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Cascade Range
Cascade Mountains (in Canada) "The Cascades"
Cascades in Washington, with Mount Rainier in the background
Highest point
Peak	Mount Rainier
Elevation	14,411 ft (4,392 m)
Coordinates	46°51′1.9″N 121°45′35.6″W / 46.850528°N 121.759889°W / 46.850528; -121.759889Coordinates: 46°51′1.9″N 121°45′35.6″W / 46.850528°N 121.759889°W / 46.850528; -121.759889
Dimensions
Length	700 mi (1,100 km) north-south
Width	80 mi (130 km)
Geography
Countries	United States and Canada
Provinces/States	Oregon, Washington, California and British Columbia
Geology
Period	Pliocene

The Cascade Range (or Cascades) is a major mountain range of western North America, extending from southern British Columbia through Washington and Oregon to Northern California. It includes both non-volcanic mountains, such as the North Cascades, and the notable volcanoes known as the High Cascades. The small part of the range in British Columbia is referred to as the Canadian Cascades or, locally, as the Cascade Mountains. The latter term is also sometimes used by Washington residents to refer to the Washington section of the Cascades in addition to North Cascades, the more usual American term, as in North Cascades National Park.

The Cascades are part of the Pacific Ring of Fire, the ring of volcanoes and associated mountains around the Pacific Ocean. All of the known historic eruptions in the contiguous United States have been from Cascade volcanoes. The two most recent were Lassen Peak in 1914 to 1921 and a major eruption of Mount St. Helens in 1980. Minor eruptions of Mount St. Helens have also occurred since, most recently in 2006.^[1]

Geography[link]

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Map of the Cascade Range showing major volcanic peaks.

The Cascades extend from Lassen Peak (also known as Mount Lassen) in northern California to the confluence of the Nicola and Thompson Rivers in British Columbia. The Fraser River separates the Cascades from the Coast Mountains.^[2] The highest volcanoes of the Cascades are called the High Cascades^{[citation needed]} and dominate their surroundings, often standing twice the height of the nearby mountains. They often have a visual height (height above nearby crestlines) of 1 mi (1.6 km) or more. The highest peaks, such as the 14,411 ft (4,392 m) high Mount Rainier, dominate their surroundings for 50 to 100 mi (80 to 160 km).

The northern part of the range, north of Mount Rainier, is known as the North Cascades in the United States but is formally named the Cascade Mountains north of the Canada – United States border, reaching to the northern extremity of the Cascades at Lytton Mountain. Overall, the North Cascades and southwestern Canadian Cascades are extremely rugged, with many of the lesser peaks steep and glaciated, with valleys quite low relative to its peaks and ridges, resulting in great local relief.^{[citation needed]} The southern part of the Canadian Cascades, particularly the Skagit Range, is geologically and topographically similar to the North Cascades, while the northern and northeastern parts are less glaciated and more plateau-like in character, resembling nearby areas of the Thompson Plateau.^{[citation needed]}

Because of the range's proximity to the Pacific Ocean and the region's prevailing westerly winds, precipitation is substantial, especially on the western slopes, with annual accumulations of up to 150 in (3,800 mm) in some areas. For example, Mount Baker recorded the largest single-season snowfall on record in the world in 1999&, with heavy snowfall as low as 2,000 ft (610 m).^{[citation needed]} It is not uncommon for some places in the Cascades to have over 200 in (5,100 mm) of snow accumulation, such as at Lake Helen (near Lassen Peak), one of the snowiest places in the world.^{[citation needed]} Most of the High Cascades are therefore white with snow and ice year-round. The western slopes are densely covered with Douglas-fir, Western Hemlock and Red alder, while the drier eastern slopes are mostly Ponderosa Pine, with Western Larch at higher elevations. Annual rainfall drops to 9 in (230 mm) on the eastern foothills due to a rainshadow effect.

Beyond the foothills is an arid plateau that was created 16 million years ago as a coalescing series of layered flood basalt flows. Together, these sequences of fluid volcanic rock form a 200,000 sq mi (520,000 km²) region out of eastern Washington, Oregon, and parts of Northern California and Idaho called the Columbia River Plateau.

