The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1895-06-06
DESCENDING CRATER.
Exploring an Extinct Volcano by Means of
Long Rope.
(Baker City Democrat \

| Crater Mountain is one of the Umatilla
Indians great spook depots from ancient
times. Bucks that are now white with
hanging in the trees tightly strapped to
their nursing boards, while their mothers
roamed the forests in search of game for
the lords of creation, or wood for the
tepee, and from infancy love to relate
how the Great Spirit spoke to them with
the awful voice of. the earth. Many are
the stories and legends of Indian lore told
of Crater Mountains.
One of the favorites ones is told of a
great war between the Shoshones and
Umatillas. When the Umatillas had con-
quered theic foes they proceeded to
slaughter old and young, regardless of
sex. One beautiful Shoshone maiden,
seeing that death was inevitable from her
pursuing foe, plunged headlong into the
burning crater, and instantly the volcan-
ic eruption ceased, much to the conster-
nation of her pursuers, who on the fol-
lowing day found on looking down the
chasm of inky darkness a respondent
light with the form of the Shoshone
maiden in the midst of the apparition.
They told it to their dusky warriors-and
to this day Crater Mountain is looked
upon with reverence from an Indian point
of view.
The following is from the diary of the
Hon. J. A Wright "Crater Mountain
is located some II miles from the Camp
of Cornucopia, on the south side of the
range whose caps are tipped with eternal
snow. Many chasms and assures have in
the misty past cleft the mountains and
left them in the most fantastic shapes.
Vegetation ceases to grow after a certain
height is reached, and close under the
base of one of the great peaks is the
famous extinct volcano. Ashes and lava
are found in great profusion, and in such
1ndeScr1bable masses that it makes the
ascent one of peril and great difficulty.
However, once at the top a peek down
into the black, fathomless abyss supplies
the most morbid minds with all the SEN
sationalism necessary for lifetime. A
favorite amusement was to thow rocks
down and listen to the sounds as they
struck on the projecting sides of the dark
chimney until the sounds died away,
leaving nothing but for the mystified ex-
plorer to judge it had reached the bot
tom -
Many have been the stories circulated
Of the wonderful cavern that extended
from the sides of the great chimney. A
stout cable was provided and basket
swung from a pulley. The Hon. Joseph,
with camera and notebook, was carefully
lowered some 37S feet, when he noticed
an aperture in the side of the chimney,
and, by signals agreed upon halt was
called in his downward career, and he
crawled through cleft in the great
chimney, and the work of exploration
began. The first sight that met his as
tonished gaze was a most stupendous
chamber, from whose mighty dome hung
stalactites of great beauty, which was en-
HANGED by the light of the candle, and
fairly sturck terror to his heart, as the
Pickering candle seemed to possess the
power of some unseen hand, that made
millions of the brilliant stalactites dance
in Respondent beauty. A great snowy
owl blinked at the astonished Joseph
The explorer CROPPED his way to the far
end of the chamber, where he thought
he heard sounds of falling water; nor
was he mistaken, for, squeezing himself
through an opening, he found himself
in another chamber of great beauty with
a stream of hot sulphur water running
into the earth The incrustation from
the sulphur water had transformed the
cavern into a coral-like SUBSTANCE and
left it in such fantastic shapes He
found in the water some lively little
lizards and some frogs, that change color
on the slightest provocation, and two
large rats, who eyed the explorer with
curiosity that seemed to bode no good
and he longed for his little gun.