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THE MOUNTAIN
THAT WAS "GOD"
BEING A LITTLE BOOK ABOUT THE GREAT
PEAK WHICH THE INDIANS NAMED "TACOMA"
BUT WHICH IS OFFICIALLY CALLED "RAINIER"
By JOHN H. WILLIAMS
_O, rarest miracle of mountain heights,
Thou hast the sky for thy imperial dome,
And dwell'st among the stars all days and nights,
In the far heavens familiarly at home._
--William Hillis Wynn: "Mt. Tacoma; an Apotheosis."
Second Edition revised and greatly
enlarged, with 190 illustrations,
including eight colored halftones.
TACOMA: JOHN H. WILLIAMS
NEW YORK: G. P. PUTNAM'S SONS: LONDON
1911
[Illustration: Copyright, 1905, By Kiser Photo Co.
Great Crevasses in the upper part of Cowlitz Glacier.]
Copyright, 1910, 1911, by John H. Williams.
{p.007}
[Illustration: On the summit of Eagle Rock in winter.
Boys looking over an 800-foot precipice.]
FOREWORD.
Every summer there is demand for illustrated literature describing the
mountain variously called "Rainier" or "Tacoma." Hitherto, we have had
only small collections of pictures, without text, and confined to the
familiar south and southwest sides.
The little book which I now offer aims to show the grandest and most
accessible of our extinct volcanoes from all points of view. Like the
glacial rivers, its text will be found a narrow stream flowing swiftly
amidst great mountain scenery. Its abundant illustrations cover not
only the giants' fairyland south of the peak, but also the equally
stupendous scenes that await the adventurer who penetrates the harder
trails and climbs the greater glaciers of the north and east slopes.
* * * *
The title adopted for the book has reference, of course, to the Indian
nature worship, of which something is said in the opening chapter.
Both the title and a small part of the matter are reprinted from an
article which I contributed last year to the _New York Evening Post_.
Attention is called to the tangle in the names of glaciers and the
need of a definitive nomenclature. As to the name of the Mountain
itself, that famous bone of contention between two cities, I greatly
prefer "Tacoma," one of the several authentic forms of the Indian name
used by different tribes; but I believe that "Tahoma," proposed by the
Rotary Club of Seattle, would be a justifiable compromise, and satisfy
nearly everybody. Its adoption would free our national map from one
more of its meaningless names--the name, in this case, of an
undistinguished foreign naval officer whose only connection with our
history is the fact that he fought against us during the American
Revolution. Incidentally, it would also free me from the need of an
apology for using the hybrid "Rainier-Tacoma"! * * * Many of the
illustrations show wide reaches of wonderful country, and their
details may well be studied with a reading glass.
I am much indebted to the librarians and their courteous assistants at
the Seattle and Tacoma public libraries; also to Prof. Flett for his
interesting account of the flora of the National Park; to Mr. Eugene
Ricksecker, of the United States Engineer Corps, for permission to
reproduce his new map of the Park, now printed for the first time;
and, most of all, to the photographers, both professional and amateur.
In the table of illustrations, credit is given the maker of each
photograph. The book is sent out in the hope of promoting a wider
knowledge of our country's noblest landmark. May it lead many of its
readers to delightful days of recreation and adventure.
Tacoma, June 1, 1910. J. H. W.
Second Edition.--The text has been carefully revised, much new matter
added, and the information for tourists brought to date. The
illustrations have been rearranged, and more {p.008} than fifty new
ones included. Views of the west and south sides, mainly, occupy the
first half of the book, while the later pages carry the reader east
and north from the Nisqually country.
Nearly five thousand negatives and photographs have now been examined
in selecting copy for the engravers. In the table of illustrations I
am glad to place the names of several expert photographers in
Portland, San Francisco, Pasadena and Boston. Their pictures, with
other new ones obtained from photographers already represented, make
this edition much more complete. For the convenience of tourists, as
well as of persons unable to visit the Mountain but wishing to know
its features, I have numbered the landmarks on three of the larger
views, giving a key in the underlines. If this somewhat mars the
beauty of these pictures, it gives them added value as maps of the
areas shown. In renewing my acknowledgments to the photographers, I
must mention especially Mr. Asahel Curtis of Seattle. The help and
counsel of this intrepid and public-spirited mountaineer have been
invaluable. Mr. A. H. Barnes, our Tacoma artist with camera and brush,
whose fine pictures fill many of the following pages, is about to
publish a book of his mountain views, for which I bespeak liberal
patronage.
My readers will join me in welcoming the beautiful verses written for
this edition by a gracious and brilliant woman whose poems have
delighted two generations of her countrymen.
Thanks are also due to Senator Wesley L. Jones, Superintendent E. S.
Hall of the Rainier National Park and the Secretary of the Interior
for official information; to Director George Otis Smith of the U. S.
Geological Survey for such elevations as have thus far been
established by the new survey of the Park; to A. C. McClurg & Co. of
Chicago, for permission to quote from Miss Judson's "_Myths and
Legends of the Pacific Northwest_"; to Mr. Wallace Rice, literary
executor of the late Francis Brooks, for leave to use Mr. Brooks's
fine poem on the Mountain; to the librarians at the Public Library,
the John Crerar Library and the Newberry Library in Chicago, and to
many others who have aided me in obtaining photographs or data for
this edition.
Lovers of the mountains, in all parts of our country, will learn with
regret that Congress, remains apparently indifferent to the
conservation of the Rainier National Park and its complete opening to
the public. At the last session, a small appropriation was asked for
much-needed trails through the forests and to the high interglacial
plateaus, now inaccessible save to the toughest mountaineer; it being
the plan of the government engineers to build such trails on grades
that would permit their ultimate widening into permanent roads. Even
this was denied. The Idaho catastrophe last year again proved the
necessity of trails to the protection of great forests. With the
loggers pushing their operations closer to the Park, its danger calls
for prompt action. Further, American tourists, it is said, annually
spend $200,000,000 abroad, largely to view scenery surpassed in their
own country. But Congress refuses the $50,000 asked, even refuses
$25,000, toward making the grandest of our National Parks safe from
forest fires and accessible to students and lovers of nature!
