By Charles M. Skinner.
Water Devils of Crater Lake
Crater Lake, photograph by D. Wieprecht
Crater Lake, located in Oregon, was known to be inhabited by water devils that would drag people into its depths, drowning anyone who ventured too close. For many years, the local Indians were reluctant to approach the lake, and it took time to persuade them to act as guides. The first explorers who discovered the lake believed it to be the creation of the Great Spirit, though its true significance eluded them.
Among the Klamath people, one individual remained curious. He thought that if the lake was the home of the gods, perhaps they had a message for humanity. So, he set up camp on the edge of the towering cliffs and waited. Each night, he experienced the same dream, hearing voices but unable to see any figures or understand their words. This dream occurred repeatedly, night after night.
Phantom Ship at Crater Lake, courtesy Yen-Wen Lu Photographs.
He finally went down to the lake, bathed, and instantly felt his strength increase. He noticed that the people from his dreams were the spirits of the waters—whether they were benevolent or malevolent, he could not tell. One day, he caught a fish for food, but a thousand water demons surfaced immediately and seized him. They carried him to a rock on the north side of the lake that rises two thousand feet above the water. From there, they dashed him down, gathering the remains of his shattered body below and devouring them. Since that moment, they have been eager for human blood. The rock on the south side of the lake, known as the Phantom Ship, is believed by the Native Americans to be a destructive monster, even though it appears innocent during the daytime.
Amhuluk Monster of Forked Mountain
The monster Amhuluk, who lived in a lake near Forked Mountain, Oregon, had only one passion: to catch and drown all living things. When you looked into the lake, you could see that he had drowned the sky in its waters, making the trees appear to stand upside down. Everywhere he walked, the ground would soften beneath his feet.
One day, while three children were digging roots at the edge of the water, Amhuluk fell upon them, impaling two of them on his horns. The eldest child managed to escape. When this boy returned home, his body was marked with flaws, and though his father suspected the cause, he went immediately to the lake.
As he approached the water, the bodies of the children rose from the mud at his feet before sinking back down, only to emerge later across the lake. They beckoned him, leading him closer to the spot where they had drowned. A fog began to rise from the water, but he could see the little ones lifted on the monster’s horns and hear them cry, “We have changed our bodies.”
They appeared to him five times, and each time, he raised a mournful cry, begging them to return, but they could not. The next day, he saw them rise through the fog once more. He decided to build a camp nearby and mourned for several days. For five days, they continued to show themselves, but after that, they vanished, and he saw and heard no more of them. Amhuluk had taken the children, and they would live with him forever.
Cursed Treasure of Columbia City
Columbia City courtesy Lewis and Clark’s Columbia River.
A Spanish bark, one day in 1841, put in for water off the spot where Columbia City, Oregon, now stands. She had a rough crew on board, and it had been necessary for her officers to watch the men closely when the latter discovered that she was carrying a costly cargo. Hardly had the anchor chains run out before the sailors fell upon the captain, killed him, seized all of the value that they could gather, and took it to the shore. What happened afterward is unclear, but several of the claimants were probably slain in a quarrel over each man’s demand to have most of the loot. Indians were troublesome, likewise, so it was thought best to put most of the goods into the ground, and this was done on the tract known as Hez Copier’s farm.
Hardly was the task completed before the Indians appeared in large numbers and set up their tepees, showing that they were meant to remain. The mutineers rowed back to the ship, and after vainly waiting for several days for a chance to go on shore again, they sailed away. Two years of wandering, fighting, and carousal ensued before the remnant of the crew returned to Oregon. The Indians were gone, and an earnest search was made for the money–but in vain. It was as if the ground had never been disturbed. The man who had supervised its burial was present until the mutineers went back to their boats, when it was discovered that he was mysteriously missing.
More than 40 years after these events, a meeting of Spiritualists was held in Columbia City, and a “medium” announced that she had received a revelation of the exact spot where the goods had been concealed. A company went to the place and, after several days of searching, found, under a foot of soil, a quantity of broken stone.
While throwing out these fragments, one of the party fell dead. The spirit of the defrauded and murdered captain had claimed him, the medium explained. So great was the fright caused by this accident that the search was abandoned again until March 1890, when another party resumed digging and, after removing the remaining stone, came upon several human skeletons. During the examination of these relics–possibly the bones of mutineers who had been killed in the fight on shore–a man fell into a fit of raving madness, and again, the search was abandoned, for it is now said that an immutable curse rests on the treasure.
Compiled and edited by Kathy Alexander/Legends of America, updated March 2026.
About the Author: Charles M. Skinner (1852-1907) authored the complete nine-volume set of Myths and Legends of Our Own Land in 1896. This tale is excerpted from these excellent works and is now in the public domain.
Also See:
Crater Lake National Park – Gem of the Northwest
An Early Sketch of Oregon (historical text)