This lapel pin commemorates the only presidential visit to Chehalis, the stump speech by President Theodore Roosevelt on May 22, 1903.
It’s time for Chehalis to follow the lead of the good people of Alaska by renaming a noteworthy high point that, by historical accident, has long been named for no good reason after President William McKinley.
The tallest mountain North America was in the news last week as the United States formally adopted the name commonly used by Alaskans: Delani. The mountain has been known for the past century on maps and to those of us in the lower 48 as Mount McKinley, but Alaskans had always used the Athabascan term meaning “Great One.”
Chehalis also has a famously elevated spot that bears McKinley’s name.
It shouldn’t.
The McKinley Stump was cut from a 360-year-old Douglas-fir tree near Pe Ell in May of 1901 to serve as the platform for an upcoming “stump speech” by President McKinley.
However, like the former Mount McKinley, the president never visited nor even set eyes on the prominence bearing his name. McKinley’s wife took ill, so his trip that included a stop in Chehalis was canceled. When McKinley was assassinated a few months later, Vice President Theodore Roosevelt ascended to the highest office.
The stump remained in Chehalis with the name McKinley, since his (cancelled) visit was the only important (non) event attached to it.
After a few years — enough time for people to get in the habit of calling it McKinley — President Teddy Roosevelt actually did visit Chehalis. He gave a fiery speech from the stump on May 22, 1903. Copies of his address still exist online and at the Library of Congress. They’re worth a read. Here’s a typical passage from Teddy Roosevelt to the good people of Chehalis:
“The only life worth living in the long run is the life of effort, the life of striving to accomplish something; and the man or woman who makes up his or her mind that the thing to do is to endeavor only to have a soft and easy time and to shirk duty is not only sure to be a poor citizen but a pretty unhappy one in addition.”
Roosevelt was the first and last president to speak from the famous Chehalis stump (at least so far). A future president did ascend it once more, when the weighty and elaborately mustachioed Secretary of War William H. Taft addressed the good people of Chehalis in 1907. Taft was elected president a year later. In the same election, candidates Vice President Charles W. Fairbanks and Socialist nominee Eugene V. Debs also orated to Chehalins from the stump.
The stump settled into a bit of obscurity after that, but by habit, people kept calling it the McKinley Stump. It has been lit on fire (twice) moved (three times), and infested by carpenter ants. In 2008 it was replaced by an enormous new stump donated by Weyerhaeuser. The second version of the stump and a fine new pagoda sit next to the Lewis County Historical Museum near the first stump’s original home.
In short, it’s a historical accident that the stump bears the name of McKinley. He never spoke from it and likely didn’t know it existed. And that original stump is long gone, replaced by a replica. Let’s get our stories straight here and call this new stump by a historically appropriate name.
President Teddy Roosevelt is widely viewed as one of the best leaders our nation has had. His reform-minded, vigorously expansionist presidency set the stage for the “American Century” to come. He’s a beloved and well-known figure. Chehalis should brag about his 1903 visit. The biggest stump in Chehalis deserves to bear the name of the barrel-chested “rough rider.”
Chehalis, I give you, the Roosevelt Stump.
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Brian Mittge writes a community column each Saturday in his hometown newspaper. He’d also entertain suggestions of calling it the Taft Trunk. Drop him a line at brianmittge@hotmail.com.
