The DU Lounge

The first written account of the Old Man appeared in 1902. Geologist Joseph S. Diller mentioned seeing the miraculous stump six years earlier near Wizard Island at Crater Lake’s west end. The Old Man’s sun-bleached and splintered head and torso floated nearly four feet above the water. His lower body descended 30 feet into the depths, and his waist was two feet in diameter at the surface.

Appearing to be rooted and yet, still moving, the Old Man seemed to defy the laws of physics. In 1929, William Gladstone Steel, known as “the father of Crater Lake” for pushing Congress to designate it as a park, mentioned seeing “the great tree, broken squarely off and floating upright.” In 1938, park naturalist John Doerr spent three months tracking its travel patterns, noting “the Old Man travels extensively and, at times, surprisingly fast.” Between July 1st and Sept 30th, the Old Man logged more than 62 miles and, on one particularly windy day, traveled 3.8 miles.