- Location
- Oregon
- Current protection
- Newberry National Volcanic Monument (U.S. Forest Service)
- Status
- No park campaign on record
- Tier
- Tier 2 · National Monument
- In the book
- Not featured in Undiscovered America
Why should it be a National Park?
Newberry is the largest volcano in the Cascades, a broad shield covering about 1,200 square miles, roughly the size of Rhode Island, that remains seismically and geothermally active. At its summit, a 17-square-mile caldera holds Paulina Lake and East Lake below Paulina Peak, and the Big Obsidian Flow, a river of volcanic glass only 1,300 years old, is the youngest lava flow in Oregon.
Around it lie some 400 cinder cones, Lava Butte, the Lava Cast Forest, and the mile-long Lava River Cave. Few places anywhere show so much of what volcanoes do in one landscape. It deserves to stand with Crater Lake and Lassen.
The history of National Park Campaigns
Newberry has never had a National Park campaign of its own. It was named a National Natural Landmark in 1976, and in 1990 local residents, business people, and officials won an act of Congress making it Newberry National Volcanic Monument, run by the Forest Service within Deschutes National Forest.
- Distinct National Park attempts
- 0
- Other designation attempts
- 2 (1976 landmark; 1990 national volcanic monument)
Sources
- Newberry National Volcanic Monument enabling legislation, P.L. 101-522 (1990)
- U.S. Forest Service, Deschutes National Forest
- Oregon Encyclopedia, "Newberry National Volcanic Monument"
- 1857–1858
The volcano is named for John Strong Newberry, naturalist on an Army railroad survey.
- 1938
The Civilian Conservation Corps builds the Paulina Lake Guard Station, today the Paulina Visitor Center.
- 1976
Newberry Crater is designated a National Natural Landmark.
- November 6, 1990
Congress establishes Newberry National Volcanic Monument, more than 54,000 acres, after a local campaign.