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Mud Creek Glacier Photo Album
MSS.304
MSS.304
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Table of contents
Title: Mud Creek Glacier Photo Album
Identifier/Call Number: MSS.304
Contributing Institution:
California State University, Chico, Special Collections, Meriam Library
Language of Material:
English
Physical Description:
0.3 Linear feet
1 Box with 21 items
Date (inclusive): 1924-1941
Abstract: Photographs of Mud Creek Glacier on Mt. Shasta in August and September of 1924. Warmer weather caused a melting of the glacier,
sending down the canyon a wall of water, mud, sand, and rock.
creator:
Morton & Co..
Mount Shasta’s summit is 14,162 feet above the sea, but from about 12,000 ft. level the terrain is covered with perpetual
snow and rock and circled by five large glaciers which are situated by the points of the compass from the summit rocks as
follows: North slope, has Hotlum and Bolam glaciers, East slope has Wintoon glacier, West slope has Whitney glacier, and the
South slope has Konwakiton glacier, which is popularly known as Mud Creek or McCloud glacier, as it is the source of the McCloud
River.
In the winter of 1924, because of the light snowfall the glaciers were free of snow by the first of May, and commenced to
melt and discharge large streams of water. Since the melting was mainly along the sides, the water ran under the ice and soon
formed channels and undermined the foundations of the Mud Creek Glacier. By the end of June the bodies of ice commenced to
break off at the lower ends and falling some hundreds of feet carried great masses of rock sand and gravel with them.
Observers stated that with sounds like the discharge of cannon, masses as large as an ordinary house would break off every
two or three minutes and away they would go down the canyon. The resultant avalanches wrecked the McCloud water system, and
made a great slope of glacial sand some seven miles long and a mile or more wide, with a depth of from five to thirteen feet
and discolored the McCloud, the Pit and the Sacramento Rivers for miles from their sources.
Collection is open for research without restriction.
No restrictions.
This collection contains correspondence with W.B. Cook dated January 17, 1941, a bibliography of related resources, 1 map
of Mount Shasta, and 19 photographs of Mud Creek Glacier on Mt. Shasta in August and September of 1924. Warmer weather caused
a melting of the glacier, sending down the canyon a wall of water, mud, sand, and rock.
All photographs were taken September, 1924. Included in the photographs are 4 enlargements that create a panorama of Mud Creek
Canyon - north wall of Mud Creek Canyon. All of the photographs have been cataloged and given a sc number, except for three.
Original
Immediate Source of Acquisition note
Purchase, 1980.
Mud Creek Glacier Photo Album, MSS 304, Special Collections, Meriam Library, California State University, Chico.
The following photographs have been filed with the Historic Photograph Collection
sc1888-sc1905
sc1892 also has a catalog entry.
Processing of the Mud Creek Glacier Photo Album was generously funded by the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, and administered
by the Council on Library and Information Resources (CLIR). The [ABC repository] was awarded a Cataloging Hidden Special Collections
and Archives grant from 2010-2012, "Uncovering California's Environmental Collections," in collaboration with eight additional
special collections and archival repositories throughout the state and the California Digital Library (CDL). Grant objectives
included processing of over 33 hidden collections related to the state's environment and environmental history. The collections
document an array of important sub-topics such as irrigation, mining, forestry, agriculture, industry, land use, activism,
and research. Together they form a multifaceted picture of the natural world and the way it was probed, altered, exploited
and protected in California over the twentieth century. Finding aids are made available through the Online Archive of California
(OAC).
The library can only claim physical ownership of the collection. Users are responsible for satisfying any claimants of literary
property.
Subjects and Indexing Terms
Mud Creek Canyon (Calif.)--Photographs.
Mud Creek Glacier (Calif.)--Photographs.
Photograph albums
Shasta, Mount (Calif. : Mountain)--History.
Shasta, Mount (Calif. : Mountain)--Photographs.
Siskiyou County (Calif.)--Photographs.
Uncovering California's Environmental Collections Project