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Books about the Scenic Northwest by John H. Williams

THE MOUNTAIN THAT WAS "GOD"
New edition, revised and greatly enlarged, with maps and 190 views,
including eight in colors, of Mt. Rainier (Tacoma), its glaciers, canyons, and
alpine flower "parks."

THE GUARDIANS OF THE
COLUMBIA
Illustrated with maps and 210 views, including eight in colors, of the
Columbia River, its great snow-peaks, Mt. Hood, Mt. Adams and Mt. St.
Helens, and its forests from the snow-fields to the ocean.

EDITION DE LUXE, in ooze leather, flexible extension covers, watered
linings, gilt top, with title design in gold on cover. $2.50 net; postage
16 cents.
LIBRARY EDITION, in stout art crash, with three-color halftone set on
front cover. $1.50 net; postage 16 cents.
NEWS-STAND EDITION, on lighter paper, in heavy extension paper covers,
with poster design. In heavy envelope for mailing. $0.75 net; postage
8 cents.

THE MOUNTAIN

I hold above a careless land
The menace of the skies;
Within the hollow of my hand
The sleeping tempest lies.
Mine are the promise of the morn.
The triumph of the day;
And parting sunset's beams forlorn
Upon my heights delay.
— Edward Sydney Tylee

COPYRIGHT. DR U M. LAI.IUAN

"Night's candles are burnt out, and jocund day
Stands tiptoe on the misty mountain tops. ' — Shakespeare.

Dawn on Spirit Lake, north side of Mt. St. Helens.

THE

GUARDIANS

OF THE COLUMBIA

MOUNT HOOD

, MOUNT ADAMS AND MOUNT ST. HELENS

By JO

HN H. WILLIAMS

Author of "THE MOUNTAIN THATWAS 'GOD'"

And mountains that like giants stand
To sentinel enchanted land.
Scott: "The Lady of the Lake."

WITH MORE THAN TWO HUNDRED ILLUSTRATIONS
INCLUDING EIGHT IN COLORS

TACOMA
JOHN H. WILLIAMS
1912

Climbing the last steep slope on Mount Hood, from Cooper's Spur, with
ropes anchored on summit.

Copyright, 1912, by John H. Williams.

Willamette River at Portland, with ships loading wheat and lumber for foreign ports.

FOREWORD

In offering this second volume of a proposed series on Western mountain scenery, I am
fortunate in having a subject as unhackneyed as was that of "The Mountain that Was 'God.' "
The Columbia River has been described in many publications about the Northwest, but
the three fine snow-peaks guarding its great canyon have received scant attention, and that
mainly from periodicals of local circulation.
These peaks are vitally a part of the vast Cascade-Columbia scene to which they give
a climax. Hence the story here told by text and picture has necessarily included the stage
upon which they were built up. And since the great forests of this mountain and river dis
trict are a factor of its beauty as well as its wealth, I am glad to be able to present a brief
chapter about them from the competent hand of Mr. H. D. Langille, formerly of the United
States forest service. A short bibliography, with notes on transportation routes, hotels, guides
and other matters of interest to travelers and students, will be found at the end.
Accuracy has been my first aim. I have tried to avoid the exaggeration employed in
much current writing for the supposed edification of tourists. It has seemed to me that
simply and briefly to tell the truth about the fascinating Columbia country would be the best
service I could render to those who love its splendid mountains and its noble river. A mass
of books, government documents and scientific essays has been examined. This literature
is more or less contradictory, and as I cannot hope to have avoided all errors, I shall be grate
ful for any correction of my text.
In choosing the illustrations, I have sought to show the individuality of each peak.
Mountains, like men, wear their history on their faces, — none more so than Hood's sharp and
finely scarred pyramid; or Adams, with its wide, truncated dome and deeply carved slopes;
or St. Helens, newest of all our extinct volcanoes — if, indeed, it be extinct, — and least marred
by the ice, its cone as perfect as Fujiyama's. Each has its own wonderful story to tell of ancient
and often recent vulcanism. Let me again suggest that readers who would get the full value
of the more comprehensive illustrations will find a reading glass very useful.
Thanks are due to many helpers. More than fifty photographers, professional and
amateur, are named in the table of illustrations. Without their co-operation the book would
have been impossible. I am also indebted for valued information and assistance to the libra
rians at the Portland and Tacoma public libraries, the officers and members of the several
mountaineering clubs in Portland, and the passenger departments of the railways reaching
that city; to Prof. Harry Fielding Reid, the eminent geologist of Johns Hopkins University;

8 FOREWORD
Fred G. Plummer, geographer of the United States forest service; Dr. George Otis Smith,
director of the United States geological survey; Judge Harrington Putnam, of New York,
president of the American Alpine Club; Messrs. Rodney L. Glisan, William M. Ladd, H. O.
Stabler, T. H. Sherrard, Judge W. B. Gilbert, H. L. Pittock, George H. Himes, John Gill,
C. E. Rusk, and others in Portland and elsewhere.
The West has much besides magnificent scenery to give those who visit it. Here have
been played, upon a grander stage, the closing acts in the great drama of state-building which
opened three hundred years ago on the Atlantic Coast. The setting has powerfully moulded
the history, and we must know one if we would understand the other. Europe, of course,
offers to the American student of culture and the arts something which travel here at home
cannot supply. But every influence that brings the different sections of the United States
into closer touch and fuller sympathy makes for patriotism and increased national strength.
This, rather than regret for the two hundred millions of dollars which our tourists spend
abroad each year, is the true basis of the "See America First" movement. According to
his capacity, the tourist commonly gets value for his money, whether traveling in Europe
or America. But Eastern ignorance of the West is costing the country more than the drain
of tourist money.
This volume is presented, therefore, as a call to better appreciation of the splendor and
worth of our own land. Its publication will be justified if it is found to merit in some
degree the commendation given its predecessor by Prof. W. D. Lyman, of Whitman College,
whose delightful book on the Columbia has been consulted and whose personal advice has
been of great value throughout my work. "I wish to express the conviction," writes Prof.
Lyman, "that you have done an inestimable service to all who love beauty, and who stand
for those higher things among our possessions that cannot be measured in money, but which
have an untold bearing upon the finer sensibilities of a nation."
Tacoma, June 15, 1912.

Mount Adams, seen from south slope of Mount St. Helens, near tbe summit, showing the Cascade ranges
below. Note the great burn in the forest cover of the ridges. "Steamboat Mountain" is seen in
the distance beyond. Elevation of camera, nearly 9,000 feet.

Looking up the Columbia at Lyle, Washington.

CONTENTS

I. THE RIVER.
Dawn at Cloud Cap Inn — The geological dawn — Cascade-Sierra uptilt — Rise of
the snow-peaks — An age of vulcanism — Origin of the great Columbia gorge — Dawn
in Indian legend — The "Bridge of the Gods" — Victory of Young Chinook — Dawn
of modern history — The pioneers and the state builders 

15

II. THE MOUNTAINS.
Portland's snowy sentinels — Ruskin on the mountains — Cascades vs. Alps — Mount
Hood and its retreating glaciers — The Mazamas — A shattered crater — Mount
Adams — Lava and ice caves — Mount St. Helens — The struggle of the forest on
the lava beds — Adventures of the climbers — The Mazamas in peril — An heroic
rescue 

57

III. THE FORESTS, by HAROLD DOUGLAS LANGILLE.
Outposts at timber line — The alpine parks — Zone of the great trees — Douglas fir —
From snow-line to ocean beach — Conservation and reforestation  123

NOTES

140

ILLUSTRATIONS

The *
illustration.

indicates engravings from copyrighted photographs. See notice under the

THREE-COLOR HALFTONES.
Title Photographer Page
*Dawn on Spirit Lake, north side of Mount St. Helens . . Dr. U. M. Lauman Frontispiece
*St. Peter's Dome, with the Columbia and Mount Adams .... G. M. Weister 20
?Nightfall on the Columbia  Kiser Photo Co. 37
?Columbia River and Mount Hood, from White Salmon, Washington Kiser Photo Co. 56
*Mount Hood, with crevasses of Eliot glacier  G. M. Weister 73
*Ice Castle and crevasse, Eliot glacier  G. M. Weister 92
?Columbia River and Mount Adams, from Hood River, Oregon . . Benj. A. Gifford 109
An Island of Color — Rhododendrons and Squaw Grass  Asahel Curtis 127

10 ILLUSTRATIONS
ONE-COLOR HALFTONES.
Title Photographer Page
?Climbing to summit of Mount Hood from Cooper Spur  G- M. Weister 6
Willamette River and Portland Harbor  G. M. Weister 7
Mount Adams, from south slope of Mount St. Helens  G. M. Weister 8
Columbia River at Lyle  William R. Kmg 9
Mount Hood, seen from the Columbia at Vancouver  ' L. C. Henrichsen 14
Trout Lake and Mount Adams  Prof. Harry. Fielding Reid 15
Mount St. Helens, seen from the Columbia, with railway bridge . . C. S. Reeves 15
?View up the Columbia, opposite Astoria  G. M. Weister 16
Astoria in 1813  From an old print 16
?View north from Eliot glacier  G. M. Weister 17
Columbia Slough, near mouth of the Willamette  George F. Holman 18
?Cape Horn  Kiser Photo Co. 19
Mount Hood, seen from Columbia Slough  L. C. Henrichsen 21
?Campfire of Yakima Indians at Astoria Centennial  Frank Woodfield 21
Sunset at mouth of the Columbia  Frank Woodfield 22
Portland, the Willamette, and Mounts Hood, Adams and St. Helens Angelus Photo Co. 22
"The Coming of the White Man"  L. C. Henrichsen 23
"Sacajawea"  G. M. Weister 23
Sunset on Vancouver Lake  Jas. Waggener, Jr. 24
Fort Vancouver in 1852  From an old lithograph 24
?Rooster Rock  G. M. Weister 25
Seining for Salmon on the lower Columbia  Frank Woodfield 25
?The Columbia near Butler, looking across to Multnomah Falls . Kiser Photo Co. 26
Captain Som-kin, chief of Indian police  Lee Moorhouse 26
?Multnomah Falls in Summer and Winter (2)  Kiser Photo Co. 27
?View from the cliffs at Multnomah Falls  Kiser Photo Co. 28
?The broad Columbia, seen from Lone Rock  Kiser Photo Co. 29
Castle Rock, seen from Mosquito Island  Kiser Photo Co. 29
?The Columbia opposite Oneonta Gorge and Horsetail Falls . . . Kiser Photo Co. 30
An Original American  C. C. Hutchins 30
?View from elevation west of St. Peter's Dome  Kiser Photo Co. 31
?Oneonta Gorge  G. M. Weister 32
Looking up the Columbia, near Bonneville  H. J. Thorne 33
Salmon trying to jump the Falls of the Willamette  Jas. Waggener, Jr. 33
?In the Columbia Canyon at Cascade  Kiser Photo Co. 34
?The Cascades of the Columbia  G. M. Weister 35
?Fishwheel below the Cascades, with Table Mountain  G. M. Weister 36
?Sunrise on the Columbia, from top of Table Mountain  Kiser Photo Co. 36
Looking down the Columbia below the Cascades  L. J. Hicks 38
?Wind Mountain and submerged forest  G. M. Weister 39
Steamboat entering Cascades Locks  G. M. Weister 39
Moonlight on the Columbia, with clouds on Wind Mountain ... C. S. Reeves 40
?White Salmon River and its Gorge (2)  Kiser Photo Co. 41
Looking down the Columbia Canyon from White Salmon, Washington S. C. Reeves 42
An Oregon Trout Stream  L. C. Henrichsen 42
Looking up the Columbia from Hood River, Oregon  F. C. Howell 43
?Hood River, fed by the glaciers of Mount Hood  Benj. A. Gifford 43
A Late Winter Afternoon; the Columbia from White Salmon ... C. C. Hutchins 44
?Memaloose Island  G. M. Weister 44
"Gateway to the Inland Empire;" the Columbia at Lyle  Kiser Photo Co. 45
"Grant Castle" and Palisades of the Columbia below The Dalles . G. M. Weister 46
?The Dalles of the Columbia, lower channel  G. M. Weister 47
Cabbage Rock  Lee Moorehouse 47
A True Fish Story of the Columbia  Frank Woodfield 48
The Zigzag River in Winter  T. Brook White 48
?The Dalles, below Celilo  G. M. Weister 49
The "Witch's Head," an Indian picture rock  Lee Moorehouse 50
Village of Indian tepees, Umatilla Reservation  Lee Moorehouse 50
Mount Adams, seen from Eagle Peak  Asahel Curtis 51
A Clearing in the Forest; Mount Hood from Sandy, Oregon ... L. C. Henrichsen 51
An Indian Madonna and Child  Lee Moorehouse 52
Finished portion of Canal at Celilo  Ed. Ledgerwood 52
?Sentinels of "the Wallula Gateway"  G. M. Weister 53
?Tumwater, the falls of the Columbia at Celilo  Kiser Photo Co. 54
?Summit of Mount Hood, from west end of ridge  G. M. Weister 55
North side of Mount Hood, from ridge west of Cloud Cap Inn . . George R. Miller 57

ILLUSTRATIONS 11
Title Photographer Page
Winter on Mount Hood  Rodney L. Glisan 57
?Watching the Climbers, from Cloud Cap Inn  G. M. Weister 58
Lower end of Eliot glacier, seen from Cooper Spur  E. D. Jorgensen 59
Snout of Eliot glacier  Prof. W. D. Lyman 59
Cone of Mount Hood, seen from Cooper Spur  F. W. Freeborn 60
Cloud Cap Inn  George R. Miller 60
?Portland's White Sentinel, Mount Hood  G. M. Weister 61
?Ice Cascade on Eliot glacier, Mount Hood  G. M. Weister 62
Portland Snow-shoe Club members on Eliot glacier in Winter . . Rodney L. Glisan 62
?Snow-bridge over great crevasse, Eliot glacier  G. M. Weister 63
?Coasting down east side of Mount Hood, above Cooper Spur . . G. M. Weister 63
?Mount Hood, from hills south of The Dalles  G. M. Weister 64
?Mount Hood, from Larch Mountain  L. J. Hicks 65
Butterfly on summit of Mount Hood  Shoji Endow 66
Portland Snow-shoe Club and Club House (2)  Rodney L. Glisan 66
Fumarole, or gas vent, near Crater Rock  L. J. Hicks 66
Looking across the head of Eliot glacier  Shoji Endow 67
Mount Hood at night, from Cloud Cap Inn  William M. Ladd 67
Climbing Mount Hood; the rope anchor (2) ... George R. Miller and Shoji Endow 68
North side of Mount Hood, from moraine of Coe glacier . . Prof. Harry Fielding Reid 69
?Looking west on summit, with Mazama Rock below  G. M. Weister 70
Summit of Mount Hood, from Mazama Rock  F. W. Freeborn 70
Mount Hood, from Sandy Canyon  L. J. Hicks 71
Crevasses of Coe glacier (2)  Mary C, Voorhees 72
?Crevasse and Ice Pinnacles on Eliot glacier  G. M. Weister 74
Mount Hood, seen from the top of Barret Spur  Prof. Harry Fielding Reid 75
Ice Cascade, south side of Mount Hood  Prof. J. N. LeConte 75
Little Sandy or Reid glacier, west side of Mount Hood  Elisha Coalman 76
Portland Y. M. C. A. party starting for the summit  A. M. Grilley 76
Crater of Mount Hood, seen from south side  L. J. Hicks 77
South side of Mount Hood, from Tom-Dick-and-Harry Ridge .... L. E. Anderson 78
Crag on which above view was taken  H. J. Thome 78
Part of the "bergschrund" above Crater Rock  G. M. Weister 79
Prof. Reid and party exploring Zigzag glacier  Asahel Curtis 79
Mazamas near Crater Rock (2)  Asahel Curtis 80
Portland Ski Club on south side of Mount Hood  E. D. Jorgensen 81
Mount Hood Lily  William L. Finley 81
Mazama party exploring White River glacier (2)  Asahel Curtis 82
Newton Clark glacier, seen from Cooper Spur  Shoji Endow 83
Looking from Mount Jefferson to Mount Hood  L. J. Hicks 83
?Shadow of Mount Hood  G. M. Weister 84
Snout of Newton Clark glacier  Prof. Harry Fielding Reid 84
?Mount Hood and Hood River  Benj. A. Gifford 85
Lava Flume near Trout Lake  Ray M. Filloon 86
Y. M. C. A. party from North Yakima at Red Butte  Eugene Bradbury 86
Ice Cave in lava bed near Trout Lake  Ray M. Filloon 87
?Mount Adams, from northeast side of Mount St. Helens  G. M. Weister 88
Mount Adams, from Trout Creek at Guler  L. J. Hicks 89
Climbers on South Butte  Ray M. Filloon 89
Dawn on Mount Adams, telephotographed from Guler at 4 a .m. . . L. J. Hicks 90
Foraging in the Snow  Crissie Cameron 90
?Steel's Cliff, southeast side of Mount Hood  G. M. Weister 91
Mazamas Climbing Mount Adams  Asahel Curtis 93
Mount Adams from lake, with hotel site above  Ed. Hess 93
Climbing from South Peak to Middle Peak  L. J. Hicks 94
Mount Adams, seen from Happy Valley  Asahel Curtis 94
Mount Adams, from Snow-plow Mountain  Ed. Hess 95
?Wind-whittled Ice near summit of Mount Adams  S. C. Smith 95
Mazama glacier and Hellroarihg Canyon (2)  William R. King 96
Nearing the Summit of Mount Adams, south side  Shoji Endow 97
Ice Cascade, above Klickitat glacier  Ray M. Filloon 97
An Upland Park  H. O. Stabler 97
Mount Adams and Klickitat glacier  Prof. Harry Fielding Reid 98
Storm on Klickitat glacier, seen from the Ridge of Wonders . . Prof. W. D. Lyman 99
Snow Cornice and Crevasse, head of Klickitat glacier (2) H. V. Abel and Ray M. Filloon 100
Mount Adams, from the Northeast  Prof. Harry Fielding Reid 101
?Mount Adams, from Sunnyside, Washington  Asahel Curtis 102

12 ILLUSTRATIONS
Tjtie Photographer Page
Crevasse in Lava glacier  .¦ • ¦ ¦ ^"ffi jgf
North Peak, with the Mountaineers starting for the summit . . . W. . M. Mttam iuo
Snow-bridge over Killing Creek  _, VL^SS i04
Route up the Cleaver, north side of Mount Adams  Eugene Bradbury 104
Looking across Adams glacier  •  .^S jn5
"The Mountain that was 'God' " seen from Mount Adams . . . . Asahel I Urrtis 106
Northwest slope of Mount Adams  Prof- Harry Fielding Reid 106
Mount Adams from the southwest  p™f- W. D. Lyman 10/
Scenes in the Lewis River Canyon (3)  ^^"W^'rl" 110
?Mount Adams from Trout Lake  T Klw P . t^ ill
Scenes on Lava Bed, south of Mount St. Helens (3)  Jas. Waggener, Jr. ill
Lava Flume, south of Mount St. Helens  Jas. Waggener, Jr. IU
Entrance to Lava Flume  Rodney L. Glisan IU
Mount St. Helens, seen from Portland  L- C. Henrichsen 113
?Mount St. Helens, from Chelatchie Prairie  Jas. TVaggener, Jr, 114
Mount St. Helens, seen from Twin Buttes  Ray M. Filloon 116
Canyons of South Toutle River  U. S. Forest Service 116
Lower Toutle Canyon  Jas. Waggener, Jr. lib
Northeast side of Mount St. Helens  Dr. U. M. Lauman 11/
Mazamas on summit of Mt. St. Helens shortly before sunset Marion Randall Parsons 11/
Mount St. Helens in Winter  Dr. U. M. Lauman 118
Mount St. Helens, north side, from near the snow line  Dr. U. M. Lauman lia
Glacier Scenes, east of the "Lizard." (2)  Dr. U. M. Lauman 120
?Finest of the St. Helens glaciers  G. M. Weister 121
?Road among the Douglas Firs  Asahel Curtis 122
Ships loading lumber at one of Portland's mills  The Timberman 123
Outposts of the Forest  Shoji Endow 123
Alpine Hemlocks at the timber line  Ray M. Filloon 124
Mazamas at the foot of Mount St. Helens  E. S. Curtis 124
A Lowland Ravine  E. S. Curtis 125
?The Noble Fir  Kiser Photo Co. 125
Dense Hemlock Forest  G. M. Weister 126
Mount Hood, from Ghost-tree Ridge  George R. Miller 126
?A Group of Red Cedars  Asahel Curtis 128
Road to Government Camp  A. M. Grilley 129
Firs and Hemlocks, in Clarke County, Washington  Jas. Waggener, Jr. 130
?Where Man is a Pigmy  G. M. Weister 130
Hemlock growing on Cedar log  Asahel Curtis 131
Tideland Spruce  Frank Woodfield 131
Sugar Pine, Douglas Fir and Yellow Pine  Jas. Waggener, Jr. 132
Yellow Cedar, with young Silver Fir  H. D. Norton 133
?One of the Kings of Treeland  Benj. A. Gifford 133
?Firs and Vine Maples  Jas. Waggener, Jr. 134
Log Raft  Benj. A. Gifford 134
A "Bum" on Mount Hood, overgrown with Squaw Grass .... Asahel Curtis 135
?A Noble Fir  Benj. A. Gifford 136
Western White Pine  Unknown 136
A Clatsop Forest   H. D. Langille 137
Carpet of Firs  J. E. Ford 137
Winter in the Forest, near Mount Hood  E. D. Jorgensen 138
Rangers' Pony Trail  A. P. Cronk 138
Forest Fire on East Fork of Hood River  William M. Ladd 139
Reforestation; three generations of young growth  H. D. Langille 139
Klickitat River Canyon  William R. King 144
MAPS.
The Scenic Northwest  13
Mount Hood  58
Mount Adams  87
Mount St. Helens  107

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A Gray Day on the Columbia. Telephotograph of Mount Hood from the river opposite Vancouver Barracks.

