SENATE RESOLUTION

                                 1999-8639

By Senators McDonald, Snyder, Fraser, Rasmussen, Swecker, Eide, Kohl-Welles and McAuliffe

      WHEREAS, At the rate of an inch per year over millions of years, the Juan De Fuca plate under the Pacific Ocean crushed its way eastward beneath the North American plate, taking down sedimentary rock that melted, rose and pushed through weak spots in the earth=s crust forming the Cascade Range of volcanoes, including, some one million years ago, the glorious Mountain that the whole of the Puget Sound populace now views daily with awe and inspiration; and   

      WHEREAS, At 14,411 feet in height, the Mountain, the highest peak in the Cascade Range, blocks the clouds that pour upon it record snowfalls that, in turn, have settled and compressed one beneath the other to form the largest system of glaciers in the continental United States; and

      WHEREAS, Below the glacier zone, the Mountain holds over two hundred pristine alpine lakes teeming with trout, and alpine meadows bursting with summer wild flowers; and below the alpine zone stands an old growth forest of evergreens, some trees of which are a thousand years old; and

      WHEREAS, For thousands of years local native American Tribes including the Nisqually and Puyallup called the Mountain, ATacobet@ or ATahoma@,  and worshiped the Mountain as the Aplace where waters begin@ and the Amirror to heaven@; and

      WHEREAS, In 1792, British explorer, Captain George Vancouver sailed into Puget Sound, saw the Mountain, and named it after his friend, Rear Admiral Peter Rainier; and

      WHEREAS, In 1870, Olympia resident General Hazard Stevens, the son of Washington=s first territorial Governor, Isaac Stevens, survived a snow storm by sheltering in an ice cave near the Mountain=s summit, and then became the first person to reach the top of Rainier; and

      WHEREAS, The Mountain, once conquered, was vulnerable to plundering also; and a lobbying effort to protect Rainier was conducted by local community members and national conservationists including John Muir, who wrote: AOf all the fire mountains which, like beacons, once blazed along the Pacific Coast, Mount Rainier is the noblest in form;@ and  

      WHEREAS, One hundred years ago this week, President McKinley signed the act making the entire Mountain a national park, and since that time over 90,000,000 people have visited Mount Rainier National Park; and

      WHEREAS, For one hundred years, the United States Park Service has protected and preserved Mount Rainier in its natural state - and in so doing protected our regional identity and our natural and cultural heritage;  

      NOW THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED, That the Senate of the state of Washington celebrate the one hundredth anniversary of Mount Rainier National Park, and that the Senate look forward with Washington=s citizens to the activities planned by the Park Service to celebrate AA Century of Resource Stewardship@ over the coming year; and

      BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED, That the Senate recognize and commend all of the permanent and seasonal National Park Service employees who have dedicated their lives to preserving Mount Rainier for this and future generations.  

I, Tony M. Cook, Secretary of the Senate,

do hereby certify that this is a true and

correct copy of Senate Resolution 1999-8639,

adopted by the Senate March 5, 1999.

TONY M. COOK

Secretary of the Senate