Mount Hood is an active stratovolcano in the Cascade Range and is a member of the Cascade Volcanic Arc. It was formed by a subduction zone on the Pacific Coast and rests in the Pacific Northwest region of the United States. It is located about 50 miles (80 km) east-east-southeast of Portland, on the border between Clackamas and Hood River counties, and forms part of the Mount Hood National Forest. With a summit elevation of 11,249 feet (3,429 m), it is the highest mountain in the U.S. state of Oregon and is the fourth highest in the Cascade Range. Ski areas on the mountain include Timberline Lodge ski area, which offers the only year-round lift-served skiing in North America, Mount Hood Meadows, Mount Hood Skibowl, Summit Ski Area, and Cooper Spur ski area. Much of the mountain outside the ski areas is part of the Mount Hood Wilderness. Mt. Hood attracts an estimated 10,000 climbers a year. The peak is home to 12 named glaciers and snowfields. Mount Hood is considered the Oregon volcano most likely to erupt. The odds of an eruption in the next 30 years are estimated at between 3 and 7%, so the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) characterizes it as "potentially active", but the mountain is informally considered dormant.
Establishments
Timberline Lodge is a National Historic Landmark located on the southern flank of Mount Hood just below Palmer Glacier, with an elevation of about 6,000 feet (1,800 m). The mountain has four ski areas: Timberline, Mount Hood Meadows, Ski Bowl, and Cooper Spur. They total over 4,600 acres (7.2 sq mi; 19 km2) of skiable terrain; Timberline, with one lift having a base at nearly 6,940 feet (2,120 m), offers the only year-round lift-served skiing in North America. There are a few remaining shelters on Mount Hood still in use today. Those include the Cooper Spur, Cairn Basin, and McNeil Point shelters as well as the Tilly Jane A-frame cabin. The summit was home to a fire lookout in the early 1900s; however, the lookout did not withstand the weather and no longer remains today. Mount Hood is within the Mount Hood National Forest, which comprises 1,067,043 acres (1,667 sq mi; 4,318 km2) of land, including four designated wilderness areas that total 314,078 acres (491 sq mi; 1,271 km2), and more than 1,200 miles (1,900 km) of hiking trails. The most northwestern pass around the mountain is called Lolo Pass. Native Americans crossed the pass while traveling between the Willamette Valley and Celilo Falls.
Naming
Indigenous names It has been difficult to establish place names for Mount Hood that are of indigenous etymology, or to reconstruct names that may have been used prior to European contact.
Wy'east The name Wy'east has been associated with Mount Hood for more than a century, but no evidence suggests that it is a genuine name for the mountain in any indigenous language. The name was possibly inspired by an 1890 work of author Frederic Balch, although Balch does not use it himself. The name may have been popularized by his story being combined with a play around 1911 at Pacific College. It is also possible it was 'invented' by scholars in the 20th century or even a minister hearing it second-hand around the same time the play was happening. In one version of Balch's story, the two sons of the Great Spirit Sahale fell in love with the beautiful maiden Loowit, who could not decide which to choose. The two braves, Wy'east and Pahto (unnamed in his novel, but appearing in a later adaptation), burned forests and villages in their battle over her. Sahale became enraged and smote the three lovers. Seeing what he had done, he erected three mountain peaks to mark where each fell. He made beautiful Mount St. Helens for Loowit, proud and erect Mount Hood for Wy'east, and the somber Mount Adams for the mourning Pahto. There are other versions of the legend. In another telling, Wy'east (Hood) battles Pahto (Adams) for the fair La-wa-la-clough (St. Helens). Or again Wy'east, the chief of the Multnomah tribe, competed with the chief of the Klickitat tribe. Their great anger led to their transformation into volcanoes. Their battle is said to have destroyed the Bridge of the Gods and thus created the great Cascades Rapids of the Columbia River.
Other names The mountain sits partly inside the reservation of the Confederated Tribes of Warm Springs, which comprises multiple languages including Sahaptin, Upper Chinook/Kiksht (Wasco) and Numu (Paiute). However, it has been difficult to determine names originating from these or other indigenous languages specifically referring to Mount Hood. Eugene Hunn suggests that the mountain may have lacked a specific name:
Learning a landscape is not simply a matter of naming all the rivers and mountains... The Native American perspective emphasizes by contrast places as focal points of activity, places where significant human-landscape interactions occur. Thus, while a few prominent peaks may be given Indian names, such as taxùma [təqʷuʔməʔ] for Mt. Rainier (in the Puget Salish language) or lawilayt-łà [lawílatɬa], literally "the smoker," for Mt. St. Helens (in Sahaptin), other prominent peaks, e.g. Mts. Adams and Hood, are known simply as pàtu, a general term for snow-capped summit.
Current name
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