The Columbia River Gorge is the only major break in the American part of the Cascades. When the Cascades started to rise 7 million years ago in the Pliocene, the Columbia River drained the relatively low Columbia River Plateau. As the range grew, erosion from the Columbia River was able to keep pace, creating the gorge and major pass seen today. The gorge also exposes uplifted and warped layers of basalt from the plateau.^{[citation needed]}

History[link]

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In the spring of 1792 British navigator George Vancouver entered Puget Sound and started to give English names to the high mountains he saw. Mount Baker was named for Vancouver's third lieutenant, and the graceful Mount St. Helens for a famous diplomat. Mount Hood was named in honor of Samuel Hood, 1st Viscount Hood (an admiral of the Royal Navy), while the highest Cascade, Mount Rainier, is the namesake of Admiral Peter Rainier. Vancouver's expedition did not, however, name the mountain range which contained these peaks. As marine trade in the Strait of Georgia and Puget Sound proceeded in the 1790s and beyond, the summits of Rainier and Baker became familiar to captains and crews (mostly British and American over all others, but not exclusively).^{[citation needed]}

In 1805 the Lewis and Clark Expedition passed through the Cascades by using the Columbia River, which for many years was the only practical way to pass that part of the range. Trade on the lower Columbia River did not occur until after Lewis and Clark in 1806, more specifically as a result of David Thompson's visit on behalf of the North West Company shortly afterwards, and Simon Fraser's journey down the Fraser in 1808. The Lewis and Clark expedition, and the many settlers and traders that followed, met their last obstacle to their journey at the Cascades Rapids in the Columbia River Gorge, a feature on the river now submerged beneath the Bonneville Reservoir. Before long, the great white-capped mountains that loomed above the rapids were called the "mountains by the cascades" and later simply as the "Cascades". The earliest attested use of the name "Cascade Range" is in the writings of botanist David Douglas.^[3] On their return trip Lewis and Clark's group spotted a high but distant snowy pinnacle that they named for the sponsor of the expedition, U.S. President Thomas Jefferson.^{[citation needed]}

Mount Rainier, with Tacoma, Washington in foreground

Central Washington Cascades

In 1814 Alexander Ross, a fur trader with the North West Company, seeking a viable route across the mountains, explored and crossed the northern Cascades between Fort Okanogan and Puget Sound. His report of the journey is vague about the route taken. He followed the lower Methow River into the mountains. He might have used Cascade Pass to reach the Skagit River. Ross was the first European-American to explore the Methow River area and likely the first to explore the Stehekin River and Bridge Creek region. Due to the difficulty of crossing the northern Cascades and the paucity of beaver, fur-trading companies made only a few explorations into the mountains north of the Columbia River after Ross.^[4]

Exploration and settlement of the Cascades region by Europeans and Americans was accelerated by the establishment of a major trading post of the Hudson's Bay Company at Fort Vancouver near today's Portland, Oregon. From this base, Hudson's Bay Company trapping parties traveled throughout the Cascades in search of beaver and other fur-bearing animals. For example, using what became known as the Siskiyou Trail, Hudson's Bay Company trappers were the first non-natives to explore the southern Cascades in the 1820s and 1830s, establishing trails which passed near Crater Lake, Mount McLoughlin, Medicine Lake Volcano, Mount Shasta, and Lassen Peak.^{[citation needed]}

The course of political history in the Pacific Northwest saw the spine of the Cascade Range being proposed as a boundary settlement during the Oregon Dispute of 1846. The United States rejected the proposal and insisted on the 49th parallel north, which cuts across the range just north of Mount Baker. Throughout the period of dispute and up to the creation of the Crown Colony of British Columbia in 1858, the Hudson's Bay Company's York Factory Express route, as well the route of fur brigades, followed the Okanogan River along the east edge of the Cascades and the Columbia River through the range. Passes across the range were not well known and little used. Naches Pass was used for driving cattle and horses to Fort Nisqually. Yakima Pass was also used by the Hudson's Bay Company.^[5] The vast majority of non-native residents of the Cascade Range region until about 1840 were British subjects, most of mixed French-native blood and some Hawaiians and blacks as well as Scots who were the backbone of Hudson's Bay Company administration.^{[citation needed]}

Mount Shasta from Siskiyou Trail.

Lassen Peak in California.

