The Mountain that was 'God' / Being a Little Book About the Great Peak Which the Indians Named 'Tacoma' but Which is Officially Called 'Rainier'

by John H. Williams

View northward in early summer from Eagle Peak, at western end of the Tatoosh. Gibraltar Rock and Little Tahoma break the eastern sky-line. On the extreme right lies Paradise Valley, still deep in snow, with the canyon of Paradise River below it. Next is seen the Nisqually Glacier, with Nisqually River issuing from its snout. Then come Van Trump Glacier (an "interglacier"), and the big Kautz Glacier, dropping into its own deep canyon. Beyond the Kautz, Pyramid Peak and Iron and Copper Mountains rise on the Indian Henry plateau. The Tahoma Glaciers close the view westward.
Copyright, 1907, By Pillsbury Picture Co.

Eagle Peak (Indian name, Simlayshe) at west end of the Tatoosh. Altitude about 6,000 feet. A pony trail three miles long leads up from the Inn.
Copyright, 1909, By Linkletter Photo. Co.

Countless snows had fallen since the mountain god created and beautified this home of his, when one day he grew angry, and in his wrath showed terrible tongues of fire. Thus he ignited an immense fir forest on the south side of the peak. When his anger subsided, the flames passed, and the land they left bare became covered with blue grass and wild flowers—a great sunny country where, before, the dark forest had been. Borrowing a word from the French coureurs des bois who came with the Hudson's Bay Company, the later Indians sometimes called this region "the Big Brulé"; and to this day some Americans call it the same. But for the Big Brulé the Indians had, from ancient times, another name, connected with their ideas of religion. It was their Saghalie Illahe, the "Land of Peace," Heaven. Our name, "Paradise Valley," given to the beautiful open vale on the south slope of the Mountain, is an English equivalent.

Here was the same bar to violence which religion has erected in many lands. The Hebrews had their "Cities of Refuge." The pagan ancients made every altar an asylum. Mediæval Christianity constituted all its churches sanctuaries. Thus, in lawless ages, the hand of vengeance was stayed, and the weak were protected.

Exploring an Ice Cave, Paradise Glacier.