In 1885, accompanied by a friend, J.M. Breck, William Gladstone Steel, who would later become known as “the Father of Crater Lake,”  took the Oregon & California Railroad to Medford, where he caught a stagecoach to Fort Klamath. The two travelers met Captain Clarence E. Dutton, the namesake of this cliff who was then on leave from the U.S. Army for detached duty with the U.S. Geological Survey. Dutton was in charge of a small military party escorting Joseph LeConte, a geologist from the University of California, on a tour of the Pacific Coast mountains to examine volcanic phenomena.

Later, in July 1886 Steel persuaded John Wesley Powell, Director of the U.S. Geological Survey, to send a party headed by Dutton to the area to make a thorough examination by surveying and sounding the lake. Steel was appointed to prepare the boats and equipment to be used in the sounding process and to help in carrying out other scientific studies of the lake.

In 1886, Steel assisted with the mapping of the lake, which had been undertaken by Clarence Dutton for the U.S. Geological Survey. During the original survey, soundings of the lake were conducted using a pipe and piano wire. The maximum depth determined by the survey was 1,996 feet (608 meters), only 53 feet off from the depth of 1,943 feet (592 meters) set by the survey of 2000.

Credits and Sources:

“Crater Lake: History,” National Park Service, http://www.nps.gov/crla/planyourvisit/upload/2010-history.pdf, Accessed on June 29, 2015.

Unrau, Harlan D., “Crater Lake National Park: Administrative History,” U.S. Department of the Interior National Park Service, http://www.craterlakeinstitute.com/online-library/administrative-history/adminhistory.htm#A._DISCOVERY_OF_CRATER_LAKE_BY_JOHN_W._HILLMAN:_1853,Accessed June 29, 2015.