Summer Lake (Oregon)

[3][6] Summer Lake was spotted and named by Captain John C. Frémont during his 1843 mapping expedition through central Oregon.

Fremont and his Army topographical team were mapping the Oregon Territory from The Dalles on Columbia River to Sutter's Fort in Sacramento, California.

"[7] Frémont described the discovery and naming of Summer Lake as follows: At our feet...more than a thousand feet below...we looked into a green prairie country, in which a beautiful lake, some twenty miles in length, was spread along the foot of the mountain...Shivering on snow three feet deep, and stiffening in a cold north wind, we exclaimed at once that the names of summer lake and winter ridge should be applied to these proximate places of such sudden and violent contrast.The Summer Lake Basin supports more than 250 species of birds including bald eagles, Canada geese, white faced ibis, yellow-headed blackbirds, goshawks, hermit thrushes, red-tail hawks, great blue herons, and numerous species of ducks.

The refuge consists of a large wetland marsh fed by the Ana River with associated high desert uplands with an 8.3-mile (13.4 km) tour route open to the public most of the year.

[10] Plumes of Summer Lake dust, lifted by winds of up to 60 miles per hour (97 km/h), are thought to be responsible for "dirty rain" that fell on February 6, 2015, across parts of three U.S. states: Oregon, Washington, and Idaho.

Scientists at Washington State University concluded that an unusual combination of weather systems carried the dust up to 500 miles (800 km) north and northeast, where it mixed with rain, which turned "milky".