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There have been many claimants for the honor of being the first discoverer of Crater Lake, some of them even going so far as to give a detailed account of their trip and claiming to have discovered the Lake in January or February, 1847, while accompanying the late General John C. Fremont in an expedition to California in that year; but on investigation none of these accounts have as yet been authentically substantiated.
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The earliest discovery of the Lake of which there is any authentic record was on June 12, 1853, by a party of prospectors named ____Dodd, John W. Hillman, James L. Loudon, Patrick McManus, George Ross, and Isaac Skeeters, who, in company with some others, had been lured up the Rogue river valley in search of fabulously rich mines reported by some California gold hunters to be on the upper Rogue river.
The events leading up to the discovery were as follows:
In the early spring of that year a party of California prospectors came to Jacksonville, and by the secrecy observed in securing provisions and the caution maintained in all their movements, so excited the curiosity of several Oregon prospectors that a party was at once formed and a watch set upon the movements of the Californians which resulted in the leaking out of the old story of "lost diggings" teeming with placer gold, which the newcomers were in search of. As soon as both parties could be equipped a forced march began, and although every device known to the pioneers of those early days was resorted to, the Oregonians could not be misled or shaken off. This state of affairs ceased only on the provisions of both becoming exhausted, when a truce was called and Hillman, the leader of the Oregonians, candidly informed the Californian leader that his party proposed to stay as long as the others were in the mountains. The result was a union of the two parties, the interchange of the secret landmarks and a decision to have a few of the hardier members continue the search and report progress to the main party left in camp. This was accordingly done, and the above named members of the united party were sent forward; but the "lost diggings" did not materialize, and game being scarce it soon became a serious question how longer to maintain even this small party
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To make matters worse the party had lost nearly all idea of their whereabouts and had to resort to the old method of climbing peaks to ascertain them. From the summit of one of these peaks they saw numerous lakes, and finally after ascending a long gentle slope they came upon the brink of a precipice where far below them lay, what the leader of the party describes as "the bluest lake I ever saw." Their hunger was for the time forgotten as they gazed at its plaid blue waters and in the clear atmosphere of that season of the year realized its great expanse. They reached the rim at a point a little west of Victor Rock, found the snow reaching down to the water in very many places, and continuing along the rim for some hours, they estimated the Lake to be not less than 20 miles in diameter, and judged its distance from Jacksonville to be about 125 miles. They looked in vain for an outlet, which made their discovery seem all the more wonderful, and they saw, and on their return gave a fairly accurate description of Wizard island, but failed to notice the Phantom Ship. After their wonder and excitement had subsided, the naming of the Lake was discussed and, each one suggesting a name, it finally narrowed to the selection of one of two -- Mysterious or Deep Blue Lake -- the latter begin given the preference, though it was occasionally referred to afterwards as Lake Mystery.
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The party soon proceeded on its way and on returning to civilization reported its wonderful discovery, but there being no newspaper then published in southern Oregon (the first number of the Oregon Sentinel was issued on January 13, 1855), no account of it was printed
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it soon came to be looked upon as a miner's tale, and in course of time was forgotten.
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Nothing further was heard of the Lake until the fall of 1862, when it was again discovered by a party of six miners returning to the Rogue river valley for the winter from the Granite Creek mines on the North Fork of the John Day river.
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A description of this trip was published in the Oregon Sentinel for November 8, 1862
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Bibliography of the Discovery and Early History of Crater Lake:
- Oregon Sentinel, Jacksonville, Nov. 8, 1862
- Oregon Sentinel, Jacksonville, August 12, 1865
- Oregon Sentinel, Jacksonville, September 2, 1865
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[Webnote: newspaper clipping "Oregon's Great Curiosity", Seattle Weekly Gazette from the Jacksonville Sentinel, scroll down to date]
- Oregon Sentinel, Jacksonville, September 9, 1865
- Oregon Sentinel, Jacksonville, August 21, 1869
- Oregon Sentinel, Jacksonville, August 28, 1869
- Daily Oregonian, Portland, January 1, 1886
- Daily Oregonian, Portland, February 14, 1886
- Daily Oregonian, Portland, March 10, 1886
- The Mountains of Oregon, by W.G. Steel, Portland, 1890, p.13
- Atlantic Arisen, by Mrs. F.F. Victor, Philadelphia, 1891, p.179
- Ashland Tidings, July 20, 1896
- Klamath Republican, July 23, 1896
- Ashland Tidings, August 6, 1896
- Klamath Republican, August 13, 1896
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