Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1924-11-27
FAMILY QUARREL OYER NAME
OF MOUNTAIN AGAIN is RAGING
Resolution of Senator Dill to Change Nomenclature
of Mount Rainier Stirs Battle of Writer'S
in Washington State.

letter from John Muir, No. 81
broadway, New York. also is quoted:
I'm 1888 was traffic manager OF the
railway. Charles B. Wright Of Phil
adelphia was a powerful director, was
president of the Tacoma Land Com
pany and had succeeded in getting
Tacoma declared the official terminus
or the road. 1t was Charles B. Wright
who with official power insisted on
called the mountain Tacoma, and IT
was not until he had withdrawn from
the directory and his influence passed
that Rainier again received North
srn Pacific recognition"
In 1890 the United States BOARD ~
Geographic Names granted a hearing
on the subject The late Rear Adj
miral Richardson Glover, secretary
and member of the executive commit
tee OF the board, wrote, in 1917:
The founders of the Northern Pa
cific Railroad had made and were Civ.
Ing away fine map of the north
country. and having settled then that
their road should terminate at Ia
coma, appropriated Mount Rainier,
which looks SO beautiful from that
place. and changed on their map the
name to Mount Tacoma, and 1t was
rapidly becoming fixed with the new
population, who naturally were using
the free railroad map. The Geo
graphic Board. in the course of it's
work. took these names under con-
sideration and without dissenting
vote, reaffirmed the name Rainier,
given 1t by Vancouver when he first
saw the mountain
Beer Story Is Recalled.
Picturesque stories of now the
Board of Geographic Names was in
fuenced by the well-timed shipment
Of 4
added much to the enjoyability of the
discussion. but the pamphlet Of the
Olympia Chamber OF Commerce and
the Thurston County Pioneer Histori-
cal Society rudely points out that the
company which made Rainier beer"
was not organized until 1893, three
years after the hearing, and the title
Rainier beer" was not registered
until 1898.
The decision Of the board. how
ever, did not crush advocates of
Mount Tacoma" A Justice to the
Mountain" Club was organized and in
1917 memorial was passed by the
Washington Legislature asking the
board to grant another hearing. Ad-
vocates of Mount Rainier" claim the
memorial was passed by the influence
of the speaker Of the House. who was
from Tacoma and was opposed to the
The board granted the new hearing
and again decided in favor of Raj
nier"
The resolution presented by Sena-
tor Dill Is the reply of the Tacoma"
faction.
A Declaration of Principles is
sued by Tacoma" partizans repre-
sents that the discovery of the Strait
of Juan de Fuca and the Columbia
n
by Capt. Robert Gray. American navi-
gator, gave the United States of
America an incontestable right to all
OF the territory around Puget Sound
and west of the Rocky Mountains and
south of the forty-ninth degree of
north latitude; that the decision Of
the Geographic Board is a violation
of the Oregon treaty; that Capt. Van
couver was a British navigator. and
that his bestowa1 of the name Rain
Ter" upon the mountain, subsequent to
Gray's discovery, was a violation of
the convention entered into by the
governments OF Spain and Great Brit
ain in 1870; that his taking posses
sion of the territory around Puget
Sound also was in violation Of inter-
national law, and that United
States" sovereignty to the territory
of the State of Washington cannot
be fully established as long as the
name Mount Rainier remains upon
the great mountain Of the north
west.
Roosevelt Is Quoted.
They are also circulating stickers
with a quotation from the late Theo-
dore Roosevelt: why should we
Americans abandon the splendid In
dian name, Tacoma, in order to call
our noblest landmark after an OBJ
scure foreigner whose only connec-
ton with our history is that he
fought against us when we were an
infant nation?"
The answer, according to nom
Mount Tacoma" supporters, is that
Tacoma" is not an Indian name, that
it never was the name of the noun
tain. and that there is no more OBJ