American settlement of the flanks of the Coast Range did not occur until the early 1840s, at first only marginally. Following the Oregon Treaty the inward flux of migration from the Oregon Trail intensified and the passes and back-valleys of what is now the state of Washington were explored and populated, and it was not long after that railways followed. Despite its being traversed by several major freeways and rail lines, and its lower flanks subjected to major logging in recent decades, large parts of the range remain intense and forbidding alpine wilderness. Most of the northern half of the High Cascades, from Rainier north, have been preserved by US national or British Columbia provincial parks (such as E.C. Manning Provincial Park), or other forms of protected area.^{[citation needed]}

The Canadian side of the range has a history that includes the Fraser Canyon Gold Rush of 1858-60 and its famous Cariboo Road, as well as the older Hudson's Bay Company Brigade Trail from the Canyon to the Interior, the Dewdney Trail, and older routes which connected east to the Similkameen and Okanagan valleys.

The southern mainline of the Canadian Pacific Railway penetrated the range via the passes of the Coquihalla River, along one of the steepest and snowiest routes in the entire Pacific Cordillera. Near Hope, B.C., the railway roadbed and the Othello Tunnels, now decommissioned, are popular tourist recreation destinations for hiking and bicycling. The pass is used by the Coquihalla Highway, a government megaproject built as part of the Expo 86 spending boom of the 1980s, which is now the main route from the Coast to the British Columbia interior. Traffic formerly went via the Fraser Canyon, to the west, or via Allison Pass and Manning Park along Highway 3 to the south, near the border.

The Barlow Road was the first established land path for U.S. settlers through the Cascade Range in 1845, and formed the final overland link for the Oregon Trail (previously, settlers had to raft down the treacherous rapids of the Columbia River). The Barlow Road left the Columbia at Hood River and passed along the south side of Mount Hood at Government Camp, terminating in Oregon City. There is an interpretive site there now at "The End of The Oregon Trail." The road was constructed as a toll road — $5/wagon — and was very successful.

In addition, the Applegate Trail was created to allow settlers to avoid rafting down the Columbia River. The Applegate Trail used the path of the California Trail to north-central Nevada. From there, the Applegate Trail headed northwest into northern California, and continued northwest towards today's Ashland, Oregon. From there, settlers would head north along the established Siskiyou Trail into the Willamette Valley.

Cascade eruptions in the last 4000 years

Geology of the Cascade Range-related plate tectonics.

With the exception of the 1915 eruption of remote Lassen Peak in Northern California, the range was quiet for more than a century. Then, on May 18, 1980, the dramatic eruption of little-known Mount St. Helens shattered the quiet and brought the world's attention to the range. Geologists were also concerned that the St. Helens eruption was a sign that long-dormant Cascade volcanoes might become active once more, as in the period from 1800 to 1857 when a total of eight erupted. None have erupted since St. Helens, but precautions are being taken nevertheless, such as the Mount Rainier Volcano Lahar Warning System in Pierce County, Washington.^[6]

Geology[link]

The Cascades include active volcanic activity, such as with the May 1980 eruption of Mount St. Helens. The tectonics of the region has been extensively studied to help describe the extent of the shifting and volcanic problems.

Human uses and legends[link]

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Soil conditions for farming are generally good, especially downwind of volcanoes. This is largely due to the fact that volcanic rocks are often rich in potassium bearing minerals such as Orthoclase and decay easily. Volcanic debris, especially lahars, also have a leveling effect and the storage of water in the form of snow and ice is also important. These snow capped mountains such as Mt. Hood and Mt.Bachelor are used as ski resorts in the late winter. Much of that water eventually flows into reservoirs where it is used for recreation before its potential energy is captured to generate hydroelectric power before being used to irrigate crops.

Because of the abundance of powerful streams, many of the major westward rivers off the Cascades have been dammed to provide hydroelectric power. One of these, Ross Dam on the Skagit River, created a reservoir which spans the border southeast of Hope, British Columbia, extending into Canada 2 mi (3.2 km). At the foot of the southeast flank of Mount Baker, at Concrete, Washington, the Baker River is dammed to form Lake Shannon and Baker Lake.

In addition, there is a largely untapped amount of geothermal power that can be generated from the Cascades. The USGS Geothermal Research Program has been investigating this potential. Some of this energy is already being used in places like Klamath Falls, Oregon where volcanic steam is used to heat public buildings.^{[citation needed]} The highest recorded temperature found in the range is 510 °F (266 °C) at 3,075 ft (937 m) below Newberry Volcano's caldera floor.

