Mountain range in W North America; extends over 1120 km/700 mi from N California, through Oregon and Washington to British Columbia; named after the cascades of the Columbia R where it passes through the range in a canyon c.1200 m/4000 ft deep; highest point, Mt Rainier (4392 m/14 409 ft), Washington; other high peaks, Mts Adams (3742 m/12 277 ft), Baker (3285 m/10 777 ft), Hood (3424 m/11 233 ft), Jefferson (3200 m/10 498 ft) and Shasta (4317 m/14 163 ft); many are snow-covered volcanic cones; Mt St Helens (2549 m/8363 ft) erupted 1980, 1986, 2005; many glacial lakes (largest L Chelan); glaciers on the higher peaks, notably Mt Rainier; Crater Lake National Park in the S; Klamath and Columbia Rivers cut through the range from E to W; a 13 km/8 mi-long railway tunnel goes through the range E of Seattle; heavily forested; hydroelectricity.
The Cascade Range is a mountainous region famous for its chain of tall volcanoes called the High Cascades that run north-south along the west coast of North America from British Columbia through Washington and Oregon to the Shasta Cascade area of Northern California. the former term is also sometimes used by Washington residents to refer to the Washington section of the Cascades.
The Cascades are part of the Pacific Ring of Fire, the ring of volcanoes around the Pacific Ocean. All of the known historic eruptions in the contiguous United States have been from Cascade volcanoes. The two most recent were Lassen Peak in 1914 to 1921 and a major eruption of Mount St. Helens in 1980.
History
Native Americans have inhabited the area for thousands of years and developed their own myths and legends concerning the Cascades. Other stories, such as the Bridge of the Gods tale, had various High Cascades such as Hood and Adams, act as god-like chiefs who made war by throwing fire and stone at each other. Among the many stories concerning Mount Baker, one tells that the mountain was formerly married to Mount Rainier and lived in that vicinity. Native tribes also developed their own names for the High Cascades and many of the smaller peaks, the most well-known to non-natives being Tahoma, the Lushootseed name for Mount Rainier.
The legendary and diverse ethnographic history of the Cascade Range is too complex to recount here, except to say that the spine of the range forms the divide between the Interior Salish and Coast Salish language groupings, and mythographically between the realm of Coyote on the east and that of the Transformers and the spirit-world of the Coast on the west.
Legends associated with the great volcanoes are many, as well as with other peaks and geographical features of the range, including its many hot springs and waterfalls and rock towers and other formations. Stories of Tahoma - today Mount Rainier and the namesake of Tacoma, Washington - allude to great, hidden grottos with sleeping giants, apparitions and other marvels in the volcanoes of Washington, and Mount Shasta in California has long been well-known for its associations with everything from Lemurians to aliens to elves and, as everywhere in the Cascades, Sasquatch or Bigfoot. Mount Baker was named for Vancouver's third lieutenant, the graceful Mount St. Helens for a famous diplomat, Mount Hood was named in honor of Samuel Hood, 1st Viscount Hood (an admiral of the Royal Navy) and the tallest Cascade, Mount Rainier, is the namesake of Admiral Peter Rainier.
In 1805 the Lewis and Clark expedition passed through the Cascades by using the Columbia River, which for many years was the only practical way to pass that part of the range. 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 Lake Bonneville. 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 this name is in the writings of botanist David Douglas).
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 at Fort Vancouver near today's Portland, Oregon. For example, using what became known as the Siskiyou Trail, HBC 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.
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, which was rejected by the United States which insisted on the 49th Parallel, 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 edge of the range along the Columbia and Okanogan Rivers formed the main express route of the Hudson's Bay Company's busy traffic, and passes across the range were used by HBC staff at Forts Nisqually and Puyallup. The vast majority of non-native residents of the Cascade Range region until about 1840 were British subjects, most of mixed French-native blood and some Hawaiians and blacks as well as Scots who were the backbone of Hudson's Bay Company administration. Most of the northern half of the High Cascades, from Rainier north, have been preserved by US national or BC provincial parks or other forms of protected area.
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 and Okanagan valleys.
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 treacherous rapids of the Columbia River).
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 18, 1980, the dramatic eruption of little-known 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 Mount Rainier Volcano Lahar Warning System in Pierce County, Washington.
Geography
At its southern end the range is about 30 to 50 miles (50 to 80 km) wide and 4500 to 5000 feet (1370 to 1520 m) high but is higher and 80 miles (130 km) wide in northern Washington. The tallest volcanoes of the Cascades (called the High Cascades) dominate the rest of the range, often standing twice the height of the surrounding mountains and thus often have a visual height of a mile (1.6 km) or more. The tallest peaks, such as the 14,411 foot (4392 m) high Mount Rainier, dominate their surroundings for 50 to 100 miles (80 to 160 km).
The northern part of the range, north of Mount Rainier, is known as the North Cascades. It is not uncommon for some places in the Cascades to have over 200 inches (5500 mm) of snow accumulation, such as at Lake Helen (near Lassen Peak), one of the snowiest places in the world. Most of the High Cascades are therefore white with snow and ice year-round.
The Columbia River Gorge is the only major break in the American part of the Cascades. When the Cascades started to rise 7 million years ago in the Pliocene, the Columbia River drained the relatively low Columbia River Plateau.
In addition, there is a largely untapped amount of geothermal power that can be generated from the Cascades.
High Cascades
Listed north to south:
Mount Garibaldi (British Columbia) - heavily eroded by glaciers and has three principal peaks. Mount Garibaldi is not part of the Cascade Range, but of the Pacific Ranges of the Coast Mountains complex. It is nonetheless classified in the Cascade group or family of volcanoes. But while other volcanoes to the north in the Pacific Ranges are not considered part of the Cascades, they, however, are part of the Garibaldi Volcanic Belt. Mount Baker (Near the United States-Canada border) - highest peak in northern Washington. Glacier Peak (northern Washington) - secluded and relatively inaccessible peak. Mount Rainier (southeast of Tacoma, Washington) - highest peak in the Cascades, it dominates the surrounding landscape. Mount St. Helens (southern Washington) - Erupted in 1980, leveling forests to the north of the mountain and sending ash across the northwest. The northern part of the mountain was destroyed in the blast (see 1980 Mount St. Helens eruption). Mount Adams (east of Mount St. Helens) - the second highest peak in Washington and third highest in the Cascade Range. Mount Hood (northern Oregon) - the highest peak in Oregon and the most frequently climbed major peak in the Cascades. Mount Jefferson (northcentral Oregon) - the second highest peak in Oregon. Mount Washington (between Santiam and McKenzie passes) - a highly eroded shield volcano. Mount Bailey (north of Mount Mazama) Mount Thielsen (east of Mount Bailey) - highly eroded volcano with a prominent spire, making it the Lightning Rod of the Cascades. Mount Mazama (southern Oregon) - better known as Crater Lake, which is a caldera formed by a catastrophic eruption which took out most of the summit roughly 6,900 years ago. Medicine Lake Volcano - a shield volcano in northern California which is the largest volcano by volume in the Cascades. Mount Shasta (northern California) - second highest peak in the Cascades. Shasta) - southernmost volcano in the Cascades and the most easily climbed peak in the Cascades, it erupted 1914-1921Protected areas
There are four U.S. National Parks in the Cascade Range and many U.S. National Monuments, U.S. Wilderness Areas, and U.S. National Forests.
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