Wizard Island, Crater Lake, Oregon

Wizard Island, Crater Lake, Oregon

Categories
Special Collections > Keystone Slides
Type
tiff scanned file from original glass slide
Description
Long before we were human beings on the earth, there stood, where this peak now is, a mountain now called Mount Mazoma. Mount Mazoma was only one of the many great volcanoes in the range of Mount Baker, Mount Rainier (r-nr´), Mount Adams, Mount Lassen, Mount Hood, and Mount Shasta were a part. It was these volcanoes that built up the Cascade Mountains, by their vomitings of lava. In an eruption Mount Rainier blew its own top off. Mount Mazoma did something even more wonderful. It swallowed itself. That is, its outpourings of lava opened such a great cave beneath its center, that its whole top fell in. But the volcano was still active. It cast up 2 or 3 peaks within the great crater formed by the sinking of the main peak. As the volcano cooled, the crater filled with water. It formed what is now called Crater Lake. One of these little peaks is shown in the view. It is called Wizard Island. Crater Lake is a generally round body of water with a diameter of about 5½ miles. In some places its depth is 2,000 feet. The lake has no outlet. It is supposed that its waters escape underground and reappear in the Klamath River a few miles away. The little cone of Wizard Island also has a crater which is 150 feet deep. The Indians believed that two great spirits warred about this spot. The animals in the lake were the friends of one spirit and the animals in the near-by marsh land were the friends of the other spirit. Finally the marsh spirit killed the lake spirit and threw parts of the body into the water. The animals in the lake ate all the pieces but the head. This head, according to the Indian tale, is Wizard Island. Keystone ID: 14103 Note: All titles, descriptions, and location coordinates are from the original Keystone Slide documentation as supplied by the Keystone View Company. No text has been edited or changed.
Rights
Copyright by the Keystone View Company. The original slides are housed in McConnell Library's Special Collections.