Your National Parks Part 7

The Big Tree has been called the n.o.blest of a n.o.ble race. Its enormous size, its excellent proportions, its serenity, its steadfastness, its age, make it the most impressive living object. John Muir, in commenting on the imperishable nature of the sequoia, says he feels confident that if every one of these trees were to die to-day, numerous monuments of their existence would remain available for the student for more than ten thousand years.

But the Big Tree is not verging toward extinction. Its greatest danger is from general destruction by man. The Big-Tree area has not diminished, but probably has slightly increased in the last few thousand years. Seeds sprout readily and young trees grow vigorously.

John Muir thus comments concerning the tree and its distribution:--

The Big Tree (_Sequoia gigantea_) is Nature's forest masterpiece, and, so far as I know, the greatest of living things. It belongs to an ancient stock, as its remains in old rocks show, and has a strange air of other days about it, a thoroughbred look inherited from the long ago--the auld lang syne of trees. Once the genus was common, and with many species flourished in the now desolate arctic regions, in the interior of North America, and in Europe, but in long eventful wanderings from climate to climate only two species have survived the hardships they had to encounter.

The Big Trees probably were discovered by General John Bidwell in 1841. John Muir studied them for years, and then gave to the world an accurate account of them.

The Big-Tree groves, he says, are growing in the soil-areas off which the ice first melted at the close of the ice age. The wide gaps between the various sequoia groves were areas occupied by the large and long-enduring glaciers. The topography of the mountains plainly shows that the areas where the groves are were places protected from the ice-flows of the heights. The gaps would naturally have received the main ice-flows from the heights.

In the south the Big-Tree forests are in the areas that were effectively b.u.t.tressed and shielded from ice-flows. Consequently these areas were early opened at the close of the ice age. The forty-mile-wide gap between the Stanislaus and the Tuolumne Groves was a channel filled with a glacier probably long after the groves to the north and the south started to grow.

Did the sequoia endure the long ice age in these few places where the groves are now growing? The pine, fir, spruce, and other forest species in the Sierra may have been planted with seeds from trees that survived in the south. But as the sequoia is found nowhere else, the question arises, did it survive somewhere near the localities in which it is now growing?

An acquaintance with the Big Trees, an understanding of them, gives us one of the most impressive and lasting ties to be had in nature. These trees ever impress one with a n.o.bility of character. Seen at midday, or at early morning when their lengthened shadow gives strange tones to the scene, or in the serene, strange moonlight, or when, wrapped in restless mist, they loom vast and mysterious, or in a storm, they are ever marvelously steadfast and calm. Long may they live!

At the Big Trees, the first act of Horace Greeley, the celebrated editor, was to take out a pencil and figure on the lumber contents of one. These veteran trees have a higher value.

Lincoln, in his lecture on Niagara Falls, said: "The mere physical fact of Niagara Falls is a very small part of the world's wonder. _Its power to incite reflection and emotion_ is its greatest charm."

Lincoln might have calculated the mule-power of the Falls if ruined--changed from the higher value of a scenic spectacle to common commercialism. Why tell how many hovels or how many feet of sewer might be constructed out of the Library of Congress; or the number of cobblestones that could be manufactured from the Washington Monument?

As well tell the number of forts that might have been built with the marbles and the energy that were put into statuary and the inspiring arts, as to consider or measure Big Trees in lumber terms.

The sequoia is one of the monumental wonders of this round world. It is the oldest settler--the pioneer of pioneers. Each venerable giant numbers his years by centuries. Each was already old when nations of the present were born. Gone and forgotten are the nations that were--gone the flags that waved in the wind when these trees began to cast their shadows.

And it may be--for nations with all their pomp and pride are short-lived--that every flag that now flaunts the sky, that every nation now on earth, will pa.s.s out of existence long before these patriarchal trees lie down at last upon the mountains. Some of these trees have already out-lived more than fifty generations of mankind.

Some of them are likely to look upon a score or more of pa.s.sing generations of the human race. These trees might tell a thousand stirring stories to the one possessed by the Sphinx. The Sphinx is of lifeless stone. These trees are alive. They have lived through countless changing scenes. But which shall be accounted the more striking and wonderful, the pa.s.sing pictures in the centuries they have looked upon, or the moving, changing scenes in the centuries that they are yet to see?

These Big Trees have endured fire, flood, lightning, landslide, gale, drought, and earthquake, but have never hauled down their evergreen banners. They have triumphed over the changes of ten thousand seasons; watched and waved through centuries of sunlight and storm.

Countless times the sun has projected a silhouetted shadow of their stupendous plumes against the mountain side. They have worn monumental robes of snow flowers; they have stood silent in the light of thousands of autumn moons; and they are still upon the heights to inspire us with their steadfastness and their splendor.

