Rainier Is Taller Than the Map: The Barometer Fight Over Washington’s Mountain

Last year Prof. F. O. Plummer, of Tacoma, announced that Mount Rainier was higher than 14,444 feet, with which it is credited, and now Prof. Ingraham has returned from the top of the mountain with the news that his instruments show the mountain to be 15,500 feet high. All this has combined to make those who have devoted much attention to the mountain believe that it is much higher than the government maps announce.

This is decidedly interesting news, but it is two years old. Dr. Riley, of this city, established this fact in his famous trip to the top of the mountain in August, 1892. When he came down the Tacoma Ledger, Seattle Telegraph and Post-Intelligencer printed the dispatches from Olympia under date of August 15, announcing that Dr. Riley had proven beyond a doubt by barometrical measurement that the mountain was at least 14,990 feet high. When he started on his trip he secured from Weather Observer Oinev, after correspondence with the department at Washington City, three government barometers, which were regulated at the United States signal station. When the top of the middle peak was reached, the highest point of the mountain, Dr. Riley kept a record for two days and made observations three times during the night and more often during the day. There was a difference of fifteen feet in the three barometers. One measured 14,990 feet, another 14,995, and the third 15,105 feet. In order to be on the safe side, Dr. Riley took the lowest as the probable height of the mountain, and these facts were published two years ago.

The official measurement of the mountain’s height was taken for the government about 1856 or 1857 by a United States engineer stationed at Fort Steilacoom under Gen. Kautz. Dr. Riley afterward served with Gen. Kautz in the cavalry. The measurement by triangulation was taken from a point about six miles below Olympia, which would be about sixty-five miles from the mountain. The engineer stated at the time that, owing to the unsurveyed condition of the country and the limited means at hand to pursue the work, he might have erred a few feet in the base line, which would necessarily have caused a great difference in the calculations. Dr. Riley also established the temperature and wind velocity at the top of the mountain. The lowest temperature was 22 and the highest 32. The wind velocity averaged 60. This was at the top of the middle peak, the highest on the mountain.