May 3, 1911.
[Illustration: Winthrop Glacier and St. Elmo Pass, with Ruth Mountain
(the Wedge) on right and Sour-Dough Mountains on left.]
[Illustration: White Glacier and Little Tahoma, with eastern end of
the Tatoosh Range in distance.]
{p.009} CONTENTS.
Page.
The Mountain Speaks. Poem Edna Dean Proctor 15
I. Mount "Big Snow" and Indian
Tradition 17
II. The National Park, its Roads
and its Needs 43
III. The Story of the Mountain 77
IV. The Climbers 113
V. The Flora of the Mountain
Slopes Prof. J. B. Flett 129
Notes 139
ILLUSTRATIONS.
The * indicates engravings made from copyrighted photographs. See
notice under the illustration.
THREE-COLOR HALFTONES.
Title. Photographer. Page.
Spanaway Lake, with reflection
of the Mountain A. H. Barnes. Frontispiece
View from Electron, showing west
side of the Mountain Asahel Curtis 19
View northward from top of
Pinnacle Peak Dr. F. A. Scott 46
Looking Northeast from slope
of Pinnacle Peak Dr. F. A. Scott 47
* Ice Cave, Paradise Glacier A. H. Barnes 73
* Spray Park, from Fay Peak W. P. Romans 92
Crevasse in Carbon Glacier Asahel Curtis 109
North Mowich Glacier and the
Mountain in a storm George V. Caesar 128
ONE-COLOR HALFTONES.
* Great crevasses in upper part
of Cowlitz Glacier Kiser Photo Co. 6
On the summit of Eagle Rock in
winter George V. Caesar 7
Winthrop Glacier and St. Elmo
Pass Asahel Curtis 8
White Glacier and Little
Tahoma Asahel Curtis 9
White River Canyon, from
moraine of White Glacier Dr. F. A. Scott 12
Telephoto view from near Electron,
showing plateau on the summit Asahel Curtis 13
View of the Mountain from Fox
Island Charles Bedford 14
* The most kingly of American
mountains Romans Photographic Co. 16
Party of climbers on Winthrop
Glacier Asahel Curtis 17
Ice Terraces, South Tahoma
Glacier Rodney L. Glisan 17
Mineral Lake and the Mountain A. H. Denman 18
Storm King Peak and Mineral
Lake A. H. Barnes 18
Nisqually Canyon Kiser Photo Co. 21
* North Peak, and South Mowich
Glacier A. H. Waite 22
{p.010}
* Basaltic Columns, South
Mowich Glacier A. H. Waite 23
Mountain Goat A. H. Barnes 23
West side of summit, seen from
Tahoma Fork A. H. Barnes 24
Iron and Copper Mountains in
Indian Henry's A. G. Bowles, Jr. 25
Cutting steps up Paradise
Glacier Dr. F. A. Scott 25
Great Crag on ridge separating
North and South Tahoma Glacier Dr. F. A. Scott 26
The Whistling Marmot Asahel Curtis 26
View from Beljica, showing west
side of the Mountain A. H. Barnes 27
* Mountain Pine E. S. Curtis 28
* Mount Wow, or Goat Mountain E. S. Curtis 28
Rounded Cone of Mt. St Helen's A. H. Barnes 29
* View northward from Simlayshe,
or Eagle Peak Pillsbury Picture Co. 30, 31
* Simlayshe, or Eagle Peak Linkletter Photographic
Co. 30
Exploring Ice Cave, Paradise
Glacier Dr. F. A. Scott 31
Junction of North and South
Tahoma Glaciers A. H. Denman 32
Anemones Miss Jessie Kershaw 32
* North Tahoma Glacier A. H. Waite 33
* Snow Lake in Indian Henry's A. H. Barnes 34
A fair Mountaineer Asahel Curtis 35
Indian Henry's, seen from South
Tahoma Glacier A. H. Denman 36
* Southwest side of the Mountain,
seen from Indian Henry's A. H. Barnes 37
Climbing Pinnacle Peak (2) Asahel Curtis 38
A silhouette on Pinnacle Peak Dr. F. A. Scott 39
* Rough Climbing E. S. Curtis 39
Ptarmigan Asahel Curtis 40
The Mountain, from Puyallup
river B. L. Aldrich, Jr. 40
Falls of the Little Mashell
river A. H. Barnes 41
Old Stage Road to Longmire
Springs A. H. Barnes 42
On Pierce County road, passing
Ohop Valley S. C. Lancaster 43
Cowlitz Chimneys S. C. Smith 43
* Old Road near Spanaway A. H. Barnes 44
Automobile Party above Nisqually
Canyon Asahel Curtis 49
Prof. O. D. Allen's Cottage Dr. F. A. Scott 49
"Ghost Trees" Mrs. H. A. Towne 50
Government Road in the Forest
Reserve S. C. Lancaster 51
"Hanging Glacier," an ice fall
above the Cowlitz Asahel Curtis 51
Leaving National Park Inn for
Paradise Linkletter Photo Co. 52
* On the Summit, showing
Columbia's Crest Asahel Curtis 52
Paradise Valley or "Park," and
Tatoosh Mountains A. H. Barnes 53
On Government Road, a mile above
Longmires Linkletter Photo Co. 54
Road near "Gap Point" Linkletter Photo Co. 54
Snout of Nisqually Glacier, and
Road Bridge Paul T. Shaw 55
Pony Trail Bridge across the
Nisqually Dr. H. B. Hinman 55
Road a mile above the Bridge Asahel Curtis 56
On the Pony Trail to Paradise Kiser Photo Co. 56
Sierra Club lunching on Nisqually
Glacier Asahel Curtis 57
A Mountain Celery Mrs. Alexander Thompson 57
Narada Falls, on Paradise River Herbert W. Gleason 58
Washington Torrents, on Paradise
River A. H. Barnes 59
Portion of Paradise Park and
Tatoosh Range A. H. Barnes 59
View of the Mountain from the
Tatoosh, with key to landmarks Herbert W. Gleason 60
Ice Bridge, Stevens Glacier Dr. F. A. Scott 61
Tug of War Asahel Curtis 61
* Hiking through Paradise Valley
in Winter J. H. Weer 62
* Tatoosh Range, from Reese's
Camp, in Winter J. H. Weer 62
* Waterfall above Paradise
