THE CRADLE OF MOUNT RAINIER NAT'L PARK

Although the history of this region as a National Park dates from 1899, when President McKinley signed the bill that established this region as the sixth of its kind, the development of the area dates from 1883 when James Longmire took up his homestead -- thus establishing the first permanent settlement in what was later to be Mt. Rainier National Park. Previous to that time, although several parties of climbers had penetrated this wilderness, no one had deemed it adviseable to establish himself permanently here.

And Longmire's decision came about quite by accident. He was returning from a trip to the "Mountain" and made camp on the Nisqually River Bar not far from the present site of the Public Camp Grounds at Longmire Springs. He hobbled his horses, as was the custom, and turned them out to graze but the animals wandered to a dank meadow during the night where they found luscious grasses that were more pleasing to their taste. It was here that Longmire found them the following day and in rounding them up he discovered the springs that were to become the nucleous of a small hotel development -- that were to become the incentive in blazing the first path of civilization into the then untracked wilderness. He, with the help of his sons and grandsons, but the first trail, the first road and the first hotel in the region and thus made it possible for others to follow their footsteps and view the "Mountain" at close range. Thus, as more people became acquainted with Mt. Rainier, its fame spread far and wide and so this may be regarded as instrumental in crystallizing public opinion that eventually resulted in the Park being created. One of the old Longmire Homestead Cabins still stands on the Trail of the Shadows near the village that now bears that name.