V Crater Lake National Park
The supreme attraction in Crater Lake National Park is the vivid blue lake that sleeps in the rugged and magnificent crater of a dead volcano—Mount Mazama.
One golden September afternoon I climbed alone upon the rim of the crater near Eagle Point. There was no wind, and everything lay broodingly silent in the sunshine. In an instant the scene became unreal. The lake, mysteriously blue—indigo blue—lay below. Barren, desolate mountain walls of a desert strangely surrounded it. Was I exploring the topography of the moon?
A second look at most new scenes, and there comes to me a feeling of acquaintance—of having been there before. But this scene made no advance; if it had known me, it desired to forget. I had not seen it; it was as indifferent to my presence as though I existed not. But it was enchanting and it was eloquent. In common with all other visitors to Crater Lake, I received profound and lasting impressions.
The splendid ruin of the ashen-gray walls, the intense and refined blue of the lake, arouse the imagination. What graphic, dramatic, world-building story is locked in these bold scenes?
It is probable that this vast blue-bottomed caldron was once covered with a volcanic peak. This vanished volcano is named Mount Mazama. The geological story is that the upper half of the peak collapsed. There was volcanic violence. But it did not, like Mount Rainier and Mount Baker, explosively blow its summit to pieces. A mile or more of the upper half simply collapsed and dropped into the crater. Had an explosion hurled the enormous fragments of the top afar, they must have been found scattered about. But only small fragments of pumice have been discovered.
This collapse appears to have been preceded by a rupture of the base, allowing the lava to escape. This lava had filled the crater and supported its walls, and the collapse followed its removal. The upper part of this peak that apparently dropped into the crater must have been six thousand or more feet high, with a basal diameter of about six miles. Its bulk was equal to, or greater than, the whole of Mount Washington, the highest peak in New England.
An early impression that this lake crater gave me was that it had been formed by breaking off an enormous conical and hollow volcanic peak which was inverted and jammed, small end downward, into the earth. This caldron remains. It is now a jagged, gigantic central opening in the deep surrounding lava-beds. These exhibit the former fiery flooding activity of Mazama.
The volcano was active at intervals in the glacial period. This is shown in the glaciated rock-surfaces of the rim that are covered with layers of pumice and rhyolite. The lake is encircled by about twenty miles of precipitous walls that rise from five hundred to two thousand feet above the surface of the water. The lake-level is 6177 feet. The surface fluctuates a few feet each year.
The water is deep, much of it from twelve hundred to nineteen hundred feet. In a few places it is less than three hundred feet deep, with near-by surroundings several hundred feet deeper. Are these shallow spots above the tops of other volcanic cones or lava-masses?
The lava-beds in the surrounding outer slopes of the crater overlie one another at an angle that indicates that the lava was poured to them from a central point above. Extend the slopes upward from the rim on the angle of the slopes below, and the outline of the former peak is restored. This would make a peak about the size of Mount Shasta.
At the altitude of the crater rim, about eight thousand feet, the diameter is about six miles, the same as that of Mount Shasta at the same altitude. As both peaks are composed of like kinds of lava, we may safely assume that Mount Mazama before it collapsed was about the size and height of Mount Shasta (14,380 feet).
Glacier records furnish additional evidence of the former height and magnitude of Mazama. On the rim and on the outer slopes just below it are a number of glacier grooved and planed rock-surfaces. The lines of these extend downward, so the ice must have come from above. Then, too, there are a number of moraines that show they were deposited by glaciers from upper slopes. Apparently glaciers flowed down all sides of this mountain from a central high point. Two ice-eroded cañons begin in the southern rim and extend down the slope. Plainly these were formed by ice-streams that came down from above. Thus the angle of the lava-built slopes, and the lines of glaciation, testify to the former existence of a high central summit.
On its slopes the Fire King and the Ice King appear to have wrought and to have clashed. Both have vanished from the scene; but here remains a volcanic landscape slightly sculptured by ice. The Mazama story appears a spectacular one.
This scene is a favorite with geologists. They come to it from all over the world. Crater lakes are common. There are numbers of dead craters filled with water in South America, Asia, and elsewhere. But this is an extraordinary crater lake. The marvelous blueness is only one feature. The rare geological exhibit makes a strange appeal.
Joseph S. Diller, of the United States Geological Survey, closes his excellent monograph on the “Geological History of Crater Lake, Oregon” with the following words:—
Aside from its attractive scenic features, Crater Lake affords one of the most interesting and instructive fields for the study of volcanic geology to be found anywhere in the world. Considered in all its aspects, it ranks with the Grand Cañon of the Colorado, the Yosemite Valley, and the Falls of Niagara, but with an individuality that is superlative.
No streams flow into this lake, and there is no visible outlet. It is probable that subterranean waters empty into it and flow from it. The annual precipitation, together with the enormous quantities of snow that are blown into it, greatly exceeds the amount of water evaporated. The water is clear and cold. It is so clear that a plate may be seen upon the bottom through fifty or more feet of water. Fish may be distinctly seen swimming about at great depths.
Many alpine lakes are blue under some lights. The deep blueness of this lake may possibly be due to mineral which the water holds in solution; or also in part to its high surrounding walls and to its enormous depth. Seen from the rim, a narrow margin of the water along the walls is sea-green. Yet a glassful is as clear as the clearest.
A few days spent upon the rim and in a launch upon the lake will give glimpses of world-building features and nature-history. Morning is a good time for a journey around the lake. At no point is there a beach. The steep walls descend and plunge into the water.
In the lake near the west shore is Wizard Island. It is a perfect little volcano—a crater within a crater. Although a few pines are growing upon it, the island’s lava and ashes appear as if just cast from the internal furnace. It probably was formed after the collapse of Mount Mazama. Lava, cinders, and tiny water-filled crater appear strange mimicry. The island rises several hundred feet above the lake-surface, and its crater is eighty feet deep. The island is a good view-point at noon, at evening, or when the blue cold crater glows and sparkles with the reflected fires of a million fiery worlds.
Phantom Ship, near the southeast shore, is a volcanic island masted with rock-spires. It has scattered trees. From a number of points of view it has the appearance of a ship, but under certain lights it blends so completely with the walls behind it that it vanishes.
The forests are magnificent. Among the trees on the rim and on Wizard Island are noble fir, alpine fir, mountain white pine, Douglas spruce, alpine hemlock, and lodge-pole pine. Sheep-pasturing in former years wrought havoc with the wild flowers, of which there are numerous varieties. There are many kinds of wild birds and wild life. While there are other scenic attractions, the supreme one must ever be the lake of marvelous blue and its rugged, fire-tinted walls. In the ruined caldron where red fire and black smoke wildly mingled, blue water lies in repose.
On June 12, 1853, a number of prospectors, led by John W. Hillman, discovered Crater Lake. Though not interested in scenery, they were aroused by this gigantic blue gem in its rough volcanic setting.
In 1885, William G. Steele began the campaign which finally won this National Park. This campaign went through numberless vicissitudes and lasted seventeen years, the Park having been established in 1902.
In 1888, Steele carried a number of trout in a can upon his back for more than forty miles. These trout were placed in the lake and grew rapidly. Since then it has been repeatedly stocked by the Government. Nowhere else that I know of can a fisherman catch a trout and clearly watch its every effort many feet under the water, as it tries to run away with or escape from the cruel hook.
This Park is in the heart of the Cascade Mountains in southern Oregon, a short distance north of the California line. It has an area of about two hundred and forty-nine square miles. Mount Thielson, Diamond Lake, and other near-by attractive features might well be added to the territory of the Park.