Mount Hood

Mount Hood, also known as Wy'east, is an active stratovolcano in the Cascade Range and is a member of the Cascade Volcanic Arc. It was formed by a subduction zone on the Pacific Coast and rests in the Pacific Northwest region of the United States. It is located about east-east-southeast of Portland, on the border between Clackamas and Hood River counties, and forms part of the Mount Hood National Forest. Much of the mountain outside the ski areas is part of the Mount Hood Wilderness. With a summit elevation of, it is the highest mountain in the U.S. state of Oregon and is the fourth highest in the Cascade Range. Ski areas on the mountain include Timberline Lodge ski area which offers the only year-round lift-served skiing in North America, Mount Hood Meadows, Mount Hood Skibowl, Summit Ski Area, and Cooper Spur ski area. Mt. Hood attracts an estimated 10,000 climbers a year.
The peak is home to 12 named glaciers and snowfields. Mount Hood is considered the Oregon volcano most likely to erupt. The odds of an eruption in the next 30 years are estimated at between 3 and 7%, so the U.S. Geological Survey characterizes it as "potentially active", but the mountain is informally considered dormant.

Establishments

is a National Historic Landmark located on the southern flank of Mount Hood just below Palmer Glacier, with an elevation of about.
The mountain has four ski areas: Timberline, Mount Hood Meadows, Ski Bowl, and Cooper Spur. They total over of skiable terrain; Timberline, with one lift having a base at nearly, offers the only year-round lift-served skiing in North America.
There are a few remaining shelters on Mount Hood still in use today. Those include the Coopers Spur, Cairn Basin, and McNeil Point shelters as well as the Tilly Jane A-frame cabin. The summit was home to a fire lookout in the early 1900s; however, the lookout did not withstand the weather and no longer remains today.
Mount Hood is within the Mount Hood National Forest, which comprises of land, including four designated wilderness areas that total, and more than of hiking trails.
The most northwestern pass around the mountain is called Lolo Pass. Native Americans crossed the pass while traveling between the Willamette Valley and Celilo Falls.

Naming

Indigenous names

It has been difficult to establish place names for Mount Hood that are of indigenous etymology, or to reconstruct names that may have been used prior to European contact.

Wy'east

The name Wy'east has been associated with Mount Hood for more than a century, but no evidence suggests that it is a genuine name for the mountain in any indigenous language. The name was possibly inspired by an 1890 work of author Frederic Balch, although Balch does not use it himself. The name may have been popularized by his story being combined with a play around 1911 at Pacific College. It is also possible it was 'invented' by scholars in the 20th century or even a minister hearing it second-hand around the same time the play was happening.
In one version of Balch's story, the two sons of the Great Spirit Sahale fell in love with the beautiful maiden Loowit, who could not decide which to choose. The two braves, Wy'east and Pahto, burned forests and villages in their battle over her. Sahale became enraged and smote the three lovers. Seeing what he had done, he erected three mountain peaks to mark where each fell. He made beautiful Mount St. Helens for Loowit, proud and erect Mount Hood for Wy'east, and the somber Mount Adams for the mourning Pahto.
There are other versions of the legend. In another telling, Wy'east battles Pahto for the fair La-wa-la-clough. Or again Wy'east, the chief of the Multnomah tribe, competed with the chief of the Klickitat tribe. Their great anger led to their transformation into volcanoes. Their battle is said to have destroyed the Bridge of the Gods and thus created the great Cascades Rapids of the Columbia River.

Other names

The mountain sits partly inside the reservation of the Confederated Tribes of Warm Springs, which comprises multiple languages including Sahaptin, Upper Chinook/Kiksht and Numu. However, it has been difficult to determine names originating from these or other indigenous languages specifically referring to Mount Hood. Eugene Hunn suggests that the mountain may have lacked a specific name:

Learning a landscape is not simply a matter of naming all the rivers and mountains... The Native American perspective emphasizes by contrast places as focal points of activity, places where significant human-landscape interactions occur. Thus, while a few prominent peaks may be given Indian names, such as taxùma for Mt. Rainier or lawilayt-łà , literally "the smoker," for Mt. St. Helens, other prominent peaks, e.g. Mts. Adams and Hood, are known simply as pàtu, a general term for snow-capped summit.

Current name

The mountain was given its present name on October 29, 1792, by Lt. William Broughton, a member of Captain George Vancouver's exploration expedition. Lt. Broughton observed its peak while at Belle Vue Point of what is now called Sauvie Island during his travels up the Columbia River, writing, "A very high, snowy mountain now appeared rising beautifully conspicuous in the midst of an extensive tract of low or moderately elevated land lying S 67 E., and seemed to announce a termination to the river." Lt. Broughton named the mountain after Samuel Hood, 1st Viscount Hood, a British admiral.
Lewis and Clark spotted the mountain on October 18, 1805. A few days later at what would become The Dalles, Clark wrote, "The pinnacle of the round topped mountain, which we saw a short distance below the banks of the river, is South 43-degrees West of us and about. It is at this time topped with snow. We called this the Falls Mountain, or Timm Mountain." Timm was the native name for Celilo Falls. Clark later noted that it was also Vancouver's Mount Hood.
Two French explorers from the Hudson's Bay Company may have traveled into the Dog River area east of Mount Hood in 1818. They reported climbing to a glacier on "Montagne de Neige", probably Eliot Glacier.

