My professional photographer Grandpa and I went out for a photography trip up at Mount Rainer here in Washington. As a history lover I always have my eyes set out to learn the local history around me and sure enough I came across something pretty interesting. But before I tell you about that…
Okay So what cool thing did I come across?
This little ol' cabin. Nothing all too special about it. But dig deeper and we find it actually has an interesting story, not exactly the cabin itself, it's just an old cabin from the mid 1880s but the story behind the family that owned this cabin.
You see, That cabin was built by the Longmire Family. In 1853 big daddy Longmire led a wagon train on the Nachez trail across the cascades and then settled on the Yelm Prairie which is essentially Olympia, Washington. I'm sure I'll get some hate for saying that but that's the general area. Well one day Big Daddy Longmire hiked up Mt. Rainer and noticed some hot springs, he was friendly with the Indians and they told him they were healing waters. So around 1883 he claimed a good portion of land and built the Longmire hotel and Health spa also known simply as Longmire Springs.
This hotel was not fancy in any way shape or form, it started out with 5 rooms and slowly grew to 12. But really in todays terms we would consider the place a glamping ground. Well, big daddy Longmire became the Mount Rainer marketing man. essentially putting Mt. Rainer on the map in terms of a tourist destination. Then he died.
Longmires son, lets call him baby longmire took over but didn't seem to care too much about the place and let it just deteriorate. In 1899 Mt. Rainer became a national park. which was still a new idea. then a few years later a new hotel came in with 60 rooms competing with the Longmire hotel. The Longmire’s seemed to completely give up at that point and they decided to change into a homestead, they claimed some more land, built some more shacks around and then got themselves some livestock. The National park service said no to that, denied their homestead application and even burned down a shack that was built on the newly claimed land to show them that times have changed.
After awhile The Longmire family fixed up the property a bit and leased it to new ownership. In 1916 The Rainer National Park Company showed up and wanted to build a new hotel called the paradise inn which is what stands today.
Eventually they bought out the longmire’s and burned the whole thing to the ground. Well not the whole thing That cabin was allowed to stay for whatever reason and now is designated as a national historic landmark
Ep. 27 The Longmire Cabin Story