Snow mountain eruption in 1843 – Washington State Quarter Coin

Today, the Washington State Quarter Coin remembers one of the mountain’s eruptions of 172 years ago along with a poetic description made ten years later.

In the Geographical Review, Volume III, January – June 1917, the editors included the following reference to Mount Rainier’s eruption.

=====

Captain Frémont, again, writes under the date of November 13, 1843:

Wherever we came in contact with the rocks of these mountains, we found them volcanic, which is probably the character of the range; and at this time, two of the great snowy cones, Mount Regnier [Mount Rainier] and St. Helens, were in action.

=====

The Northwest Journal of Education published in 1893 provided a more poetic description of Mount Rainier:

=====

The dome of the Cascades, the pride of Washington, and the third highest peak in the United States is Mt. Rainier.

Situated about midway between the northern and southern boundaries of the state, it rises by gradual ascent from nearly sea level on the northwest, to an elevation of nearly 15,000 feet.

In formation it is volcanic; in contour, symmetrical; broad of base, with gradual slopes and rounded- top.

In appearance it is grand, massive and sublime.

The Frenchman, the Italian and the Swiss see in it a semblance of their native peaks. It calls to mind of Indoo, the distant peaks of the Himalayas.

To the Japanese, it is the outward image of his own sacred mount, Fujiyama, but in action how unlike that eastern idol.

Centuries have quieted the impulses of youth, and the dews of ages have spread over Rainier a shroud of eternal rest.

The names Rainier and Tacoma seem to be contending for the honor of designating this grand continental land mark.

It is a historical fact that the Spaniards entered Puget Sound in 1790, and sighted the same mountains that George Vancouver, two years later, named Olympus and Rainier, the latter in honor of his friend, Rear Admiral Rainier.

Previously to that time, according to Indian tradition, it was known as Ta-ho-ma, meaning snow mountain, or white mountain, and to this day the name continues to be the same in the mouths and minds of those native inhabitants.

Among the early writers of note who visited what is now Washington, was Theodore Winthrope.

After spending some time in the Northwest, he journeyed southward from Port Townsend to Nisqually, in a canoe paddled by Indians. This was in August of 1853.

He says, in reference to the mountain.

“We had rounded a point, and opened Puyallup bay, a breadth of sheltered calmness, when I, lifting sleepy eyelids for a dreamy stare about, was suddenly aware of a vast white shadow in the water.

“What cloud, piled massive on the horizon, could cast an image so sharp in outline, so full of vigorous detail of surface?

“No cloud, as my stare, no longer dreamy, presently discovered, — no cloud, but a cloud compeller.

“It was a giant mountain dome of snow, swelling and seeming to fill the aerial spheres as its image displaced the blue deeps of tranquil water.

“The smoky haze of an Oregon August hid all the length of its lesser ridges, and left this mighty summit based upon uplifting dimness.

“Only its splendid snows were visible, high in the unearthly regions of a clear blue noonday sky.

“The shore line drew a cincture of pines across the broad base, where it faded unreal into the mist.

“The same dark girth separated the peak from its reflection, over which my canoe was then pressing, and sending wavering swells to shatter the beautiful vision before it.

“Kingly and alone stood this majesty, without a visible comrade or consort, though far to the north and south its brethren and sisters denominated their realms, each in isolated sovereignty rising above the pine-darkened sierra of the Cascade mountains, — above the stem chasm where the Columbia, Achilles of rivers, sweeps, short-lived, jubilant, to the sea, — above the lovely vales of the Willamette and Umpqua.

“Of all the peaks from California to Frazer’s river, this one before me was royalist.

“Mount Regnier, Christians have dubbed it, in stupid nomenclature perpetuating the name of somebody or nobody.

“More melodiously the siwashes call it Ta-coma, a generic term also applied to all snow peaks.

“Whatever keen crest and crags there may be in its rock anatomy of basalt, snow covers softly with its bends and sweeping curves.

“Tacoma, under its ermine, is a crushed volcanic dome, or an ancient volcano fallen in, and perhaps as yet not wholly lifeless.

“The domes of snows are stateliest.

“There may be more of feminine beauty in the cones and more of masculine force and hardihood in the rough pyramids, but the great domes are calmer and more divine, and even if they have failed to attain absolute dignified grace of finish, and are riven and broken down, they still demand our sympathy for giant power, if only partially victor.

“Each form — the dome, the cone, and the pyramid — has its type among the great snow peaks of the Cascades.”

=====

The Washington State Quarter Coin shows with an image of Mount Rainier and Mowich Canyon, circa 1909.

Washington State Quarter Coin