The Name "Mt. Rainier" 



97 



name is to be adopted, why not give it also its guttural 

 pronunciation, Tachoma, with the German sound to the 

 letters ach?'' 



In 1888, Mr. Van Trump again made the ascent with 

 John IMuir and William Keith. In a long letter which 

 he wrote to us in September of that year, he says : "We 

 did not, greatly to my disappointment, journey to and 

 explore the north peak (which Stevens and I named 

 Ta-ho'-ma), the party not being willing to stop long 

 enough on the Mt. top to accomplish that purpose." 



After Winthrop, that is the first definite mention that 

 we recall of the name being given to one of the three sum- 

 mits of Mt. Rainier. 



And it may be permitted us here to state that our col- 

 league on the United States Coast Survey, James Smyth 

 Lawson, long a resident of Olympia, determined the 

 geographic position of the three prominent points, and 

 the heights of two of them trigometrically, in 1870 — the 

 "middle, highest peak," 14,444 feet above the sea; the 

 "south, lowest peak," 14,279 feet. The former is 32''.77 

 of latitude north of the latter, and 2''. 28 of longitude west. 

 We had made the first observations for position in 1856, 

 and Lawson in 1867. 



When the citizens of Tacoma first proposed the change 

 of the name Rainier, we do not remember, but communi- 

 cations were made to the General Government before 

 1890. In that year, the Executive Order for the organiza- 

 tion of the "United States Board of Geographic Names" 

 was issued on the 4th of September by President 

 Harrison. The following gentlemen composed the 

 Board : 



Professor Thomas C. Mendenhall, U. S. Coast and 

 Geodetic Survey, Chairman. 



Andrew H. Allen, Department of State. 



Captain Henry L. Howison, Light House Board, Treas- 

 ury Department. 



Captain Thomas Tuttle, Engineer Corps, War Depart- 

 ment. 



