1.) Mt. Hood is 12,240 feet tall, making it the highest mountain in Oregon. Its base covers 92 square miles (148 kilometers).
2.) Geographically, Mt. Hood is part of the Cascade Mountain Range, of which it is the 6th highest. Mt. Lassen, Mt. Ranier, Mt. Shasta, Curtis Ridge, Mount Adams, and Mud Creek Glacier Peak are all taller.
3.) Mt.Hood dates back 500,000 years to the late Pleistocene Era.
4.) Mt. Hood is a volcano. It is currently dormant but may erupt within the next 75 years. The last eruption was over a decade ago in 1907.
5.) There are eleven glaciers on Mt. Hood’s peak.
6.) Mt. Hood was “discovered” on October 29, 1792, by British Navy Lt. William E. Broughton. He saw the mountain from the Colombia river, which is 22 miles North. Mt. Hood was named after Admiral Samuel Hood, who, ironically, has never seen it! The American Indian Name for Mt. Hood is “Wy’ East.”
7.) Mt. Hood is 50 miles east-southeast of Portland, OR, and sits in both Clackamas and Hood counties.
8.) The first Americans were, of course, Lewis & Clark. They referred to it as “Timm Mountain” until they learned that it had been named by the British a decade earlier. To this day, Timm is the name of a section of the Columbia River near The Dalles.
9.) Joel Palmer and Samuel K. Barlow opened up the first path over the Cascades. They passed over the south side of Mt. Hood. Though dangerous, it was considered much safer than other routes commonly used at the time.
10.) Joel Palmer, Sam Barlow, and Phillip Locke ascended Mt. Hood for the first time (recorded) on August 14, 1845.
11.) On August 9, 1936, 411 people climbed Mt. Hood!
12.) Because of how easy it is, Mt. Hood is the second most climbed mountain in the world.
13.) You can ski in 5 areas on Mt. Hood – Cooper Spur Ski Area, Summit Ski Area, Mt. Hood Ski Bowl, Mt. Hood Meadows, and Timberline Lodge Ski Area.
14.) Timberline Lodge has the most extended skiing season in the US. It is open for 12 months of the years to skiers and snowboarders. It only shuts down for a short period of two weeks in September.
15.) Gilbert Stanley Underwood was the chief architect of Timberline Lodge. Underwood designed lodges for many national parks, as well as the San Francisco Mint and LA courthouse. It was built by the Works Progress Administration and Civilian Conservation Corps at the tail-end of the Great Depression.
16.) Timberline boasted the first chairlift in Oregon, building one in 1939.
17.) Timberline was the location of many movies like Jingle Belles, Bend of the RIver, All the Young Men, Lost Horizon, and Hear No Evil.
18.) The most famous movie filmed on Mt. Hood was Stanley Kubrick’s The Shining. Timberline Lodge served as the exterior for the Overlook Hotel, while the interior shots were filmed elsewhere. Famously, Timberline Lodge asked Kubrick to change Room 217 in the book, to Room 237 in the movie. This was not to scare guests away from the room.
19.) Boris Sagal was killed in an accident by walking into a helicopter tail rotor blades while filming the miniseries World War III in 1981.
20.) Franklin Delano Roosevelt dedicated Timberline Lodge when it opened in 1937.
21.) Mt. Hood National Forest, covers 1.1 million acres. There are over 812 miles of recreational trails as well. Over 4 million people visit the forest every year.
22.) Dating back to 1936, the Golden Rose Ski Classic is the longest-running continuous ski race in America. It is also the only USSA-Sanctioned race during the summer.
23.) Mt. Hood boasts large night skiing areas. Mt. Hood Meadows features 240 acres, and Mt. Hood Ski Bowl has a larger night skiing area than anywhere in North America.
24.) Over 200 miles of rivers in Mount Hood National Park provide one million people in the Portland Metro area with fresh drinking water.
25.) Mt. Hood and the surrounding forests are homes to animals like northern spotted owls, wolves, cougars, elk, and deer.
26.) On the west side of the mountain, a virtual rainforest exists composed of lush, moist Douglas-fir trees. On the east side, fire-resistant Ponderosa pine trees cover the mountain to protect it from the dry Eastern Oregon weather.
27.) Mt. Hood Forest is part of the Pacific Crest Trail, which extends all the way south to Campo, California.
28.) The USS Hood, named for Mt. Hood, was destroyed November 10, 1944, in an accidental explosion in Papua New Guinea.
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