National Parks Northwest Stories Part 2

Global warming is affecting the North Cascades.

In the late 1800s, John Huelsdonk headed up the Hoh River to tame the last frontier in America, the interior of the Olympic Peninsula. He received his nickname by carrying a cast iron cook stove from Forks, 27 miles away. The last battle he faced was the Federal government, who wanted to turn his homestead into a National Park; the case went all the way to the Supreme Court. Huelsdonk won the court case and his family still lives on the land today.

In 1955, in response to a Harpers Bazaar article about excessive garbage and traffic at the National parks, Student Conservations Association (SCA) founder Liz Putnam gathered 53 students to volunteer to clean up the National Parks. Today, the SCA has over 4000 volunteers and interns a year.