Crater Lake

“ Crater Lake, Oregon, was a haunt of water-devils who dragged into it and drowned all who ventured near. Only within a few years could Indians be persuaded to go to it as guides. Its discoverers saw in it the work of the Great Spirit, but could not guess its meaning. All but one of these Klamaths stole away after they had looked into its circular basin and sheer walls. He fancied that if it was a home of gods they might have some message for men, so camping on the brink of the lofty cliffs he waited. ”

“ The lake is over five miles in diameter and nearly 2,000 feet deep, making it the deepest in North America. Its surface is about 6,200 feet above sea level. Precipitous rock walls rising 500 to 2,000 feet completely encircle the lake, the main body of whose water is of a marvelous deep, sapphire-blue color, while the shallow portions around some of the shore are of emerald-green. Crater Lake has very little intake except direct rainfall and snowfall, and its water is fresh. ”

“ The latter need has been met by the publication of Crater Lake, the Story of its origin, by Howel Williams of the University of California, Berkeley, 1941. This volume, full of interest and well illustrated, has been followed by Geology of Crater Lake National Park, Oregon, also by Williams, published by the Carnegie Institution at Washington, 1942. This is a more formal publication of great scientific importance. Crater Lake is one of nature's marvels. It is more in the nature of a scenic wonder than any. ”

“ Daily boat trips are scheduled around the lake shore line and to Wizard Island, a perfect little crater jutting out of blue depths to a height of 763 feet. A motor drive extends around the crater edge for a distance of 35 miles, presenting scores of enthralling views of the scenic wonder. The constantly changing color and the contrast of lava cliffs and blue water are beautiful beyond description.
Crater Lake National Park embraces an area of 250.52 square miles and was established by act of Congress on May 22, 1902. ”

“ On this spot, a few thousand years ago, stood the mighty 12,000-foot volcano, Mount Mazama. This great mountain discharged a tremendous quantity of ash and lava, causing the mountaintop to collapse, and creating a caldera, which now contains the unbelievably blue Crater Lake. It is the central feature of this 250-square-mile National Park on the crest of the Cascade Range in southern Oregon.
A major charm of Crater Lake is that the whole lake and its setting can be taken in by the eye at one time. Yet its size is impressive. ”

“ Following this recommendation an attractive stone building was constructed on Victor Rock, just inside the rim of Crater Lake. The structure, with its broad parapet looking over the lake, serves as an orientation point for all park visitors. High-powered field glasses are trained on the important features, helping the visitor to understand the geologic history of the lake and to appreciate the relationship between the scenic and scientific. ”

“ Those who desire information about other interesting places in the park and vicinity are invited to inquire at park headquarters or the Information Building.
Fishing.
Angling amid the scenic beauty of Crater Lake is an experience long to be remembered. No fish were native to Crater Lake; the first planting of rainbow trout was made in 1888 by William G. Steel. In recent years only rainbow trout and sockeye (kokanee) salmon have been planted. Trolling has proved to be the most successful method of fishing. The daily limit is 10 fish per person. ”

“ In reality the quiet-looking islet seethes with fiery life. Seen at close quarters it is found to be a shell, which from one side looks comically like the well-worn stump of a hollow tooth. It is a barren crater near a thousand feet high, enclosing what was a lake and is now shrunk to a warm green pool, ringed with bright yellow sulphur. Hot springs boil and roar on the crater-lake’s surface, ever sending up columns of hissing and roaring steam many hundred feet into the air. ”

“ Legend says that the Klamath Indians believed Crater Lake was once a weird, ghostly amphitheater where the gods were forever embroiled in conflict, sporting in its blue waters and dwelling on its rocky heights and in its mystic depths.
Pioneers came slowly to southern Oregon, its sparse population in the early fifties living in constant dread of Indian wars. Miles of mountain region had never been explored when a party of California prospectors came to the mining village of Jacksonville. ”

