Mount Baker towers nearly 10,800 feet in the sky, so massive that on clear days it can be seen as far away as Seattle. Whether because of its historic snowfall, its world-class skiing and snowboarding or its striking views, it's hard to think of Whatcom County and not think of Mount Baker.
But there's much more to the mountain than simply snow and skis. It has been the site of major motion pictures, thrilling athletic events, important mining camps and some of the most bizarre events in the county's history.
Want to dazzle your friends with your knowledge of Mount Baker? Read on.
NAMING A MOUNTAIN
• The Lummi Indian name for Mount Baker is Kwelshán, which means "shooting place," referring to the open hunting grounds above the tree line.
• The Nooksack Indian name for the peak of the mountain is Kweq' Smánit, which means "white mountain."
• "Koma Kulshan," often cited as an Indian name for Mount Baker, was probably a phrase of Nooksack origin meaning "go up high in mountains to the shooting place," but not a proper name for the mountain.
• Gonzalo Lopez de Haro, a Spanish mariner, sketched the mountain in 1790 and named it La Gran Montana de Carmelo, because the mountain reminded him of the monks of Carmelo Monastery, who always wore white.
• British explorer George Vancouver named the mountain after Joseph Baker, a lieutenant who saw the mountain while aboard Vancouver's HMS Discovery in 1792.
• Two U.S. Navy ammunition ships have been named after the mountain. The USS Mount Baker (AE-4), commissioned from 1941-47 and again from 1951-69, served during World War II, Korea and Vietnam. The USS Mount Baker (AE-34) was commissioned from 1972-1996 and taken out of service in 2010.
OF THIS EARTH
• At 10,778 feet, Mount Baker is the third-tallest mountain in Washington, trailing Mount Rainier (14,410) and Mount Adams (12,276). Some people consider Little Tahoma Peak, a satellite peak of Rainier, to be the third tallest, at 11,138 feet.
• Mount Baker is part of the Cascade Volcanic Arc, which extends from Southwest British Columbia to Northern California. Baker and the other peaks are part of the Pacific Ring of Fire, the ring of volcanoes and related mountains rimming the Pacific Ocean.
• Mount Baker is the second-most-active volcano in the North Cascades, after Mount St. Helens. That means it releases more heat than any of the other volcanoes, except for St. Helens.
• The volcanic cone of Mount Baker sits atop an older cone, the Black Buttes volcano, which was active some 300,000 to 500,000 years ago. Other volcanoes in the area have come and gone over the last million years or so, including one with an eruption that dwarfed Mount St. Helen's blast in 1980.
• The last time that magma erupted at the surface at Mount Baker was about 6,600 years ago.
• On the flank of Mount Baker, fumaroles - "volcanic vents" - at Sherman Crater pump out 150 tons of carbon dioxide every day, along with boiling water and stinky hydrogen sulphide, all from magma below.
• Mount Baker boasts 44 square miles of ice fields spread among its dozen glaciers.
• Like much of the Puget Sound area, the weather at Mount Baker is mild in the summer and cold and wet in the winter. Some 30 to 50 inches of rain fall on the lower part of the mountain each year, while 70 to 140 inches drench the higher elevations.
• During the 1998-99 snowfall season, Mt. Baker Ski Area received 1,140 inches (about 95 feet) of snow, a world record.
NATURAL ATTRACTIONS
• The aptly named Picture Lake, at milepost 55 on Mount Baker Highway, provides the perfect spot to view Mount Shuksan, one of the most photographed mountains in the world.
• En route to Mount Baker, many people stop to visit Nooksack Falls, an 88-foot-tall waterfall on the north fork of the Nooksack River. Less than a mile from the highway, it's one of the most spectacular sights in the area.
• It's not all snow and cold by Mount Baker. In Newhalem, near Concrete, is Baker Hot Springs. Warmed by volcanic activity, the springs are a popular stop for many people, but take note: It's not tightly monitored, so its safety and cleanliness are up in the air.
• In May 2009, people discovered a fossil footprint of a long-extinct giant bird called Diatryma in the Deming foothills toward Mount Baker. Researchers at Western Washington University call it the first undisputed footprint ever found of the 7-foot-tall bird that lived about 50 million years ago.
• The 11-inch-wide fossil track was found after a landslide near Racehorse Creek and is now on public display at Western's Geology Department, in the Environmental Studies building.
