the Captain George Vancouver expedition explored the northwest coastline of North America in the 1790’s, mapping the often rough and wild landscape from Baja, California, all the way to the Cook Inlet of Alaska. they gave name to numerous areas and features, most of which remain with us today. one of those names is Mt. Hood.
this volcano reaches 11,239 feet above sea level and is more than 500,000 years old; it is also a hundred-plus miles east of the pacific coastline, yet Vancouver’s team bestowed a name upon the mountain that we today use, honoring British Admiral Lord Samuel Hood.
according to legend, this iconic mountain has another, previously bestowed name, though: Wy’east. this name has its origins in the Multnomah tribe of the Columbia river valley, who tell the story of the great spirit’s two sons who quarreled and battled with each other so often and over so many issues that the great spirit eventually turned them into mountains: what we know as Mt. Hood is known to the Multnomah as Wy’east, and the mountain we call Mt. Adams is known to the Multnomah as Klickitat. (some say this story may or may not be true; the first documented use of the name Wy’east is in a book of fiction published in 1890 by F.H. Balch.)
a month ago my partner and I traveled to the Mt. Hood area, and spent a few nights in the tiny town of Government Camp, at the base of Mt. Hood. the address of our cabin was on Wy’east Trail, and it was there we learned the story of its other name.
it snowed as we drove into town, it snowed the next day and night, and it snowed the following day. occasionally the sun broke through, but Wy’east consistantly hid behind clouds. after we skied on that third day, we cleaned up and went for a drive up to the Timberline ski resort, whose famous lodge was built in the 1930’s by Roosevelt’s WPA. the sun had broken through, but the upper region of Wy’east remained blanketed by cloud. we parked, and as we walked to the edge of the lot to admire the panoramic view, the clouds at the top of the mountain began drifting away, bit by bit, until the entire mountain was stunningly visible! awestruck, we stared, took pictures, gloried in the fact that it had cleared.
within twenty minutes Wy’east’s top was again covered in cloud.
whether Wy’east, Mt. Hood, or some other name, none is able to do justice to this iconic reminder of the tumult our earth experienced all those hundreds of thousands of years ago. may you be as astounded by its beauty as I am.
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