Three Fingered Jack
— — the eroded heart of an old volcano.
Not only on a wall.
“A heavily eroded shield volcano in the Cascade Range, seven thousand eight hundred feet of red and grey rock visible from Santiam Pass. The mountain is older than its neighbours and time has taken most of it, leaving the harder volcanic plug standing as three uneven spires above the ridge. The Pacific Crest Trail passes within a mile of the base, through the Mt Jefferson Wilderness.
Three Fingered Jack, on ceramic.
Each tile is finished by hand in our Knoxville studio. Artwork is slowly infused into the ceramic surface under high heat and pressure, and rests beneath a thin glossy finish. The colour lives in the surface, not on top of it.
Pick any four 4-inch tiles — National Parks you've been to, a Smokies set, the four seasons of one place. $ for a set of , cork-backed, ready to live on the table.
The place, in three passes.
Three Fingered Jack is an extinct shield volcano in the Oregon Cascades, on the boundary between Linn and Jefferson Counties in the Willamette and Deschutes National Forests. The summit reaches 7,844 feet, and the peak lies inside the Mt Jefferson Wilderness, designated in 1968. Santiam Pass on Highway 20 runs along the southern base of the mountain, which is also the trailhead for the Pacific Crest Trail northbound. The mountain is visible from the highway and from the high lakes country south of it.
The mountain is older than most of the High Cascade volcanoes around it. Glacial and weather erosion have stripped away the original cone, leaving the harder volcanic plug exposed as the ragged silhouette that gives the mountain its name. Geologists estimate the volcano stopped erupting more than one hundred thousand years ago, longer than nearby Mt Washington or Mt Jefferson. The red and grey rock visible today is the inner core, frost-shattered into the three uneven spires that read clearly from Santiam Pass.
The mountain sits on the spine of the Cascades and carries its own weather. Snow on the upper ridges lasts into August in most years, and afternoon thunderstorms build over the summit through July and early August. The Pacific Crest Trail passes within a mile of the base at around 6,000 feet, offering the closest hiker view of the eroded face. The 2003 B&B Complex fire burned much of the forest at the southern base, and the standing silver snags still mark the lower slopes today.