Custom Maps

Owned by Monty VanderBilt
Last updated: Nov 15, 2018
5 min read

These maps have been created over the years to capture local knowledge that was not available in government or commercial maps. Click on a map for a high resolution image.

1925 Map of Mountaineers Summer Outing

Map included in the materials for the 1925 Summer Outing from Snoqualmie Pass to Mount Stuart.

1931 Snoqualmie Pass Map

Drawn from USFS and USGS maps by H. V. Strandberg & H. R. Morgan, November 1931

Some notable features on this map:

  1. Alaska Lake was called Lake Gingerless
  2. Lots of trail routes in Commonwealth Basin up to Lundin, Red and Kendall
  3. The west tunnel entrance at Rockdale shows several structures
  4. Mountaineers Snoqualmie Lodge by Lodge Lake, with trail straight up from the highway
  5. Trail directly up ridge west of Rocky Run (since destroyed by logging)
  6. Rampart Lakes not noted
  7. "The Dome" by Snoqualmie Mountain is named
  8. Bryant Peak is very close to Chair. Current Bryant Peak is where Hemlock Peak is on this map
  9. Snow Lake trail goes by Source Lake
  10. Trail down the Pratt Valley is west of the river, not along the future RR grade east of the river.
  11. The Tooth is accessed from the Denny Creek side
  12. Wright Mountain is attached to a subpeak of Roosevelt, not to the high point north of Gem Lake where it is now.

1933 Rainier Boy Scout Map

Troop 65 Boy Scout trips to Rainier by C. E. Schurman

In The Challenge of Rainier, Dee Molenaar says

Clark Schurman served as chief guide from 1939 through 1942. A widower most of his life, Schurman
devoted his abundant energy and talent to Scout activities and to developing mountaineering
techniques and a philosophy oriented to safety

1949 Mountaineers Summer Outing map

The 1949 summer outing began with a camp at the Trinity Mine in the upper Chiwawa River valley. From there camps were made at Buck Creek Pass, Image Lake, and Lyman Lake. At that time there was no trail over Spider Gap so the group split with the "backtrackers" heading back over Buck Creek Pass with the pack animals and the "backpackers" continuing on to Spider Meadows and a camp at Leroy Creek.

Climbing activities included Glacier Peak, a spectacular rock climb of Sitting Bull, and a beautiful day on Chiwawa Mountain.

A humorous "Report to the Sock Holders" by Ellen Wash can be found in the 1949 Mountaineers Annual.

1952 Snoqualmie Pass Map

Snoqualmie Pass Region showing trails & routes for "valley pounder" & "peak bagger" by H. R. Morgan, July 1952

Some notable features on this map:

  1. New location of the Mountaineers lodge
  2. Sunset Highway shown, predating I-90
  3. The railroad line and stations are still shown
  4. LeanTo at Camp Lookout on the Pratt Lake trail
  5. No logging roads shown in the South Fork valley or around Mt Margaret
  6. A trail goes past Kaleetan Lake and over the ridge to near Lake Caroline
  7. Rock Creek and Goat Creek trails are shown with equal prominence
  8. Lots of trails are shown in the Gold Creek valley most of which are now overgrown
  9. Pratt Valley trail connects to the lake, now badly overgrown
  10. Mineral Mountain was still in transition to being called it's current name of Three Queens
  11. Snow Lake trail route still goes by Source Lake

Pete Steele maps

Born in Tacoma in 1922, Pete Steele moved with his family to Seattle as an infant. He attended school there and graduated from the University of Washington. During World War II he was a photographer in the Air Force in both the European and Pacific arenas. He returned to Seattle where he resided until coming to Ardenvoir in 1961 where he was a watchman at the mill. Pete was troubled by the pace of logging in the high country in the 1950s and 60s. He hiked extensively and produced two maps under the label "Washington Mountain Maps" which show a remarkable knowledge of the area at the time. An index map makes it clear that he had ambitions to produce many more such maps, but these are the only two that he completed and are reproduced here with permission from his sister. Pete died at age 54 in 1976.

1959 Washington Mountain Maps by Pete Steele, Big Snow Quad.


1960 Washington Mountain Maps by Pete Steele, Mt Daniel Quad.

Robert Kinzebach Pic-Tour Guide maps

Robert Kinzebach became hooked on back country hiking during high school in Wenatchee. This lifelong interest was enhanced by the formation of a map business in the 1970s that continued for over 20 years. During this period high quality USGS topo maps were updated infrequently and were relatively expensive. Pic-Tour marketing was primarily by word of mouth, supplemented by advertisements in Pack & Paddle and Signpost magazines, and in the Wenatchee World newspaper. The Mountaineers map collection includes approximately 50 Pic-Tour maps, most of which are those published in the 1980s and 1990s.

The Mountaineer's Pic-Tour Guide maps were donated to the archive in 2017 by Carl Mealy representing the Boy Scouts. Carl wrote

Robert Kinzebach was an avid hiker and photographer in the Pacific Northwest. He documented his hikes in detail. He authored and published hiking information as Pic-Tour guides and maps in the 1970's and 80's. In total, he produced over 50 guides and maps. He passed away in 1996.

His collection was donated to scouts. For some maps and guides there were many copies, for others few to none. Many copies of the guides and maps were distributed. After several years. the map copies that remained were put into storage. We recently rediscovered the collection. Copies still exist for about two-thirds of what was originally published.

The Kinzebach items have been grouped into 6 categories. The original maps did not have a consistent naming or numbering scheme so this provides a way to organize them by geography.