Indigenous peoples have inhabited the area for thousands of years and developed their own myths and legends concerning the Cascades. In these legends, St. Helens with its pre-1980 graceful appearance, was regarded as a beautiful maiden for whom Hood and Adams feuded.^[7] Native tribes also developed their own names for the High Cascades and many of the smaller peaks, including "Tahoma", the Lushootseed name for Mount Rainier;^[8] and "Louwala-Clough", meaning "smoking mountain" for Mount St. Helens.^[7]

Ecology[link]

Oval-leaf Blueberry on Mount Pilchuck

There is a wide range of flora and fauna inhabiting the Cascade Range. The southern part of the Cascades are within what Conservation International defines as the California Floristic Province, an area of high biodiversity.

Black bears, coyotes, bobcats, cougars, Beavers, deer, and elk live in the Cascades, and in the northern mountains, Grizzly bears.

Most of the Cascades' lower and middle elevations are covered in coniferous forest and temperate rainforest; the higher altitudes have areas of alpine tundra and glaciers. Common trees include Western hemlock and Douglas fir.

See also[link]

• Cascade volcanoes
• Cascadia subduction zone
• Geology of the Pacific Northwest
• North Cascades
• List of mountain ranges in Washington
• Cascadia (independence movement)
• List of Cascade range topics

Notes[link]

References[link]

• Harris, Stephen L. (2005). Fire Mountains of the West: The Cascade and Mono Lake Volcanoes (3rd ed.). Mountain Press Publishing Company. ISBN 0-87842-511-X. 
• Wood, Charles A.; Jürgen Kienle, eds. (1990). Volcanoes of North America. Cambridge University Press. ISBN 0-521-43811-X. 
• Fred Beckey. 1973. Cascade Alpine Guide (3 vols.) (The Mountaineers, Seattle).
• Dzurisin, Dan; Peter H. Stauffer and James W. Hendley II (1997, revised 2000). Living With Volcanic Risk in the Cascades. United States Geological Survey. http://pubs.usgs.gov/fs/1997/fs165-97/. 
• Holland, Stuart S. (1976). Landforms of British Columbia: A Physiographic Outline (Bulletin 48). British Columbia Department of Mines and Petroleum Resources. Archived from the original on 2005-05-04. http://web.archive.org/web/20050504055451/http://www.em.gov.bc.ca/Mining/geolsurv/Publications/Bulletins/Bull48/toc.htm. 

External links[link]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Cascade Range

• Central and Southern Cascades Forests images at bioimages.vanderbilt.edu
• Eastern Cascades Forests images at bioimages.vanderbilt.edu
• Cascade Mountains Leeward Forests images at bioimages.vanderbilt.edu
• British Columbia Mainland Coastal Forests images at bioimages.vanderbilt.edu
• University of Washington Libraries Digital Collections – Dwight Watson Photographs Photographs taken by mountaineer and amateur photographer Dwight Watson of hiking and skiing expeditions in the Cascade and Olympic Mountain ranges of Washington State, ca. 1920s-1960s. Includes, among others, scenic images of Mounts Rainier, Baker, Adams, and Glacier Peak.

Mount Shasta
Mount Shasta from the south, taken near Dunsmuir, California
Elevation	14,179 ft (4,322 m) NAVD 88[1]
Prominence	9,822 ft (2,994 m)[2] Ranked 96th
Parent peak	North Palisade[2]
Listing	Ultra
Location
Mount Shasta California
Location	Siskiyou County, California, U.S.
Range	Cascade Range
Coordinates	41°24′33.11″N 122°11′41.60″W / 41.4091972°N 122.194889°W / 41.4091972; -122.194889Coordinates: 41°24′33.11″N 122°11′41.60″W / 41.4091972°N 122.194889°W / 41.4091972; -122.194889[1]
Topo map	USGS Mount Shasta
Geology
Type	Stratovolcano
Age of rock	About 593,000 years
Volcanic arc	Cascade Volcanic Arc
Last eruption	1786[3]
Climbing
First ascent	1854 by E. D. Pearce and party[4]
Easiest route	Avalanche Gulch ("John Muir") route: talus/snow climb[4]

Mount Shasta (Úytaahkoo in Karuk or "White Mountain": the origin of the name "Shasta" is vague, perhaps from Russian (Чистая, means "white, clean, pure" or Счастье, means "happiness, luck, fortune, felicity") from the early Russian settlers in California) is located at the southern end of the Cascade Range in Siskiyou County, California and at 14,179 feet (4,322 m)^[1] is the second highest peak in the Cascades and the fifth highest in California. Mount Shasta has an estimated volume of 85 cubic miles (350 km³) which makes it the most voluminous stratovolcano in the Cascade Volcanic Arc.^[5][6]

The mountain and its surrounding area are managed by the U.S. Forest Service, Shasta-Trinity National Forest.

