Crater Lake's Old Man: This 450 Year Old Tree Trunk Vertically Floating For 120 Years

A visit to Oregon won't be complete without stopping by Crater Lake. It is the deepest lake in the United States and its water is so blue that you can get away with thinking someone dropped a few gallons of food coloring into it. However, it's not just its size and blue water that separates it from other lakes, another distinguishing feature of Crater Lake is a 9-metre-tall (30-foot) tree stump that's been bobbing vertically in the lake since at least 1896.

Mail Online once reported that the 30-foot tree stump is so buoyant to support the weight of an entire person standing on top of it while bobbing vertically in the water. The tree stump was first discovered in 1896 by geologist and explorer Joseph Diller. Dubbed as the Old man of the Lake, the stump has been floating upright since then, standing about 1.2 meters (4 feet) tall above the surface.

'The old man of the lake' @CraterLakeNPS There's a mystery afloat in #CraterLake, the deepest lake in the U.S. https://t.co/XqMGtpyqrx pic.twitter.com/O6oLnAhCok

— Ed Joyce (@EdJoyce) October 9, 2016

In 1902, Diller published the first scientific study on the stump and discovered that within the first five years of its discovery, it had traveled about 400 meters (1,312 feet) through Crater Lake. A second experiment was conducted between July 1 and September 30, 1938, which found that it had even traveled further compared to the first time. all thanks to high winds and waves, the "unsinkable" Old Man had covered about 99.9 km (62.1 miles) in only three months.

"You would think that the 4-foot above the water would act as a little sail, but sometimes he'll move all the way across the lake against the wind," Mark Buktenica, an aquatic ecologist for the National Park in Southern Oregon told Conor Knighton at CBS News.

So the million dollar question still remains, where did this mysterious stump come from? Thought to be a hemlock trunk, the Old Man of the Lake is believed to be floating in Crater Lake in southern Oregon's Crater Lake National Park for at least the past 120 years, but according to carbon dating, it is at least 450 years old.

"That's almost like he's the Larry King of stumps," Knighton laughed. "He must've been young at some point. We just don't know." As Bucktenica monitors the water quality of Crater Lake, he also can't help but monitor Old Man's movements. "You would think that the four-foot above the water would act as a little sail," said Buktenica, "but sometimes he'll move all the way across the lake against the wind."

According to Science Alert, inquisitive minds around the world still want to know: why hasn't the Old Man sunk? There may be times when rocks may have weighed down the roots, waterlogged the bottom while leaving the top to be dried by the sun. However, Mark Buktenica isn't as concerned with the why. "I think, maybe some questions should remain unanswered," he said. "That maybe it's part of the human condition to believe in a little bit of mystery and the interconnectedness of all things."

"So as a scientist, you're okay with maybe not knowing?" Knighton asked. "I'm okay with not knowing," he stated.