Cusick Mountain is a summit located in

Wallowa County Wallowa County () is the northeastern most county in the U.S. state of Oregon. As of the 2020 census, the population was 7,391, making it Oregon's fifth-least populous county. Its county seat is Enterprise. According to '' Oregon Geographic Nam ...

Oregon Oregon () is a state in the Pacific Northwest region of the Western United States. The Columbia River delineates much of Oregon's northern boundary with Washington, while the Snake River delineates much of its eastern boundary with Idaho. T ...

, US.

Description

Cusick Mountain is located at the center of the

Wallowa Mountains The Wallowa Mountains () are a mountain range located in the Columbia Plateau of northeastern Oregon in the United States. The range runs approximately northwest to southeast in southwestern Wallowa County and eastern Union County between the ...

and is set within the Eagle Cap Wilderness, on land managed by

Wallowa–Whitman National Forest The Wallowa–Whitman National Forest is a United States National Forest in the U.S. states of Oregon and Idaho. Formed upon the merger of the Wallowa and Whitman national forests in 1954, it is located in the northeastern corner of the state, in ...

. The remote peak ranks as the 17th-highest mountain in Oregon. The peak is situated 2.6 miles southeast of

Glacier Peak Glacier Peak or Dakobed (known in the Sauk-Suiattle dialect of the Lushootseed language as "Tda-ko-buh-ba" or "Takobia") is the most isolated of the five major stratovolcanoes (composite volcanoes) of the Cascade Volcanic Arc in the U.S state ...

and 3.3 miles southeast of Eagle Cap which is the nearest higher neighbor. Precipitation

runoff Runoff, run-off or RUNOFF may refer to: * RUNOFF, the first computer text-formatting program * Runoff or run-off, another name for bleed, printing that lies beyond the edges to which a printed sheet is trimmed * Runoff or run-off, a stock marke ...

from the mountain's north slope drains into headwaters of the West Fork

Wallowa River The Wallowa River is a tributary of the Grande Ronde River, approximately long, in northeastern Oregon in the United States. It drains a valley on the Columbia Plateau in the northeast corner of the state north of Wallowa Mountains. The Wallowa ...

, and all other slopes into headwaters of the

Imnaha River The Imnaha River is a U.S. Geological Survey. National Hydrography Dataset high-resolution flowline dataThe National Map , accessed May 3, 2011 tributary of the Snake River in the U.S. state of Oregon. Flowing generally east near the headwaters a ...

Topographic relief Terrain or relief (also topographical relief) involves the vertical and horizontal dimensions of land surface. The term bathymetry is used to describe underwater relief, while hypsometry studies terrain relative to sea level. The Latin w ...

is significant as the summit rises above South Fork Imnaha River in 1.5 mile. The summit is composed of

Columbia River basalt The Columbia River Basalt Group is the youngest, smallest and one of the best-preserved continental large igneous province, flood basalt province on Earth, covering over mainly eastern Oregon and Washington (state), Washington, western Idaho, a ...

which overlays

limestone Limestone ( calcium carbonate ) is a type of carbonate sedimentary rock which is the main source of the material lime. It is composed mostly of the minerals calcite and aragonite, which are different crystal forms of . Limestone forms whe ...

and

Mesozoic The Mesozoic Era ( ), also called the Age of Reptiles, the Age of Conifers, and colloquially as the Age of the Dinosaurs is the second-to-last era of Earth's geological history, lasting from about , comprising the Triassic, Jurassic and Cretace ...

granodiorite Granodiorite () is a coarse-grained ( phaneritic) intrusive igneous rock similar to granite, but containing more plagioclase feldspar than orthoclase feldspar. The term banatite is sometimes used informally for various rocks ranging from gr ...

of the Wallowa Batholith. A

limber pine ''Pinus flexilis'', the limber pine, is a species of pine tree-the family Pinaceae that occurs in the mountains of the Western United States, Mexico, and Canada. It is also called Rocky Mountain white pine. A limber pine in Eagle Cap Wildernes ...

growing at the 8,000-foot level on the mountain's southeast slope is likely the oldest living thing in Oregon and ranks third in the limber pine size category in the United States.Terry Richard, ''Ancient limber pine, likely Oregon's oldest living tree, draws twin brothers to Wallowas quest'', Oregonlive.com, September 24, 2012
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Etymology

This landform's toponym was proposed by Willard Webster Eggleston and officially adopted May 1, 1929, by the United States Board on Geographic Names to remember

William Conklin Cusick William Conklin Cusick (February 21, 1842 – October 7, 1922) was an American botanist who specialized in the flora of the Pacific Northwest. His botanical knowledge was largely self-taught and he is considered one of the top three self-taught b ...

(1842–1922), an Oregonian and pioneer botanist who specialized in the flora of the

Pacific Northwest The Pacific Northwest (sometimes Cascadia, or simply abbreviated as PNW) is a geographic region in western North America bounded by its coastal waters of the Pacific Ocean to the west and, loosely, by the Rocky Mountains to the east. Tho ...

and in particular the Wallowas and Blue Mountains.United States Board on Geographic Names (1929), ''Decisions on Names in the United States'', Department of the Interior, p. 1 The resident of

Union, Oregon Union is a city in Union County, Oregon, United States. The population was 2,121 at the 2010 census. Union is the namesake of Union County. History Union was platted on November 11, 1864 along the Oregon Trail. The name references the Union ...

, made the first botanical studies of the Wallowas by collecting and classifying plants from 1896 through 1910.Jon M. Skovlin (2000), ''Interpreting Landscape Change in High Mountains of Northeastern Oregon from Long-term Repeat Photography'', U.S. Department of Agriculture, Forest Service, Pacific Northwest Research Station, p. 1 There are numerous plants with scientific names ending with ''cusickii'' which are named in his honor.

Climate

Based on the

Köppen climate classification The Köppen climate classification is one of the most widely used climate classification systems. It was first published by German-Russian climatologist Wladimir Köppen (1846–1940) in 1884, with several later modifications by Köppen, notabl ...

, Cusick Mountain is located in a subarctic climate zone characterized by long, usually very cold winters, and mild summers. Winter temperatures can drop below −10 °F with wind chill factors below −20 °F. Most precipitation in the area is caused by

orographic lift Orographic lift occurs when an air mass is forced from a low elevation to a higher elevation as it moves over rising terrain. As the air mass gains altitude it quickly cools down adiabatically, which can raise the relative humidity to 100% and cr ...

. Thunderstorms are common in the summer. Cusick Mountain

References

External links

* Weather forecast
Cusick Mountain
* William Conklin Cusick (photo)
Oregonencyclopedia.org
{{Portal bar, Geography, Geology, Mountains, Oregon Mountains of Oregon Mountains of Wallowa County, Oregon North American 2000 m summits Wallowa–Whitman National Forest

Description

Etymology

Climate

See also

References

External links