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Trout Lake and Mount Adams.

THE GUARDIANS OF THE COLUMBIA

i.
THE RIVER
The Columbia, viewed as one from the sea to the mountains, is like a rugged, broad-
topped picturesque old oak, about six hundred miles long, and nearly a thousand miles wide,
measured across the spread of its upper branches, the main limbs gnarled and swollen with
lakes and lake-like expansions, while innumerable smaller lakes shine like fruit among the
smaller branches. — John Muir.

ON a frosty morning of last July, before sunrise, I stood upon the belvedere
of the delightful Cloud Cap Inn, which a public-spirited man of Portland
has provided for visitors to the north side of Mount Hood; and from
that superb view
point, six thousand
feet above sea level,
watched the day come
up out of the delicate
saffron east. Behind
us lay Eliot Glacier,
sloping to the sum
mit of the kindling
peak. Before us
rose — an ocean!
Never was a ma- . . »«.«.„, , tU - , u, . „
Mount St. Helens, seen from the Columbia at Vancouver, with railway
rine picture of greater bridge in foreground.

16

THE GUARDIANS OF THE COLUMBIA

¦* -As,

View up the Columbia on north side, opposite Astoria. Noon rest of the night fishermen. Much of the
fishing on the lower Columbia is done at night with gill-nets from small boats. The river is here
six miles wide.
stress. No watcher from the crags, none who go down to the sea in ships,
ever beheld a scene more awful. Ceaselessly the mighty surges piled up
against the ridge at our feet, as if to tear away the solid foundations of the
mountain. Towers and castles of foam were built up, huge and white,
against the sullen sky, only to hurl themselves into the gulf. Far to the
north, dimly above this gray and heaving surface were seen the crests of
three snow-mantled mountains, paler even than the undulating expanse from
which they emerged. All between was a wild sea that rolled across sixty
miles of space to assail those ghostly islands.
Yet the tossing breakers gave forth no roar. It was a spectral and panto
mimic ocean. We "had sight of Proteus rising from the sea," but no Triton of
the upper air blew his "wreathed horn." Cold and uncanny, all that seething
ocean was silent as a windless lake under summer stars. It was a sea of clouds.
Swiftly the dawn
marched westward.
The sun, breaking
across the eastern
ridges, sent long level
beams to sprinkle the
cloud-sea with silver.
Its touch was magic
al. The billows broke
and parted. The
mists fled in panic.
Cloud after cloud , , . ,
Astoria in 1813, showing the trading post established
arose and Was Caught by John Jacob Astor.

Looking north from lower end of Eliot Glacier on Mount Hood, across the Cascade ranges and the Columbia River canyon, twenty-five miles
Mount Adams (right), Mount Rainier-Tacoma (center), and Mount St. Helens (left). These snow-peaks are respectively 60, 100, and 60 miles distant.

G. M. WEISTER
away, to

18

THE GUARDIANS OF THE COLUMBIA

away into space. The tops of the Cascade ranges below came, one by one,
into view. Lower and lower, with the shortening shadows, the wooded slopes
were revealed in the morning light. Here and there some deep vale was still
white and hidden. Scattered cloud-fleeces clung to pinnacles on the cliffs.
Northward, the snow-peaks in Washington towered higher. Great banks of
fog embraced their forested abutments, and surged up to their glaciers. But
the icy summits smiled in the gladness of a new day. The reign of darkness and
mist was broken. Never did sun more beautifully steep
In his first splendor valley, rock or hill.
Clearer and wider the picture grew. Below us, the orchards of Hood
River caught the fresh breezes and laughed in the first sunshine. The day
reached down into the nearer canyons, and saluted the busy, leaping brooks.
Noisy waterfalls filled the glens with spray, and built rainbows from bank
to bank, then hurried
and tumbled on, in
conceited haste, as if
the ocean must run
dry unless replenished
by their wetness ere
the sun should set
again. Rippling
lakes, in little mount
ain pockets, signaled
their joy as blankets
of dense vapor were
folded up and quick
ly whisked away.
Thirty miles north
east, a ribbon of gold
flashed the story of a
mighty stream at The
Dalles. Far beyond,
even to the uplands
of the Umatilla and
the Snake, to the Blue
Mountains of eastern
Washington and Ore
gon, stretched the
wheat fields and stock
ranges of that vast
"Inland Empire"
which the great river
watered; while west
ward, cut deep

Columbia Slough in Winter, near the mouth of the Willamette.

COPYRIGHT, KISER PHOTO CO

Cape Horn, tall basaltic cliffs that rise, terrace upon terrace, on the north side of the Columbia, twenty-
five miles east of Portland. Lone Rock is seen In the distance.

COPYRIGHT. G. M. WEISTER
St. Peter's Dome, an 800-foot crag on the south bank of the Columbia; Mt. Adams in the distance

"Uplift against the blue walls of the sky
Your mighty shapes, and let the sunshine weave
Its golden network in your belting woods;
Smile down in rainbows from your falling floods.
And on your kingly brows at morn and eve
Set crowns of fire." — Whittier.

THE RIVER

21

Mount Hood, seen from Columbia Slough.
through a dozen folds of the Cascades, the chasm it had torn on its way to
the sea was traced in the faint blue that distance paints upon evergreen hills.
Out on our left, beyond the mountains, the Willamette slipped down its
famous valley to join the larger river; and still farther, a hundred and fifty
miles away, our glasses caught the vague gray line of the Pacific. Within

Campfire of Yakima Indians gathered at the Astoria Centennial, 1911, to take part In "The Bridge
of the Gods," a dramatization of Balch's famous story. The celebration of the one hundredth
anniversary of the Astor trading post at the mouth of the Columbia was made noteworthy by
a revival of Indian folk lore, In which the myth of the great tamahnawas bridge held first place.

Sunset at the mouth of the Columbia. Cape Hancock on right, Point Adams on left. View from river off Astoria.

Northern part of Portland, showing the Willamette River flowing through it, and indicating relative position of the three snow-peaks. Mount Hood (right)
and Mount St. Helens (left) are each about fifty miles away, while Mount Adams, seen between, is twenty miles farther.

THE RIVER

23

these limits of vision lay a
noble and historic country,
the lower watershed of the
Columbia. Earth has not anything
to show more fair.
Wide as was the prospect,
however, it called the im
agination to a still broader
view; to look back, indeed, —
how many millions of years?
— to an earlier dawn, bound
ed by the horizons of geo
logical time. Let us try to
realize the panorama thus
unfolded. As we look down
from some aerial viewpoint,

"The Coming of the White Man" and
"Sacajawea," statues in Portland
City Park which commemorate the
aboriginal Americans.
behold! there is no Mount
Hood and no Cascade Range.
The volcanic snow-peaks of
Oregon and Washington are
still embryo in the womb of
earth. We stand face to
face with the beginnings of
the Northwest.
Far south and east of our
castle-in-the-air, islands rise
slowly out of a Pacific that
has long rolled, unbroken, to
the Rocky Mountains.

24

THE GUARDIANS OF THE COLUMBIA

We see the ocean
bed pushed above
the tide in what men
of later ages will call
the Siskiyou and the
Blue Mountains, one
range in southwest
ern, the other in east
ern, Oregon. A third
uptilt, the great Oka
nogan, in northern
Washington, soon ap
pears. All else is sea.
Upon these primi
tive uplands, the
date is written in the fossil archives of their ancient sea beaches, raised thou
sands of feet above the former shore-line level. At a time when all western
Europe was still ocean, and busy foraminifers were strewing its floor with
shells to form the chalk beds of France and England, these first lands of our
Northwest emerged from the great deep. It is but a glimpse we get into the
immeasurable distance of the Paleozoic. Its time-units are centuries instead
of minutes. Another glance, as the next long geological age passes, and we perceive
a second step in the making of the West. It is the gradual uplift of a thin
sea-dike, separating the two islands first disclosed, and stretching from the
present Lower California to our Alaska. It is a folding of the earth's crust
that will, for innumerable ages, exercise a controlling influence upon the whole
western slope of North America. At first merely a sea-dike, we see it slowly
become a far-reaching range of hills, and then a vast continental mountain

Sunset on Vancouver Lake, near Vancouver, Washington.

Fort Vancouver In 1852.

THE RIVER

25

COPYRIGHT, G. I

Rooster Rock, south bank of the Columbia.

system, covering a broad region with its spurs and interlying plateaus. "The
highest mountains," our school geographies used to tell us, "parallel the deepest
oceans." So here, bordering its profound depths, the Pacific ocean, through
centuries of centuries, thrust upward, fold on fold, the lofty ridges of this
colossal Sierra-Cascade barrier, to be itself a guide of further land building,
a governor of climate, and a reservoir of water for valleys and river basins
as yet unborn.
Behind this barrier, what revolutions are recorded! The inland sea, at
first a huge body of ocean waters, becomes in time a fresh-water lake. In its
three thousand feet of sedi
ment, it buries the fossils of
a strange reptilian life, cover
ing hundreds of thousands
of years. Cycle follows cycle,
altering the face of all that
interior basin. Its vast lake
is lessened in area as it is
cut off from the Utah lake
On the SOUth and hemmed in Seining for salmon on the lower Columbia.

26

THE GUARDIANS OF THE COLUMBIA

COPYRIGHT, KISER PHOTO CO.

The Columbia near Butler, looking across to Multnomah Falls.

by upfolds on the north. Then its bed is lifted up and broken by forces of
which our present-day experiences give us no example. Instead of one great
lake, as drainage proceeds, we behold at last a wide country of many lakes and
rivers. Their shores are clothed in
tropical vegetation. Under the palms,
flourish a race of giant mammals. The
broad-faced ox, the mylodon, mam
moth, elephant, rhinoceros, and
mastodon, and with them the camel
and the three-toed horse, roam the
forests that are building the coal de
posits for a later age. This story of
the Eocene and Miocene time is also
told in the fossils of the period, and
we may read it in the strata deposited
by the lakes.
Age succeeds age, not always
distinct, but often overlapping one
another, and all changing the face of
nature. The Coast Range rises, shut
ting in vast gulfs to fill later, and
form the valleys of the Sacramento

Captain Som-Kin, chief of Indian police,
Umatilla reservation.

THE RIVER 27
and San Joaquin in California and
the Willamette in Oregon, with
the partly filled basin of Puget
Sound in Washington. Center
ing along the Cascade barrier, an
era of terrific violence shakes
the very foundation of the North
west. Elevations and contours
are changed. New lake beds are
created. Watersheds and stream
courses are remodeled. Dry
"coulees" are left where formerly

Multnomah Falls in Summer and Winter.
This fascinating cascade, the most famous
in the Northwest, falls 720 feet into a basin,
and then 130 feet to the bank of the
Columbia below.
rivers flowed. Strata are up-
tilted and riven, to be cross-sec
tioned again by the new rivers
as they cut new canyons in drain
ing the new lakes. Most im
portant of all, outflows of melted
rock, pouring from fissures in the
changing earth-folds, spread vast

28 THE GUARDIANS OF THE COLUMBIA
sheets of basalt, trap and andesite over most of the interior. Innumerable
craters build cones of lava and scoria? along the Cascade uptilt, and scatter
clouds of volcanic ashes upon the steady sea winds, to blanket the country
for hundreds of miles with deep layers of future soil.
A reign of ice follows the era of tropic heat. Stupendous glaciers grind
the volcanic rocks, and carving new valleys, endow them with fertility for
new forests that will rise where once the palm forests stood. With advancing
age, the earth grows cold and quiet, awakening only to an occasional volcanic
eruption or earthquake as a reminder of former violence. The dawn of history
approaches. The country slowly takes on its present shape. Landscape

COPYRIGHT, KISER PHOTO CO.
Castle Rock Is in distance on north side.

View from the cliffs at Multnomah Falls (seen on right).
changes are henceforth the work of milder forces, erosion by streams and
remnant glaciers. Man appears.
Throughout the cycles of convulsion and revolution which we have wit
nessed from our eyrie in the clouds, the vital and increasing influence in the
building of the Northwest has been the Cascade upfold. First, it merely shuts
in a piece of the Pacific. Rising higher, its condensation of the moist ocean
wind feeds the thousand streams that convert the inland seas thus enclosed
from salt to fresh water, and furnish the silt deposited over their floors. The
fractures and faults resulting from its uptilting spread an empire with some of
the largest lava flows in geological history. It pushes its snow-covered volcanoes

COPYRIGHT, KISER PHOTO CO.

The broad Columbia, seen from Lone Rock, a small Island east of Cape Horn. Shows successive ranges of the Cascades cut by the river, with Archer and
Arrowhead Mountains and Castle Rock in distance on north side.

^BSHEHGSflHBH^HsnHfl^HHiHflHHHHIIi^Hai^R
Castle Rock, a huge tower of columnar basalt, 1146 feet high, on north bank of the Columbia, forty miles east of Portland. View from Mosquito Island.

THE GUARDIANS OF THE COLUMBIA

COPYRIGHT, KISER PHOTO CO.
The Columbia, opposite Oneonta Bluffs and Gorge, and Horsetail Falls.
upward, to scatter ashes far to the east. Finally, its increasing height
converts a realm of tropical verdure into semi-arid land, which only its
rivers, impounded by man, will again make fertile.
In all this great continental barrier, through
out the changes which we have witnessed, there
has been only one sea-level pass. For nearly a
thousand miles northward from the Gulf of
California, the single outlet for the waters of the
interior is the remarkable canyon which we first
saw from the distant roof of Cloud Cap Inn.
Here the Columbia, greatest of Western rivers,
has cut its way through ranges rising more than
4,000 feet on either hand. This erosion, let us
remember, has been continuous and gradual,
rather than the work of any single epoch. It
doubtless began when the Cascade Mountains
were in their infancy, a gap in the prolonged but
low sea-dike. The drainage, first of the vast salt
lake shut off from the ocean, and then of the
succeeding fresh-water lakes, has preserved this
channel to the sea, cutting it deeper and deeper
as the earth-folds rose higher, until at last the
An original American — "Jake" canyon became one of the most important river
Hunt, former Klickitat chief, 112 g0rges jn the world. Thus nature prepared a vast
years old. He is said to be the . . . . ao"
oldest Indian on the Columbia, and fruitful section of the continent for human

View from 2,300 foot elevation, west of St. Peter's Dome. The Columbia here hurries down from The Cascades with a speed varying in different seasons
from six to ten miles per hour. Mosquito Island lies below, with Castle Rock opposite. Beyond, the beautiful wooded ridges rise to 4,100 feet in
Arrowhead and Table Mountains, and the snowy dome of Mount Adams closes the scene, fifty miles away.

32

THE GUARDIANS OF THE COLUMBIA

use, and provided it
with a worthy high
way to the ocean.
Over this beau
tiful region we may
descry yet another
dawn, the beginnings
of the Northwestern
world according to
Indian legend. The
Columbia River In
dian, like his brothers
in other parts of the
country, was curious
about the origin of
the things he beheld
around him, and
oppressed by things
he could not see.
The mysteries both
of creation and
of human destiny
weighed heavily up
on his blindness; and
his mind, pathet
ically groping in the
dark, was ever seek
ing to penetrate the
distant past and the
dim future. So far
as he had any relig
ion, it was connected
with the symbols of power in nature, the forces which he saw at work
about him. These forces were often terrible and ruinous, so his gods
were as often his enemies as his benefactors. Feeling his powerlessness
against their cunning, he borrowed a cue from the "animal people," Wate-
tash, who used craft to circumvent the malevolent gods.
These animal people, the Indian believed, had inhabited the world be
fore the time of the first grandfather, when the sun was as yet only a star,
and the earth, too, had grown but little, and was only a small island. The
chief of the animal people was Speelyei, the coyote, not the mightiest but
the shrewdest of them all. Speelyei was the friend of "people". He had
bidden people to appear, and they "came out."
One of the most interesting attempts to account for the existence of the
Red Man in the Northwest is the Okanogan legend that tells of an island

Oneonta Gorge, south side of the Columbia, thirty-three
miles east of Portland.

THE RIVER

33

Looking up the Columbia, near Bonneville. The main channel of the river is on right
of the shoal in foreground.
far out at sea inhabited by a race of giant whites, whose chief was a tall
and powerful woman, Scomalt. When her giants warred among themselves,
Scomalt grew angry and drove all the fighters to the end of the island.
Then she broke off the end of the
island, and pushing with her foot
sent it floating away over the sea.
The new island drifted far. All the
people on it died save one man and one
woman. They caught a whale, and
its blubber saved them from starving.
At last they escaped from the island
by making a canoe. In this they
paddled many days. Then they
came to the mainland, but it was
small. It had not yet grown much.
Here they landed. But while they
had been in the canoe, the sun had
turned them from white to red. All
the Okanogans were their children.
Hence they all are red. Many years
«. it u f «.« wino^.tt. fr°m now the whole of the mainland
Salmon trying to jump the Falls of the Willamette «.»»»»
at Oregon city. will be cut loose from its foundations,

In the Columbia Canyon ar Cascade, with train on the "North Bank" road.

COPYRIGHT KISER PHOTO CO.

COPYRIGHT, G. M. WEISTER

The Cascades of the Columbia. The narrow, rock-Blled channel has a fall of thirty-seven feet in four miles. Here the river meets the tides from the
ocean, 160 miles away. On the opposite bank, at right, is seen Table Mountain, 4,100 feet, the north abutment of the legendary "Bridge of the Gods."

36

THE GUARDIANS OF THE COLUMBIA

Fishwheel below the Cascades, with Table Mountain on north side of river.
and become an island. It will float about on the sea. That will be the end of
the world. To the aboriginal Americans in the Northwest the great river, "Wauna"
in their vocabulary, was inevitably a subject of deep interest. It not only
furnished them a highway, but it supplied them with food. Their most fascinat
ing myths are woven about its history. One of these told of the mighty struggle
between Speelyei and Wishpoosh, the greedy king beaver, which resulted in
breaking down the walls of the great lakes of the interior and creating a passage
for their waters through the mountains. Thus the Indians accounted for the
Columbia and its canyon.
But first among the river myths must always be the Klickitat legend of
the famous natural bridge, fabled to have stood where the Cascades of the

COPYRIGHT, KISER PHOTO CO.
Sunrise on the Columbia; view at 4 a. m. from top of Table Mountain.

