Sierra Club Bulletin. 



Vol. VII. San Francisco, January, 1910. No. 3 



THE OBSERVATORY ON MOUNT WHITNEY* 



By Alexander McAdie. 



The mention of Mount Whitney, culminating point of 

 the Sierra and highest spot in the United States, excluding 

 Alaska, brings before the minds of most of us a series 

 of mental pictures connected with the discovery and 

 general history of the peak. The mountain was first seen 

 from Mount Brewer by members of the Geological Survey 

 of California in 1864 and was named after the distin- 

 guished head of the Survey. It was first climbed, as far 

 as can be ascertained, on August 18, 1873, by Lucas, 

 Bigole, and Johnson, and ingloriously named Fisherman's 

 Peak. Clarence King had climbed what he supposed was 

 Whitney in 1871 ; but in reality the peak now known 

 as Sheep Mountainf (shown in the photograph) lying to 

 the south, also known as Old Mount Whitney and Mount 

 Corcoran. While in New York on September i, 1873, 

 he learned of his mistake, and, hastening west, climbed 

 the right peak, September 19, 1873. On September 6th 

 of the same year Carl Rabe climbed the peak, carrying to 

 the summit a mountain mercurial barometer, — Green, No, 

 1554, — and made the first determination of the moun- 

 tain's height. This particular barometer was again car- 



* The use of Whitney and other peaks in the Sierra as sites for observa- 

 tories was advocated in the following papers published in the Sierra Club 

 Bulletin: "Mount Whitney as a Site for Meteorological Observatory," 

 No. 31, Vol. V, pages 87 to 101, McAdie; "Mount Rainier, Mount Shasta, 

 and Mount Whitney as Sites for Meteorological Observatories," No. 34, 

 Vol. VI, pages 7-14, McAdie. 



t Name changed in 1905 to Mount Langley. 



