Black Butte

Postcard of Black Butte

Summit Lake is located on the northwest side of Black Butte between I-5 and the Southern Pacific Railroad. The local story has it that when the railroad was put in, it damaged the spring which fed the lake and now it stands empty unless there is enough winter rain to fill it.

Wondering if this story had any validity, I first consulted the Mount Shasta Collection special files and pulled out the folders dealing with Black Butte and Summit Lake. Various items can be found in these folders, most commonly newspaper articles and county publications.

A 1995 article in the Mount Shasta Herald states that "About 1925, Southern Pacific rerouted its railroad through the area in constructing the Black Butte Junction Cutoff. All the blasting was said to have disrupted the spring feeding the lake, which now relies on winter storms to fill its depths." A 1991 Siskiyou County Scene article reports, "Some say the Southern Pacific Railroad, in 1926, ruined the only spring feeding Summit Lake when the company re-routed, and some say Interstate 5 was responsible..."

When I first came to Siskiyou County in the early 1980s I couldn't find the lake, but my husband says he ice skated there when he came to Siskiyou County in the 1970s. So the question is not yet answered. I'll go there myself and check out the lay of the land and I'll go to the Weed Historic Lumbertown Museum and ask the curators what they know.

Asking questions is a good way to get answers and the trio at the Weed Museum are always willing to help me out. Today Alford Linville was there. He said that the railroad was built in the late 1880s, but at that point in time the railroad didn't go by Black Butte. In 1926 the Natron Cutoff to Klamath Falls was built. This is the section that goes right by Summit Lake. Interstate 5 wasn't built until the late 1960s so that wasn't responsible for the initial damage (assuming it occurred in 1926), although it may have worsened the situation. Based on what I have read, it appears construction was, at least in part, responsible for some damage. I'll let you know what we see when we visit Summit Lake.

Summit Lake is in a beautiful setting. Not even I-5 or the railroad spoil its views. But the logging, past and present, along with humans using it as a dump site have greatly diminished its former loveliness.

The fate of lakes is that they become swamps, then meadows, and perhaps one day are reclaimed again by the forest. It does not appear that I-5 would have affected Summit Lake; it appears more likely that the railroad did, but even this is uncertain. Human activities, namely logging, probably have had a greater effect, along with the natural progression of small lakes to swamps, which Summit Lake is at this point.