Descriptions[link]

Due to its relative isolation, Mount Shasta has a high degree of vertical relief and is the second-most prominent peak in California. Here it is seen from Interstate 5 near Yreka.

Mount Shasta is not connected to any nearby mountain and dominates the northern California landscape. It rises abruptly and stands nearly 10,000 ft (3,000 m) above the surrounding terrain. On a clear day, Mount Shasta can be seen from about 150 miles (240 km) away. The mountain has attracted the attention of poets, authors, and presidents. Mount Shasta was described by the poet Joaquin Miller:

"Lonely as God, and white as a winter moon, Mount Shasta starts up sudden and solitary from the heart of the great black forests of Northern California."^[7]

Naturalist and author John Muir said of Mount Shasta:

"When I first caught sight of it over the braided folds of the Sacramento Valley, I was fifty miles away and afoot, alone and weary. Yet all my blood turned to wine, and I have not been weary since."^[8]

Theodore Roosevelt said:

"I consider the evening twilight on Mt. Shasta one of the grandest sights I have ever witnessed."^[9]

Geology and climate[link]

Aerial view of Mount Shasta from the west.

The mountain consists of four overlapping volcanic cones which have built a complex shape, including the main summit and the prominent satellite cone of 12,330 ft (3,760 m) Shastina, which has a visibly conical form. If Shastina were a separate mountain, it would rank as the fourth-highest peak of the Cascade Range (after Mt. Rainier, Rainier's Liberty Cap, and Mt. Shasta itself).

Mount Shasta's surface is relatively free of deep glacial erosion except, paradoxically, for its south side where Sargents Ridge^[10] runs parallel to the U-shaped Avalanche Gulch. This is the largest glacial valley on the volcano, although it does not presently have a glacier in it. There are seven named glaciers on Mount Shasta, with the four largest (Whitney, Bolam, Hotlum, and Wintun) radiating down from high on the main summit cone to below 10,000 ft (3,000 m) primarily on the north and east sides.^[4] The Whitney Glacier is the longest and the Hotlum is the most voluminous glacier in the state of California. Three of the smaller named glaciers occupy cirques near and above 11,000 ft (3,400 m) on the south and southeast sides, including the Watkins, Konwakiton, and Mud Creek Glaciers.

There are many buried glacial scars on the mountain which were originally created in recent glacial periods ("ice ages") of the present Wisconsinian glaciation. Most have since been filled in with andesite lava, pyroclastic flows, and talus from lava domes. Shastina, by comparison, has a fully intact summit crater indicating that Shastina developed after the last ice age.

Northern side of Mount Shasta

About 593,000 years ago, andesitic lavas erupted in what is now Mount Shasta's western flank near McBride Spring. Over time, an ancestral Mount Shasta stratovolcano was built to a large but unknown height; sometime between 300,000 and 360,000 years ago the entire north side of the volcano collapsed, creating an enormous landslide or debris avalanche, 6.5 cu mi (27 km³)^[11] in volume. The slide flowed northwestward into Shasta Valley, where the Shasta River now cuts through the 28-mile-long (45 km) flow.

What remains of the oldest of Mount Shasta's four cones is exposed at Sargents Ridge on the south side of the mountain. Lavas from the Sargents Ridge vent cover the Everitt Hill shield at Mount Shasta's southern foot. The last lavas to erupt from the vent were hornblende-pyroxene andesites with a hornblende dacite dome at its summit. Glacial erosion has since modified its shape.

The next cone to form is exposed south of Mount Shasta's current summit and is called Misery Hill. It was formed 15,000 to 20,000 years ago from pyroxene andesite flows and has since been intruded by a hornblende dacite dome.

