Mt Whitney-14,475' (Mount Whitney) (36.5784890, -118.2919407)
Whitney Meadow-9,708' (Johnson Peak) (
| 36.4321589 | -118.2664763) |
Whitney Portal-7,871' (Mount Langley) (36.5888232, -118.2259237)
 |
| From Up and Down California by William Brewer
MOUNT WHITNEY, IN DISTANCE AS SEEN FROM THE SLOPE OF MOUNT BREWER From a photograph by Ansel F. Hall |
Josiah Dwight Whitney (1819-1896); born Northampton, Massachusetts; A.B., Yale, 1839; New Hampshire State Geological Survey, 1840-1841; Geological Survey of Lake Superior, 1847-1850; Geological Surveys of Iowa and Wisconsin, 1855-1857; State Geologist and chief of California State Geological Survey, 1860-1874; professor of geology, Harvard, 1865-1896; LL.D., Yale, 1870. (Brewster: Life and Letters of Josiah Dwight Whitney, 1909, portrait.—Portrait in S.C.B., 1925, XII:2, plate XLIV.)
In July, 1864, a field party of the California State Geological Survey under William H. Brewer, with Charles F. Hoffmann, James T. Gardiner, and Clarence King, saw from Mount Brewer the main crest of the Sierra a few miles away. One peak they named Mount Tyndall. “The other high point, eight miles south of Mount Tyndall, and, so far as known, the culminating peak of the Sierra, was named by the party Mount Whitney.” (Whitney Survey: Geology, 1865, p. 382.)
“Whitney had forbidden his subordinates to name for him the mountain which is now called after the Rev. Lorentine Hamilton. This time, in their chief’s absence, they stood upon their rights of discovery, and called their great peak, Mt. Whitney.” (Brewster: Life and Letters of Josiah Dwight Whitney, 1909, p. 238.)
“For years our chief, Professor Whitney, has made brave campaigns into the unknown realm of Nature. Against low prejudice and dull indifference he has led the survey of California onward to success. There stand for him two monuments,—one a great report made by his own hand; another the loftiest peak in the Union, begun for him in the planet’s youth and sculptured of enduring granite by the slow hand of time.” (Clarence King: Mountaineering in the Sierra Nevada, 1872, pp. 280-281.)
Clarence King attempted to reach the summit of Mount Whitney in 1864, but failed by a few hundred feet. (Whitney Survey: Geology, 1865, pp. 388-391.) In 1871, King climbed what he supposed to be Mount Whitney and published an account of the ascent. (King: Mountaineering in the Sierra Nevada, 1872, pp. 264-281.) On July 27, 1873, W. A. Goodyear and M. W. Belshaw rode mules to the summit of the supposed Mount Whitney and perceived that a peak a few miles north was higher. King, upon learning of his mistake, hastened to the Sierra and ascended the true Mount Whitney, on September 19, 1873, but not before it had several times been ascended by residents of Owens Valley. (King: Mountaineering in the Sierra Nevada, 4th edition, 1874, pp. 281-297; James D. Hague, in Overland, November, 1873.)
First ascent, August 18, 1873, by John Lucas, Charles D. Begole, A. H. Johnson, all of Inyo County. They endeavored unsuccessfully to affix the name “Fisherman’s Peak.” (Wheeler: U. S. Geographical Surveys West of the 100th Meridian, I, Geographical Report, 1889, p. 100.)
Occupied by scientific party under Samuel Pierrepont Langley, of the Allegheny Observatory, August and September, 1881, for observations on solar heat. (Langley: Researches on Solar Heat. Professional Papers of the Signal Service, no. XV, 1884.) Occupied by parties from Smithsonian Institution and Lick Observatory, 1903, 1908, 1909, 1910, 1913. (S.C.B., 1904, V:2, pp. 87-97; S.C.B., 1910, VII:3, pp. 141-148; Annual Report of the Smithsonian Institution, 1910, pp. 65-66.)
