The Aesthetic and Cultural Significance of the Mountain of Tacoma, WA

Every summer, the Bill Lane Center sponsors student research projects. Students have the option of designing their own project or joining pre-existing Bill Lane Center research. With an interest in music and regional history, Emily Saletan, '24, created a self-designed project that explored the aesthetic and cultural significance of Mt. Tacoma (more commonly known by its colonial name, Mt. Rainier) while integrating research on the mountain’s history and ecology into a collection of original folk-acoustic songs.

Student: Emily Saletan, ’24, Symbolic Systems (Neurosciences)
Mentor: Mark Applebaum (Music)

Project Description:
On a clear day, residents of the Pacific Northwest’s Puget Sound know to look for the ice-capped volcano in the distance. Locals share a familiar phrase when the region’s most iconic and well-beloved landmark is visible: “The mountain is out.” In this project, Emily set out to explore the mountain’s aesthetic and cultural significance by examining the ways people have historically related to it and by developing musical expressions of her own connection to the landscape. Emily’s project involved researching the mountain’s cultural history, including Indigenous efforts to reclaim and rename it as Tacoma, as well as studying the flora and fauna that inhabit the mountain’s ecosystem. She conducted research at local libraries and visited regional museums focused on history, culture, science, and art. Drawing on this research and her personal experiences growing up in Tacoma, Emily composed a collection of original folk-acoustic songs that combine documentation of the mountain’s cultural landscape with reflections on her own relationship to the place. The resulting musical project commemorates the mountain while situating personal memory within broader histories of land, naming, and cultural meaning.