Mowich Lake Entrance Road: Cultural Landscape Inventory, Mount Rainier National Park, National Park Service

Hankinson, Mike; Owens, Erica

Mowich Lake Entrance Road is a 6‑mile, unpaved access route to Mowich Lake in the northwestern corner of Mount Rainier National Park. Engineered and constructed between 1929 and 1934, the road was part of the first master plan for the national park. An extension of State Route 165 into the park, the road continues from the western park boundary to Mowich Lake. Along its route, the road passes Paul Peak Entrance Station and terminates at the Mowich Lake Campground. Original features from the road’s period of significance (1929‑1934) include one stone retaining wall/guardwall and thirty‑nine rustic culverts with mortared stone headwalls. The Mowich Lake Entrance Road is nationally significant for its association with the events of the American Park Movement, early National Park Service (NPS) master planning, and for its design and construction. In association with the events of the American Park Movement and early NPS master planning, the Mowich Lake road is significant as an integral part of the master plan of the park, as first developed in the 1920s. Mount Rainier National Park remains the most complete example of early master planning. Other national parks were also extensively developed in the 1920s and 30s, but Mount Rainier was the first park to develop a master plan, and the plan was the most fully implemented. Additionally, the park has retained most of the facilities built during the master planning period. Consequently, Mount Rainier National Park is the most outstanding example of a national park master planned before World War II. The landscape architecture of Mount Rainier’s early master plan was recognized by a National Historic Landmark District designation in 1997, which included Mowich Lake Entrance Road. In association with significant design and construction, the Mowich Lake Road is an outstanding example of early NPS landscape design, embodying the complimentary styles of rustic architecture and naturalistic landscape architecture. These landscape styles, influential in the planning and design of the early 1900s, aimed to harmonize artifice and nature by minimizing the natural impact of constructed elements and accentuating the picturesque qualities of nature. This design‑era coincides with the most significant period of development within NPS history, a time when the NPS created what is now recognized as the hallmark style for developments within natural areas, in order to preserve their scenic beauty. Forms of the rustic and naturalistic styles were intended to be subordinate to the natural environment, irregular like naturally occurring features, and appearing hand‑crafted or primitive, as if created without the use of technology available at the time. Indigenous rock, lumber, and native plants were basic materials used for these styles to fully integrate the built features within the surrounding landscape. The Mowich Lake road was designed and built in a partnership between the NPS landscape architects and the Bureau of Public Roads between 1928 and 1935. Most of the original features designed and built still exist making the road an excellent example of the naturalistic landscape architecture methods practiced by the NPS during that time period. Originally, the road was to be integrated into the Western Highway, a segment of a larger park highway system circumnavigating Mount Rainier. Like the other early park roads, it was designed as a scenic drive to capture views and to harmonize with the surrounding landscape by fitting native contours and balancing cut and fills where possible. Additionally, the road was built with a number of stone features that disguised and integrated road elements. The road features include culverts with stone headwalls and stone retaining walls that reflect the naturalistic style.

Mowich Lake Entrance Road: Cultural Landscape Inventory, Mount Rainier National Park, National Park Service

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