Tacoma Silent Trees: Mountaineer Tree Breaking Silence
“I was 217 years old when British Captain George Vancouver sailed below me,” says the majestic Douglas fir, also known as the Mountaineer Tree, from the Point Defiance Park bluff between the Dalco Passage Viewpoint and Vashon Viewpoint. At 218 feet tall and nearly 7.5 feet (in diameter), the Douglas fir dwarfs its surroundings in Point Defiance Park. The 450-year-old tree towers on the edge of a centuries-old forest of other big firs, hemlocks, and ancient cedars, one of just a few such sea-level stands still alive along the shore of Puget Sound. The Mountaineer Tree is so named because the Tacoma chapter of The Mountaineers was the first to formally recognize this as a unique tree in 1949. The Douglas fir on Five Mile Drive is about as old as William Shakespeare.
Peaks & Pints first partnered with Tacoma Tree Foundation, or TTF, in the fall of 2019, pairing our then-house beer, Kulshan Brewing Tree-dimensional IPA, with TFF-selected trees around Tacoma. For 2024-25, we brewed our eighth house IPA at Loowit Brewing in downtown Vancouver. Since the brewery is named after Mount St. Helens and its eruption silenced many trees, we named the beer Silent Trees IPA and have partnered with the Tacoma Tree Foundation, once again, to tell the stories of their favorite trees. The TFF sent us to Point Defiance Park to chat with the Mountaineer Tree.
Mountaineer Tree breaks silence from Point Defiance Park
“George was a considerable name-dropper. Nearly all the English names of landmarks, islands, bays, capes, and points in Puget Sound were given to them by him on this voyage,” says the Mountaineer Tree.
In 1792, Great Britain became the first European nation to explore Puget Sound when an expedition under the command of Capt. Vancouver entered from the Strait of Juan de Fuca and spent two months exploring the inland waters. Vancouver’s work was mostly in small craft propelled by sail and oar; maneuvering larger sail-powered vessels in uncharted waters was generally impractical and dangerous.
“I could hear their chatter in their small boats,” continues the Mountaineer Tree. “Mount Rainier was named for an admiral in the British Navy; Mount Baker for one of his officers. Hood’s Canal was named after the great second-in-command Admiral George Rodney, who George served under in the West Indies. Mount St. Helens, Vashon Island, Admiralty Inlet, Port Townsend, Hood Canal, Whidbey Island, and Deception Pass are just a few of the more than 100 names he assigned. Peter Puget kept nagging George to use his name, so Puget Sound became a thing.”
Douglas Fir | sčəbidac – Pseudotsuga menziesii
“Although some of us may only think of Douglas firs when the Christmas season approaches, they are with us year-round and help make Washington the evergreen state,” says Julia Gonzalez-Wolf, Tacoma Tree Foundation Communications coordinator. “This native conifer thrives in high elevations with moderate summers. In the right conditions, they can grow 300 feet tall and are one of the tallest in the pine family. It can be hard to tell their species apart from all the evergreens in our city. But all you must do is look down. Many times, Douglas firs are so tall you can’t even see their needles. So, the easiest way to identify them is by the cones that have fallen to the ground. They are small, about three to four inches long, and resemble mouse tails underneath the scales. As the Coast Salish story goes, there was a large fire in the forests long ago. Many animals were running around frantically, trying to escape the flames. The mice ran up the trunks of the trees to the canopy and hid in the cones of Douglas firs to escape the fire. To this day, if you examine a Douglas fir cone, you can see the tails of the mice sticking out between the scales.”
Doug-firs drop their cones every year, and their needles have a lifespan of eight years. The trunk develops deep crevasses as the tree matures. It is the tree that moves the most water out of any of our local native trees, which makes them a key species in our ecosystems.
Check out this heritage Douglas fir on Point Defiance Park’s Five Mile Drive, and then head to the Proctor District for a pint or Campfire Crowler of Loowit Silent Trees IPA (6.6%) at Peaks & Pints. Loowit Brewing in Vancouver, Washington, collaborated with the Tacoma craft beer lodge on their house beer. Paying homage to trees and outdoor enthusiasts who join Peaks daily in Tacoma’s Proctor District, Silent Trees IPA is the perfect beer to toast passing trees on powder, currents, or trails and reveal the sprains. Silent Trees IPA continues Peaks & Pints’ love affair with old-school piney IPAs, this time brewed with Simcoe, Columbus, and Chinook for all the pine and citrus. Yes, Vancouver, Washington, is named after Capt. Vancouver, too.
“There are countless Douglas firs in Point Defiance Park and around Tacoma,” adds Gonzalez-Wolf. “Next time you spot a tall evergreen tree surrounded by fir cones, look for the little mice tails of the Douglas fir.”
LINK: Loowit Silent Trees IPA inspires Tacoma Tree stories
LINK: Tacoma Silent Trees: 1910 Bigleaf Maple in North Tacoma
LINK: Tacoma Silent Trees: Breaking Silence near the Rhododendron Garden
LINK: Tacoma Silent Trees: Breaking Silence at Swan Creek Park
LINK: Tacoma Silent Trees: Breaking Silence Near People’s Park
LINK: Tacoma Silent Trees: Breaking Silence at Oak Tree Park
LINK: Kulshan brews Peaks and Pints Tree-dimensional IPA