“ FIG. 133.—CRATER LAKE From the top of the cliffs two thousand feet above. Upon the right is Wizard Island, a volcanic cone
Forests of fir and tamarack have spread over the once barren slopes of lava and pumice which extend back from the cliffs. In the hollows, after the lingering winter snows have melted, there are grassy meadows dotted with flowers. It is many miles from the lake to any human habitation, and all the region about remains just as Nature left it. It was a happy thought to make another national park here. ”

“ The ice fields from the summit sloped gradually downward to a basin some distance below, called Crater Lake. This little lake was frozen solid from top to bottom and covered with snow. It was hemmed in on three sides by tall mountains, while on the fourth there was a cañon-like opening, where an ice-bound stream led the way over rocks and tiny cliffs to Lake Linderman, at the end of the Pass. ”

“ Travelers to the park from Medford arrive by way of the west entrance and from Klamath Falls by way of the south entrance. Those from Bend, Oreg., 106 miles from Crater Lake, use the well-improved approach via the north entrance, bringing motorists near Diamond Lake while en route to the park. This route is rapidly growing in importance. The east entrance also provides for travel from Bend and The Dalles-California Highway and is usually open earlier in the season due to less snowfall. ”

“ Sand Creek Canyon is a vast ravine several hundred feet in depth with walls so steep that only an experienced mountain climber would dare attempt the descent. At a point nearly opposite the eastern boundary of Crater Lake Park, a multitude of slender sculptured spires ranging up to two hundred feet in height rise from the sides and bottom of the tremendous chasm. These weird gray needles of stone are cores of lava rock left standing after the surrounding sand and silt had been carried away by the floods which cut this mighty chasm in the sandy plain of Central Oregon. ”

“ All this time we forced onward through a murky gloom with our bodies joined with ropes that we might not lose one another. At three in the afternoon I calculated that we were near the crucial point at which the final ascent can be negotiated, and we left the white shores of Crater Lake and clambered up into the rushing mists where the blizzard shrieked and moaned alternately, and hurled huge blocks of glacier ice and frozen snow down into the Crater valley. ”

“ To the eastward, near the California boundary, high up in the Cascades, is the strangely constructed Crater Lake. It is at over sixty-two hundred feet elevation, and occupies an abyss produced by the subsidence of an enormous volcano, being six miles long and four wide. A perpendicular rocky wall one to two thousand feet high entirely surrounds it, and the water, without outlet or apparent inflow, is fully two thousand feet deep and densely blue in color. In the centre is Wizard Island, rising eight hundred and fifty feet, an extinct volcanic cone, thus presenting one crater within another. ”

“ It is estimated that there are not less than 5,000 persons who pass from one to six weeks time each season hunting and fishing in this forest. This seemingly large number is due mainly to the fact that the Crater Lake national park is surrounded almost entirely by the Crater national forest, and of course a great number of the persons who visit the lake, do more or less hunting and fishing on their way to the Forest, both going and coming. ”

“ In the sunlight there is play of clouds and soft shadows upon the surface of the lake. Purple hues, delicate lavender with violet blue, and deep streaks of emerald shading to a silvered green along the shores present a variation of color and beauty one may never hope to see elsewhere. ”

“ Across the blue water, even in the more forbidding lavas of Wizard Island, one is greeted at the boat landing by many fine clumps of bleeding heart (Dicentra formosa) . A little distance along the trail leading up the island cone, the parrot’s beak (Pedicularis racemosa) is seen under the spreading hemlocks. At the summit, crowning the rim of the miniature crater, emulating the volcanic fires of old, grow the flaming paintbrushes (Castilleja applegatei) , mainly restricted to the Crater Lake region. ”

“ Everywhere the steep rocky shore invites more intimate acquaintance; its caves may be entered, some afoot, at least one afloat. The lake is well stocked with rainbow trout, some of them descendants of the youngsters which Will G. Steel laboriously carried across country from Gordon's Ranch, forty-nine miles away, in 1888. They are caught with the fly from shore and boat. A pound trout in Crater Lake is a small trout. Occasionally a monster of eight or ten pounds is carried up the trail to the Lodge. ”

