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1850’s
December 1851 James Cluggage and James Poole, two mule packers, discover gold on Rich Gulch, 85 miles west of Crater Lake. Within six months, nearly 3,000 expectant miners have poured into the newly formed town of Jacksonville. Eventually $40,000,000 worth of gold is mined from the foothills of the Siskiyous before the mines play out in the 1880’s. Jacksonville establishes itself as a commercial and cultural center for the entire Southern Oregon region.
July 19 1852 John Diamond and one companion climb what is now known as Diamond Peak and discover Diamond Lake while searching for an emigrant trail from Southern Oregon to Eastern Oregon. Most likely the two explorers viewed the Rim of Crater Lake.
May 2 1853 Isaac Skeeters, Jacksonville, Oregon merchant, proposes to John Wesley Hillman, that he finance an expedition of 11 men to go search for the Lost Cabin gold Mine. Hillman has some money with him left over from gold mining in northern California. Skeeters becomes the guide for the party. The idea of getting up an expedition to look for the famous Lost Cabin mine came to Skeeters, (born 1825), while he was waiting on several California customers in his mercantile store in Jacksonville. He overheard one member of a group of California miners discussing the Lost Mine, and that this gentleman knew of certain landmarks, and if he could locate them, then the group would become rich men. The group had been drinking and were rather loose of tongue. Isaac hastily contacted J.W. Hillman who provided the money for the “Oregonian” expedition. Skeeters, Hillman and the nine others set out secretly following the eleven Californians. Eventually the two groups joined forces after playing hide and seek for several days, and after becoming hopelessly lost in the process.
Story from Lu Wells, 209 Hillside, Klamath Falls, Oregon, great granddaughter of I. Skeeters. Collected 1984) Isaac Skeeters, while serving customers from California in his mercantile store in Jacksonville, one day overheard that they were leaving the next morning in search of the Lost Cabin Gold mine. Group had been drinking and talked quite loose. Isaac decided to get a party up to follow. Approached Hillman since he had money from mining in N. Cal. Asked him to finance the trip. They followed from a distance until they joined the group. After party split up, one Californian stayed with the small group of Oregonians, including Hillman, Klippel and Skeeters. Skeeters’ family claims that the reason Hillman received more credit than is due him is because Hillman donated money to Steel and the Park. Steel approached the family seeking information about Isaac. “Since the family didn’t have any money to donate to Steel, the information was passed over. Isaac’s parents: Abraham and Margaret Skeeters. Born in Hardin Co., Kansas. Was married in Indiana. Left with his wife and child and headed West. Isaac’s first family was scared out by Indians and the Plague and returned East. Isaac remarried without first divorcing his first wife.
June 1853 Isaac Skeeters, packer and guide for the discovery party, often told this story about his Crater Lake trip: “At camp one evening we made plans for the following day. Early in the morning, each of us agreed to take a different direction for hunting, as we were low on food. I started out for the higher ridges, and it was agreed that should any of us become lost, we would signal the others with rifle shots. In ascending the higher ground, I encountered snow to a depth of 12 inches which made walking slow and difficult. When suddenly a snow white deer stepped right in front of me, near enough that I could see that it had pink eyes. Instinctively I raised my rifle to shoot, but was held spellbound by the beauty and unusual color of the animal and I decided just to observe and admire it. The deer gave one mighty leap and was gone. Then realizing that it was getting dark, I found a white-fir tree, with low hanging branches where the ground was barren and made a fireplace with twigs and bark. I used the flint and the powder from my powder horn when suddenly the flame ran down into the powder horn and caused it to explode. The flash burned my eyebrows and eyelashes and all the front of my hair. There I was with no fire, no gunpowder, but I did have one shot in my rifle. I began to realize that I was lost. I spent the night applying snow to my burned face and forehead. Then at daybreak I started out again. I was surprised when I discovered that I had circled the white fire, for when I came back to my tracks of the night before I found moccasin tracks right behind my own. I always thought that if had I killed the white deer that the Indian who followed me would have killed me, for I had been told that the Indians held a superstition for the white deer. I shot my rifle and my friends answered some miles down the canyon where I joined them.”
June 12 1853 John Wesley Hillman and a party of prospectors from Jacksonville discover Crater Lake. The Hillman-Skeeters party of 11 Oregonians had followed the group of 11 Californians from a discreet distance. The miners soon discovered the Oregonians on their trail. As rations on both sides began to dwindle, Hillman approached the other camp, proposing that since they were lost and looking for the same thing, they should join forces. A truce was declared and both groups began to search together.
When their provisions finally ran out, the prospectors found themselves at the head waters of the Rogue River. Seven of them rode ahead seeking game for food. John Wesley Hillman, Henry Klippel and Isaac Skeeters soon found themselves riding up a long, sloping mountain when the group suddenly saw a large body of water spread out below them . Hillman exclaimed that the blue was the bluest he had seen, so Skeeters suggested that they name it “Deep Blue Lake”. They wrote the name on a piece of notebook paper, along with their names, and placed the note on a stick.
From Steve Mark, Park Historian – 2013 -You are probably aware that Hillman had more than a few doubters, Orson Stearns being chief among them. I’ve only been casually “into” this, but I don’t think Hillman’s account would hold up very well if indeed a court was ever convened to rule on whether or not there was a “discovery” in 1853. It is interesting how Hillman’s memory somehow became better with age, as opposed to the reverse. The fact that no one he mentioned in any of various accounts ever stepped forward to confirm his story is also cause for suspicion.
From Park Historian Steven Mark, 2016 – The Hillman memoir, or at least the version the paper created, made JWH appear exceptional–if only in the fact that he seems to have a keen memory late in life. That’s in stark contrast to his earliest correspondence with Steel where he couldn’t remember much of anything about Crater Lake. It seems that Stearns smelled a rat, by going around to the men that JWH named at various times and asking them to corroborate the discovery. None could, at least according to Stearns, so it throws some doubt on the purported date (something WGS supposedly derived) and those in the party.
Some decades ago the above might have been newsworthy, as might the somewhat smaller “controversy” over Anna/Annie Creek.
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