The Mysteries of Crater Lake, Oregon

This next post goes well with my entry from yesterday about weird patterns of missing people in National Parks. This is all about the strangeness of Crater Lake. Gotta love Who Forted:

whofortedblog.com/2013/03/14/creepy-crater-lake-legends-lost-gold-history-mystery/

Lost gold? YAWN!

More intriguingly:

“One wonder of the wild is Crater Lake, located in the Cascade Range of Southwest Oregon.  It is a bright blue cistern of pure rainwater lying in the crater of a long-dormant volcano named Mount Mazama.  After violent eruptions exhausted the mountain’s central spine of magma, Mazama’s peak collapsed in on itself, leaving a giant bowl of ash and stone—known in geology talk as a caldera—which now holds the majestic Crater Lake.  In true Oregon fashion it’s more or less a famous puddle, but it’s a beautiful puddle, attracting half a million visitors each year who come to admire its twelve square miles of heavenly blue.  At one time the lake was thought to be bottomless, but now it’s measured at 1,943 feet, making it the deepest lake in the US.

More things than its depth have made Crater Lake a mystery, though.  It’s a hotbed for strange disappearances, ghostly encounters, and legendary beasts. Bigfoot himself is known to show up here from time to time.  Rangers once reported following a large, dark, putrid-smelling creature through the woods until it started throwing pinecones at them.  The area is also home to at least two claimed slayings of the Sasquatch.  One was by car (the body was reportedly whisked away by the government), and one was by train.  The train conductors didn’t report slamming into something that looked like the legendary beast—for fear they’d be accused of drinking on the job.

UFOs are no strangers to the area, either.  In February 1997 a jet pilot reported military aircraft pursuing UFOs above the Lake.  That night a loud sonic boom was heard all across Western Oregon. Strange lights make periodic appearances regularly.”

That’s weird… I remember that sonic boom! No one could explain it and it was on the local news (which I watch most days pretty religiously.) I had no idea that there was a UFO chase that night. Very interesting for sure!

The article then goes on to explain how the various local Native Americans viewed the lake. NOT as a normal place, that’s for sure. Some thought of it as a place of evil, where strange goings on were evidence of sorcery and evil beings. Others thought of it as a place for initiation into wisdom, and held profound respect for the location, using it for special ceremonies only. It seems clear no Native Americans wanted to LIVE on or near the area, however– believing it either too risky or too sacred for such things.

There seems to be some truth to the legends, however– for even today mystery lights are seen on Wizard Island:

“… but rangers at the park often observe campfires on Wizard Island only to boat out and find not a trace of flame, a whiff of smoke, or a singed blade of grass. Whether the culprit is water monsters, Sasquatch, restless souls, or something else, an abnormal amount of people have disappeared in and around Crater Lake…“

Many of the disappearance cases had aspects that didn’t make any sense at all, for instance, when the remains of one missing photographer were found:

“What they found was so surreal that one thirty-year ranger described it as the strangest thing he had ever seen.  It appeared as though Charles had “melted” right into his jeans while sitting on a log.  His pants hadn’t been disturbed by animals or removed before his death.  There were socks in his jeans and there were toe bones in the socks, but these ended with a bit of broken tibia.   The rest of Charles was mysteriously absent from the site of his demise.  A thorough search of the lonesome canyon turned up tiny bone fragments and the crown of his skull about twelve feet away.  That was all they ever found of Charles McCullar.

To add more weirdness to this already ghastly scene, Charles’ jeans were unbuttoned and his belt undone.  No shirt or coat was ever found, and most perplexing of all the rangers couldn’t find his boots.  Rangers say they always find the boots!  They are essential for traveling in the woods, animals don’t take them, and they can last for a century.

So the mystery is this: how did Charles manage to traverse twelve miles in eight and a half feet of fresh snow without clothes or equipment?  Why did he undress himself?  And, most importantly, where were his remains?“

Color me intrigued. I’ve been all over my own state of Oregon a few times during my life, and beyond doubt some of the strangest experiences I’ve ever had were in that area of the state. Multiple UFO sightings (dancing lights in the sky in the early 90s) just for starters. I find the legends of the Native Americans the most interesting, though– given that they show that whatever might be different about this place, its been different long before white people came, and I think that’s something that’s good to know.

This seems to follow a pattern of “mountain bases” for UFOs and aliens heard up and down the West Coast. In Washington, the weirdness revolves around Mt. Adams and the Yakima Indians. In Oregon, its Crater Lake (remains of Mt. Mazama) and the Klamath Indians, and in Northern California, Mt. Shasta and yet another tribe of Indians. They’re all in a line along the Cascade Mountain Range, and they all have similar stories: UFOs and mystery lights, tales of hidden civilizations or bases under hollow mountains, non-human entities and faerie-like phenomena including poltergeists and odd beings that don’t belong sighted in and around the area. And of course, bizarre disappearances and deaths– especially of photographers??

Yet not much is written about these places because they are all situated far enough beyond populated areas that much can still go on unnoticed. Its obvious, however, that something is supremely strange here!