North Cascades National Park is a national park of the United States in Washington. At more than , it is the largest of the three National Park Service units that comprise the North Cascades National Park Complex. North Cascades National Park consists of a northern and southern section, bisected by the Skagit River that flows through the reservoirs of Ross Lake National Recreation Area. Lake Chelan National Recreation Area lies on the southern border of the south unit of the park. In addition to the two national recreation areas, other protected lands including several national forests and wilderness areas, as well as Canadian provincial parks in British Columbia, nearly surround the park. North Cascades National Park features the rugged mountain peaks of the North Cascades Range, the most expansive glacial system in the contiguous United States, the headwaters of numerous waterways, and vast forests with the highest degree of flora biodiversity of any American national park.
The region was first settled by Paleo-Indians; by the time European American explorers arrived, it was inhabited by Skagit tribes. By the early 19th century, the region was visited by fur trappers and several British and American companies vied for control over the fur trade. After the Canada–United States border was set at the 49th parallel in 1846, explorers came to chart potential routes through the mountains for roads and railroads. Limited mining and logging occurred from the late 19th century to the early 20th century. The first significant human impact in the region occurred in the 1920s when several dams were built in the Skagit River valley to generate hydroelectric power. Environmentalists then campaigned to preserve the remaining wilderness, culminating on October 2, 1968, with the designation of North Cascades National Park.
Heavy snows and a high risk of avalanches due to the steep terrain, especially on the western slopes, severely limit visitation in the winter. Most access to the park is from State Route 20, which follows the Skagit River, though even this road is closed for months at a time in the winter. Most of the plant and animal species native to the park region are still found there, though climate change and pollutants from industrialized regions to the west pose risks to the environment. The park has one of the earliest and longest lasting research programs dedicated to studying climate change, primarily through examining the effects of glacial retreat.
North Cascades National Park is almost entirely protected as wilderness, and so the park has few structures, roads or other improvements. Visitors wishing to drive to a campground must do so in the adjacent national forests or national recreation areas. Camping inside the park requires hiking in by trail, horseback or boat, and camping is regulated by a permit system to ensure the wilderness is not over-exploited. Mountaineering is popular in the park and only unobtrusive clean climbing is allowed.
Human history Paleoindians and Native Americans Human history in North Cascades National Park and the surrounding region begins 8–10,000 years ago, after the end of the last glacial period. Paleo-Indians slowly advanced from Puget Sound into the interior mountain region as the glacial ice retreated. Archaeological evidence from other sites hundreds of miles away from the park indicate that Hozomeen chert, a type of rock well-suited to the fabrication of implements, was mined from near Hozomeen Mountain, just east of the park border, for the last 8,400 years. Tools such as microblades made from Hozomeen chert are part of the archaeological record throughout the Skagit River Valley, west of the park and in regions to the east. Prehistoric micro blades 9,600 years old have been discovered at Cascade Pass, a mountain pass that connects the western lowlands to the interior regions of the park and the Stehekin River Valley. The microblades are part of an archaeological assemblage that includes five distinct cultural periods, indicating that people were traveling into the mountains nearly 10,000 years ago. As well as the archaeological excavation at Cascade Pass, there are another 260 prehistoric sites that have been identified in the park.
When White explorers first entered the area in the late 18th century, an estimated thousand Skagits lived in what is now North Cascades National Park as well as the surrounding area. Residing mainly to the west of the park near Puget Sound, the Skagits lived in settlements, culling their needs from the waterways and traveling by canoe. Skagits formed a loose confederation of tribes that united if threatened by outside tribes such as the Haidas, who lived to the north. They erected large houses or lodges that could house multiple families, each with their own partitioned area and entrance. The lodges were in length and in width, and the roofs were shed-styles, with a single pitch; structures built by other Puget Sound tribes usually had gable roofs with more than one pitch. The Skagits were generally lowlanders, who only ventured into the North Cascades during the summer months, and structures in the mountains were more modest, consisting mostly of temporary buildings erected with poles and covered with branches. The Skagits erected totem poles and participated in potlatch ceremonies, similar to the Haidas, but with less complexity and extravagance. By 1910, only about 56 Skagits remained in the region, but their numbers have since rebounded to several hundred.
