On this day in 1792, Lt. William Broughten named Mount Hood, Oregon, in honor of British admiral, 1st Viscount Samuel Hood (left). He was carrying on the long tradition of Europeans naming New World real estate they didn’t actually own.
Broughten arrived at age 30, part of Captain George Vancouver’s expedition to the Pacific Northwest. He first spied the snow-capped summit near present-day Sauvie Island. “ A very high snowy mountain now appeared rising beautifully conspicuous …and seemed to announce the termination of the [Columbia] river.”
Broughton’s choice of a namesake was an unlikely one. Hood, the son of a rural vicar had been entranced by tales of the sea told to him by Captain 
Thomas Smith (left). Smith. a future admiral of the Royal Navy, had been rescued by Hood’s father following a carriage accident and spent some weeks recovering at the boy’s home.
Hood entered the navy in 1741 at the age of 17. He was denied greatness during the American Revolution, losing to French Admiral, the Comte de Grasse at the Battle of the Chesapeake in 1781. He was elevated to hero status a year later, however, defending Britain’s Caribbean sugar possessions against the French and Spanish.
While the lofty peak, in Lt. Broughten’s mind, belonged to an Englishman, it had belonged to generations of indigenous people and known as Wy’east. It was created, so the legend goes, the result of two feuding brothers, Wy’east and Klickitat. in love with the same maiden named Loowit. Their rivalry wreaked havoc on the earth, causing their father, Great Spirit Sahale, to strike down all three of them. Regretting his anger, Sahale memorialized Wy’east (Mount Hood), Klickitat (Mount Adams) and Loowit (Mount St. Helen).
The traditional tribe Multnomah occupied a number of villages near the mouth of the Willamette River when the British first sailed up the coast. Home to as many as 3,500 permanent residents, Lewis and Clark recorded their encounter with the Multnomah during the winter of 1805. By 1830, however. the villages were abandoned, the population decimated by disease. Archaeologists today believe it was malaria.
With at least a nod to indigenous cultures, William Clark (right) made note of “the pinnacle of the round-topped mountain” calling it Timm, the native name for Celilo Falls. He later took a step back and corrected the entry, saying that Timm was, in fact, Vancouver’s Mount Hood. Clark was apparently unfazed that it honored a naval officer sailing under the flag of the enemy during the American Revolution and still an English possession.
Mount Hood’s official height has varied a trifling 100 feet or so over the years. It was apparently settled permanently in 1993 at 11,239, ranking the stratovolcano as the highest elevation in Oregon. Its designation as a national forest underwent several revisions, as well.
Mount Hood became part of the Bull Run Forest Reserve in 1892 and merged with the Cascade National Forest 16 years later. Present-day Mount Hood National Forest was established in 1924 with more than a million acres containing 12 glaciers and 1,200 miles of hiking trails.
An estimated 10,000 climbers attempt the summit every year. The mountain had claimed more than 130 lives by the beginning of the 21st century. While experts consider the threat of avalanches a fairly high risk, most of the fatalities have been from falls and hypothermia. The number of mountain rescues has consistently dropped, now averaging fewer than 50 a year.
Some four million less adventurous visitors annually enjoy the more pedestrian pleasures of hiking, camping and fishing, making it one of our most popular National Forests.
Timberline Lodge, Clackamas County, Oregon, is on the National Register of Historic Places. Build by the Works Progress Administration and completed in 1938, the lodge was designed by Gilbert Stanley Underwood, the originator of “parkatecture.” Underwood was most famous for National Park facilities and Union Pacifc train stations. Many are listed on the National Register of Historic Landmarks.
Now privately owned, Timberline enjoys the longest ski season in the continental U.S. In addition, the lodge and surrounding environs have served as popular shooting locatiaons for Hollywood. Filmed nearby, the 1952 film, ”Bend in the River,” the 1979 remake of “Lost Horizons” and the 2014 film, “Wild.” Perhaps it is best known, however, as the exterior of the Overlook Hotel in Stanley Kubrick’s 1980 horror classic,“The Shining.” For more information go to timberlinelodge.com, call (503) 272-3311 or write 27500 E Timberline Road Timberline Lodge, OR 97028
© Text Only – 2017 – Headin’ West LLC – All photos – public domain.