The landmark and the heritage of the ages are these splendid trees, these immortal evergreens. Their historic lore and unequaled grandeur give them amplitude and poetry enough to kindle and enrich the imagination. Let them live on; they will bless those who make the sacred pilgrimage to see them, and they will be a "choir invisible" to all who simply know that upon the sublime Sierra they still wave grandly.

IV

MOUNT RAINIER NATIONAL PARK

Mount Rainier is one of the n.o.blest and most imposing mountains in the world. It stands isolated. Around it are countless peaks, but these are so small that they but emphasize the colossal bulk and towering height of majestic Rainier. It is 14,408 feet high. The alt.i.tudinal sweep of the Park is ten thousand feet. Only Mount Rainier territory is in the Park. The area is three hundred and twenty-four square miles--about eighteen miles square. Yet so vast is this mountain that an extensive part of it is outside the Park boundaries. Its outline is intensified by the extraordinary make-up of black and white which characterizes it. The upper half of it is strangely white with ma.s.ses of snow and ice. The lower slopes are purplish black with dense coniferous forests. Between the snow and the forest is a magnificent belt of wild flowers.

Mount Rainier is a sleeping volcano. Beneath its sh.e.l.l of stone is a heart of fire. Upon this sh.e.l.l are snow-fields and glaciers, rushing rivers, a stupendous forest, wild-flower gardens in which millions of "bannered blossoms open their bosoms to the sun."

Additional territory is needed to protect scenery not now in the Park, and especially for Park road development. At a number of points along the southern boundary the road winds outside the Park. A similar condition will exist on the eastern side when the eastern road-system is built. Much good would result from starting at the southeast corner of the Park and adding a six-mile strip twelve miles long on the south and another strip of equal size on the east.

Mount Rainier lies about sixty miles eastward from Seattle and Tacoma.

An excellent automobile road enters the southern boundary and extends into the Park, pa.s.sing the snout of the Nisqually Glacier. The road-plan of the Park embraces an encircling scenic highway around the mountain on the lower slopes. This road is to be united with entrance roads from the north, south, east, and west. A trail about fifty miles long circles this peak near timber-line. It penetrates fifty miles of unexcelled beauty and splendor. It touches a thousand different scenes and ever commands the world of light and shade that lies far below and far away.

Small inns are to be built along this wilderness way. What a poetic, scene-crowded way to travel! Every boy and girl might well plan to walk round mighty Rainier on this commanding circle pathway.

[Ill.u.s.tration: STAGE ROAD, MOUNT RAINIER NATIONAL PARK]

The uppermost edge of Rainier's dark primeval forest ends at timber-line in peninsulas, bays, and islands. Between the ragged edges of the forest and the broken edges of the ice and snow is a magnificent wild-flower scenic belt, or zone, a mile or two in width. Mingling are ice, snow, broken groves, brilliant wild flowers, streams, crags, meadows, and a thousand cascades. Through this scenic zone lies the timber-line trail.

Steam is constantly issuing from the craters in the summit. During the last century, there were a number of slight eruptions, the most recent one occurring in 1870. Indian legends tell of a great cataclysm during which the summit of the mountain was blown to pieces and scattered afar. Apparently the peak, before this explosion, was about two thousand feet higher than at present. The shattered summit indicates the reality of this traditionary explosion and previous height. It is three miles across the summit. A part of the great crater-rim still remains, and Liberty Cap and Peak Success strongly testify to former elevation and grandeur.

Often this splendid peak wears a vast wreath or belt of clouds or mists. Visitors to the middle slopes frequently have the delightful experience of being above the clouds. Francois E. Matthes, the well-known geologist, thinks this mountain a wonderful source of inspiration and wishes that it were possible for all people to share it. He says, "No doubt the time will come when a pilgrimage to Mount Rainier shall be esteemed among the most precious joys, the most coveted privileges which a citizen of this country may hope to realize for himself or for his fellows."

George Vancouver, the explorer, discovered Mount Rainier in 1792. It was named in honor of Peter Rainier, an English admiral. Theodore Winthrop, author of that cla.s.sic book of travel, "Canoe and Saddle,"

visited the region in 1853. He was an ardent advocate of the original Indian names of conspicuous objects of interest. The Indian name for this peak was Tahoma. It is encouraging that the people of Seattle and Tacoma may early unite to ask that this name be adopted. Said Mr.

Winthrop in "Canoe and Saddle":--

Let us, therefore, develop our own world. It has taken us two centuries to discover our proper West across the Mississippi, and to know by indefinite hearsay that among the groups of the Rockies are heights worth notice.

Farthest away in the West, as near the western sea as mountains can stand, are the Cascades. Sailors can descry their landmarked summits firmer than a cloud, a hundred miles away.... Kulshan, misnamed Mount Baker by the vulgar, is an irregular, ma.s.sive, mound-shaped peak.... South of Kulshan the range continues dark, rough and somewhat unmeaning to the eye, until it is relieved by Tahoma.

