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François Matthes and the Marks of Time: Yosemite and the High Sierra (1962) by François E. Matthes

[click to enlarge] Dust jacket

• Title page and front matter
• Preface
• Contents
• François Emile Matthes
• The Winds of the Yosemite Valley
• The Striped Rock Floor of the Little Yosemite Valley
• El Capitan Moraine and Ancient Lake Yosemite
• The Story of Moraine Dome
• Cockscomb Crest
• Kings River Canyon and Yosemite Valley
• The Devil’s Postpile and Its Strange Setting
• The Little “Lost Valley” on Shepherd’s Crest
• Tuolumne Meadows and Vicinity
• The Scenery about Tenaya Lake
• Merced Lake and Its Environment
• Lodgepole Camp and Tokopah Valley
• Avalanche Sculpture in the Sierra Nevada
• The Geologic History of Mount Whitney
• John Muir and the Glacial Theory of Yosemite
• Appendix: Major Divisions of Geologic Time in Use by the U.S. Geological Survey
• Some Other Publications on the Sierra Nevada by François E. Matthes
• End paper (portion of a Yosemite Valley map by Matthes)
• Dust jacket

About the Author

François E. Matthes (photograph by Ernest A. Bachrach)

François Matthes (pronounced france-wah mat-hes) was born in Amsterdam March 16, 1874 and spent much of his youth in Switzerland, where he became interested in mountains and glaciers, then Frankfurt, Germany. He came to the US in 1891 to study at Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and graduated as a Civil Engineer. Geology and glaciology was his hobby and became his work. Matthes joined the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) in 1896, where he mapped and surveyed several National Parks, including Yosemite. In the 1920s he set out to determine if John Muir’s Yosemite glacier theories were correct. Matthes found that glaciers were a major force in creating Yosemite Valley and other features and published his findings as Geologic History of the Yosemite Valley USGS Professional Paper 160 (1930). Matthes also published several popular articles in Yosemite Nature Notes. Although Matthes never received an earned Doctorate, he received an honorary LL.D. degree in 1947 from University of California for his life-long accomplishments.

Matthes died June 21, 1948, while he was working on a popular book interpreting Yosemite geology. Matthes widow, Edith Lovell Matthes, and a colleague, Dr. Fritiof Fryxell, edited the unpublished manuscript and published it as The Incomparable Valley: A Geologic Interpretation of the Yosemite (1950). They also edited this book, François Matthes and the Marks of Time (1962), a selection of articles that appeared in Sierra Club Bulletin and elsewhere.

• Donald E. McHenry, “Francois E. Matthes Honored—Retires,” Yosemite Nature Notes 27(2):54-55,57 (February 1948) [PDF]
• Donald E. McHenry, “Francois Emile Matthes” [obituary], Yosemite Nature Notes 27(7):97-98 (July 1948) [PDF]

Bibliographical Information

[click to enlarge] Cover

[click to enlarge] Dr. Fritiof Fryxell (editor) climbing in the Grand Teton range, Wyoming

François E. Matthes (1874-1948), François Matthes and the Marks of Time: Yosemite and the High Sierra (San Francisco: Sierra Club, 1962), Edited by Fritiof Fryxell (1900-1986). Copyright 1962 by the Sierra Club. LCCN 62011763. 189 pages. Illustrated. 26 cm. Bound in charcoal cloth board. Library of Congress call number QE89.M3.

• Keith A. Trexler, “Francois Matthes—the Master Interpreter” [review of François Matthes and the Marks of Time], Yosemite Nature Notes 40(6):148 [PDF]
• Another review of this book appears in E. H. Brown, The Geographical Journal 128(4):537 (Dec. 1962).

Converted to HTML by Dan Anderson, September 2007, from a personal copy. These files may be used for any non-commercial purpose, provided this notice is left intact.
    —Dan Anderson, www.yosemite.ca.us

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