Mount Edgecumbe is a dormant volcano with an elevation of 3,201 feet (976 m) on the southern coast of Kruzof Island, about 100 miles (161 km) southwest of Juneau and 16 miles (26 km) west of Sitka, Alaska. In 1775, it was named Montaña de San Jacinto by Don Juan de la Bodega y Quadra. Three years later, in 1778, Captain James Cook of the Royal Navy renamed it Mount Edgecumbe, likely after Mount Edgecumbe at the entrance to Plymouth Harbor in England. This name was later adopted by Captain George Vancouver. The Russians referred to the mountain as Gora Svataya Lazarya, or Saint Lazarus Mountain. It was first climbed in July 1805 by Captain U.T. Lisianski of the Imperial Russian Navy.

The Indigenous Tlingit people consider the mountain sacred. In the Tlingit language, it is called L’ux, meaning “to flash” or “blinking,” purportedly because they first discovered it while it was emitting smoke or erupting. However, there is no evidence of historic eruptions in Russian documents or native oral traditions. The most recent significant volcanic activity was postglacial, producing voluminous pyroclastic deposits. Deposits from the late Pleistocene to early Holocene activity of the Edgecumbe volcanic field have been found as far away as Juneau and Lituya Bay, 124 miles (200 km) to the north.

In the 1930s, the Civilian Conservation Corps built a trail to the top of Mount Edgecumbe as part of a New Deal program to alleviate the Great Depression. Today, the Mount Edgecumbe Trail is approximately 6.8 miles (11 km) long and is maintained by the U.S. Forest Service. The trail begins in taiga and muskeg, then becomes steep, ending in a barren landscape of snow and red volcanic ash above the treeline at about 2,000 feet (610 m). A three-sided cabin, located around Mile 4 (6 km) on the trail, was also constructed by the Civilian Conservation Corps. The trail is moderately difficult, can be muddy in places, and the last 3 miles (5 km) involve a steep climb. Bears may be present. Read more here and here. Explore more of Mount Edgecumbe and Kruzof Island here: