Smith Brothers 1872

Dr. Munson of Fort Klamath dies of a heart attack while climbing Munson Point, while looking for the Lake. Munson Point was named by Captain O.C. Applegate. Also included was Munson Spring, Munson Valley and the various branches of Munson Creek. The bluff upon which the doctor died was so steep that the body had to lowered by log sled down 600 feet to the basin below which the old trial to Crater Lake crossed. After the autopsy at the Indian Agency, Lord F. William Maxwell’s party returned to the lake, taking lumber, properly shaped, from which to construct a boat, carrying everything down a ravine. Using oakum and pitch, they fabricated a boat for lake explorations. The expedition named the two largest peaks on the West Rim, Maxwell Peak, (later Glacier Peak and eventually Hillman Peak.) and Bentley Peak (later changed to The Watchman by the Cleetwood Party).
William Steel and family move to Portland and young William enters high school. “We were met at the steamer landing by my brothers. Before getting over the dock I asked them where that sunken lake was, and found that they had never heard of it; then I was told that there was something of that sort in southern Oregon, but my informer was not sure. In nine years I found a man who had actually seen it, and gave me a good description of it that greatly increased my desire to see it.” Will G. Steel, from a speech delivered January 3, 1917 at the National Parks Conference in Washington, D.C.
Captain Oliver O. Applegate names Dyar Rock for Leroy S. Dyar of Ontario, California, then Indian Agent on the Klamath Reservation and later a member of the Modoc Peace Commission. Dyar was the only commissioner who escaped uninjured when attacked by Captain Jack and other Modoc Indians in the Lava Beds on April 11, 1873. General E.R.S. Canby and Dr. E. Thomas were killed and Chairman A.B. Meacham was partially scalped and left for dead.
Victor Rock named for Mrs. Frances Fuller Victor, who is one of the leading historians of the west. Mrs. F. F. Victor views the lake and briefly describes it in “Atlantis Arisen.” Sinnott Memorial is later built upon Victor Rock. The Rim Village meadow was known for a time as “Victor Heights”.

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