COPYRIGHT. KISER PHOTO CO.

"O love, they die in yon rich sky.
They faint on hill or field or river:
Our echoes roll from soul to soul.
And grow forever and forever," — Tennyson,

Nightfall on the Columbia.

ttsMBM

Looking down the Columbia below the Cascades, showing many ranges cut by the river. On the left of the scene is "Sliding Mountain " Its name a
reminder that the hillsides on both banks are slowly moving toward the stream and compelling the railways occasionally to readjust their tracks.

THE RIVER

39

COPYRIGHT. S. M. WEISTER
Wind Mountain and remnant of submerged forest, above the Cascades, at low water.
Columbia now are. This is one of the most beautiful legends connected with
the source of fire, a problem of life in all the northern lands. Further, it
tells the origin of the three snow-peaks that are the subject of this book.
In the time of their remote grandfathers, said the Klickitats, Tyhee
Saghalie, chief of the gods, had two sons. They made a trip together down
the river to where The Dalles are now. The sons saw that the country was
beautiful, and quarrelled as to its possession. Then Saghalie shot an arrow
to the north and an arrow to the west. The sons were bidden to find the
arrows, and settle
where they had fallen.
Thus one son settled
in the fair country
between the great
river and the Yakima,
and became the
grandfather of the
Klickitats. The
other son settled in
the Willamette valley
and became the an
cestor of the large
Multnomah tribe. To
keep peace between

Steamboat entering Cascade Locks.

ir*te^X^». **$

Moonlight upon the Columbia, with clouds on Wind Mountain. Looking up the river from the Cascades

THE RIVER

41

¦¦VSBSSBaSBHl

White Salmon River and its Gorge, south
of Mount Adams.
Loowit, lived on it. Loowit
had charge of the only fire in
the world.
Loowit saw how miserable
the tribes were without fire.
Therefore she besought Sag
halie to permit her to give
them fire. Saghalie granted
her request. Thus a fire was
kindled on the bridge. The
Indians came there and ob
tained fire, which greatly im
proved their condition. Sag
halie was so much pleased

the two tribes, Saghalie
raised the great mountains
that separate those regions.
But there were not yet any
snow-peaks. The great river
also flowed very deep between
the country of the Klickitats
and the country of the Mult-
nomahs. That the tribes
might always be friendly, Sag
halie built a huge bridge of
stone over the river. The
Indians called it the tamahna-
was bridge, or bridge of the
gods. The great river flowed
under it, and a witch-woman,

.tete ¦ ..' "¦ ¦ ¦ •:¦¦¦¦¦¦-.,

OS COPYRIGHT, KISER

THE GUARDIANS OF THE COLUMBIA

Looking down the Columbia Canyon from the cliffs at White Salmon, Washington.
with Loowit's faithfulness that he promised the witch-woman anything she
might ask. Loowit asked for youth and beauty. So Saghalie transformed her
into a beautiful maiden.
Many chiefs fell in love with Loowit because of her beauty. But she paid
heed to none till there
came two other
chiefs, Klickitat from
the north, Wiyeast
from the west. As
she could not decide
which of them to
accept as her hus
band, they and their
people went to war.
Great distress came
upon the people be
cause of this fighting.
Saghalie grew angry
at their evil doing,
and determined to
punish them. He
broke down the ta-
mahnawas bridge,
and put Loowit,

An Oregon Trout Stream.

THE RIVER

43

Looking up the Columbia from Hood River, Oregon.
Wiyeast and Klickitat to death. But they had been beautiful in life, therefore
Saghalie would have them beautiful in death. So he made of them the three
famous snow-peaks. Wiyeast became the mountain which white men call
Mount Hood; Klickitat be
came Mount Adams; Loowit
was changed into Mount St.
Helens. Always, said Sagha
lie, they should be clothed
in garments of snow.
Thus was the wonderful
tamahnawas bridge destroy
ed, and the great river dam
med by the huge rocks that
fell into it. That caused the
Cascade rapids. Above the
rapids, when the river is low,
you can still see the forests
that were buried when the
bridge fell down and dammed
the waters.
This noteworthy myth,
fit to rank with the folk-lore
masterpieces of any primitive
people, Greek or Gothic, is
of course only a legend. The

COPYRIGHT, B. n
HoodJRiver, fed by the glaciers of Mount Hood.

44

THE GUARDIANS OF THE COLUMBIA

A Late Winter Afternoon. View across the Columbia from White Salmon to the mouth of Hood River,
showing the Hood River Valley with Mount Hood wrapped in clouds.
Indian was not a geologist. True, we see the submerged forests to-day, at low
water. But their slowly decaying trunks were killed, perhaps not much more
than a century ago, by a rise in the river that was not caused by the fall of a
natural bridge, but
by a landslide from
the mountains.
There is a slow and
glacier-like motion of
the hillsides here
which from time to
time compels the rail
ways on either bank
t o readjust their
tracks. The rapids
at the Cascades, with
their fall of nearly
forty feet, are doubt
less the result of com
paratively recent vol
canic action. Shaking
down vast masses of
rock, this dammed

Memaloose Island, or Island ot the Dead, last resting place of thousands
of Indians. The lone monument is that of Maj. Victor Trevitt, a
celebrated pioneer, who asked to be buried here among "honest men."

"Gateway to the Inland Empire." Towering cliffs of stratified lava that guard the Columbia on each bank at Lyle, Washington.

46 THE GUARDIANS OF THE COLUMBIA
the river, and caused it to overflow its wooded shores above. But to the
traveler on a steamboat breasting the terrific current below the government
locks, as he looks up to the towering heights on either side of the narrowed
channel, the invention of poor Lo's untutored mind seems almost as easy to
believe as the simpler explanation of the scientist.
Remarkable as is this fire myth of the tamahnawas bridge, the legend
inspired by the peculiarities of northwestern climate is no less beautiful.
This climate differs materially, it is well known, from that of eastern America
in the same latitude. The Japan Current warms the coast of Oregon and
Washington just as the Gulf Stream warms the coast of Ireland. East of the

"Grant Castle" and Palisades of the Columbia, on north side of the river below The Dalles.
Cascade Mountains, the severe cold of a northern winter is tempered by the
"Chinook" winds from the Pacific. A period of freezing weather is shortly
followed by the melting of the snow upon the distant mountains; by night
the warm Chinook sweeps up the Columbia canyon and across the passes, and
in a few hours the mildness of spring covers the land.
Such a phenomenon inevitably stirred the Indian to an attempt to in
terpret it. Like the ancients of other races, he personified the winds. The
Yakima account of the struggle between the warm winds from the coast and
the icy blasts out of the Northeast will bear comparison with the Homeric

THE RIVER

47

COPYRIGHT, G. M. WEISTER
The Dalles of the Columbia, lower channel, east of Dalles City. The river, crowded into a narrow flume,
flows here at a speed often exceeding ten miles an hour.
tale of Ulysses, buffeted by the breezes from the bag given him by the wind-
god Aeolus. Five Chinook brothers, said the Yakima tradition, lived on the great river.
They caused the warm winds to
blow. Five other brothers lived at
Walla Walla, the meeting place of
the waters. They caused the cold
winds. The grandparents of them
all lived at Umatilla, home of the
wind-blown sands. Always there was
war between them. They swept over
the country, destroying the forests,
covering the rivers with ice, or melt
ing the snows and causing floods.
The people suffered much because of
their violence.
Then Walla Walla brothers chal
lenged Chinook brothers to wrestle.
Speelyei, the coyote god, should
judge the contest. He should cut

Cabbage Rock, a huge freak of nature standing in
the open plain four miles north of The Dalles.
Apparently, the lava core of a small extinct crater.

48

THE GUARDIANS OF THE COLUMBIA

off the heads of those who fell.
The crafty Speelyei secretly ad
vised the grandparents of Chinook
brothers that if they would throw
oil on the ground, their sons would
not fall. This they did. But
Speelyei also told the grandparents
of Walla Walla brothers that if they
would throw ice on the ground, their
sons would not fall. This they did.
So the Chinook brothers were thrown
one after another, and Speelyei cut
off their heads, according to the bar
gain. So the five Chinook brothers
were dead.
But the oldest of them left an
infant son. The child's mother
brought him up to avenge the killing
of his kinsmen. So the son grew
very strong, until he could pull up
great fir trees as if they were weeds.
Then Walla Walla brothers chal
lenged Young Chinook to wrestle.
Speelyei should judge the contest.
He should cut off the heads of those
who fell. Secretly Speelyei advised
Young Chinook's grandparents to
throw oil on the ground last. This
they did. So Walla Walla brothers were thrown one after another by Young

A True Fish Story of the Columbia, where four-
and even five-foot salmon are not uncommon.

Chinook, until four of them had fallen
left. His heart failed him,
and he refused to wrestle.
Speelyei pronounced this sen
tence upon him: "You shall
live, but you shall no longer
have power to freeze people."
To Young Chinook, he said:
"You must blow only lightly,
and you must blow first upon
the mountains, to warn peo
ple of your coming."
The last dawn of all opens
upon the white man's era.
On the Columbia, recorded
history is recent, but already

Only the youngest of them was

The Zig-zag river in winter, south side of Mount Hood.

G. M. WEISTER

The Dalles. This name, meaning literally flat stones, was given by the early French-Canadian voyageurs to the twelve-mile section below Celilo, where,
the Columbia has cut through the level lava strata, forming a channel in some places less than 200 feet wide and nearly 200 feet deep at low water.
At higher stages the river fills many lateral channels and roars past many islands of its own carving.

50

THE GUARDIANS OF THE COLUMBIA

epic. Its story is outside the purpose
of this volume. But it is worth while,
in closing our brief glance at the field,
to note that this story has been true
to its setting. Rich in heroism and
romance, it is perhaps the most typical,
as it is the latest, chapter in the
development of the West. For this
land of the river, its quarter-million
square miles stretching far northward
to Canada, and far eastward to the
Yellowstone, built about with colossal
mountains, laced with splendid water
ways, jeweled with beautiful lakes,
where upheaval and eruption, earth
quake and glacier have prepared a home
for a great and happy population, has
already been the scene of a drama of
curious political contradictions and
remarkable popular achievement.
The Columbia River basin, alone
of all the territories which the United
States has added to its original area,
was neither bought with money nor
annexed by war. Its acquisition was
a triumph of the American pioneer.
Many nations looked with longing to this Northwest, but it fell a prize
to the nation that neglected it. Spain and Russia wished to own it. Great

The "Witch's Head," an Indian picture rock at
the old native village of Wishram, north
side of the Columbia near Celilo Falls. The
Indians believe that if an unfaithful wife
passes this rock, its eyes follow her with
mute accusation.

Village of Indian Tepees, Umatilla Reservation, near Pendleton, Oregon. Many of these Indians are
rich landowners, but they prefer tents to houses.

THE RIVER

51

Mount Adams, seen from Eagle Peak in the Rainier National Park. View shows some of the largest earth-
folds in the Cascade Range, with the great canyon of the Cowlitz, one of the tributaries of the Columbia
River. Elevation of camera 6,000 feet.
Britain claimed and practically held it. The United States ignored it. For
nearly half a century after the discovery of the river by a Yankee ship captain,
Robert Gray, in 1792, and its exploration by Jefferson's expedition under
Lewis and Clark, in 1805, its ownership was in question. For several
decades after an American mer
chant, John Jacob Astor, had estab
lished the first unsuccessful trading
post, in 1811, the country was ac
tually ruled by the British through
a private corporation. The magic
circle drawn about it by the
Hudson's Bay Company seemed
impenetrable. Held nominally by
the American and British govern
ments in joint occupancy, it was in
fact left to the halfbreed servants
of a foreign monoply that sought
to hold an empire for its fur trade,
and to exclude settlers because
their farms would interfere with its
beaver traps. Congress deemed the
region worthless.
But while sleepy diplomacy . , , ,_ ,
i A clearing In the forest. Mount Hood from Sandy,
played its game Of cheSS between twenty-five miles west of the peak.

52

THE GUARDIANS OF THE COLUMBIA Washington and London, the
,f* ^^fcv issue was Joined, the title
\ ^^jJ ^%J cleared and possession taken
v^r ifeiL p^ by a breed °f men to wh°m
the United States owes more
than it can ever pay. From
far east came the thin van
guard of civilization which, for
a century after the old French
and Indian war, pushed our
boundaries resistlessly west
ward. It had seized the "dark
and bloody ground" of Ken
tucky. It had held the Ohio
valley for the young republic
during the Revolution. It'had
built states from the Alleghan
ies to the Mississippi. And
now, dragging its wagons
('*"" ll'i' ^¦f^" across the plains and mount
ains, it burst, sun -browned
fl and half -starved, into Oregon.
Missionaries and traders, far
mers, politicians and specu
lators, it was part of that
army of restless spirits who,
always seeing visions of more fertile lands and rising cities beyond, stayed and
long in no place, until at last they found their way barred by the Pacific, and
therefore stayed to build the commonwealths of Oregon, Washington and Idaho.
The arena of their peaceful contest was worthy of their daring. " 'A land
of old upheaven from the abyss,' a land of deepest deeps and highest heights,
of richest verdure
here, and barest des
olation there, of dense
forest on one side, and
wide extended prai
ries on the other; a
land-of contrasts,
contrasts in contour,
hues, productions,
and history," — thus
Professor Lyman
describes the stage
which the pioneers „. , ,_ . „ .
. , s xx. Finished portion of Canal at Celilo, which the Government is building
IOUnd Set IOr them. around Tumwater Falls and The Dallse.

An Indian Madonna and Child. Umatilla Reservation.

The grim sentinels of "the Wallula Gateway.

huge basaltic pillars that rise on the south bank of the river, where it crosses the Washington-Oregon
line. View looking south.

54

THE GUARDIANS OF THE COLUMBIA

PYRIGHT, KISER PHOTO CO.

Tumwater, the falls of the Columbia at Celilo; total drop, twenty feet at low water. In Summer,
when the snow on the Bitter Root and Rocky Mountains is melting, the river rises often more than
sixty feet. Steamboats have then passed safely down. Wishram, an ancient Indian fishing village,
was on the north bank below the falls, and Indians may often still be seen spearing salmon from the
shores and islands here.
The tremendous problems of its development, due to its topography, its re
moteness, its magnificent distances, and its lack of transportation, demanded
men of sturdiest fiber and intrepid leading. No pages of our history tell
a finer story of action and initiative than those which enroll the names of
McLoughlin, the great Company's autocratic governor, not unfitly called
"the father of Oregon," and Whitman, the martyr, with the frontier leaders
who fashioned the first ship of state launched in the Northwest, and their
contemporaries, the men who built the first towns, roads, schools, mills,
steamboats and railways.
Macaulay tells us that a people who are not proud of their forebears
will never deserve the pride of their descendents. The makers of Old Oregon
included as fair a proportion of patriots and heroes as the immigrants of the
Mayflower. We who journey up or down the Columbia in a luxurious
steamer, or ride in a train de luxe along its banks, are the heirs of their
achievement. Honor to the dirt-tanned ox-drivers who seized for them
selves and us this empire of the river and its guardian snow-peaks !
A lordly river, broad and deep,
With mountains for its neighbors, and in view
Of distant mountains and their snowy tops.

COPYRIGHT. G. M. WEISTER

Summit of Mount Hood, viewed from western end of the ridge, showing north side of the peak in July.

COPYRIGHT. KISER PHOTO CO
Columbia River and Mt. Hood, seen from White Salmon, Washington.

"Beloved mountain, I
Thy worshiper, as thou the sun's, each morn
My dawn, before the dawn, receive from thee;
And think, as thy rose-tinted peak I see,
That thou wert great when Homer was not born.
And ere thou change all human song shall die." — Helen Hunt Jackson

North side of Mount Hood, from ridge several miles west of Cloud Cap Inn. View shows gorges cut by the
glacier-fed streams. Cooper Spur is on left sky line. Barrel Spur is the great ridge on right, with
Ladd glacier canyon beyond. Coe glacier is in center.

II.

THE MOUNTAINS.

Silent and calm, have you e'er scaled the height
Of some lone mountain peak, in heaven's sight?
— Victor Hugo.
There stood Mount Hood in all the glory of the alpen glow, looming immensely high,
beaming with intelligence. It seemed neither near nor far. * * * The whole mountain
appeared as one glorious manifestation of divine power, enthusiastic and benevolent, glowing
like a countenance with ineffable repose and beauty, before which we could only gaze with
devout and lowly admiration. — John Muir.

F

ROM the heights which back the city of Portland on the west, one may
have a view that is justly famous among the fairest prospects in America.
Below him lies the

restless city, busy with
its commerce. Winding
up from the south comes
the Willamette, its fine
valley narrowed here by
the hills, where the river
forms Portland's harbor,
and is lined on either side
with mills and shipping.
Ten^miiles beyond, the
^Columbia flows down
from its canyon on the
east, and turns north-

Winter on Mount Hood. The roof of the club house of the Portland
Snow-shoe Club is seen over the ridge.

THE GUARDIANS OF THE COLUMBIA

cloud/cap

Watching the climbers from the plaza at Cloud Cap Inn, northeast side of Mount Hood. Immediately in
front, Eliot glacier is seen, dropping into its canyon on the right. On the left is Cooper Spur, from
which a sharp ascent leads to the summit of the peak.
ward, an expanding waterway for great vessels, to its broad pass through the
Coast Range. In every direction, city and country, farm and forest, valley
and mountain, stretches a noble perspective. From the wide rivers and
their shining borders, almost at sea level, the scene arises, terrace upon ter
race, to the encircling hills, and spreads across range after range to the
summits of the great Cascades.
Dominating all are the snow-peaks,
august sentinels upon the horizon. On a
clear day, the long line of them begins far
down in central Oregon, and numbers six
snowy domes. But any average day in
cludes in its glory the three nearest, Hood,
Adams, and St. Helens. Spirit-like, they
loom above the soft Oregon haze, their
glaciers signaling from peak to peak, and
their shining summits bidding the sordid
world below to look upward.
Nature has painted canvases more
colorful, but none more perfect in its
strength and rest. Here is no flare of the
desert, none of the flamboyant, terrible
Mount Hood, elevation 11,225 feet beauty of the Grand Canyon. It is a land

h'ewfon C/orA

,nO

THE MOUNTAINS

59

Lower end of Eliot glacier, seen from Cooper Spur, and showing the lateral moraines which this receding
glacier has built in recent years.
of warm ocean winds and cherishing sunshine, where the emeralds and jades
of the valleys quickly give place to the bluer greens of evergreen forests that
cover the hill country; and these, in turn, as distance grows, shade into the
lavenders and grays of the successive ranges. The white peaks complete the
picture with its most characteristic note. They give it distinction.
Such a panorama justifies Ruskin's bold assertion: "Mountains are the be
ginning and end of all natural scenery." Without its mountains, the view from
Council Crest would be as uninteresting as that from any tower in any prairie

Snout of Eliot glacier, its V-shaped ice front heavily covered with morainal debris.

