David Douglas - Explorations

Explorations

Hooker recommended Douglas to London's Royal Horticultural Society, which then sent him on a plant-hunting expedition in the Pacific Northwest in 1824 that ranks among the great botanical explorations of a heroic generation. In the Spring of 1826, David Douglas was compelled to climb a peak (Mt. Brown, of the mythical pair Hooker and Brown) near Athabasca Pass to take in the view. In so doing, he became the first mountaineer in North America. He introduced the Douglas-fir into cultivation in 1827. Other notable introductions include Sitka Spruce, Sugar Pine, Western White Pine, Ponderosa Pine, Lodgepole Pine, Monterey Pine, Grand Fir, Noble Fir and several other conifers that transformed the British landscape and timber industry, as well as numerous garden shrubs and herbs such as the Flowering currant, Salal, Lupin, Penstemon and California poppy. His success was well beyond expectations; in one of his letters to Hooker, he wrote "you will begin to think I manufacture pines at my pleasure". Altogether he introduced about 240 species of plants to Britain.

He first briefly visited Hawaii in 1830 on his way to the Pacific Northwest. He returned again in December 1833 intending to spend three months of winter there. He was only the second European to reach the summit of the Mauna Loa volcano. He died under mysterious circumstances while climbing Mauna Kea in Hawaiʻi at the age of 35 in 1834. He apparently fell into a pit trap and was possibly crushed by a bull that fell into the same trap. He was last seen at the hut of Englishman Edward "Ned" Gurney, a bullock hunter and escaped convict. Gurney was also suspected in Douglas's death, as Douglas was said to have been carrying more money than Gurney subsequently delivered with the body. However, most investigators have concluded that Gurney's account was true. Douglas was buried in an unmarked common grave near Mission House in Honolulu, Hawaii. Later, in 1856, a marker was erected on an outside wall at Kawaiahaʻo Church (Kawaiahao Church Cemetery). A monument was built at the spot where Douglas died by members of the Hilo Burns Society including David McHattie Forbes. It is called Ka lua kauka ("Doctor's Pit" in the Hawaiian language), off Mānā Road on the Island of Hawaiʻi 19°53′17″N 155°20′17″W / 19.88806°N 155.33806°W / 19.88806; -155.33806 (Kaluakauka). A small stand of Douglas-fir trees has been planted there.