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26-1154: Mount Horrible is a summit of the Blue Mountains in Asotin County, Washington , in the United States . With an elevation of 5,804 feet (1,769 m), Mount Horrible is the 906th highest summit in the state of Washington. Along with neighboring Mount Misery, it was named by 19th century pioneers for the difficult conditions they experienced on the Grouse Flat . 46°05′59″N 117°26′54″W  /  46.09972°N 117.44833°W  / 46.09972; -117.44833 Blue Mountains (Pacific Northwest) The Blue Mountains cover ten counties across two states; they are Union , Umatilla , Grant , Baker , Wallowa and Harney counties in Oregon, and Walla Walla , Columbia , Garfield and Asotin counties in Washington. The Blue Mountains were named after

52-610: Is located along the south-eastern flank of the range. U.S. Route 26 crosses the southern portion of the range, traversing the Blue Mountain Summit and reaching an elevation of 5,098 feet (1,554 m). It is also crossed by the Union Pacific Railroad 's mainline between Portland, Oregon, and Pocatello, Idaho, which crests the summit at Kamela, Oregon . The summit lies on Union Pacific's La Grande Subdivision, which runs between La Grande and Hinkle ,

78-726: The Columbia . The southernmost portion of the Blue Mountains is drained by the Silvies River , in the endorheic Harney Basin . Indigenous peoples of the Great Basin The Indigenous peoples of the Great Basin are Native Americans of the northern Great Basin , Snake River Plain , and upper Colorado River basin. The "Great Basin" is a cultural classification of indigenous peoples of

104-706: The Ghost Dance in a ceremony to commune with departed loved ones and bring renewal of buffalo herds and precontact lifeways. The Ute Bear Dance emerged on the Great Basin. The Sun Dance and Peyote religion flourished in the Great Basin, as well. In 1930, the Ely Shoshone Reservation was established, followed by the Duckwater Indian Reservation in 1940. Conditions for the Native American population of

130-891: The North Fork John Day Wilderness , the Strawberry Mountain Wilderness , and the Monument Rock Wilderness , all of which are in Oregon. The Wenaha–Tucannon Wilderness sits astride the Oregon–Washington border. The range is drained by several rivers, including the Grande Ronde and Tucannon , tributaries of the Snake, as well as the forks of the John Day , Umatilla and Walla Walla rivers, tributaries of

156-921: The Ochoco Mountains and Maury Mountains in the west near Prineville, Oregon , through the Greenhorn Mountains , the Aldrich Mountains , and the Strawberry Range , to the Elkhorn Mountains . The tallest peaks are Rock Creek Butte at 9,106 feet (2,776 m) in the Elkhorn Mountains, and Strawberry Mountain at 9,042 feet (2,756 m) in the Strawberry Range. The ranges of the Blue Mountains were uplifted by folding upward into

182-766: The Oregon Trail and were often the last mountain range American pioneers had to cross before either reaching southeast Washington near Walla Walla or passing down the Columbia River Gorge to the end of the Oregon Trail in the Willamette Valley near Oregon City . The range is currently traversed by Interstate 84 , which crosses the crest of the range at a 4,193-foot (1,278 m) summit, from south-southeast to north-northwest between La Grande and Pendleton. The community of Baker City

208-704: The "Blue Mountain Anticline" by tectonic rotation that began about 14 million years ago. More limited faulting and extension in places that include Baker valley and the Grande Ronde valley also contributed to today's topography. The Wallowa Mountains are considered to be part of the Blues by many geologists because their geology includes the same accreted terranes as the Elkhorns, Greenhorns, and Strawberries, although their mechanism of uplift differs somewhat. Similarly,

234-621: The 1975 passage of the Indian Self-determination and Education Assistance Act , has enabled Great Basin tribes to develop economic opportunities for their members. Different ethnic groups of Great Basin tribes share certain common cultural elements that distinguish them from surrounding groups. All but the Washoe traditionally speak Numic languages , and tribal groups, who historically lived peacefully and often shared common territories, have intermingled considerably. Prior to

260-463: The 20th century, Great Basin peoples were predominantly hunters and gatherers . "Desert Archaic" or more simply "The Desert Culture" refers to the culture of the Great Basin tribes. This culture is characterized by the need for mobility to take advantage of seasonally available food supplies. The use of pottery was rare due to its weight, but intricate baskets were woven for containing water, cooking food, winnowing grass seeds and storage—including

286-587: The Americas and a cultural region located between the Rocky Mountains and the Sierra Nevada , in what is now Nevada , and parts of Oregon , California , Idaho , Wyoming , and Utah . The Great Basin region at the time of European contact was ~400,000 sq mi (1,000,000 km ). There is very little precipitation in the Great Basin area which affects the lifestyles and cultures of

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312-483: The Blue Mountains were inhabited by several different bands of the Northern Paiute , a Great Basin culture. Native American tribes originally migrated to the Blue Mountains for hunting and salmon runs. The Natives used to purposefully burn small parts of the forest in order to create pastures to attract game for hunting. In the mid-1800s, the Blue Mountains were a formidable obstacle to settlers traveling on

338-534: The Colorado just south of present day Moab, Utah . Rivera's diaries greatly influenced the Domínguez–Escalante expedition , which set off 11 years later in 1776 and passed far from present day Delta, Utah . Great Basin settlement was relatively free of non-Native settlers until the first Mormon settlers arrived in 1847. Within ten years, the first Indian reservation was established, in order to assimilate

