Marys Peak
{{short description|Mountain in Oregon, United States}}
{{Use mdy dates|date=January 2025}}
{{Infobox mountain
| name = Marys Peak
| photo = Marys_Peak_-_Central_Oregon_Coast_Range.jpg
| photo_caption = Marys Peak viewed from the Willamette Valley
| elevation_ft = 4101
| elevation_ref = {{NAVD88}}{{cite ngs |pid=QE2315 |name=Mary |accessdate=2008-11-01}}
| prominence_ft = 3357
| prominence_ref = {{cite peakbagger |pid=1080 |name=Marys Peak, Oregon |accessdate=2008-04-03}}
| listing = Oregon county high points
| location = Benton County, Oregon, U.S.
| range = {{unbulleted list |Central Oregon Coast Range, |Oregon Coast Range}}
| coordinates = {{coord|44.50435595|N|123.552456264|W|type:mountain_region:US-OR_scale:100000_source:NGS|format=dms|display=inline,title}}
| range_coordinates =
| topo = USGS Lorane
| first_ascent =
| easiest_route = trail from Marys Peak Road
| map = Oregon#USA
| map_caption = Location in Oregon
}}
Marys Peak (formerly Mary's Peak and sometimes still spelled this way) is a mountain in Benton County, Oregon, United States, just southwest of Philomath. The Kalapuya people call the peak "chatímanwi",{{Cite web |title=Interactive Map |url=https://chachalu.org/interactive-map/#map |access-date=29 November 2024 |website=Chachalu Tribal Museum and Cultural Center}}{{Cite AV media |url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6eYXzyVT4-Q |title=Honoring Our Homelands: Marys Peak |date=22 April 2024 |last= |first= |type=Video |publisher=Confederated Tribes of Grand Ronde |people=Tuomi, Brenda (narrator)}} or 'place of spiritual power'.{{cite web |url=https://www.bentoncountymuseum.org/index.php/exhibitions/online-exhibitions/marys-peak/ |title=Marys Peak |date= |website= |publisher=Benton County Historical Society |access-date=September 26, 2022}} It is the highest peak in the Oregon Coast Range. It is also the highest point in Benton County,{{cite peakbagger |lid=13203 |title=Oregon County High Points |accessdate=2008-11-01}}
and ranks eleventh in the state for prominence.{{cite peakbagger |lid=41309 |title=Oregon Peaks with 2000 feet of Prominence |accessdate=2008-11-01}}
On a clear day at the top of the peak, facing east, northeast, and southeast, one can see the cities and suburbs of the Willamette Valley, as well as the Cascade Range. To the west, the Pacific Ocean is visible on clear days.
The road to the peak now remains open in the winter. During the 2010–2011 winter, the Forest Service announced that it will leave the gates open to facilitate travel to the summit. The road will not be maintained, so a lifted 4x4 or four-wheel chains are required for motor access during the winter months.{{cite web |url=http://www.fs.usda.gov/recarea/siuslaw/recreation/recarea/?recid=42311 |title=Marys Peak |publisher=Siuslaw National Forest, U.S. Forest Service |accessdate=2013-02-09}}
On June 15, 2019, the Oregon Geographic Names Board unanimously endorsed a proposal to give Native American names to 10 unnamed creeks that flow down Marys Peak. The Confederated Tribes of the Grand Ronde and Confederated Tribes of Siletz Indians were enlisted to be involved in representing the ancient indigenous groups and selecting the new names. The names proposed for adoption are in the languages of the Kalapuya, Wusi’n and Yaqo’n people who originally inhabited the land. The U.S. Board on Geographic Names unanimously approved the 10 names in September 2019.{{Cite web|last=Hall |first=Bennett |url=https://www.gazettetimes.com/community/philomathexpress/news/new-creek-names-win-state-approval/article_ca8a7473-5711-566f-9c13-caf1189515ed.html|url-access=subscription |date=July 1, 2019 |website=The Philomath Express |publisher=Corvallis Gazette-Times |title=New creek names win state approval |accessdate=September 26, 2022}}{{Cite web|last=Fisher |first=Bruce |url=https://www.ohs.org/blog/links-to-native-past-and-present.cfm |date=May 11, 2021 |publisher=The Oregon Historical Society |title=Links to Native Past and Present: Ten Creeks on Marys Peak Have New Names |accessdate=November 22, 2023}}
