landed in the water, a staged boat crew assisted in the release and delivery of the boat to its new home at the island.

The morning was spent delivering the three new boats named Modoc, Paiute and Klamath. All three names represent three of the native tribes in the Southern Oregon region Modoc, Paiute, and Klamath.  Note the details in the photo below:

The names are: “Modokni” (mo-dock-nee), which means “Belonging to Modoc” in the Modoc language. “Nimi” (New-muh), which means “People,” in the Northern Paiute language. “?ewksiknii” (Ouk-Seek-Nee), which means “People of the lake” in the Klamath language. (Note limitations of our standard keyboard!)

Leaving around 2:00 we were not able to witness the second half of the day when the Columbia team picked up the existing tour boats. Basically, the morning process in reverse. Though the future of these boats has not been announced, a formerly decommissioned boat is currently a tour boat on Priest Lake in Northern Idaho.

The new boats will begin service on Sunday, July 2, after four days of training and familiarization.