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Across the Olympic Mountains: The Press Expedition, 1889-90
In 1889 Washington's then governor, Elisha Ferry, called on men of adventure to cross the Olympic Mountains, a range shrouded in mystery. The Seattle Press, the state's primary newspaper, stepped up to the challenge, sponsoring the Press Expedition.
And soon departed a band of men into the mountains during one of the worst winters in recorded history...
And soon departed a band of men into the mountains during one of the worst winters in recorded history...
240 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1989
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Displaying 1 - 18 of 18 reviews
October 16, 2021
The book is alright. I only finished it because of the beautiful imagery of the land I love. They spent the majority of their time needlessly hunting and killing anything in sight.
October 27, 2015
I liked this book, but I would recommend it to very few people. If you have been to the Olympic or really like stories of exploration then it might be up your alley. The Press expedition is the first group to cross the Olympic Mountain range. They travel from the north on the Elwha river out the south on the Quinault river. I really enjoyed it because I have backpacked in the Olympics many times. The expedition left in December and finished in June. The story is not very dramatic. There are a couple times when they get low on food and their attempts to travel the rivers on rafts are laughable knowing the topology. Of course, they were going to places no one had ever been before, so they did not know the topology. I can not imagine spending the entire winter in the Olympic mountains with the type of gear that they had. The amount of rain and snow that they got was tremendous. The story was interesting.
August 5, 2016
This was a super cool book to read, and it was awesome to read about their adventures and how they had to overcome adversity. I have hiked lots of the trails in the Olympic National Park and I think it's pretty neat to know that they were there so many years back.
February 16, 2025
They were eating flour soup
August 18, 2022
This was an excellent account of the Press Expedition, which was the first known traverse of the Olympic Mountains.
I was interested in reading this book because on August 9th of this year, I did three Press Traverse, which mostly follows the route they took during the 6 months they were doing the traverse (1889-1890).
It was written in 1967, so I was not surprised that I could only get a physical copy of the book. It would have been great to be able to read it on Kindle and more easily highlight passages. Instead, my notes are below. Warning, there are spoilers.
Notes:
- Explorers:
- James H Christie, expedition leader
- Charles A Barnes, historian, topographer and photographer for the group
- John W Sims
- John H Crumback, expedition cook
- Christopher Hayes, youngest member of the party (22)
- Dr. Harris B Runnals, surgeon and the expeditions “natural historian”. He was not able to complete the trip because his wife became I’ll before they left civilization.
- The Press Exploring Expedition was sponsored by the Seattle Press, the first to cross the Olympic Mountains. The peninsula has remained relatively unknown by explorers, until the end of the 19th century when in winter and spring months of 1889-1890, the Press Party crossed the Olympics for the first time known to white man (my addition!).
- It was described as “…never, to the positive knowledge of old residents of the territory, been trodden by the foot of man, white or Indian”(p13). I find that hard to believe that at least native tribes had not been up and over the Olympics, but apparently native tribes believed that “- fierce tribe, which none of the coastal Indians dared molest, inhabited it”(p14). “The Indians believed that a God – in the form of a huge bird resembling an eagle or raven – made its home in these mountains and would “inflict a terrible punishment on those who by entering them desecrates its home”… Aside from the primitive legends of Indians and the exaggerated stories of hunters… Nothing was known of the interior of the Olympic Peninsula”(p23). When they are on the expedition, they do find evidence of use by natives, including trees with blazes on them, and a wringing tree for treating animal pelts, but both are very old. The expeditioners conclude that they were “threading passes and gorges long accustomed to the presence of man”(a quote from someone’s journal, p100). What they saw might not have been evidence of native Americans in the past, as the author explains. On the Quinault side, they also find blazes on trees, and conclude that they have found the hunting trails along the lower reaches of both the Quinault and Elwha.
- They started out carrying 1,500 pounds of provisions
- They blazed trees with 3 ax marks along the way and you can still see some of these, though others have added Press style tree blazes since. Between Antelope and Idaho Creeks these are most prevalent, the historic markings.
