Rensselaer Semi-Weekly Republican, Volume 22, Number 95, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 16 August 1901 — On Mighty Sbasta’s Peak. [ARTICLE]

On Mighty Sbasta’s Peak.

Jl former Resident Ascends the Glory of California. * BY KEY, T. J. ABBETT. It was Monday July 29th, 1901, that a party consisting of the Rev. N. F. Jenkins and son Ed. of Grants Pass, Oregon, the Rev. J. F. Foot, J. L. Downing, Wm. Yeo, W. R. Yeo, the writer and his son 1 John, boarded the noon train at j Ashland for Sisson Cal. from which point we were to make the ascent of old Mt. Shasta. The name * Shasta comes from Sastean. a word j to designated linguistic stock of 1 American Indians which formerly ! dwelt in California in the Shasta and Scott Valleys, and along the Klamath river. They extended north into the Siskiyou mountains of Northern California and Southern Oregon. This rugged old mountain stands in Siskiyou Co. Cal. in latitude 40 deg. 25 min. north. It is one of the highest if not the highest mountain in the United States. Mt. Rainier or Tacoma lays claim at present to being higher than Shasta. The people of Tacoma, who insist on calling Mt. Rainier, Mt. Tacoma, claim that the last survey and measurements show that recently Mt. Shasta has become quite perceptably lower, while Mt. Taooma has actually been heaved up considerably higher! Be that as it may, Shasta is 14,440 feet above the level of the sea. Shasta is a very rugged old mountain,. not so completely covered with snow as are many of the peaks of the Cascade ranger. This is due to two causes: First, being in a much warmer location than the peaks north of it, the snow fall is much lighter and it melts much faster in the 'summer, Seoondly, the stoney ribs of Shaßta’s slopes are much more prominent than on the symmetrical peaks like Pitt, Scott, Three Sisters, Jefferson and Hood. At Sisson we were joined by the Rev. W. C. Robins and three other gentlemen, making a party of twelve altogether. Tuesday the 30th was the oooasion of Robins quarterly meeting, so we were compelled to stay over a day at Sisson before making the start. This we were able to do with no disoomfort and with much interest. During

the day we visited the great Hatchery of the California State Fish Commission. Here they hatoh six varieties of trout, besides sunfish, bass, salmon etc. They have 84 troughs with 5 hatching baskets to eaoh trough. After the fish are hatohed they keep them in the troughs for about six weeks when they ship them all over the state to stock the rivers. The plant exchanges fish with other states, Also with foreign countries. They have a beautiful system of ponds in whioh to keep the large fish. What a lovely sight they present as they go darting through the blear water in great schools. After the sight seeing of the day, we engaged our pack-horses and got everything in readiness to “hit the trail” early the next morning. But when we awbke the next morning it was raining! By 10 o’clock, however, the rain had ceased and we were ready to start. For about 7 hours we trudged up that trail, arriving at “Horse Camp” at the, snow line in time to get our supper of bread and batter, fried bacon and blaok coffee before night. Sapper over, we rolled ap in oar blankets and atretohed out upon the rooks for a night’s sleeps. The plan was to rise at 2 o’clock next morning and get a good start up while the snow was solid. The night was cloudy and windy, and

when I awoke at 2 the next morning I had grave fears that we should not be able to scale the hights. But as the morning dawned it brightened up someBefore we had been on the olimb an hour it began to rain, and the clouds and fog hung upon the summit all the day, thus preventing us from attaining the extreme height We put in the day however, and reached the height of over 12,000 feet. We climbed up many steeps of snow, clambered over many craggy points, and 1 gained dizzy heights from from ; which the view was simply grand. We had a kodak with us and took ten or a dozen fine pictures. ! I wish I had outs of them with | which to illustrate this description, I The mountain has two summits or > peaks—Shastina and .Shasta — f which pierce the heavens at points distant from each other, about one I mile. Shastina has a deep Crater in her top. These two summits are connected by a swaying “Hogback,” sloping off to the south with deep Canyons filled with perpetual snow and ice, and with I very precipitous, oraggy wall, j Hard to climb? Well, rather! j The slope of the “Hog-back” to j the north is a Bteep Glaoier known as Whitney Glacier. To get from Shastina summit to Shasta sumJ mit, it is necessary either to “coon” the “hog-back,or pass over onto the Glacier and travel on that. Either way is quite difficult and dangerous. The Whitney Glacier is very steep, and keeps breaking > off at the foot eaoh summer, send--1 ing great avalanches of ice and • snow thundering and crashing » down through the canyons into 1 the timber below. In exploring this Glaoier one must do some good “sounding” with Alpenstook as he oautiously descends toward the “birth plaoe of the avalanche.” 1 While on one of the great ; moraines, where great rocks ten feet square had been piled up ! with the mould-board of the 1 mighty ice plow, we scrambled up ■ to the top of a high rock to have a » picture taken. Standing there on the top of that awful pile, I looki ed across to the southwest, a disf tance of thirty or forty miles, to l old Castle Oragg, a great oraggy > mountain towering heavenward 1 ten thousand feet high. Just then . the sun burst forth from behind l the clouds, and threw his golden > rays across to the spires and domes I; of that old craggy pile, lighting \ it up with a peculiar halo, until as l burnished silver and gold, it > shimmered and glowed, with a • radiance almost divine. What a i vision of glory? How transport- ’ ing to the soul! The scene was ; sublime matchless! I think ) Moses on Pisgah’s heights, could l have had no such vision. He had j knowledge added to the future > granduer of his people, but such a t revelation as this tells so clearly , what God oan do for his people r hereafter, that that element of 1 Moses’ enjoyment oan be preoeived . if not fully appreciated. ‘ From this rock pile we passed ) into a deep snow-filled canyon, and tried our skill at climbing up a ■ steeper grade than we had hither--5 to found. About a half a mile ‘ from the top of the mountain, at ‘ the right edge of the largest « glaoier on the south side is Thumb ’ Rook, a great projection, rising L from the cold and stormy breast ; of the old mountain to a height of > several hundred feet. At the top \ of the mountain there is a broad : snow field of several sores, 00m--1 paratively level, , near the north edge of whioh rises a great pile of 1 rook about 250 feet high. Upon ■ the top of this pile is a steel . monument, 14 feet high and 4 feet ; in diameter. This was erected a : number of years ago, being carried » up, in small sections on paok L horses, as far as “Horse Camp”

