Crater Lake
National
Park
By: Yalitza Curiel
Table of
1
Contents
History.........................................0...............
..................................3
Plants and
Animals..............................................................5
Location and
Climate...........................................................7
Landforms..................................................................................
.9
Attractions................................................................................
11
Glossary...............................................................................C
History
About 8,000 years ago, a volcano
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named Mt. Mazama had a humongous explosion that left behind many features and a 2,000 foot deep crater that today is known as Crater Lake. As centuries passed, the crater cooled and began to fill up with precipitation . Today it contains the cleanest and purest water in the world. It’s so pure, that it is cleaner than the water that comes out of your faucet!
The sight of Crater Lake (Above) is quite breathtaking, especially with its beautiful blue waters. Who would have thought it used to be the caldera of Mt. Mazama. http://www.crater.lake.nationalpark.com/info.htm John Wesley Hillman, Henry Klippel, and Isaac Skeeters were the first white men
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to see Crater Lake, or as they called it, “The
Deep Blue Lake.” It was discovered by them on June 12, 1853.
Have you heard of Theodore Roosevelt, or maybe you know him as “Teddy”
Roosevelt? Well on May 22, 1902, he signed a bill that made Crater Lake our nation’s fifth oldest national park, and the seventh deepest lake in the world! Since that day, Crater Lake, the deepest lake in the U.S., is visited by about 500,000 people every year.
Plants and Animals
There are a lot of plants and animals at
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Crater Lake National Park. One of the most common plants is The White Bark Pine. It plays a very important role in the parks ecosystem by regulating snowmelt and by providing food for animals. The Clark’s
Nutcracker is a common bird that feeds on the seeds of The White Bark Pine.
A Clark’s Nutcracker feeding on the seeds of a White Bark Pine. http://www.craterlakeinstitute.com/naturalhistory/birdsclarksnutcracker.htm Yellowbellied Marmots are a squirrel family at the park that act like security guards. One marmot will be on the lookout for any type of danger, while the others
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feed on plants, relax on the ground, or are out exploring. When it sees the slightest danger it lets out a signaling squeak that warns the others to hide. Once it’s over, they all come out and act like nothing just happened. Isn’t that cool?
A Yellowbellied marmot rests on the rocks of the rim of Crater Lake http://livingwilderness.photoshelter.com/img/pixel.gif Location and Climate Crater Lake National Park is found in southwestern Oregon. It’s also located
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along the backbone of the
Cascade
Range
. The park has cool summers and moist winters with a huge amount of snow.
Above is Crater Lake in the winter months. http://www.craterlakenational.com/image/craterlake%20snow%20rim1.jpg Every year there is more than 500
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inches of snow. It snows so much that July and August are the only months when
Crater Lake is never entirely covered with snow! There are records that have been set by this national park by having the most snowfall. Landforms
There are many landforms at Crater
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Lake, but almost all of them were formed by
Mt. Mazama’s explosion. Wizard
