Journey to Mount Rainier
This book is about my relationship with Abby Williams Hill as I learned about her 26-day journey to Paradise at Mt.Rainier in 1895, before it became a national park. I was struck by how different her journey was than mine. She traveled by rowboat, logging wagon, horse and train and it took 6 days to get there. She rode a horse all the way home to Tacoma. For me it’s less than a two-hour drive.
Like many newcomers to the Pacific Northwest, she did not know the history of the land over which she traveled searching for the “picturesque” to capture in her sketches and paintings. Even though I grew up in Olympia, I did not know the indigenous history of her route to Mt. Rainier until I taught at The Evergreen State College and worked with the Nisqually River Education Project and taught programs that brought students to Mt Rainier.
In my artwork, I hope to spark curiosity and conversation among new comers to this place – its rich and on-going indigenous roots, native plants and animals. I think it’s important to learn about where you are. When Hill traveled to Mt. Rainier, it was an adventure into the “wilds” and she learned many things that would serve her later camping with her children and as a painter for the railroads. She learned how to pitch a tent, cook over a fire, hike in the dense woods and sub-alpine meadows, and alter her Victorian clothing to survive. When I have travelled along her route, I too look for the “picturesque”, but I also feel the experience as holy ground. I feel it’s important to acknowledge the Indigenous ancestors and present-day Nisqually tribal members and their history that goes back over 8,500 years, living, hunting, fishing, gathering along the Nisqually river all the way up to Paradise. She was unaware of this, even though it had only been 40 years since the Medicine Creek Treaty and Puget Sound War and she met people with a long history in the area. I graduated from high school in the 1960s, now over 50 years ago, and I remember the time well.
Some would argue that she was a “woman of her time” and it’s unfair to judge her by today’s standards, but I’m sure people knew some of this history at the time. Settlers relied on Nisqually, Yakima, and Puyallup generosity to survive in the region and travel to the mountain, and felt that the Medicine Creek Treaty and its aftermath were unfair.
I hope you will take this opportunity to form deeper connections to the places you live.
In the Archives and Special Collections at Collins Memorial Library at The University of Puget Sound in Tacoma, WA