- They arrived back in Aberdeen 6 months later. Most of the time was spent getting to Low Divide, and they narrowly ran out of food because game wasn’t as available as they had anticipated. Thankfully, when almost out, they short a few bears. They spent so much time on the Elwha side because they were exploring and looking for the fabled Elwha Pass, which didn’t exist.
- They named a lot of peaks, mostly after newspaper editors or others high up at newspapers. They even named the Bailey Range, named after the proprietor of the Seattle Press. They also named rivers, lakes and waterfalls. There’s a section at the back of the book that lists all they named, of which many of the names are still use today.
A question that still remains for me - was it truly the first traverse? It’s hard for me to believe that no tribes ever did this. The book shows that there is some possible evidence of tribal use of various areas of their traverse, but little conclusive evidence, and with so much snow during their historic traverse, it was hard to tell at the time.
I was interested in reading this book because on August 9th of this year, I did three Press Traverse, which mostly follows the route they took during the 6 months they were doing the traverse (1889-1890).
It was written in 1967, so I was not surprised that I could only get a physical copy of the book. It would have been great to be able to read it on Kindle and more easily highlight passages. Instead, my notes are below. Warning, there are spoilers.
Notes:
- Explorers:
- James H Christie, expedition leader
- Charles A Barnes, historian, topographer and photographer for the group
- John W Sims
- John H Crumback, expedition cook
- Christopher Hayes, youngest member of the party (22)
- Dr. Harris B Runnals, surgeon and the expeditions “natural historian”. He was not able to complete the trip because his wife became I’ll before they left civilization.
- The Press Exploring Expedition was sponsored by the Seattle Press, the first to cross the Olympic Mountains. The peninsula has remained relatively unknown by explorers, until the end of the 19th century when in winter and spring months of 1889-1890, the Press Party crossed the Olympics for the first time known to white man (my addition!).
- It was described as “…never, to the positive knowledge of old residents of the territory, been trodden by the foot of man, white or Indian”(p13). I find that hard to believe that at least native tribes had not been up and over the Olympics, but apparently native tribes believed that “- fierce tribe, which none of the coastal Indians dared molest, inhabited it”(p14). “The Indians believed that a God – in the form of a huge bird resembling an eagle or raven – made its home in these mountains and would “inflict a terrible punishment on those who by entering them desecrates its home”… Aside from the primitive legends of Indians and the exaggerated stories of hunters… Nothing was known of the interior of the Olympic Peninsula”(p23). When they are on the expedition, they do find evidence of use by natives, including trees with blazes on them, and a wringing tree for treating animal pelts, but both are very old. The expeditioners conclude that they were “threading passes and gorges long accustomed to the presence of man”(a quote from someone’s journal, p100). What they saw might not have been evidence of native Americans in the past, as the author explains. On the Quinault side, they also find blazes on trees, and conclude that they have found the hunting trails along the lower reaches of both the Quinault and Elwha.
- They started out carrying 1,500 pounds of provisions
- They blazed trees with 3 ax marks along the way and you can still see some of these, though others have added Press style tree blazes since. Between Antelope and Idaho Creeks these are most prevalent, the historic markings.
- They arrived back in Aberdeen 6 months later. Most of the time was spent getting to Low Divide, and they narrowly ran out of food because game wasn’t as available as they had anticipated. Thankfully, when almost out, they short a few bears. They spent so much time on the Elwha side because they were exploring and looking for the fabled Elwha Pass, which didn’t exist.
- They named a lot of peaks, mostly after newspaper editors or others high up at newspapers. They even named the Bailey Range, named after the proprietor of the Seattle Press. They also named rivers, lakes and waterfalls. There’s a section at the back of the book that lists all they named, of which many of the names are still use today.
A question that still remains for me - was it truly the first traverse? It’s hard for me to believe that no tribes ever did this. The book shows that there is some possible evidence of tribal use of various areas of their traverse, but little conclusive evidence, and with so much snow during their historic traverse, it was hard to tell at the time.
September 20, 2023
As other reviewers have mentioned, this book is extremely niche in its target audience.
To enjoy this book, one of two things absolutely has to be true. The book is not nearly good enough writing to stand on its own without the content.
1) You have to love the Olympic National Park and want to learn about the earliest known recorded cross-park expedition.