• The Mount Baker ecosystem is home to an estimated 75 species of mammals, 21 species of reptiles and amphibians, 200 species of birds, 28 types of fish and 500 species of insects. Among the wildlife headliners are black bears, wolverines, bald eagle, osprey, mountain goats, cougars and bats.
MOUNTAIN STRUCTURES
• In 1925, the Mount Baker Club built Kulshan Cabin about 5,000 feet up the north side of the mountain, near Heliotrope Ridge. The $2,000 expense was so much money in those days that the club had to reorganize and incorporate as an organization for outings. The cabin was torn down many years later when liability and wilderness issues were raised.
• In 1926, the road was completed to Heather Meadows, now the site of Mt. Baker Ski Area. A year later, Mt. Baker Lodge opened. Built for an astounding $500,000, the lodge was designed to cater to the well-to-do. On Aug. 5, 1931, an electrical malfunction sparked a fire that destroyed the lodge. Luckily, there were no casualties.
• Mount Baker Lodge wasn't the only property in the area to go up in flames. Dearborn Lodge, built to house a hiking club, burned down in the 1950s, and Mt. Baker Inn at Glacier burned in 1950. The Nabob Inn, noted for its steak dinners, also burned in 1950, and Glacier House, an old school converted to an inn, burned down in the 1960s.
MOUNTAIN HISTORY
• In 1893, a Sumas man named Jack Post began digging around the north fork Nooksack River valley to see what he might find. Four years later he found gold east of Mount Shuksan, staking a claim to the Lone Jack mine and starting the Mount Baker gold rush. In all, about 5,000 claims were made in the Mount Baker Mining District from 1890 to 1937. Many of the mines closed during the Great Depression.
• The Bellingham Bay and British Columbia Railroad reached Glacier in 1904, spurring major logging in the area and more traffic around Mount Baker. For a good look at the history of logging in the Mount Baker area, visit the Black Mountain Forestry Center, located near Silver Lake by Maple Falls.
• Mount Baker has been the scene of many accidents and mysteries, but few with the emotional power of the belated discovery of Lt. Kenneth Ambrose. In 1942, Ambrose recorded the first two victories in a P-38 Lightning fighter plane against the Japanese, but that Nov. 28, while on furlough to visit his wife and their 8-week-old daughter, his plane went down in a storm east of Mount Baker.
• The wreckage wasn't found until 1997. His bones were later identified and he was laid to rest in 2006.
MOUNTAIN SPORTS
• Englishman Edmund Thomas Coleman made the first recorded attempt to climb Mount Baker, in 1866. He tried a second time later that year, and made it within several hundred feet before having to turn back because of icy conditions. Two years later, on Aug. 17, Coleman, Whatcom County pioneers Edward Eldridge and John Tennant, and two others became the first people to summit the mountain.
• Mount Baker averages 647 inches (nearly 54 feet) of snow a year. That's why Mt. Baker Ski Area is usually the first resort in the region to open each season, and the last to close.
• Long before Ski to Sea there was the Mount Baker Marathon, from 1911 through 1913. Competitors traveled by car or train from Bellingham to the base of Baker, then climbed to the top of the mountain and raced back to Bellingham. Joe Galbraith won the first marathon and its $100 prize, finishing in 12 hours and 28 minutes.
• Galbraith won the first marathon but Harvey Haggard was the hero. The 20-year-old was the first racer off the mountain and was on a train back to Bellingham when the train hit a bull and derailed. Unhurt, Haggard continued via horse-and-buggy and then horseback, but the horse spooked and threw him to the ground. Haggard finished the race riding in car, fainting twice along the way. Wowed by his effort, the crowd gave him $180 and he was named the King of Glacier.
• During the last Mount Baker Marathon in 1913, Victor Galbraith, a cousin of Joe's, fell 40 feet into a crevasse. He was rescued, but the close call was among the reasons cited for canceling future marathons.
• Mount Baker Club was organized to promote tourism to Mount Baker and helped stage the Mount Baker Marathon. The club lives on as the sponsor of frequent outdoor hikes and other outings.