Valley Photo, W. E. Averett;
Copyright, Asahel Curtis 63
Looking from Stevens Glacier to
Mt. Adams Dr. F. A. Scott 64
Reese's Camp C. E. Cutter 64
Climbing the "Horn" on Unicorn
Peak Asahel Curtis 65
Stevens Canyon in October A. H. Barnes 66
Sluiskin Falls A. H. Barnes 67
Eminent scientist practices the
simple life J. B. Flett 67
* Nisqually Glacier, with its
sources A. H. Barnes 68
Sierra Club on Nisqually Glacier Asahel Curtis 69
* Lost to the World Asahel Curtis 69
"Sunshine" and "Storm" (2) Mrs. H. A. Towne 70
{p.011}
Nisqually Glacier, from top of
Gibraltar Asahel Curtis 71
Measuring the ice flow in
Nisqually Glacier Asahel Curtis 72
* Miss Fay Fuller Exploring a
Crevasse E. S. Curtis 72
Fairy Falls, in Goat Lick
Basin A. H. Barnes 75
* Gibraltar and its Neighbors E. S. Curtis 76
Crossing Carbon Glacier Asahel Curtis 77
* Reflection Lake and the
Mountain E. S. Curtis 77
Looking up from Cowlitz Chimneys
to Gibraltar Asahel Curtis 78
Divide of Paradise and Stevens
Glaciers A. H. Barnes 79
Old Moraine of Stevens Glacier Asahel Curtis 79
Preparing for a night at Camp
Muir Asahel Curtis 80
The Bee Hive Asahel Curtis 80
Mazama Club on Cowlitz Chimneys Kiser Photo Co. 81
Climbing Cowlitz Cleaver to
Gibraltar Asahel Curtis 81
Mazamas rounding Gibraltar Rodney L. Glisan 82
Under the walls of Gibraltar Asahel Curtis 83
One of the bedrooms at Camp Muir A. H. Waite 83
Perilous position on edge of a
great crevasse Charles Bedford 84
Climbing the "Chute," west side
of Gibraltar Asahel Curtis 85
Looking from top of Gibraltar to
the summit A. H. Waite 86
View south from Cowlitz Glacier
to Mt. Adams Charles Bedford 87
One of the modern craters Asahel Curtis 88, 89
Steam Caves in one of the
craters Asahel Curtis 88
North Peak, or "Liberty Cap." A. W. Archer 89
Goat Peaks, glacier summits in
the Cascades Kiser Photo Co 90
Ice-bound lake in Cowlitz Park S. C. Smith 93
Crevasses in Cowlitz Glacier S. C. Smith 93
Crossing a precipitous slope on
White Glacier A. W. Archer 94
* Climbing Goat Peaks in the
Cascades S. C. Smith 94
Looking up White Glacier to
Little Tahoma Dr. F. A. Scott 95
The Mountain seen from top of
Cascade Range S. C. Smith 96
Great Moraine built by Frying-Pan
Glacier on "Goat Island" J. B. Flett 96
Coming around Frying-Pan Glacier,
below Little Tahoma Dr. F. A. Scott 97
Sunrise above the clouds, Camp
Curtis Asahel Curtis 97
Looking up from Snipe Lake,
below Interglacier Dr. F. A. Scott 98
Passing a big Crevasse on
Interglacier Asahel Curtis 98
View North from Mt. Ruth to
Grand Park J. B. Flett 99
Camp on St. Elmo Pass, north side
of the Wedge Asahel Curtis 100
East Face of Mountain, with route
to summit Asahel Curtis 100
Admiral Peter Rainier 101
First picture of the Mountain,
from Vancouver's "Voyage" 101
Climbers on St. Elmo Pass A. W. Archer 102
St. Elmo Pass, from north side A. W. Archer 102
Russell Peak, from Avalanche
Camp Asahel Curtis 103
Avalanche Camp Asahel Curtis 103
Looking up Winthrop Glacier from
Avalanche Camp Asahel Curtis 104
Looking across Winthrop Glacier
to Steamboat Prow Asahel Curtis 104
View south from Sluiskin Mountains
across Moraine Park Asahel Curtis 105
Part of Spray Park George Caesar 106
Climbing the séracs on Winthrop
Glacier Dr. F. A. Scott 107
Ice Pinnacles on the Carbon A. W. Archer 107
Among the Ice Bridges of Carbon
Glacier Asahel Curtis 108
Building Tacoma's electric power
plant on the Nisqually (3) George V. Caesar 111
Hydro-electric plant at Electron 112
Cutting canal to divert White
River to Lake Tapps 112
Mystic Lake, in Moraine Park Asahel Curtis 113
Glacier Table on Winthrop
Glacier Asahel Curtis 113
Carbon River and Mother
Mountains Dr. F. A. Scott 114
* Oldest and Youngest of the
Climbers C. E. Cutter 115
* P. B. Van Trump on his old
Camp Ground E. S. Curtis 115
Lower Spray Park, with Mother
Mountains beyond Asahel Curtis 116
* John Muir, President of the
Sierra Club J. Edward B. Greene 116
Coasting in Moraine Park Asahel Curtis 117
Sunset on Crater Lake George V. Caesar 117
* Amphitheatre of Carbon Glacier Asahel Curtis 118
* Avalanche falling on Willis
Wall Photo, Lea Bronson;
Copyright, P. V. Caesar 119
{p.012}
* Birth of Carbon River A. H. Waite 120
The Mountaineers building trail
on Carbon Moraine Asahel Curtis 121
The Mountaineers lunching in a
crevasse Asahel Curtis 121
Looking southeast from Mt. Rose George V. Caesar 122
Looking south from Mt. Rose,
across Crater Lake George V. Caesar 123
* Looking up North Mowich Valley Asahel Curtis 124
* Spray Falls Asahel Curtis 125
* A Rescue from a Crevasse E. S. Curtis 126
Returning from the Summit Asahel Curtis 126
* View across Moraine Park and
Carbon Glacier to Mother
Mountains Asahel Curtis 129
Senecio Mrs. Alexander Thompson 129
A 14-foot Fir, near Mineral Lake A. H. Barnes 130
Indian Pipe J. B. Flett 131
Floral Carpet in Indian Henry's
Park A. H. Barnes 131
Mosses and Ferns in the Forest
