Crater Lake
© WhoForted?
Oregon is famous for few things - namely rain and being north of California. It hasn't really caught the eye of the world at large, perhaps because the things man builds here are no match for its natural beauty. There are no pyramids or skyscrapers that surpass the mountains and forests for their renown.

One wonder of the wild is Crater Lake, located in the Cascade Range of Southwest Oregon. It is a bright blue cistern of pure rainwater lying in the crater of a long-dormant volcano named Mount Mazama. After violent eruptions exhausted the mountain's central spine of magma, Mazama's peak collapsed in on itself, leaving a giant bowl of ash and stone - known in geology talk as a caldera - which now holds the majestic Crater Lake. In true Oregon fashion it's more or less a famous puddle, but it's a beautiful puddle, attracting half a million visitors each year who come to admire its twelve square miles of heavenly blue. At one time the lake was thought to be bottomless, but now it's measured at 1,943 feet, making it the deepest in the US.

More things than its depth have made Crater Lake a mystery, though. It's a hotbed for strange disappearances, ghostly encounters, and legendary beasts. Bigfoot himself is known to show up here from time to time. Rangers once reported following a large, dark, putrid-smelling creature through the woods until it started throwing pinecones at them. The area is also home to at least two claimed slayings of the Sasquatch. One was by car (the body was reportedly whisked away by the government), and one was by train. The train conductors didn't report slamming into something that looked like the legendary beast - for fear they'd be accused of drinking on the job.

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