The Guardians of the Columbia: Mount Hood, Mount Adams and Mount St. HelensWilliams, John H. (John Harvey)
History
The Guardians of the Columbia: Mount Hood, Mount Adams and Mount St. Helens
Williams, John H. (John Harvey)
Adams, Mount (Wash.); Cascade Range; Columbia River; Hood, Mount (Or.); Saint Helens, Mount (Wash.)
Immediately a relief party of seven strong men, led by C. E. Forsyth of
Castle Rock, Washington, started back over the trailless route by which
the messenger had come. All night they scaled ridges, climbed into and
out of canyons, waded icy streams. Before dawn they reached the wounded
laborer. Mr. Riley says:
It was impossible to carry the man back through the
wild country around the peak. Below, the first cabin
on the Lewis River lay beyond a moat of forbidding
canyons. Above slanted the smooth slopes of St.
Helens. Placing the injured man upon a litter of
canvas and alpine stocks, they began the ascent of the
mountain with their burden. The day dawned and grew
old, and still these men crawled upward in frightful,
body-breaking struggle. Twelve hours passed, and they
had no food and no sleep, save as they fell
unconscious downward in the snow, as they did many
times, from fatigue and lack of nourishment. At four
o'clock, Anderson was again on the summit. Then,
without rest, came the descent to the north. Down
precipitous cliffs of ice they lowered him, as
tenderly as might be; down snow-slopes seared with
crevasses, shielding him from the falling rocks; over
ridges of ragged lava, until in the deepening darkness
of the second night they found themselves again at
timber. But in the net-work of canyons they had
selected the wrong one, and were lost. Here, at three
o'clock, they were found by a second relief party, and
guided over a painful five-mile journey home.
[Illustration: Finest of the St. Helens glaciers, north side, with Black
Butte on left. It is proposed to call this "Forsyth glacier," in honor
of C. E. Forsyth, leader in a memorable rescue.]
It was day when camp was reached. In an improvised hospital, a young
surgeon, aided by a trained nurse, both Mazamas, quickly set the broken
bones. Then they sent their patient comfortably away to the railroad and
a Portland hospital. Before the wagon started, Anderson, who had uttered
no groan in his two days of agony, struggled to a sitting posture, and
searched the faces of all in the crowd about him.
"Ay don't want ever to forget how you look," he said simply; "you who
have done all this yust for me."
It is fitting that such an event should be commemorated. With the
approval of Mr. Riley and other Mazamas who were present at the time, I
would propose that the north-side glacier already described, the most
beautiful of the St. Helens ice-streams, be named "Forsyth glacier," in
honor of the leader of this heroic rescue.
[Illustration: COPYRIGHT, ASAHEL CURTIS
Road among the Douglas Firs.]
[Illustration: Ships loading lumber at one of Portland's large mills.]
III.
THE FORESTS
By HAROLD DOUGLAS LANGILLE
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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