The Story of the Woman, Crater Lake and India Ink

My father was the roads and trails foreman at Crater Lake National Park for 28 years. He and his crew were responsible for maintaining the roads, snow removal, building and maintaining trails, and so forth. Even though there were a large number of information officers at the park and still are, people invariably would stop my father to ask questions about the park or the lake, when he was working. Such is the case of the story of the woman, Crater Lake, and India ink.

I should mention that my dad had a very dry sense of humor. Until people got to know him, they never knew for sure if he was joking or not.

One day, Dad and several of his crew were hard at work repairing part of Cleetwood Cove Trail. This is the only trail down to the lake from the rim; 1.1 miles of steep zig-zags. It was important to keep the trail in good order because if it wasn’t, it could be a 1,100 foot trip to the lake that would be dangerous or deadly.

So it was that he was working away when a woman approached him, halting the work.

“Excuse me,” she said in a charming southern drawl. “I wondered if you could tell me why the lake is such a deep blue?”

Typical of Dad and without missing a beat, he said, “India ink.”

(India ink is a very dark blue pigmented ink that is so dark it almost looks black.)

The woman said, “Excuse me? India ink?”

“Yes,” he said. “Every morning at 5 am, one of the rangers goes down to the lake and dumps in a bottle of India ink. You know how dark blue India ink is, right? That’s why Crater Lake is such a dark blue.”

“Really? Well, I’ll be dogged,” she said, walking away and shaking her head in wonder. When she was gone, Dad and his men had a chuckle, then got back to work. Everyone promptly forgot about the incident. Of course, Dad knew the real reason the lake was so dark, as I have explained in another article. However, he didn’t want to take the time to explain about the light spectrum and how deep, clear water absorbs the colors at the lower end of the spectrum. Answering tourists wasn’t his job, anyway.

Four days later, after work, the park superintendent paid us a visit. That was a bit unusual, for the big boss to stop by.

Then the Super asked, “Rex, did you tell a woman a few days ago that we have a ranger that dumps India ink in the lake every morning?”

Dad (who was Rex sr.) laughed, remembering the incident and admitted that he had indeed told a woman that. When Dad started to explain why he did it, the Super held up a hand to stop him.

“I don’t want to know. But could you do me a big favor and go tell the woman the truth? Every morning for the last four days, the woman has been at the Cleetwood Cove trailhead at 5 am, waiting to catch the ranger that goes down to pour India ink in the lake.”

Well, Dad did go talk to the woman and explained the real reason the lake is sapphire blue. It didn’t stop his sense of humor, but he did learn a lesson. Some people will believe anything they are told.