Mount Rainier has drawn people for millennia. Since time immemorial, American Indians traveled seasonally to and from the mountain to pick huckleberries, hunt, and collect native plants for food and medicinal uses. Trails on ridges and in river valleys around the mountain connected the lowlands, major river valleys, the lower slopes of Mount Rainier, the Cascade Mountains to the east, the Puget Sound region, and the Columbia River. Ancestors of today’s Nisqually tribe members established a route along the Nisqually River and Skate Creek, and trails were created and used by ancestors of the Muckleshoot, Squaxin Island, Yakaima, Puyallup, and Quileute for gathering food, hunting, and trade. Exploration and development accelerated after 1792, when Captain George Vancouver viewed the mountain from Puget Sound and named it for Rear Admiral Peter Rainier. In 1833, Dr. William Tolmie, guided by Lushchi, Lachine, Nachess, and Quilniash, reached the Pacific crest and Mount Pleasant in what is now the northeast corner of Mount Rainier National Park. Hazard Stevens and P. B. Van Trump made the first documented ascent in 1870. James Longmire constructed a rough trail to mineral springs in 1884, and the Longmire family developed a primitive resort there by 1889. In 1893, aided by five Nisqually Indians, the family opened the first wagon toll road to Longmire Springs. Mount Rainier National Park was established in 1899. As visitation grew, roads, bridges, and buildings were designed to provide access while preserving the scenery. The Tacoma Eastern Railroad reached Ashford in 1904, and travelers continued to the park by horse-drawn carriage. The railroad also built and operated the National Park Inn at Longmire in 1906. The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers began work on the Nisqually Road in 1903, and engineer Eugene Ricksecker designed it as a pleasure road with gentle grades and curves that followed the terrain. The road reached Paradise by 1910, and by 1915 motor traffic could travel there above Narada Falls. Automobiles were experimentally admitted in 1907, making Mount Rainier one of the first national parks to test motor vehicle access. Beginning in 1908, drivers were required to register their vehicles, read the automobile regulations, and pay a 5 dollar entrance fee. Motor stages later carried visitors from Tacoma, Seattle, or Ashford to Longmire and Paradise. Between 1920 and 1957, the parkwide road and bridge system was built with local stone and wood in what became known as National Park Service rustic style. In 1997, Mount Rainier’s historic developed areas, including roads, bridges, buildings, and the Wonderland Trail, were designated a National Historic Landmark District. Today the park receives approximately two million visitors annually. Congestion, full parking areas, flooding, debris flows, and climate-related impacts all complicate access and preservation. Heavy rains on November 6 and 7, 2006 caused major flooding, destroyed part of the road to Paradise, damaged campgrounds, including the complete destruction of Sunshine Point Campground, and led to the permanent closure of Carbon River Road.