Volcanoes and History -
Cascade Range Volcano Names

Named after the 2nd President of the United States, John Adams.

Native American legends abound with descriptions of the brothers Wy'east (Hood) and Pahto (Adams) battling for the fair La-wa-la-clough (St. Helens).

Northwest Indians told early explorers about the fiery Mount St. Helens. In fact, an Indian name for the mountain, Louwala-Clough, means "smoking mountain". According to one legend, the mountain was once a beautiful maiden, "Loowit". When two sons of the Great Spirit "Sahale" fell in love with her, she could not choose between them. The two braves, Wyeast and Klickitat fought over her, burying villages and forests in the process. Sahale was furious. He smote the three lovers and erected a mighty mountain peak where each fell. Because Loowit was beautiful, her mountain (Mount St. Helens) was a beautiful, symmetrical cone of dazzling white. Wyeast (Mount Hood) lifts his head in pride, but Klickitat (Mount Adams) wept to see the beautiful maiden wrapped in snow, so he bends his head as he gazes on St. Helens.

Both St. Helens and Hood got their "English" names long before Adams, whose name survives from an 1839 scheme by Hall J. Kelly to make the Cascades the Presidential Range. He was inspired, according to Cheryl, by Lewis and Clark's naming Mount Jefferson in Oregon after the president who supported their journey across the continent. Kelly, however, intended the name Adams to go to Mount Hood -- he left the mountain in Washington out of the plan entirely. And the person who mapped the mountains mixed up Kelly's names and also put the name Mount Adams 40 miles in the wrong direction -- where there happened to be a mountain ready to bear the name. The Native Americans, of course, knew it was there all along -- they called the mountain Pahtoe. "Mount Adams" stuck firmly after 1853, when the Pacific Railroad Expedition put the name on their map. As for the grand Presidential Range scheme -- well, Cheryl said, "very few of the names took."

In 1791, the renowned British explorer George Vancouver left England. His mission was to survey the northwest coast of America. After sailing around the Cape of Good Hope and wintering in the Hawaiian Islands, Vancouver and his crew reached the Pacific Northwest coast in 1792. While anchored in Dungeness Bay on the south shore of the Strait of Juan de Fuca, third lieutenant Joseph Baker made an observation which Vancouver recorded in his journal:

Mount Bailey, (Diamond Lake Ranger District; Umpqua National Forest) While the current name is not of Native American origin, (actually, this mountain was originally know as Old Baldy, and was probably mistakenly wrote down as Old Bailey), this mountain was known as Youxlokes to the Klamath, which meant "Medicine Mountain". According to legend, medicine men and priests often feasted on the summit and communed with the upper world.

The name Belknap refers to early settlers along the McKenzie River. R.S. Belknap developed Belknap Springs and his son, J.H. Belknap, was involved in the toll road over the McKenzie Pass in the early 1870s.

In the spring of 1853, eleven miners from Yreka, California stopped in for supplies at Isaac Skeeter's mercantile store in Jacksonville, Oregon (approximately 90 miles south of Crater Lake). They began bragging that they knew how to find the legendary "Lost Cabin" gold mine. Skeeters quickly gathered up ten other Oregonians and set out, using the information overheard in his store. The trip was financed by John Wesley Hillman, a 21 year old who had recently returned home from a successful trip to the California goldfields. On June 12, three members from this party came upon a large body of water sitting in a huge depression. Hillman exclaimed that it was the bluest water he had ever seen. Skeeters suggested the name "Deep Blue Lake." Lack of provisions soon drove the miners down the mountains and back to Jacksonville where they reported the discovery of the lake. However, without the prospects of gold and fear of the unknown region to the north, there was no interest in confirming this discovery. It was soon forgotten.

In 1862, another party of Oregon prospectors explored this area of the Cascade Range, including Crater Lake. The leader, Chauncy Nye, subsequently wrote a short article for the Jacksonville Oregon Sentinel. His article stated, "The waters were of a deeply blue color causing us to name it Blue Lake". This piece is the first published description of the lake.

Hostilities between settlers and Native Americans developed in the area. In response, the U.S. Army established Fort Klamath seven miles southeast of the present park boundary in 1863. This led to the construction of a wagon road from Prospect in the Rogue River Valley to the newly established Fort Klamath. On August 1, 1865, the lake was "rediscovered" by two hunters attached to the road crews. Several soldiers and civilians journeyed to see the now-legendary lake. One of the participants, Sergeant Orsen Stearns, was so awestruck by what he saw that he climbed down into the caldera and became the first non- Native American to reach the shore of Crater Lake. Captain F. B. Sprague soon joined him and suggested the name "Lake Majesty."

