CASCADIA: Lassen Volcanic National Park

I'm guessing if volcanoes of the Cascade Mountain Range was on Jeopardy, you'd be able to name Mount St. Helens, and maybe Mount Rainer or Hood. Most people, even Californians, don't know about Mount Lassen. In fact, as a longtime Washington and California girl myself, this one was new to me Until I dug deep into CASCADIA.

Overview of Native American History and Oral Tradition about Mount Lassen

Lassen Peak (the active heart of Lassen Volcanic National Park) was the meeting ground for four distinct Native American groups: the Atsugewi, Maidu, Yana, and Yahi. Their traditional stories and legends connect the volcano's dramatic thermal features and past eruptions to creation myths and powerful, living earth spirits.

Here are some specific histories, passed down by oral traditions;

The Mountain Maidu: Birthplace of the World

• Creation Site: For the Mountain Maidu, Mount Lassen was the reported site of the world's creation. Their legends tell of the World Maker creating the earth and the first people on the slopes of the snow-capped volcano. [1, 2]
• Population Spread: After creation, the first man and woman multiplied, and their descendants eventually populated the region, spreading out from the mountain toward the Sacramento Valley. [1]
• Modern Recognition: The Kohm Yah-mah-nee Visitor Center (meaning "Snow Mountain" in Mountain Maidu) honors this heritage

The Yana & Yahi: The Land of Wahkanopa

• A Sacred Counterpart: The Yana people referred to Mount Lassen as Wahkanopa, which they viewed as the offspring of Wahkalu (Mount Shasta). [1]
• Legends of Fire: Yana mythology contains extensive lore regarding the earth's heat and fire, often featuring Coyote, the Geese People, and the fiery action myths of a food-producing spirit woman who governed the abundance of the region

The Atsugewi: Guardians of the Northern Slopes

• Spiritual Inhabitants: The Atsugewi—often known as the Hat Creek Indians—lived primarily in the valleys surrounding the north and northwest of the volcano. Their traditions suggest the mountain was inhabited by a powerful spirit, yet they hunted the peak freely. [1, 2, 3]
• Thermal Healing: Unlike more fearful volcanic myths, the Atsugewi considered the hot springs surrounding Lassen to be beneficial and medicinal, deeply woven into their ancient history of the land. 

The Yahi

• Foothill Dwellers: The Yahi occupied the rugged foothills of Mill Creek and southern Lassen. Their stories and knowledge of the rugged upper country were vital for survival, a resilience famously embodied by Ishi, who was the last known survivor of the Yahi. (JH) I will share Ishi's story later, I promise. 

Tragedy for many Native People including the Konkow Tribe

Occasionally, the Konkow are referred to as the Northwestern Maidu. They lived along the Feather River and part of the Sacramento River in the area that is now Butte County.

In 1863, the newly formed State of California forced 11 tribes including the Konkow on a 100-mile death march, known as California’s Trail of Tears, to the Round Valley Reservation. Of 461 Indians who set out under guard, only 277 completed the 14-day trek.

Show Sources:

American Indian Tribes of Mount Lassen, National Park Service

Indian Tribes of California 1860-1900, Shirleen Davies

Ten (Surprising) Facts about Lassen Volcanic National Park, More Than Just Parks

Lassen Volcanic National Park, Wikipedia

Ishi in Two Worlds, Yahi People, A/V Geeks, YouTube

Nine Spooky National Park Sites, NPCA.org

The Bizarre Stories of Paranormal Encounters in Lassen National Park, Active NorCal

The Lassen Effect, Kallie Markle, National Parks Conservation Association

Listening for ETs in Lassen

https://www.abc10.com/article/entertainment/television/programs/lnt/listening-for-aliens-in-northern-california/103-551921437

If you are searching for a fresh, binge-able podcast, this might be the one for you!

