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UNITED STATES
DEPARTMENT OF INTERIOR
NATIONAL PARK SERVICE
CRATER LAKE NATIONAL PARK
NATURE NOTES
| Volume IX |
July 1936 |
Number 1 |
Nature Notes from Crater Lake National Park are issued during the
summer months by the naturalist staff. These pamphlets are distributed
to those interested in the natural features of the park. Free copies may
be obtained through the office of the Park Superintendent, Crater Lake,
Oregon. Anyone desiring to use articles appearing in Nature Notes may do
so. Please give credit to the pamphlet and author.
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| David H. Canfield, Superintendent |
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John E. Doerr, Jr., Park Naturalist |
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Cover Design - L. Howard Crawford, Ranger
Naturalist
Preface
By John E. Doerr, Jr., Park Naturalist
Nature Notes from Crater Lake National Park, prepared by the
naturalist staff during the summer months, will from time to time
include articles on the natural features of Crater Lake National Park as
well as on the features of the Lava Beds National Monument and the
Oregon Caves National Monument, both of the monuments being under the
administration of the superintendent and staff of Crater Lake National
Park.
The Lava Beds National Monument, in northeastern California,
includes an area of approximately 45,000 acres. As the name suggests,
the monument contains outstanding volcanic formations, some of which are
of quite recent origin. There are hundreds of subterranean channels or
tubes which were once the passageways for streams of molten lava.
Numerous symmetrical cinder cones, locally known as "buttes", rise
several hundred feet above the general level of the adjacent country.
There are excellent examples of quite recent "aa" and "pahoehoe" lava
flows. The Lava Beds National Monument is also interesting from a
historical standpoint. The area includes the battlefields of the famous
Modoc War of 1872-1873. The area also includes important ethnological
and archeological features. Petroglyphs and pictographs on cliffs and in
caves are evidence that the region was inhabited by primitive people
long before the coming of white man.
The Oregon Caves National Monument is located in the heart of the
Siskiyou Mountains in southwestern Oregon. It was established as a
national monument in 1909, under the Department of Agriculture. An
Executive Order transferred the monument to the jurisdiction of the
National Park Service in 1934, the superintendent of Crater Lake
National Park being administrative head of the monument.
The caves, named "The Marble Halls of Oregon" by Joaquin Miller, the
Poet of the Sierra, are truly marble halls. Underground water
penetrating to great depth along fractures in the marble formation has
dissolved out an extensive system of chambers. Water, dripping from the
ceilings and walls, has decorated the halls and passageways with
fantastic stalactites and stalagmites which stimulate ones imagination
as well as ones appreciation of the beauties of nature existing in
caverns never touched by sunlight.
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