Everett Branch History
Dr. Hinman Starts New Branch
Harry B. Hinman, a prominent Everett dentist, enjoyed the mountains immensely. In August of 1909 he had chance encounter with Asahel Curtis of The Mountaineers on the slopes of Mt Rainier. Dr. Hinman soon joined The Mountaineers and proposed an Everett group of the club so they could have local walks similar to the group in Seattle.
The inaugural outing was to Lake Isabelle in 1910, but the branch wasn't officially established until 1911 when the Mountaineers charter was amended to allow branches. This anomaly allowed the branch to hold centennial celebrations in both 2010 and 2011!
So in 1910, Hinman started up an unofficial group of Mountaineers. In those days, Interurban trip to Seattle took considerable time, making the formation of a local branch a matter of practical convenience. There were 40 members living in Everett and five in outlying areas. That year, nine of them joined the large group of The Mountaineers to summit Glacier Peak. Hinman was captain of "D Company" on that trip, which had 57 climbers. His wife was one of the D company members. Other 1910 trips included a walk to Martha Lake, Silver Lake, and Beverley with 103 people. (Now we limit most Everett trips to 8 or 12 people!) (See a copy of 1910 The Mountaineer)
On year later the Mountaineers officially established the first branch in Everett. Hinman was made a director of The Mountaineers. For 1912, the Everett branch went on 22 local walks, and did three-day trips to Mount Index and Whitehorse Mountain. Several hundred people came to see their Everett lectures on the local mountains.
In 1913, Hinman's group climbed to the summit of Whitehorse Mountain. They hoped to have the first ascent, but didn't realize it had been climbed in 1909. They had a group of 65 go to Monte Cristo for their summer outing in 1918.
Everett Branch Over The Decades
The group called the "Trailers" in 1914 had social gatherings every two weeks. Others met to view stereooptican views. The annual banquet and salmon bake started by the early 1950's.
The first Peak Pins award started in 1932. They included peaks in the Monte Cristo, Darrington, and Index groups. In 1946 you could garner a lookout pin list, by hiking to the summits of 12 out of 15 peaks in that list.
1939 must have been a rough year. Perhaps Everett was in a financial slump. The Mountaineer reported that "the annual quota of climbs and walks were of outstanding interest but were not well supported by our members, though a good number of Seattle members took advantage of them".
In 1956, some tidbits from The Mountaineer include: 20 mile overnight snowshoe trip from Silverton to Darrington via Deer Creek; first snowshoe climb of Mount Persis; 30 people took the Climbing course, with Round Mountain as the first experience climb; eigth-recorded ascent of Mount Johannesburg (via north face and east col); the Salmon Bake; potluck at Legion Park; Annual Banquet; $408.10 dues, $712 initiation fees, $430.55 income,
Everett's Basic Climbing started as a two-year course in 1946. Some of the big early achievements were the 1956 circling of Mount Shuksan, and the 1958 first ascents of the north face of Three Fingers and northwest ridge of Kyes Peak.
Climbing was extremely popular in the 70's fitness boom. In 1976 they had to limit the enrollment in Basic Climbing course for the first time. The Intermediate Climbing course started in 1977. One major first ascent from that group in 1988 was the north face of Whitechuck Mountain.
The Everett Branch has been very active in conservation throughout the decades. This includes the grass roots efforts to create the North Cascades National Park and several wilderness areas. The Lookout and Trail Maintenance people rebuilt the Mt Pilchuck lookout in 1989, and Heybrook lookout in 2002.
And what about Dr. Hinman? A unusually massive peak midway between La Bohn Gap and Mount Daniel stands at 7,492 feet. You can see this peak from many summits in the Cascade Range. It's perhaps the gentlest peak of its size in the Cascades, and we now call it Mount Hinman for our branch founder. who had led a trip for The Mountaineers to the massive Mount Stuart in 1914. Mount Hinman had been called the West Peak of Daniel by it's first ascent in 1928.