The Mazamas’ Ascent of Mount Baker 
Written and Illustrated by C. Finley Easton, Geologist, 
With the Mazama Outing and Exploring Expedition 
T HE ascent of Mount Baker by the Mazamas 
may be of interest because it relates to 
outdoor life, and especially so for the rea¬ 
son that it pertains to yet another small spot in 
the great Pacific Northwest, which, though sur¬ 
rounded by active industrial enterprises, has 
hitherto been practically unknown. i he snow- 
covered volcanic cone was first ascended by E. 
T. Coleman, in 1868, but not again until twenty- 
three years later. In all it has been ascended 
eight different times, but never before from the 
northeast quarter, the direction approached by 
this last party of mountain climbers, numbering 
altogether over a hundred strong. 
The Mazama Club was organized on the sum¬ 
mit of Mount Hood, in Oregon, a good dozen 
years ago. Its avowed object is to climb the high 
peaks of the Pacific coast first! Its outings are 
annual and its membership may and does in¬ 
clude men and women representing about every 
occupation and position in life, the terms of 
eligibility being that the candidate must have 
already climbed “the summit of some snow peak 
on which there is at least one living glacier.” 
In 1905 the Mazamas reached their climax when 
they climbed, in a body, and deposited a record 
box, at an altitude of 14-326 feet above and in 
plain view of salt water, on the summit of Mount 
Rainier. Last year the outing was called for 
Mount Baker to help finish out the snow peaks 
of Washington, but this time the trip came sur¬ 
prisingly near finishing the Mazamas. 
Mount Baker is situated about thirty miles 
due east of the city of Bellingham, between the 
Cascade range and Puget Sound, in the western 
division of the Washington Forest Reserve, near 
the international boundary, in plain view of Van¬ 
couver and Victoria, B. C., Bellingham, and 
other principal cities of the Sound. Its official 
elevation by triangulation is 10,827 feet, varying 
considerably, of course, from these exact figures, 
with the season and the accumulation of snow, 
there being no rocks exposed on its summit and 
the precipitation in form of snow, buried in 
clouds as it is for three-fourths of the year, 
being also irregular. 
In 1905 the Blaine quadrangle was surveyed 
by the United States Geological Department, 
which includes that extreme portion of the State 
of Washington north and west of the city of 
Bellingham. The following year the Sumas quad¬ 
rangle adjoining it on the east, was partly sur¬ 
veyed, and one permanent monument established 
on a pinnacle of bare rocks near the summit of 
Mount Baker on the northwest slope, a quadrant 
round from the line of ascent made by the 
Mazamas. 
The original or rather the aboriginal name for 
Mount Baker was Korna Kulshan. It was given 
by the Lummi Indians, an individual tribe of the 
mongrel inhabitants of the Puget Sound region, 
neither Indians, Eskimos nor Orientals, a tribe 
which maintains that, so far as tradition goes, 
it has forever existed in the one spot by the 
salt sea near the foot of this great white pin- 
KWINA, 
The last of the Lummi chieftains. 
nacle. The name was in common with two bor¬ 
dering tribes, the Skagit on the south and the 
Nooksack on the north. As the writer has been 
informed by Kwina, the last of the long line of 
hereditary chieftains, who is still hale and hearty 
at the age of seventy, the significance of the 
name was this: Korna (Ko-o'-mah) meaning 
“white, bright or shining” and Kulshan (Kool- 
shan') meaning “steep or precipitous.” 
Directly across the bay of Bellingham, exactly 
six miles to the westward of the city and near 
the historic sight of old Fort Bellingham, can be 
seen the white-painted spire and cross of a little 
mission church, pointing skyward from arpong 
the cedars and marking the location at the delta 
of the Nooksack, of the Lummi reservation and 
village of Fish Point, just beyond which the sun 
sinks in splendor to white man and Indian alike, 
flashing back its parting good night, in glinting 
rays, like beacon lights, upon the great, white 
dome of Korna Kulshan. 
The chamber of commerce of the prosperous 
and enterprising city of Bellingham, in the name; 
of its 30,000 people, bore the expense of many 
hundreds of dollars for constructing a trail 
through the dense forest and jungle to timbei 
line, at the base of Mount Baker, a point about 
eight miles beyond the summit, where the 
Mazamas could go into permanent camp anc 
explore at their convenience the eastern anc: 
northeastern slopes of the mountain. Tents anc 
camp supplies were sent ahead by pack train 
The Mazamas followed by special train on July 
27, as far as Glacier, the terminus of the rail 
way, and from there on foot eighteen miles uj 
hill, past the mammoth electric generating plan 
at Nooksack Falls, the First Chance, Excelsio 
and American Eagle mining properties, into ; 
veritable wilderness beyond, reaching camp ii 
squads at all hours of the night. 
Owing to the humidity of the Puget Sount 
climate for about ten months of the year th 
forests are so dense with underbrush that it i 
next to impossible to penetrate them withou 
slashing trails. Imagine the delightful surpris 
the next morning to find that the jungle, whicl 
does not thrive at snow line as high as fiv 
thousand feet, had been left behind, during tli 
night tramp, and that the giant cedars and fir 
had given place to a scattering growth of moun 
tain hemlock and white bark pine. 
It is very noticeable that there is a new orde 
of things at timber line. In place of the ran 
growth of devil’s club, thimble and salmon berr 
and other undergrowth, the space between tree 
was park-like and literally carpeted with heathe 
and huckleberry. The hardy trees are incline 
to group as if for self protection against th 
deep, dragging snows on the slopes at this alt 
tude. The red and the white heather (the tru 
and the false) were in full bloom. The shrul 
and the flowers were vieing with each other t 
blossom and mature their seeds first before tl 
return of deep winter snows. 
There is here more than a section of land, ( 
an elevation of 5,200 feet, spread out like a wel 
designed park, upon the divide between 01 
branch of Wells Creek and another of Ande 
son Creek, tributaries of the North Fork of tl 
