Mount Baker Man

There is an interesting, and some say fictitious, story behind the mysterious "Mount Baker Man". He still hangs along the Mt Baker Highway just beyond Glacier Washington where the story began.

Legend has it that in the 1950's the Mt Baker man was one of several Glacier residents who came to the Pacific Northwest from Oklahoma in search of a life that did not involve the law. They lived by their own code and the penalty for breaking the code was severe.

As happened quite often, Mt Baker Man (some say a fictitious name for ole Pamp Bodiger) was at the Glacier tavern with other locals and he got a bit too friendly with another resident's wife. The woman's husband took some umbrage with Mt Baker man and called him outside to settle the score. Mt Baker man got the drop on the husband and shot him in the back, killing him instantly. Now he broke the code in two ways; messing with another's wife; and killing another in an unfair fight.

The owner of the Glacier tavern reported the killing to the Washington State Patrol and officers were dispatched to investigate. When the police questioned the patrons of the Glacier Tavern, not a single person remembered seeing the victim. With no clues and the state of forensic evidence at the time, the case was soon abandoned. The Glacier residents, however, did not let the matter go. Pamp Bodiger moved away from Glacier for awhile but returned within a few months and thought the matter had passed. Nearly a year later, he mysteriously vanished from the face of the earth. Since he lived alone there was no one to report his disappearance.

Some time later what appears to be a moss covered tree appeared next to the Mt Baker Highway. Everything left out in nature in this part of the world gets covered with moss. A picture of this "Hansel and Gretal " scene was taken by me 50 years later. One day, while playing with a graphics program and this picture, I discovered what many now believe is the face of the Mt Baker man. If this really is the burial place of Pamp Bodiger, it stands as a warning to any who may choose to break the Glacier Washington code again.