DEPARTMENT OF INTERIOR
NATIONAL PARK SERVICE
CRATER LAKE NATIONAL PARK
OREGON

This publication is issued for the purpose of recording observations and making known the results of research and scientific investigation concerning the natural history of Crater Lake National Park. It is under the jurisdiction of the Research and Education Staff and is supplemental to the lectures and field excursions conducted by the staff. Publications using these notes please give credit to the author and to Crater Lake National Park Nature Notes.

***************

"Thou who wouldst see the lovely and the wild
Mingled in harmony on Nature's face,
Ascend our mountains. Let thy foot
Fail not with weariness, for on their tops
The beauty and majesty of the earth,
Spread wide beneath, shall make thee to forget
The steep and toilsome way."

-- Bryant

Would that each of you could spend a time in the silent grandeur of Crater Lake in the dead of winter. After a heavy, moist snowfall, the boughs of the conifer trees are garbed in beauty. Crater Lake National Park, on the crest of the Cascade Range, is located in the realm of snow flakes, the crystal forms of frozen water. The intricate filigree work and the myriad forms showing snow sculpture everywhere depict "Gaywas" (the picturesque Indian name for Crater Lake) in fairyland attire.

Literally, as one sees the snow flakes so abundantly developed at Crater Lake in winter, he realizes that there is no art comparable to Nature's art and no beauty that can approach the handiwork of Nature. As Lowell says in verse so familiar: "Every tree twig is bedecked with crystals, rimmed inch deep with pearl".

The cover design, as well as the margin of this page, shows treasures of the snow. Snow flakes are among the most evanescent of all Nature's creations. They are unique and precious particularly so since they are fleeting forms and cannot be preserved like other gems.

Examine the sketches and you will discern that the snow flake crystals are formed with six faces, being of the true hexagonal system. Of course, all snow flakes are not perfect crystals and all gradations between shapeless amorphous masses to the intricate hexagonal filigree designs are found. No two snow flake crystals are exact duplicates. If one is interested in studying crystal forms and is prepared to make micro-photographs of these fleeting crystals, one has in every new photographic reproduction a thrill, for each may possess more beauty and complexity than the previous.

The avocation of collecting reproductions of snow flake crystal forms has a practical side as well as a pleasurable one which is vicarious in its nature. Artists, designers, architects and interior decorators frequently draw from snow crystal designs the foundation for the creation of bizarre and unique sketches and reproductions. One who collects such photographs does not find that every snow storm produces perfect, beautiful specimens.

It appears that ideal conditions for crystal growth are dependent upon a very fine adjustment of correct temperature, air currents, and rate of formation. The wind conditions in the sky cause the forming snow to be driven and forced against other fleecy particles, the delicate forms are destroyed. The arrangement of the freezing water molecules and the crowding against one another cause lack of symmetry in crystal formation. There is little doubt but that Crater Lake National Park is an area affording an ideal place to study and see the development of snow forms and crystal aggregates.

"The beautiful is as useful as the useful"

-- Victor Hugo