364-525: The Great Basin were erratic throughout the 20th century. Economic improvement emerged as a result of President Franklin Roosevelt 's Indian New Deal in the 1930s, while activism and legal victories in the 1970s have improved conditions significantly. Nevertheless, the communities continue to struggle against chronic poverty and all of the resulting problems: unemployment ; substance abuse ; and high suicide rates. Today self-determination , beginning with

390-869: The United States Forest Service and the Bureau of Land Management public agencies, but also by private land owners and the Confederated Tribes of the Umatilla Indian Reservation. Much of the range is included in the Malheur National Forest , Umatilla National Forest , and Wallowa–Whitman National Forest . Several wilderness areas encompass remote parts of the range, including the North Fork Umatilla Wilderness ,

416-601: The color of the mountains when seen from a distance and the blue hue imparted by the smoke of forest and range fires set by Indigenous people as management tools in the fall. The Blue Mountains are unique as the home of the world's largest living organism, a subterranean colonial mycelial mat of the fungus Armillaria ostoyae . The Blues are uplift mountains and contain some of the oldest rocks in Oregon. Rocks as old as 400 million years protrude through surrounding Columbia River Basalt flows and related volcanics of 16.7 million to about 6 million years ago. Geologically ,

442-738: The geology of Hells Canyon and the Seven Devils Mountains is also composed of accreted terranes of a similar nature. The river valleys and lower levels of the range were occupied by indigenous peoples for thousands of years. Historic tribes of the region included the Walla Walla , Cayuse people and Umatilla , now acting together as the Confederated Tribes of the Umatilla Indian Reservation , located mostly in Umatilla County, Oregon. The southern portion of

468-800: The inhabitants. The oldest known petroglyphs in North America are in the Great Basin. Near the banks of Winnemucca Lake in Nevada, this rock art dates between 10,500 and 14,800 years ago. Archaeologists called the local period 9,000 BCE to 400 CE the Great Basin Desert Archaic Period. This was followed by the time of the Fremont culture , who were hunter-gatherers and agriculturalists . Numic language -speakers, ancestors of today's Western Shoshone and both Northern Paiute people and Southern Paiute people entered

494-565: The latter of which is the site of a major UP yard. Birds of the area include bald eagle , Lewis's woodpecker , Williamson's sapsucker , red-breasted nuthatch , golden-crowned kinglet and many migratory species, with the riverbanks important habitat for this birdlife. Mammals that move through the mountain grasslands include Rocky Mountain elk , Bighorn sheep and Mule deer . Native fish include Chinook Salmon, Steelhead, Redband Trout, Bull Trout, and Pacific Lamprey. The Blue Mountains in Washington are home to one of 10 identified elk herds in

520-415: The mid 1990s the area then became known for its mature males and trophy hunting. In 2018, Washington State proposed an updated elk management plan intended to improve the health of elk populations and habitats, reduce human conflict and agricultural damage, and managing elk populations for recreational, educational, scientific, and ceremonial purposes. The lands in the Blue Mountains are managed not only by

546-508: The native population. The Goshute Reservation was created in 1863. The attempted acculturation process included sending children to Indian schools and limiting the landbases and resources of the reservations. Because their contact with European-Americans and African-Americans occurred comparatively late, Great Basin tribes maintain their religion and culture and were leading proponents of 19th century cultural and religious renewals. Two Paiute prophets , Wodziwob and Wovoka , introduced

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572-529: The oldest rocks of the Blue Mountains (400+ to about 150 million years in age) were created as island arcs in the Pacific Ocean and accreted onto the North American plate . Today, this suture zone runs through Western Idaho (Riggins and McCall) Within these terranes are igneous intrusions , some of which have intruded after accretion. The Blue Mountains include several mountain ranges, from

598-643: The region around the 14th century CE. The first Europeans to document their encounters with Native groups in the Great Basin was Juan María Antonio de Rivera's expedition in 1765. Rivera led two expeditions from Santa Fe that year, the first departing sometime in June. Rivera's party camped with Paiutes on the Dolores River in July, and returned to Santa Fe for supplies. His second expedition departed Santa Fe in late September and went considerably farther, crossing

624-461: The same group of families. In the summer, the largest group was usually the nuclear family due to the low density of food supplies. In the early historical period the Great Basin tribes were actively expanding to the north and east, where they developed a horse -riding bison -hunting culture. These people, including the Bannock and Eastern Shoshone share traits with Plains Indians . Today,

650-571: The state, with a population of approximately 4,500 Rocky Mountain elk as of 2018 across the region. In 1989, in response to a decline in the elk population and a heavy female-biased population, the Washington Fish & Wildlife Department regulated elk hunting in the Washington Blue Mountains with a "spike-only" general hunting season, permitting hunting of only male elk with at least one visible non-branched antler. By

676-503: The storage of pine nuts, a Paiute-Shoshone staple. Heavy items such as metates would be cached rather than carried from foraging area to foraging area. Agriculture was not practiced within the Great Basin itself, although it was practiced in adjacent areas (modern agriculture in the Great Basin requires either large mountain reservoirs or deep artesian wells). Likewise, the Great Basin tribes had no permanent settlements, although winter villages might be revisited winter after winter by

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