Nearby Black Butte from Weed, California

Since then the Shastina cone has been built by mostly pyroxene andesite lava flows. Some 9,500 years ago, these flows reached about 6.8 mi (10.9 km) south and 3 mi (4.8 km) north of the area now occupied by nearby Black Butte. The last eruptions formed Shastina's present summit about a hundred years later. But before that, Shastina, along with the then forming Black Butte dacite plug dome complex to the west, created numerous pyroclastic flows that covered 43 sq mi (110 km²), including large parts of what is now Mount Shasta, California and Weed, California. Diller Canyon (400 ft (120 m) deep and 0.25 mi (400 m) wide) is an avalanche chute that was probably carved into Shastina's western face by these flows.

The last to form, and the highest cone, the Hotlum Cone, formed about 8,000 years ago. It is named after the Hotlum glacier on its northern face; its longest lava flow, the 500 ft-thick (150 m) Military Pass flow, extends 5.5 mi (8.9 km) down its northwest face. Since the creation of the Hotlum Cone, a dacite dome intruded the cone and now forms the summit. The rock at the 600 ft-wide (180 m) summit crater has been extensively hydrothermally altered by sulfurous hot springs and fumaroles there (only a few examples still remain).

In the last 8,000 years, the Hotlum Cone has erupted at least eight or nine times. About 200 years ago the last significant Mount Shasta eruption came from this cone and created a pyroclastic flow, a hot lahar (mudflow), and three cold lahars, which streamed 7.5 mi (12.1 km) down Mount Shasta's east flank via Ash Creek. A separate hot lahar went 12 mi (19 km) down Mud Creek. This eruption was observed by the explorer La Pérouse, from his ship off the California coast, in 1786.^[3]

Climbing and recreation[link]

Mount Shasta Alpine Lodge at Horse Camp on Mount Shasta. Avalanche Gulch is to the right of the chimney.

Mount Shasta's west face. June 2009

Many climbers attempt the summit of Mount Shasta. The summer climbing season runs from late April until October, although many attempts are made in the winter. The most popular route is Avalanche Gulch, also known as the John Muir Route. It begins at a Sierra Club Foundation hut known as the Mount Shasta Alpine Lodge at Horse Camp, at elevation 7,900 ft (2,400 m) on the southwest side of the mountain, near the tree line. It involves 6,300 ft (1,900 m) of vertical gain over moraines and snowfields, with some danger from rockfall and a bergschrund.^[4] Climbers should possess ice axes, crampons, helmets, and self-arrest skills and be well-prepared for harsh conditions. Climbers are required to pay $20 for a 3-day summit pass, or $30 for an annual pass.^[12] Hiking trails also exist in areas around the base of the mountain.^[4]

In winter, Sargents Ridge and Casaval Ridge, to the east and west of Avalanche Gulch^[13] respectively, become the most traveled routes, to avoid avalanche danger. Mount Shasta is also a popular destination for backcountry skiing. Many of the climbing routes can be descended by experienced skiers, and there are numerous lower-angled areas around the base of the mountain.^[4]

Volcanic hazards[link]

Diller Canyon on Shastina from Weed, California; pyroclastic flows and other volcanic deposits are under the towns of Weed and nearby Mount Shasta.

During the last 10,000 years Mount Shasta has erupted an average of every 800 years but in the past 4,500 years the volcano has erupted an average of every 600 years. The last significant eruption on Mount Shasta may have occurred about two centuries ago.

Mount Shasta can release volcanic ash, pyroclastic flows or dacite and andesite lava. Its deposits can be detected under nearby small towns totaling 20,000 in population. Mount Shasta has an explosive, eruptive history. There are fumaroles on the mountain, which show that Mount Shasta is still alive.

The worst case scenario for an eruption is a large pyroclastic flow, such as what occurred in the 1980 eruption of Mount St. Helens. Since there is ice, such as Whitney Glacier and Mud Creek Glacier, lahars would also result. Ash would probably blow inland, perhaps as far as eastern Nevada. There is a small chance that an eruption could also be bigger resulting in a collapse of the mountain, as happened when Mount Mazama in Oregon collapsed to form what is now called Crater Lake, but this is of much lower probability.

The United States Geological Survey considers Mount Shasta a dormant volcano, which will erupt again. It is impossible to pinpoint the date of next eruption, but it likely will occur within the next several hundred years.

History[link]

The oldest known human habitation in the area dates to about 7,000 years ago, and by about 5,000 years ago, there was substantial human habitation in the surrounding area.