Reserve Charles Bedford 132
A Bank of White Heather Asahel Curtis 133
Hellebore Mrs. Alexander Thompson 133
Alpine Hemlock and Mountain
Lilies Mrs. H. A. Towne 134
Mountain Asters A. H. Barnes 134
Studying the Phlox J. B. Flett 135
Squaw Grass, or Mountain Lily Miss Jessie Kershaw 135
Avalanche Lilies Asahel Curtis 136
* Moraine Park, Sluiskin
Mountains and Mystic Lake Asahel Curtis 136
Sunrise in Indian Henry's A. H. Barnes 137
Anemone Seed Pods Asahel Curtis 138
Wind-swept Trees on North Side George V. Caesar 139
Lupines Herbert W. Gleason 139
* The Mountain, seen from Green
River Hot Springs C. E. Cutter 140
Glacial debris on lower Winthrop Asahel Curtis 142
An Alpine Climbers' Cabin From Whymper's "Chamonix
and Mt. Blanc" 144
[Illustration: White River Canyon, from the terminal moraine of White
Glacier. A fine example of glacial sculpture. The river seen in the
distance is 2,000 feet below the plateau through which the glacier has
carved this valley.]
[Illustration {p.013}: Telephoto view from near Electron, 20 miles,
showing vast summit plateau left when the Mountain blew its head off.
1. Crater Peak, built by the two small, modern craters. 2. South Peak,
or Peak Success. 3. North Peak, or Liberty Cap. 4. North Tahoma
Glacier. 5. Puyallup Glacier. 6. South Mowich Glacier. 7.
North Mowich Glacier. 8. Snow Cap above Carbon Glacier. The summit
peaks (1, 2 and 3) form a triangle, each side of which is two miles or
more in length.]
[Illustration {p.014}: View of the Mountain from Fox Island,
forty-two miles northwest, with part of Puget Sound in the
foreground.]
{p.015} THE MOUNTAIN SPEAKS.
I am Tacoma, Monarch of the Coast!
Uncounted ages heaped my shining snows;
The sun by day, by night the starry host,
Crown me with splendor; every breeze that blows
Wafts incense to my altars; never wanes
The glory my adoring children boast,
For one with sun and sea Tacoma reigns.
Tacoma--the Great Snow Peak--mighty name
My dusky tribes revered when time was young!
Their god was I in avalanche and flame--
In grove and mead and songs my rivers sung,
As blithe they ran to make the valleys fair--
Their Shrine of Peace where no avenger came
To vex Tacoma, lord of earth and air.
Ah! when at morn above the mists I tower
And see my cities gleam by slope and strand,
What joy have I in this transcendent dower--
The strength and beauty of my sea-girt land
That holds the future royally in fee!
And lest some danger, undescried, should lower,
From my far height I watch o'er wave and lea.
And cloudless eves when calm in heaven I rest,
All rose-bloom with a glow of paradise,
And through my firs the balm-wind of the west,
Blown over ocean islands, softly sighs,
While placid lakes my radiant image frame--
And know my worshippers, in loving quest,
Will mark my brow and fond lips breathe my name:
Enraptured from my valleys to my snows,
I charm my glow to crimson--soothe to gray;
And when the encircling shadow deeper grows,
Poise, a lone cloud, beside the starry way.
Then, while my realm is hushed from steep to shore,
I yield my grandeur to divine repose,
And know Tacoma reigns forevermore!
South Framingham, Mass.
March, 1911. Edna Dean Proctor
[Illustration {p.016}: Copyright, 1906, By Romans Photographic Co.
The most kingly of American mountains, seen from beautiful Lake
Washington, Seattle, distance sixty miles.]
{p.017}
[Illustration: A party of climbers on Winthrop Glacier.]
THE MOUNTAIN THAT WAS "GOD."
I.
MOUNT "BIG SNOW" AND INDIAN TRADITION.
Long hours we toiled up through the solemn wood,
Beneath moss-banners stretched from tree to tree;
At last upon a barren hill we stood,
And, lo, above loomed Majesty.
--_Herbert Bashford: "Mount Rainier."_
The great Mountain fascinates us by its diversity. It is an
inspiration and yet a riddle to all who are drawn to the mysterious or
who love the sublime. Every view which the breaking clouds vouchsafe
to us is a surprise. It never becomes commonplace, save to the
commonplace.
[Illustration: Ice Terraces on South Tahoma Glacier. These vast steps
are often seen where a glacier moves down a steep and irregular
slope.]
Old Virgil's gibe at mankind's better half--"varium et mutabile semper
femina"--might have been written of this fickle shape of rock and ice
and vapor. One tries vainly, year after year, to define it in his own
mind. The daily, hourly change of distance, size and aspect, tricks
which the Indian's mountain {p.018} god plays with the puny
creatures swarming more and more about his foot; his days of frank
neighborliness, his swift transformations from smiles to anger, his
fits of sullenness and withdrawal, all baffle study. Even though we
live at its base, it is impossible to say we know the Mountain, so
various are the spells the sun casts over this huge dome which it is
slowly chiseling away with its tools of ice, and which, in coming
centuries, it will level with the plain.
