Lost Treasures returned After Four Decades

Photo Courtesy: www.conradanker.com

(Mt. Hood) - A priceless collection of documents, long considered lost, have been returned to the Mazamas. Missing since the 1970's, this trove includes the Mt. Hood summit register for the years 1891-1895, a Mt. St. Helens summit register from 1898-1908, and a volume of Mazamas Council minutes covering meetings from March, 1894 through December 1898.

Forgotten for decades in the laundry room of a Portland residence, the documents are back in the Mazama archives in remarkably good condition.

The Mt. Hood summit register contains the names of many well-known 19th century Oregonians, including J.K. Gill, founder of the J.K. Gill Company, Raymond G. Jubitz, founder of Jubitz Trucking Company, and Prince Lucien Campbell, later president of the University of Oregon. It was also signed by the party that founded the Mazamas on the summit on July 19, 1894.

The volume of minutes includes a record of the four months of discussions that led up to that founding climb, as well as notes of the earliest meetings of the new organization. These leather-bound tomes are the only existing records of the events they chronicle, and will be an invaluable resource for historians.

Mazama sleuths Vera Dafoe and Jeff Thomas located the missing papers and secured their return. They also discovered a sheaf of correspondence to the Mazama club secretary for the year 1897. Included are letters from Mazama founder William Gladstone Steel, and letters from Fay Fuller, the first woman to climb Mt. Rainier.

There are also letters from J.W. Hillman and Chauncey Nye, members of the first two European parties to see Crater Lake. Hillman describes stumbling on the lake in 1853, while searching for gold.

The documents are considered too valuable to be handled by the public, and will remain secured in the archives. They will, however, be photocopied onto archival paper, and the copies will be made available to historians and other researchers.

Mazamas, founded in 1894 on the summit of Mt. Hood, is a non-profit mountaineering organization located in Portland, Oregon, offering over 500 hikes and 250 climbs annually. Activities, offered for every skill and fitness level, are open to both members and non-members. To become a Mazama, you must climb to the summit of a glaciated mountain peak “ over 3,000 are currently members.

Mazamas also offers classes in mountaineering, first aid and environmental education. To learn more, call (503) 227-2345 or log on to www.mazamas.org.