North Cascades

MARKETING THE WILDERNESS: DEVELOPMENT OF COMMERCIAL ENTERPRISES

OVERVIEW

Commercial development of the land now designated as North Cascades National Park has a long and varied history. From the fur-trading era of the nineteenth century, this wilderness area has provided abundant resources from which to profit. Water, wood, and minerals were all utilized and exploited at various times and to different degrees. The generally inaccessible nature of these mountains was not enough to prevent people from seeking opportunity there. Enterprising individuals marketed fruits and vegetables, grazed sheep and cattle, logged timber, mined minerals, and harnessed rivers all for economic gain. This chapter identifies chronologically the most significant kinds of commercial activity in the North Cascades, considers how these human enterprises have impacted the natural resources, and records what tangible evidence remains of these human efforts.

• Trapping
• Agriculture
• Logging
• Mining
• Hydroelectricity
• Conclusions and Recommendations

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