[Illustration: Mineral Lake and the Mountain. Distance, eighteen
miles.]
We are lovers of the water as well as the hills, out here in this
northwestern corner of the Republic. We spend many days--and should
spend more--in cruising among the hidden bays and park-like islands
which make Puget Sound the most interesting body of water in America.
We grow a bit boastful about the lakes that cluster around our cities.
Nowhere better than from sea level, or from the lakes raised but
little above it, does one realize the bulk, the dominance, and yet the
grace, of this noble peak. Its impressiveness, indeed, arises in part
from the fact that it is one of the few great volcanic mountains whose
entire height may be seen from tide level. Many of us can recall views
of it from Lake Washington at Seattle, or from American or Spanaway
Lake at Tacoma, or from the Sound, which will always haunt the memory.
[Illustration: Storm King Peak and Mineral Lake, viewed from near
Mineral Lake Inn.]
Early one evening, last summer, I went with a friend to Point
Defiance, Tacoma's fine park at the {p.021} end of the promontory
on which the city is built. We drank in refreshment from the picture
there unrolled of broad channels and evergreen shores. As sunset
approached, we watched the western clouds building range upon range of
golden mountains above the black, Alp-like crags of the Olympics.
Then, entering a small boat, we rowed far out northward into the
Sound. Overhead, and about us, the scenes of the great panorama were
swiftly shifted. The western sky became a conflagration. Twilight
settled upon the bay. The lights of the distant town came out, one by
one, and those of the big smelter, near by, grew brilliant. No Turner
ever dreamed so glorious a composition of sunlight and shade. But we
were held by one vision.
[Illustration {p.019}: View from Electron, showing west side of the
mountain, with a vast intervening country of forested ranges and deep
canyons.]
{p.021}
[Illustration: Nisqually Canyon.
... "Where the mountain wall
Is piled to heaven, and through the narrow rift
Of the vast rocks, against whose rugged feet
Beats the mad torrent with perpetual roar:
Where noonday is as twilight, and the wind
Comes burdened with the everlasting moan
Of forests and far-off waterfalls."--Whittier.]
Yonder, in the southeast, towering above the lower shadows of harbor
and hills, rose a vast pyramid of soft flame. The setting sun had
thrown a mantle of rose pink over the ice of the glaciers and the
great cleavers of rock which buttress the mighty dome. The rounded
summit was warm with beautiful orange light. Soon the colors upon its
slope changed to deeper reds, and then to amethyst, and {p.023}
violet, and pearl gray. The sun-forsaken ranges below fell away to
dark neutral tints. But the fires upon the crest burned on, deepening
from gold to burnished copper, a colossal beacon flaming high against
the sunset purple of the eastern skies. Finally, even this great light
paled to a ghostly white, as the supporting foundation of mountain
ridges dropped into the darkness of the long northern twilight, until
the snowy summit seemed no longer a part of earth, but a veil of
uncanny mist, caught up by the winds from the Pacific and floating far
above the black sky-line of the solid Cascades, that
* * * heaven-sustaining bulwark, reared
Between the East and West.
[Illustration {p.022}: Copyright, 1900, By A. H. Waite. North Peak,
or Liberty Cap, and South Mowich Glacier in storm, seen from an
altitude of 6,000 feet, on ridge between South Mowich and Puyallup
Glaciers. The glacier, 2,000 feet below, is nearly half a mile wide.
Note the tremendous wall of ice in which it ends.]
[Illustration: Copyright, 1900, By A. H. Waite. Basaltic Columns, part
of the "Colonnade" on south side of South Mowich Glacier. These
curious six-sided columns of volcanic rock are similar to those
bordering the Cowlitz Glacier.]
[Illustration: Mountain Goat, an accidental snap-shot of the fleet and
wary Mazama; godfather of the famous Portland mountain club.]
And when even that apparition had faded, and the Mountain appeared
only as an uncertain bulk shadowed upon the night, then came the
miracle. Gradually, the east, beyond the great hills, showed a faint
silver glow. Silhouetted against this dim background, the profile of
the peak grew definite. With no other warning, suddenly from its
summit the full moon shot forth, huge, majestic and gracious, flooding
the lower world with brightness. Clouds and mountain ranges alike
shone with its glory. But the great peak loomed blacker and more
sullen. Only, on its head, the wide crown of snow gleamed white under
the cold rays of the moon.
[Illustration {p.024}: West Side of the summit, seen from Tahoma Fork
of the Nisqually, on road to Longmire Springs. Note the whiteness of
the glacial water. This stream is fed by the united Tahoma glaciers.
See pp. 32 and 37.]
{p.025}
[Illustration: Iron and Copper Mountains (right) in Indian Henry's.
The top of Pyramid Peak shows in the saddle beyond with Peak Success
towering far above.]
No wonder that this mountain of changing moods, overtopping every
other eminence in the Northwest, answered the idea of God to the
simple, imaginative mind of the Indians who hunted in the forest on
its slopes or fished in the waters of Whulge that ebbed and flowed at
its base. Primitive peoples in every land have deified superlative
manifestations of nature--the sun, the wind, great rivers, and
waterfalls, the high mountains. By all the tribes within sight of its
summit, this pre-eminent peak, variously called by them Tacoma
(Tach-ho´ma), Tahoma or Tacob, as who should say "The Great Snow," was
deemed a power to be feared and conciliated. Even when the
missionaries taught them a better faith, they continued to hold the
Mountain in superstitious reverence--an awe that still has power to
silence their "civilized" and very unromantic descendants.
[Illustration: Cutting steps up Paradise Glacier.]