“ If the visitor travels the many byroads and winding trails to the mountain meadows beside the singing brooks, or by boat along the rocky shore of the lake, he will find gardens of transcendent beauty. No more enchanting ones can be found than Castle Crest Gardens at park headquarters and Talus Garden under the towering walls of Cloud-cap, or lovelier spots than Boundary Springs and Copeland Creek along the western slope of old Mount Mazama. ”

“ Summer Lake (a little smaller than Abert) , and Goose Lake, the one last named lying partly in California and draining into the Sacramento system. The Upper and the Lower Klamath lakes of Klamath county are noted for their scenic beauty. Near the north-western boundary of Klamath county is the famous Crater Lake, whose surface is 6239 ft. above the sea. This lake lies in a great pit or caldera created by the wrecking in prehistoric times of the volcano Mount Mazama, which according to geologists once had an altitude of about 14,000 ft. above the sea and of 8000 ft. ”

“ NEWBERRY CRATER , Deschutes County . Nature narrowly missed giving Oregon two crater lakes almost equal in size and beauty , but like many other second attempts to improve upon a masterpiece , this one failed . Twenty -five miles south of Bend lies Newberry Crater , a result of vulcanism much more recent than the caldera that is occupied by Crater Lake . Newberry Crater is situated in the summit of the isolated Paulina Mountains and in this crater are two lakes , Paulina Lake and East Lake , at an elevation of about 6500 feet or several hundred feet higher than Crater Lake . ”

“ The mountain in which Crater Lake rests was built principally by lava flows, poured out layer upon layer, and to a lesser degree by the piling up of volcanic ash, soil, and the deposits of streams and glaciers as they flowed down the mountain. At Dutton Cliff we see an example of successive layers of lava and volcanic ash. Near Discovery Point, in addition to layers of lava and volcanic ash, one may also see examples of glacial deposits and glacial striae or scratches. ”

“ Ideal for the study and viewing of Crater Lake flora, this garden is near Park Headquarters, 3 miles from the rim area. A half-mile trail winds through this area, alive with blooms throughout the summer season.
12 WILD ANIMALS
The park abounds with the smaller game species that are of great interest to the visitor because of their friendly inquisitiveness. Members of the squirrel family have learned that they will not be harmed and so are numerous along roads and trails and at any place where people congregate, knowing that in such surroundings they will find a wealth of tidbits. ”

“ The yellow pines had vanished, but in their place were great cedars, and stands of Douglas fir trees bigger even than those on the way to Crater Lake. About the middle of the morning they picked their way down a steep, broken, rocky trail into a cañon, and at the bottom they rode for a long way through a forest of fir trees so big that when anybody rode around one, both horse and rider vanished from sight! These trees rose 150 feet without a limb, straight as masts, and they were over 200 feet tall. ”

“ Since the park is open the year round, you may enjoy Crater Lake’s fantasy of snowy splendor and participate in winter sports. 14 Two trails from the Rim Village to park headquarters are maintained for skiers in winter. Professional ski meets are discouraged and amateur sports encouraged.
There are no overnight accommodations in the park from about September 15 to June 15, but warming-room facilities are provided at Rim Village.
The west and south entrance roads to the Rim Village area are open to motor travel. ”

“ Bears will enter or break into automobiles if food that they can smell is left inside. They will also rob your camp of unprotected food supplies.
Fishing. Open season: Streams, June 15-September 10; Crater Lake, when trail is open. The limit is 10 fish per day for each person fishing. No fishing license is necessary. Possession of bait fish, or the use thereof as bait, is not allowed.
Accidents. Report all accidents and injuries as soon as possible to the ranger office at park headquarters.
Complete rules and regulations are available at park headquarters. ”

“ Shore fishing usually may be enjoyed from the latter part of June until late September, depending on weather conditions. No license is needed to fish in Crater Lake. Possession or use of fish as bait is not allowed. ”