Inland and residing to the north and east of the Skagit tribe, the Nlaka'pamux (also known as the "Thompson Indians", named after explorer David Thompson), Chelan, Okanogan and Wenatchi (Wenatchee) tribes lived partly or year-round in the eastern sections of the North Cascades. The Skagits and Nlaka'pamux often had disputes, and raided one another's camps in search of slaves or to exact retribution. Like the coastal-based Skagits, inland tribes also constructed long lodges which were occupied by numerous families, though the style of construction was slightly different as the lodges did not have partitions separating one family from another, and were frame constructed and covered with reed mats rather than from cedar planking. One Wenatchee tribal lodge was described by Thompson as being long. Inland tribes were more likely to travel on foot or horseback than by canoe since the inland regions were less densely forested. Inland tribes also had less bountiful fisheries and greater weather extremes due to being further away from the moderating influence of the Pacific Ocean. Inland tribes rarely erected totem poles or participated in potlatch ceremonies. By the beginning of the 20th century, inland tribes, like their coastal neighbors, had experienced population decline from their first contact with White explorers a hundred years earlier, mostly due to smallpox and other diseases.
Anglo-European exploration
The first White explorer to enter the North Cascades was most likely a Scotsman named Alexander Ross, who was in the employ of the American-owned Pacific Fur Company. To the southeast of the modern park boundary, Ross and other members of the company constructed Fort Okanogan in 1811, as a base from which to operate during the early period of the Pacific Northwest fur trade. Fort Okanogan was the first American settlement in present-day Washington State, well north of the route followed by members of the Lewis and Clark Expedition of 1804–1806, and also north of Fort Vancouver, on the Columbia River. Fort Okanogan was later owned by the North West Company, and then the Hudson's Bay Company, both of which were British-owned.
Both Native American and White trappers conducted fur transactions at the trading post, which was staffed by representatives of the fur trading company. During one season, Ross traded 1,500 beaver pelts. In 1814, Ross became the first known White explorer to explore the valleys and high passes of the North Cascades, but he was less interested in exploration than discovering a route that would easily connect the fur trading posts of interior Washington with Puget Sound to the west. Ross was accompanied by three Indians, one of whom was a guide who led the party to a high pass in the North Cascades. Ross and the guide may have traveled as far west as the Skagit River, but failed to get to Puget Sound. Fur trading slowed considerably as demand for furs decreased in the 1840s, but a few residents continued to augment their income by trapping for furs in the area until 1968, when the park was established, rendering the activity illegal.
Aside from isolated trappers, the North Cascades saw no further explorations until the 1850s. In 1853, US Army Captain George B. McClellan led a party that explored the area for potential locations for the construction of a railroad through the region. McClellan determined the mountains were too numerous and precipitous, and that any railway would have to be constructed well to the south.
American and British disputes in the region centered on the fur trade, and the Treaty of 1818 allowed for joint administration of Oregon Country, as it was referred to in the United Statesthe British Empire referred to the region as the Columbia District. The treaty set the international border at the 49th parallel, but this was disputed west of the Rocky Mountains, since the rival fur trading outfits had their own ideas about where the border should be. The Oregon boundary dispute between Britain and the United States eventually led to the Oregon Treaty of 1846, and the 49th parallel forms both the current international border as well as the northern limit of the current park. During the late 1850s, members of the US North West Boundary Commission explored the border region, attempting to identify which mountains, rivers and lakes belonged to which country. One party of the commission was led by explorer Henry Custer, and they explored the northern district of the park, publishing their report in the 1860s. Custer's party crossed Whatcom Pass in 1858, and were the first Whites to see Challenger Glacier and Hozomeen Mountain. Impressed with the scenic grandeur of the region, Custer stated, "must be seen, it cannot be described".
In 1882, US Army Lieutenant Henry Hubbard Pierce led a government-sponsored exploration that traversed the western boundary of the southern section of the current park, in search of transportation routes and natural resources. As with the party led by McClellan in the 1850s, Pierce failed to find a suitable route for a railway, and only marginally suitable routes for roads. However, the expedition discovered gold in a quartz vein on the slopes of Eldorado Peak. Further expeditions by the military in 1883 and 1887 also determined that the mountains were virtually impenetrable. Explorers continued to seek out routes for wagon roads and railways and by the end of the 19th century, much of the park had been explored, but it was not until 1972 that the North Cascades Highway bisected the mountains.
Mining, logging and dam construction