Editing Cascade Range (section)

== History ==
Before European exploration, First Nations tribes named many peaks, including "Seekseekqua" for [[Mount Jefferson (Oregon)]],<ref name="oregonlive.com">{{Citation
 | last1 = Hale | first1 = Jamie| title = The native names of Pacific Northwest mountains| newspaper = The Oregonian | date = 17 May 2019
 | url = https://www.oregonlive.com/travel/2017/02/the_native_names_of_pacific_no.html
 | access-date = 25 October 2021 }}</ref> "M'laiksini Yaina" for [[Mount McLoughlin]],<ref name="oregonlive.com"/>  "Tahoma", the [[Lushootseed]] name for Mount Rainier,<ref>{{Cite web |url=http://vulcan.wr.usgs.gov/LivingWith/Historical/naming_mount_rainier.html |title=Mount Rainier, Washington |website=Naming the Cascade Range Volcanoes |publisher=U.S. Geological Survey |access-date=April 23, 2012}}</ref> and "Louwala-Clough", meaning "smoking mountain" for Mount St. Helens.<ref name="legends">{{Cite web |url=http://vulcan.wr.usgs.gov/Volcanoes/MSH/description_msh.html |title=Northwest Legends |website=Mount St. Helens Volcano, Washington |publisher=U.S. Geological Survey |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120510073941/http://vulcan.wr.usgs.gov/Volcanoes/MSH/description_msh.html#Northwest%20Legends |archive-date=May 10, 2012}}</ref>

In early 1792, British navigator [[George Vancouver]] explored [[Puget Sound]] and gave English names to the high mountains he saw. Mount Baker was named for Vancouver's third lieutenant, [[Joseph Baker (Royal Navy officer)|Joseph Baker]], although the first European to see it was [[Manuel Quimper]], who named it ''la gran montaña del Carmelo'' ("Great [[Mount Carmel]]") in 1790.{{sfn|Beckey|2003|pp=3–7}} Mount Rainier was named after Admiral [[Peter Rainier (Royal Navy officer, born 1741)|Peter Rainier]]. Later in 1792, Vancouver had his lieutenant [[William Robert Broughton]] explore the lower [[Columbia River]]. He named [[Mount Hood]] after [[Samuel Hood, 1st Viscount Hood|Lord Samuel Hood]], an [[admiral]] of the [[Royal Navy]]. [[Mount St. Helens]] was sighted by Vancouver in May 1792, from near the mouth of the Columbia River. It was named for [[Alleyne FitzHerbert, 1st Baron St Helens]], a British diplomat.<ref>{{Cite web |url=http://vulcan.wr.usgs.gov/LivingWith/Historical/naming_mount_st_helens.html |title=Naming the Cascade Range Volcanoes: Mount St. Helens, Washington |publisher=U.S. Geological Survey |access-date=June 15, 2012}}</ref> Vancouver's expedition did not, however, name the mountain range which contained these peaks. He referred to it simply as the "eastern snowy range". Earlier Spanish explorers called it ''Sierra Nevada'', meaning "snowy mountains".{{sfn|Beckey|2003|pp=3–7}}

[[File:Mount Shuksan tarn.jpg|thumb|left|West side view of [[Mount Shuksan]] in summer as seen from [[Washington State Route 542|Artist Point]] in [[Washington (state)|Washington]]]]

In 1805, the [[Lewis and Clark Expedition]] passed through the Cascades on the Columbia River, which for many years was the only practical way to pass that part of the range. They were the first non-indigenous people to see [[Mount Adams (Washington)|Mount Adams]], but they thought it was Mount St. Helens. When they later saw Mount St. Helens they thought it was Mount Rainier.{{sfn|Beckey|2003|pp=38–39}} On their return trip, Lewis and Clark spotted a [[Mount Jefferson (Oregon)|high but distant snowy pinnacle]] that they named for the sponsor of the expedition, U.S. President [[Thomas Jefferson]].<ref>{{Cite web |url=http://vulcan.wr.usgs.gov/LivingWith/Historical/LewisClark/Info/summary_mount_jefferson.html |title=The Volcanoes of Lewis and Clark, Mount Jefferson, Oregon |publisher=U.S. Geological Survey |access-date=June 15, 2012}}</ref> Lewis and Clark called the Cascade Range the "Western Mountains".{{sfn|Beckey|2003|p=28}}

