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Posed photo of hikers, August 1894

Mt. Hood Summit Trip of 1894

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Written by Juliette Burns, Class of 2026

“At the dawn of the fourteenth day of August a party of professors, students and friends of Willamette University; twenty in all, left Salem with loaded wagons and upright alpen-stocks plying the college colors, the baggage wagon heaped high”1

So begins the six chapter chronicle in the Collegian of the 1894 trip to the summit of Mt. Hood. The account created a stunning picture of nature, travel, and friendly connections new and old. This entry explores the narrative highlighting the most enlightening, lovely, funny, or archaic moments in order to paint its own picture for the modern eye. Descriptions and explanations of certain objects and places are also included, for any readers curious about the nitty gritty details of the journey and the supplies used by the travelers.

Photos from the expedition and from the subsequent Collegian summary help bring the story to life. Within these century-old words and photos the people portrayed may appear both familiar and distant. The actors in this true tale, unnamed by the 1894 Collegian writer Edith Frizzell, made foolish, scandalous, resilient, and entertaining choices while navigating a variety of circumstances. 

Souvenir View of Mt. Hood

This band of aspiring mountain climbers departed Salem on August 14, 1894, making their way into Oregon City within the first day or two. The next day, the travelers first had to pick up their camera plates before continuing on their way towards the city of Damascus.2 While the exact camera used to document their journey through the woods and up the mountain is not known, the article refers to waiting to pick up “camera plates” from the post office, presumably referring to dry glass plates which were a more mobile version of wet glass plates.3 These plates were meant to be exposed to light and would produce a photo negative. 

Hiking path in forest

Around the third day of travel, the group arrived at the “towns of Sandy and Salmon.”4 named for the nearby Sandy and Salmon Rivers. Sandy, located about 75 miles from Salem was a known settlement.5 Salmon appears to have referred more to a general area than a specific town, as research has not yielded much information on the “town” referred to by the writer. The group spent the night there, sent their last letters home for a while, and journeyed back into the forest to set up camp along the Salmon River. 

“The forests about Mt. Hood have been noted since the days of the pioneers for the deep soft moss which covers the ground, logs, and trees. No less abundant are the ferns which are scattered about among the great trees which stand tall and tapering above you. Near the top their branches mingle forming a roof through which the sun seldom penetrates, rendering this a perfect place in which to cuddle down on the moss at the foot of a tree and yield yourself entirely to the pleasures of your book.

It was here on the bank of the Salmon that the travelers pitched their tents and made their home.6

They called the place: Camp Willamette. The group spent a good deal of time here, into September. The narrative paints a picture of hazy, lazy days spent in hammocks, dipping into the cold stream, singing songs, attending church at a nearby farm, and learning skills in farm work such as milking cows. It was at this forested camp that some members of the group earned some unfortunate nicknames: Nimrod and Jockey, a young man and woman respectively, earned theirs after falling into the river from atop a log. Jockey clung tightly to the log above the water, which led to her nickname.7 Nimrod would be stuck with the title for the rest of the narrative, even as he showed himself more competent than originally asserted.

The narrative had plenty of anecdotes about the antics of the travelers, such as the woman falling into the arms of a male companion out of fear of a cow and the story of the man who tried to slide down a log, slipped on a knot in the wood, and shamefully kept to the back of the group from then on. 

Two hikers sleeping near wagon

After a few weeks spent camping some distance from the mountain, the party split into two groups and prepared for their trek to Mt. Hood- and the climb up and down it. The narrative follows the second group during their time alone in the camp and their own journey up the mountain. As had become typical in the story, the author showcased the mundane concerns of the group, such as the struggle of the remaining women in camp to cook bread and pie, consoling themselves with reminders of the poor food the other group could expect on the mountain trek.8 Though, apparently, the other group had a cook with them; so perhaps they were being too hopeful. 

Soon enough, the first group returned and reinforcements from the university arrived to join the second group on their journey to the summit. The troop moved towards Government Camp, an unincorporated territory at the base of Mount Hood. Here, they met their guide for the trip up the mountain, Mr. Steele. He would lead the route up and down the mountain, apparently providing entertainment with “interesting and instructive information” when they began the first chunk of the route. 

Another vivid description is given of the travelers’ circumstances during their first night on the base of Mount Hood, once again a blend of dismal conditions and humor. Lard? Missing. Potatoes? Cold. Beans? Soured. Oh, the woes of camping. The chapter ends with the tired, cold, disappointed campers scrubbing their dishes with snow and crawling into bed. 

