Mount Rainier, Head in the Clouds

Micah Schwaberow

Micah used 7 blocks and 18 and 19 different steps to create "Mount Rainier, Head in the Clouds". The scene is from the East of the Cascades in Washington State. The full color image is illustrated on page 84 of the publication "Festival of Light: the Color Woodblock Prints of Micha Schwaberow, published by Piper Jaramillo, Mission Gallery Art, Inc. June, 2024. Micah is quoted on page 85: "I am a lover of Clouds, They are beautiful and powerful, you can feel the movement in them, forces of nature transforming the sky.

Mount Rainier National Park is a 369-square-mile state reserve southeast of Seattle in the state of Washington. The glacier-capped, 14,410-foot Mount Rainier is an active volcano and is the most glaciated peak in the contiguous U.S.A. From glaciers and volcanic peaks to river valleys and old growth forest, Mount Rainier creates a wide diversity of environments. For millennia, the ancestors of modern tribes came to the mountain seasonally to hunt and gather resources. Each of the tribes associated with the mountains have their own names for this peak: Tahoma, Takhoma, Tacoma, Ta-co-bet, Taqo ma, Tkobed, Tago bid, Tkomen, Nutselip, and Pshwawanoapami-tahoma. Archaeological evidence traces human use of the area back 9,000 years.

In 1893, the Pacific Forest Preserve was formed covering thirty-five square miles with Mount Rainier’s summit on the western edge. The area was renamed the Mount Rainier Forest Reserve in 1897 and the boundaries were greatly enlarged to the west and the south. Many groups understood the benefit of protecting Mount Rainier as a National Park and scientists, mountaineers, conservation groups, local businesses, and large railroad companies began a lobbying campaign in 1893. The bill passed in 1899 and Mount Rainier became the nation’s fifth national park.

Weather patterns at Mount Rainier are strongly influenced by the Pacific Ocean, elevation, and latitude. Clouds often cling to the peak as illustrated in Micah Schwaberow’s color woodcut Mount Rainier, Head in the Clouds.