The Lewis and Clark expedition, and the many settlers and traders that followed, met their last obstacle to their journey at the [[Cascades Rapids]] in the Columbia River Gorge, a feature on the river now submerged beneath the [[Bonneville Dam|Bonneville Reservoir]]. Before long, the great white-capped mountains that loomed above the rapids were called the "mountains by the cascades" and later simply as the "Cascades". The earliest attested use of the name "Cascade Range" is in the writings of botanist [[David Douglas (botanist)|David Douglas]] in 1825.{{sfn|Beckey|2003|p=48}}<ref name=majors>{{Cite book| last = Majors | first = Harry M. | title = Exploring Washington | publisher = Van Winkle Publishing Co | year = 1975 | page = 150 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=CoWrPQAACAAJ| isbn = 978-0-918664-00-6}}</ref>

[[File:Mount Hood reflected in Mirror Lake, Oregon.jpg|thumb|[[Mount Hood]] is the tallest point in the U.S. state of [[Oregon]].]]

In 1814, [[Alexander Ross (fur trader)|Alexander Ross]], a fur trader with the [[North West Company]], seeking a viable route across the mountains, explored and crossed the northern Cascades between [[Fort Okanogan]] and Puget Sound. His report of the journey is vague about the route taken. He followed the lower [[Methow River]] into the mountains. He might have used [[Cascade Pass]] to reach the [[Skagit River]]. Ross was the first European-American to explore the Methow River area and likely the first to explore the [[Stehekin River]] and Bridge Creek region. Due to the difficulty of crossing the northern Cascades and the paucity of beaver, fur-trading companies made only a few explorations into the mountains north of the Columbia River after Ross.{{sfn|Beckey|2003|pp=41–45}}

Exploration and settlement of the Cascades region by Europeans and Americans was accelerated by the establishment of a major trading post of the [[Hudson's Bay Company]] (HBC) at [[Fort Vancouver]] near today's [[Portland, Oregon]]. From this base HBC trapping parties traveled throughout the Cascades in search of beaver and other fur-bearing animals. For example, using what became known as the [[Siskiyou Trail]], Hudson's Bay Company trappers were the first non-natives to explore the southern Cascades in the 1820s and 1830s, establishing trails which passed near [[Crater Lake]], [[Mount McLoughlin]], [[Medicine Lake Volcano]], [[Mount Shasta]], and Lassen Peak.<ref>{{Cite web |url=http://www.museumsiskiyoutrail.org |title=Museum of the Siskiyou Trail |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120415171721/http://www.museumsiskiyoutrail.org/ |archive-date=April 15, 2012}}</ref>

[[File:Coquihalla River.jpg|thumb|left|upright|The [[Coquihalla River]] in the Canadian Cascades]]

The course of political history in the [[Pacific Northwest]] saw the spine of the Cascade Range being proposed as a boundary settlement during the [[Oregon Dispute]] of 1846. The United States rejected the proposal and insisted on the [[49th parallel north]], which cuts across the range just north of Mount Baker. Throughout the period of dispute and up to the creation of the [[Crown Colony]] of British Columbia in 1858, the Hudson's Bay Company's [[York Factory Express]] route, as well the route of fur brigades, followed the Okanogan River along the east edge of the Cascades and the Columbia River through the range. Passes across the range were not well known and little used. [[Naches Pass]] was used for driving cattle and horses to [[Fort Nisqually]]. [[Yakima Pass]] was also used by the Hudson's Bay Company.{{sfn|Beckey|2003|pp=63–64, 98}}