“Let us look at the them as they partake of this meal. It is dark, a cold, piercing wind blows down the mountain from the snow fields, the cloth is spread on an uneven hillside, a lantern is propped up in the center of the table. there are not plates, knives or forks enough for all but they share with one another. As the frying pan is passed they eagerly help themselves to the potatoes, which they find cold, half done and saltless. the bread is stale and scrapy, their coffee, smoky. They open a can of beans prepared for them before leaving camp, these have soured and they are tired; so washing their dishes the best they could in a little water and snow they seek their beds.”

Group photo of hikers in camp

Not to be brought down by their continued culinary struggles, the travelers were up early the next day and gathered their supplies for the hike. They had alpenstocks—large wooden poles with iron spike tips for sinking into the ground and ice—ropes, camera, food and canteens, and oil cloths, for ease of getting down snowy ground.9 They traveled through sandy, rocky fields until they reached snowy meadows, slowly sloping upward. As they traversed the fields, the narrative  treats us to the scene which met the group as the sun rose: “they beheld above the blanket of smoke the white capped heads of Jefferson and the Three Sisters as they rose to greet the new day who roguishly kissed them and left them blushing.”10

The photo below showcases the travelers gathered together with their faces covered in soot and Vaseline. This may have been a form of sunscreen, though to our modern eyes it appears very different. While done for practical reasons and not as black face, the narrative does say that they appeared to be a ‘group of Africans rather than northern students.’ Such attitudes of racial as well as gender prejudice and stereotypes are common in the narrative, as may be expected.

Click to see image
Hikers on Mt. Hood

As they made their way up the mountain proper, their first scenic stop was the White River glacier, named for the origin of the White River. In this glacier, one could look down and see what seems to be “the very heart of the mountain, white and pure to the center” with “every hollow and cave reflecting a delicate blue.” It is at this glacier that the dangers of the mountain began to make themselves known. One woman lost her footing and nearly fell into a crevasse, but caught herself using her alpenstock. Tumbles in the snow grew increasingly common along the trip. 

Hikers climbing Mt. Hood

The group then moved on to the Crater Rock, a lava dome, which is described as having a sickening odor. This smell is the Hydrogen Sulfide gas coming from inside the mountain, known to smell like rotten eggs.11 They moved to the topside of the rock, sitting down for lunch outside of the range of the smell. After this, they moved further up the route, to what the narrative called “Devil’s Backbone, an immense drift shaped like the steep roof of a house and sloping down hundreds of feet either side, cross[ing] the old crater and join[ing] the rock to the crevasse.”12  Traversing along the crevasse with a constant risk of falling rock, the troop completed their journey to the summit. This momentous culmination of the summit arrival was met with a smoky view and blowing sand. Here they entered their names into a record book left by the Oregon Alpine Club, and met fellow travelers coming from a nearby inn.   

Their journey back down the mountain was full of tumbles and trips. Before returning from the mountain, the group wanted to visit Crater Rock again.13 During their debate on the safest way to it, their guide Mr. Steele glided down part of the mountain to the crater with only his alpenstock. Some eager mountaineer initiates followed. One man succeeded, but the woman after him had “her gait become so rapid” that Mr. Steele had to catch her at the bottom. Together they fell and slid further, covering themselves in snow. The man who had successfully followed Mr. Steele tried to catch them as well, resulting in “the three roll[ing] over several times” before coming to a stop. This scene frightened a professor away from the adventurous route, but other students attempted the descent, with varying levels of success. 

Another woman had an even more dramatic experience during her plunge. Proceeding well, she had to stop for a moment when her alpenstock became stuck. She decided to continue while sitting, sliding her way towards the crater. Through some mysterious slipping and sliding, the adventurer ended up facing the wrong way around, ending up on her back and moving head first towards her destination. The narrative says that she chose to be in this position, but whether someone would want this situation makes this uncertain. Regardless, she found herself regretting her position, struggling until she was sideways and rolling over. As the steepness lessened, she was able to orient herself the right way around, and was finally stopped by her fellow travelers. 

“Shortly some unforeseen cause turned her about so that she sat with her feet toward the summit; but tiring quickly of that position she lay at full length and sped downward head first, while visions of unseen stones, craters, etc., mixed with broken necks, confused her brain and she began to kick and struggle till she turned perpendicular to her course and rolled over and over with astonishing rapidity, the centrifugal force overcoming all control of hands and feet. As the mountain became less precipitous she succeed in controlling her position sufficiently to place her feet foremost and at length was stopped by her friends.

