Sluiskin's Warning
Near Ashford, Washington
Before Hazard Stevens and Van Trump made their historic climb in eighteen seventy, their Native guide tried to turn them back. His name was Sluiskin, a Native hunter who knew this country intimately and who agreed to lead the two determined strangers up toward the snowfields. But as they neared the high ridges, Sluiskin stopped and delivered a solemn warning that Stevens later published in the Atlantic Monthly.
The mountain, he told them, was an enchanted place. A mighty chief dwelt upon the summit in a lake of fire, and he brooked no intruders. Sluiskin spoke of his own grandfather, who had once climbed high on the peak and nearly perished when the fiery demon rose to destroy him.
No human being, he insisted, could ascend the mountain and survive. This was not simple superstition. Many Native peoples of the region held a genuine reverence for the summit, treating it as sacred ground best left undisturbed, and the tale of a fire lake at the top was a striking memory of the volcano's living heart.
When the two climbers returned alive, Sluiskin was astonished, half convinced he was seeing their ghosts. To him, they had walked into the home of a spirit and somehow walked back out.
