Evening Republican, Volume 23, Number 135, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 4 June 1920 — CRATER LAKE National Park To be Enlarged [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

CRATER LAKE National Park To be Enlarged

by John Dickinson Sherman

RATER LAKE NATIONAL PARK j ig to be enlarged—according to all ■ indications. The senate passed the b ul (3.2797) the other day withr===gX) °ut opposition. The house is Hke|y to follow suit; at least no opposi\\\Ullli/l/ tion, to the has made its vml Lv a PP Parance publicly. The national park service is supporting it. The ■Ly- " to be added is public domain. There is therefore no expense. The enlargement is scenically attractive, is naturally a part of the paric and is needed for the comprehensive development of the public playground of which Crater Lake is the feature. The small , map given herewith has a broken line around the present park and the heavy continuous.line shows the park as enlarged. The present, park is approximately 13 miles east and west by 18 miles north and south and contains 249 square miles or 159,360 acres. The enlargement contains about 145 square miles oj* 92,800 acres. The park lies in Klamath county, in southwestern Oregon, about 60 miles from the California line. The nearest railroad points are Medford on the malif line of the Southern Pacific, 83 miles to the southwest; Klamath Falls, 62 miles to the south on a branch line, and Kirk, 26 miles to the southeast on a branch Jine. The park Lies on the crest of the Cascades and varies in elevation from 5,000 to 9,000 -feet -- The addition is spoken of locally as the “Diamond lake region,” because of the very attractive lake W’hlch is one of its features. This lake is about. 5,000 feet above sea level and Is about 5 by 2*4 miles. . From Crater lake to Diamond lake by trail la 18-miles. Diamond lake Is comparatively shallow and warms up enough for comfortable bathing. On' the east and south the shore is grassy, with a gradual slope to a pebbly beach. The lake is beautifully situated and altogether the location makes an Ideal camping ground. In this, lies much of its desirability. Crater lake Is a world marvel, but it is not entirely admirable as a camping ground. The camping ground is of course on the rim, a thousand feet or so above the wgter. And as a bathing lake it is out of the question, the temperature of its water being about 38 degrees all summer. And in addition the lake is more than 2,000 feet deep tn places.

The Diamond lake region offers fine fishing also. To be sure, nobody could ask for finer trout than the rainbows in Crater lake. They run big; some of them scale ten pounds. And they are magnificent fighters; many experts hold that pound for pound the Crater lake rainbow Is the hardest fighter of all the western trout. But fishing from the rocky, broken shore at the foot of the lake walls is often hard work. The best fishing is from a boat —and to some anglers .this is comparatively no fun. They want to steal along a stream and find a pool and match wits with the big fellow that has pre-empted it and holds it against all comers. And that’s just the bifid of fishing there is up around Diamond lake. Two creeks —Silent and Short —flow info Diamond lake at its south end. Two Bear creek flows into it from the north. Other trout streams are scattered over the addition. _ - All the roads into the present park come from the south. The enlargement will give the park a road from the north and direct connection .with Bend and central’ Oregotfpoints. In the future a connecting road to the wonderful Rim road around Crater lake would be a natural improvement; at present only a horse trail crosses, the range, which thrusts through the enlargement and into the park like a huge wedge. ' ~.tRight up in the very northeast corner of the enlargement Is Howlock mountain (8.351 feet). To the east of Diamond lake is Mount Thlelsen (9,178) and to the west is Mount Bailey (8,356). They are picturesque peaks and well worth ascending. All through the addition there is scenery worth while. Crater lake attracted 16,645 visitors last summer and the attendance is increasing every year.. In 1918 there were 1&23L So the enlargement Is needed—to give more camping room, varied scenery and different trout fishing, among other things The enlargement will offer additional attractions and make Crater Lake National park thqikind «f place where (the viMtor will want go stay all summer. In short. Greater Crater lake will be both show place and playground. It is the plan of the national park service to give this*£aygrdund aspect so far as possible to*ll of thTnattonal parks. Not all of them come by It naturally, and these are to be helped along by development. ,

