On this day in 1899, Mount Rainier National Park became a National Park, courtesy of President William McKinley. The park includes Mount Rainier, a 24,410 foot active volcano covered with over 35 square miles of snow and ice and criss-crossed with 240 miles of trails.

Just the Facts, Ma'am.

• Mt. Rainier is the tallest mountain in the Pacific Northwest .
  
  
• With its 26 glaciers, Mount Rainier holds huge amounts of frozen water .
  
  
• Mountaineers train on Mt. Rainier before scaling Mt. Everest .
  

Long, Long Time Ago... Up until the 1700's, Taidnapam, Upper Cowlitz, Yakama, Nisqually, and Puyallup tribes lived in the foothills of the mountain they called Tahoma. Because of their great reverence for Tahoma, the Natives never went near its summit. Settlers in the 1700s brought diseases that nearly wiped out the tribes who lived in the shadow of Tahoma. Settlers homesteaded near the peak in the 1800s.

I think I'll Call it "Rainier." In 1792, British explorer Captain George Vancouver named the mountain Mount Rainier for his friend, Rear Admiral Peter Rainier. Rainier never actually visited the peak.

First Non-Native Walks the Park. In 1833, Dr. William Tolmie, a Scottish physician, organized an herb-gathering expedition, under the guidance of five Native Americans. He was probably the first white man to enter what is now the park.

Blazing the Trail. In the late 1850's, James Longmire, an early Washington Territory settler, established the Packwood Trail and guided mountain climbers on this route.

Tough Climbing. In 1857, Army Lieutenant August Valentine Kautz and his party traveled 8 days to reach the summit. His Nisqually guide became snow-blind, his companions gave up, and he ended up 400 feet short of the summit. But he did prove that Mount Rainier was climbable.

First Time Up. In 1870, General Hazard Stevens and Philemon Van Trump make the first well-documented ascent of Mount Rainier.

First Woman to Make the Climb. In 1890, Fay Fuller, a schoolteacher, became the first woman to reach the mountain's peak.

A National Park. In 1899, led by local communities and supported by scientific and conservation organizations, including the National Geographic Society, the campaign to make Mt. Rainier a National Park succeeded. President McKinley made Mount Rainier as the nation's fifth national park.