The strange disappearance of Sammy Boehlke from Crater Lake National Park

Samuel Savage Becker Boehlke, Disappeared October 14, 2006, Cleetwood Cove, CrAter Lake National Park, Oregon.

Revised and expanded October 2023

Sammy Boehlke, an 8-year-old boy, was with his father, Kenneth, 48, on October 14, 2006, near the Cleetwood Cove area at Crater Lake National Park. At around 4 pm, the young boy ran up a cinder slope into the woods and vanished, never to be seen again. Despite an extensive search, no trace of Sam or his remains has ever been found at this spot in Oregon that has been synonymous with many strange events over the years.

What is and where is Crater Lake National Park?

Crater Lake National Park is located in southern Oregon and was established in 1902. The park includes Crater Lake and the surrounding hills and forests and is 183,224 acres in size.

Crater Lake partly fills a nearly 2,148-foot (655 m)-deep caldera that was formed around 7,700 (± 150) years ago by the collapse of the volcano Mount Mazama. No rivers flow into or out of the lake; the evaporation is compensated for by rain and snowfall at a rate such that the total amount of water is replaced every 250 years. With a depth of 1,949 feet (594 m), the lake is the deepest in the United States. In the world, it ranks ninth for maximum depth and third for mean (average) depth.

Crater Lake has two small islands. Wizard Island, located near the western shore of the lake, is approximately 316 acres in size, and Phantom Ship, a natural rock pillar, is located near the southern shore. Since the lake has no inlets or tributaries, the waters are some of the purest in the world because of the absence of pollutants. It also has relatively high levels of dissolved salts.

The climate is subalpine owing to its high elevation and influence of the Pacific. In the summer, the weather is mild and dry, but in the winter, it is cold, with very high snowfalls averaging 505 inches (12.83 m) per year and maximum snow cover averaging 139 inches or 3.53 meters. This snow does not usually melt until mid-July. A hard frost is possible even into the summer. Surface temperatures of the lake range between 33 °F (1 °C) and 66 °F (19 °C). In the summer, the lake temperature falls between 50 °F (10 °C) and 60 °F (16 °C).

Since the collapse of Mount Mazama due to a volcanic eruption that formed Crater Lake, no fish inhabited the lake until William G. Steel decided to stock it in 1888 to allow for fishing. Regular stocking continued until 1941, when it was evident that the fish could maintain a stable population without outside interference. Six fish species were originally stocked, but only two species have survived: Kokanee Salmon and Rainbow Trout, with Kokanee being the most plentiful.

Crater Lake is also known for the "Old Man of the Lake", a full-sized tree that is now a log that has been bobbing vertically in the lake for over a century. The low temperature of the water in the lake has slowed the decomposition of the wood.

Spiritual beliefs about Crater Lake

The Klamath people, native Americans indigenous to the area, believe that Crater Lake is sacred. For generations, they told of it being the crossroads between a Spirit of Above, called Skell, and the Spirit of Below, called Llao, a fiery and dark figure.

According to Andrea Lankford, author of Haunted Hikes: Spine-Tingling Tales and Trails from North America's National Parks, "... Llao and Skell fought gory battles here. Llao ripped Skell's heart from his chest, and Skell retaliated by dismembering Llao and throwing the body parts into the lake. Hideous monsters gobbled up everything but Llao's head, but the lake still holds Llao's spirit.

When stirred, he may brew up storm clouds. When angered, he may appear in the form of a giant crayfish that climbs up out of the lake, snatches people off of the rim of the crater that surrounds the lake, and drags them down into the water."

Who was Sammy Boehlke?

Sam Boelke’s parents were Ken and Kirsten, who divorced in 2005 and lived in Portland, Oregon.

Sammy had a passionate personality, bordering on stubbornness. He had a mild form of autism, which manifested itself in a fear of loud noises and bright lights. He also had an affinity for small spaces.

He was 4 feet, 11 inches tall, weighed about 85 pounds and had brown eyes and short brown hair. He was last seen wearing a long-sleeved black and green T-shirt, cargo pants, a blue winter coat and red, suede slip-on shoes with rubber soles.

The boy had camping experience and loved to play outdoors, but, given his age, he had no formal training in wilderness survival.

The disappearance of Sam Boehlke

Ken and Sam stopped at a pullout at 4 pm, about 500 yards east of the Cleetwood Cove parking lot and were walking on the north side of Rim Drive.

The boy and his father had stopped to play tag (hide and seek) on a cinder slope, where Sammy saw some yellow rock he hoped might be gold. As darkness approached and his dad walked a short distance to the car so the two could return to their rented cabin near Diamond Lake, Sammy stayed on the slope, refusing to come down.

Ken Boehlke chased up after him, but Sammy, likely thinking it was a game, stayed 50 feet ahead, " I never caught up with him, and at that point, he disappeared over the top somewhere, and I lost him.”

Sammy had done a similar thing when he attended the day camp program at the Sellwood Community Center between 2012 and 2016. The center’s director, Kim Calame, said, “He liked to hide, he was good at hide and seek, and wouldn’t understand his safety might be in danger if he didn’t come out of his hiding place”, “He does tendency to take off, it doesn’t surprise any of us that he got out of the car and took off. It’s just a game to him.” In 2014, Sam was playing hide and seek at Sellwood, and he couldn’t be found, forcing them to call in the Police and the fire service, who couldn’t locate him. Kim said, “We called his mom, and she finally screamed, ‘Sam, you won, you’re the best hider’ and he popped out from behind a tree.” She also said that he liked to dig to hide himself.

The search

The search force quickly increased to more than 200 people, combing an area of about 6 square miles, or 4,000 acres. For a week, searchers scoured the area with dogs, helicopters, and heat-sensing cameras, but no trace of the boy was ever found. Officials said a helicopter crew spotted some tracks, but they turned out to be from wildlife.

Intermittent searching continued after this despite heavy snowfalls in the area. The park, at 7,000 feet, averages more than 500 inches of snow a year. Technical crews searched the slopes leading from the caldera's rim down to the water, a drop of 700 to 1,000 feet, even though it was unlikely Sammy would have fallen into the lake because of obstacles on the slope.

Search teams included those from Jackson, Klamath and Deschutes counties, National Park search experts from California, Washington and Oregon, specialist rescue teams from Mount Hood and Mount Rainier, and local U.S. Forest Service and Bureau of Land Management employees.

On October 23, 2016, the official search was ended. The authorities did not consider foul play to be a factor.

What happened to Sammy?

Sam likely believed he was participating in a game of hide and seek. His success at the Sellwood Community Center in evading being found probably indicates that he dug in somewhere or walked a considerable distance into the forest. It is surprising that all these years later, neither bones not clothing have been located.

The authorities ruled out foul play, a possible but unlikely scenario.