THE GUARDIANS OF THE COLUMBIA

Cone of Mount Hood, seen from Cooper Spur on
northwest side. A popular route to the sum
mit leads along this ridge of volcanic scoriae
and up the steep snow slope above.

city. But all mountains are not alike.
In beginning our journey to the three
great snow-peaks which we have
viewed from Portland heights, it is
well to define, if we may, the special
character of our Northwestern scene.
We sometimes hear the Cascade
district praised as "the American
Switzerland." Such a comparison
does injustice alike to our mountains
and to the Alps. As a wild, magnifi
cent sea of ice-covered mountain tops,
the Alps have no parallel in America.
As a far-reaching system of splendid
lofty ranges clothed in the green of
dense forests and surmounted by
towering, isolated summits of snowy
volcanoes, the Cascades are wholly
without their equal in Europe. This
is the testimony of famous travelers
and alpinists, among them Ambassa
dor Bryce, who has written of our
Northwestern mountain scenery:

We have nothing more beautiful in Switzer
land or Tyrol, in Norway or in the Pyrenees.
The combination of ice scenery with woodland scenery of the grandest type is to be found
nowhere in the Old World, unless it be in the Himalayas, and, so far as we know, nowhere
else on the American continent.
In his celebrated chapter of the "Modern Painters" which describes the
sculpture of the mountains, Ruskin draws a picture of the Alps that at once
sets them apart from
the Cascades:
The longer I stayed
among the Alps, the more
I was struck by their be
ing a vast plateau, upon
which nearly all the high
est peaks stood like
children set upon a table,
removed far back from
the edge, as if for fear of
their falling. The most
majestic scenes are pro
duced by one of the great
peaks having apparently
walked to the edge of the
table to look over, and
thus showing itself sud- Cloud Cap Inn, north side of Mount Hood. Elevation 5,900 feet.

COPYRIGHT, G. M. WEISTER

Portland's White Sentinel, Mount Hood. Telephoto view from City Park, showing a portion of the city, with modern buildings and smoke of factories.

THE GUARDIANS OF THE COLUMBIA

COPYRIGHT, G.

Ice cascade on Eliot glacier, Mount Hood.

denly above the valley in its full height. But the raised table is always intelligibly in ex
istence, even in these exceptional cases; and for the most part, the great peaks are not
allowed to come to the edge of it, but remain far withdrawn, surrounded by comparatively
level fields of mountain, over which the lapping sheets of glacier writhe and flow. The result
is the division of Switzerland into an upper and lower mountain world ; the lower world
consisting of rich valleys, the upper world, reached after the first steep banks of 3,000 to
4,000 feet have been surmounted, consisting of comparatively level but most desolate
tracts, half covered by glacier, and stretching to the feet
of the true pinnacles of the chain.
Nothing of this in the Cascades! Instead, we
have fold upon fold of the earth-crust, separated
by valleys of great depth. The ranges rise from
levels but little above the sea. For example, be
tween Portland and Umatilla, although they are
separated by the mountains of greatest actual
elevation in the United States, there is a difference
of less than two hundred and fifty feet, Umatilla,
east of the Cascades, being only two hundred and
ninety-four feet above tide. Trout Lake, lying
below Mount Adams, at the head of one of the
great intermountain valleys, has an elevation of
less than two thousand feet.
Thus, instead of the Northwestern snow-peaks
being set far back upon a general upland and hid-

Portland Snow-shoe Club members
on Eliot glacier in winter.

THE MOUNTAINS

63

Snow-bridge over great crevasse, near head of Eliot glacier.
den away behind lesser mountains, to be seen only after one has reached the
plateau, thousands of feet above sea level, they actually rise either from com
paratively low peneplanes on one side of the Cascades, as in the case of St.
Helens, or from the summit of one of the narrow, lofty ridges, as do Hood
and Adams. But in either case, the full elevation is seen near at hand and
from many directions — an elevation, therefore, greater and more impressive
than that of most of the celebrated Alpine summits.
Famous as is the valley of Chamonix, and noteworthy as are the glaciers
to which it gives close access, its views of Mont Blanc are disappointing. Not
until the visitor has
scaled one of the
neighboring aiguilles,
can he command a
satisfactory outlook
toward the Monarch
of the Alps. And no
where in Switzerland
do I recall a picture
of such memorable
splendor as greets the
traveler from the
Columbia, journeying
either southward, up
the Hood River Val-

COPYRIGHT,

Coasting down east side of Mount Hood, above Cooper Spur.
Mount Adams in distance.

COPYRIGHT, G. M. WEISTER
Mount Hood from the hills south of The Dalles, showing the comparatively tlmberless country east of the Gascades. Compare this treeless region as well
as the profile of Mount Hood here shown, with the view from Larch Mountain.

COPYRIGHT, L J. HICK
Mount Hood, seen from Larch Mountain, on the Columbia River. View looking southeast across the heavily forested ranges of the Cascades to the deep
canyons below Ladd and Sandy glaciers.

66
ley toward Mount Hood, or northward,
up the White Salmon Valley toward
Trout Lake and Mount Adams. Here
is unrolled a wealth of fertile lowlands,
surrounded by lofty ranges made
beautiful by their deep forests and
rising to grandeur in their snow-peaks.
Leaving the canyon of the Colum
bia, in either direction the road follows
swift torrents of white glacial water
that tell of a source far above. It
crosses a famous valley, among its
orchards and hayfields, but always in
of the snow-covered volcanoes that rise

THE GUARDIANS OF THE COLUMBIA

Butterfly on the summit of Mount Hood.
view of the dark blue mountains and
before and behind, their glaciers shining
like polished steel in the sun
light. So the visitor reaches the
foot of his mountain. Losing
sight of it for a time, he follows
long avenues of stately trees as

Members of Portland Snow-shoe Club
on way to Mount Hood in winter,
and at their club house, near Cloud
Cap Inn.
he climbs the benches. In a few
hours he stands upon a barren
shoulder of the peak, at timber
glaciers reach their icy arms to
the winds that sweep down from

Fumarole, or gas vent, near Crater Rock.

line. A new world confronts him. The
him from the summit, and he breathes
their fields of perennial snow.
It is all very different from
Switzerland, this quick ascent from
bending orchards and forested hills to
a mighty peak standing white and
beautiful in its loneliness. But it is so
wonderful that Americans who love
the heights can no longer neglect it,
and each year increasing numbers are
discovering that here in the North
west is mountain scenery worth travel
ing far to see, with very noble moun-

THE MOUNTAINS

67

Looking across the head of Eliot glacier from near the summit of Mount Hood.
tains to climb, true glaciers to explore, and the widest views of grandeur and
interest to enjoy. Such sport combines recreation and inspiration.
The traveler from Portland to either Mount Hood or Mount Adams may
go by rail or steamer to Hood River, Oregon, or White Salmon, Washington.
These towns are on opposite banks of the Columbia at its point of greatest
beauty. Thence he
will journey by auto
mobile or stage up the
corresponding valley
to the snow-peak at
its head. If he is
bound for Mount
Hood his thirty-mile
ride will bring him to
a charming mountain
hotel, Cloud Cap Inn,
placed six thousand
feet above the sea, on
a ridge overlooking
Eliot glacier, Hood's
finest ice stream.
If Mount Adams
be his destination, a
ride of similar length
from White Salmon
¦11 1. • 1~- 1 Mount Hood at night, seen from Cloud Cap Inn. This view is from
Will bring him merely negative exposed from nine o'clock until midnight.

68 THE GUARDIANS OF THE COLUMBIA
to the foot of the mountain. The stages run only to Guler, on Trout Lake, and
to Glenwood. Each of these villages has a comfortable country hotel which may
be made the base for fishing and hunting in the neighborhood. Each is about
twelve miles from the snow-line. At either place, guides, horses and supplies
may be had for the trip to the mountain. Glenwood is nearer to the famous
Hellroaring Canyon and the glaciers of the southeast side. Guler is a favorite
point of departure for the south slope and for the usual route to the summit.
Another popular starting point for Mount Adams is Goldendale, reached
by a branch of the North Bank railway from Lyle on the Columbia. This
route also leads to the fine park district on the southeastern slope, and it has
a special attraction, as it skirts the remarkable canyon of the Klickitat River.
Many parties also
journey to the moun-
t a i n from North
Yakima and other
towns on the North
ern Pacific railway.
Hitherto, all such
travel from either

Climbing Mount Hood, with
ropes anchored on the
summit and extending
down on east and south
faces of the peak.

north or south has
meant a trip on foot
or horseback over in
teresting mountain
trails, and has involved the necessity of packing in camp equipment and sup
plies. During the present summer, a hotel is to be erected a short distance
from the end of Mazama glacier, at an altitude of about sixty-five hundred
feet, overlooking Hellroaring Canyon on one side, and on the other a delight
ful region of mountain tarns, waterfalls and alpine flower meadows. Its
verandas will command the Mazama and Klickitat glaciers, and an easy
route will lead to the summit. With practicable roads from Goldendale and
Glenwood, it should draw hosts of lovers of scenery and climbing, and aid
in making this great mountain as well known as it deserves to be.
Visitors going to Mount Hood from Portland have choice of a second very
attractive hotel base in Government Camp, on the south slope at an altitude
of thirty-nine hundred feet. This is reached by automobiles from the city,

North side ot Mount Hood, seen from moraine of Coe glacier. This glacier flows down from the summit, where its snow-field adjoins that of Eliot glacier
(left) . West of the Coe, the Ladd glacier is seen, separated from the former by Pulpit Rock, the big crag in the middle distance, and Barrett Spur, the
high ridge on the right.

THE GUARDIANS OF THE COLUMBIA

Looking west on summit of Mount Hood, with Mazama Rock below.
over a fair road that will soon be a good road, thanks to the Portland Auto
mobile Club. The mountain portion of this highway is the historic Barlow
road, opened in 1845, the first wagon road constructed across the Cascades.
As the motor climbs out of the Sandy River valley, and grapples the steep
moraines built by ancient icefields, the traveler gets a very feeling reminder
of the pluck of Captain Barlow and his company of Oregon "immigrants" in
forcing a way across these rugged heights. But the beauty of the trip makes
it well worth while, and Government Camp gives access to a side of the peak
that should be visited by all who would know how the sun can shatter a big
mountain with his
mighty tools of ice.
The hotel here
was erected in 1900
by 0. C. Yocum,
under whose com
petent guidance
many hundreds of
climbers reached the
summit of Mount
Hood. The Hotel
is now owned by
Elisha Coalman, who
. Summit of Mount Hood, from Mazama Rock, showing the sun-cupped
lias alSO SUCCeeded tO ice of midsummer.

wmmmmmmMmmmmmmm

Mount Hood, seen from Sandy River canyon, six miles west of snow line. This important picture begins with Barrett Spur and Ladd glacier on the north
sky line (left). On the northwest face of the peak is the main Sandy glacier, its end divided by a ridge into two parts. The forested "plowshare"
projecting into the canyon is Yocum Ridge. South of it the south branch of the Sandy river flows down from a smaller glacier called the Little
Sandy, or Reid. The broad bottom of this canyon and the scored cliffs on its sides show that it was formerly occupied by the glacier.

72

THE GUARDIANS OF THE COLUMBIA

his predecessor's office as guide. During the last year he has enlarged his inn,
and he is now also building comfortable quarters for climbers at a camp four
miles nearer the snow line, on the ridge separating White River glacier from
Zigzag glacier.

MOUNT HOOD.

Mount Hood is the highest mountain in Oregon, and because of the perfect
symmetry of its pyramidal shape and its clear-cut, far-seen features of rock and
glacier, it has long been recognized as one of the most beautiful of all American
snow peaks. Rising from the crest of the Cascades, it presents its different
profiles and variously
sculptured faces to the en
tire valley of the Colum
bia, east and west, above
which it towers in stately
magnificence, a very king
0f the mountains, ruling
over a domain of ranges,

valleys and cities proud
of their allegiance.
On October 20, 1792,
Lieutenant Broughton, of
Vancouver's exploring ex
pedition in quest of new
territories for His Majesty George III., discovered from the Columbia
near the mouth of the Willamette, "a very distant high snowy mountain,
rising beautifully conspicuous," which he strangely mistook to be the source
of the great river. Forthwith he named it in honor of Rear Admiral Samuel
Hood, of the British Admiralty who had distinguished himself in divers naval
battles during the American and French Revolutions.
The mountain has been climbed more often than any other American
snow-peak. The first ascent was made on August 4, 1854, from the south
side, by a party under Captain Barlow, builder of the "immigrant road."
One of the climbers, Editor Dryer of The Oregonian, published an account

COPYRIGHT. G. M WEISTER

Mount Hood, with Crevasses of Eliot Glacier in foreground.

"Evermore the wind
Is thy august companion; yea, thy peers
Are cloud and thunder, and the face sublime
Ofthe blue mid-heaven." — Henry Clarence Kendall.

np :

THE MOUNTAINS

75

of the trip in which,
with more exactness
than accuracy, he
placed the height of
the mountain at
18,361 feet! The most
notable ascent by a
large party took place
forty years later,
when nearly two hun
dred men and women
met on the summit,
¦and there, with par
liamentary dispatch
bred of a bitter wind,
organized a mountain
club which has since
become famous. For
its title they took the
name "mazama,"
Mexican for the
mountain goat, close
kin to the Alpine
chamois. Member
ship was opened to those who have scaled a snow-peak on foot. By their
publications and their annual climbs, the Mazamas have done more than
any other agency to promote interest in our Northwestern mountains.
Mount Hood stands, as I have said, upon the summit of the Cascades.
The broad and comparatively level back of the range is here about four
thousand feet above
the sea. Upon this
plane the volcano
erected its cone,
chiefly by the ex
pulsion of scoriae
rather than by ex
tensive lava flows, to
a farther height of
nearly a mile and a
half. There is no
reason to suppose
that it ever greatly
exceeded its present
Ice Cascade, south side of Mount Hood, near head of White River glacier. altitude, which gOV-

Mount Hood, seen from the top of Barrett Spur. On the left, cascading
down from the summit, is Coe glacier; on the right, Ladd glacier.
The high cliff separating them is "Pulpit Rock."

76

THE GUARDIANS OF THE COLUMBIA

Little Sandy or Reid glacier, west side of Mount Hood.

ernment observations
have fixed at 11,225
feet. Its diameter at
its base is approxi
mately seven miles
from east to west.
Compared with
Mount Adams, its
broken and decapi
tated northern neigh-^
bor, Mount Hood,j
although probably
dating from Miocenef
time, is still young
enough to have re
tained in a remark-!
able degree the gen
eral shape of its
original cone. But
as we approach it from any direction, we find abundant proof that power
ful destructive agents have been busy during the later geological ages.
Already the summit plateau upon which the peak was built up has been
largely dissected by the glaciers and their streams. The whole neighborhood
of the mountain is a vastly rugged district of glacial canyons and eroded
water channels, trenched deep in the soft volcanic ashes and the underlying :
ancient rock of the range. The mountain itself, although still a pyramid, also
has its story of age and loss. Its eight glaciers have cut away much of its
mass. On three sides they have burrowed so deeply into the cone that its
original angle, which surviving ridges show to have been about thirty degrees
has on the upper
glacial slopes been
doubled. This is well
illustrated bythe views
shown on pages 58, 61,
69 and 71.
This cutting back
into the mountain has
greatly lessened the
area of the upper
snow-fields. The reser
voirs feeding the
glaciers, are there
fore much smaller
+U„„ t u i j_ i Portland Y. M. C. A. party starting for the summit at daybreak.
than Ot Old, but, by South side of Mount Hood.

Crater of Mount Hood, seen from south side. Its north rim is the distant summit ridge. Steel's Cliff (right) and Illumination Rock (left) are parts of
east and west rims. The south wall has been torn away, but the hard lava core remains in Crater Rock, the cone rising in center. Note the climbers
ascending the "Hog-back" or ridge leading from Crater Rock up to the "bergschrund," a great crevasse which stretches across the crater at head of
the glaciers. The ridge in foreground is Triangle Moraine. On its right is White River glacier; on left, the fan-shaped Zigzag glacier.

78

THE GUARDIANS OF THE COLUMBIA

South side of Mount Hood, seen from crag on Tom-Dick-and-Harry Ridge, five miles from the snow-line.
A thousand feet below is the hotel called "Government Camp," with the Barlow road, the first
across the Cascades. On left are Zigzag and Sand canyons, cut by streams from Zigzag glacier above.
way of compensation, present a series of most interesting ice formations
on the steeper slopes. In this respect, Mount Hood is especially note
worthy among our Northwestern snow-peaks. While larger glaciers are
found on other mountains, none are more typical. The glaciers of Hood
especially repay study because of their wonderful variety of ice-falls, terraces,
seracs, towers, castles, pinnacles and crevasses. Winter has fashioned a
colossal architecture of wild forms.
Ye ice-falls! ye that from the mountain's brow
Adown enormous ravines slope amain, —
Torrents, methinks, that heard a mighty voice,
And stopped at once amid their maddest plunge!
Motionless torrents! silent cataracts!
The visitor who begins his acquaintance
with Mount Hood on the north side has, from
Cloud Cap Inn, four interesting glaciers within
a radius of a few miles. Immediately before the
Inn, Eliot glacier displays its entire length of
two miles, its snout being only a few rods away.
West of this, Coe and Ladd glaciers divide the
north face with the Eliot. All three have
their source in neighboring reservoirs near the
summit, which have been greatly reduced

hich above view was taken.

THE MOUNTAINS

79

Part of the "bergschrund" above Crater Rock. A bergschrund is a
crevasse of which the lower side lies much below its upper side. It
is caused by a sharp fall in the slope, or by the ice at the head of a
glacier pulling away from the packed snow above.

in area. This, with
the resulting shrink
age in the glaciers,
is shown by the high
lateral moraines left
as the width of the
ice streams has less
ened. On the east
slope is a fine cliff
glacier, the Newton
Clark, separated from
the Eliot by Cooper
Spur, a long ridge
that furnishes the
only feasible north-
side route for climb
ers to the summit.
Climbing Cooper
Spur is a tedious
struggle up a long
cinder slope, but it
has its reward in fine views of the near-by glaciers and a wide outlook over
the surrounding country. A tramp of two miles from the Inn covers the easier
grade, and brings the climber to a height of eight thousand feet. A narrow,
snow-covered chine now offers a windy path to the foot of the steeper slope
(See p. 60) . The climb ends with the conquest of a half-mile of vertical eleva
tion over a grade that tests muscle, wind and nerve. This is real mountaineer
ing, and as the novice clutches the rocks, or carefully follows in the steps cut
by the guide, he re
calls a command well
adapted to such try-
ing situations:
"Prove all things;
hold fast that which
is good." But the
danger is more ap
parent than real, and
the goal is soon
reached. The south-side
route, followed by
the Barlow party of
1854, was long
Prof. Harry Fielding Reid and party exploring Zigzag glacier, south side 1V
of Mount Hood. Illumination Rock is seen beyond. practicable trail to

80

THE GUARDIANS OF THE COLUMBIA

the summit. Many years later, William A. Langille discovered the route up
from Cooper Spur. The only accident charged against this path befell a stranger
who was killed in trying to climb it without a guide. Its steepness is, indeed,
an advantage, as it requires less time than the other route. Climbers frequently
ascend by one trail and descend by the other, thus making the trip between
Cloud Cap Inn and Government Camp in a day.
The actual summit of Mount Hood is a narrow but fairly level platform,
a quarter of a mile long, which is quickly seen to be part of the rim of the ancient
crater. Below it, on the north, are the heads of three glaciers already men
tioned, the Eliot, Coe and Ladd; and looking down upon them, the climber
perceives that here the mountain has been so much cut away as to be less a
slope than a series ^
of precipices, with
very limited benches
which serve as gather
ing grounds of snow.
(See pp. 55, 67 and
70.) These shelves
feed the lower ice-

Mazamas climbing the"Hog-
back, "above Crater Rock,
and passing this rock on
the descent.
streams with a diet of
avalanches that is
year by year becom
ing less bountiful as
this front becomes
more steep. Soon, indeed, geologically speaking, the present summit, undermined
by the ice, must fall, and the mountain take on a new aspect, with a lower,
broader top. Thus while the beautiful verse which I have quoted under the
view of Mount Hood from White Salmon (p. 56) is admirable poetry, its last line
is very poor geology. This, however, need not deter any present-day climbers!
On the south side of the summit ridge a vastly different scene is presented.
Looking down over its easy slope, one recognizes even more clearly than from
the north-side view that Mount Hood is merely a wreck of its former graceful
cone, a torn and disintegrating remnant, with very modest pretentions to sym
metry, after all, but still a fascinating exhibit of the work of such Gargantuan
forces as hew and whittle such peaks.

