Great Heights
This week HistoryLink.org “peaks” your interest by noting a few anniversaries related to our state’s mountains. We begin on August 11, 1774, when the Spanish ship Santiago emerged from a persistent coastal fog. Captain Juan Perez spotted a towering mountain on the far shore and dubbed it Cerro Nevada de Santa Rosalia, giving the first European place name to a geological feature in the future Washington state. After Spain ceded the region to Britain in 1790, Perez's peak was renamed Mount Olympus, and the mountain chain it was a part of became the Olympics.
Farther inland and almost a century later, on August 17, 1868, the Coleman party became the first climbers in recorded history to reach the summit of Mount Baker. And on August 11, 1911, Joe Galbraith won the first Mount Baker Marathon by racing – first by car, and then on foot – from Bellingham to the top of the mountain and back. And even our state's fictional mountains have something to celebrate this week, as August 14 marks the 25th anniversary of the first Twin Peaks Festival.
To top it all off, we’d like to give a high five to the Mountaineers Club, as well as some of Washington’s more intrepid climbers and hikers, including Ella McBride, Edmund Meany, Ora Maxwell, Asahel Curtis, Fred Beckey, Wolf Bauer, Jim Whittaker, Tom Hornbein, Harvey Manning, Ira Spring, and Phil and Laura Zalesky. And let’s not overlook outfitters like Eddie Bauer, the C. C. Filson Company, Trager USA, and REI.
Great Distances
On August 13, 1811, the first Hawaiian to visit the Inland Northwest arrived at Spokane House with explorer David Thompson. Known as Coxe because of his resemblance to a seaman of that name, he had traveled from the islands earlier in the year aboard the Tonquin, a ship owned by fur trader John Jacob Astor. The Tonquin had left New York in September 1810, sailed around South America, and picked up extra provisions and crew in the Hawaiian Islands before sailing on to the Pacific Northwest. The ship also carried charter members of Astor's Pacific Fur Company who were to establish the first American trading posts on the Columbia River.
Upon arriving at the mouth of the Columbia, the Tonquin had trouble crossing the bar, which led to the drowning of eight crewmembers, including one of the islanders. Coxe and his fellow countrymen gave him a traditional funeral on the shore of Cape Disappointment.
The men then went to work on the construction of Fort Astoria so trading could begin with local Native tribes. One of the first orders of business was to unload an assortment of animals purchased in Hawaii as livestock. As they released some pigs into a pen at Baker Bay on the north side of the Columbia, a hog and a sow got loose. They escaped into the surrounding woods, where they soon produced the first of many generations of wild pigs that would populate the area.
Just as the Astorians were preparing for their first inland expedition in mid-July, they were surprised by the arrival of a rival group of traders led by David Thompson, who was in the employ of the Montreal-based North West Company. Thompson and his men had just traveled down the Columbia after planting the British flag at its confluence with the Snake River. When it came time to part ways, the groups exchanged some of their workers, and Coxe traveled inland with the Thompson party.
After reaching Spokane House, Coxe bid Thompson farewell, and spent the winter with Jaco Finlay, who had established the inland trade house. The following spring, Coxe continued his travels east, first to Quebec and then to England. He returned to the Pacific Northwest in 1813 and lived out the rest of his life near Fort Vancouver.
