Page:Oregon Historical Quarterly vol. 26.djvu/13

Rh such as Crater, Odell, Crescent, Davis and Waldo. In no part of the state are lakes more beautiful or better suited to recreational purposes. The setting and surroundings of most of the Cascade Range lakes leave little to be desired.

South central Oregon, particularly Lake county, has a number of large lakes, the most important of which, Abert and Summer, are the results of shifts in the earth's crust. The lakes of south central Oregon include some of the largest in the state and for the most part they are alkaline or otherwise chemically impregnated. The value of the soluble minerals will have to be determined in the future. Waterfowl abound in the tules on the edge of many of these lakes, but generally the surroundings do not provide attractive camping grounds.

The area between the Coast Range and the Pacific Ocean, from the mouth of the Siuslaw River south to Coos Bay furnishes most of the coastal lakes of the state, and some of them are very fine. Siltcoos, Tahkenitch, Cleawox, Tenmile, and others will in time come to be very important to our citizens. It is interesting to note that the Coast Range itself, and for that matter large areas of the Blue Mountains too, bear but few lakes, even of small size.

The fourth well-defined lake region of Oregon is in the Wallowa Mountains. Wallowa Lake has a setting that is suggestive of Switzerland, and while other of the Wallowa Mountain lakes are fairly small, they are well worth visiting.

It is not the purpose of this article to enumerate all the lakes of the state, but to call attention to interesting facts about the situation or history of some of the more notable ones.

Two lakes stand out above all others in importance to Oregonians. The first is Bull Run Lake which furnishes necessary domestic and industrial water supply to nearly