THE MOUNTAINS

81

Portland Ski Club on south side of Mount Hood, above Government Camp.

The crater had a diameter of about half a mile. Its north rim remains in
the ridge on which our climber stands. All the rest of its circumference has
been torn away, but huge fragments of its wall are seen far below, on the right
and left, in "cleavers" named respectively Illumination Rock and Steel's Cliff.
One of these recalls several displays of red fire on the mountain by the Maza
mas. The other great abutment was christened in honor of the first president
of that organization.
Apart from these ridges, the entire rim is missing; but below the spectator,
at what must have been the center of its circle, towers a great cone of lava,
harder than the andesitic rocks and the scoriae which compose the bulk of the
mountain. This is known as Crater Rock. It
is the core of the crater, formed when the molten
lava filling its neck cooled and hardened. Around
it the softer mass has worn down to the general
grade of the south slope, which extends five
miles from just below the remaining north rim
at the head of the glaciers to the neighborhood
of Government Camp, far down on the Cascade
plateau. The grade is much less than thirty
degrees. Over the slope flow down two glaciers,
the Zigzag on the west, and the White River
glacier on the east, of Crater Rock.
It is sometimes said that the south side of
the old summit was blown away by a terrific
explosion. That is improbable, in view of Crater
Rock, which indicates a dormant volcano when

Mount Hood Lily.
(L. Washingtonianum)

82

THE GUARDIANS OF THE COLUMBIA

— — —

the south side was destroyed. The mountain was doubtless rent by ice rather
than by fire. The mass of ice and snow in and upon the crater broke apart
the comparatively loose wall, and pushed its shattered tuffs and cinders far
down the slopes. Forests were buried, old canyons were filled, and the whole
southwest side of the mountain was covered with the fan-shaped outwash
from the breach. Through this debris of the ancient crater the streams at the
feet of the glaciers below are cutting vast ravines which can be seen from the
heights above. (See
illustrations, pp. 77-81.)
The central situation
of Mount Hood makes
the view from its sum
mit especially worth
seeking. From the Pa
cific to the Blue Moun
tains, south almost to
the California line, and
north as far, it embraces

Mazama party exploring White
River glacier, Mount Hood.

an area equal to a great
state, with four hund
red miles of the undu
lating Cascade summits
and a dozen calm and
radiant snow-peaks. The
Columbia winds almost
at its foot, and a multi
tude of lakes, dammed
by glacial moraines and lava dikes, nestle in its shadow. This view "covers
more history," as Lyman points out, than that from any other of our peaks.
About its base the Indians hunted, fished and warred. Across its flank rolled
the great tide of Oregon immigration, in the days of the ox-team and settler's
wagon. It has seen the building of two states. It now looks benignly down
upon the prosperous agriculture and growing cities of the modern Columbia
basin, and no doubt contemplates with serenity the time when its empire shall

THE MOUNTAINS

Newton Clark glacier, east side of Mt. Hood, seen from Cooper Spur, with Mt. Jefferson fifty miles south.
be one of the most populous as it is one of the most beautiful and fertile regions
in America. No wonder the shapely mountain lifts its head with pride!
Returning to the glaciers of the north side, we note that all three end at
an altitude close to six thousand feet. None of them has cut a deep, broad
bed for itself like the great radiating canyons which dissect the Rainier National
Park and protect its glaciers down to a level averaging four thousand feet.
Instead, these glaciers lie up on the side of Mount Hood, in shallow beds which
they no longer fill; and are banked between double and even tripple border
moraines, showing successive advances and retreats of the glaciers. (See illus
tration, top of p. 59.) The larger moraines stand fifty to a hundred feet
above the present ice-streams, thus indicating the former glacier levels. No
vegetation appears on these desolate rock and gravel dikes. The retreat of
the glaciers was therefore comparatively recent.

Looking from Mount Jefferson, along the summits of the Cascades, to Mount Hood.

84

THE GUARDIANS OF THE COLUMBIA

Shadow of Mount Hood, seen from Newton Clark glacier shortly before sunset. View shows two branches
of East Fork of Hood River, fed by the glacier, and the canyon of the East Fork, turning north. Beyond
it (left) are Tygh Hills and wheat fields of the Dufur country. On the right is Juniper Flat, with
the Deschutes canyon far beyond.
Eliot glacier has been found by measurement near its end, to have a move^
ment of about fifty feet a year. On the steeper slope above, it is doubtless
much greater. All the three glaciers are heavily covered, for their last half
mile, with rocks and
dirt which they have
freighted down from
the cliffs above, or
dug up from their
own beds in transit.
None of the lateral
moraines extends
more than two or
three hundred yards
below the snout of
its glacier. Each gla
cier, at its end, drops
its remnant of ice in
to a deep V-shaped
ravine, in which, not
far below, trees of
good size are grow-

Snout of Newton Clark glacier.

^rwc*^,*J5f^i

COPYRIGHT, a. n. GIFFORD
Mount Hood and Hood River, seen from a point twenty miles north of the mountain.

86

THE GUARDIANS OF THE COLUMBIA

ing. Hence it would not seem that
these north-side glaciers have ever
extended much farther than they do
at present. The ravine below Eliot
glacier, however, half a mile from
the snout, is said to show glacial
markings on its rocky sides. It is
evident, in any case, that the deep
V cuttings now found below the gla
ciers are work of the streams. If
these glaciers extended farther, it
was at higher levels than their pres
ent stream channels. As the glaciers
receded, their streams have cut the
deep gorges in the soft conglomerates.
Between Eliot and Coe glaciers are
large snow-fields, ending much farther
up than do the glaciers ; and below
these, too, the streams have trenched
the slope (See illustration, p. 57.)
Between Coe and Ladd glaciers
is a high rocky ridge known as Bar
rett Spur, from which, at nearly
8,000 feet, one may obtain glorious
views of the peak above, the two
glaciers sweeping down its steep face
and the sea of ranges stretching westward. (See illustrations, pp. 69 and 75.)
Barrett Spur may have been part of the original surface of the mountain, but
is more likely the remnant of a secondary cone, ice and weathering having
destroyed its conical shape. From its top, the climber looks over into the
broad-bottomed canyon of
Sandy River, fed by the large
and small Sandy glaciers of
the west slope. (See pp. 71
and 76.) This canyon and
that of the Zigzag River,
south of it, from Zigzag gla
cier, are "plainly glacier-sculp- ^
tured," as Sylvester declares. M
The same is true of the can- ' * "C te v\ .; te V~0 ¦¦¦•' v.^ "te,
yon lying below the White O '^0^0,1 :./.-te •""'
River glacier, on the south- bi^S-b: "Ste '*
east slope. In journeying to
o , .-, Y. M. C. A. party from North Yakima at Red Butte, an ex-
GOVemment Camp, One may tinct volcano on north side of Mount Adams.

Lava Flume near Trout Lake, about thirty feet
wide and forty feet high.

THE MOUNTAINS

87

Ice Cave in lava beds near Trout Lake.

see abundant evidence of the glacial
origin of the Sandy and Zigzag can
yons. The White River Canyon has
been thoroughly explored and de
scribed by Prof. Reid.
All three of these wide U-shaped
canyons were once occupied by great
glaciers, which left their record in the
scorings upon the sides of the gorges;
in the mesas of finely ground moraine
which they spread over the bottoms
and through which the modern rivers
have cut deep ravines; in trees broken
and buried by the glaciers in this drift;
in the fossil ice lying beneath it, and
in huge angular boulders left stand
ing on the valley floors, several miles
from the mountain.
Sandy glacier extends three hun
dred feet farther down the slope than
do the north-side glaciers, but the
Zigzag and White River glaciers, flowing out of the crater, end a thousand feet
higher. This is due not only to the smaller reservoirs which feed them and
to their southern exposure, but also doubtless to the easier grade, which holds
the ice longer on the slope. On the east side of the peak is a broad ice-stream,
the Newton Clark glacier, which also ends at a high altitude, dropping its ice
over a cliff into deep ravines at the head of East Fork of Hood River. This
glacier, well seen from Cooper
Spur, completes the circuit of the
mountain. (See pp. 83 and 84.)
Sylvester suggests that Mount
Hood may not be extinct but sleep
ing. For this, however, there is
little more evidence that may be
discovered on other Northwestern
peaks. About Crater Rock, steam
jets are found, gas escapes, and
the rocks are warm in many places.
"Fumaroles" exist, where the resi
duary heat causes openings in the
snow bed. Sylvester reports dense
smoke and steam issuing from Cra
ter Rock by day and a brilliant
illumination there at night, in

little Spring

Mount Adams, elevation 12,307 feet.

Telephoto view of Mount Adams, from the northeast side of Mount St. Helens, at elevation of 7,000 feet, overlooking the densely timbered ranges of the
Cascades.

THE MOUNTAINS

89

^«__ .

- —.I --P-n Mill Ml ¦¦¦!!¦ (J. — '¦ - WMC1 -._ ^B^^HB

¦ ;''«l3!S3ra«r

•.if?!?"
m
*}'M
¦fcte'te
at
BS "* . ^* ^^^ ¦ s/£fBul* +1, ££fr>*^ ^Wi-*ir'*CpW' "* ¦*
ia
1 . -¦ ^Sli-v ^-te'
' ' ' -\W .,'
te.'
W •' ;V;. '"¦,>... mIHB $ffcbv*~ '
¦ "\ '" >
/ '%- ¦ |J"**^ / 'tS^gjJ^g^
^StEr^
- Jga
-l— .: ¦¦' ' - lpi|-
?Hfe~-
¦
*¦ *te *> y'
. o !
...¦:- -¦ ¦ ¦¦ :. .". .... '«: tel.
Mount Adams from Trout Creek, at Guler, near Trout Lake; distance twelve miles.
August, 1907. But volcanoes sometimes contradict prophecy, and no further
intimations of trouble having since been offered, this display may be deemed
the last gasp of a dying monster rather than an awakening toward new life.
MOUNT ADAMS.
Going up the White Salmon Valley toward Mount Adams, the visitor quick
ly realizes that he
is in a different geo
logical district from
that around Mount
Hood. The Oregon
peak is mainly a pile
of volcanic rocks
and cinders ejected
from its crater. Lit
tle hard basalt is
found, and in all its
circumference I
know of only one I ; . r te
large surface area of
.. rrvi ¦ • Climbers on South Butte, the hard lava neck of a crater on south slope,
new lava. lnlS IS a left by weathering of the softer materials of its cone. Elevation,
few miles north Of 7,800 feet. The usual route to summit leads up the talus on right.
90

THE GUARDIANS OF THE COLUMBIA

Dawn on Mount Adams, telephotographed from Guler, at 4 a. m., showing the three summit peaks, of
which the middle one is the highest. The route of the climbers is up the south slope, seen on right.
Cloud Cap, and so recent that no trees grow on it. But north of the Colum
bia, one meets evidences of comparatively recent lava sheets in many parts of
the valley. Some obviously have no connection with Mount Adams; they
flowed out of fissures on the ridges. But these beds of volcanic rock become
more apparent, and are less covered with soil, as we approach the mountain,
until, long before timber line is reached, dikes and streams of basalt, as yet
hardly beginning to disintegrate, are found on all sides of the peak.
The form and slope of Mount Adams tell of an age far greater than
Mount Hood's, but its story is not, like that of Hood, the legible record of
a simple volcanic cone. It wholly lacks the symmetry of such a pile. Viewed
from a distance, it
sits very majestically
upon the summit of
one of the eastern
ranges of the Cascades.
As we approach, how
ever, it is seen to
have little of the con
ical shape of Hood,
still less that of grace
ful St. Helens, which
is young and as yet
practically unbroken.
Its summit has been
Foraging in the snow. The Mount Adams country supports hundreds ™UCn ff°ra down by
of large flocks of sheep. ice or perhaps by

Steel's Glifif, southeast side of Mount Hood.

COPYRIGHT. G H. WEISTER
In the distance is seen Juniper Flat, in eastern Oregon.

COPYRIGHT. G. M. WEISTER

Ice Castle and great Crevasse, near the head of Eliot Glacier, Mt. Hood.

"Touched by a light that hath no name,
A glory never sung,
Aloft on sky and mountain wall
Are God's great pictures hung." — Whittier.

THE MOUNTAINS

93

Mazamas climbing a 40° stairway of shattered basalt, north side of Mount Adams.
explosions. Some of its sides are deeply indented, and all are vastly irregular in
angle and markings — here a face now too steeply cut to hold a glacier, but
showing old glacial scorings far down its slope; there another terraced and
ribbed with waves and dikes of lava. The mountain is a long ridge rather than
a round peak, and close inspection shows it to be a composite of several great
cones, leaning one upon another, — the product of many craters acting in
successive ages. On its ancient, scarred slopes, a hundred modern vents have
added to the ruggedness and inter
est of the peak. Many of these
blowholes built parasitic cones, from
which the snows of later centuries
have eroded the loose external mass,
leaving only the hard lava cores
upstanding like obelisks. Other
vents belched out vast sheets of
rock that will require a century
more of weathering to make hos
pitable even to the sub-alpine trees
most humble in their demands for soil.
Mount Adams therefore presents
a greater variety of history, a more
complex and fascinating prob
lem for the student to unravel, than Mount Adams from one «* the many lakes on its
southeast slope. On ridge above, near the end
any Of itS neighbors. This interest of Mazama glacier, a hotel is to be erected.

94

THE GUARDIANS OF THE COLUMBIA

Climbers ascending from South Peak to Middle Peak on Mount Adams, with the "bergschrund** above
Klickitat glacier on right. This central dome is about 500 feet higher than South Peak.
extends to the district about it, a country of new lava flows covering much of
the older surface. The same conditions mark the region surrounding the
newer peak, St. Helens, thirty miles west. In each district, sheets of
molten rock have been poured across an ancient and heavily forested land.
Thus as we travel up the rich valleys leading from the Columbia to either
peak, we meet everywhere the phenomena of vulcanism.
The lava sheet flowing around or over a standing or fallen tree took a per
fect impression of its trunk and bark. Thousands of these old tree casts
are found near both Adams and St. Helens. Where the lava reached a water-

Mount Adams, seen from Happy Valley, south side. Elevation about 7,000 feet. Mazama glacier is on right.

THE MOUNTAINS

95

~.**4l?M&K$

rTpjJI^i^P^

Mount Adams, from Snow-Plow Mountain, three miles southeast of the snow line; elevation 5,070 feet,
overlooking the broad "park'* country west of Hellroaring Canyon.
course, it flowed down in a deeper stream, — a river of liquid rock. Lava is
a poor conductor of heat; hence the stream cooled more quickly on the sur
face than below. Soon a crust was formed, like the ice over a creek in winter.
Under it the lava flowed on and out, as the flood stopped, leaving a gallery
or flume. Later flows filled the great drain again and again, adding new
strata to its roof, floor and
sides, and lessening its bore.
Long after the outflows
ceased, weathering by heat
and frost broke openings
here and there. Many of the
flumes were choked with drift.
But others, in the newer
lava beds, may be explored
for miles. It was from the
lava caves of northern Cal
ifornia that the Modoc In
dians waged their famous
war in the Seventies.
The disintegration of the
lava galleries in the Mount
Adams field has of course pro
duced caves of all sorts and
sizes. Where one of these is
closed at one end with de
bris, so that the summer' air

Wind-whittled ice near the summit of Mount Adams.

96 THE GUARDIANS OF THE COLUMBIA
cannot circulate to displace the heavier cold remaining from winter, the cave,
if it has a water supply, becomes an ice factory. The Trout Lake district
has several interesting examples of such glacieres, as they have been named,
where one may take refuge from July or August heat above ground, and, forty
feet below, in a cave well protected from sun and summer breeze, find great
masses of ice, with more perhaps still forming as water filters in from a sur
face lake or an underground spring. The Columbia River towns as far away
as Portland and The Dalles formerly obtained ice from the Trout Lake caves,
but at present they
supply only some
near-by farmers.
Mount Adams
is ascended with
out difficulty by
either its north or
south slope. On
the east and west

Mazama glacier, at head
of Hellroaring Canyon.
Upper view shows floor
of canyon, a mile below
the glacier, with the
* 'Ridge of Wonders" on
right. Lower view is
from ridge west of the
canyon, near end of
Mazama glacier, eleva
tion nearly 7,000 feet.
Note great lateral mo
raine which the glacier
has built on left.

faces, the cliffs and ice cascades appall even the expert alpinist. As yet, so
far as I can learn, no ascents have been made over these slopes. The south
ern route is the more popular one. It leads by well-marked trails up from
Guler or Glenwood, over a succession of terraces clad in fine, open forest;
ascends McDonald Ridge, amid increasing barriers of lava; passes South
Butte, a decaying pillar of red silhouetted against the black rocks and white
snow-fields; crosses many a caldron of twisted and broken basalt, — "Devil's
Half Acres" that once were the hot, vomiting mouths of drains from the

THE MOUNTAINS

97

fiery heart of the peak; scales
a giants' stairway tilted to
to forty degrees, overlooking
the west branch of Mazama
glacier on one side and a small
unnamed glacier on the other;
and at last gains the broad
shoulder which projects far
on the south slope. (See
illustrations, pp. 89 and 93.)
Here, from a height of
nine thousand feet, we look down on the low, wide reservoir of Mazama gla
cier on the east, and up to the ice-falls above Klickitat glacier on the higher
slopes beyond. The great plat-
¦ form on which we stand was built
up by a crater, three thousand feet
below the summit. The climb to
': it has disclosed the fact that the
; mountain is composed mostly of

Nearing the summit, south side.

i

Upper Ice Cascade of Klickitat glacier.
lava. Some of the ravine cuttings
have shown lapilli and cinders, but
these are rarer than on the other
Northwestern peaks. The harder
structure has resisted the erosion
which is cutting so deeply into the lower slopes of Hood. On Mount Adams,
not only do the glaciers, with one or two notable exceptions, lie up on the
general surface of the mountain, banked by their moraines; but their streams
have cut few deep ravines.
From this point, the
route becomes steeper, but
is still over talus, until the
first of the three summit ele
vations, known as South
Peak, is reached. This is
only five hundred feet below
the actual summit, Middle
Peak, which is gained by a
An Upland "Park," west of Hellroaring Canyon. short, hard pull, generally

Mount Adams, from the Ridge of Wonders, showing the great amphitheater or "cirque" of Klickitat glacier fed by avalanches fr„m «,„ .. .. ,
This is the most important example of glacial sculpture on the mountain. Beyond, on the rl6HuTTe'BnLXelfo7tZkZTJ >.» "v ?V "
is Manama ftlacier. Note the stunted sub-alpine trees scattered thinly over this rldie. even up To an alrttude of 7 DM fee. ' °n ** "^

Storm on Klickitat Glacier, seen from the Ridge of Wonders.

100

THE GUARDIANS OF THE COLUMBIA

over snow. (See p. 94.) The north-side route is up a long, sharp ridge
between Lava and Adams glaciers (p. 104). Like the other path, its grade
is at first easy; but its last half mile of elevation is achieved over a slope
even steeper, and ending in a longer climb over the snow. Neither route, how
ever, offers so hard a finish as that which ends the Mount Hood climb. From
the timber-line on either side, the ascent requires six or seven hours.
The summit ridge is nearly a
mile long and two-thirds as wide.
It is the gathering ground of the
snows that feed Klickitat, Lyman,
1  .

I

'*&**? I V .

Snow cornice above the bergschrund at head
of Klickitat glacier, with another part of
the same crevasse.
Adams and White Salmon glaciers.
(See map, p. 87.) Mazama, Rusk,
Lava, Pinnacle and Avalanche glaciers lie beneath cliffs too steep to carry
ice-streams. Their income is mainly collected from the slopes, and if they
receive snow from the broad summit at all, it is chiefly in the avalanches of
early summer. Nearly all the glaciers, however, are thus fed in part, the
steep east and west faces making Mount Adams famous for its avalanches.
From the summit on either side, the climber may look down sheer for
half a mile to the reservoirs and great ice cascades of the glaciers below. It is

Mount Adams, seen from the northeast, with the Lyman glaciers In center, Rusk glacier on extreme left, and Lava glacier, right. ' The'ridge beyond Lava
glacier is the north-side route to the summit. The Lyman glaciers, like Adams glacier on the northwest side, are noteworthy for their cascades of ice.

