A glimpse at Mount Baker’s history
Posted February 14, 2014 7:47 am.
This article is more than 5 years old.
VANCOUVER (NEWS1130) – On a clear day you can see it all the way from the Lower Mainland, but how much do you really know about Mount Baker?
News1130 is finding out some little-known details about the snowy peak in Washington State, from the men behind a new book.
‘Mount Baker’ touches on a number of different points: Who knew actor Clark Gable visited the area to film ‘The Call of the Wild’ or that Mount Baker had its own gold rush?
Written by John D’Onofrio and Todd Warger, the book is packed with vintage photos.
“We got together with a lot of local historians in the county who had a lot of these images from their families or in trunks under their beds,” says Warger.
The book also offers a detailed account of cultural growth in the area. The pair says the rich history includes the construction and destruction of the iconic Mount Baker Lodge.
“But like most gold rushes, it involved a lot of people going through an awful lot of deprivation for very little remuneration,” says Warger.
“Presently, it is also one of the birthplaces of snowboarding in the region,” adds D’Onofrio.
One of the book’s chapters explores the three-year run of the Mount Baker Marathon, one of North America’s first adventure races, held from 1911-1913.
According to the authors, the mountain was often used as a landscape stand-in for places like the Yukon and Alaska in the movie industry.