Covered with snow she arose with her glasses sadly awry and one lens gone but as she looked back over her course and scattered articles she felt the satisfaction of having tried the descent in every position and realized the merits of each.

The remainder of the party descended more or less successfully and after completing the novel journey visited the crater.”

Having made it through their daring descent, the group investigated the sulfur covered rocks of the crater. Then, they continued descending, eventually coming across a cave. As they saw in the White River Glacier, they found melting snow and ice, reflections of white and blue on the rock walls. Once again, Mr. Steele proved himself a fearless man by entering a small opening near the back of the cave. He stayed away so long that his charges grew fearful for themselves and him, with the shifting of the snow and the possible things hiding underneath. Before they could take action, he reappeared, stating that going through the cave would slightly shorten the descent time. 

The group entered, following a stream of melted snow. The cave stooped lower until they had to crawl beside the stream, eventually “wriggling themselves out into the open world.”14 Upon freeing themselves from the cramped cave, the amateur mountaineers rose to see a cliff of snow towering above them. They were on the rock bed of the glacier, and continued on their way through waterfalls and grottos of snow and ice. 

Posed photo of hikers, August 1894

Finally emerging, they began descending back to their camp, looking forward to their rudimentary mountain encampment the longer they trekked. If it was warmth they sought, they found it in abundance—a fire had spread from where breakfast had been cooked, burning away a log and the sideboards of a wagon that had been serving as a table. The damage was manageable, and their arrival was timely for saving the tent. Their struggles continued into the night, where wind tugged at tents, untethered the horses, and started another fire.15

Having finished their journey up and down Mount Hood, the party of travelers made a stop at Yocum Falls before returning to the mossy grounds of Camp Willamette. The whole group reunited, staying up late into the night to appreciate their last day in the forest. The journey back to the campus has been omitted from the narrative, but concludes: 

“And so ended one of the pleasantest vacations ever spent at the foot of that grand old mountain which has for centuries raised its hoary head above its companions and guarded the progress of its children of valleys.”16

Complete photo album

Endnotes

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  1. ˆ  Edith Frizzell, “A Trip to Mt. Hood: Chapter I,” Willamette Collegian (Salem, OR), October 1, 1894
  2. ˆ Edith Frizzell, “A Trip to Mt. Hood: Chapter I”
  3. ˆ “Early Photographic Formats and Processes in the Special Collections and Archives Research Center: Historical Context,” Oregon State University. 
  4. ˆ  Edith Frizzell, “A Trip to Mt. Hood: Chapter I”
  5. ˆ “There are 4 ways to get from Sandy to Salem by bus (Flixbus), car, bus, or train,” Rome2Rio, Accessed February 17, 2025.
  6. ˆ  Edith Frizzell, “A Trip to Mt. Hood: Chapter II,” Willamette Collegian (Salem, OR), November 1, 1894
  7. ˆ  Edith Frizzell, “A Trip to Mt. Hood: Chapter II”
  8. ˆ Edith Frizzell, “A Trip to Mt. Hood: Chapter III,” Willamette Collegian (Salem, OR), December 1, 1894
  9. ˆ Edith Frizzell, “A Trip to Mt. Hood: Chapter IV,” Willamette Collegian (Salem, OR), January 1, 1895.
  10. ˆ Edith Frizzell, “A Trip to Mt. Hood: Chapter IV”
  11. ˆ OffTheSteppe, “Sulfur Inhalation on Mount Hood,” Cascade Climbers 
  12. ˆ Edith Frizzell, “A Trip to Mt. Hood: Chapter IV”
  13. ˆ Edith Frizzell, “A Trip to Mt. Hood: Chapter V,” Willamette Collegian (Salem, OR), February 1, 1895.
  14. ˆ Edith Frizzell, “A Trip to Mt. Hood: Chapter V”
  15. ˆ Edith, Frizzell “A Trip to Mt. Hood: Chapter VI,” Willamette Collegian (Salem, OR), March 1, 1895
  16. ˆ Edith, Frizzell “A Trip to Mt. Hood: Chapter VI”

Works Referenced

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Image Citations

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  • “Souvenir Views of Mt. Hood and the Willamette University Party that Ascended its Summit in August 1894.” Black and White. Scrapbooks, Willamette Archives and Special Collections. https://hdl.handle.net/10177/17378

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