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:19

Hi there. I hope you are wearing your hiking boots and you've topped off your hydroflask because we are hiking up, up, up the Cascade Mountain Range this week together. I'm guessing if volcanoes of the Cascade Mountain Range was on Jeopardy, you'd be able to name uh Mount St. Helens, right? And maybe one other, like Mount Rainier or even Mount Hood. Most people, even Californians, don't know about our site today, Mount Lassen. In fact, as a longtime Washington and California girl myself, this one was new to me until I dug deep for Cascadia. We're gonna start off our hike at the trailhead, an overview of Native American history and oral tradition about Mount Lassen. Lassen Peak is the active heart of Lassen Volcanic National Park, and it was the meeting ground of four distinct Native American groups, the Atsugui, the Maidu, the Yana, and the Yahi. Their tradition stories and their legends connect the volcano's dramatic thermal features and past eruptions to creation myths and powerful living earth spirits. Here are a few specific histories passed out by oral traditions. First, the Mountain Maidu, birthplace of the world, creation site. For the Mountain Maidu, Mount Lassen was the reported site of the world's creation. Their legends tell of the world maker creating the earth and the first people on the slopes of the snow capped volcano. Then they speak of population spread. After creation, the first man and woman multiplied, and their descendants eventually populated the region, spreading out from the mountain toward the Sacramento Valley. In modern recognition, you'll find it in the Komya Mani Visitor Center, which means snow mountain in Mount Maidu, and it honors this heritage. The Yani people referred to Mount Lassen as Wakan Opa, which they viewed as the offspring of Wakalu, which is Mount Shasta. Yani mythology contains extensive lore regarding the earth's heat and fire, legends of fire, often featuring coyote, the geese people, and the fiery action myths of a food-producing spirit woman who governed the abundance of the area. The Atsugui, the guardians of the northern slopes, had their own stories to tell. In fact, a lot about spiritual inhabitants. The Atsugui, often known as the Hat Creek Indians, which is wrong because the Hat Creek Indians are like 12 tribes that they put together, the government at the time put together to live together. But anyway, I'll get off my apple crate. The Atsagui lived primarily in the valleys surrounding the north and northwest of the volcano. Their traditions suggest the mountain was inhabited by a powerful spirit, yet they hunted the peak freely. So that means that they lived in balance with this powerful spirit. Unlike more fearful volcanic myths, the Atsagui considered the hot springs surrounding Lassen to be beneficial and medicinal, deeply woven into their ancient history of the land. The Yahi were the foothill dwellers. They occupied the rugged foothills of Mill Creek and southern Lassen. Their stories and knowledge of the rugged upper country were vital for survival, a resilience famously embodied by Ishii, who was the last known survivor of the Yahi. And I promise I'll share his story later before we close. There was tragedy for many native people, including the Concaw tribe. Occasionally, the Concaw are referred to as the Northwestern Maidu. They lived along the Feather River and part of the Sacramento River in the area that is now Butte County. But in 1863, the newly formed state of California forced 11 tribes, including the Concaw, on a 100-mile death march, known as California's Trail of Tears, to the Round Valley Reservation. Of the 461 Indians who set out under guard, only 277 completed that 14-day trek, which is heartbreaking. And I have linked to the citations for that in the show notes if you want to dive deeper into this. I wanted to know more about Lassen Volcanic National Park, and I found it on Google. It's in Northern California. It is known as the Little Yellowstone. It's rich in hydrothermal sites like Bumpus Hell, with its acres of bubbling mud pots. The summit of Lassen Peak Volcano offers views over the surrounding wilderness. Nearby, the devastated area is littered with lava rocks from its last eruption over a hundred years ago. A network of trails through forest and around several lakes connects with the Pacific Crest Trail in the north. Mount Lassen is the most southerly volcano in the Cascade Mountain Range. And due south is the Sierra Nevada Mountains. That's where they begin. If you're wondering about whether or not Mount Lassen is active, yeah, it sure is. Given the status of hot, hot hot and active by U.S. geologists. Nothing's matched the spate of eruptions from the years between 1914 and 1921, though. Those eruptions were minor and major, changing the topography of this land forever. Reading is the closest major city to the park, which was established August 9th, 1916. Lassen is the largest plugged dome volcano on the planet, according to Wikipedia. So if you're looking for a quieter gem of a park, Lassen may be for you. It is called Little Yellowstone by some because of its striking geothermal features, but with only a half million annual visitors, you'll find parking with ease and trails and other park services comfortable, clean, and serene. I found an article titled 10 Surprising Facts About Lassen Volcanic National Park. And I've linked to the rest of them in the show notes, but I wanted to share parts of their article titled 10 Surprising Facts with you. Here are a few. Number one, all four types of volcanoes found in the world are represented in Lassen Volcanic Park. So what are those four different types of volcanoes you could be asking? I was asking this. They include number