The beauty and grandeur of "Tacoma" was noted frequently by Winthrop on the way up the Puyallup River and across to the White River, where he met some of McClellan's men engaged in the survey of the road. On August 27 he climbed an eminence which he called "La Tete." From it he obtained a marvelous view of the mountain. Williams says, "As he looked southwest from the edge of Naches Pass he saw directly facing him twenty miles away the great ice-stream that has since, and for many years now, been named by local usage 'Winthrop Glacier.'

On the northeast side of the mountain, descending from the same high névés as the Emmons Glacier, is the Winthrop Glacier. Not until halfway down, at an elevation of about 10,000 feet, does it detach itself as a separate ice stream. The division takes place at the apex of that great triangular interspace so aptly named "the Wedge." Upon its sharp cliff edge, Steamboat Prow, the descending névés part, it has been said, like swift-flowing waters upon the dividing bow of a ship at anchor.

Of greatest interest on the Winthrop Glacier are the ice-cascades and domes. Evidently the glacier's bed is a very uneven one, giving rise to falls and pools, such as one observes in a turbulent trout stream. The domes of the Winthrop Glacier measure 50 to 60 feet in height. Another feature of interest sometimes met with on the Winthrop Glacier, and for that matter also on the other ice streams of Mount Rainier, are the "glacier tables." These consist of slabs of rock mounted each on a pedestal of snow and producing the effect of huge toadstools.

Credits and Sources:

“Early American Exploration of Puget Sound and the Mount Rainier Region: Mount Rainier: Its Human History Associations.” National Park Service. Last Modified October 20, 2001. http://www.nps.gov/parkhistory/online_books/berkeley/rensch2/rensch2h.htm (Retrieved June 16, 2015).

"Winthrop Glacier.” Mount Rainier: Mount Rainier and Its Glaciers. National Park Service. Last Modified May 7, 2007. http://www.nps.gov/parkhistory/online_books/mora/matthes/sec5.htm (Retrieved June 18, 2015).