Looking toward Mt. Scott from Sinnott Memorial
From Kodachrome by Welles & Welles

If the name Sinnott Memorial is mentioned, most park visitors and employees think at once of the excellent views of Crater Lake to be had from that point and of the art and photograph exhibits in the room behind the lookout platform. This, of course, is the reason for the existence of this observation post. It is there to enable all who visit Crater Lake to better appreciate its meaning -- scientific, scenic, and aesthetic.

To the ranger naturalists who stand duty there, the lake and the wall around it are of continual interest. The lake is never the same. Even if it were, no single viewing of Crater Lake would impart complete understanding to the viewer.

Some of the questions that visitors ask at Sinnott Memorial are about the area just below and around this observation point. Many interesting and sometimes unusual observations of mammal and bird life have been made from Sinnott Memorial; for example, the viewing of swimming eagles on different occasions by Dr. George C. Ruhle (Farner, 1952) and Ranger Naturalist John Mees (1954). I have enjoyed watching some of the more usual antics and habits of the smaller mammals around Sinnott Memorial. Any one of the smaller animals in that vicinity can be an absorbing study in itself.

The golden-mantled ground squirrels are very much in evidence all during the day. I have often marveled at their lack of appreciation of the approximately 900-foot drop to the lake surface from Sinnott Memorial. I have seen them scamper along the stone wall at the edge of Sinnott Memorial and take a flying leap into midair. They invariably land on some small crag of rock along the steep outer wall. Then they will jump from one small outjutting to another until they reach the more level ground west of Sinnott Memorial.

They leap, too, from rock to rock along the slide area east of this observation post. Now and then one golden-mantled ground squirrel will chase another away from some source of food. In the process of rapid movement, he will dislodge a rock, and a rock slide begins. At the beginning of the summer season, streams from melting snow caused larger rocks to roll down this slope. When the snow disappears, minor erosion continues as ground squirrels and an occasional marmot dislodge smaller rocks from the slopes.

Like the ground squirrels, the marmots have no fear of the drop to the lake surface. They do not jump from rock to rock as do the squirrels, but scamper up the steep slide area east of Sinnott Memorial. They seem startled when their movements start the rolling of a rock downhill. Marmots are also agile in their movements on rocks. They often climb and lie upon rocks a hundred feet or so below Sinnott Memorial.

One of my rarer views of a marmot in action was obtained on the grassy slope just west of the walk leading down to Sinnott Memorial. Ranger Naturalist Edward Burnham first noticed a young marmot nibbling at the head of a sedge. The marmots along the rim usually avoid approaching humans. This one seemed an exception. He continued working his way up the slope, standing, grabbing stalks of sedge in his two front paws, and eating the seeds. Many visitors photographed this unusual sight as the marmot approached within two or three feet of the wall beside the walk.

To the interested observer, the slopes, slides, and rocks around Sinnott Memorial can provide surprising discoveries about the habits and ventures of golden-mantled ground squirrels, marmots, and other small mammals that live thereabouts.

Literature Cited

Farner, Donald S. 1952. The Birds of Crater Lake National Park. Lawrence, University of Kansas Press. xi, 187 pp.

Mees, John. 1954. Unusual eagle experiences. Nature Notes from Crater Lake 20:5-6.