Article Summary: Crater Lake National Park Facts
Crater Lake National Park Facts! In this article, we provide you with 11 amazing facts about one of America’s most magnificent national parks.
This park is filled with beautiful landscapes and amazing stories.
I’ve been to so many of these amazing places since retiring from teaching in 2018. Did I mention that I taught history? I spent a lifetime teaching about the history behind some of these natural wonders. Then I got to see them firsthand.
And now I’m sharing some of the incredible stories about these beautiful places with you. It doesn’t get any better than that!
More Than Just Parks is your one-stop-shop when it comes to learning everything you’ll need to know about America’s national parks. We’ve got expert guides, beautiful photos, helpful tips, breathtaking films and so much more.
Without further ado, let’s dive in!
Table Of Contents: Crater Lake National Park Facts
Facts About Crater Lake National Park
Some Basic Facts About Crater Lake
Crater Lake National Park is a national park located in the state of Oregon. It covers an area of 183,224 acres and is known for its stunning views, deep canyons, and unique geological formations.
The park is home to a number of unique geological features, including Crater Lake, which is a caldera lake that is over 1,900 feet deep and is the deepest lake in the United States. The park is also home to a variety of plant and animal life, including pinyon pine trees, juniper trees, and mule deer.
In addition to its natural beauty, Crater Lake National Park offers a range of recreational activities, including hiking, rock climbing, and photography. The park also offers guided tours and ranger-led programs, which provide visitors with the opportunity to learn more about the park’s natural and cultural history.
Crater Lake National Park is a popular destination for visitors, with millions of people visiting each year to enjoy its natural beauty and recreational opportunities.
Here Are Some Basic Facts About Crater Lake National Park
- Location: Crater Lake is located in Southern Oregon on the crest of the Cascade Mountain range, 100 miles (160 km) east of the Pacific Ocean.
- Acreage: 183,224 acres
- Visitation: 647,651 visitors in 2021
- Highest Elevation: Hillman Peak, 8,156 feet, is highest point on crater rim
- Lowest Elevation: 1,949 feet
- Annual Precipitation: 66.8 inches
- When Did It Become A National Park? May 22, 1902
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Crater Lake National Park Facts
Top 5 Crater Lake National Park Facts
1. Crater Lake Is A Caldera
If you’re interested in origin stories then one of the most interesting Crater Lake National Park Facts is that the area which today is known as Crater Lake National Park is a caldera.
This means that it’s a huge hole that was made when a volcano collapsed about 7,5000 years ago. Over time, this hole filled with rain and snow.
Today, it’s a lake that can hold up to 5 trillion gallons of water.
2. Crater Lake Was Discovered By A Young Prospector
For me, one of the most intriguing of the Crater Lake National Park Facts is that, according to the historical record, the first people to know about Crater Lake were the Klamath Indians.
While they knew of its existence, they seldom went there. According to their legends, they regarded the lake and the mountain as the “battleground of the gods.”
Fast forward to American fortune hunters in the nineteenth century. Like Death Valley, Crater Lake’s history features prospectors looking for buried treasure.
Crater Lake was discovered by a young prospector on June 12, 1853. His name was John Wesley Hillman.
Hillman was leading a party in search of the “Lost Cabin Mine.” Having failed in their efforts, Hillman’s group returned to Jacksonville, a mining camp in the Rogue River Valley. It was there that they reported their discovery which they had named Deep Blue Lake.
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A Name That Kept Changing
The discovery of Crater Lake would be forgotten, but others kept coming.
On October 21, 1862, Chauncey Nye, leading a party of prospectors from eastern Oregon to Jacksonville, happened upon the lake. Thinking they had made the discovery, they named it Blue Lake.
Then a third discovery would be made by two soldiers from Fort Klamath on August 1, 1865. These soldiers called it Lake Majesty.
In 1869, the name was finally changed to Crater Lake by visitors from Jacksonville.
And that’s the name that has stuck.
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3. A Kansas Man Led To Crater Lake Being Designated As A National Park
Another of the extraordinary Capitol Reef National Park Facts is that, before 1885, Crater Lake had few visitors and was not widely known. A man from Kansas changed all of that.
In 1870, William Gladstone Steel read about the park in a newspaper. Fifteen years later, Steel got his chance to visit.
He was mesmerized by the beauty of the place and vowed to have it made into a national park.
The Father Of Crater Lake
For seventeen years, Steel devoted much of his time, energy and effort to the objective of making Crater Lake a national park. Success was finally achieved on May 22, 1902. William Steel proved that one person can make a difference.
Steel became known as the “father of Crater Lake National Park.” He devoted the remainder of his life to its development.
Fittingly, he served as the park’s second superintendent and later as park commissioner, an office which he held until his death in 1934.
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“To say that this wonderful lake is grand, beyond description, is to give an idea of its magnificence. Everyone gazes at it in almost tearful astonishment.”
– Jim Sutton, Editor, Jacksonville, Oregon Sentinel newspaper, 1869
4. Crater Lake Was Formed From A Collapsed Volcano
Volcanoes have played an important role in many places around the globe. Crater Lake sits in the caldera of a collapsed volcano.
