V. FIRST ATTEMPTED ASCENT, 1857 

 BY LIEUTENANT A. V. KAUTZ, U.S.A. 



AUGUST VALENTINE KAUTZ was born at Ispringen, Baden, Ger- 

 many, on January c, 1828. In that same year his parents 

 came to America. On attaining manhood the son entered the 

 army and served as a private soldier in the Mexican War. 

 At its conclusion he was appointed to the Military Academy 

 at West Point. Graduating in 1852, he was assigned to the 

 Fourth Infantry and soon found himself in the Pacific North- 

 west. After going through the Indian wars here he achieved 

 a brilliant record in the Civil War. Continuing in the army, 

 he reached the rank of brigadier-general and was for a time 

 in command of the Department of the Columbia. He died 

 at Seattle on September 4, 1895. 



It was while, as a lieutenant, he was stationed at Fort Steilacoom 

 that he attempted to ascend Mount Rainier. His account of 

 the trip was published in the Overland Monthly, May, 1875. 

 It is here republished by permission of the editor. While 

 the ascent was claimed to be complete the climber says there 

 was still higher land above him, and it is now difficult to fix 

 the exact altitude attained. 



Professor I. C. Russell declares that Professor George Davidson 

 made a statement before the California Academy of Sciences, 

 on March 6, 1871, to the effect that when Lieutenant Kautz 

 "attempted the ascent of Mount Rainier in 1857" he found his 

 way barred by a great glacier. From this, says Professor 

 Russell, it "seems that he first reported the existence of living 

 glaciers in the United States." (See : Israel C. Russell : 

 Glaciers of North America; Boston, Ginn & Company, 1897, 

 p. 62). The portrait of General Kautz was furnished by his 

 daughter, Mrs. Navana Kautz Simpson, of Cincinnati, Ohio. 



In the summer of 1857 I was stationed at Fort 

 Steilacoom, Washington Territory. This post was 

 located near the village of Steilacoom, on the waters 

 of Puget Sound. The post and the village took their 

 names from a little stream near by, which is the out- 



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