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“Exploration of the Sierra Nevada” (1925)
by Francis P. Farquhar

MOUNT WHITNEY, 14,501 FEET The highest point in the United States. This view from Mount Brewer is the one obtained by the Whitney Survey party in 1864 when they named the mountain for Josiah Dwight Whitney. Photograph by Ansel F. Hall.

Introduction

The purpose of this narrative is to trace the course of the exploration of the Sierra Nevada of California from the time when it first became known to white men to the present day. The record is full of vivid personalities and of epic adventures, but these may only be briefly recounted here and much that is interesting must be omitted as belonging more properly to other phases of history than that of exploration. Exploration is held to mean more, however, than a search for mere geographical knowledge, and the record is distinguished by splendid achievements in scientific research.

Completeness can hardly be attained even by confining attention to the field of exploration and there are doubtless many explorers whose names should be included here but are omitted either because they are not on record or because the record has not come to my attention. If such there be, they are welcome to the fold and I will endeavor to do them justice at another time.

In writing of the Sierra it is always a temptation to one who knows the mountains to indulge in praise of their grandeur and beauty. The forests, alpine meadows, lakes, streams, waterfalls, birds, animals, flowers, granite domes and spires, fields of perpetual snow-all these are ever in the thoughts of those who have been there. For them no other setting is needed; and for those who have not been there, a search among the references cited will reveal much.

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