Tahoma (Mt. Rainier) is the most prominent peak in North America outside of Denali. The legendary naturalist John Muir declared:
"Of all the fire-mountains which, like beacons, once blazed along the Pacific coast, Mount Rainier is the noblest."John Muir
Every year Mt. Rainier National Park welcomes 2.5 million visitors and nearly 1 million automobiles. But 100 years ago visitors could take a train from the cities of Seattle and Tacoma right to the base of the mountain. This was no small operation either; in 1913 the Tacoma Eastern Railroad carried 120,000 passengers. In fact this railroad was inextricably linked with the development of the entire region. It's said the railroad follows the old paths of the Nisqually people who first inhabited the western flanks of the Mountain. Every community on the highway that now leads to the Mountain was once a rail stop.
Although the age of the automobile has largely supplanted train travel, rail never died. A steam engine much like those that once hauled timber out of the deep forests around the mountain is still operated as a tourist excursion on a limited loop of track by the Western Forests Industry Museum, a local non-profit.
Tahoma Express is a project that supposes that sometimes the best ideas are not necessarily the newest. Automobiles have had their time, but perhaps the way we did things before was better for both people and the land.
Tahoma Express envisions a future where the train is not just a ride on the way to the Mountain but an experience in and of itself. A hearkening back to the golden age of rail travel. The images featured here are based directly on real trains that ran along the Milwaukee Road from Chicago to Seattle.
Above all, the Tahoma Express is a project about stories. A revival of a railroad that remembers all that came before, and could continue telling new tales long into the future.
All Aboard!
