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Shuksan Camp

Bert Huntoon and nine Whatcom County developers formed the Mount Baker Development Company in 1923. They proposed construction of a luxury lodge at Austin Pass Meadows and the federal government agreed to fund construction of a nine-mile extension from the end of the road at Shuksan to the new hotel. The new highway led to the Mt. Baker Lodge, which opened on July 14, 1927. Each of the 100 guest rooms had hot and cold running water and a telephone. Fir pillars supported cathedral ceilings, cedar shakes covered the roof and interior walls. The lodge even had a hydroelectric power plant on Bagley Creek. Tragically, an electrical fire burnt Mt. Baker Lodge to the ground in 1931. A new lodge was built in 1958. In 1941, Mt. Baker Development Co. went bankrupt; the Mt. Baker Recreation Company took over and has owned and operated the Mt. Baker Ski Area since 1952. It is unclear what became of the Shuksan Camp/Mt. Baker Lodge annex.