Native Americans

• Descendants of the Klamath and Umpqua tribes that inhabited the region passed down an oral history Mount Mazama's collapse. Following the event, most considered the area so holy that viewing it would cause death.
  
  

Early Explorers

• In 1853, miners from California first discovered the lake. In 1862, Oregon prospectors documented the lake in the Jacksonville Oregon Sentinel.
  
  

Settlers

• In 1863, the U.S. Army built Fort Klamath to control tensions between Native Americans and settlers. In 1869, newspaper editor Jim Sutton explored the lake by boat and penned its new name in an article.
  
  

National Park

• After visiting Crater Lake in 1885, businessman William Gladstone Steel vowed to make it a National Park. His lobbying efforts led President Theodore Roosevelt to establish Crater Lake National Park in 1902.
  
  

Park Developments

• Steel, the park's second superintendent, advocated early park developments, including Crater Lake Lodge in 1915 and Rim Drive in 1918. The National Park Service bought the aging lodge in 1967 and completed a major reconstruction in 1994.