Smoking Waters of Crater Lake a Great Mystery
The Hammond Times
Hammond, Indiana
December 21, 1945
Medford, Ore. Dec. 24.–The Navy and the U. S. Geological Survey are on the trail of one of the west’s greatest mysteries — the smoking waters of Crater Lake.
Sound recording equipment destined to be lowered into the lake, and snow sleds to carry it, were due to arrive within a week to enable geologists to penetrate the snowy crater and find the source of mysterious clouds of smoke or dust reported intermittently since last fall over the ancient volcano which blew up ages ago.
The Navy has offered to parachute the sound equipment and supplies to the crater rim in the dead of winter, but dangers involved in the project may cause Fred W. Cater of the U. S. Geological Survey and the officials of the National Park Service to call the job off until summer.
Snowbanks heavier than usual, a lack of experienced men, and the distance of the remote volcanic lake from the nearest settlement 23 miles away, may hold up the installation which involves running a cable down one of the steep crater walls.
The sound recorder, specially built by the Navy to register disturbances with a frequency as low as 10 per second, operates with dry cell batteries.
E. P. Leavitt, superintendent of Crater Lake National Park, said it was his opinion that slides of snow and rocks in the crater during the winter would almost certainly carry the whole installation away.