one, Shield Volcano, which is Prospect Peak, is that, number two, Plug Dome, which is Lassen Peak. Number three, Cinder Cone, which they call that one at uh the park, Cinder Cone. And number four, Composite, which they call Broke Off Volcano. Number two, Lassen Volcanic National Park has had some very notable visitors, you can imagine, but its most famous would likely be President John F. Kennedy. On September 27th and 28th, 1963, President John F. Kennedy visited the park as part of his conservation agenda tour of the West. He was accompanied by Secretary of the Interior Stuart Udall, Press Secretary Pierre Salinger, and California Governor Pat Brown. They arrived by helicopter from Reading Airport and traveled by car to Manzanita Lake shortly before sundown. Number three, the park's main road is the highest road in the Cascade Mountains. If you're planning a trip to Lassen, then you'll be pleased to know that Lassen Volcanic National Highway is a beautiful scenic drive located within the park. The road snaking across the western side of the park between the southwest and Manzanita Lake entrances takes the driver near the major volcanic features. So it's like hiking, but you're not getting out of your car. The 29-mile main park road was constructed between 1925 and 1931, just 10 years after Lassen Peak erupted. The road is near Lassen Peak and it reaches 8,512 feet, which makes it the highest road in the Cascade Mountains. There was murder and a tragedy at Lassen Volcanic National Park that I need to share with you. In 1859, there occurred the murder of Peter Lassen. The park gets its name from the Danish pioneer Peter Lassen. In April 1859, Lassen and his friend Edward Clapper were shot and killed in the Black Rock Desert region, an area connected to the history of the park while searching for silver mines. Here's the mystery. The remaining member of their traveling party claimed that they were attacked by Native Americans, but historians widely suspect that the survivor may have committed the murders, and I'm with them on that. The legacy? Despite his controversial reputation during the gold rush, his name remains attached to the park, Lassen National Forest and Lassen Peak. I had to know more about this and found it from California Trail Center website linked in the show notes. Peter Lassen was shot and killed on April 26, 1859, along with his friend Edward Clapper. They were traveling in search of rumored silver mines. Another friend traveling with them, Americus Wyatt, miraculously escaped. Wyatt told everyone that the Northern Paiutes were to blame, but there was no evidence that any Native American tribes were involved. While we can't know for sure who killed Peter Lassen, many, many, many historians now believe that Wyatt was the culprit and lied to cover it up. Lassen and Clapper are both buried in Honey Lake Valley near a large Ponderosa pine tree. I told you there was a tragedy as well. This one's more recent. In July 2009, nine-year-old Tommy Bottel was hiking the Lassen Peak Trail with his family when a stone retaining wall he was leaning against gave way. A boulder crushed him, resulting in his death. There was a lawsuit, and the boy's family sued the federal government, alleging that the National Park Service was negligent and knew the wall was hazardous. By all their reports, they had done some reports prior to that they actually got in discovery that showed that they knew that this wall was an issue. And there was a settlement. Following a federal judge's ruling that the government was not immune to the suit, the family and the federal government reached a $3.5 million settlement in 2014. I found more from SF Gate where Jackson Vanderbeeken reported this. The Bottle family was on its third visit to Mount Lassen when they set out on July 29th, 2009 on the Lassen Peak Trail, which climbed to the summit of the 10,457-foot volcanic dome. Eleven-year-old Brittany Bottle, the middle child of Thomas and Jennifer Bottle, was just about to sit down when the retaining wall just moved and started rolling forward, her father said. Mama, I hurt, Tommy said, as Jennifer Bottle pulled him toward her. Mama, I can't see. Tommy died in her arms. Several months after the collapse, the park superintendent, Darlene Koontz said in a statement, In the long history of the trail, there's no record of anything similar to this accident, and we had no idea that this rock wall would fall in such a manner. The Park Served an investigation. Koontz, who had been superintendent since 2007, refused to be questioned for the agency's probe. The investigator later testified. Coons told lawyers no one had contacted her. She declined to comment for the story, citing the litigation. Government attorneys representing the Park Service did not respond to requests for comment. Tommy and his 13-year-old sister Katrina tumbled as much as 30 feet down the slope. The lawsuit has since been settled, as I mentioned, but no amount of money will bring back the bottle's beloved Tommy. Well, you know I adore a really good campfire story, right? I dug around and here's what I found from the National Park Conservation Association's website in their article titled Nine Spooky National Park Sites. Lassen Volcanic National Park came in at number two on that list. And Jennifer Eric writes this about Bumpus Hell. The steamy hot springs and burbling mudpots in this geothermal hotspot may seem spooky all on their own, but this region of Lassen Volcanic National Park became known as a hell after unlucky explorer Kendall Bumpus fell into a pool of boiling hot water and lost one of his legs. The area also contains one of the hottest fumaroles in the world, Big Boiler. Its acidic, high-velocity steam has been measured at temperatures of up to 322 degrees Fahrenheit, closer