History
The Kalapuya name for Marys Peak is "chatímanwi", sometimes written as "tcha Timanwi" or "chintimini".{{Cite news |last=Hale |first=Jamie |date=21 January 2017 |title=How Oregon's mountains got their names |url=https://www.oregonlive.com/travel/2017/01/how_oregons_mountains_got_thei.html |access-date=29 November 2024 |work=The Oregonian}} Kalapuya oral history describes their ancestors climbing the mountain to escape a massive flood.{{Cite AV media |title=The Kalapuya and Marys Peak |url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K0ea80BVzyE |date=2021-01-04 |publisher=United States Forest Service |others=Narrated by David Harrelson}} Chatímanwi is an important spiritual site for the Kalapuya.{{cite news |last1=Harbarger |first1=Molly |title=Naming project aims to remind visitors that Marys Peak is still sacred to tribes |url=https://www.oregonlive.com/news/erry-2018/07/6115d3d2a24655/naming-project-aims-to-remind.html |access-date=29 December 2023 |work=The Oregonian |date=30 July 2018}} Confederated Tribes of Grand Ronde council member Brenda Tuomi described Marys Peak as "a place that's always been our protector, our provider, a place where our people could come to feel empowered, come to pray, come to heal".
Kalapuya people hunted and fished on Marys Peak. They also harvested beargrass, hazel, and cedar from the mountain for use in clothing and baskets. In 1856, the United States government forcibly removed the southern Kalapuya bands from their homes, including the Marys Peak area.{{cite web |title=Our Story |url=https://www.grandronde.org/history-culture/history/our-story/ |website=Confederated Tribes of Grand Ronde |access-date=29 December 2023}}
Early American settlers grazed their livestock on the mountain. In the late 1800s, a community called Peak was founded on the northwest slope of Marys Peak. Peak's post office closed in 1917, and the community is abandoned today.{{cite news |last1=Miller |first1=Miriam |title=Marys Peak Once Home Of Thriving Community |url=https://www.newspapers.com/image/384200077/?clipping_id=21055574&fcfToken=eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJmcmVlLXZpZXctaWQiOjM4NDIwMDA3NywiaWF0IjoxNzAzODM3MjI3LCJleHAiOjE3MDM5MjM2Mjd9.LF_Q7OFpWA3EH4pYgWS09yHbnKVy1SajXr96R21vvn4 |access-date=29 December 2023 |work=Corvallis Gazette-Times |date=10 May 1972}}
The name Marys Peak, given by settlers of European ancestry, may have been inspired by Mary Lloyd, who came to Oregon in 1845. Lloyd was known as the first white woman to cross the Marys River, which has its origin on the mountain.{{cite book | title=The Souvenir of Western Women | chapter=The Souvenir of Western Women/Nomenclature of Northwest Mountains | first=George H. | last=Himes | year=1905 | publisher=Anderson & Duniway Company }} However, there are alternate theories about the name.{{Citation needed|date=November 2024|reason=Which source says there are alternate theories?}}
The city of Corvallis began using the Rock Creek watershed on Marys Peak for its municipal water supply in 1906. As logging operations spread throughout the area, the Corvallis city government bought land in the Rock Creek watershed to preserve its water quality.