The Puget Sound tribes, with the Yakimas, Klickitats and others living
just beyond the Cascades, had substantially the same language and
beliefs, though differing much in physical and mental type. {p.026}
East of the range, they lived by the chase. They were great horsemen
and famous runners, a breed of lithe, upstanding, competent men, as
keen of wit as they were stately in appearance. These were "the noble
Red Men" of tradition. Fennimore Cooper might have found many a hero
worthy of his pen among the savages inhabiting the fertile valley of
the Columbia, which we now call the Inland Empire. But here on the
Coast were the "Digger" tribes, who subsisted chiefly by spearing
salmon and digging clams. Their stooped figures, flat faces, downcast
eyes and low mentality reflected the life they led. Contrasting their
heavy bodies with their feeble legs, which grew shorter with disuse, a
Tacoma humorist last summer gravely proved to a party of English
visitors that in a few generations more, had not the white man seized
their fishing grounds, the squatting Siwashes would have had no legs
at all!
[Illustration: Great Crag on the ridge separating the North and South
Tahoma Glaciers, with Tahoma Fork of the Nisqually visible several
miles below. This rock is seen right of center on page 27.]
[Illustration: The Marmot, whose shrill whistle is often heard among
the crags.]
Stolid and uninspired as he seemed to the whites, the Indian of the
Sound was not without his touch of poetry. He had that imaginative
curiosity which marked the native {p.028} American everywhere. He
was ever peering into the causes of things, and seeing the
supernatural in the world around him.[1]
[Footnote 1: Among those who have studied the Puget
Sound Indians most sympathetically is the Rev. Mr.
Hylebos of Tacoma. He came to the Northwest in 1870,
when the census gave Tacoma a white population of
seventy-three. In those days, says Father Hylebos, the
Tacoma tideflats, now filled in for mills and railway
terminals, were covered each autumn with the canoes of
Indians spearing salmon. It was no uncommon thing to see
at one time on Commencement Bay 1,800 fishermen. This
veteran worker among the "Siwashes" (French
"_sauvages_") first told me the myths that hallowed the
Mountain for every native, and the true meaning of the
beautiful Indian word "Tacoma." He knew well all the
leaders of the generation before the railways: Sluiskin,
the Klickitat chief who guided Stevens and Van Trump up
to the snow-line in 1870; Stanup, chief of the
Puyallups; Kiskax, head of the Cowlitz tribe; Angeline,
the famous daughter of Chief Seattle, godfather of the
city of that name, and many others.]
[Illustration {p.027}: View from Beljica, showing the deeply indented
west side of the Mountain. Beginning at extreme right, the glaciers
are, successively: Kautz, South Tahoma, North Tahoma and Puyallup. In
the left foreground is the canyon of Tahoma Fork of the Nisqually,
which is fed by the Tahoma glaciers.]
[Illustration: Copyright, 1897, By E. S. Curtis. Mountain Pine, one of
the last outposts of the forest below the line of eternal snow.]
To the great Snow Mountain the Indians made frequent pilgrimages, for
they thought this king of the primeval wild a divinity to be reckoned
with. They dreaded its anger, seen in the storms about its head, the
thunder of its avalanches, and the volcanic flashes of which their
traditions told. They courted its favor, symbolized in the wild
flowers that bloomed on its slope, and the tall grass that fed the
mowich, or deer.
[Illustration: Copyright, 1897, By E. S. Curtis. Mount Wow, or Goat
Mountain, above Mesler's.]
As they ascended the vast ridges, the grandeur about them spoke of the
mountain god. There were groves of trees he must have planted, so
orderly were they set out. The lakes of the lofty valleys seemed
calmer than those on the prairies below, the foliage brighter, the
ferns taller and more graceful. The song of the waterfalls here was
sweeter than the music of the tamahnawas men, their Indian sorcerers.
The many small meadows close to the snow-line, carpeted in deepest
green and spread with flowers, were the gardens of the divinity,
tended by his superhuman agents. Strange as it may seem, the
nature-worship of the silent Red Man had many points in common with
that of the imaginative, volatile Greek, who {p.030} peopled his
mountains with immortals; and no wood in ancient Greece was ever
thronged with hamadryads more real than the little gods whom the
Indian saw in the forests watered by streams from Tacoma's glaciers.
[Illustration {p.029}: Rounded Cone of Mt. St. Helens, seen from
Indian Henry's, forty-five miles away.]
[Illustration: View northward in early summer from Eagle Peak, at
western end of the Tatoosh. Gibraltar Rock and Little Tahoma break the
eastern sky-line. On the extreme right lies Paradise Valley, still deep
in snow, with the canyon of Paradise River below it. Next is seen the
Nisqually Glacier, with Nisqually River issuing from its snout. Then
come Van Trump Glacier (an "interglacier"), and the big Kautz Glacier,
dropping into its own deep canyon. Beyond the Kautz, Pyramid Peak and
Iron and Copper Mountains rise on the Indian Henry plateau. The Tahoma
Glaciers close the view westward.]
[Illustration {p.031}: Copyright, 1907, By Pillsbury Picture Co.]
[Illustration: Copyright, 1909, By Linkletter Photo. CO. Eagle Peak
(Indian name, Simlayshe) at west end of the Tatoosh. Altitude about
6,000 feet. A pony trail three miles long leads up from the Inn.]
Countless snows had fallen since the mountain god created and
beautified this home of his, when one day he grew angry, and in his
wrath showed terrible tongues of fire. Thus he ignited an immense fir
forest on the south side of the peak. When his anger subsided, the
flames passed, and the land they left bare became covered with blue
grass and wild flowers--a great sunny country where, before, the dark
forest had been. Borrowing a word from the French _coureurs des bois_
who came with the Hudson's Bay Company, the later Indians sometimes
called this region "the Big Brulé"; and to this day some Americans
call it the same. But for the Big Brulé the Indians had, from ancient
times, another name, connected with their ideas of religion. It was
their Saghalie Illahe, the "Land of Peace," Heaven. Our name,
"Paradise Valley," {p.031} given to the beautiful open vale on the
south slope of the Mountain, is an English equivalent.
Here was the same bar to violence which religion has erected in many
lands. The Hebrews had their "Cities of Refuge." The pagan ancients
made every altar an asylum. Mediæval Christianity constituted all its
churches sanctuaries. Thus, in lawless ages, the hand of vengeance was
stayed, and the weak were protected.
