Mount Rainier Was Smoking, and Olympia Noticed
In January 1895, a correspondent watching through a glass saw great volumes rising from the summit — and wondered whether the mountain had awakened.
The story, cleaned up
A cleaned-up reading of the newspaper page: spelling and layout repaired, one story lifted off a crowded page. It follows the original closely but it is not a transcription. The original page is below; read it if a detail matters.
Olympia, Jan. 30.—Since the Post-Intelligencer reported the changes on Rainier, with steam and smoke issuing from its crater, people here have been straining their eyes for evidence that the grand old mountain is an active volcano. Nothing unusual could be discerned about it last Monday. On that day the mountain stood out bold and clear against a clear sky, and great volumes of smoke were plainly visible on the summit. At times it would seem to reach a great height, then the wind would carry it away toward the north. The correspondent was skeptical at first that it was really smoke, but watching it for some time through a glass convinced him that it could not be otherwise. The smoke was plainly visible all through the day, many noticing it. Since that time the mountain has been constantly enveloped in clouds, and it has been impossible to make observations, yet we have enough to convince us that Washington’s Rainier is one active volcano.
“At times it would seem to reach a great height, then the wind would carry it away toward the north.”
Mount Rainier is still an active volcano, though its last major eruption was about 1,000 years ago; steam plumes and cloud caps regularly fool and fascinate observers today. The item captures a moment when Puget Sound readers were learning to look at the mountain as a living geological feature, not just scenery.
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