Historic Hood River
Climbing Party, 1904
Notes
This photo of a climbing party has an extensive notation on the reverse, I believe in the handwriting of Albert Mason. I try to reproduce spelling, punctuation and content as accurately as I can, and it should be taken in its historical context:
This picture shows our crowd who climbed Mt. Hood. I am standing on right hand side. Ollie’s sister by my side, and Ollie’s brother is by the fat girl. The man in the rear was our guide. In front of me is a part of Floyd’s picture. He moved and made a blur. We are holding alpine stalks in our hands. All our faces were greased with vasalene and covered with charcoal. We also wore colored glasses. All this to protect ourselves from the sun and snow reflection. Without this precaution our faces would blister & eyes sunblind. –A.I.M, July 30, 1904
“Ollie” is Albert’s wife, and Floyd is his son.
l.e.
Oh, how funny!!!
We should all put better notes with our photos but I’m not sure we should be this explanatory. Some day, the "fat girl’s" family might be looking through old photos.
I am still a little confused about whose right is right.
Definitely a Fun Friday photo.
l.e.
Be sure to click the "Mason" tag for more photos and info about Ollie, Albert and family.
Steve
jezz …. and not even a mention of the dog in the back row …
l.e.
Maybe Albert didn’t see it back there. I didn’t.
But then, I don’t have your eagle eyes.
A bio of Albert. It is worth reading because then you will know why Ollie probably isn’t in the photo. She was home planting fruit trees.
It is also worth reading to realize the frustration and expense of planting the wrong trees and having to tear them out.
Charlott will know more about the family but I think Ollie and Albert had five children.
Rhoda, Arvine, Vernita, Everdee and Richard.
http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~jtenlen/ORBios/aimason.txt
nels
Looks like they are wearing a type of slip-on gaiters. But I’d hate to climb a mountain in those shoes. Wonder if the dog climbed too.
charlott
They look like they are ready for Halloween that is for certain. I bet that was a chore getting the stuff off their faces. At least they did that, as the sun hitting the snow and reflecting back on the face can be brutal.
1904 was fairly early for the climbing of Mt. Hood. Took people time to figure out what was good in climbing equipment and what wasn’t, but those shoes weren’t meant for climbing purposes….
Albert and Ollie only had two children: Joy Harriet "Hattie" and Thomas Floyd who always went by Floyd.
l.e.
Sorry charlott…I wasn’t paying attention. I listed the children of Albert B Mason of HR.
This is Albert I.
The trees in the photo are still pretty good sized so they aren’t at timberline. I wonder if they have to walk to timberline or if a team and wagon will take them there.
Longshot
Did anyone notice young Floyd in the picture? He is on the right side standing in front of Mason with his back to the camera. Except for his shoes he is just a blur.
charlott
I would guess they had to go up the old wagon road to Cloud Cap and go up from there. If that was the case, this might have been taken in the Cloud Cap area. In those days the trees near Cloud Cap would have been "virgin" timber and would have been more sizeable than those in the area now.
Longshot
There are still some pretty nice sized tree at the Cloud Cap elevation and even above. A large mature area of timber survived the fires during the early 20th century and a good part still survived the Gnarl Ridge fire a few years ago.
Though it is hard to tell from the photo, I don’t see the goat’s beard lichen growing on the boles of the trees which is prevalent today. The lichen is one of the killers of these trees as when a fire does happen as it ignited readily torching the tree.
Bill P.
The putee’s look like Spanish America War slurplus equipment. Don’t you love the Teddy Roosevelt mustaches. The word to wear skin protection must have been known by all cimbers early on.
Bill P