Lassen Volcanic National Park

In May 1914, Lassen Peak burst into eruption, beginning a seven-year cycle of sporadic volcanic outbursts. The climax of this episode took place in 1915, when the peak blew an enormous mushroom cloud some seven miles into the stratosphere. The reawakening of this volcano, which began as a vent on a larger extinct volcano known as Tehama, profoundly altered the surrounding landscape. The area was made a national park in 1916 because of its significance as an active volcanic landscape. The park is a compact laboratory of volcanic phenomena and associated thermal features except true geysers. It is part of a vast geographic unit—a great lava plateau with isolated volcanic peaks—that also encompasses Lava Beds National Monument, California, and Crater Lake National Park, Oregon. Before the 1980 eruption of Mount Saint Helens in Washington, Lassen Peak was the most recent volcanic outburst in the contiguous 48 states.

The peak is the southernmost volcano in the Cascade Range, which extends from here into Canada. The western part of the park features great lava pinnacles, huge mountains created by lava flows, jagged craters, and steaming sulfur vents. It is cut by spectacular glaciated canyons and dotted and threaded by lakes and rushing clear streams. Snowbanks persist year-round and beautiful meadows are spread with wildflowers in spring. The eastern part of the park is a vast lava plateau more than one mile above sea level. Found here are small cinder cones—Fairfield Peak, Hat Mountain, and Crater Butte. Forested with pine and fir, this area is studded with small lakes, but it boasts few streams. Warner Valley, marking the southern edge of the Lassen plateau, features hot spring areas—Boiling Springs Lake, Devils Kitchen, and Terminal Geyser. This forested, steep valley also has gorgeous large meadows.

The 1980 eruption of Mount Saint Helens reduced Lasson's superlative status, but it increased the park's significance as an over 70-year laboratory of possible recovery patterns for Mount Saint Helens. The Devastated Area evidences the combined mud flow and gas blast destruction typical of many volcanic eruptions in the Cascades. The Chaos Jumbles area looks similarly destroyed, but for a different reason. An air-cushioned avalanche—one that fell so rapidly en masse that it trapped and compressed air beneath itself—crashed down the Chaos Crags about 300 years ago. The air acted as a lubricant, enabling the avalanche to rush across the valley at more than 100 miles per hour. It pushed 400 feet up the side of Table Mountain, before losing its momentum and surging back down across Manzanita Creek.

Native Peoples

The Lassen area was a meeting point for four Native American groups: Atsugewi, Yana, Yahi, and Maidu. Because of its weather and snow conditions, generally high elevation, and seasonally mobile deer populations, the Lassen area was not conducive to year-round living. These Native American groups camped here in warmer months for hunting and gathering. Basketmakers rather than potters, they left few artifacts other than stone points, knives, and metals. In 1911, a Yahi Indian named Ishi turned up in Oroville, California. He had never mixed with whites before, and his tribe was thought to be nonexistent. He lived out his days at the University of California Museum in Berkeley, where he was an invaluable ethnological source. Ishi was considered the last Stone Age survivor in the United States.

History here generally describes the period from 1840, even though Jedediah Smith passed through in 1828 on his overland trek to the West Coast. California's gold rush in 1848 brought the first settlers. Two pioneer trails, developed by William Nobles and Peter Lassen, are associated with the park. In 1851, Nobles discovered an alternate route to California, passing through Lassen. Sections of the Nobles Emigrant Trail are still visible in the park. Lassen, for whom the park is named, guided settlers near here and tried to establish a city. Mining, power development projects, ranching, and timbering were all attempted here. The area's early federal protection saved it from heavy logging.

B.F. Loomis documented Lassen Peak's most recent eruption cycle and promoted the park's establishment. He photographed the eruptions, explored geologically, and developed an extensive museum collection. The Loomis Museum was closed in 1974 because it was located in a potentially hazardous area. Samples of the Loomis collection are displayed at the Manzanita Lake information station.