LeConte Point (Yosemite)
LeConte Divide (Mt Goddard)
LeConte Falls (Mount Lyell)
LeConte Mount (Mt Whitney) 13,900
Description:
Named for Joseph Nisbet Le Conte, professor of engineering mechanics, University of California; son of Professor Joseph Le Conte, born 1870; B.S., University of California 1891; M.M.E., Cornell, 1892; president of the Sierra Club, 1915-1917, a charter member, and for many years a director.
Le Conte, James S. Hutchinson, and Duncan McDuffie brought pack-mules over Muir Pass and down Le Conte Cañon July 18, 1908. (S.C.B., 1909, VII:1, pp. 16-17.)
Point
The point above Little Hetch Hetchy was named by R. B. Marshall, U.S.G.S. (R. B. Marshall.)
Named for Joseph Le Conte, professor of geology and natural history at the University of California, 1869-1901.
Born February 26, 1823, on the plantation “Woodmanston,” Liberty County, Georgia; University of Georgia, A.B. 1841, A.M. 1845; College of Physicians and Surgeons (N. Y.), M.D. 1845; Harvard (Lawrence Scientific School), S.B. 1851; LL.D., University of Georgia, 1879, Princeton, 1896; at Harvard studied under Agassiz; professor of natural history at University of Georgia, 1853-1856; professor of chemistry and geology, South Carolina College, 1857-1869; went to the new University of California in 1869 with his brother John; member of the American Philosophical Society, National Academy of Sciences, and fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences; lectured and published extensively; a charter member of the Sierra Club.
“In the summer of the same year [1870], at the end of the first session of the University, eight of the students invited Professor Frank Soulé, Jr., and rne to join them in a camping trip to the Sierras, and we joyfully accepted. This trip was almost an era in my life. We were gone six weeks and visited the Yosemite, the high Sierra, Lake Mono and the volcanoes in the vicinity, and Lake Tahoe. . . . I never enjoyed anything else so much in my life—perfect health, the merry party of young men, the glorious scenery, and, above all, the magnificent opportunity for studying mountain origin and structure.” Autobiography of Joseph Le Conte, 1903, p. 247.)
The account of these “Ramblings Through the High Sierra” was published privately in 1875 and reprinted in Sierra Club Bulletin, 1900, III:1, pp. 1-107.
Professor Le Conte visited the Sierra many times. In 1900 he went on a six weeks’ camping trip in the Kings River region with his son (Joseph N. Le Conte), his daughter (Mrs. Emma Le Conte Furman), and Miss Helen Gompertz (later Mrs. Joseph N. Le Conte). (Sunset Magazine, October, 1900, v:6, pp. 275-286.)
In 1901 he returned to Yosemite for the eleventh time. There he died on the morning of July 6th after a few hours’ illness. (S.C.B., 1902, IV:1, pp. 1-11.)
The Sierra Club erected the Le Conte Memorial Lodge in Yosemite Valley in 1903 and dedicated it in 1904. (S.C.B., 1904, V:1, pp. 66-69; S.C.B., 1905, V:3, pp. 176-180, 254.) It was removed from the original site to its present location in 1919. (S.C.B., 1920, XI:1, pp. 91-92.)
Divide
The Le Conte Divide separates the South Fork of San Joaquin from North Fork of Kings River.
Falls
“Cross this ledge well to the right and gradually approach the river, which can be followed to the head of what is in many respects the most majestic cascade in the whole cañon, the Le Conte Cascade, so named by us in honor of our esteemed Professor, Joseph Le Conte.” (Robert M. Price: Through the Tuolumne Cañon. S.C.B., 1895, I:6, p. 204.)
Mount
“A conical mass of rock about 150 feet high and 250 feet in diameter forms the apex of Le Conte. After careful investigation we found this utterly impossible to climb. So we placed the monument on the north side of the dome where it can be easily seen by anyone approaching the summit; and in a small can we put a photograph of the Professor, with the following memorandum: ‘Today, the 14th day of August, 1895, we, undersigned, hereby name this mountain Le Conte, in honor of the eminent geologist, Professor Joseph Le Conte. . . . A. W. de la Cour Carroll, Stafford W. Austin’.” (S.C.B., 1896, I:8, pp. 325-326.)
First ascent of Mount Le Conte, by Norman Clyde, July, 1925. (S.C.B., 1926, XII:3, pp. 305-306.)
From Place Names of the High Sierra (1926) by Francis P. Farquhar
Trips:
- Canyon
- July 7-8, 2013-JMT Trip
- July 2007 - Andrea and Sherri's JMT Trip
- Memorial
- April 11, 2015 - Meetup day hike around the East end of the Valley
Pictures:
References:
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