American settlement of the flanks of the Coast Range did not occur until the early 1840s, at first only marginally. Following the [[Oregon Treaty]] the inward flux of migration from the [[Oregon Trail]] intensified and the passes and back-valleys of what is now the state of Washington were explored and populated, and it was not long after that railways followed. Despite its being traversed by several major freeways and rail lines, and its lower flanks subjected to major logging in recent decades, large parts of the range remain intense and forbidding alpine wilderness. Much of the northern half of the Cascades, from Rainier north, have been preserved by [[National Park Service|U.S. national]] or British Columbia [[provincial park]]s (such as [[E.C. Manning Provincial Park]]), or other forms of protected area.<ref>{{Cite web |url=http://www.landscope.org/explore/natural_geographies/ecoregions/North%20Cascades/ |title=North Cascades Ecoregion |publisher=Land Scope America |access-date=June 15, 2012}}</ref>

[[File:Lassen Peak and Crescent Crater (15299274301).jpg|thumb|[[Lassen Peak]] in the California Cascades. Southernmost volcano in the Cascade Range and part of [[Lassen Volcanic National Park]]]]

The Canadian side of the range has a history that includes the [[Fraser Canyon Gold Rush]] of 1858–60 and its famous [[Cariboo Road]], as well as the older Hudson's Bay Company Brigade Trail from the Canyon to the Interior, the Dewdney Trail, and older routes which connected east to the [[Similkameen River|Similkameen]] and [[Okanagan River|Okanagan]] valleys.

The southern mainline of the [[Canadian Pacific Railway]] penetrated the range via the passes of the [[Coquihalla River]], along one of the steepest and snowiest routes in the entire [[Pacific Cordillera]]. Near [[Hope, British Columbia|Hope, B.C.]], the [[Kettle Valley Railway|railway roadbed]] and the [[Coquihalla Canyon Provincial Park|Othello Tunnels]], now decommissioned, are popular tourist recreation destinations for hiking and bicycling. The pass is used by the [[British Columbia Highway 5|Coquihalla Highway]], a government [[megaproject]] built as part of the [[Expo 86]] spending boom of the 1980s, which is now the main route from the Coast to the British Columbia interior. Traffic formerly went via the [[Fraser Canyon]], to the west, or via [[Allison Pass]] and [[Manning Park]] along [[Crowsnest Highway|Highway 3]] to the south, near the border.

[[File:Mount St. Helens 05-18-1980.jpg|thumb|left|upright|The 1980 eruption of Mount St. Helens]]

The [[Barlow Road]] was the first established land path for U.S. settlers through the Cascade Range in 1845, and formed the final overland link for the [[Oregon Trail]] (previously, settlers had to raft down the [[Cascades Rapids|treacherous rapids]] of the Columbia River). The Road left the Columbia at what is now [[Hood River, Oregon|Hood River]] and passed along the south side of Mount Hood at what is now [[Government Camp, Oregon|Government Camp]], terminating in Oregon City. There is an interpretive site there now at "The End of The Oregon Trail". The road was constructed as a toll road&nbsp;– $5 per wagon&nbsp;– and was very successful.

In addition, the [[Applegate Trail]] was created to allow settlers to avoid rafting down the Columbia River.  The Trail used the path of the [[California Trail]] to north-central [[Nevada]].  From there, the Trail headed northwest into northern California, and continued northwest towards today's [[Ashland, Oregon]].  From there, settlers would head north along the established Siskiyou Trail into the [[Willamette Valley]].

With the exception of the 1915 eruption of remote Lassen Peak in Northern California, the range was quiet for more than a century. Then, on May&nbsp;18, 1980, the dramatic eruption of [[Mount St. Helens]] shattered the quiet and brought the world's attention to the range. Geologists were also concerned that the St. Helens eruption was a sign that long-dormant Cascade volcanoes might become active once more, as in the period from 1800 to 1857 when a total of eight erupted. None have erupted since St. Helens, but precautions are being taken nevertheless, such as the [[Cascades Volcano Observatory]] and Mount Rainier Volcano [[Lahar]] Warning System in [[Pierce County, Washington]].<ref>{{Cite web |url=http://volcanoes.usgs.gov/About/Highlights/RainierPilot/Pilot_highlight.html |title=Pilot Project&nbsp;– Mount Rainier Volcano Lahar Warning System |website=Volcano Hazards Program |publisher=U.S. Geological Survey |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080511210610/http://volcanoes.usgs.gov/About/Highlights/RainierPilot/Pilot_highlight.html |archive-date=May 11, 2008}}</ref>