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Museum Chatter: Defining Mount Hood Heritage

By Lloyd Musser

Museum Chatter: Defining Mount Hood Heritage

Plan now to attend the Museum’s annual Heritage Night on November 2. This fun event marks the beginning of winter activities on Mount Hood. The event is an opportunity to socialize with old and new friends, enjoy heavy hors d’ oeuvres, libations (donated by local restaurants and businesses) and partake in silent and live auctions. Your Museum membership is your ticket to this event. Memberships are available online or at the door. Now is the time to donate items to the museum for this annual fundraiser. If you have items to donate for the auction, please call the Museum (503 272 3301) and arrange the donation.
There is something for everyone and for every price range in the Heritage Night auctions. Cabin décor items and collectibles are popular. Theme gift baskets and gift certificates for local businesses make nice holiday gifts. This auction is a good source of artwork by local artists. Recreation passes and sports game tickets are always available. Attendees should be prepared to bid on vacation packages, guided outdoor adventure trips, vintage ski lift chairs and other unique items only available at the annual Heritage Night at the Museum auction.
As we plan to celebrate Heritage Night on November 2, 2024, this is a good time to take inventory of just what Mount Hood’s heritage means. Heritage: something that passes from one generation to the next in a social group. The social group could be a family or a group based on ethnicity, race, gender, occupation or profession, or a geographical area such as a county, region, state or community. The heritage can consist of objects, customs, traditions or knowledge. Heritage objects tend to be passed within a family or small social group. Larger groups, such as communities, tend to focus on traditions and the economic reason for the community’s existence.
Mount Hood’s heritage by this definition would include a wide range of people, groups, clubs and activities. The lure of Mount Hood as a place to recreate began soon after the Oregon Trail immigrants arrived. Having struggled to pass over the Barlow Road on their way to settle in the Willamette Valley, they soon returned to hunt wild game, fish, hike and even climb Mt. Hood for recreation. Each passing decade and generation develops new activities, many of which survive the fad stage and become long standing traditions. Some traditions involve large numbers of people, while others are family traditions. The Portland practice of driving visitors around the Mount Hood Loop Highway may be a family tradition practiced by many families.
The Mazamas mountain climbing club held their charter climb of Mt. Hood in 1894.Trail hiking for recreation was the impetus for formation of the Trails Club of Oregon in 1915. Snow skiing started in the early 1900s on the north and south sides of Mt. Hood. The Snowshoe Club experimented with skis on an outing to Cloud Cap in 1904, and soon skiers were climbing up and skiing down slopes all over Mount Hood. Norwegian immigrants discovered Mount Hood in the mid 1920s and were soon holding jumping events that drew thousands of spectators to watch these daring skiers try to fly. The advent of the developed ski areas as we know them today can be attributed to a lost skier who never was found. The searchers later advocated developing winter playgrounds, to prevent wandering skiers from getting lost. Summit Ski area at the east end of Government Camp became that first developed ski area in 1927. The advent of ski areas created the need for ski lodges and the many traditions associated with these social centers. As downhill skiing really started to pick up speed - literally and physically, the need to care for injured skiers triggered the formation of the Mt. Hood Ski Patrol in 1937. All of the clubs mentioned are still active today. It is quite evident outdoor recreation, in its various forms, is Mount Hood’s heritage. The traditions these early outdoor recreationists started and carried on for decades must be celebrated and passed on. The Mt. Hood Cultural Center and Museum and their Heritage Night is dedicated to this purpose. Please join the community in this celebration.
Lloyd Musser is the volunteer curator at the Mt. Hood Cultural Center and Museum.

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