File:Mary's Peak Shrine Trek (6289295749).jpg
From 1946 to 1984, Shriners International held an annual picnic on the summit of Marys Peak to raise money for the Shriners Hospital for Crippled Children (now Shriners Children's Portland). In 1982, a Statesman Journal article reported that the event had raised more than $900,000 since it began.{{cite news |last1=Gustafson |first1=Alan |title=2,000 make trek to Marys Peak |url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/statesman-journal-8-2-82-trek-to-marys-p/56597758/ |access-date=29 December 2023 |work=Statesman Journal |date=2 August 1982}} In 1984, poor weather caused the event organizers to move locations.
Ecology
A grassland at the summit of the peak supports diverse wildflower species. The upper slopes are dominated by noble fir, and the lower slopes are dominated by Douglas fir and western hemlock.{{cite journal |last1=Hays |first1=Philip R. |last2=Frenkel |first2=Robert B. |last3=McEvoy |first3=Esther H.G. |title=Marys Peak Scenic Botanic Area |journal=Kalmiopsis |date=2012 |volume=19 |pages=21–22 |url=https://www.npsoregon.org/kalmiopsis/kalmiopsis19/4maryspeak.pdf |access-date=29 December 2023}}
The meadow contains several outcroppings of gabbro rock, which are often referred to as rock gardens.{{Cite report |title=Management Direction for Marys Peak Scenic Botanical Special Interest Area |date=1989-07-19 |url=https://www.fs.usda.gov/Internet/FSE_DOCUMENTS/stelprdb5436383.pdf |access-date=2023-12-28 |publisher=United States Forest Service}} The most noted of these outcroppings covers four to five acres on a southern slope near the summit. The rock gardens support many wildflowers that grow well on thin, dry soils. These species include Cascade desertparsley, harsh paintbrush, Olympic onion, and spreading phlox.
In 1989, the Forest Service designated a 924-acre area on the upper slopes of Marys Peak as a Scenic Botanical Special Interest Area. This area includes the meadow at the summit, riparian zones, and tracts of noble fir forest.
Beginning in the 1950s or earlier, noble firs have spread into areas of Marys Peak that were once meadow.{{Cite news |last=Urness |first=Zach |date=20 September 2015 |title=3,000 trees to be cut down to save meadow on Marys Peak |url=https://www.statesmanjournal.com/story/news/2015/09/20/cutting-trees-save-meadow-marys-peak/72357546/ |access-date=13 November 2024 |work=Statesman Journal}} To preserve the meadow ecosystem, the Forest Service had 3,000 trees removed from 25 acres of land. The trees were harvested by Miller Timber Services, a subcontractor of pulp and paper company Georgia-Pacific. The removal began in the fall of 2015.{{cite news |last1=Rosen |first1=Julia |title=Climate change triggers triage in Northwest forests |url=https://www.hcn.org/articles/in-the-mountains-of-the-pacific-northwest-changes-prompt-ecological-triage |access-date=31 December 2023 |work=High Country News |date=11 January 2016}}
In 2015, scientists from Oregon State University identified a type of ice crawler found on Marys Peak as a unique species. It was named Grylloblatta chintimini.{{cite journal |last1=Marshall |first1=Christopher J. |last2=Lytle |first2=David A. |title=Two new species of Grylloblatta Walker, 1914 (Grylloblattodea: Grylloblattidae) from western North America, and a neotype designation for G. rothi Gurney 1953 |journal=Zootaxa |date=28 April 2015 |volume=3949 |issue=3 |pages=408, 414 |doi=10.11646/zootaxa.3949.3.6 |pmid=25947815 |url=https://www.biotaxa.org/Zootaxa/article/view/zootaxa.3949.3.6 |accessdate=29 December 2023}}
References
{{reflist}}
External links
- {{cite gnis |id=1145860 |name=Marys Peak |accessdate=2008-11-01}}
- {{cite summitpost |id=195308 |name=Marys Peak |accessdate=2013-02-09}}
{{Commons category|Marys Peak (Oregon) |position=left}}
{{Oregon Coast Range |state=collapsed}}
Category:Mountains of the Oregon Coast Range