Exceptional Mountains: A Cultural History of the Pacific Northwest Volcanoes

206 Pages·2016·2.13 MB·English

by  O. Alan Weltzien

“Part environmental humanities treatise and part memoir, Weltzien’s study illuminates the cultural meaning
of mountain wilderness.”
—Scott Slovic, coeditor of Literature and the Environment: A Reader on Nature and Culture
“Open[s] up new approaches to mountain literature, where historical, environmental, commercial, and
literary viewpoints make clearer why and how we have sanctified these high-altitude monuments. You
won’t hike or look at these mountains again in the same way after reading this remarkable book.”
— Bill Lang, author of Confederacy of Ambition: William Winlock Miller and the Making of Washington
Territory “To live under the volcano with Weltzien is to hike, sometimes anxiously, through fields of
sociology, tourism, urban planning, and ecology—then to pause to contemplate lava domes, landscape
painting, and indoor climbing walls. A book to engage both climbers and watchers.”
—Laurie Ricou, author of The Arbutus/Madrone Files: Reading the Pacific Northwest.
Exceptional Mountains
Exceptional Mountains
A Cultural History of the Pacific Northwest Volcanoes
O. Alan Weltzien
University of Nebraska Press | Lincoln & London
© 2016 by the Board of Regents of the University of Nebraska Cover designed by Rachel Gould
Author photo courtesy of author
All rights reserved
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Names: Weltzien, O. Alan (Oliver Alan)
Title: Exceptional mountains: a cultural history of the Pacific Northwest volcanoes / O. Alan Weltzien.
Description: Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 2016.Includes bibliographical references and index.
Identifiers: LCCN 2015047730
ISBN 9780803265479 (hardback: alkaline paper) ISBN 9780803290402 (epub) ISBN 9780803290419 (mobi)
ISBN 9780803290426 (pdf) Subjects: LCSH: Northwest, Pacific—Geography.Northwest, Pacific—
Environmental conditions. Volcanoes—Social aspects—Northwest, Pacific—History. Mountains—Social
aspects—Northwest, Pacific—History. Regionalism—Northwest, Pacific—History. | Outdoor recreation—
Environmental aspects—Northwest, Pacific—History. | Mountaineering—Environmental aspects—
Northwest, Pacific—History. | Consumers—Northwest, Pacific—Psychology—History. | Nature—Effect of
human beings on—Northwest, Pacific—History. | Environmental policy—Northwest, Pacific—History. |
BISAC: HISTORY / United States State & Local Pacific Northwest (OR WA). NATURE Ecosystems & Habitats
Mountains.SPORTS & RECREATION / Mountaineering.
Classification: LCC F852.3 .W39 2016 | DDC 917.95—dc23 LC record available at
http://lccn.loc.gov/2015047730
The publisher does not have any control over and does not assume any responsibility for author or third-
party websites or their content.
To Two Bills
William L. Lang, extraordinary editor
and
William E. Neighbor Jr., lifelong friend
at many altitudes
The Snowpeaks “Long stately procession,”
snow pearls rise north-south pendant, tiny arc in the girdling Pacific rim fire.
Though some point like Mt. Hood and Jefferson, more bulge, domes curve
above serrated peaks.
Tahoma and Shasta spread gigantic glacial skirts far above forested ridges above us.
Snyder says, “West coast snowpeaks are too [fucking] much!”
They defy knowledge, spurn our yearning for contact, lure us with boots crampons ropes, cameras brushes
and pen.
Braided by glaciers, they mask fiery throats, steam below snow, their sleep temporary: St. Helens blowing
her head off one May morning, 1980.
Volcanoes awaken our desire as we trace their curves,
stretch our gaze of ourselves.
Shining horizon anchors often cloaked behind thick grey curtains, they exist apart— we so want
to be
part of them.
—O. Alan Weltzien, from The Snowpeaks