In July, 1869, newspaper editor Jim Sutton and several others decided to visit Lake Majesty and explore it by boat. By August, a canvas boat had been constructed and lowered onto the lake. Five people reached Wizard Island and spent several hours exploring the cinder cone. Sutton wrote an article describing the trip for his Jacksonville newspaper. Instead of Lake Majesty, Sutton substituted the name "Crater Lake" for the crater on top of Wizard Island.

William Gladstone Steel devoted his life and fortune to the establishment and management of Crater Lake National Park. His preoccupation with the lake began in 1870. In his efforts to bring recognition to the park, he participated in lake surveys that provided scientific support. He named many of the lake's landmarks, including Wizard Island, Llao Rock, and Skell Head. Steel's dream was realized on May 22, 1902 when President Theodore Roosevelt signed the bill giving Crater Lake national park status. And because of Steel's involvement, Crater Lake Lodge was opened in 1915 and the Rim Drive was completed in 1918.

The stunning snow-capped volcanoes of Washington State have long been recognized by Native Americans in their language and legends, and they immediately caught the eyes of U.S. and European explorers in the late 18th and early 19th centuries. By the 1790s, Mounts Baker, Rainier, and St. Helens were noted and named in the first written descriptions of the Columbia River and Puget Sound regions. In 1805 Lewis and Clark noted Mount Adams. By the mid-19th century each of these four volcanoes had their place on a published map. Glacier Peak wasn't known by settlers to be a volcano until the 1850s, when Native Americans mentioned to naturalist George Gibbs that "another smaller peak to the north of Mount Rainier once smoked." Not until 1898 did Glacier Peak appear on a published map under its current name.

Native American legends abound with descriptions of the brothers Wy'east (Hood) and Pahto (Adams) battling for the fair La-wa-la-clough (St. Helens).

Northwest Indians told early explorers about the fiery Mount St. Helens. In fact, an Indian name for the mountain, Louwala-Clough, means "smoking mountain". According to one legend, the mountain was once a beautiful maiden, "Loowit". When two sons of the Great Spirit "Sahale" fell in love with her, she could not choose between them. The two braves, Wyeast and Klickitat fought over her, burying villages and forests in the process. Sahale was furious. He smote the three lovers and erected a mighty mountain peak where each fell. Because Loowit was beautiful, her mountain (Mount St. Helens) was a beautiful, symmetrical cone of dazzling white. Wyeast (Mount Hood) lifts his head in pride, but Klickitat (Mount Adams) wept to see the beautiful maiden wrapped in snow, so he bends his head as he gazes on St. Helens.

Mount Hood, 3,426 meters (11,245 feet) high, is the fourth highest peak in the Cascades and the highest in Oregon. It was named after a British admiral and first described in 1792 by William Broughton, member of an expedition under command of Captain George Vancouver (Broughton, 1929). The first geologic reconnaissance primarily described the existing glaciers (Hague, 1871).

Named by Lewis & Clark in 1806, after President Thomas Jefferson, who authorized their expedition.

March 30, 1806 - From a point near the mouth of the Willamette River, Lewis and Clark named Mount Jefferson.

History here generally describes the period from 1840, even though Jedediah Smith passed through in 1828 on his overland trek to the West Coast. California's gold rush brought the first settlers. Two pioneer trails, developed by William Nobles and Peter Lassen, are associated with the park. In 1851, Nobles discovered an alternate route to California, passing through Lassen. Sections of the Lassen and Nobles Emigrant Trail are still visible. Lassen, for whom the park is named, guided settlers near here and tried to establish a city. Mining, power development projects, ranching, and timbering were all attempted. The area's early federal protection saved it from heavy logging.

From the unabridged Webster's dictionary: From mazame (see mazama) from Nahuatl "mazatl" (deer) "A name applied by early writers to various American ruminants supposed to be the Rocky Mountain Goat." The club founders thought that the strongest climber in the mountains (the goat) was an appropriate symbol. The southern Oregon mountain that collapsed and became Crater Lake (Mt. Mazama) was named for the club.

John McLoughlin was one of the most influential figures of the fur trade and settlement periods of Pacific Northwest history. Chief Factor of the Columbia District of the British Hudson's Bay Company, he reigned as a benevolent autocrat, befriended Americans, and eventually became an American citizen at Oregon City. ... John McLoughlin has been honored in many ways for the role he played in Oregon's early history. In 1905 the Oregon Legislative Assembly renamed the 9,495 foot Mount Pitt in southern Oregon to Mount McLoughlin. The United States Board of Geographic Names recognized that change in 1912.

Newberry Crater is named for Dr. John Strong Newberry, a physician and naturalist, who accompanied the 1855 Topographic Corps Expedition, mapping future railroad routes. Paulina Peak is named for a Snake Indian chief who led raiding parties against white settlers in the 1850s and 1860s.