[Illustration: Exploring an Ice Cave, Paradise Glacier.]
So, too, the Indian tradition ordained this home of rest and refuge.
Indian custom was an eye for an eye, but on gaining this mountain
haven the pursued was safe from his pursuer, the slayer might not be
touched by his victim's kindred. When he crossed its border, the
warrior laid down his arms. Criminals and cowards, too, were often
sent here by the chiefs to do penance.
[Illustration: Junction of North and South Tahoma Glaciers, viewed
from Indian Henry's. The main ice stream thus formed, seen in the
foreground, feeds Tahoma Fork of the Nisqually River. The Northern
part of North Tahoma Glacier, seen in the distance beyond the wedge of
rocks, feeds a tributary of the Puyallup.]
The mountain divinity, with his under-gods, figures in much of the
Siwash {p.032} folklore, and the "Land of Peace" is often heard of.
It is through such typical Indian legends as that of Miser, the greedy
hiaqua hunter, that we learn how large a place the great Mountain
filled in the thought of the aborigines.
[Illustration: Anemones, a familiar mountain flower.]
This myth also explains why no Red Man could ever be persuaded to an
ascent beyond the snow line. As to the Greek, so to the Indian the
great peaks were sacred. The flames of an eruption, the fall of an
avalanche, told of the wrath of the mountain god. The clouds that
wrapped the summit of Tacoma spelled mystery and peril. Even so shrewd
and intelligent a Siwash as Sluiskin, with all his keenness for
"Boston chikamin," the white man's money, refused to accompany Stevens
and Van Trump in the first ascent, in 1870; indeed, he gave them up as
doomed, and bewailed their certain fate when they defied the
Mountain's wrath and started for the summit in spite of his warnings.
[Illustration {p.033}: Copyright 1910, A. H. WAITE. North Tahoma
Glacier, flowing out of the huge cleft in the west side, between North
and South Peaks. A great rock wedge splits the glacier, turning part
of the ice stream northward into the Puyallup, while the other part,
on the right pours down to join South Tahoma Glacier. Note how the
promontory of rock in the foreground has been rounded and polished by
the ice. Compare this view with pages 32 and 37.]
[Illustration {p.034}: Snow Lake in Indian Henry's, surrounded by
Alpine firs, which grow close to the snow line. Elevation about 6,000
feet.]
The hero of the Hiaqua Myth is the Indian {p.035} Rip Van
Winkle.[2] He dwelt at the foot of Tacoma, and, like Irving's worthy,
he was a mighty hunter and fisherman. He knew the secret pools where
fish could always be found, and the dark places in the forest, where
the elk hid when snows were deepest. But for these things Miser cared
not. His lust was all for hiaqua, the Indian shell money.
[Footnote 2: This legend is well told in "Myths and
Legends of the Pacific Northwest," a delightful book by
Katharine B. Judson of the Seattle Public Library
(Chicago, A. C. McClurg & Co.). See also Prof. W. D.
Lyman's papers in "Mazama" Vol. 2, and "The
Mountaineer," Vol. 2; and Winthrop's "Canoe and
Saddle."]
[Illustration: A fair Mountaineer at the timber line. Note her
equipment, including shoe calks.]
Now, Miser's totem was Moosmoos, the elk divinity. So Miser tried,
even while hunting the elk, to talk with them, in order to learn where
hiaqua might be found. One night Moosmoos persuaded him that on top of
the Mountain he would find great store of it. Making him two elk-horn
picks, and filling his ikta with dried salmon and kinnikinnick, he
climbed in two nights and a day to the summit. Here he found three big
rocks, one like a camas root, one like a salmon's head, the third like
his friendly Moosmoos. Miser saw that Moosmoos had told him truly.
[Illustration {p.036}: View of Indian Henry's Hunting Ground from a
point on South Tahoma Glacier, looking across to Copper and Iron
Mountains, with Mt. St. Helens above the clouds far beyond. This
famous upland plateau or "park" gets its name from the fact that it
was, years ago, the favorite haunt of a celebrated Indian hunter.]
[Illustration {p.037}: Southwest side of the Mountain as seen from
Indian Henry's, showing North and South Tahoma Glaciers meeting in
foreground, and Kautz Glacier on extreme right.]
After long digging, Miser overturned the rock that was like the elk's
head. Beneath lay a vast quantity of hiaqua. This he strung on elk's
sinews--enough of it to make him the richest of men. Then he hurried
to depart. But he left no thank-offering to the tanahnawas powers.
Thereupon the whole earth shook with a mighty convulsion, and the
mountain shot forth terrible fires, which melted the snows and poured
floods down the slopes, where they were turned to ice again by the
breath of the storm-god. And above the roar of torrents and the crash
of thunder, {p.038} Miser heard the voices of all the tamahnawas,
hissing: "Hiaqua! Hiaqua! Ha, ha, Hiaqua!"
[Illustration: Climbing Pinnacle Peak, in the Tatoosh. Elevation 6,500
feet. The route leads up from Paradise Valley, over the steep snow
field shown in the lower view, and thence by a difficult trail to the
summit.]
Panic-stricken at the results of his greed, Miser threw down his load
of treasure to propitiate the angry tamahnawas. But the storm-god
hurled him down the mountain side. Miser fell into a deep sleep. Many,
many snows after, he awoke to find himself far from the summit, in a
pleasant country of beautiful meadows carpeted with flowers, abounding
in camas roots, and musical with the song of birds. He had grown very
old, with white hair falling to his shoulders. His ikta was empty,
save for a few dried leaves. Recognizing the scene about him as
Saghalie Illahe, he sought his old tent. It was where he had left it.
There, too, was his klootchman, or wife, grown old, like himself.