2) You have to love river expedition history in general, as this book is largely an adventure story up the Elwha River from the Straight of Juan de Fuca and back down the Quinault River to the Pacific Ocean.
I happen to love both ideas, so I enjoyed picking up a copy at the Port Angeles visitor center and learning about the opening of the park. The author does a good job of putting together as much research about the expedition, including what little of journals the explorers took and what was printed in the Seattle Press at the time. There is some good description of the river valley, the wildlife and plants, the mountains, the lakes, and the descending valley, the material I wanted to read about. You also learn as much as there is to know about the explorers themselves.
The author himself loved the park, spending lots of his own time in the park, but I almost couldn’t tell that fact from his writing. The book is also a second edition that tries to respond to several challenges of his original work, challenges based upon some of the uncertainty that goes with examining an 1890 study that gets left to history for decades. The result is hundreds of footnotes, some almost a full page long themselves, that interrupt the reading and almost make it as if two different books exist side by side. This book would be best served with another edition that blends the footnotes into the storytelling, which I wish had itself blended his perspective of the park with what he found in the journals.
I also agree with several reviews that point out that before the expedition, Olympic Park was a virtual Garden of Eden, untouched by humans for more than a century after what appears to have been a major earthquake scared natives out of the center of the park. Because there was no human presence, animals took back the park. When the explorers came, most of the animals had no fear of humans, viewing them as a curiosity. Yes, I know they had to eat, and yes, I know it’s probably what they were most likely to write about. It’s not a terribly interesting idea to me, there’s some sadness in it, and it’s where I wish the author would have spent more time supplementing the explorer’s story with his own visual observations and studies of what a wondrous park Olympic is and what magnificent rivers the Elhwa and Quinault Rivers are. I will say that I'm glad that it's a protected National Park for wildlife to properly enjoy again.
To enjoy this book, one of two things absolutely has to be true. The book is not nearly good enough writing to stand on its own without the content.
1) You have to love the Olympic National Park and want to learn about the earliest known recorded cross-park expedition.
2) You have to love river expedition history in general, as this book is largely an adventure story up the Elwha River from the Straight of Juan de Fuca and back down the Quinault River to the Pacific Ocean.
I happen to love both ideas, so I enjoyed picking up a copy at the Port Angeles visitor center and learning about the opening of the park. The author does a good job of putting together as much research about the expedition, including what little of journals the explorers took and what was printed in the Seattle Press at the time. There is some good description of the river valley, the wildlife and plants, the mountains, the lakes, and the descending valley, the material I wanted to read about. You also learn as much as there is to know about the explorers themselves.
The author himself loved the park, spending lots of his own time in the park, but I almost couldn’t tell that fact from his writing. The book is also a second edition that tries to respond to several challenges of his original work, challenges based upon some of the uncertainty that goes with examining an 1890 study that gets left to history for decades. The result is hundreds of footnotes, some almost a full page long themselves, that interrupt the reading and almost make it as if two different books exist side by side. This book would be best served with another edition that blends the footnotes into the storytelling, which I wish had itself blended his perspective of the park with what he found in the journals.
I also agree with several reviews that point out that before the expedition, Olympic Park was a virtual Garden of Eden, untouched by humans for more than a century after what appears to have been a major earthquake scared natives out of the center of the park. Because there was no human presence, animals took back the park. When the explorers came, most of the animals had no fear of humans, viewing them as a curiosity. Yes, I know they had to eat, and yes, I know it’s probably what they were most likely to write about. It’s not a terribly interesting idea to me, there’s some sadness in it, and it’s where I wish the author would have spent more time supplementing the explorer’s story with his own visual observations and studies of what a wondrous park Olympic is and what magnificent rivers the Elhwa and Quinault Rivers are. I will say that I'm glad that it's a protected National Park for wildlife to properly enjoy again.
February 14, 2025
A gripping read about five hard-assed dudes who marched across the Olympic Peninsula in the dead of Winter between Port Angeles and Lake Quinault.
I was worried this was going to be another dry, detailed diary like the Lewis & Clark journals, but it wasn't. There's enough detail to give you a good sense of the situations and challenges these explorers faced day-to-day, without going into excruciating detail about every bend in the river.
