Looking up from "Snipe Lake," a small pond below Interglacier, to the head of Winthrop Glacier and Liberty Cap.
The written history of the Mountain begins with its discovery by Captain George Vancouver. Its first appearance upon a map occurs in Vancouver's well-known report, published in 1798, after his death: "Voyage of Discovery to the North Pacific Ocean and around the World, 1790-1795."
It was in the summer of 1792, shortly after Vancouver had entered the Sound, he tells us, that he first saw "a very remarkable high round mountain, covered with snow, apparently at the southern extremity of the distant snowy range." A few days later he again mentions "the round snowy mountain," "which, after my friend Rear-Admiral Rainier, I distinguished by the name of Mount Rainier." Nearly all of Captain Vancouver's friends were thus distinguished, at the cost of the Indian names, to which doubtless he gave no thought. Sonorous "Kulshan" and unique "Whulge" were lost, in order that we might celebrate "Mr. Baker" and "Mr. Puget," junior officers of Vancouver's expedition.
Passing a big crevasse on Interglacier. Sour-Dough Mountains on the right, with Grand Park beyond: St. Elmo Pass in center, Snipe Lake and Glacier Basin in depression.
View north from Mt. Ruth (part of the Wedge), with Interglacier in foreground, the Snipe Lake country below, Sour-Dough Mountains on right, Grand Park in middle distance, and Mt. Baker, with the summits of the Selkirks, far away in Canada, on the horizon.