Namesakes

There have been two United States Navy ammunition ships named for Mount Hood. USS Mount Hood was commissioned in July 1944 and was destroyed in November 1944 while at anchor in Manus Naval Base, Admiralty Islands. Her explosive cargo ignited, resulting in 45 confirmed dead, 327 missing and 371 injured. A second ammunition ship, AE-29, was commissioned in May 1971 and decommissioned in August 1999.

Volcanic activity

The glacially eroded summit area consists of several andesitic or dacitic lava domes; Pleistocene collapses produced avalanches and lahars that traveled across the Columbia River to the north. The eroded volcano has had at least four major eruptive periods during the past 15,000 years.
The last three eruptions at Mount Hood occurred within the past 1,800 years from vents high on the southwest flank and produced deposits that were distributed primarily to the south and west along the Sandy and Zigzag rivers. The volcano has had a VEI of 2 at least three times before. The last eruptive period took place around 220 to 170 years ago, when dacitic lava domes, pyroclastic flows and mudflows were produced without major explosive eruptions. The prominent Crater Rock just below the summit is hypothesized to be the remains of one of these now-eroded domes. This period includes the last major eruption of 1781 to 1782 with a slightly more recent episode ending shortly before the arrival of the explorers Lewis and Clark in 1805. The latest minor eruptive event was thought to have occurred in August 1907, but has been discredited as "an observation of non-eruptive fumarolic activity."
The glaciers on the mountain's upper slopes may be a source of potentially dangerous lahars when the mountain next erupts. There are vents near the summit that are known for emitting gases such as carbon dioxide and sulfur dioxide. Prior to the 1980 eruption of Mount St. Helens, the only known fatality related to volcanic activity in the Cascades occurred in 1934, when a climber suffocated in oxygen-poor air while exploring ice caves melted by fumaroles in Coalman Glacier on Mount Hood.
Since 1950, there have been several earthquake swarms each year at Mount Hood, most notably in July 1980 and June 2002.
Seismic activity is monitored by the USGS Cascades Volcano Observatory in Vancouver, Washington, which issues weekly updates.
The most recent evidence of volcanic activity at Mount Hood consists of fumaroles near Crater Rock and hot springs on the flanks of the volcano.

Monitoring controversy

A conflict exists between protecting public safety and protecting the environment. In 2014, a USGS employee, Dr. Seth Moran, proposed installing new instruments on Mount Hood to warn of volcanic activity. The instruments were installed at four different locations on the mountain, including:

three seismometers to measure earthquakes
three Global Positioning System instruments to measure ground movement
one instrument to measure gas emissions

The proposed locations were in a protected wilderness area, tightly controlled by the United States Forest Service. The project was opposed by Wilderness Watch, a conservation group.
Three monitoring stations were eventually installed on Mount Hood in 2020.

Elevation

Mount Hood was first seen by European explorers in 1792 and is believed to have maintained a consistent summit elevation, varying by no more than a few feet due to mild seismic activity. Elevation changes since the 1950s are predominantly due to improved survey methods and model refinements of the shape of the Earth. Despite the physical consistency, the estimated elevation of Mount Hood has varied substantially over the years, as seen in the following table:

Date	Stated Elevation	Source
1854		Thomas J. Dryer
1854		Belden
1857		Mitchell's School Atlas
1866		Rev. Atkinson
1867		Col. Williamson
1916		Adm. Colbert
1939		Adm. Colbert
1980		USGS using NGVD 29
1991		U.S. National Geodetic Survey, 1986 measurement adjusted using NAVD 88
1993		Scientific expedition and of slightly older origin
2008?		Encyclopedia Britannica

Early explorers on the Columbia River estimated the elevation to be. Two people in Thomas J. Dryer's 1854 expedition calculated the elevation to be and the tree line to be at. Two months later, a Mr. Belden claimed to have climbed the mountain during a hunting trip and determined it to be upon which "pores oozed blood, eyes bled, and blood rushed from their ears." Sometime by 1866, Reverend G. H. Atkinson determined it to be. A Portland engineer used surveying methods from a Portland baseline and calculated a height of between. Many maps distributed in the late 19th century cited, though Mitchell's School Atlas gave as the correct value. For some time, many references assumed Mount Hood to be the highest point in North America.
Modern height surveys also vary, but not by the huge margins seen in the past. A 1993 survey by a scientific party that arrived at the peak's summit with of electronic equipment reported a height of, claimed to be accurate to within. Many modern sources likewise list as the height. However, numerous others place the peak's height one foot lower, at. Finally, a height of has also been reported.