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

Theodore S. Solomons¹⁰¹

One of the most energetic of the Sierra Club explorers was Theodore Seixas Solomons who spent many months in the High Sierra from 1892 to 1897. To him more than anyone else is due the credit of determining correctly the courses of the upper branches of the San Joaquin. In 1892, accompanied by Joseph Le Conte and Sidney I. Peixotto, he crossed from Mount Lyell by way of Rush Creek to the base of Mount Ritter and ascended the peak. A few weeks later he returned alone and after again climbing the mountain continued to the canyon of Fish Creek, and thence by way of Balloon Dome to the Miller and Lux bridge on the San Joaquin. This trip resulted in a great addition to the knowledge of the North and Middle forks of the San Joaquin.

In 1894 Solomons made a trip with Leigh Bierce, going from Wawona to Mono Creek, where they visited and named Vermilion Valley. Thence they crossed over to Bear Creek and climbed the beautiful mountain which they named Seven Gables. They were forced by a mow storm to abandon their outfit and escape from the mountains at the end of September, by way of Ockenden’s.

The next year, 1895, Solomons took his most notable trip, in company with Ernest C. Bonner. Ascending the South Fork of the San Joaquin they came to that splendid mass of mountains now designated the Evolution Group from the names bestowed upon them by Solomons. The grandest and highest of all be called Mount Darwin, and to the others he gave the names of Haeckel, Wallace, Fiske, Spencer, and Huxley. He and Bonner climbed Mount Wallace but were unsuccessful in an attempt to scale Mount Darwin. On recent maps the name of Mount Wallace has been transposed from the point on the main crest just south of Mount Haeckel, to which it was originally given by Solomons, to the westerly ridge of Mount Darwin. Continuing their explorations, Solomons and Bonner ascended Mount Goddard, whence they made their way down to Simpson Meadow by North Goddard Creek, and were the first to make this section known.

Solomons’ excursions in the next two years added a few details here and them to the knowledge of Sierra topography, but his principal contribution was a remarkably accurate map which he draughted and presented to the Sierra Club in 1896.

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¹⁰¹ Sierra Club Bulletin, 1894, I, 3, pp. 61-84, 1895, I, 6, pp. 221-237, 1896, I, 7, pp. 287-288; Appalachia, January 1896, pp. 41-57; Overland Monthly, May, June, August, November, 1896, and July, August, 1897.

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