and from there to the top by the Indians. Passing down the north side, about 300 feet below the monument is a hot spring, hissing and steaming constantly. The rook is perforated and the boles spue out water and steam, with a strong sulphurous odor, very offensive. This is indeed a ouriousity. Think of a boiling spring in the top of a snow mountain nearly 15,000 feet high. The Indians who once lived under the shadow of this great mountain believed it to be the V» abode of the Great Spirit—the wigwam He had built for Himself and family—and the smoke curling up from the summit showed that the fire was burning on the hearth. But now

“The wigwam is deserted. The Great Spirit has gone. Smoke no longer carls upward."

Shasta is truly a great mountain. It never grows common-place, never is disappointing. Viewed from the distance it is a beautiful picture in outline, whioh * the imagination tries in vain to work out in detail. But when one has 1 trodden its rooky bosom and soaled its dizzy heights, he comes to feel a personal affection for it. And those who know it best love it most. Seen from a distance, it reminds the devout soul of the great white throne of the Eternal God. No wonder that the Indians thought of it as the dwellingplace of the Great Spirit. No wonder that the men of history who have talked face to face with God, have sought the mountains as the appropriate place for such oommunion. Moses on Mt. Sinai and Jesus on Mt. Tabor met the glory of the good God. No pen can describe the vision from the gilded summit of a lofty mountain, and words fail to convey the feeling of awe that possesses one when dwelling in suoh altitudes, surrounded with suoh granduer. Such a sense of the Infinite about you and of the finite within you. How great God seems and now small man feels! “One feels like neetling down in the arms of the Eternal God, and keeping still!” Such a place is Mt. Shasta.

“Where the tree tops form perfumed canopie of green; Where the streams are terraced with pools of* limped sheen; Where the landscape is with enchanting beauty ripe; Where the out air provides an added charm to life ThSre—there is Shasta.” The ascent of the mountain while difficult is not dangerous, except as the careless climber renders it so. The fatigue of the ascent is greatly lessened by the enchanting panorama of wondrous beauty that is unfolded as we climb. Thirteen mountain ranges oome within the field of vision, from the heights. The lower and nearer ones are olothed with evergreen forests. The distant aud higher ranges are orowned with craggy rocks and patches of eternal snow all gleaming aud glistening in the sunlight of heaven. While jt was a great disappointment not to have been able to reach the monument, yet I shall always be glad for the wonderful experience and the glorious vision whioh rewarded our efforts. The deeoent was easy and delightful. Leaping and springing from orag to crag, and sliding down the steep snow fields, we were only a few hours in reaching “Horse Camp” from the heights attained. A day spent amid such surroundings, and in beholding suoh scenes oan never be forgotten.

“Give me the mightiest pine for • brash. And sU the wide heavens for s can ram, So that I may paint what I feel, of all I hare felt and hare seen 1” “Hail glorious Shasta) Silent and alone! Crowned with a grandaer that is all thine own! Thy towering pinacles are passing fair, Glistening resplendent in the upper air, Thon look’s! serenely on the world below Decked in thine ermine of eternal snow I" The trip was made without accident or misfortune to any of the party, and we returned home footsore and weary in body, to-be-sure, but rested, invigorated and built up in mind and soul. James T. Abbett. Ashland, Oregon, Aug, 7th, 1901.