For other records, accounts, and discussions of ascents, see: W. A. Goodyear, in Proceedings of the California Academy of Sciences, 1873-1874, V, pp. 139-144, 173-175.—W. A. Goodyear: letter to the editor of Inyo Independent, July 30, 1888, reprinted in Eighth Annual Report of the State Mineralogist, 1888, pp. 230-232.—Badè: Life and Letters of John Muir, I, 1923, pp. 392-396.— W. C. Wyckhoff: Sunlight Mysteries, in Harper’s, June, 1883, pp. 81-94.—Frank Adams: Up Whitney by the Lone Pine Trail, in Sunset, June-July, 1906, pp. 74-80.— J. N. Le Conte: The High Sierra of California, in Alpina Americana, no. 1, American Alpine Club, 1907.—Appalachia, January, 1892, VI:4, pp. 285-288; May, 1903, X:2, pp. 135-142.— Mount Whitney Club Journal, Visalia, California, 1902, 1903, 1904, nos. 1, 2, 3.— S.C.B., 1893, I:1, pp. 1-8; 1896, I:7, pp. 290-292; 1903, IV:4, pp. 289-290; 1904, V:1, pp. 60-63 1904, V:2, pp. 87-101, 138-139; 1905, V:3, pp. 258-260; 1905, V:4, pp. 316-317 1909, VII:2, pp. 105-118; 1910, VII:3, pp. 141-148; 1910, VII:4, p. 248; 1911 VIII:2, pp. 137-138; 1922, XI:3, pp. 253-254.— Farquhar: Exploration of the Sierra Nevada, in California Historical Society Quarterly, March, 1925, IV:1, pp. 32-36, 38.
“A military reservation of a certain number of legal subdivisions surrounding this peak has been declared by authority of the President [Arthur] in General Orders no. 67, of the War Department, September 26, 1883. It is understood that this reservation is for the purpose of securing the location for a prospective Signal Service station.” (Wheeler: U. S. Geographical Surveys West of the 100th Meridian, I, Geographical Report 1889, p. 101.—Map of proposed reservation, in Langley: Researches on Solar Heat. Professional Papers of the Signal Service, no. XV, 1884.)
Altitude determined in 1905 by R. B. Marshall, U.S.G.S., a fraction over 14,501 feet. The highest point in the United States exclusive of Alaska. (R. B. Marshall.) From Place Names of the High Sierra (1926) by Francis P. Farquhar
They [King and "Dick" Cotter] reached the summit of Mount Tyndall (14,025 feet) and from that point beheld and named Mount Williamson (14,384 feet) and Mount Whitney (14,496 feet). Lack of provisions prevented an attempt to reach the latter. From Up and Down California by William Brewer, Book 5 Chapter 2
On this occasion King reached the mountain, but made a bad choice of routes and failed to attain the summit. The first ascent was not made until 1873. For a further account of Clarence King’s efforts, see Francis P. Farquhar, “The Story of Mount Whitney,” in Sierra Club Bulletin, XIV, No. 1 (February, 1929). From Up and Down California by William Brewer, Book 5 Chapter 2 footnote 10
From GNIS:
- Whitney Meadow:
- In Golden Trout Wilderness, at Golden Trout Creek and Stokes Stringer, 5.1 km (3.2 mi) east of Rocky Basin Lakes and 14.1 km (8.9 mi) north of Kern Peak.
- Also called:
- Big Whitney Meadow
- Golden Trout Meadow-almost named this, but there was strong testimony against renaming it.
- Whitney Creek Meadows: Browning, Peter. Place Names of the Sierra Nevada. Berkeley, California: Wilderness Press, 1986. p238
- Whitney Meadows
- Whitney Creek: In Sequoia National Park, heads at an unnamed lake on the west slope of Mount Russell and flows southwest to join the Kern River in Kern Canyon 3.5 km (2.2 mi) northeast of Red Spur.
- Mount Whitney:
- Highest elevation in California at 14494 feet, 1.3 km (0.8 mi) south of Mount Russell and 1.4 km (0.9 mi) north of Mount Muir.
- Proposal to change name to Mount Churchill rejected by Board on Geographic Names (BGN) September 14, 1965.
- Also called:
- Fisherman's Peak
- Fishermans Peak
- Mount Churchill: Proposed name to honor Winston Churchill upon his death. Canada had named a high mountain after President Kennedy so a citizen thought it was fitting to name our highest peak after Churchill. This was rejected.
- Whitney Portal
- Former name of Hunter Flat, for William L Hunter, one of the early pioneers of Owens Valley, who made the first ascent of Mount Williams in 1884. This feature was called Whitney Portal at the official opening of the automobile road to the flat in June 1936.
- On Lone Pine Creek, 4.8 km (3 mi) east of Mount Whitney.
- Also called Hunter Flat
Trips:
- June 26, 2014 - Ten day trip along the High Sierra Trail and Colby Pass-crossed Whitney Creek
Pictures:
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