There is documentation indicating that at least three other parties visited Crater Lake in 1865. In mid-August an article appeared in the Oregon Sentinel mentioning the visit a week earlier of a party of citizens to “Great Sunken Lake” in the Cascade Mountains northeast of Jacksonville. Obviously referring to Crater Lake, it stated that “no living man ever has, and probably never will, be able to reach the water’s edge.” These visitors were probably citizens from Jacksonville who had gone out to inspect the progress of the Fort Klamath-Jacksonville wagon road and view the lake as news of its location and beauty was spreading throughout the area. [5]
On September 3, 1865, a party of eleven men, led by James D. Fay, arrived on the west side of the lake during a hunting trip to Diamond Peak. Fay found a more gentle slope enabling the party to descend to the water, where the men inscribed their names and the date on a nearby rock. Intrigued by Wizard Island they determined to return and bring a boat with which they could reach the island and explore its slopes and summit. [6]
The reports reaching surrounding settlements regarding the scenic grandeur of the remote lake began to capture the imagination of more adventurous spirits. Soon the Oregon Sentinel reported that the “desire to see and explore Lake Majesty” had become intense. [7] On October 9 a party of citizens and officers from Fort Klamath, including two women–Miss Annie Gaines and Mrs. O.T. Brown–visited the lake and camped in a clearing near where the present park administration buildings are situated. Annie Gaines, for whom Annie Spring and Annie Creek are named, became the first woman to reach the water’s edge. [8]
An article appearing in the Oregon Sentinel on September 12, 1868, mentioned that during the previous week two men from the Rogue River Valley area had visited the lake with Captain Sprague. Two of the men had descended to the water during the visit. [9]
On July 27, 1869, a party led by James M. Sutton, editor of the Oregon Sentinel, left Jacksonville for Crater Lake, which was wrongly assumed to be the source of the Rogue River. The list of excursionists included J.B. Coats, James D. Fay, Miss Annie Fay, David Linn and James M. Sutton and their families, Miss Fannie Rails, Mrs. Catherine Shook, and John Sutton. The group proceeded along the Rogue River road to its junction with the Fort Klamath Road, at which point the wagons turned eastward toward the lake, blazing a route for a wagon road from the Cascade Crest of the Fort Klamath-Jacksonville Military Road to within two miles of the rim. Here they were joined by Colonel J.E. Ross, Lieutenant S.B. Thoburn, and a Mr. Ish from Fort Klamath.
Finding the slope too steep for the wagons to continue, camp was established and the party walked two miles to the rim overlooking the lake. Sections of a canvas and wood boat had been brought in one of the wagons and were soon assembled and lowered carefully over the rocks to the water. On August 4 J.B. Coats, James Fay, David Linn, James Sutton, and Lieutenant Thoburn set out on a voyage to Wizard Island in the first boat navigated by white men on Crater Lake. They climbed up to the crater where they left a record of their visit in a tin can cached in rocks at the summit. The boat was left at the lake on their departure from the area about ten days later, having proven too frail to circumnavigate and sound the entire lake. One sounding was taken 550 feet deep half a mile from the island and from the slope of the floor indicated at this point, the men estimated the lake to be from 1,500 to 2,000 feet at the deepest part. Some sources indicate that the party renamed this geologic wonder “Crater Lake” because of the crater in the top of Wizard Island. Upon their return home, Sutton published graphic accounts of the trip in editions of the Oregon Sentinel. [10]
During the summer of 1872 another widely publicized visit of Crater Lake was undertaken by Lord William Maxwell of Scotland and A. Bentley of Toledo, Ohio. Accompanied by a Dr. Munson, the post surgeon at Fort Klamath, they headed toward the lake and established camp below Castle Crest. After Munson died on what is now Munson Point, Captain Oliver C. Applegate, who had gained fame in the Modoc War while commanding the garrison at Fort Klamath, led Bentley and Maxwell, John Meacham, and Chester M. Sawtelle to the lake. The men placed upon the water the first boat to make an extended lake inspection tour. After visiting Wizard Island, they boated around the perimeter of the lake, naming some of the prominent peaks after each other. [11]
Interesting accounts of visits to Crater Lake appeared in several publications in 1873. Mrs. Frances Fuller Victor described her experiences briefly in a book entitled Atlantic Arisen. In the December 1873 issue of Overland Monthly S.A. Clarke wrote an account of his trip to the lake. [12]
