Riding ahead on his mule, Hillman suddenly arrived at the rim of a huge crater and looking down from the dizzying height, he beheld a vast body of water so magnificently blue in color that he and the group named their discovery "Deep Blue Lake".

Located east of Jacksonville, the lake was almost forgotten until 1865 when a party of soldiers from Fort Klamath rediscovered it and called it "Lake Majesty", which was later changed in 1869 to its present name of Crater Lake.