MOUNT RAINIER NATIONAL PARK 



531 



iiitluence into ihc very social fabric of the surrounding possession and control of the Park's development, and 



towns. Nearly every inhabitant of the district, who pre- this feud grew to such an extent that many dear friends 



tends to such a thing as a garden, will take the itinerant were estranged and there was naught but bitterness 



visitor to the back porch, or veranda, or terrace, as the between them. The story is told of one of our prominent 



case may be, and point out how he ingeniously contrived national characters, who, in his visits to these two cities 



the arrangement of his garden so that the snow-white for the purpose of gathering the autumn crop of votes, 



peak of Mount Rainier terminated the vista along the became so confused that he could not keep in mind when 



major axis of his garden. While no claim is specifically he should call it Mount Tacoma and when Mount Rainier, 



laid to originalitv and uniqueness on the part of the His secretary had advised him, therefore, in his speeches 

 rarden owner 



using our na- 

 tional park as 

 the major ele- 

 ment in his 

 plan, the visi- 

 tor will, never- 

 theless, come 

 away with the 

 impression that 

 there is at least 

 one man in 

 W a s h i n g t o n 

 who appre- 

 ciates the 

 beauty of one 

 of nature's 

 master- 

 pieces. If, 

 however, he 

 visits more 

 than one gar- 

 den, he will, 

 more than 

 likely, conclude 

 that the inhabi- 

 tants of the 

 districts are not 

 at all sociable, 

 for none seem- 

 to knowr that 

 his neighbor'-- 

 garden is axed 

 on tlie sanu 

 glorious peak. 



The moun- 

 tain is of such 

 a commanding 

 height that it 



is plainly \isible from Seattle and Tacoma, in tact 

 so nuich so, that to the residents of these two cities 



THE NISQUALLY GL.\CIER 



The snout of Nisqually Glacier reaches down to within a few hundred yards from the highway. The dark mass 

 in the center is the glacier, although it looks more like a heap of earth than a giant cake of ice. The first view of 

 a glacier's toes is always one that destroys any youthful ideal as to the "huge wall of sparkling ice." 



in the two cities 

 to call it only 

 " the moun- 

 tain." At the 

 end of an ardu- 

 ous day in 

 .Seattle he 

 closed his 

 speech before 

 a large gather- 

 ing with his im- 

 pressions of the 

 beautiful snow- 

 capped peak 

 and terminated 

 his sentence 

 with the words 

 " Mount Taco- 

 ma." His sec- 

 retary was on 

 the platform 

 ,ind when he 

 lieard this he 

 uttered a deep 

 groan and said, 

 in a voice that 

 was p 1 a i n 1 y 

 ,iudil.>le to the 

 nvehe hundred 

 enraptured 

 listeners, "Hell, 

 now you've lost 

 twelve hundred 

 votes ! " 



An account 

 of the struggle 

 and how the 

 trend of battle 

 ran through 

 as a matter of 



years would fill a small volume which 

 fact, has no part in this argument. Suffice it to say, 

 it has become part and parcel of their local scenery. What, however, that the hatchet has been buried and there is 

 then, could be more natural than a struggle for its control "■' now an organization coinposed of citizens of both 

 Before its discovery by the whites, the mountain was communities who work in apparent hannony for the 

 called Tacoma by the Clickitats, Yakimas and other benefit of the Park; so much so, in fact, that by virtue of 

 Indian tribes of the district. So far as I have been able persistent pounding they have secured a sufficient appro- 

 to learn, this name means " the great snow." The nam- priation from Congress to actually build some new bits 

 ing of the peak, " Mount Rainier," in honor of Rainier, of road in the Park. 



the famous explorer, has therefore, for many years, been There are few places in the world one may drive an 



a thorn in the side of the residents of the city of Tacoma. automobile right up to the snout of a mighty glacier. 

 A feud finally developed between the two cities for the The only place in the United States that I know of where 



