Man may have seen Crater Lake formation
Register-Guard
Eugene, Oregon
Apr. 3, 1939
Williams said a study of Mount Mazama, the deeply depressed crater of what is now Crater lake, showed the eruption threw out tremendous deposits of lava and pumice, some of which still measures two to three feet thick 60 miles from the mountain.Professor Howel Williams, volcanologist of the University of California, said today that new archaeological finds in the Crater lake region of Oregon indicate the possibility that, contrary to former belief, many human beings witnessed the eruption which created the deep blue lake and some possibly lost their lives in the phenomenon.
At that distance a number of obsidian knives and other artifacts of an ancient Indian race were found buried in the pumice, indicating their settlements might have been overwhelmed in the eruption.
Previously a number of sagebrush bark sandals, some of them partially burned, and other artifacts had been found in a cave 80 miles east of Mount Mazama and scientists believe a group of Indians sought refuge in the cave when pumice and lava were engulfing the region.
The newest finds, along the Deschutes river, were uncovered by private development operations and a scientific party headed by Dr. L. S. Cressman of University of Oregon.
Until these recent finds, scientists generally had believed the eruption occurred before men had settled in the area.