• Recreational skiers first started playing at Mount Baker in 1927, well before ski lifts were in place. In December 1935, Mt. Baker Development Co. began operating a "ski escalator," basically a cable-drawn sled, to take skiers from Terminal Lake to Panorama Dome. A month after the device went into service, its developer, Arthur Brandlund, died in an avalanche that began on Panorama.
• A ski jumping competition was held the spring of 1930 at Heather Meadows. Seattle's Erling Thompson won the event with a jump of 125 feet. The following spring, the event was expanded to include uphill, downhill and cross country skiing, open to both men and women.
• Skiing and mountaineering were mainly for men in the early days, but Milana Jank, a German woman, came to Mount Baker in 1931 to become mountain sports director at Mt. Baker Lodge. She climbed Mount Baker solo on July 15, 1931, and later called the mountain "the zenith" of her ski experience.
• Mt. Baker Ski Club was organized in 1935. Skis were hard to come by, so founding members took turns sharing skis while the others watched.
• On July 4, 1948, Komo Kulshan Ski Club hosted a slalom race, beginning a tradition of July 4 ski races on Mount Baker that came to be known as the "Slush Cup," so named because skiers speeding downhill hoped to glide over a large pool of chilly water. Many didn't make it across. The event was shut down in the 1980s due to concerns about environmental damage.
• The viability of Mt. Baker Ski Area as a recreational destination was jeopardized in the early 1950s when the state said it wouldn't keep the road to the site open year-round unless more motorists used it. That prompted the ski area to build its first ski lift, to Panorama Dome. Completed in 1954, it was one of the first ski lifts Northwest. Mount Hood had one installed in 1938; and Snoqualmie Pass also installed one in 1954.
• When Fred Elsethagen first proposed Ski to Sea in 1966, he recommended that the race include skiing, mountaineering, canoeing, kayaking, horseback riding, water skiing, running and boating. When the first race was held, it consisted of downhill skiing, bicycling and canoeing.
• When the first Ski to Sea was held in 1973, it was viewed as a side event to the popular Blossom Time festival, which by that time was starting to see its popularity wane. The first race had 177 participants on 50 teams. The 2011 race had 500 teams.
• The Legendary Banked Slalom at Mt. Baker Ski Area began in 1985 with just 14 competitors and a handful of fans. At the time, Mt. Baker was one of the few ski areas in the country that allowed snowboarding. Today, some of the best snowboarders in the world travel to Baker to compete. Norway's Terje Haakonsen and Canada's Karleen Jeffery have each won six times.
• A name synonymous with Mount Baker is Craig Kelly, considered one of the best snowboarders ever. A four-time world champion who won the Legendary Banked Slalom three times, Kelly died in an avalanche in British Columbia in 2003. The Banked Slalom now hands out a Craig Kelly Award to a longtime Baker rider who keeps Kelly's sense of adventure and spirit alive.
• Mt. Baker Ski Area now has nine lifts - seven quads and two handle tows. The devices transport people to 38 marked trails; of which 11 are for advanced or expert skiers and 27 are for beginning and intermediate skiers.
• You might think you can drive to the ski area without chains during the winter, but don't try it. State law requires you to at least have them in your vehicle from November to April.
• Mention "the Gap" to Mount Baker skiers and snowboarders and they'll likely know what you mean. Near Heather Meadows lodge is an opening beyond some woods that requires a leap of about 60 feet from one ledge to another over the two lanes of traffic on Mount Baker Highway. Shawn Farmer was the first snowboarder to clear the Gap, in 1989.
MOUNTAIN MOVIES
• Scenes from a 1935 film adaptation of "Call of the Wild," Jack London's classic adventure novel, were shot at Mount Baker. The movie starred Clark Gable and Loretta Young.
• Whatcom County resident Arvid Griffen landed a job driving "Call of the Wild" crew members back and forth between Bellingham and Mount Baker. That was the humble beginning to Griffen's long career in movies. He went on to become the assistant director of 10 movies and the executive producer of ""Doctor Zhivago."
• The 1978 Best Picture winner, "The Deer Hunter," was partially filmed at Mount Baker. The movie explored the Vietnam War's impact on a group of friends from the Appalachians (portrayed by Mount Baker).
• Coming soon: "The Mountain Runners" will bring the Mount Baker Marathon to the screen through interviews, dramatic recreations and archival images and artifacts, thanks to Northwest filmmakers Todd Warger, David Lowrance and Brian Young.
