The Chuckanut Mountains (from "Chuckanut", an Indian word meaning "long beach far from a narrow entrance"), or Chuckanuts, are located on the northern Washington state coast of the Salish Sea, just south of Bellingham, Washington. Being a part of the

Cascade Range The Cascade Range or Cascades is a major mountain range of western North America, extending from southern British Columbia through Washington and Oregon to Northern California. It includes both non-volcanic mountains, such as the North Cascades, ...

, they are the only place where the Cascades come west down to meet the sea. The Chuckanuts are considered to be a part of the Puget Lowland Forest Ecoregion. The range contains

Larrabee State Park Larrabee State Park is a public recreation area located on Samish Bay on the western side of Chuckanut Mountain, south of the city of Bellingham, Washington. It was created in 1915 as Washington's first state park. The park covers and feat ...

, the first State Park to be designated in Washington (1923). Its mountains include: *Anderson Mountain *

Blanchard Mountain Blanchard is a French family name. It is also used as a given name. It derives from the Old French word ''blanchart'' which meant "whitish, bordering upon white". It is also an obsolete term for a white horse. Geographical distribution As of 2014, ...

* Chuckanut Mountain (including North Chuckanut Mountain, South Chuckanut Mountain, and Chuckanut Ridge) * Galbraith Mountain (also known as North Lookout Mountain) *

King Mountain King is the title given to a male monarch in a variety of contexts. The female equivalent is queen, which title is also given to the consort of a king. *In the context of prehistory, antiquity and contemporary indigenous peoples, the tit ...

* Lookout Mountain * Sehome Hill *

Squalicum Mountain Squalicum High School is a public school in Bellingham, Washington, United States, and is part of the Bellingham School District. The school serves the northeast population of Bellingham, including the area surrounding Lake Whatcom. Squalic ...

Stewart Mountain Stewart may refer to: People *Stewart (name), Scottish surname and given name *Clan Stewart, a Scottish clan *Clan Stewart of Appin, a Scottish clan Places Canada *Stewart, British Columbia *Stewart Township, Nipissing District, Ontario (histor ...

Toad Mountain Toad is a common name for certain frogs, especially of the family Bufonidae, that are characterized by dry, leathery skin, short legs, and large bumps covering the parotoid glands. A distinction between frogs and toads is not made in scientif ...

Geology

The Chuckanut Mountains were formed by the folding of the

Chuckanut Formation The Chuckanut Formation in northwestern Washington (named after the Chuckanut Mountains, near Bellingham, Washington, Bellingham), its extension in southwestern British Columbia (the Huntingdon Formation), and various related Geological formati ...

(which is predominantly made up of layers of 55-million-year-old sandstone, conglomerate,

shale Shale is a fine-grained, clastic sedimentary rock formed from mud that is a mix of flakes of clay minerals (hydrous aluminium phyllosilicates, e.g. kaolin, Al2 Si2 O5( OH)4) and tiny fragments (silt-sized particles) of other minerals, especial ...

, and bituminous and sub-bituminous coal) and the later

Huntingdon Formation Huntingdon is a market town in the Huntingdonshire district in Cambridgeshire, England. The town was given its town charter by King John in 1205. It was the county town of the historic county of Huntingdonshire. Oliver Cromwell was born there ...

(predominantly shale and sandstone) on top, as well as an exposed section of pre-Jurassic-age phyllite. The Chuckanuts are well known for their Tertiary Period leaf fossils. In 1988, an outcrop of metamorphic phyllite, green chert, and

milk quartz Quartz is a hard, crystalline mineral composed of silica (silicon dioxide). The atoms are linked in a continuous framework of SiO4 silicon-oxygen tetrahedra, with each oxygen being shared between two tetrahedra, giving an overall chemical form ...

on Blanchard Mountain was exposed by a construction crew. The outcrop is unique for its unusually large chunks of

stilpnomelane Stilpnomelane is a phyllosilicate mineral. It has the chemical formula . Stilpnomelane occurs associated with banded iron formations. It is a metamorphic mineral associated with the blueschist and greenschist facies. It was first described in 18 ...

References

External links

* Mountain ranges of Washington (state) North Cascades of Washington (state) Landforms of Whatcom County, Washington {{WhatcomCountyWA-geo-stub