Mt. Baker Highway: History - Ancient Volcano

Whatcom County’s most
spectacular natural attraction is the glacier-covered volcano called Mount
Baker. The mountain rises 10,778 feet above sea level in the center of the Mt.
Baker Wilderness area. It is part of the North Cascades Mountain Range, which
was formed when the Strait of Juan de Fuca tectonic plate pushed up underneath
the North American plate eons ago.

Mount Baker was created
from layers of mud, cinder and lava that hardened and were carved into jagged
cliffs by giant glaciers during the Ice Age. Though perpetually covered in snow
and ice, it is the second most active volcano in the Cascade Range, the U.S.
Forest Service reports. Mount St. Helens is the first.

Temperatures in the Mt.
Baker area range from 70s with clear skies in the summer to upper 20s with rain
and snow through the winter. Annual rainfall in the lowlands is 30 to 50
inches. At higher elevations, precipitation ranges from 70 to 140 inches.

In 1999, Mt.Baker set the new world’s record for the most snowfall ever measured in a single season– 1,140 inches (2,895.6 centimeters)!

Mt. Baker has worn several
appellations in its 400,000 years. Long before white settlers came, Nooksack
Indians called it quck-sman-ik, meaning “white mountain.” The Lummi
Indians near Bellingham Bay called it kulshan, meaning “broken off.”
Presumably, they were referring to the frequent volcanic activity.

English explorer Captain
George Vancouver rededicated the mountain while charting the region in 1792. He
named it for Lt. Joseph Baker, a young officer in his command who spotted the
peak while their sloop “Discovery” was sailing off the coast of Washington,
near Dungeness Bay.

The last 28 miles of the
58-mile long Mt. Baker Highway lie within the Mt. Baker-Snoqualamie National
Forest. Set aside as part of the Washington Forest Reserve in 1897, its name
was changed to Mt. Baker National Forest in 1924. In 1974, Mt. Baker National
Forest and a northern section of the Snoqualmie National Forest were combined.
These lands fall under the jurisdiction of the Mount Baker Ranger District.

The 534,334 acres in the
ranger district allow for a variety of year-round recreational opportunities.
Visitors can hike, camp, ride horses, fish, kayak and raft the Nooksack River,
climb glaciers and ski. In summer, 65,000 people come to hike the trails. In
the winter, the Mt. Baker Ski Area lures visitors with an annual average snowfall
of 595 inches.

Congress designated another 117,900 acres
adjacent to the national forest lands as Mount Baker Wilderness in 1984. The
Wilderness areas surround the volcanic dome of Mt. Baker and are accessible by
more than 50 miles of trails, but no roads. Development is prohibited here, and
regulations apply to use. The U.S. Forest Service’s motto for recreational
users is ‘Walk softly, take only photographs and leave only footprints.”