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Why Indians Feared Crater Lake Is Revealed in Old Legend

By Maude Pool  Medford Mail Tribune October 10, 1928

There’s a legend that’s never been written about Crater Lake, and Prof. Irving Vining of Ashland loves to tell the story. He told it to the Pioneer Society at its annual meeting in Ashland this month.

Mr. Vining heard the story from Joaquin Miller, famed western poet, as they sat around a campfire on Cherry Creek in the Crater Lake area long ago. The legend had been told to Joaquin Miller by an old chieftain, and relates why the Indians were afraid to look upon the blue waters of the lake.

“I like this story because it deals with human emotions, rather than with gods, as does William Steel’s legend,” Mr. Vining said.

In early days the Indians of the northwest were well organized under Chief Multnomah, who dwelt on an island in the Columbia River. Multnomah possessed lithe young runners who were ever on the alert to carry mandates to all sections of his kingdom. In those days it was customary for Indian youth, upon reaching adolescence, to leave the teepee of his father and go forth, without food, in search of a god in spirit to be his leading inspiration, and who would command to the youth the will of his father in the Happy Hunting Ground.

So at eventide, just as the stars came out, the youth stole away from the teepee and entered the deep forest, constantly keeping his ear tuned for the voice of the spirit god in the treetops. He heard nothing, and felt in his breast no response to a spirit call.  He heard the song of the brook and still there was no response. He watched the eagle and the wolf, and the coyote. Still no response. Day after day he wandered in search of the totem of the spirit god.

He climbed the timbered slopes of Mt. Mazama, and as he did so, he felt an urge within his breast. A series of voices called from the distance. He was drawn toward the mountaintop, where he beheld the majesty of blue waters hundreds of feet below him. He heard voices urging him down to the water’s edge. He scaled his agile body down the jagged lava cliffs, where he noticed the spirit fish called “Llao” in the water. The Great Spirit told him if he bathed in the water of the lake he would become endowed with supreme power, but he was warned against injuring “Llao,” lest the wrath of the Father would be upon him.

The youth ventured a dip in the icy waters, and became the greatest living being in existence. He climbed dangerous cliffs, slew wild animals, and was all-powerful.

But vanity overcame him. He listened to the voice of self-pride, and one day maliciously thrust a spear into a spirit fish. Immediately the Father loosed his wrath, and a giant storm arose, lashing waves against the lake walls, and turning the blue of the water to a blood red. The youth was hurled into the churning waters and drowned.

It was then that Chief Multnomah issued a mandate saying that all would die who thereafter gazed upon Crater Lake with hate or pride sheltered within their hearts. But those who harbored a feeling of love when they beheld the magic blue would be endowed with the good will of the Great Spirit, and should depart from the lake in glory and honor.

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