Northwest American Indians knew the mountain long before European explorers reached the waters of the Pacific Ocean. For generations, they knew the mountain as Takhoma, Tahoma, Ta-co-bet and several other names. Many of the names mean "big mountain" or "snowy peak," or "place where the waters begin." ... On May 8, 1792, Captain George Vancouver of the British Royal Navy anchored his ship near today's Port Townsend, Washington. He wrote in his log, "... the round snowy mountain ... after my friend Rear Admiral Peter Rainier, I distinguished by the name of Mount Rainier ..."

Mount Rainier, or "Tahoma" as it was named by the Northwest Native Americans, was named after then Rear Admiral Peter Rainier, R.N. in 1792 by Captain George Vancouver. Born in 1741, Peter Rainier entered the Royal Navy in 1756. He served on the HMS OXFORD, YARMOUTH, NORFOLK, and BURFORD. In 1790 he commanded the MONARCH and early in 1793 commissioned the SUFFOLK which had 74 guns. In 1799 Peter Rainier was promoted to the rank of Vice-Admiral. He was stationed in the East Indies as Commodore and Commander-in-Chief until 1804. After his return to England and his retirement from active service, he continued to be consulted by the ministry on questions relating to the East India station. In 1805 he was advanced to the rank of Admiral. He became a member of Parliament in 1807 and died in 1808.

Peter Skene Ogden's Snake Country Journals, entry of February 14, 1827:

According to legend, about 1821, a Spanish explorer reported that while climbing Mount Diablo near San Francisco he saw Mount Shasta. He called it "Jesus and Maria" because of the double peaks. About this time the Russians probably viewed Mount Shasta from the coast near Fort Ross. Hudson Bay Company trapper, Peter Skene Ogden left Fort Vancouver and journeyed through central Oregon, trapping beaver. The trappers wanted fur from beaver, otter, and martins to export to England. They succeeded over the course of several years to dramatically reduce the population of these small fur-bearing animals. To this day it is rare to see these animals. Ogden noted in his journal on February 14, 1827: "I have named this river Sastise River. There is a mountain equal in height to Mount Hood or Vancouver; I have named Mt. Sastise. I have given these names, from the tribes of the Indians." However historians believe he saw the Rogue River and Mount McLoughlin. Early maps portrayed today's Mount Shasta variously as Mount Pitt, Mount Jackson, and Mount Simpson and said that it was over 20,000 feet above sea level. For the most part, the explorers and fur trappers traveled through the area but did not stay for any length of time.

Native American legends abound with descriptions of the brothers Wy'east (Hood) and Pahto (Adams) battling for the fair La-wa-la-clough (St. Helens).

Northwest Indians told early explorers about the fiery Mount St. Helens. In fact, an Indian name for the mountain, Louwala-Clough, means "smoking mountain". According to one legend, the mountain was once a beautiful maiden, "Loowit". When two sons of the Great Spirit "Sahale" fell in love with her, she could not choose between them. The two braves, Wyeast and Klickitat fought over her, burying villages and forests in the process. Sahale was furious. He smote the three lovers and erected a mighty mountain peak where each fell. Because Loowit was beautiful, her mountain (Mount St. Helens) was a beautiful, symmetrical cone of dazzling white. Wyeast (Mount Hood) lifts his head in pride, but Klickitat (Mount Adams) wept to see the beautiful maiden wrapped in snow, so he bends his head as he gazes on St. Helens.

Mount St. Helens was named for British diplomat Alleyne Fitzherbert (1753-1839), whose title was Baron St. Helens. The mountain was named by Commander George Vancouver and the officers of H.M.S. Discovery while they were surveying the northern Pacific coast from 1792 to 1794. Mount St. Helens was recognized as a volcano at least as early as 1835; the first geologist apparently viewed the volcano 6 years later. James Dwight Dana of Yale University, while sailing with the Charles Wilkes U.S. Exploring Expedition, saw the peak (then quiescent) from off the mouth of the Columbia River in 1841. Another member of the expedition later described "cellular basaltic lavas" at the mountain's base.

Mount Thielsen was also known as Big Cowhorn. This mountain was known as Hischokwolas to Indians of the area. This rugged horn-like mountain is unique and very distinguishable. (Diamond Lake Ranger District; Umpqua National Forest).

About 1872 it was named Mount Thielsen by John A. Hurlburt of Portland, in honor of Hans Thielsen, prominent pioneer railroad engineer and builder.

The Three Sisters appear as the "Three Sisters" on Preston's map of Oregon of 1856. The name was probably originally applied by members of the Methodist Mission in Salem in the early 1840's, and the individual peaks were given the names "Mount Faith", "Mount Hope", and "Mount Charity", beginning from the north.

The town of Sisters derives its name from the three prominent Cascade peaks that grace the southwestern skyline: Faith, Hope, and Charity, collectively known as the Three Sisters. A very old story suggests that the mountains were named in the 1840s by members of a Methodist mission based in Salem. Others credit trappers who frequented the region in the early part of the 19th century.