History
The first written record of the lake was made by John Work, the leader of a Hudson’s Bay Company fur trapping expedition. Work recorded his party’s visit in his journal on 16 October 1832. In his journal, Work called it Salt Lake. Work’s journal also implies that other trappers may have been to the lake before his expedition.
Lake Abert was named by Lieutenant John C. Fremont during his 1843 mapping expedition through central and southern Oregon. Fremont and his Army topographical team were mapping the Oregon Territory from The Dalles on Columbia River to Sutter's Fort in the Sacramento Valley of California. Fremont named the lake in honor of Colonel John James Abert, who was chief of the Army's Corps of Topographical Engineers. On 20 December 1843, Fremont described the discovery and naming of Lake Abert as follows:
| “ | ...we turned a point of the hill on our left, and came suddenly in sight of another and much larger lake, which, along its eastern shore, was closely bordered by the high black ridge which walled it in by a precipitous face ... Spread out over a length of 20 miles, the lake, when we first came in view, presented a handsome sheet of water; and I gave to it the name Lake Abert, in honor of the chief of the corps to which I belong. ... | ” |
In 1986, there was a large wildfire that burned 9,854 acres (39.88 km2) along the west side of the lake. After the fire, 800 acres (3.2 km2) along the shoreline were seeded with crested wheatgrass. The remaining acres were left to natural restoration.
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“The only history is a mere question of one’s struggle inside oneself. But that is the joy of it. One need neither discover Americas nor conquer nations, and yet one has as great a work as Columbus or Alexander, to do.”
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