Mount Lawson (Washington)


Mount Lawson is a mountain summit in Jefferson County of Washington state.

Description

Mount Lawson is part of the Olympic Mountains and set within Olympic National Park and the Daniel J. Evans Wilderness. It is located south-southeast of Mount Olympus and the nearest higher neighbor is Mount Zindorf, to the northwest. Precipitation runoff from the mountain drains to the North Fork Quinault River and topographic relief is significant as the summit rises above the river in.

History

This peak was originally named "Mount Grady" by the 1889-90 Seattle Press Expedition to honor Henry W. Grady, editor of the Atlanta Constitution newspaper, and the expedition applied the Mount Lawson toponym to the 4,810-foot peak which is southwest. An 1896 National Geographic map labeled the landform "Jingo Peak." Over the years mapmakers shifted the Lawson name to its present position while the Grady and Jingo names fell into disuse and today Peak 4810 is officially unnamed.
The mountain's toponym honors Victor Lawson, the publisher of the Chicago Daily News and president of the Associated Press from 1894 through 1900. The mountain's toponym has been officially adopted by the United States Board on Geographic Names.

Climate

Based on the Köppen climate classification, Mount Lawson is located in the marine west coast climate zone of western North America. Most weather fronts originate in the Pacific Ocean, and travel northeast toward the Olympic Mountains. As fronts approach, they are forced upward by the peaks of the Olympic Range, causing them to drop their moisture in the form of rain or snowfall. As a result, the Olympics experience high precipitation, especially during the winter months. During winter months, weather is usually cloudy, but due to high pressure systems over the Pacific Ocean that intensify during summer months, there is often little or no cloud cover during the summer.

Geology

The Olympic Mountains are composed of obducted clastic wedge material and oceanic crust, primarily Eocene sandstone, turbidite, and basaltic oceanic crust. The mountains were sculpted during the Pleistocene era by erosion and glaciers advancing and retreating multiple times.