At the time of Euro-American contact in the 1820s, the Native American tribes who lived within view of Mount Shasta included the Shasta, Okwanuchu, Modoc, Achomawi, Atsugewi, Karuk, Klamath, Wintu, and Yana tribes.

The historic eruption of Mount Shasta in 1786 may have been observed by Lapérouse, but this is disputed. Although perhaps first seen by Spanish explorers, the first reliably-reported land sighting of Mount Shasta by a European or American was by Peter Skene Ogden (a leader of a Hudson's Bay Company trapping brigade) in 1826. In 1827, the name "Sasty" or "Sastise" was given to nearby Mount McLoughlin by Ogden.^[14] The name was transferred to present-day Mount Shasta in 1841, partly as a result of work by the United States Exploring Expedition.

Beginning in the 1820s, Mount Shasta was a prominent landmark along what became known as the Siskiyou Trail, which runs at Mount Shasta's base. The Siskiyou Trail was located on the track of an ancient trade and travel route of Native American footpaths between California's Central Valley and the Pacific Northwest.

The California Gold Rush brought the first Euro-American settlements into the area in the early 1850s, including at Yreka, California and Upper Soda Springs. The first recorded ascent of Mount Shasta occurred in 1854 (by Elias Pearce), after several earlier failed attempts. In 1856, the first women (Harriette Eddy, Mary Campbell McCloud, and their party) reached the summit.

By the 1860s and 1870s, Mount Shasta was the subject of scientific and literary interest. A book by California pioneer and entrepreneur James Hutchings, titled Scenes of Wonder and Curiosity in California, contained an account of an early summit trip in 1855.^[15] The summit was achieved (or nearly achieved) by John Muir, Josiah Whitney, Clarence King, and John Wesley Powell. In 1877, Muir wrote a dramatic popular article about an experience in which he survived an overnight blizzard on Mount Shasta by lying in the hot sulfur springs found near the summit.^[16]

The 1887 completion of the Central Pacific Railroad, built along the line of the Siskiyou Trail between California and Oregon, brought a substantial increase in tourism, lumbering, and population into the area around Mount Shasta. Early resorts and hotels, such as Shasta Springs, grew up along the Siskiyou Trail around Mount Shasta, catering to these early adventuresome tourists and mountaineers.

In the early Twentieth century, the Pacific Highway followed the track of the Siskiyou Trail to the base of Mount Shasta, leading to still more access to the mountain. Today's version of the Siskiyou Trail, Interstate 5, brings thousands of people a year to Mount Shasta.

February 13–19, 1959 the Mount Shasta Ski Bowl obtained the record of 15.75 feet (480 cm) for the most snowfall during one storm in the U.S.^[17]

It was declared a National Natural Landmark in December 1976.^[18]

Religion and legends[link]

Sunrise on Mount Shasta

The lore of some of the Klamath Tribes in the area held that Mount Shasta is inhabited by the Spirit of the Above-World, Skell, who descended from heaven to the mountain's summit at the request of a Klamath chief. Skell fought with Spirit of the Below-World, Llao, who resided at Mt. Mazama by throwing hot rocks and lava, probably representing the volcanic eruptions at both mountains.^[19]

Italian settlers arrived in the early 1900s to work in the mills and as stonemasons and established a strong Catholic presence in the area. Many other faiths have been attracted to Mount Shasta over the years—more than any other Cascade volcano.^{[citation needed]} Mount Shasta City and Dunsmuir, California, small towns near Shasta's western base, are focal points for many of these, which range from a Buddhist monastery (Shasta Abbey, founded by Houn Jiyu-Kennett in 1971) to modern-day Native American rituals. A group of Native Americans from the McCloud River area practice rituals on the mountain.^[20]

Mount Shasta has also been a focus for non-native American legends, centered on a hidden city of advanced beings from the lost continent of Lemuria.^[21] The legend grew from an offhand mention of Lemuria in the 1880s, to a description of a hidden Lemurian village in 1925. In 1931, Wisar Spenle Cerve wrote a book, published by the Rosicrucians, about the hidden Lemurians of Mount Shasta that cemented the legend in many readers' minds.^[21]

In August 1987, believers in the spiritual significance of the Harmonic Convergence described Mount Shasta as one of a small number of global "power centers".^[22] Mount Shasta remains a focus of "New Age" attention.^[23]

Cultural references[link]

• Joaquin Miller sets his historical novel, Life Amongst the Modocs,^[7] at the base of Mount Shasta. The poet had spent a number of years as a young man living with and near the Native Americans around Mount Shasta, and based this work on that time.

