Cascades Volcano Observatory, Vancouver, Washington |
Visit A Volcano |
Aerial Photograph, Battleground Lake, 1990 |
Volcanic Origins |
The lake's origin is volcanic, and is believed to have been formed as a "Maar" volcano. This type of volcano is the result of hot lava or magma pushing up near the surface of the earth and then coming into contact with underground water. This is thought to have resulted in a large steam explosion, leaving a crater that later formed a lake. -- Excerpt from: Washington State Parks Website, 2001 |
Boring Lava Field - Battle Ground Lake Volcano |
Metropolitan Portland, Oregon, includes most of a Plio-Pleistocene volcanic field. The Boring Lava includes at least 32 and possibly 50 cinder cones and small shield volcanoes lying within a radius of 21 kilometers (13 miles) of Kelly Butte, which is 100 kilometers (62 miles) west of Mount Hood (Oregon) and the High Cascade axis -- (Web note: Kelly Butte is approximately 4 miles east of downtown Portland, Oregon). Only the Clear Lake volcanics in California lie as far west in the coterminous United States. Unlike Clear Lake, Boring lava vents have been inactive for at least 300,000 years. ... Partial summit craters remain only at Bobs Hill, 33 kilometers (20.5 miles) northeast of Portland, and at a low cone enclosing a lake north of Battleground, Washington, 33 kilometers (20.5 miles) north of Portland. Most other volcanoes still have a low cone shape and are mantled with loess above 122 meters (400 feet) elevation. Below this they were scoured by the cataclysmic Bretz floods from Glacial Lake Missoula around 13,000 to 15,000 years ago. Boring lava is characteristically a light-gray phyric olivine basalt. A specimen from Rocky Butte is predominantly labradorite, with phenocrysts of olivine, mostly altered to iddingsite. The volcanoes locally contain scoria, cinders, tuff, tuff breccia, and ash. Weathering may extend to depths of 8 meters (25 feet) or more, the upper 2-5 meters (5-15 feet) commonly being a red clayey soil. -- Excerpts from: Wood and Kienle, 1990, Volcanoes of North America: United States and Canada: Cambridge University Press, 354p., p.170-172, Contribution by John E. Allen |
Battle Ground Lake State Park |
Battle Ground Lake State Park
(179.5 acres of land with 4,100 feet of freshwater shoreline
surrounding a 28-acre lake)
is located 19 miles northeast of
Vancouver, three miles east and north of the community of
Battleground, in Clark County.
-- Excerpt from:
Washington State Parks and Recreation Website, 1999
Battleground Lake State Park is nestled in a stately stand of timber northeast of Vancouver, Washington. The deep, small, oval-shaped lake is an ideal family angling destination, and is only about 45 minutes from Portland. The park offers camping, hiking, picnicking, swimming, and of course, fishing. The lake contains seasonally stocked trout, some big brooders, and a few bass. According to a few locals, the bass can be found along the shore opposite the boat ramp. Downed timbers around the edge of the lake are also good spots for catching fish. For hooking trout, the lures that seem to work here are any flies that resemble a dry damsel fly. For hooking trout, the lures that seem to work here are any flies that resemble a dry damsel fly. A boat ramp is open for public use but gas motors aren't allowed, so canoes, float tubes, and rubber rafts are ideal for fishing this lake. For landlubbers, access to the shore is easy all the way around the lake. -- Information courtesy Anthony Vinson Smith, "Portland City-Search" Website, January 2001
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