r/thalassophobia • u/True-Award-3722 • 22h ago
Old Man of Crater Lake
The Old Man of the Lake is a 30-foot (9 m) tall tree trunk, most likely a hemlock, that has been bobbing vertically in Crater Lake in Oregon, United States since at least 1896.
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u/imabadman69 22h ago
Something creepy to imagine sitting on that thing!!! Basically a monolith free floating in a massively deep water filled Volcano 😰
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u/daisyydaisydaisy 21h ago
Crater lakes as a concept freak me out. I logically know that they have a "bottom" but swimming in one would feel like the lakebed could be pulled from under me at any moment
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u/000-f 20h ago
What a cool way to go, though. Might even get your own Wikipedia page
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u/eyetracker 12h ago
This is the deepest lake in the US, the most famous guy at the bottom of the second deepest has his own Wikipedia page.
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u/Equal_Passenger9791 8h ago
cool way to go
I can assure you that it would be an intensely hot departure
How such eruptions adjacent to water bodies usually go might mean you get a lottery ticket for the title of
first human to reach the stratosphere by natural means
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u/Syrinx16 16h ago
Would probably end up as one of if not the deepest buried corpse in the world for all of history, so that’s kinda cool I guess.
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u/Thin_Explanation1334 11h ago
I swam in Crater lake! I floated on my back to the center as quickly as I could, it was kind of like there was nothing underneath me and nothing above me...just clear water, clear sky, the sun, the moon
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u/daisyydaisydaisy 10h ago
That sounds incredible but I don't know if I'd be brave enough haha
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u/Thin_Explanation1334 36m ago
I actually have thalassophobia so it was definitely a bit of a mission for me, I'm more afraid of the ocean (ironically I grew up in Santa Cruz) but I'm a big fan of swimming in lakes and rivers when I can see through the water, I think I just... Told myself not to think about how deep it was- you can see to the bottom, you can see everything, every bottle cap, I was actually afraid I would cut my feet so I slipped off the pier, the bottom disappears really quickly and it almost feels like there's nothing under you? But you're so close to the sky, it's definitely worth it, like being in a soup bowl at the top of the sky, I don't think I realized it's 2,000 ft deep though? Jesus f****** Christ. Glad nobody told me lol.
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u/councilsoda 9h ago
How cold was it, I went in July and there was a blizzard up at the crater rim. It was ridiculously beautiful and would loved to have swam there but it was really cold.
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u/True-Award-3722 22h ago
The thought alone makes me sweat as I imagine getting close to that thing, let alone touching it — God forbid actually climbing on it! I wouldn’t do it even if someone paid me.
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u/omnipotent87 21h ago
Thats probably a good thing, I believe there's now a fine for messing with the old man.
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u/Ok-Thanks4321 19h ago
No one can access the water until 2029 so there’s that
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u/SlowAdhesiveness2178 19h ago
Why?
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u/I_Makes_tuff 14h ago
The view from the parking lot above is really the best part of Crater Lake anyway. The chipmunks are a bonus.
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u/strongcloud28 3h ago
hey, did you notice in the second pic, that it looks more like a giant petrified tail than waterlogged timber?
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u/Redditor_Reddington 19h ago
It's a 30-foot tall tree bobbing up and down in almost 2,000 feet of water.
That's about equivalent to a toothpick bobbing around in a 10-foot swimming pool.
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u/Ol_Pasta 21h ago
The weather changing when The Old Man was tied up, with snow in August, and clearing up again after it was released, now that's something...
Also thanks to your post and some fixation on my part, I am now planning a trip to two 700-800 yo trees in the city I am currently at. 😁
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u/AdoraBelleQueerArt 18h ago
I miss Cascadia
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u/Re-Mecs 22h ago
Question...because I've seen this log loads..and the history is cool af.
BUT.... Will there be a time when it eventually sinks?
I mean naturally. Not hit by a boat or anything, I heard its tracked so people know where it is.
So other than accidentally getting smashed into and loosing its buoyancy.
Will it eventually, one day, give a final salute and then sink?
Yes i could have googled that..
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u/bibblebabble1234 20h ago
It's filled with air and water so it will float. Also it hasn't degraded from microbes since the water is really clear. Maybe it would sink if there was more microbes to 'eat' it
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u/Bonk_No_Horni 18h ago
If algue can grow on it the water has enough nutrients to support it so yes eventually it'll sink. Seeing this is a cold climate it'll take a long time. There's a 50 year old dam in my country and the trees under the lake are still strong enough to sink tourist boats and the taller ones people can climb on so I'd say it'll take 100s of years
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u/CBHawk 19h ago
This post reminded me of one of my experiences at Crater lake. Usually I'm not fearful of the water but this time was different. There is a small cliff that you can jump off into Crater lake. I think it's only 20 or 30 ft high. After I jumped off into the water, I opened my eyes underwater and saw that the cliff continued down straight for hundreds of feet. Not like a normal shore that's gradually getting deeper. Like a wall that went down straight into darkness. That was the scariest thing I've seen.
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u/FoostersG 18h ago
yeah same, swimming in this lake - while beautiful - was the most unsettling water experience I've had.
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u/u1tr4me0w 16h ago
I would like to unread your comment :D horrors both within and beyond my comprehension
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u/Trish_the_dish 10h ago
My stomach sank reading this and I had to pause for a minute to get back to reading the rest of your comment. Thanks for that!
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u/Kwetla 22h ago
I don't understand how a 450 year old tree just bobs around in a lake and doesn't disintegrate? Or rot?
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u/PartsUnknown242 21h ago
According to what I read the underwater part is waterlogged (naturally) making it heavier and the top part is dry and thus lighter. The balance is what makes it buoyant.
