Mt. Baker Highway: History - Ski Lodge

Bert Huntoon and nine Whatcom County developers formed the Mount Baker Development Company in 1923. They proposed construction of a luxury lodge at Austin Pass Meadows. The company leased a 5-acre tract from the U.S. Forest Service for $125 a year over 15 years, with renewal privileges. On the company’s guarantee to build, backed by $25,000, the federal government agreed to fund construction of a nine-mile extension from the end of the road at Shuksan to the new hotel.

In 1925, the Mt. Baker Development Co. issued its first $250,000 in stock. More than 850 shares, valued at $100 each, sold within two hours. That year, forest rangers completed the trail to Table Mountain, overlooking Austin Pass Meadows. In 1926, the hotel site was renamed Heather Meadows (Hwy. Mile 55) to avoid confusion with Austin Pass. By autumn, the road to Heather Meadows was finished.

Thanks to Huntoon and local legislators, Washington state paid for the final section of Mount Baker Hwy. They lobbied for an Act making the highway (from Bellingham east) part of the Pacific Highway being built along the West Coast.

The new highway led to the Mt. Baker Lodge, which opened to a grand celebration on July 14, 1927. Total cost for the resort was $500,000, Each of the 100 guest rooms had hot and cold running water and a telephone. Fir pillars supported cathedral ceilings, cedar shakes covered the roof and interior walls. The lodge even had a hydroelectric power plant on Bagley Creek.

The Forest Service estimated that 11,700 guests visited the lodge its opening year. Hollywood stars were among them when William Fox Films shot ‘Wolf Fangs” there. In 1928, a 32-room annex was built to increase capacity.

By 1929, the highway department finished the road 3 miles beyond Heather Meadows to Artist Point. The 58-mile Mount Baker Hwy. finally was completed at a cost of $800,000.

At 5:20 a.m. on Aug. 5, 1931, tragedy struck Mt. Baker Lodge. An electrical fire swept through the main hotel, igniting oil tank and sending flames 1,000 feet into the air. By 7:45 a.m., the building was gone. Fortunately, no lives were lost. Guests were housed in the annex, and the resort stayed open through the Depression, though it was falling into disrepair. A last “hurrah’ came in 1934 when Twentieth Century Pictures chose Heather Meadows and the Nooksack River to film “Call of the Wild.” Cast and crew stayed at the lodge.

The state highway department plowed the road to the lodge each winter until the onset of WWII forced gas rationing. Heather Meadows’ reputation as a ski area grew. Mt. Baker Development Co. installed a cable-drawn sled for skiers. In 1937, the first bonds the company had borrowed against matured. Another movie filmed at the lodge that year, ‘The Barrier,” paid enough to keep bill collectors at bay. But in 1941, Mt. Baker Development Co. went bankrupt. The lodge was sold at auction.

Out of the ashes rose the Mt. Baker Recreation Company, which has owned and operated the Mt. Baker Ski Area since 1952. In 1995, the company completed the final phase of a six-part ski area expansion project by building the $2.5 million White Salmon Day Lodge (Hwy. Mile 52).

In the early 1990s, the Forest Service and the Federal Highways Administration spent $2 million to improve Heather Meadows, including re-vegetation, trail work and roadwork. More recently, the National Climatic Data Center recognized Mt. Baker as breaking the world record for the most recorded snowfall in one season in 1998-1999.