Читать книгу Olympic Mountains Trail Guide - Robert Wood - Страница 21

The first humans who lived on the Olympic Peninsula were Pacific Coast Indians, whose ancestors had migrated to the region from Asia by way of Alaska. No one knows how long they were present before Western Europeans came, but archaeological evidence indicates they had lived along the coast for centuries. They developed a complex social system based on hunting, fishing, and gathering. Their settlements were limited to the coastal perimeter. Most of the food supply was taken from the beaches, the ocean, and the rivers, but the women went into the forest to gather berries and roots, and the men occasionally ventured into the interior to hunt elk and deer.

According to American Indian legends, before the time of the Quileutes the peaks of Mount Olympus were one big mountain—the abode of the Thunderbird. This was their god—an immense creature capable of darkening the heavens and responsible for lightning and thunder.

European seafarers sailing along the western coast of North America in the latter part of the eighteenth century were the first white men to view the Olympics. One of them sighted and named Mount Olympus in 1788. Eventually the mariners became daring enough to sail into Puget Sound, and a British captain named just about everything in sight. With the advent of the nineteenth century, the sailors departed the Pacific Northwest coast. During the next fifty years the peninsula was more or less ignored by Europeans, but after the boundary between the United States and Canada was agreed upon in 1846, settlement accelerated, and the native inhabitants were forced to cede most of their lands to the United States, reserving only small tracts for themselves. About this time prospectors and hunters began roaming through the Olympics, but they left no records or trails.

The first organized attempt to explore the Olympic Mountains occurred in 1882, when the US Army cut a trail from Fort Townsend, on the northeastern tip of the Olympic Peninsula, to the Dungeness River. The soldiers were followed, three years later, by an expedition commanded by Lieutenant Joseph P. O’Neil that explored the northeastern Olympics.

During the severe winter of 1889–90, a small party of civilians known as the Press Expedition succeeded in crossing the mountains, but the explorers suffered severely from the hardships and almost perished. In the summer of 1890, Lieutenant O’Neil returned with a much larger party and thoroughly explored the country. As a result of his explorations, he recommended the creation of a national park in the Olympics, as did James Wickersham, a civilian who spent some time wandering through the Olympics.

Mountaineers began scaling the peaks in the early 1900s. The first ascent of Mount Olympus occurred in 1907, and by 1931, when US 101 was completed around the mountains, the major peaks had been climbed. Such exploits made people aware of the peninsula’s outstanding qualities and brought into focus the need for a national park. The new highway made the Olympics accessible and not only resulted in a large increase in visitors but also meant that the region could be commercially exploited more readily. Thus it soon became apparent that the scenic resources of the Olympics needed permanent protection.

The story of conservation in the Olympics began with the establishment of the Olympic Forest Reserve in 1897. The reserve originally contained about 2 million acres and included not only the Olympic Mountains but also the extensive territory between them and the Pacific Ocean. However, commercial interests quickly succeeded in having large areas deleted from the reserve. The reserve was surveyed at the turn of the century, and in 1907 its name was changed to Olympic National Forest.

In 1909 President Theodore Roosevelt signed a proclamation creating the Mount Olympus National Monument, which consisted of 615,000 acres in the heart of the national forest. During World War I, however, President Woodrow Wilson reduced the monument’s size by 50 percent because of pressure from the timber interests. The monument was transferred to the jurisdiction of the National Park Service in 1933. Five years later, after much debate, Congress created Olympic National Park. Included in its 648,000 acres was the core of the Olympic Mountains, consisting of the higher and more rugged peaks. Additions made in subsequent years, including the ocean beaches in 1953, increased the park’s size to almost 900,000 acres. The main area of the park is bordered on the north, east, and south by the Olympic National Forest, with stateowned lands lying adjacent to the park’s western border. Generally speaking, the national forest and state lands are more heavily forested than the park, because much of the latter consists of high-altitude forest, meadowland, and barren peaks and ridges. Excluding the ocean beaches, the park as it exists today extends roughly 40 miles in each direction—north to south and east to west—with most of the area still in its natural state. Because commercial activities are barred, the park is a wilderness providing homes to a large variety of wildlife.

In 1984 five wilderness areas, totaling 92,966 acres, were created in the Olympic National Forest. They adjoin the national park on the east and south. All but one are located in the eastern Olympics, the rugged peaks and ridges visible from Puget Sound. Fifty years ago these areas were slated for inclusion in the national park, but this was never done because the allotted acreage was used instead to add to the park the ocean beaches and a river corridor.

The United States Congress designated the Daniel J. Evans Wilderness in 1988 and it now has a total of 876,447 acres.

All of this wilderness is located in and is managed by the National Park Service. The Daniel J. Evans Wilderness is bordered by the Buckhorn Wilderness to the northeast, the Brothers Wilderness to the east, the Mount Skokmish Wilderness to the southeast, the Wonder Mountains Wilderness to the south, and the Colonel Bob Wilderness to the south and east. The Daniel J. Evans Wilderness also contains 48 miles of wilderness coast with its beaches, rugged headlands, tide pools, seastacks, and coastal rainforests.