Mud Creek Glacier Photo Album
MSS.304
Finding aid prepared by Leilani Silver, Pamela Nett Kruger
Processing of this collection was funded by the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, and administered by the Council on Library and
Information Resources (CLIR), Cataloging Hidden Special Collections and Archives program.
California State University, Chico, Special Collections, Meriam Library
400 West First Street
Chico, CA, 95929-0295
(530) 898-6342
SpecialCollections@csuchico.edu
6/19/2010
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.
Alternate Form of Material: No other forms of material.
Language of Materials note: English
creator:
Morton & Co..
Biographical/Historical note
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.
Access Restrictions
Collection is open for research without restriction.
Usage Restrictions
No restrictions.
Scope and Contents note
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.
Arrangement note
Original
Immediate Source of Acquisition note
Purchase, 1980.
Preferred Citation note
Mud Creek Glacier Photo Album, MSS 304, Special Collections, Meriam Library, California State University, Chico.
Material Cataloged Separately
The following photographs have been filed with the Historic Photograph Collection
sc1888-sc1905
sc1892 also has a catalog entry.
Processing Information note
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).
Publication Rights
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
Folder 1: Correspondence with W.B. Cook (January 17, 1941) and Bibliography of Related Resources
Folder 2: Photo Album, Shasta Special Map and 19 Photographs depicting the Mud Creek Glacier
Item1: sc1888 Photograph of Mount Shasta (Winter), view from the West, near Sisson
Item 2: sc1889 Photograph enlargement of Mud Creek Glacier. On the left skyline is Thumb Rock and central point is the summit
of Shasta.
Item 3: sc1890 Photograph is an enlargement of a panorama picture that shows the details of the wall. (1 of 4) Includes a
copy of full panorama view on back of item.
Item 4: sc1891 Photograph is an enlargement of a panorama picture that shows the details of the wall. (2 of 4)
Item 5: sc1892 Photograph is an enlargement of a panorama picture that shows the details of the wall. (3 of 4)
Item 6: sc1893 Photograph is an enlargement of a panorama picture that shows the details of the wall. (4 of 4)
Item 7: sc1894 Photograph of the snout or nose of the Mud Creek Glacier as it appeared on September 6, 1924.
Item 8: sc1895 Photograph of a close-up of the Glacial Wall. On the left of the photograph a great mass has just broken away,
throwing up a cloud of dust.
Item 9: sc1896 Photograph of a close-up of the lower Canyon Wall.
Item 10: sc1897 Photograph showing a field of glacial boulders that were carried along with the flood of water and sand that
was deposited at the bottom of the old forest floor. There is a young women sitting on one of the boulders.
Item 11: sc1898 Photograph shows a water channel after running dry, with a group of people in it to show the size of the channel
walls. Seven feet of wall and the bottom is still six or seven feet above the level of the old forest floor.
Item 12: sc1899 Photograph showing a glacial stream running dry, with mostly liquid mud at the bottom. There is a group of
people standing at the top of the stream.
Item 13: sc1900 Photograph showing a young woman in a channel or crevasse caused by the flooding. A group of people are shown
above the channel.
Item 14: sc1901 Photograph of a dry channel or crevasse caused by the flooding and showing the impact of the coating of five
to ten feet of glacial sand.
Item 15: sc1902 Photograph showing a young woman in a channel or crevasse caused by the flooding. The woman is examining the
channels dark soil which has a coating of sand and glacial boulders.
Item 16: sc1903 Photograph showing the flow as thirteen feet deep. It shows a young women pointing out the standard telegraph
wires, which were erected 18 feet above the forest floor, and now are only five feet above the glacial deposit.
Item 17: sc1904 Photograph showing Shasta Alpine Lodge, built by the Sierra Club in 1921 at the Horse Camp on the West slope
of the mountain situated at the timber line 8,000 ft. evaluation. And sc1905 Photograph showing a young man in a doorway of
the Shasta Alpine Lodge
Item 18: Photograph of Mud Creek Glacier