See also[link]

Mount Shasta's west face, as seen from Hidden Valley high on the mountain. The west face gulley is an alternate climbing route to the summit.

• California 4000 meter peaks
• Geology of the Pacific Northwest
• List of California fourteeners
• List of highest points in California by county
• Mountain peaks of California
• Volcanic Legacy Scenic Byway

Notes[link]

References[link]

• Crandell, D. R.; C. D. Miller, H. X. Glicken, R. L. Christiansen and C. G. Newhall (March 1984). "Catastrophic debris avalanche from ancestral Mount Shasta volcano, California". Geology 12 (3): 143–146. DOI:10.1130/0091-7613(1984)12<143:CDAFAM>2.0.CO;2. ISSN 0091-7613. 
• Harris, Stephen L. (2005). Fire Mountains of the West: The Cascade and Mono Lake Volcanoes (3rd ed.). Mountain Press Publishing Company. ISBN 0-87842-511-X. 
• "Mount Shasta Collection". College of the Siskiyous Library. http://www.siskiyous.edu/library/Shasta/index.htm. Retrieved 2012-04-21. 
• Miesse, William C. (June 17, 2005). "Mount Shasta Fact Sheet". College of the Siskiyous Library. http://www.siskiyous.edu/library/shasta/factsheet/. Retrieved 2006-02-11. 
• Miesse, William C. "The Name 'Shasta'". Mt. Shasta Annotated Bibliography. College of the Siskiyous Library. http://www.siskiyous.edu/shasta/bib/B14.htm. Retrieved 2006-02-11. 
• "Mountaineering - The First Female". College of the Siskiyous Library. 2008. http://www.siskiyous.edu/library/shasta/mountaineering/first%20female.htm. Retrieved 2012-04-21. 
• Peterson, Robyn; Miesse, William C. (2008). Sudden and solitary: Mount Shasta and its artistic legacy, 1841-2008. Redding, Calif: Turtle Bay Exploration Park. ISBN 1-59714-088-0. 
• "Peninsula Geological Society and Stanford GES-052Q combined field trip, Mount Shasta-Klamathnorthern Coast Range area, NW California, 05/17-05/20/2001" (PDF). Peninsula Geological Society. http://www.diggles.com/pgs/2001/PGS_Field_Trip_2001.pdf. Retrieved 2012-04-21. .
• Wood, Charles A.; Jürgen Kienle, eds. (1990). Volcanoes of North America. Cambridge University Press. ISBN 0-521-43811-X. 
• Zanger, Michael (1992). Mt. Shasta: History, Legend, Lore. Celestial Arts. ISBN 0-89087-674-6. 

External links[link]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Mount Shasta (category)

• "Mount Shasta Webcam". http://www.shastacam.com/. Retrieved 2011-05-08. 
• "Live webcam". SnowCrest Inc.. http://www.snowcrest.net/camera/. Retrieved 2011-05-08. 
• "Sisson Museum". http://www.mountshastasissonmuseum.org/index.htm. Retrieved 2011-05-08. 
• "Museum of the Siskiyou Trail". http://museumsiskiyoutrail.org. Retrieved 2011-05-08. 
• "Mount Shasta on Summitpost.org". SummitPost.org. http://www.summitpost.org/page/150188. Retrieved 2011-05-07. 
• "Mount Shasta". Bivouac.com. http://www.bivouac.com/MtnPg.asp?MtnId=9144. Retrieved 2011-05-07. 
• "Geology of Mount Shasta". College of the Siskiyous. http://www.siskiyous.edu/shasta/geo/. Retrieved 2011-05-08. 
• "Mt. Shasta Climber's Guide". ClimbingMtShasta.org. http://www.climbingmtshasta.org/. Retrieved 2011-05-08. 
• "Summiting the Volcano". Vimeo.com. http://vimeo.com/12878599. Retrieved 2011-05-08. 
• "Land of the Giants". Vimeo.com. http://vimeo.com/8138267. Retrieved 2011-05-08. 
• "Mount Shasta Climbing Above Red Banks". Timberline Trails. http://www.timberlinetrails.net/ShastaAboveRedBanks.html. Retrieved 2011-05-08. 

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