The volcano, Mount Mazama, formed half a million years ago.
It erupted around 7,700 years ago and collapsed in on itself.
The Makalak People
There’s a wonderful story told by the native Makalak people. According to their legend, the fall of the mountain was caused by a brutal battle between the spirit of the sky and the spirit of the mountain.
The destructive eruption signaled the end of the battle.
Many natives have since mourned the loss of their sacred volcano.
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5. Crater Lake Is The Deepest Lake In The U.S.
Just when you thought we couldn’t come up with any more unbelievable Crater Lake National Park Facts we’ve come up with another one.
Bottoming out at 1,943 feet, Crater Lake is deeper than any other lake in America. Because there are no inflowing streams, the lake is fed solely by rain and snow.
It is the cleanest and clearest large body of water in the world, according to the National Park Service.
Crater Lake is the second-deepest lake in North America. Canada’s Great Slave Lake is deeper.
Crater Lake is the seventh-deepest lake in the world.
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Top 10 Crater Lake National Park Facts
6. Crater Lake Is One Of The Snowiest Places In The U.S.
If you like snow then you’ll love Crater Lake. Perhaps the least known of our Crater Lake National Park Facts is that the park is known for its extreme weather. From October through June, the park is covered in snow. It has even been reported as late as July.
The park has an annual average of 43 feet of snow.
If you enjoy winter activities, there’s snow shoeing, cross-country skiing, sledding and snowmobiling.
“In respect to beauty and impressiveness this scenery is of the same order as that of the Yosemite Valley or the finest parts of the Yellowstone Park.
– John Wesley Powell, Director of the U.S. Geological Survey, 1888
The lake itself is a unique object, as much so as Niagara, and the effect which it produces upon the mind of the beholder is at once powerful and enduring. There are probably not many natural objects in the world which impress the average spectator with so deep a sense of the beauty and majesty of nature.”
7. Crater Lake Is Home To A Number Of Mysterious Deaths
Now here’s the grizzliest of our Crater Lake National Park Facts. Imagine a national park that could be hazardous to your health. Relax. The odds are that you’ll have a wonderful time if you travel there, but the park does have a lethal history.
We all know that accidents happen, but they happen with an uncomfortable regularity at Crater Lake National Park. Visitors to the park fall off cliffs, get caught in snowstorms and crash their cars into deep ravines.
Not only that, but airplanes and helicopters have fallen out of the sky there too.
And, as if that weren’t bad enough, the park has even had an alarming number of homicides.
A Ghost From The 1940s?
After the end of World War Two, a Grumman F6F Hellcat fighter crashed there.
In 1970, a man named Dave Panebaker was employed as a seasonal park ranger. On his day off, Panebaker decided to look for the wreckage of this lost fighter.
While hiking, he got lost. Not sure what he should do, Panebaker decided to sit down and consider his options. While his was doing this, however, he had this uncanny feeling that he was being watched.
According to news reports, he looked up and locked eyes — or, rather, eye sockets — with a human skull that was staring at him from under a nearby log.
Ensign Frank Lupo
Panebaker did manage to find his way out. He notified the chief ranger of his discovery and a Whidbey Island naval investigative team came to the park a few days later.
The Navy authorities identified the skull using dental records. It was 22-year-old Ensign Frank Lupo.
Lupo had been part of a squadron of seven Hellcats flying from Redmond to Red Bluff, California. The seven planes flew into a bank of clouds and mist.
Seven planes flew in, but only six planes flew out. Lupo’s remains were returned to his mother twenty-five years after his disappearance.
A Skeleton Crew
On February 26, 1975, Jean Nunn dropped her husband, Dave, off at the airport in Klamath Falls. Dave, along with his daughter and grandchild, were flying home to Salem in his blue Cessna 182.
Two 17-year-old student pilots, Jim Pryor and Matt Perkins, also came along for the ride to pick up some flight hours.
The plane landed in Salem. Dave’s daughter and grandchild were dropped off. Then he and the two student pilots flew back to Klamath. They never made it!
Jean Nunn reported, “I woke up at 9:30 with the sensation of a hand on my leg,” she recalled in a 2007 interview with Lee Beach of the Klamath Falls Herald and News.
“I looked at the clock and I knew. I called the airport and told them the plane had gone down at 9:20 p.m. and he had died at 9:30. They confirmed they had lost the plane off the radar at 9:20 at 11,000 feet.”
Search parties went out looking for the three missing men. They weren’t able to find them.
Seven years later, on July 5, 1982, a hiker outside of the park boundary, near Huckleberry Campground, spotted what looked like the badly mangled wreckage of a small airplane. Approaching it, he found three skeletons slumped inside the cabin.
Jean’s worst fears were confirmed.
The Vanishing Man
Here we go again! In 1974, a photographer left his home in the state of Virginia for a cross country trip. Charles McCullar, nineteen years of age, left on a hitch-hiking and bus riding adventure.
In January of 1975, he left on a short excursion, hitchhiking to Crater Lake to take winter photos McCullar planned to return to a friend’s house two days later. He never made it.
Search parties were deployed. The FBI even got involved in this case, but with no luck. Then, a year later, two hikers took a wrong turn and ended up in a little-traveled canyon.
