Qualla: Newberry Volcano

Newberry Volcano: Introduction

Fri, 23 Jan 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Gary Halvorson, Oregon State Archives, CC BY 4.0. Before Neil Armstrong set foot on lunar soil, he walked across the black obsidian flows of central Oregon. NASA geologists chose this unlikely training ground in 1964 because Newberry Volcano offered something no other site could match: a complete catalog of volcanic features in one sprawling landscape. The lava tubes, cinder cones, pumice fields, and obsidian flows that would help Apollo crews identify lunar geology remain exactly where the astronauts studied them, scattered across the flanks of the largest volcano in the entire Cascade Arc.

Read more: Newberry Volcano on Qualla

Image: Gary Halvorson, Oregon State Archives | CC BY 4.0

Newberry Volcano: A Mountain Hiding as a Mountain Range

Fri, 23 Jan 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit USGS photo by Lyn Topinka, Public domain. Newberry Volcano does not look like a volcano. Rising south of Bend, Oregon, its massive shield spreads so wide that early settlers mistook it for an entire mountain range. The numbers explain the confusion: the volcano stretches nearly 40 miles from north to south, spans 20 mile...

Read more: Newberry Volcano on Qualla

Image: USGS photo by Lyn Topinka | Public domain

Newberry Volcano: Fire Beneath the Water

Fri, 23 Jan 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit R6, State & Private Forestry, Forest Health Protection, Public domain. Twin lakes fill the heart of Newberry's caldera. Paulina Lake stretches across 1,530 acres with depths reaching 250 feet, while East Lake covers 1,050 acres beside it. A narrow isthmus of rhyolite lava separates them, with the Central Pumice cone rising between. Hot springs bubbl...

Read more: Newberry Volcano on Qualla

Image: R6, State & Private Forestry, Forest Health Protection | Public domain

Newberry Volcano: Obsidian Highway

Fri, 23 Jan 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Unknown author, Public domain. For more than 10,000 years, Native American peoples harvested obsidian from Newberry's caldera. This volcanic glass, sharper than surgical steel when fractured correctly, traveled along trade networks stretching from the Pacific Coast to the Great Plains. Archaeologists excavatin...

Read more: Newberry Volcano on Qualla

Image: Unknown author | Public domain

Newberry Volcano: Training Ground for the Moon

Fri, 23 Jan 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Another Believer, CC BY-SA 3.0. In October 1964 and July 1966, NASA brought Apollo astronauts to Newberry to study volcanic geology. The varied terrain offered perfect proxies for lunar landscapes: cinder cones, pumice deposits, lava tubes, and obsidian flows all within hiking distance. Neil Armstrong, Buzz Ald...

Read more: Newberry Volcano on Qualla

Image: Another Believer | CC BY-SA 3.0

Newberry Volcano: Living Landscape

Fri, 23 Jan 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit L. Moclock (talk · contribs), CC0. Despite its volcanic drama, Newberry supports rich ecosystems. Oregon's largest ponderosa pine grows here, along with forests of lodgepole, whitebark, and jack pine. Wildlife ranges from burrowing owls and kangaroo rats in the dry lowlands to Roosevelt elk and American pika on th...

Read more: Newberry Volcano on Qualla

Image: L. Moclock (talk · contribs) | CC0