Mount Tahoma was first climbed in 1870 by General Hazard Stevens and P. B. Van Trump. The first woman to climb it was Miss Fay Fuller, who went to the summit in 1890. The Indians appear not to have climbed above the snow-line. They had little occasion to go higher, and they believed that the G.o.d of the mountain forbade their ascending farther.

In 1883, Henry Villard, president of the Northern Pacific Railroad, sent a large party to enjoy the scenes on the slopes of Mount Rainier. Among those in the party were James Bryce, afterward British Amba.s.sador to the United States, and Bailey Willis. These two gentlemen appear to have discussed the importance of having this peak set aside as a National Park. On the completion of this excursion, James Bryce and others recommended to Henry Villard that efforts be made to have this Park created. Later, similar requests were made by individuals and organizations, and a recommendation to this effect was made in writing by the National Academy of Sciences. In 1899 the Park was established.

1. THE SPLENDID WILD-FLOWER GARDEN

The triumphant glory of Mount Rainier National Park is seen in its wild flowers. It is doubtful whether anywhere else on earth is to be found so extensive and luxuriant a growth of such brightly colored flowers amid such scenes of supreme wildness and grandeur.

A vast broken flower-belt encircles the peak between the ragged lower edge of the large ice-fields and the ragged upper limits of tree growth. A flower-belt fifty miles long, covered and crowded with flowers, mile after mile! It is most showy and splendid at and just above the limits of tree growth. Ma.s.ses of color; myriads of blossoms, each of clean and vivid hue! This vast and splendid garden is crossed with streams and canons, adorned with crags, green meadows, forested peninsulas, and islands of groves. This encircling flower carnival expands into numerous connected and disconnected alpine parks. Each park is a superb flower-garden with a splendid precipitous alpine back- and sky-ground. Among the more striking of these are Paradise Park, Indian Henry's Hunting Grounds, Spray Park, and Summerland.

In the open upper reaches of the forest, the fragrant twin-flower covers and crowds wide places. There are thousands of cream-white mountain lilies--bear-gra.s.s--with tall, slender blooms. The shooting-star, a near relative of the cyclamen, is as thick upon the earth as stars up in the sky. Thousands of purple asters are found upon stalks two feet high. A dogtooth violet, commonly called avalanche lily, is abundant. The western anemone, with its exquisite leaves, its purple bloom and decorative seed plumes, adorns many a wild garden. Many of the plants in the high alt.i.tude grow rapidly, bloom briefly, and seed quickly. Summer is short.

Acres of valerian with four-foot stalks thrust their pungent blooms beneath one's nose. The blue mertensia crowds moist places with a thicket of stalks three feet high. A lavender-colored arctic lupine grows in decorative ma.s.ses. The white dock, sometimes called wild buckwheat, nods on its slender stalks two feet above the earth. The wild h.e.l.lebore carries its greenish-white flowers upon stalks as high as one's head.

[Ill.u.s.tration: MOUNT RAINIER FROM PARADISE VALLEY]

Many of the yellow or golden flowers bloom close to the earth. There are golden asters and golden-rods, a mountain dandelion, a low-growing yellow b.u.t.tercup called the monkey-flower, the gold-touched arnica, and yellow potentilla. These fill many wide, ragged places with a blaze of yellow glory.

Low-growing lavender-colored phlox appears in ma.s.ses, and Cusick's speedwell forms large patches of low-lying blue. Epilobiums cover acres of earth with pink petals.

A species of blue gentian grows in showy cl.u.s.ters, and meadows are filled with the brightest painted-cups in red and crimson. The heather, the heather! There are rich, deep ma.s.ses of red, white, and yellow heather. The white heather is the lovely ca.s.siope that adorns the snow edges of thousands of mountains from Mexico to the Arctic regions.

Endless are the ranks of the saxifrage family in white; countless the numbers of the pink family. Here the spring beauty blooms in summer and the rose-crimson _Pentstemon rupicola_ makes a showy appearance.

Also above the limits of tree growth are other little plant people: the ever-cheerful kinnikinnick; a dainty, tiny fern; numerous members of the figwort family; Lyall's lupine, with its brilliant bloom of purple flowers; the evening-primrose; and a most pungent polemonium.

Growing far up the slopes is an attractive member of the dock family that is tufted with purplish-yellow bloom. A yellow mustard (_Draba aureola_) and another member of the mustard family with creamy-white flowers carry and maintain this wonderful wild-flower garden farthest above the clouds, highest up into the snow-fields and the sky.

One day I found a tiny tuft of bloom in a bit of soil on the very summit of Rainier. It was in a niche of lava, surrounded with ice and snow, but warmed by the steadily escaping steam. Brave, cheerful little fellow creature! In a steamy, ice-rimmed volcano's throat on a desolate top of the world!