Thirty snows, she said, she had awaited his return. Back they went to
their {p.039} home on the bank of the Cowlitz, where he became a
famous tamahnawas man, and spent the rest of his days in honor, for
his tribesmen recognized that the aged Indian's heart had been
marvelously softened and his mind enriched by his experience upon the
peak. He had lost his love for hiaqua.
[Illustration: A silhouette on Pinnacle Peak, with Paradise Valley and
the Nisqually Glacier below.]
Among the familiar myths of the Mountain was one of a great flood, not
unlike that of Noah. I quote Miss Judson's version:
WHY THERE ARE NO SNAKES ON TAKHOMA.
A long, long time ago, Tyhce Sahale became angry with his people.
Sahale ordered a medicine man to take his bow and arrow and shoot
into the cloud which hung low over Takhoma. The medicine man shot
the arrow, and it stuck fast in the cloud. Then he shot another
into the lower end of the first. Then he shot another into the
lower end of the second. He shot arrows until he had made a chain
which reached from the cloud to the earth. The medicine man told
his klootchman and his children to climb up the arrow trail. Then
he told the good animals to climb up the arrow trail. Then the
medicine man climbed up himself. Just as he was climbing into the
cloud, he looked back. A long line of bad animals and snakes were
also climbing up the arrow trail. Therefore the medicine man
broke the chain of arrows. Thus the snakes and bad animals fell
down on the mountain side. Then at once it began to rain. It
rained until all the land was flooded. Water reached even to the
snow line of Takhoma. When all the bad animals and snakes were
drowned, it stopped raining. After a while the waters sank again.
Then the medicine man and his klootchman and the children climbed
out of the cloud and came down the mountain side. The good
animals also climbed out of the cloud. Thus there are now no
snakes or bad animals on Takhoma.
[Illustration: Copyright, 1897, by E. S. Curtis. Rough Climbing, an
illustration of perils encountered in crossing the glaciers.]
Childish and fantastic as they seem to our wise age, such legends show
the Northwestern Indian struggling to interpret the world about him.
Like savages everywhere, he peopled the unknown with spirits good and
bad, and mingled his conception of a beneficent deity with his ideas
of the evil one. Symbolism pervaded his crude but very positive mind.
Ever by his side the old Siwash felt the Power that dwelt on Tacoma,
protecting and aiding him, or leading him to destruction. Knowing
{p.040} nothing of true worship, his primitive intelligence could
imagine God only in things either the most beautiful or the most
terrifying; and the more we know the Mountain, the more easily we
shall understand why he deemed the majestic peak a factor of his
destiny--an infinite force that could, at will, bless or destroy. For
to us, too, though we have no illusions as to its supernatural powers,
the majestic peak may bring a message. Before me is a letter from an
inspiring New England writer, who has well earned the right to
appraise life's values. "I saw the great Mountain three years ago,"
she says; "would that it might ever be my lot to see it again! I love
to dream of its glory, and its vast whiteness is a moral force in my
life."
Perpetual
And snowy tabernacle of the land,
While purples at thy base this peaceful sea,
And all thy hither slopes in evening bathe,
I hear soft twilight voices calling down
From all thy summits unto prayer and love.
--_Francis Brooks: "Mt. Rainier."_
[Illustration: Ptarmigan, the Grouse of the ice-fields. Unlike its
neighbor, the Mountain Goat, this bird is tame, and may sometimes be
caught by hand. In winter its plumage turns from brown to white.]
[Illustration: The Mountain, seen from Puyallup River, near Tacoma.]
[Illustration {p.041}: Falls of the Little Mashell River, near
Eatonville and the road to the Mountain.]
[Illustration {p.042}: Old Stage Road to Longmire Springs and the
National Park Inn, showing the tall, clear trunks of the giant firs.]
{p.043}
[Illustration: On Pierce County's splendid scenic road to the
Mountain. Passing Ohop Valley.]
II.
THE NATIONAL PARK, ITS ROADS AND ITS NEEDS.
There are plenty of higher mountains, but it is the decided
isolation--the absolute standing alone in full majesty of its own
mightiness--that forms the attraction of Rainier. * * * It is no
squatting giant, perched on the shoulders of other mountains.
From Puget Sound, it is a sight for the gods, and one feels in
the presence of the gods.--_Paul Fountain: "The Seven Eaglets of
the West"_ (London, 1905).
The first explorers to climb the Mountain, forty years ago, were
compelled to make their way from Puget Sound through the dense growths
of one of the world's greatest forests, over lofty ridges and deep
canyons, and across perilous glacial torrents. The hardships of a
journey to the timber line were more formidable than the difficulties
encountered above it.
[Illustration: Cowlitz Chimneys, seen from basin below Frying-Pan
Glacier.]
Even from the East the first railroad to the Coast had just reached
San Francisco. Thence the traveler came north to the Sound by boat.
The now busy cities of Seattle and Tacoma were, one, an ambitious
village of 1,107 inhabitants; the other, a sawmill, with seventy
persons living around it. They were frontier settlements, outposts of
{p.044} civilization; but civilization paid little attention to them
and their great Mountain, until the railways, some years later, began
to connect them with the big world of people and markets beyond the
Rockies.
[Illustration: On the way out from Tacoma, over the partly wooded
prairie, the automobilist sees many scenes like this old road near
Spanaway Lake.]
How different the case to-day! Six transcontinental railroads now
deliver their trains in the Puget Sound cities. These are: The
Northern Pacific, which was the first trunk line to reach the Sound;
the Great Northern; the Chicago, Burlington & Quincy; the Chicago,
Milwaukee & Puget Sound; the Oregon-Washington (Union Pacific), and
the Canadian Pacific. A seventh, the North Coast, is planned.
[Illustration {p.046}: View Northward from top of Pinnacle Peak in
the Tatoosh range to Paradise Valley, Nisqually Glacier and Gibraltar
Rock, eight miles away.]
[Illustration {p.047}: Looking Northeast from slope of Pinnacle Peak,
across Paradise, Stevens, Cowlitz and Frying Pan Glaciers. These two
views form virtually a panorama.]