Bumpass Hell is well known hydro-thermal feature in Lassen Volcanic National Park. In May 1914, when Lassen Peak began its initial eruption, people flocked to the region. Very few people were aware how these features surrounding Lassen Peak received their names. The importance of instititopnal knowledge. A writer for the Sacramento Bee wrote that “its got its name from ‘bumping’ a man named Bumpass around in that super heated mushy caldron for a very insignificant portion of three days he would never have been taken from it , and world at large would never have known whether it was Bumpass ‘hell’ or Bumpass ‘heaven’. It all depends , you know”. There was a rebuttal story that the said writer remembers that the late Abe Holmes settled at Big Meadows, now Lake Almanor. told this story. “Mr. Bumpass, a visitor from the East, went to Morgan Springs and Drake’s thirty-five or more years ago. At the former place he was greatly impressed with the heat of the water, and when he saw the bubbling, boiling mud at Drake’s he remarked positively, ‘Well, that is hell.’ Since that time it has been known Bumpass Hell-and no more appropriate name could be given it-no more appropriate title needed. “
Both writers were wrong. Not only were they wrong about Kendall Bumpass, but Holmes mistook Bumpass Hell for Devils Kitchen!