102

THE GUARDIANS OF THE COLUMBIA

COPYRIGHT, ASAHEL CURTIS

Mount Adams from Sunnyside, Washington, with irrigation "ditch" in foreground.
seen that with the exception of the Rusk and Klickitat, which are deeply
embedded in canyons, the glaciers spread out, fan-like, on the lower slopes,
and are held up by their moraines. Most of them end at elevations consider
ably above six thousand five hundred feet.
g The difference in this respect between Adams
^J0Jr A ' >* and Hood is due, no doubt, to lighter rainfall.
Of the two glaciers just mentioned the
>4 Klickitat is the larger and more typical.
The Rusk, however, is of interest because it
flows, greatly crevassed, down a narrow flume
or couloir on the east slope. Its bed, Reid
suggests, may have been the channel of "a
former lava flow, which, hardening on the
surface, allowed the liquid lava inside to
flow out; and later the top broke in." The
Klickitat glacier lies in a much larger canyon,
which it has evidently cut for itself. This
is one of the most characteristic glacial
amphitheaters in America, resembling, though
on a smaller scale, the vast Carbon glacier
cirque which is the crowning glory of the
Rainier National Park. The Klickitat basin
is a mile wide. Into it two steep ice-streams
cascade from the summit, and avalanches
. . , fall from a cliff which rises two thousand feet
Crevasse in Lava glacier, north side of
Mount Adams. between them. (See pp. 98 and 99.)

THE MOUNTAINS

103

North Peak of Mount Adams, with The Mountaineers be
ginning their ascent, in 1911. Their route led up the
ridge seen here, which divides Lava glacier, on the left,
from Adams glacier, on extreme right.

The glacier is more than
two miles long. It ends at
an elevation of less than six
thousand feet, covered with
debris from a large medial
moraine formed by the junc
tion of the two tributary
glaciers. Like the other
Mount Adams glaciers, and
indeed nearly all glaciers in
the northern hemisphere, it
is shrinking, and has built
several moraines on each
side. These extend half a
mile below its present snout,
and the inner moraines are
underlaid with ice, showing
the retreat has been recent.
South of the Klickitat
glacier, a part of the original
surface of the peak remains
in the great Ridge of Won
ders. Rising a thousand feet above the floor of Hellroaring Canyon, which
was formerly occupied by Mazama glacier, now withdrawn to the slope above,
this is the finest observation point on the mountain. "The wonderful views
of the eastern precipices and glaciers," says Reid, "the numerous dikes, the
well preserved parasitic cone of Little Mount Adams, and the curious forms
of volcanic bombs scattered over its surface entirely justify the name Mr. Rusk
has given to this ridge."
Adams glacier, upon the
northwest slope, with a length
of three miles, is the largest on
the mountain. This and the
two beautiful ice streams on the
northeast, named after Prof. W.
D. Lyman, are notable for their
ice-falls, half-mile drops of
tumbling, frozen rivers.
The naming of the mount
ain was a result of the move
ment started by Hall J. Kelley,
the Oregon enthusiast, in 1839.
The northwestern snow-peaks,
so far as shown in maps of the
Snow^Bridge over Killing Creek, north of Mount Adams. period, bore the names given by

104

THE GUARDIANS OF THE COLUMBIA

North-side Cleaver, with Lava glacier on left. This
sharp spine was climbed by The Mountaineers
and the North Yakima Y. M. C. A. party in 1911.

a party in which were Col. B. F.

Vancouver as part of his annexation
for George III. The utility, beauty
and historic fitness of the significant
Indian place names did not occur to
a generation busy in ousting the In
dian from his land; but our grand
fathers remembered George III.
Kelley and other patriotic men of the
time proposed to call the Cascades the
"Presidents' Range," and to chris
ten the several snow-peaks for indi
vidual ex-presidents of the United
States. But the second quarter of the
last century knew little about Oregon,
and cared less. The well-meant but
premature effort failed, and the only
names of the presidents which have
stuck are Adams and Jefferson. Lewis
and Clark mistook Mount Adams for
St. Helens, and estimated it "perhaps
the highest pinnacle in America."
The Geological Survey has found its
height to be 12,307 feet. Mount
Adams was first climbed in 1854 by
Shaw, Glenn Aiken. and Edward J. Allen.

MOUNT ST. HELENS.
The world was indebted for its first knowledge of Mount St. Helens to Van
couver. Its name is one of the
batch which he fastened in
1792 upon our Northwestern
landmarks. These honored a
variety of persons, ranging
from Lord St. Helens, the
diplomat, and pudgy Peter
Rainier, of the British Ad
miralty, down to members of
the explorer's crew.
The youngest of the Cas
cade snow-peaks, St. Helens
is also the most symmetrical
in its form, and to many of its
admirers the most beautiful.
Unlike Hood and Adams, it
does not stand upon the ...Looking across Adams glacier, northwest side of Mount Adams,
narrOW Summit Of One Of from ridge shown above.

"The Mountain that Was 'God'," the great peak which the Indians reverenced and named "Tacoma," seen above the clouds of a rainy day, from the
summit of Mount Adams, distant forty miles.
"This," said a well-known lecturer, as the
picture was thrown upon his screen, "is the
scene the angels look down upon!"

106 THE GUARDIANS OF THE COLUMBIA
the Cascade ranges, but rises west of the main ridges of that system from
valley levels about one thousand feet above the sea. Surrounded by com
paratively low ridges, it thus presents its perfect and impressive cone for
almost its entire height of ten thousand feet.
The mountain is set well back from the main traveled roads, in the great
forest of southwestern Washington. It is the center of a fine lake and river
district which attracts sportsmen as well as mountain climbers. A large com
pany visiting it must carry in supplies and camp equipment, but small parties
may find accommodation at Spirit Lake on the north, and Peterson's ranch
on Lewis River, south of the peak. The first is four, the second is eight, miles

Northwest slope of Mount Adams, with Adams glacier, three miles long, the largest on the mountain.
It has an ice-fall of two thousand feet. The low-lying reservoir of Pinnacle glacier is on extreme right,
and the head of Lava glacier on left.
from the snow line. Visitors from Portland, Tacoma or Seattle, bound for
the north side, leave the railway at Castle Rock, whence a good automobile
road (forty-eight miles) leads to the south side of Spirit Lake. Peterson's
may be reached by road from Woodland (forty-five miles) or from Yacolt
(thirty miles). Well-marked trails lead from either base to camping grounds
at timber line. The mountain is climbed by a long, easy slope on the south,
or by a much steeper path on the north.
Like Mount Adams, St. Helens is largely built of lava, but the outflows
have been more recent here than upon or near the greater peak. The volcano
was in eruption several times between 1830 and 1845. The sky at Vancouver

THE MOUNTAINS

107

Mount Adams from the southwest, with White Salmon glacier (left) and Avalanche glacier (right) flowing
from a common source, the cleft between North and Middle Peaks. The latter, however, derives
most of its support from slopes farther to right. Note the huge terminal moraines built by these
glaciers in their retreat. Pinnacle glacier is on extreme left.
was often darkened, and ashes were carried as far as The Dalles. To these
disturbances, probably, are due the great outflows of new lava covering the
south and west sides of the mountain, and much of the country between it and
the North Fork of Lewis River. The molten stream flowed westward to Goat
Mountain and the "Buttes," of which it made islands; threw a dike across a
watercourse and created Lake Merrill; and turning southward, filled valleys
and overwhelmed good forest with sheets of basalt. Upon the slope just north
of Peterson's, a great synclinal thus buried
presents one of the latest pages in the vol
canic history of the Columbia basin.
Many hours may be spent with interest
upon this lava bed. It is an area of the wild
est violence, cast in stone. Swift, ropy
streams, cascades, whirling eddies, all have
been caught in their course. "Devil's Punch
Bowl," "Hell's Kitchen," "Satan's Stair
way" are suggestive phrases of local descrip
tion. The underground galleries here are
well worth visiting. Tree tunnels and wells
abound. Most important of all, the struggle
seen everywhere of the forest to gain a foot
hold on this iron surface illustrates Nature's
method of hiding so vast and terrible a
callus upon her face. It is evident that the

Mount St. Helens, elevation 10,000 feet.

108

THE GUARDIANS OF THE COLUMBIA

healing of the wound began
as soon as the lava cooled,
and that, while still incom-
plete, it is unceasingly
prosecuted. (See p. 111.)
The first volcanic dust
from the uneasy crater of
St. Helens had no sooner
lodged in some cleft opened
by the contraction of cool
ing than a spore or seed
carried by the wind or

Scenes in the
canyon of the
North Fork of
Lewis River,

fed by the glaciers
of Mount Adams
and Mount St.
Helens.

dropped by a bird made a
start toward vegetation.
Failing moisture, and
checked by lack of soil, the
lichen or grass or tiny
shrub quickly yielded its
feeble existence in prepara
tion for its successor. The
procession ot rain and sun
encouraged other futile
efforts to find rootage.
Each of these growths

"And forests ranged like armies, round and round Columbia River and Mount Adams, seen from Hood River, Oregon.
At feet of mountains of eternal snow;
And valleys all alive with happy sound, —
The song of birds; swift streams' delicious flow;
The mystic hum of million things that grow."— Helen Hunt Jackson.

A GIFFORD

COPYRIGHT. KISER PHOTO CO,

Southwest side of Mount Adams, reflected in Trout Lake, twelve miles south of the mountain.

THE MOUNTAINS

lengthened by its decay
the life of the next. With
winter came frost, scaling
flakes from the hard sur
face, or penetrating the
joints and opening fissures
in the basalt. Further
refuge was thus made
ready for the dust and
seeds and moisture of an
other season. The moss
and plants were promoters

Scenes on great
lava field south
of Mount St.
Helens. The
lodgepole pine
thicket above
shows struggle
of forest to gain
a foothold on
the rich soil
slowly forming

canlc rock. The
peak itself, with
stunted forest
at its base, is
seen next; and
below, one of
many "tree tun
nels," formed
when the lava
flowed over or
around a tree,
taking a perfect
cast of its bark.

as well as beneficiaries of
this disintegration. Their
smallest rootlets found the
water in the heart of the
rocks, and growing strong
upon it, shattered their
benefactors. Soon more ambitious en
terprises were undertaken.
Huckleberry bushes, fear
less even of so unfriendly a
surface, started from every

112

THE GUARDIANS OF THE COLUMBIA

depression among the rocks. The first
small trees appeared. Weakling pines,
dwarf firs and alders, shot up for a
few feet of hurried growth in the
spring moisture, taking the unlikely
chance of surviving the later drought.
Here and there a seedling outlasted
the long, dry summer, and began to
be a real tree. Quickly exhausting its
little handful of new earth, the daring
upstart must have perished had not
the melting snows brought help.
They filled the hollows with wash
from the higher slopes. The treelets
found that their day had come, and
seizing upon these rich but shallow
soil beds, soon covered them with
thickets of spindling lodgepole pines
and deciduous brush. Such pygmy
forests are at length common upon
this great field of torn and decaying
rock, and all are making their con
tributions of humus year by year to
the support of future tree giants.
These will rise by survival of the fittest as the forest floor deepens and spreads.
St. Helens, although much visited, has not yet been officially surveyed
or mapped. Its glaciers are not named, nor has the number of true ice-
streams been determined. Those on the south and southwest are insignifi
cant. Elsewhere, the glaciers are short and broad, and with one exception,
occupy shallow beds. On the southeast, there is a remarkable cleft, shown
on page 115, which is doubtless due to volcanic causes rather than erosion,
and from which the largest
glacier issues. Another typi
cal glacier, distinguished by
the finest crevasses and ice-
falls on the peak, tumbles
down a steep, shallow de
pression on the north slope,
west of the battered para
sitic cone of "Black Butte."
West of this glacier, in turn,
ridges known as the "Lizard"
and the "Boot" mark the
customary north-side path
... . Entrance to Lava Cave shown above. Note strata in roof,
LO me Summit, (oee p. llo.) showing successive lava flows; also ferns growing from roof.

Lava Flume south of Mount St. Helens, a tunnel
several miles in length, about twenty feet high
and fifteen feet wide.

Telephotograph of Mount St. Helens, from the lower part of Portland, with the summit peaks of Mount Rainier-Tacoma in distance on left, and the Willa
mette River in foreground.

Mount St. Helens, from Chelatchie Prairie on Lewis River, distance twenty miles. Shows a typical farm clearing in the forest.

GENER, JR.

THE MOUNTAINS

115

Beyond these landmarks, on the west side of the peak, a third considerable
glacier feeds South Toutle River. The ravines cut by this stream will repay
a visit. (See p. 116.)
The slopes not covered with new lava sheets and dikes exhibit, below
the snow-line, countless bombs hurled up from the crater, with great fields
of pumice embedding huge angular rocks that tell a story not written on
our other peaks. These hard boulders, curiously different from the soft mate
rials in which they lie, were fragments of the tertiary platform on which the
cone was erected. Torn off by the volcano, as it enlarged its bore, they were
shot out without melting or change in substance. On every hand is proof

Mount St. Helens, seen from Twin Buttes, twenty miles away, across the Cascades. View shows the re
markable cleft or canyon on the southeast face of the peak.
that this now peaceful snow-mountain, which resembles nothing else so much as
a well-filled saucer of ice cream, had a hot temper in its youth, and has passed
some bad days even since the coming of the white man.
The mountain was first climbed in August, 1853, by a party which included
the same T. J. Dryer who, a year later, took part in the first ascent of Mount
Hood. In a letter to The Oregonian he said the party consisted of "Messrs.
Wilson, Smith, Drew and myself." They ascended the south side. The
other slopes were long thought too steep to climb, but in 1893 Fred G. Plummer,
of Tacoma, now Geographer of the United States Forest Service, ascended
the north side. His party included Leschi, a Klickitat Indian, probably
the first of his superstitious race to scale a snow-peak. The climbers found

116

THE GUARDIANS OF THE COLUMBIA

Canyons of South Toutle River, west side of St. Helens. These vast trenches in the soft pumice show
by their V shape that they have been cut by streams from the glaciers above, rather than by the
glaciers themselves, which, on this young peak, have probably never had a much greater extension.
evidence of recent activity in two craters on the north slope, and photographed
a curious "diagonal moraine," as regular in shape as a railway embankment,
which connected the border moraines of a small glacier. The north side has
since seen frequent ascents.
The Mazamas, who had climbed St. Helens from the south in 1898, again
ascended it in 1908,
climbing by the Liz
ard and Boot. This
outing furnished the
most stirring chapter
in the annals of Amer
ican mountaineering.
The north-side
route proved unex
pectedly hard. After
an all-day climb, the
party reached the
summit only at seven
o'clock. The descent
after nightfall re
quired seven hours.
The risk was great.
Lower Toutle Canyon, seen on left above. Note shattered volcanic bomb. Over the Collar of ice

Northeast side of Mount St. Helens, from elevation of 6,000 feet, with Black Butte on the right.

The Mazamas on summit of St. Helens shortly before sunset. The rocks showing above the snow are parts of the rim of the extinct crater. Mount Adams
is seen, thirty- five miles away, on the right, while Rainier-Tacoma is forty-five miles north. Photograph taken at 7:15 p. m. The party did not get
back to their camp till long after midnight.

North side of St. Helens in winter, seen from Coldwater Ridge, overlooking Spirit Lake. Shows the long ridge called "the Lizard," because of its shap
with '*the Boot" above it. On the northeast slope is **Black Butte," probably a secondary crater.

ys* n

St. Helens, north side, seen from one mile below snow line. Note the slight progress made by the forest upon the scant soil of the pumice ridges; also, how
greatly the angle of the sides, as viewed here at the foot of the peak, differs from that shown in Dr. Lauman's fine picture taken on Coldwater Ridge,
five miles north. Both show the mountain from the same direction, but the near view gives no true idea of its steepness. Black Butte is on the left.

120

THE GUARDIANS OF THE COLUMBIA

near the summit, at a grade of more than sixty degrees, the twenty-five men and
women slowly crept in steps cut by the leaders, and clutching a single fifty-
foot rope. Later came the bombardment of loose rocks, as the party scat
tered down the slope. I quote from an account by Frank B. Riley, secretary
of the club, who was one of the leaders:
The safety of the entire party was in the keeping of each member. One touch of hysteria,
one slip of the foot, one instant's loss of self-control, would have precipitated the line, like
a row of bricks, on the long plunge down the ice cliff. Eight times the party stood poised on
its scanty foothold while the rope was lowered. When, after an hour and a half, its last
member stepped in safety upon the rocks, there yet lay before it five hours of work ere the
little red eyes below should widen into welcoming campfires.
Over great ridges, down into vast snowfields, for hours they plunged and slid, while
scouts ahead shouted back warn
ing of the crevasses. On, out ofthe
icy clutch of the silent mountain,
they plodded. And then, at last,
the timber, and the fires and the
hot drinks and the warm blankets
and the springy hemlock boughs!

St. Helens, east of the "Lizard."
most noteworthy adventure
of the outing. One evening,
while the Mazamas gath
ered about their campfire
at Spirit Lake, a haggard
man dragged himself out of the forest, and told of an injured comrade lying
helpless on the other side of the peak. The messenger and two companions
—Swedish loggers, all three— had crossed the mountain the morning before.
After they gained the summit and began the descent, a plunging rock had
struck one of the men, breaking his leg. His friends had dragged him down
to the first timber, and while one kept watch, the other had encircled the
mountain, in search of aid from the Mazamas.
Immediately a relief party of seven strong men, led by C . E. Forsyth of Castle
Rock, Washington, started back over the trailless route by which the messenger
had come. All night they scaled ridges, climbed into and out of canyons, waded
icy streams. Before dawn they reached the wounded laborer. Mr. Riley says:

THE MOUNTAINS

121

It was impossible to carry the man back through the wild country around the peak. Below,
the first cabin on the Lewis River lay beyond a moat of forbidding canyons. Above slanted
the smooth slopes of St. Helens. Placing the injured man upon a litter of canvas and alpine
stocks, they began the ascent of the mountain with their burden. The day dawned and grew
old, and still these men crawled upward in frightful, body-breaking struggle. Twelve hours
passed, and they had no food and no sleep, save as they fell unconscious downward in the
snow, as they did many times, from fatigue and lack of nourishment. At four o'clock, Ander
son was again on the summit. Then, without rest, came the descent to the north. Down
precipitous cliffs of ice they lowered him, as tenderly as might be; down snow-slopes seared
with crevasses, shielding him from the falling rocks; over ridges of ragged lava, until in the deep
ening darkness of the second night they found themselves again at timber. But in the net-work
of canyons they had selected the wrong one, and were lost. Here, at three o'clock, they were
found by a second relief party, and guided over a painful five-mile journey home.

COPYRIGHT, G.

Finest of the St. Helens glaciers, north side, with Black Butte on left. It is proposed to call this
"Forsyth glacier," in honor of C. E. Forsyth, leader in a memorable rescue.
It was day when camp was reached. In an improvised hospital, a young
surgeon, aided by a trained nurse, both Mazamas, quickly set the broken
bones. Then they sent their patient comfortably away to the railroad and a
Portland hospital. Before the wagon started, Anderson, who had uttered no
groan in his two days of agony, struggled to a sitting posture, and searched
the faces of all in the crowd about him.
"Ay don't want ever to forget how you look," he said simply; "you who
have done all this yust for me."
It is fitting that such an event should be commemorated. With the
approval of Mr. Riley and other Mazamas who were present at the time, I
would propose that the north-side glacier already described, the most beau
tiful of the St. Helens ice-streams, be named "Forsyth glacier," in honor
of the leader of this heroic rescue.

Road among the Douglas Firs.

COPYRIGHT, ASAHEL CURTIS

Ships loading lumber at one of Portland's large mills.

