The Mena weekly star., 1921-01-13
Wonders of Crater Lake
Deepest Fresh Water and Deepest
 

Deepest Fresh Water and Deepest
 Blue in America, Says Irwin Cobb.
 For it's size I am quite sure that Crater Lake is the most wonderful thing in this world. So far as I know, it is the only perfect example of the phenomenon which ensues when something crawls into hole and pulls the hole in after it. In this instance the thing which crawled into the hole was almighty mountain, and that which ensued, after the hole had been pulled in, was Crater Lake.
 Not so very long ago, as geoiogists chattily measure time, say eight or nine cons ago, perhaps the loftiest mountain, in what subsequently, be- came the United States stood here 1t is estimated that it's peak rose well above the 16,000-foot level. It was volcanic mountain, as nearly all the important mountains in Oregon were and are, and that same volcanic force which formed it eventually destroyed it-as mountain It's cone collapsed and vanished into the caldron of hot ter fire than human hands ever kindled, leaving behind circular ori- fee which thru the centuries filled with melted snow. The result, as we view 1t today, is Crater Lake.
 It has the greatest depth of any body of fresh water in America, and, without fear of successful contradic- tion, I dare affirm that it is the most g0rgcously beautiful lake on this planet. About its shores, in places where the rock shelves come close to tss that ever was, on land or sea; but where the bottom drops away with incredible abruptness to incredible depths it becomes marvellous and in- describable blue--a purer, richer, more radiant blue than any other blue ever was.
 One has the feeling that cup of it, dipped up, would reveal these tints-- blue or green, depending on where one did ones dipping And from per sonal observation am willing to state that on being splashed with canoe paddle it's spraying drops are not like water, but like jewels; like flawless emeralds and perfect sapphires.
 Distances are most deceiving at Crater Lake. Indeed all thru the far western country distance is deceiving. From your perch on the brink you guess that to the water is perhaps a straight drop of two hundred feet. It is nearer a thousand. From the same point you look downward and across to island which juts up out of the lake and you hazard the statement that on an airline the distance to the nearer most tip of the island is possibly three hundred yards. As a matter of fact, the spot at which you are looking is between two and three miles from you.
 Eventually the visitor begins to hedge On all his offhand reckonings of space. He knows that if he states his honest belief he will fall so far short of the actual figures as to make the calculations sound rediculous. So, leaping to the other extreme, he null tiplies what he thinks by two or three or four in an effort to reconcile his visual concept with the actual statis- tics. This, when persisted in, causes optical confusion and mental lapses. You see human form seemingly near at hand, but for the life of you you cannot make up your mind whether it is a little boy two hundred feet away or an elderly gentleman in knickerbockers couple of miles of. You must draw nearer and scan him for whiskers before you can make sure.