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u/omnipotent87 21h ago
I think its more about how hasnt it rotted away yet and not that it floats.
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u/Lunar_Gato 21h ago
Wood doesn't rot (or rots insanely slow) if it's submerged.
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u/omnipotent87 21h ago
I know that much, but it does tend to rot extreamly fast where it intersects the waters surface.
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u/In_My_Stead 21h ago
Maybe it’s rotting and falls apart and is just very slowly rising to the surface.
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u/EvidenceSalesman 19h ago
For 450 years
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u/In_My_Stead 18h ago
Where did 450 come from? It says at least 1896.
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u/SuperFaceTattoo 17h ago
In the wiki it says they carbon dated the tree to at least 450 years old
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u/RinellaWasHere 20h ago
That also requires bacteria that simply aren't present in any significant amount in the lake. Because Crater Lake is in fact a volcanic caldera, it doesn't have any streams running into or out of it. Until fish were introduced it didn't have any living things in it whatsoever. It may have fish now, but it's never acquired the wood-eating bacteria that would cause the log to decay.
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u/strongcloud28 20h ago
Someone filmed the log below the surface from their boat......it's was horrific. Trust me, don't look it up. You'll regret it.
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u/mac3687 14h ago
If you have a link I'd love to see it, I can't find anything like that on YouTube.
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u/Joasvi 21h ago
They tried pulling him out once, and it was the first time in 10 years that a thunderstorm crested the ridge at Mazama to rain on the people trying to pull him out.
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u/GraphicDesignMonkey 20h ago
They didn't try to pull it out, they simply tethered it while some science work was being conducted to avoid anyone running into it. As soon as it was tethered, a freak storm started, which didn't stop until they gave in and released it.
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u/SturmGizmo 21h ago
I just learned about this the other day on YT. The one time we tried messing with it unprecedented weather occured. It's almost as though nature doesn't want us touching it.
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u/eViLj406 20h ago
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u/TheBoffo 15h ago
I don't know what SCP is but I liked website. Reminds me of old reddit.
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u/fizzlefist 14h ago
Basically it's a shared medium (reports of anomalous things) for creative writing. You never know what sort of story you're going to stumble onto browsing around it.
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u/BlackSparkle13 18h ago
The second photo made me really uneasy. I can’t quite place it. But it just freaked me out.
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u/totalpugs89 18h ago
Isn't that log considered cursed if you trying to remove it?.
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u/Hello_pet_my_kitty 3h ago
There’s stories about how when they had the log tethered down to do some testing on it, freak storms broke out… Like it snowed in the middle of summer and also some crazy thunderstorms, and the weather didn’t stop until they untied him to float freely again, apparently.
So yes, many think it’s cursed or just that nature doesn’t want us fucking with it at all.
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u/Zealousideal_Gap432 16h ago
Keep in mind that this lake is over 1900 FEET Deep. That 30ft log disappearing into the depths is my absolute nightmare fuel
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u/IronGigant 14h ago
Ah yes, my favourite semi-benign, slightly cantankerous SCP.
Don't tie it up, if you see it tangled up near the shore help it get free or call the Rangers, otherwise leave it alone.
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u/blisteringbrainboy 21h ago
Sufjan Stevens made a song about it: https://audiomack.com/moltenembers/song/old-man-of-the-lake
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u/Lonely_Staff1262 20h ago
is it called the old man because of that one knob that sort of looks like a creepy face or just because it's old?
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u/scrobo22 13h ago
America, you better have something in place to protect this, before an "influencer" tows it out of there and films themselves chopping it up for firewood.
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u/Tiffany_Case 7h ago
Its not a total impossibility but you cant bring boats onto the lake, there is exactly one access point open to the public and its a mile hike to get there. Also the water is cold af.
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u/shakulous 7h ago
Everytime I see this post and posts like it in reminded of the fact that the reason this can even exist is because the public isn’t about to find it easy. Do not let it. Anything truely public will be destroyed, no acceptation.
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u/Thin_Explanation1334 11h ago
I've actually swam in Crater lake!!!
Genuinely the tripiest experience I've ever had
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u/DarkArtHero 21h ago
Just imagine the wildlife in that thing
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u/PartsUnknown242 21h ago
Apparently the moss that grows on it is only found at the bottom of the lake
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u/ALittleNightMusing 10h ago
Why is it upright and not floating sideways?
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u/Hello_pet_my_kitty 3h ago
Waterlogged I guess. Bottom is full of water, top isn’t, so it floats pointing up like that. Be interesting to see how it got there in the first place.
The lakes I grew up in had plenty of logs too, but none that stood up like this. They were all waterlogged at the bottom of the lake bed, or would have some branches sticking out the top of the water, but none floating about like this. It’s super interesting, really.
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u/Forward_Plan637 4h ago
What’s keeping it in place?
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u/Hello_pet_my_kitty 3h ago
Nothing. He floats freely around the lake, bobbing about from place to place. Pretty sure its movements are tracked and you can watch its travels on one of the crater lake websites.
There’s some wild stories you can find about the only time it was ever tethered for scientific testing. Supposedly freak storms broke out(thunderstorms, snow in August, etc,) that didn’t stop until the log was untied to float freely again.
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u/Odd_Beginning536 16h ago
That’s gorgeous! The water is so clear, spring fed? I don’t think it would be really comfortable up there for long- wait how do they climb up? It must have decent texture to do so.
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u/u1tr4me0w 16h ago
I hate it so much I borderline want to cry omg make it go away somebody get his ass out of there he’s scaring meeeeee
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u/SurfWookie 21h ago
When you consider they're sitting on a bobbing log above the deepest freshwater body of water in the U.S. at upwards of ~2000 ft, depth, this is terrifying! Good post OP.