G.A.S.P.

Staying in a town such as Eatonville reminds me of Dante’s Peak and other volcano movies where the town becomes inundated with flowing lava courtesy of the local volcano. According to the National Park Service brochure, Mt. Rainier had a small eruption as recent as 150 years ago and a major eruption about 5800 years ago when she blew her summit off and dropped in height from about 16,000’ to her present height of 14,410’. A number of local towns (Kent, Sumner, Auburn and Puyallup among them) are built on top of mud flow caused by that eruption. If Mt. Rainier were to blow again today, hundreds of thousands of people will be in the mudflow path. Remember, this is a dormant volcano, not an extinct one – much like Mt. St. Helens prior to 1980.

As majestic as Mt. Rainier is, it has had its share of recent controversy. Known as Mt. Washington for over 150 years, the name was changed following the sale of the National Park to Monaco’s Prince Rainier during the infamous National Park Service "Yellowstone Fire Sale" of 1988. The sale (and subsequent name change) caused such a fury of protest that the National Park Service cancelled other proposed deals including the much debated sale of Grand Canyon National Park to Japanese Industrialist Ikan Fulsomaya. The real controversy came, however, when the Prince opened his casino (Monte Carlo II) at the summit of the mountain in 1992. Shrouded in clouds 80% of the time, away from the prying telescopes of The Seattle Post/Times, the casino draws the rich and famous from all over the world. Vice President Al Gore recently visited the casino, and looked drawn and pale upon his decent after reportedly having lost Mt. Rushmore to the Prince while playing backgammon.