The scenes most memorable to me are the early weeks and months of winter when they had to walk across the snowy Elwha River in waters waist-deep to armpit-deep. I can barely stand a cold plunge pool for 60 seconds.
The segment maps are helpful. I wonder what happened to the 250 photographic negatives that made it through intact, as there are only a few photos from the expedition party in the book. The book was written in the 1960s so not a lot of Native American context is included, but it's not overtly disparaging either. A quick 200-pager.
If you've ever gazed at the snowy peaks of the Olympic Mountains and wondered what it's like far inside there, you will like this remarkable story.
I was worried this was going to be another dry, detailed diary like the Lewis & Clark journals, but it wasn't. There's enough detail to give you a good sense of the situations and challenges these explorers faced day-to-day, without going into excruciating detail about every bend in the river.
The scenes most memorable to me are the early weeks and months of winter when they had to walk across the snowy Elwha River in waters waist-deep to armpit-deep. I can barely stand a cold plunge pool for 60 seconds.
The segment maps are helpful. I wonder what happened to the 250 photographic negatives that made it through intact, as there are only a few photos from the expedition party in the book. The book was written in the 1960s so not a lot of Native American context is included, but it's not overtly disparaging either. A quick 200-pager.
If you've ever gazed at the snowy peaks of the Olympic Mountains and wondered what it's like far inside there, you will like this remarkable story.
July 22, 2019
This is an awesome book. I have loved the Olympic mountains from the first day I saw them so I enjoyed learning more about them. This is brilliantly written and beautifully captures some of my feelings about them. The story was compelling and entertaining. It would make a great movie. Though much artistic license would be needed to provide a complete picture. I marvel at all these 5 men went through to give others a view into this mysterious area. I laughed many times at the phrasing of the descriptions. If you like history, hiking and the Olympic mountains, you need to read this book! You won't be disappointed.
June 17, 2024
A great piece of Olympic Peninsula history, albeit the Press Expedition does little that would make seasoned explorers Lewis & Clark or John Wesley Powell proud. The book is a great mix of narrative blended with journal excerpts and an awesome read-along to understanding the Olympic Peninsula and its interior geography (I recommend a map as a reading companion)! The author, Robert Wood, was a true lover of the Peninsula and wrote quite a few books about the area. I would characterize him in the similar vein as Murray Morgan but less poetic. If you have a passion for tales of exploration and men surviving off of nothing but grit, some game, and a plug of tobacco- pick this one up!
January 3, 2019
Very well researched and well told, with a pleasant interspersal of direct quotations, as well as illuminating footnotes. A must-read for any avid fan of the Olympic mountains, it gives insight into many of the names therein.
September 12, 2019
Read this book several years after my driving vacation around the Olympic Peninsula, which is a beautifully breathtaking place. The Press Expedition experienced many dangerous situations yet not one died during the excursion. Highly recommended read.
March 27, 2023
A fascinating read.
January 19, 2024
It had a solid start for me, engaged me halfway through the book. The second half just felt repetitive and not very exciting.
May 11, 2025
Entertaining. These guys were crazy.
May 28, 2013
Reading about the adventure this group went on is thoroughly enjoyable--driven to the extremes by the unknown and their egos. It is well written and was obviously quite a task for the author to compile the written journals of the men. The author's knowledge of the geography of the peninsula is helpful but his cultural knowledge is lacking. It appears that the knowledge of natives was discounted entirely (figures) and this leads to too many assumptions being made by both the explorers and the author. I will most likely read this book again in the future though because modern day Americans are so uninclined to withstand such discomfort and struggle and it is just incredible that they survived their undertaking.
March 10, 2014
Manly, virile men with too much gear cross the Olympic Mountains in a terrible winter. 40+ miles in six months. No one dies, despite their best efforts. Favorite scenes include building a raft with green trees and building fragile sleds.
March 1, 2012
I read this book a long time ago when I lived in Seattle (the date I picked for the finish date is arbitrary!) but I do remember that it was a very interesting read. I couldn't put it down.
August 29, 2016
Very enjoyable reading of a piece of Northwest history. Will be visiting this area this summer and following part of their trail, especially to Goblin Valley. Looking forward to it.
Displaying 1 - 18 of 18 reviews