III.
THE FORESTS
By HAROLD DOUGLAS LANGILLE

As the lowlander cannot be said to have truly seen the element of water at all, so even
in his richest parks and avenues he cannot be said to have truly seen trees. For the resources
of trees are not developed until they have difficulty to contend with; neither their tenderness
of brotherly love and harmony, till they are forced to choose their ways of life where there
is contracted room. The various action of trees, rooting themselves in inhospitable rocks,
stooping to look into ravines, hiding from the search of glacial winds, reaching forth to the
rays of rare sunshine, crowding down together to drink at sweetest streams, climbing hand
in hand the difficult slopes, gliding in grave procession over the heavenward ridges — nothing
of this can be conceived among the unvexed and unvaried felicities of the lowland forest.
— Ruskin: "Modern Painters."

s

TAND upon the icy summit of any one of the Columbia's snow-peaks, and
look north or west or south across the expanse of blue-green mountains
and valleys reaching to

the sea; your eyes will rest
upon the greatest forest the
temperate zone has produced
within the knowledge of man.
Save where axe and fire
have turned woodland into
field or ghostly "burn," the
mantle is spread. Along the
broad crests of the Cascades,
down the long spurs that lead
to the valleys, and across the
Coast Range, lies a wealth of
timber equaled in no other
region. The outposts of this

Outposts of the Forest. Storm-swept White-bark Pines
on Mount Hood.

124

THE GUARDIANS OF THE COLUMBIA

great army of trees
will meet you far
below. Rimming about
your peak, braving
winds and the snows
that drift in the lee
of old moraines, and
struggling to break
through the timber-
line, six thousand
feet above the sea,
somber mountain
hemlocks (Tsuga
mertensiana) and
lighter white-bark
pines (Pinus albicaulis) form the thin vanguard of the forest. They meet the
glaciers. They border the snow-fields. They hide beneath their stunted,
twisted forms the first deep gashes carved in the mountain slopes by eroding
streams. Valiant protectors of less sturdy trees and plants, their whitened
weather-sides bear witness to a fierce struggle for life on the bleak shoulders
of the peaks.
Make your way, as the streamlets do, down to the alpine glades, on the
high plateaus, where anemone, erythronium and calochortus push their buds
through lingering snow-crusts. The scattered trees gather in their first groups.

Alpine Hemlocks at the timber-line on Mt. Adams. Mt. Hood in distance.

Mazama Party resting among the sub-alpine firs in a flower-carpeted "park" at the
foot of Mount St. Helens

THE FORESTS

125

Just within their
shelter pause for
a moment. Vague
distance is nar
rowed to a dimin
utive circle. The
mystery of vast-
ness passes.
Sharp indeed is
the division be
tween storm-
swept barren and
forest shelter.
Here ravines,
decked with
heather, hold
streams from the
snowdrifts —
streams that hunt
the steepest de
scents, and glory
in their leaps from
rock to rock and
from cliff to pool.
If it be the spring
time of the moun
tains—late July—
the mossyrills will
be half concealed
beneath fragrant
white azaleas that
nod in the breezes
blowing up with the ascending sun and down with the turn
of day. Trailing over the rocks, or banked in the shelter
of larger trees, creeping juniper (Juniperus communis), least
of our evergreens, stays the drifting sands against the
drive of winds or the wash of melting snows.
Along the streams and on sunny slopes and benches
are the homes of the pointed firs. Seeking protection from
the storm, the spire-like trees cluster in tiny groves, among
which, like little bays of a lake, the grassy flowered meadows
run in and out, sun-lit, and sweet with rivulets from the
snows above. If you do not know these upland "parks,"
there is rare pleasure awaiting you. A hundred mountain
blossoms work figures of white and red and orange and

A Lowland Ravine,
and Ferns.

Cedars, Vine Maples, Devil's Club
near Mount St. Helens.

COPYRIGHT, KISER

The "Noble" Fir.

126

THE GUARDIANS OF THE COLUMBIA

Dense Hemlock Forest, lower west slope of Mount Hood.
blue in the soft tapestry of green. In such glades the hush is deep. Only
the voice of a waterfall comes up from the canyon, or the whistle of a
marmot, the call of the white-winged crows and the drone of insects break
the stillness. The outer rank
of hemlock and fir
droops its branches
to the ground to
break the tempest's
attack. Within, sil
ver or lovely fir
(Abies amabilis)
mingles with hardier
forms. Its gray,
mottled trunks are
flecked with the
yellow-green of
lichen or festooned
with wisps of moss

Mount Hood from Ghost-tree Ridge. Whitened trunks of trees killed by
forest fires.

An Island of Color in the Forest. Rhododendrons and Squaw Grass on the west slope of Mount Hood.

"The common growth of mother^earth
Suffices me, — her tears, her mirth,
Her Lumblest mirth and tears." — Wordsworth.

THE FORESTS

129

down to the level of the big
snows. And here, a vertical
mile above the sea, you meet
the daring western hemlock
(Tsuga heterophylla) , which
braves the gale of ocean and
mountain alike, indifferent to
all but fire. It is of gentle
birth yet humble spirit. It
accepts all trees as neighbors.
You meet it everywhere as
you journey to the sea. But
on the uplands only, in a
narrow belt like a scarf
thrown across the shoulders
of the mountain, sub-alpine
fir (Abies lasiocarpa) sends
up its dark, attenuated
spires, in striking contrast
with the rounded crowns of
its companions.
A little lower, the transi
tion zone offers a noteworthy
intermingling of species.
Down from the stormy
heights come alpine trees to
lock branches with types
from warmer levels. Here
you see lodgepole pine (Pinus
murrayana), that wonderful
restorer of waste places which
sends forth countless tiny
seedlings to cover fire-swept
areas and lava fields with
forerunners of a forest.
Here, too, you will find western white pine (Pinus monticola), the fair lady
of the genus, whose soft, delicate foliage, finely chiseled trunk, and golden
brown cones denote its gentleness; and Engelmann spruce (Picea Engelmannii)
of greener blue than any other, and hung with pendants of soft seed cones,
saved from pilfering rodents by pungent, bristling needles.
Here also are western larch or tamarack (Larix occidentalis); or, rarely,
on our northern peaks, Lyall's larch (Larix Lyallii), whose naked branches
send out tiny fascicles of soft pale leaves; and Noble fir (Abies nobilis), stately,
magnificent, proud of its supremacy over all. And you may come upon a
rare cluster of Alaska cedar (Chamsecyparis nootkatensis), here at its southern

On the road to Government Camp, west of Mount Hood. Broad-
leaf Maple on extreme right; Douglas Firs arching the road
way, and White Fir on left.

130

THE GUARDIANS OF THE COLUMBIA

oi

limit, reaching
down from the
Coast range of
British Colum
bia almost to
meet the Great

Firs and Hemlocks, in Clarke County, Washington.

sugar pines
(Pinus lambert-
iana) which
come up from
the granite
heights of the
California sierra
to play an im
portant role in
the southern
Oregon forests.
Across the
roll of ridge and
canyon, you see
them all; and
when you come
to know them
well, each form,
each shade of
green, though
far away, will claim your recognition. Yonder, in a hollow
of the hills, a cluster of blue-green heads is raised above
the familiar color of the hemlocks. Cross to it, and stand
amidst the crowning glory of Nature's art in building trees.
About you rise columns of Noble firs, faultless in symmetry,
straight as the line of sight, clean as granite shafts. Carry
the picture with you; nowhere away from the forests of
the Columbia can you look upon such perfect trees.
Westward of the Cascade summits the commercial
forest of to-day extends down from an elevation of about
3,500 feet. Intercepted by these heights, the moisture-
laden clouds are emptied on the crest of the range. East
ward, the effects of decreasing precipitation are shown both
in species and in density. Tamarack, white fir and pines
climb higher on these warmer slopes. Along the base
of the mountains, and beyond low passes where strong
copyright, weister west winds drive saturated clouds out over level reaches
Tn^^^T western yell°w pine (Pinus ponderosa) becomes almost the
only tree. Over miles of level lava flow, along the upper

to first limb.

THE FORESTS

131

Deschutes, this species forms
a great forest bounded on the
east by rolling sage-brush
plains that stretch south
ward to the Nevada deserts.
Beyond the Deschutes drain
age, where spurs of the Blue
mountains rise to the levels
of clouds and moisture, the
forest again covers the hills,
spreading far to the east
until it disappears again in
the broad, treeless valley of
Snake river. North of the
Columbia the story is the
same. From the lower slopes
of Mt. Adams great rolling
bunch-grass downs and prai
ries reach far eastward. Here
and there, over these drier
stretches, stand single trees
or clusters of western juni
per (Juniperus occidentalis) .
But on the west slope of
the Cascades, and over the Coast range, the great forests spread in unbroken
array, save where wide valleys have been cleared by man or hillsides strip
ped by fire. Here, in the land of warm sea
winds and abundant moisture,the famous
Douglas fir (Pseudotsuga taxifolia), Pacific
red cedar (Thuja plicata) and tideland
spruce (Picea sitchensis) attain their great
est development. These are the monarchs
of the matchless Northwestern forests, to
which the markets of the world are look
ing more and more as the lines of exhausted
supply draw closer.
Douglas fir recalls by its name one
of the heroes of science, David Douglas, a
Scotch naturalist who explored these forests
nearly ninety years ago, and discovered
not only this particular giant of the
woods, but also the great sugar pine and
many other fine trees and plants. As a
pioneer botanist, searching the forest,
sawyers *£%*%££" a ,arge Douglas presented a surprising spectacle

Fifty-year-old Hemlock growing on Cedar log. The latter,
which was centuries old before it matured and fell, was
still sound enough to yield many thousand shingles.

132

THE GUARDIANS OF THE COLUMBIA

to the Indians. "The Man
of Grass" they called him,
when they came to under
stand that he was not bent
on killing the fur-bearing
animals for the profit to be
had from their pelts.
The splendid conifer which
woodsmen have called after
him is one of the kings of all
treeland. The most abundant
species of the Northwest, it is
also, commercially, the most
important. Sometimes reach
ing a height of more than 250
feet, it grows in remarkably
close stands, and covers vast
areas with valuable timber that
will keep the multiplying mills
of Oregon and Washington
sawing for generations. In
the dense shade of the forests,
it raises a straight and stalwart
trunk, clear of limb for a hun
dred feet or more . On the older
trees, its deeply furrowed bark
is often a foot thick. Trees
of eight feet diameter are at
least three hundred years old,
and rare ones, much larger,
have been cut showing an age
of more than five centuries.
To these areas of the great
est trees must come all who would know the real spirit of the forest, at once
beneficent and ruthless. Here nature selects the fittest. The struggle for soil
below and light above is relentless. The weakling, crowded and overshadowed,
inevitably deepens the forest floor with its fallen trunk, adding to the humus
that covers the lavas, and nourishing in its decay the more fortunate rival
that has robbed it of life. Here, too, with the architectural splendor of the
trees, one feels the truth of Bryant's familiar line:
The groves were God's first temples.
The stately evergreens raise their rugged crowns far toward the sky, arching
gothic naves that vault high over the thick undergrowth of ferns and vine
maples. In such scenes, it is easy to understand the woodsman's solace, of

Sugar Pine, Douglas Fir, and Yellow Pine.

THE FORESTS
which Herbert Bashford tells in his "Song of the
Forest Ranger:" I would hear the wild rejoicing
Of the wind-blown cedar tree,
Hear the sturdy hemlock voicing
Ancient epics of the sea.
Forest aisles would I be winding,
Out beyond the gates of Care;
And in dim cathedrals finding
Silence at the shrine of Prayer.
* * * *
Come and learn the joy of living!
Come and you will understand
How the sun his gold is giving
With a great, impartial hand!
How the patient pine is climbing,
Year by year to gain the sky;
How the rill makes sweetest rhyming
Where the deepest shadows lie!
Fir, spruce and cedar you will see along the
slopes of the Cascades in varying density and gran
deur, from thickets of slender trees reclaiming
fire-swept lands to broken ranks of patriarchs whose
crowns have swayed
before the storms of
centuries. Among
the foot hills, the pale
gray' 'grand"or white
firs (Abies grandis)
rear their domes
above the common
plane in quest of
light, occasionally
attaining a height of
275 feet, while the
lowly yew (Taxus
brevifolia), of which
the warrior of an
earlier time fashioned
his bow, overhangs
the noisy streams. In
the same habitat,
where the little rivers
debouch into the val
leys, you may see
the broad-leaf maple,
Oregon ash, cotton
wood, and a score of

133

HwiST ''.

Yellow Cedar, witb young Silver Fir.

COPYRIGHT, GIFFORD
One of the Kings of Treeland
— A Douglas Fir.

134

THE GUARDIANS OF THE COLUMBIA

Firs and Vine Maples in Washington Forest.

GHT, JAS. WAGGENER, JR.

lesser deciduous trees on which the filtered rays of sunshine play in softer tones.
Here and there in the Willamette valley you meet foothill yellow pine
(Pinus ponderosa var. benthamiana) , near relative of the western yellow
pine. Oregon oak (Quercus garryana) occurs sparingly throughout the valleys,
or reaches up the western foothills
of the Willamette, until it meets
the great unbroken forest of the
Coast Range.
The dense lower forests are never
gaily decked, so little sunlight enters.
But in early summer, back among
the mountains, you may find tangles
of half-prostrate rhododendron, from
which, far as the eye can reach, the
rose-pink gorgeous flowers give back
the tints of sunshine and the irides
cent hues of raindrops. Mingled with
the flush of "laurel" .blossoms are
nodding plumes of creamy squaw
grass, the beautiful xeroDhvllum
Towing a log raft out to sea, bound for the California % ' . Aciupujinum.
markets. Often this queenly upland flower

'Burn" on the slopes of Mount Hood, overgrown with Squaw Grass. Such fire-swept areas are quickly covered with mountain flowers, of which
this beautiful cream-colored plume is one of the most familiar. Its roots yield a fiber used by the Indians in making baskets.

136

THE GUARDIANS OF THE COLUMBIA

COPYRIGHT. GIFFORD
A Noble Fir.

covers great areas, hiding the desolation wrought by
forest fires. Its sheaves of fibrous rootstocks furnish
the Indian women material for their basket-making;
hence the most familiar of its many names. The varied
green of huckleberry bushes is everywhere. They are
the common ground cover.
In valley woodlands, the dogwood, here a tree of
fair proportions, lights up the somber forest with round,
white eyes that peer out through bursting leafbuds,
early harbingers of summer. The first blush of color
comes with the unfolding of the pink and red racemes
of flowering wild currant. Later, sweet syringa fills
the air with the breath of orange blossoms; and spirea,
the Indian arrowwood, hangs its tassels among the
forest trees or on the bushy hills. But the presence of
deciduous trees and shrubs, as well as their beauty, is
best known in autumn, when maples brighten the woods
with yellow rays; when dogwood and vine maple paint
the fire-scarred slopes a flaming red, and a host of other
color-bearers stain the cliffs with rich tints of saffron
and russet and brown.
Coming at last to
the rim of the forest,
you look out over the
sea, where go lumber-
laden ships to all the
world. Close by the
beach, dwarfed and
distorted by winds of
the ocean, and
nourished by its fogs,
north- coast pine
(Pinus contorta) ex
tends its prostrate
forms over the cliffs
and dunes of the shore,
just as your first ac
quaintance, the white-
bark pine, spreads
over the dunes and
ridges of the mount
ain. They are broth
ers of a noble race.
You have traversed
the wonder -forest Western Whlte Plne

THE FORESTS

137

A Clatsop Forest. On extreme right is a Silver Fir,
covered with moss; next are two fine Hemlocks,
with Tideland Spruce on left.

of the world, and on your journey
with the stream you may have
come to know twenty-three spe
cies of cone-bearers, all indigenous
to the Columbia country. Of these,
one is Douglas fir, nowise a true fir
but a combination of spruce and
hemlock; seven are pines, four true
firs, two spruces, two hemlocks, two
tamaracks or larches, two cedars,
two junipers, and the yew.
So many large and valuable trees
of so many varieties can be found
nowhere else. A Douglas fir growing
within the watershed of the Columbia
is twelve feet and seven inches in
diameter. A single stick 220 feet
long and 39 inches in diameter at
its base has been cut for a flagpole
in Clatsop county. A spruce twenty
feet in diameter has been measured.
Such immense types are rare, yet
in a day's tramp through the Columbia forests one may see many trees
upwards of eight feet in diameter. One acre in the Cowlitz river water
shed is said to bear twenty-two trees, each eight feet or more at its base.
Though no exact measurements can be cited, it is likely that upon dif
ferent single acres 400,000 feet, board measure, of standing timber may be
found. And back among the Cascades, upon one forty-acre tract, are
9,000,000 feet — enough to build a town. Manufactured, this body of timber
would be worth $135,000, of which about $100,000 would be paid to labor.
Along the Colum
bia you will hear
shrill signals of the
straining engines
that haul these gi
gantic trees to the
rafting grounds. Up
and down the broad
river ply steamboats
trailing huge log-
rafts to the mills.
Each year the log
ging railroads push
farther back among
A Carpet of Firs; 300,000 feet, cut on one acre in a Columbia forest. the mountains, tO

138

THE GUARDIANS OF THE COLUMBIA

Winter in the forest. Mount Hood seen from Government Camp road. Twenty feet of snow.
bring forth lumber for Australia, the Orient, South America, Europe and
Africa. Many of our own states, which a few years ago boasted "inexhaust
ible" forests, now draw from this supply.
Since 1905 Washington has been the leading lumber-producing state of
the Union, and Oregon has advanced, in one year, from ninth to fourth place.
The 1910 production of lumber in these states was 6,182,125,000 feet, or 15.4
per cent, of the total output of the United States. The same states, it is
estimated, have 936,800,000,000 feet of standing merchantable timber,
or a third of the country's total.
This is the heritage which the centuries of forest life have bequeathed.
Only the usufruct of it is rightfully ours. Even as legal owners, we are neverthe
less but trustees of that which was here before the coming of our race, and
which should be here in great quantity when our trails have led beyond the
range. Our duty is
plain. Let us uphold
every effort to give
meaning and power
to the civil laws
which say: "Thou
shalt not burn;" to
the moral laws which
say: "Thou shalt not
waste." Let us un
derstand and support
that Spirit Of COn-
Rangers' Pony Trail in forest of Douglas and Silver Firs. Servation which

THE FORESTS

139

demands for coming
generations the ful
lest measure of the
riches we enjoy. For
although the region
of the Columbia is
the home of the great
est trees, centuries
must pass ere the
seedlings of to-day
will stand matured.
Reforestation is in
dispensable as insur
ance. Let us see to
it that the untillable
hills shall ever bear these matchless forests, emerald settings for our snow-
peaks. On their future depends, in great degree, the future of the Northwest.
As protectors of the streams that nourish our valleys, and perennial treas
uries of power for our industries, they are guarantors of life and well-
being to the millions that will soon people the vast Columbia basin.

Forest Fire on east fork of Hood River. From a photograph taken at
Cloud Cap Inn five minutes after the fire started.

Reforestation — Three generations of young growth; Lodgepole Pine in foreground; Lodgepole and
Tamarack thicket on ridge at right; Tamarack on skyline.