There they found an old dirty ripped backpack with a car key in the side pocket — the key to McCullar’s Volkswagen back home.
“According to NamUs (National Missing and Unidentified Persons System), more than 600,000 persons go missing in the United States every year. Anywhere between 89 percent to 92 percent of those missing people are recovered every year, either alive or deceased.
-Eric Spitznagel, Why hundreds of people vanish into the American wilderness
But how many of those disappear in the wild is unclear. Neither the Department of the Interior, which oversees the National Park Service, or the Department of Agriculture’s US Forest Service keeps track.”
Things Get Really Bizarre
Now this story gets really bizarre. Rangers went in search of Charles body and found it 12 miles from the trailhead.
On the day he disappeared, there were seven and a half feet of snow on the ground. There’s no way someone could have traveled that distance on foot in those conditions.
And then there’s the condition of the skeleton. According to Tyler Willford of That Oregon Life:
“There were foot bones in the socks, but Charles’s jeans were empty except for the broken-off ends of his shin-bones sticking up. The jeans were unbuttoned. And the rest of him was gone, as if melted away. They found the crown of his skull about 12 feet away; nothing more.”
“Rescuers never found a shirt. They never found his coat. They never found his boots, either. Just an empty pair of pants sitting on a log, with socks and foot-bones inside.”
An unsolved mystery!
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8. Crater Lake Is A Great Place To Ride A Bicycle
If you’re a cyclist who looks forward to combining a love of nature with an exhilarating ride then Crater Lake’s a great place to visit. You may find the hilly landscape requires more endurance than what you’re typically used to, however, so be forewarned.
That having been said, the breathtaking nature around you will definitely make all your huffing and puffing worthwhile
If you’re ready to compete, Rim Road goes vehicle-free two days a year for the “Ride the Rim” event.
Bicyclists from across the country take part in this ride to enjoy the scenic roadway.
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9. Crater Lake Features A Ship-Shaped Island
Perhaps the strangest of our Crater Lake National Park Facts falls under the heading of “Mother Nature is the best interior (and exterior) decorator.”
At the center of Crater Lake, you will find a ship-shaped island. This island is an ancient rock formation. It appears to resemble a large sea vessel which is about 170 feet above the water.
It’s better known to park-goers as the “Phantom Ship.”
So, what is it and how did it come to be?
400,000 Years Ago
It was formed from andesite rock. It dates from approximately 400,000 years ago and it’s a remaining section of the filled conduit of a fissure.
It’s has the appearance of a ship, but that’s unintentional unless one wants to credit Mother Nature with possessing the skills of a Michelangelo.
On second thought, given nature’s incredible body of work, why not compare it to Michelangelo’s finest.
The island is situated on the south east end of Crater Lake and projects more than 656 feet out from the wall of the caldera.
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10. There Are No Streams Flowing In Or Out Of Crater Lake
Now here’s another one of those intriguing Crater Lake National Park Facts. As far back as Willian Gladstone Steel, people have marveled at the magnificent blue color of Crater Lake. How does one explain it?
One explanation would be the fact that no streams flow in or out of Crater Lake.
All of the water in the lake comes from rain and snowmelt.
This explains both the incredible clarity and the sparkling blueness of the water.
Top 11 Crater Lake National Park Facts
11. Reese Witherspoon Filmed A Movie At Crater Lake
One of my favorite Crater Lake National Parks Facts is that Crater Lake has appeared in several movies.
In 2014, Reese Witherspoon starred in a biographical adventure drama entitled Wild. It’s the story of a divorcee who leaves her troubled life behind to hike 1,110 miles of the 2,650 mile Pacific Crest Trail.
It’s a story of discovery and healing which is based on Cheryl Strayed’s best-seller of the same name.
Crater Lake represented only a brief stop on Witherspoon’s journey, but her time along the lake’s magnificent rim marks a critical turning point in her personal journey.
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Why Trust Us About Crater Lake National Park?
We’re Jim Pattiz and Will Pattiz, collectively known as the Pattiz Brothers (and sometimes the Parks Brothers) and we absolutely LOVE the national parks.
You should probably know that we don’t just make this stuff up out of thin air. We’ve spent our entire adult lives exploring and filming America’s national parks and public lands.
We’ve worked with the National Park Service, the Department of Interior, USDA, and the U.S. Forest Service for years creating films on important places and issues. Our work has been featured in leading publications all over the world and even some people outside of our immediate family call us experts on the national parks.
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Map Of Crater Lake National Park
List Of Facts About Crater Lake National Park
- Crater Lake Is A Caldera
- Crater Lake was discovered by a young prospector
- A Kansas man led to Crater Lake being designated as a national park
- Crater Lake was formed from a collapsed volcano
- Crater Lake is the deepest lake in the U.S.
- Crater Lake is one of the snowiest places in the U.S.
- Crater Lake is home to a number of mysterious deaths
- Crater Lake is a great place to ride bicycles
- Crater Lake features a ship-shaped island
- There are no streams flowing in or out of Crater Lake
- Reese Witherspoon filmed a movie at Crater Lake
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