Crater Lake National Park is a majestic landmark and Oregon's only National Park. Crater Lake formed about 7,700 years ago when a volcanic eruption destroyed Mount Mazama leaving a 2,148 foot deep caldera in its place. This caldera filled through the ages forming the present 1,943 foot deep lake, which remains the deepest lake in the United States. This lake and surrounding area was established as a National Park primarily through the efforts of William Gladstone Steel, who first saw the lake in 1885 and began mapping it extensively in 1886 with Clarence Dutton for the U.S. Geological Survey. In 1893, Crater Lake became part of the Cascade Range Forest Reserve. However, Steel continued to advocate and Crater Lake National Park was established in May 1902.
John V. Byrne joined the faculty of Oregon State University in 1960 as an Associate Professor of Marine Geology. He was appointed chair of the Oceanography Department in 1968 and subsequently served as the first Dean of the School of Oceanography, the Dean of Research, and President of Oregon State University (1984-1995).
The Crater Lake National Park Maps consist of topographic, shaded relief, and bathymetric maps of Crater Lake, Oregon, and vicinity; most of the maps were prepared and published by the U.S. Geological Survey. The bulk of the maps are topographic maps at 1:62,500 scale. These include an early series of maps issued in 1903, 1911, 1925, and 1931 as well as a later series issued in 1946 and 1956. Multiple copies of some editions are available. In addition to topographic contours, the maps depict streams, roads, trails, boat landings, Ranger stations, and campgrounds in the vicinity. The earliest topographic maps reference the 1886 survey and depth soundings conducted by Mark B. Kerr for the U.S. Geological Survey. The topographic maps have text and photographs of Crater Lake on the verso.
The collection also includes a color shaded relief map,
A bathymetric map of Crater Lake prepared in the early 1960s by John V. Byrne is also part of the collection. This large scale map (3 in = 0.5 mile) depicts the lake depths with contour intervals of 10 fathoms. This map may have been prepared for the Lunar Geological Field Conference in Bend, Oregon in 1965 and published with the conference guidebook.
Collection is open for research.
This collection consists of one series: I. Crater Lake National Park, 1903-1962.
Crater Lake National Park Maps (MAPS CraterLake), Oregon State University Special Collections & Archives Research Center, Corvallis, Oregon.
These maps were transferred from the Oregon State University Libraries' maps collection to the Special Collections & Archives Research Center in 2013.
Photographs of Crater Lake are available in the
Prepared by John Byrne.