Charles and Marion Hessey - North Cascades National Park? Affirmatives

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This 16mm film is in color, with sound, with a running time around 16 minutes. It was made around 1959 in the high country between the head of Downey Creek (South Cascade Glacier) and White Rock Lakes. This country was included in the Glacier Peak Wilderness Area in 1960.

As the film opens, a bear, a grouse, a goat, a marmot, some ducks, and a deer cast their vote for a national park in the North Cascades. The Hesseys are joined by friends Bob and Betsy Swenson in Downey Creek, where they ford the river and climb to a camp at the pass leading to the South Cascade Glacier. After a few days, the group moves camp across the glacier to White Rock Lakes. At both locations, there are scenes of high country rambling and the surrounding mountains. On their return home, they stop at the glacier research station above the South Cascade Glacier. There are views of the glacier from its head to its toe at South Cascade Lake. The film ends with a notice from the North Cascades Conservation Council encouraging viewers to join the organization and support creation of a park. The film is badly faded in places, suggesting that it was screened many times during the struggle to create the Glacier Peak Wilderness Area and North Cascades National Park.

(Digital transfer of this film was made possible by a grant from The Mountaineers Foundation. Film notes and video clip by Lowell Skoog.)