Chauncey Nye was a pioneer of the U.S. state

U.S. state

A U.S. state is any one of the 50 federated states of the United States of America that share sovereignty with the federal government. Because of this shared sovereignty, an American is a citizen both of the federal entity and of his or her state of domicile. Four states use the official title of...

 of Oregon

Oregon

Oregon is a state in the Pacific Northwest region of the United States. It is located on the Pacific coast, with Washington to the north, California to the south, Nevada on the southeast and Idaho to the east. The Columbia and Snake rivers delineate much of Oregon's northern and eastern...

 who was best known as the first person to publish an account about Crater Lake

Crater Lake

Crater Lake is a caldera lake located in the south-central region of the U.S. state of Oregon. It is the main feature of Crater Lake National Park and famous for its deep blue color and water clarity. The lake partly fills a nearly deep caldera that was formed around 7,700 years agoby the...

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Biography

Born in Michigan in 1823 to Nathan Nye, he accompanied his brother Nathan B. Nye (1831–1913) to Lagtown, El Dorado County, California

El Dorado County, California

El Dorado County is a county located in the historic Gold Country in the Sierra Nevada Mountains and foothills of the U.S. state of California. The 2010 population was 181,058. The El Dorado county seat is in Placerville....

 in 1849 or early 1850, during the California Gold Rush

California Gold Rush

The California Gold Rush began on January 24, 1848, when gold was found by James W. Marshall at Sutter's Mill in Coloma, California. The first to hear confirmed information of the gold rush were the people in Oregon, the Sandwich Islands , and Latin America, who were the first to start flocking to...

 to work claims in that area. By 1852, Nathan had arrived in a pioneer party in Oregon, and Chauncy may have come with him. It's certain Chauncy was in Oregon by 1860 where he is listed, age 37, in Jackson County

Jackson County, Oregon

-National protected areas:* Cascade–Siskiyou National Monument* Crater Lake National Park * Klamath National Forest * Rogue River-Siskiyou National Forest * Umpqua National Forest -Demographics:...

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He is known as the first person to publish an account about Crater Lake:

In 1862, Chauncy Nye and his party of prospectors also came upon the lake. Nye wrote the first published article about the lake, stating "the waters were of a deeply blue color causing us to name it Blue Lake."

By 1870, Chauncy had given up hunting gold and settled down on a farm with his wife Amarantha who was born about 1834 in Illinois or Michigan. The family lived for at least thirty years at Flounce Rock, Jackson County, Oregon. Their children Etta (1867), Nelson (1871), and Elsie Amarantha (1879). In 1882, Chauncy completed his homestead

Homesteading

Broadly defined, homesteading is a lifestyle of simple self-sufficiency.-Current practice:The term may apply to anyone who follows the back-to-the-land movement by adopting a sustainable, self-sufficient lifestyle. While land is no longer freely available in most areas of the world, homesteading...

 at Township 33S Range 2 East.

He is buried next to his wife, at Nye Cemetery in Jackson County.

Nye Spring and Nye Ditch are both named for him.

External links

• Nye Ditch
• Road Surveyors of Jackson Co, OR
• Mention of location of his homestead