Mount Baker Volcano Research Center subscription website

“Mount Baker- 100 years of Change” by John Scurlock. Click to enlarge.

MBVRC is taking orders for a 20″ x 30″  high quality photographic print commemorating a 1912 photo of the entire south side of Mount Baker. The photo was taken from the summit of Loomis Mountain, 7 miles south of Baker, by Emil D. Welsh of Bellingham. Below the 1912 photo is the exact same view taken by John Scurlock 100 years later from the same spot, and rendered in sepia (read the story of that effort here). Focus on both photos is excellent, and many details and changes can be picked out. Glacial recession is dramatic: the Easton has clearly receded 1.25 miles, and a glacier tongue in the headwaters of Sulphur Creek has disappeared entirely. The popular climbers’ camp at Sandy Camp is under glacial ice. Welsh was an advertising photographer for Diehl Ford, a major sponsor of the famous Mount Baker marathons. It was a hard multiday cross-country journey to the summit of Loomis Mountain in 1912. Perhaps Welsh intended his photo to be used as publicity for the marathon.  Or maybe he just did it for fun, like we did.

Detail from the 1912 Welsh photo- the debris-covered terminus of Easton Glacier, a full 1.25 miles below the 2012 terminus. Click to enlarge.
Click to enlarge

The original photo hangs in the second floor of the US Forest Service offices in Sedro Woolley, out of the public eye.

The 20- x 30-  inch poster is a high quality print. It may be ordered in two styles:

Backed with stiff 3 mm styrene: $65.

Rolled paper poster: $40.

If we need to ship to you, MBVRC will add the shipping fee [around $7.50 per poster].

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To order: email MBVRC and state your preference for ‘backed’ or ‘rolled’. Provide a mailing address. We will contact you with the total charge. Alternatively, if you are in the Bellingham area, we can try to arrange pick- up by you.

Proceeds from sales go to the MBVRC research grant fund. To learn about our fundraiser t-shirts, go here. For calendars, go here.

In 1912, Sandy Camp, at the head of Railroad Grade moraine, is covered in a lobe of the Easton Glacier. The moraine left by this lobe is plainly visible today just below the camp. Click to enlarge.