to the weather in hell than many other national park attractions. End quote. The legend of what some people called a wild man, which makes me angry that they use that verbiage for him. And the name that they assigned him, together with him apparently, was Ishii. This heavily documented tale of Ishii, the last surviving member of the Yahoe Native American tribe, centers entirely around the Lassen region. After emerging from the surrounding wilderness in 1911 near Oroville, his story has become a legendary piece of the area's lore. The Yahoe were an indigenous hunter-gatherer tribe, the southernmost subgroup of the Yana people, native to the rugged mountain canyons and foothills of Northern California's Sierra Nevada range. Before European contact, the Yahoe numbered around 400 people and fiercely defended their secluded way of life. However, the California gold rush of the mid-19th century brought an influx of settlers who devastated the region. The Yahoe lost their ancestral lands and primary food sources like deer to encroaching cattle and mining operations. This led to brutal conflicts and massacres, including this Three Knolls Massacre in 1865. To survive, a small remnant of the tribe went into hiding, living off the land in secret for decades. By the early 20th century, the Yahoe were largely presumed to be extinct. On August 29th, 1911, the last surviving member of the tribe emerged near a slaughterhouse in Oroville, California. Because Yahoe culture customs forbade him from speaking his own name to strangers, anthropologists at the University of California, Berkeley gave him the name Ishii, which means man in the Yana language. Ishii lived out his remaining years at the UC Berkeley Museum of Anthropology, which became part of the Hearst um group at some point. I'm not really sure about that history, but there he worked closely with anthropologists. And the anthropologists, it's very fascinating. There's a documentary on it on YouTube that I've linked to in the show notes. They worked together with him using languages of surrounding tribes to try to cobble together a language that they could speak with one another. He worked closely with them, providing the world with invaluable insights into the Yahoe culture, language and toolmaking, and survival skills. Ishii passed away from tuberculosis in 1916. I found more from writer Callie Markle's article titled The Lassen Effect, as she hiked Mount Lassen with a friend, a botanist named Sarah, who relayed the story of Ishii to her during the track. Quote, Ishi returned to the mountain one last time, a ranger explained, and just after he left it forever, it erupted. Hearing the story of the peak told atop the peak was during, Cowley wrote. End quote. I found a couple funny little UFO sightings. One from author Christopher O'Brien from his Facebook, which is titled Searching for Aliens, the Hat Creek Radio Observatory, aka SETI in Lassen County is constantly listening for alien activity in space. And it goes on to explain that the you go there, you go to Lassen Park, and your cell phone doesn't have the best uh service, but that helps these uh investigators listen better for aliens. This report came in in 2001, but it happened July 3rd in the year 2000. There were two observers. It happened in Anderson, Reading, uh, California. The shape that they said was basically a light. It was lights on an object. It left a trail and there were aircraft nearby. They were watching fireworks in Anderson, California on July 3rd, 2000, from Millville Plains, a flat plains area 10 miles east of Reading at the start of the foothills toward Mount Lassen. Our view was slightly south of west from that vantage point. Fireworks were going off at the fairgrounds in Anderson. Anyway, approximately 9.45, while fireworks were going off, my girlfriend and I saw what seemed to be a shooting star going east to west. It burned out from our vantage point, right above the fireworks, but up in the sky a bit. And he opened up his hands to show the width. Then right at the spot it burnt out, this light started blinking. The light was quite a bit brighter than any of the stars and didn't have a steady blink like an aircraft does. Then the awkwardly blinking light moved horizontally toward the north. We'd say half the distance between Anderson and Reading in a few seconds. And they think it was about a five-mile distance in a few seconds. Then it went south back over the fireworks. It stopped, it blinked a few times, and then the blinking stopped, and that was it. It definitely, they said, was not any aircraft I've ever seen. My pops is a pilot and I've grown up around aviation, and that was no plane. We could see the commuter flights going out of Reading heading south, and they were way slower and lower on the horizon than that blinking light. Neither of us had seen anything like this, and it was exciting when we saw it. We listened to Art Bell and just thought we would give you our information when we saw your books. Thanks a lot. So that's Mount Lassen. There's a lot more on Mount Lassen and the epic eruption from the 1900s that I have got things linked in the show notes because there's no way I can convey the excitement and the interest of also the volume of the destruction done during that epic blast. But its only rival in the Cascades of late is Mount St. Helens. So they're kind of uh volcanic twins in a sense. I hope that this inspired you to get your hiking boots on and check out a path in your neck of the woods. Until next time, please stay curious, hydrate on the trail and bring an extra snack and maybe even a personal beacon with you. Also, let someone you love know that you're going on the trail, where the trail is, and when to expect you home. Until next time, stay curious. I love you.