Yellowstone, our oldest and most famous national park—the first national park In the world —never had been a success as a playground. The truth is It Is a wonderhouse of freak scenery—geysers, boiling springs, volcanic curiosities and the Yellowstone Falls. Also it has its semidomesticated bears and its wonderful big game. In the old days of the stage coach the regulation trip took five days.. After that the tourist was ready to leave.. And he seldom returned to see the park a second time. Now that the automobile has taken the place of the coach, the time of the regulation trip has been cut in two; otherwise the same conditions obtain. The Yellowstone attendance figures tell the story. In 1915, the attendance was 51,895; in 1916 It was 35,849; In 1917 It was 35,400; In 1918 It was 21,275; in 1919 It was 62,261. By way of contrast take the corresponding attendance at Rocky Mountain Natlon- - al park, which is a play ground park where people stay their entire vacation time and there are thousands of “regulars” who go every year: 31,000 and 51,000 and 117,186 and 101,497 and 169,492. Rocky mountain has no freak scenery, hut Its"*'scenic magnificence wears well and a large proportion of its visitors regard it as their summer home. In consequence the national park service is promoting, the project of adding about a thousand square miles to the south end of Yellowstone, including tM Teton range. Grand Teton, Mount Moran, Jackson lake and the Jackson Hole region and the headwaters of the Yellowstone. This addition will give the Yellowstone the kind of scenery it lacks. Moreover, plans for the farther development of the Yellowstone Include large automobile camp Wolf links, tennis courts and the encouragement of fishing, mountain climbing and riding* In short, the Yellowstone is to be made a playground sufficiently attractive to hold the tourist for a time and to induce him to return. Another example of needed enlargement is Sequoia National park in California. This park was created in 1890 and Contains 252 square miles. It was created largely for the purpose of preserving the Big Trees (Sequoia glgantea)—the biggest and oldest living things on the earth. The General Sherman tree, for example, is ab° ut 38 • feet in diameter and is approximately 5,000 years old. Congress, with an eye to the big trees only, cut the park boundaries arbitrarily and left out a magnificently scenic area which lies contiguous. „ Features of this contiguous area are the canyons of the Kings and Kern rivers and the summit of Mount Whitney (14,501). the highest mountain in continental United States. It is now purposed to add about a thousand square miles of this contiguous area to Sequoia and to change its name to' Roosevelt, making the enlarged park a nattonm outdoor memorial to the dead statesman. Hem again the public, play ground idea is the basic proposition. ’No description can do justice to Crater lake tteelf Unde Sam, however, has done a good job Under the circumstances in a booklet issued last -by the "United States railroad administration. And this booklet says among other things: All of our great natiohal playgrounds have their distinctive beauties; each Is different in great measure in the sublimity and attractiveness of its ■ national grandeur, but Crater lake stands alone in this: that all likeness to any familiar landscape here ceases. 'z r * ' . Other lands crater lakes—ltaly, Wdia and Hawaii—and there are some craters in this

■ • ~. ■ country that contain miniature lakes; but there is only one really great caldera of ’fills kind In t e world—only one immense basin apparently formed through the complete melting by intense heat of the entire core of a great volcano, and the falling in and utter disappearance through subterranean caverns of its massive bulk. . , The titanic convulsion that formed this remarkable beauty-spot no human eys witnessed. Geologists have concluded that ages ago, in, the great chain of volcanic mountain peaks which today extends from Washington to California —among them Mt Rainier, Mt. Booth Mt. Adams, Mt. Jefferson, Three Sisters, Mt. McLoughlin. Mt. Shasta and Lassen Peak —there towered one, which has 'been called Mount Mazama, that may have topped the tallest of its fellows. Judging from the pitch of the remnants of Its outer slopes, scientists conclude with reasonable certainty that, if reconstructed, its snow-clad peak would rise from seven to eight thousand feet above its broken rim. Mazama stands an uncrowned king, shorn of Its diadem of burning gold and glittering silver, yet holding within its heart a treasure the rarest in the world—a beautiful lake, the deepest of all lakes, with Waters the bluest of all blue waters. And this is Crater lake. Crater lake is almost circular, varying from five l to six miles in diameter. Its known depth is 2,000 feet and it is believed to be the deepest body _of fresh water in ■ the world. Its surface is 6,177 1 feet above the sea. It has no inlet or outlet, being fed by springs and winter snows water escapes by underground channels, reappearing as springs in the Klamath region, a-few miles away. It is completely girdled by precipitous cliffs and steep talus slopes that fall sharply downward from its rim 2,000 to 600 feet to the water’s edge. Closely encircling it rise many high peaks, notably Liao Rock. The Watchman, and Cloud Cap; also Olacler, Garfield and Vldae Peaks. Surrounded by canyons, ravines and pinnacled rocks, and belted by a wilderness'Of boulderatreWn forests, the region for years was inaccessible, and unexplored except by the more venturesome who were attracted by stories of the, Indians of this mystery lake in its fantastic setting Yet its discovery was accidental; it occurred in 1853 while an exploring party was searching in the Cascade mountains for the famous Lost Cabin mine. *. a dispute arose over the choice of a /name, the party dividing between Mysterious lake and Deep Blue lake. The advocates of Deep Blue lake won the vote, but id 1869 a visiting party renamed It Crater'lake, and this by natural right became Its title. „ " The first sight of Crater lake Is well-nigh be.wildering, Euless looked into from the rim it Is invisible. Wonderment at the height and steepness of its encircling cliffs succeeds the first- astonhdimenu admiration of the lovellneM of its coloring imxt enthralls the beholder. T quence ofAmpresslons. Its unique ,bea|tylWs in no small measure tn its coloring, the brilliance of which if reproduced in painting or print would seem exaggerated and impossible to those who such in -On® tenia thatJU* Jiia ft It, water would show bjue as if stained with cobalt, but It is clear as crystal and as pure. The deeper parts ate a brilliant ultramarine, shading to tuniuoise in the shallower reaches, and to, light lade green In the few Indented coves around the shore. A hundred feet down the glaze ofaplate hfplainly discernible. The surroundings help the brilliance of the blue; the rocks are of metallic lides; the peaks es the rim are often snow covered ; the lava gray of thp steep .scarred walls is mottled and splotched with bright yeUews and reds, markings left by volcanic action long ago, and always . is the dark green of th. ptae. and fi»a»d ’ ahrnbs that grow on. these declivities wherever they find root-hold. The waters are usually placid, gleaming as though glazedby the sun. awl in this mlrror of Nature.the reflections stand with y f »