National Park Service Puts Crater Lake Concessionaire On Notice For Possible Termination

Above, Crater Lake's Rim Village cafe and gift shop in 2017. Photo by Armand Vaquer.

Aramark, the concessionaire for Crater Lake National Park, may get the boot over management issues that have increased over the past five years.

I last visited Crater Lake National Park in 2017.

According to The Oregonian:

The National Park Service has threatened to terminate its contract with international hospitality company Aramark at Crater Lake National Park, following a rash of management issues at the Oregon destination over the last five years.

Crater Lake Hospitality, a subsidiary of Philadelphia-based Aramark, is contracted to run concessions at Crater Lake and the Oregon Caves National Monument through 2030. However, a park service spokesperson confirmed Wednesday that the federal agency will terminate the contract unless the company “shows cause as to why NPS should not do so,” said David Szymanskim, Pacific West regional director for the agency.

Park officials did not offer a timeline for the company to respond, and did not say how a termination would affect park operations like Crater Lake Lodge and boat tours. Szymanskim declined to say how Aramark was informed or exactly what was communicated, but agency guidelines require written notice.

The announcement comes just two months after Sen. Ron Wyden issued a public letter to the National Park Service, raising a litany of “serious concerns” about Crater Lake Hospitality and asking the federal agency to “take immediate action to prevent concessionaire mismanagement from continuing to threaten Crater Lake National Park, its visitors, or the employees who live and work there.”  

Former employees have complained of unsanitary and unsafe housing and working conditions, payroll issues that led to withheld paychecks and allegations of sexual assault – claims backed up by annual National Park Service reviews of Aramark’s operations at Crater Lake, police reports, and complaints to the Oregon Bureau of Labor & Industries, all provided to The Oregonian/OregonLive through public records requests.

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