NOTES
Transportation Routes, Hotels, Guides, etc.— The trip from Portland to north
side of Mount Hood is made by rail (Oregon-Washington Ry. & Nav. Co. from Union station)
or boat (The Dalles, Portland & Astoria Nav. Co. from foot of Alder street) to Hood River,
Ore. (66 miles), where automobiles are taken for Cloud Cap Inn. Fare, to Hood River, by
rail, $1.90; by boat, $1.00. Auto fare, Hood River to the Inn, $5.00. Round trip, Portland
to Inn and return, by rail, $12.50; by boat, $12.00. Board and room at Cloud Cap Inn, $5.00
a day, or $30.00 a week. Accommodations may be reserved at Travel Bureau, 69 Fifth street.
To Government Camp, south side of Mount Hood (56 miles), the trip is made by electric
cars to Boring, Oregon, and thence by automobile. Cars of the Portland Railway, Light &
Power Co., leave First and Alder streets for Boring (fare 40 cents), where they connect with
automobiles (fare to Government Camp, $5.00). Board and room at Coalman's Government
Camp hotel, $3.00 a day, or $18.00 a week.
Guides for the ascent of Mt. Hood, as well as for a variety of side trips, may be engaged
at Cloud Cap Inn and Government Camp. For climbing parties, the charge is $5.00 per
member. The trip to Mount Adams is by Spokane, Portland & Seattle ("North Bank") Railway
from North Bank station or by boat (as above) to White Salmon, Wash., connecting
with automobile or stage for Guler or Glenwood. Fare to White Salmon by rail, $2.25; round
trip, $3.25; fare by boat, $1.00. White Salmon to Guler, $3.00. Board and room at Chris.
Guler's hotel at Guler P. O., near Trout Lake, $1.50 a day, or $9.00 a week. Similar rates to
and at Glenwood. At either place, guides and horses may be engaged for the mountain trails
(15 miles to the snow-line). Bargain in advance.
The south side of Mount St. Helens is reached by rail from Union station, Portland, to
Yacolt (fare $1.30) or Woodland ($1.00), where conveyances may be had for Peterson's ranch
on Lewis River. To the north side, the best route is by rail to Castle Rock (fare, $1.90), and
by vehicle thence to Spirit Lake. Regular guides for the mountain are not to be had, but
the trails are well marked.
Automobile Roads. — Portland has many excellent roads leading out of the city, along the
Columbia and the Willamette. One of the most attractive follows the south bank of the
Columbia to Rooster Rock and Latourelle Falls (25 miles). As it is on the high bluffs for
much of the distance, it commands extended views of the river in each direction, and of
the snow-peaks east and north of the city. Return may be made via the Sandy River valley.
This road is now being extended eastward from Latourelle Falls to connect with the road
which is building westward from Hood River. When completed the highway will be one
of the great scenic roads of the world.
From Portland, several roads through the near-by villages lead to a junction with the
highway to Government Camp on the south side of Mount Hood (56 miles). The mountain
portion of this is the old Barlow Road of the "immigrant" days in early Oregon, and is now
a toll road. (Toll for vehicles, round trip, $2.50.) Supervisor T. H. Sherrard, of the Oregon
National Forest Service, is now building a road from the west boundary of the national forest,
at the junction of Zigzag and Sandy rivers, crossing Sandy canyon (see p. 71), following the
Clear Fork of the Sandy to the summit of the Cascades, crossing the range by the lowest pass
in the state (elevation, 3,300 feet), and continuing down Elk Creek and West Fork of Hood
River to a junction with the road from Lost Lake into Hood River valley. The completion
of this road through the forest reserve will open a return route from Hood River to the Gov
ernment Camp road, through a mountain district of the greatest interest.
Southward from Portland, inviting roads along the Willamette lead to Oregon City,
Salem, Eugene and Albany. From Portland westward, several good roads are available, leading

NOTES 141
along the Columbia or through Banks, Buxton and Mist to Astoria and the beach resorts
south of that city. North of the Columbia (ferry to Vancouver), a route of great interest
leads eastward along the Columbia to Washougal and the canyon of Washougal River (45
miles). From "Vancouver northward a popular road follows the Columbia to Woodland and
Kalama, and thence along the Cowlitz River to Castle Rock.
The tour book of the Portland Automobile Club, giving details of these and many other
roads, may be had for $1.50 in paper covers, or $2.50 in leather.
Bibliography. — The geological story of the Cascade uptilt and the formation of the
Columbia gorge is graphically told in Condon: Oregon Geology (Portland, J. K. Gill Co., 1910).
For the Columbia from its sources to the sea, Lyman: The Columbia River (New York, G. P.
Putnam's Sons, 1909) not only gives the best account of the river itself and its great basin
but tells the Indian legends and outlines the period of discovery and settlement. Irving:
Astoria and Winthrop: The Canoe and the Saddle are classics of the early Northwest. Balch:
Bridge of the Gods, weaves the Indian myth of a natural bridge into a story of love and war.
The literature of the mountains described in this volume is mainly to be found in the
publications of the mountain clubs, especially Mazama (Portland), The Sierra Club Bulletin
(San Francisco) and The Mountaineer (Seattle). Many of their papers have scientific value
as well as popular interest. It is to be hoped that the Mazamas will resume the publication
of their annual.
Russell : Glaciers of N. Am. p. 67 ; Emmons : Volcanoes of ihe U. S. Pacific Coast, in
Bulletin of Am. Geog. Soe, v. 9, p. 31 ; Sylvester : Is Mt. Hood Awakeningl in Nat'l Geog.
Mag., v. 19, p. 515, describe the glaciers of Mt. Hood. Prof. Reid has published valuable
accounts of both Hood and Adams, with especial reference to their glaciers, in Science, n.
s., v. 15, p. 906 ; Bui. Geol. Soe. of Am., v. 13, p. 536, and Zeitschrift fur Gletscherkunde,
v. 1, p. 113. An account of the volcanic activities of St. Helens by Lieut. C. P. Elliott, U. S.
A., may be found in U. S. Geog. Mag., v. 8, pp. 226, and by J. S. Diller in Science, v. 9, p. 639.
The ice caves of the Mt. Adams district are described in Balch: Glacieres, or Freezing Caverns,
which covers similar phenomena in many countries; by L. H. Wells, in Pacific Monthly, v. 13,
p. 234 ; by R. W. Raymond, mOverland Monthly, v. 3, p. 421; by H. T. Finck in Nation, v. 57, p. 342.
Dryer's account of the first ascent of Mt. St. Helens may be found in The Oregonian of
September 3, 1853, and his story of the first ascent of Mt. Hood in The Oregonian, August
19, 1854, and Littell's Living Age, v. 43, p. 321.
The Mountain Clubs. — For the following list of presidents and ascents of the Mazamas,
I am indebted to Miss Gertrude Metcalfe, historian of the club:
PRESIDENTS. OFFICIAL ASCENTS.
1894 Will G. Steel  Mt. Hood, Oregon.
1895 Will G. Steel— L. L. Hawkins  Mt. Adams, Washington
1896 C. H. Sholes  Mt. Mazama (named for the Mazamas, 1896), Mt. McLough-
lin (Pitt), Crater Lake, Oregon.
1897 Henry L. Pittock  Mt. Rainier, Washington.
1898 Hon. M. C. George  Mt. St. Helens, Washington.
1899 Will G. Steel  Mt. Sahale (named by the Mazamas, 1899), Lake Chelan, Wash.
1900 T. Brook White  Mt. Jefferson, Oregon.
1901 Mark O'Neill  Mt. Hood, Oregon.
1902 Mark O'Neill  Mt. Adams, Washington.
1903 R. L. Glisan  Three Sisters, Oregon.
1904 C. H. Sholes  Mt. Shasta, California.
1905 Judge H. H. Northup  Mt. Rainier, Washington.
1906 C. H. Sholes  Mt. Baker (Northeast side), Wash.
1907 C. H. Sholes  Mt. Jefferson, Oregon.
1908 C. H. Sholes  Mt. St. Helens, Washington.
1909 M. W. Gorman  Mt. Baker (Southwest side), and Shuksan, Washington.
1910 John A. Lee  Three Sisters, Oregon.
1911 H. H. Riddell  Glacier Peak, Lake Chelan, Wash.
1912 Edmund P. Sheldon  Mt. Hood, Oregon.

142 NOTES
The organization and success of the Portland Snow Shoe Club are mainly due to the enthu
siastic labors of its president, J. Wesley Ladd. Between 1901 and 1909, Mr. Ladd took a
private party of his friends each winter for snow shoeing and other winter sports to Cloud
Cap Inn or Government Camp. Three years ago it was determined to form a club and erect
a house near Cloud Cap Inn. The club was duly incorporated and a permit obtained from
the United States Forest Service. Mr. Ladd, who has been president of the club since its
formation, writes me:
"Our club house was started in July, 1910, and was erected by Mr. Mark Weygandt,
the worthy mountain guide who has conducted so many parties to the top of Mt. Hood. It
is built of white fir logs, all selected there in the forest. I have been told in a letter from the
Montreal Amateur Athletic Club of Montreal, Canada, that we have the most unique and
up-to-date Snow Shoe Club building in the world. The site for the house was selected by
Mr. Horace Mecklem and myself, who made a special trip up there. The building was finished
in September, 1910. It is forty feet long and twenty four feet wide, with a six-foot fireplace
and a large up-to-date cooking range. The organizers of the club are as follows: Harry L.
Corbett, Elliott R. Corbett, David T. Honeyman, Walter B. Honeyman, Rodney L. Glisan,
Dr. Herbert S. Nichols, Horace Mecklem, Brandt Wickersham, Jordan V. Zan, and myself."
The Portland Ski Club was organized six years ago, and has since made a trip to Govern
ment Camp in January or February of each year. The journey is made by vehicle until snow
is gained on the foothills, at Rhododendron; the remaining ten miles are covered on skis.
The presidents of the club have been : 1907, James A. Ambrose; 1908, George S. Luders;
1909, Howard H. Haskell; 1910, E. D. Jorgensen; 1911, G. R. Knight; 1912, John C. Cahalin.
The Mountaineers, a club organized in Seattle in 1907, made a noteworthy ascent of
Mount Adams in 1911.
Climate. — The weather conditions in the lower Columbia River region are a standing
invitation to outdoor life during a long and delightful summer. Western Oregon and Wash
ington know no extremes of heat or cold at any time of the year. The statistics here given
are from tables of the U. S. Weather Bureau, averaged for the period of government record:
Mean annual rainfall: Portland, 45.1 inches; The Dalles, 19 inches. Portland averages
164 days with .01 of an inch precipitation during the year, and The Dalles 74 days; but the
long and comparatively dry summer is indicated by the fact that only 27 of these days at
Portland and 15 at The Dalles fell in the summer months, June to September inclusive.
Mean annual temperature varies little between the east and west sides of the Cascades,
Portland having a 57-year average of 52.8° as compared with 52.5° at The Dalles. But
the range of temperature is greater in the interior. Thus the mean monthly temperature
for January, the coldest month, is 38.7° at Portland and 32.6° at The Dalles, while for July,
the hottest month, it is 67.3° at Portland and 72.6° at The Dalles.
While mountain weather must always be an uncertain quantity, that of the Northwestern
snow-peaks is comparatively steady, owing to the dry summer of the lowlands. During
July and August, the snow-storms of the Alps are almost unknown here. After the middle
of September, however, when the rains have begun, a visitor to the snow-line is liable to
encounter weather very like that recorded by a belated tourist at Zermatt:
First it rained and then it blew,
And then it friz and then it snew,
And then it fogged and then it thew;
And very shortly after then
It blew and friz and snew again.
Erratum.— On page 72, I have been misled by Dryer's statement into crediting the first
ascent of Mount Hood to Captin Samuel K. Barlow, the road builder. The mountain climber
was his son, William Barlow, as I am informed by Mr. George H. Himes, of the Oregon His
torical Society.

INDEX
Figures in light face type refer to the text, those in heavier type to illustrations.

Adams, Mt., Indian legend of its
origin, 43; routes to, 66, 67;
structure and glaciers, 89-104;
lava flows, 93-97; tree casts, 94;
caves, 94-96; routes to summit,
96-100; name, 103; height, 104;
first ascent, 104; views of, 8,
15, 17, 31, 63, 86-107.
Adams glacier, Mt. Adams, 100,
103, 104, 106
Alps, character and scenery, 60
Archer Mountain, 29
Arrowhead Mountain, 29, 31
Astoria, 51, 16, 21
Automobile roads, 140
Avalanche glacier, Mt. Adams, 100,
107
' Barlow, William, ascent of Mt.
Hood, 72, 79, 142
Barlow road, 70, 142, 78
Barrett Spur, 86, 67, 69, 75
Bibliography, 141
Blue Mountains, 18, 24
"Bridge of the Gods," Indian
legend, 36-43; 21, 35
Bryce, James, on Northwestern
mountains, 60
Cabbage Rock, 47
Cape Horn, 19
Carbon glacier, 102
Cascade locks, 39
Cascade Mountains, 18, 24, 25, 28,
30, 58-66
Castle Rock (Columbia River), 28,
29, 31
Castle Rock, Wash., 106.
Cedars, group of red, 128
Celilo Falls (Tumwater), 52, 54
Chelatchie Prairie, 114
Chinook wind, Indian legend of
its origin, 46-48
Climate, 142
Cloud Cap Inn, 15, 67, 78, 57, 58,
60, 66
Coast Range, 58
Coe glacier, Mt. Hood, 78, 80, 83-
86, 69, 72, 75
Columbia River, John Muir's de
scription, 15; dawn on, 15-23;
its gorge, 30; Indian legends of
its origin, 36-43; its discovery
by Capt. Gray, 51; struggle for
its ownership, 50-52; its settle
ment, 52; views of 7, 9, 14-52,
56, 109
Columbia Slough, 18, 21
"Coming of the White Man,"
statue, 23
Cooper Spur, Mt. Hood, 79, 80, 87,
57-60
Crater Rock, 81, 87, 77, 80
Dalles, The, 18, 39, 96, 107, 46,
47, 49
Douglas David. 131
Douglas firs, 131, 132, 122, 130,
132, 133
Dryer, T. J., 72, 115
Eliot glacier, Mt. Hood, 15, 67,
78, 83-86, 17, 58-67, 73, 92
Forest, on lava beds, 94, 107-112,
111
"Forests, The," chapter bv Har
old Douglas Langille, 123-139,
122-139
Forsyth, C. E., leader in rescue on
Mt. St. Helens, 121
Glacieres, freezing caves, 95, 96, 87
Glenwood, Wash., 68, 96
Goldendale, Wash., 68
Government Camp, 68, 70, 140, 142,
78, 81
"Grant Castle," on the Columbia,
46

Gray, Capt. Robert, 51
Guler, Wash., 68, 96, 89, 90
Hellroaring Canyon, 103, 95, 96, 97
Hood, Mt., dawn on, 15; Indian
legend of its origin, 43; John
Muir on, 57; routes to, 66-70;
first ascent, 72. 75; height, 75,
76; the Mazamas organized on
summit, 75; structure and gla
ciers, 75-89; summit, 80, 6, 55,
70; crater, 81, 82, 77; lava bed,
89; views of 6, 14, 17, 21, 57-85,
123, 124, 138
Hood River, 43, 85
Hood River (city), Ore., 67, 140,
43, 109
Hood River Valley, 18, 63, 66, 67,
44
Hudson's Bay Company, 51
Ice caves, 95, 96, 87
Illumination Rock, 81 77, 79
Indians, legend of the creation, 32
"Bridge of the Gods," 36-43
origin of the Chinook wind, 46-48
value of their place names, 104
Leschi, first Indian to scale a
snow-peak, 115; 21, 23, 26, 30,
44, 50, 52
Japan current, 46
Jefferson, Mt., 104, 83
Kelley, Hall J., 103
Klickitat glacier, Mt. Adams, 97-
103; 9.4, 97-100
Klickitat River, 68, 144
Ladd glacier, Mt. Hood, 78, 80,
83-86, 69, 75
Langille, Harold Douglas, "The
Forests," 123-139.
Langille, William A, 80
Lava beds, tree casts, caves, etc.,
near Mt. Adams, 89-96, 86, 87;
near Mt. St. Helens, 107-112, 111,
112; struggle of the forest to
cover, 108-112, 111
Lava glacier, Mt. Adams, 100, 101-
104
Lewis and Clark, exploration, 51
Lewis River, 106, 107, 108
Lily, the Mt. Hood, 81
Lone Rock, 19, 29
Loowit, the witch woman, 41-43
Lyle, Wash, 68, 9, 45
Lyman glaciers, Mt. Adams, 100,
101
Lyman, Prof. W. D„ 51, 82, 303
Mazama glacier, Mt. Adams, 97,
100, 94, 96
Mazama Rock, Mt. Hood, 70
Mazamas, mountain club, organiza
tion, 75; ascents of Mt. St.
Helens, 116; an heroic rescue,
120, 121; presidents, 142; as
cents, 142; 80, 82, 93, 117, 184
Memaloose Island, 42
Mountains, importance in scenery,
59
"Mountain that was 'God,' " 105
Mountaineers, The, 142, 103
Multnomah Palls, 26, 27, 28
Newton Clark glacier, Mt. Hood,
79, 87, 83, 84
Noble fir, 129, 130, 125, 130, 136
North Yakima, Wash., 68
Oneonta gorge, 30, 32
Oregon, its geological story, 23-
32; its settlement, 50-54
Peterson's, near Mt. St. Helens,
106, 107
Plummer, Fred G., 115
Pinnacle glacier, Mt. Adams, 100,
106, 107
Portland, Ore., 57, 140, 7, 22, 61,
113

Portland Automobile Club, 70, 140
Portland Ski Club, 142, 81
Portland Snow-shoe Club, 142, 57,
62, 66
"Presidents' Range," 104
Puget Sound, 27
Rainier, Mt. or Mt. Tacoma, and
Rainier National Park, 83, 102,
51, 105, 113, 117
Red Butte, Mt. Adams, 86
Reforestation, 139
Reid, Prof. Harry Fielding, 87, 103,
79
Rhododendrons, 134, 127
Ridge of Wonders, Mt. Adams,
103, 96, a8, 99
Riley, Frank B., 120, 121
Rocky Mountains, 23
Rooster Rock, 25
Rusk, C E, 103
Rusk glacier, Mt. Adams, 100, 102,
98, 101
Ruskin, John, quoted, 59, 60, 123
"Sacajawea," statue, 23
Sacramento Valley, origin, 26
Salmon fishing, 16, 25, 33, 36, 48
Sandy glaciers and canyon, Mt.
Hood, 86, 87, 71, 76
Sandy, Ore., 61
San Joaquin Valley, origin, 21
Shaw, Col. B F., 104
Siskiyou Mountains, 24
South Butte, Mt. Adams, 96, 89
Speelyei, the coyote god, 32, 47
Spirit Lake, 106, 4
Squaw grass, 134, 135
Steel's Cliff, 81, 91
St. Helens, Mt., Indian legend of
its origin, 43; compared with Mt.
Adams, 90, 94; discovery and
name, 104; structure, 104-6;
height, 106; routes to, 106; re
cent eruptions, 106, 107; lava
beds, 107-112; glaciers, 112-115;
routes to summit, 112-116; vol
canic phenomena, 115: first as
cent, 115; the Mazamas on, 116,
120, 121; an heroic rescue, 120,
121; views of, 4, 8, 15, 17, 108-
121
St. Peter's Dome, 20, 31
Sylvester, A. H., 86, 87
Table Mountain, 31, 35, 36
Toutle River canyons, Mt. St.
Helens, 115, 116
Tree casts, 94, 107, 111
Trout Lake, 15, 62, 66, 76, 89, 110
Umatilla, Ore., 62
Umatilla Indian village, 50
Vancouver, Capt. George. 72, 104
Vancouver, Wash., 106, 15, 24
Volcanoes, 27, 28
White River glacier, Mt. Hood, 81,
75. 77, 82
White Salmon, Wash., 67, 140, 42,
44
White Salmon glacier, Mt. Adams,
100, 107
White Salmon River, 41
White Salmon Valley, 56, 89
Willamette River, 21, 57, 9, 113
Wind Mountain, 39, 40
Woodland, Wash., 106, 140
Yacolt, Wash., 106, 140
Yakima Indians, 48, 21
Y. M. C. A., party on Mt. Hood,
76; on Mt. Adams, 86
Yocum, 0. C„ 70
Zigzag glacier, Mt. Hood, 81, 87,
77, 79
Zigzag River and Canyon, 86, 87,
48, 78

Klickitat River Canyon, near Mount Adams.

ENGRAVINGS BY THE HiCKS-CHATTEN CO
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PORTLAND. OREGON