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Sierra &
Owens Valley Place Names
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Owens Valley
and the Alabama Hills
[Anthony
T. Dunn photo] |
Looking southeast
across Owens Lake at sunrise
[Anthony T. Dunn photo] |
Owens
Valley, Owens Lake, Owens River, and Owens Point all derive their
name from Richard Owens who was a member of John C. Fremont's
third (1845 - 1846) expedition into the area. "That Owens
was a good man it is enough to say that he and Carson were friends.
Cool, brave, and of good judgment; a good hunter and a good shot;
experienced in mountain life; he was an acquisition, and proved
valuable throughout the campaign."
The party split up at Walker Lake, Nevada. Fremont, Carson, and
Owens crossed the Sierra via Donner Pass. Walker, Kern and others
went south and crossed via Walker Pass. "To one of the lakes
along their route on the east side of the range I gave Owens'
name." The names of the valley, the peak, and the point
are all derived from the lake. The man for whom they were named
never saw any of them.
[John C. Fremont, Geographical Memoir Upon Upper California] |
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R: Funston Lake
high atop on the Boreal Plateau overlooking the Great Western
Divide.
[Right: Ray DeLea photo] |
 The Boreal Plateau was named by Oliver
Kehrlein because of the frigid, windswept character of the plateau.
The plateau, which contains Funston Lake overlooks the glacial
carved Kern River gorge and the Great Western Divide to the west. |
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"In
the early 1860's the Hitchcock boys discovered a mine in these
hills which they called the 'Old Abe' mine, and they called their
district the 'Alabama District.' They were Rebels and in those
days 'Old Abe' was a term of ridicule. But they named the district
in honor of the Confederate Cruiser 'Alabama.' These hills are
now called the 'Alabama Hills.'"
The CSS Alabama was a British-built ship, with Southern
officers and a British crew, that destroyed a total of 64 American
merchant ships in the Atlantic and Indian oceans during the Civil
War. She was sunk by the USS Kearsarge off the port of
Cherbourg, France, in June 1864.
[Thomas
Keough, "Over Kearsarge Pass in 1864"] |
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Alabama Hills-
Gregory Peck and Anne Baxter
[photo: unknown]
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Alabama Hills
[Steve Berlin photo]
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Alabama Hills
&
Lone Pine Peak
[photo:
unknown] |
Alabama Hills
and
Mt. Whitney
[Point
Anderson photo] |
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In
the Yosemite Research Library files is a copy of a handwritten
note from Doug Hubbard about an Indian who gave him a piece of
root to chew; it tasted like ginseng. The Indian said that when
he was young he gathered large quantities of the root and took
them to the Sioux country to trade for buffalo robes. "He
told me his name was Cloudy Camiaca.... Later... I applied it
to rather a fine peak. I thought I was playing quite a joke on
Californians and at the same time giving Camiaca a final trip."
Although the story is not true it makes for interesting reading. |
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The
former town of Cartago was created as a steamer landing on the
southwest shore of Owens Lake to handle shipments of silver bullion
from Cerro Gordo. John Baptiste Daneri, native
of Sardinia and a Lone Pine merchant, built the landing, a large
warehouse, and a store, in 1872. For six months the place didn't
have a name, and was referred to as "Lakeville" and
"Danerisburg." On November 1, 1872, Daneri named it
"Cartago," perhaps - as Lingenfelter suggested - in
the hope that he was creating "the Carthage of the West."
The creek was also called "Carthage Creek" originally
before it was renamed to"Cartago Creek."
[Richard
E. Lingenfelter, "The Desert Steamers"] |
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Harrison
Pass, or Harrison's Pass as it was formerly called, is named
after Ben Harrison a local sheep-herder in the 1880s. Ben was
part Cherokee Indian and he built a monument on the pass. The
pass was probably used by sheep-herders in 1875 or 1876. Bolton
C. Brown of the Sierra Club (May 1897 Sierra Club Bulletin)
said the pass would never be popular until a windlas and cable
were put at the head of the pass. |
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Jack
Main Canyon was named after an old sheep-herder who ranged sheep
in the region. The herder's name was actually Jack Means. C.H.
Burt said that the name of the canyon as it appears on maps today
is incorrect. All of the early sheep and cattle men in the region
called the canyon "Jack Means Canyon" and the present
name is a corruption of that name.
[Sierra
Club Bulletin - 1925] |
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Right: Red and
White Mountain
[Right: photo - unknown] |
 Red and White Mountain
was named by Theodore S. Solomons in 1894. "The name has
gained a place in the maps, and it is peculiarly descriptive
of the great peak of red slate fantastically streaked with seams
of white granite. The name identifies the mountain."
[Sierra
Club Bulletin - February 1903] |
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Humphreys
Basin, Humphreys Lakes, and Mount Humphreys was named for Andrew
Atkinson Humphreys (1810-1883), soldier and engineer, the grandson
of Joshua Humphreys, who designed the "Constitution"
and other frigates of the War of 1812. Humphreys distinguished
himself in the Civil War. After the war he was chief engineer
of the U.S. Army until he retired in 1879. |
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Humphreys Basin
[photo: unknown] |
"The
summit of Mount Humphreys is not more than eight feet square....
It is one mass of cracked and broken blocks, thrown loosely together
in such a way as to warn one to move cautiously lest the whole
top should break off and fall into the great abyss to the eastward....
Probably no one had ever stood where we then were, unless perhaps
during the early Jurassic period, before the mountain was fully
sculptured.
[Sierra
Club Bulletin - January 1905] |
Humphreys Basin
[Eric Micklas photo] |
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Right: Lake
Sabrina in the fall.
[photo: unknown] |
 Lake Sabrina was named for
Sabrina Hobbs, whose husband, Charles M. Hobbs, was the first
general manager of the Nevada California Power Company, which
dammed the lake during 1907-1908. |
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Lake Sabrina
looking towards the west.
[photo: unknown] |
Lake Sabrina
looking towards the east.
[photo: unknown] |
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Ritter Range
panoramas - Along the John Muir Trail
[Dale Stuart
photos]
Further Reading
This is perhaps the most fascinating book you can read about
construction of the John Muir Trail
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 The idea of a crest-parallel
trail through the High Sierra came to me one day while herding
my uncle's cattle in an immense unfenced alfalfa field near Fresno.
It was in 1884 and I was fourteen." (Theodore S. Solomons
- Sierra Club Bulletin, April 1938). "Sleeping that night
[in 1895] at the base of Mt. Huxley, warmed by our fire of gnarled
juniper, I dreamed of my task fully done. A well-marked trail
led from the distant Yosemite past the long lake, up the snow-basin,
and over the divide to the King's River. I hope my dream was
prophetic. The way, at all events, is clear. Only the trail waits
to be built." (Solomons) The "long lake" and the
"divide" were Wanda Lake and Muir Pass, which were
not named  until about 1907.
Solomons did the earliest explorations for what later became
the John Muir Trail. J.N. LeConte continued the search for the
best route. In 1915 the California legislature, in response to
a Sierra Club proposal, made an initial appropriation of $10,000
for construction of the trail, which was to be named for John
Muir, who had died in December 1914. The John Muir Trail as it
exists today was completed when the sections were built over
Forester Pass in 1931 and Mather Pass in 1938.
[Stacy
Mikkalsen photo] |
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Pack
Train along the John Muir Trail at Garnet Lake
[Dale Stuart photos]
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Pack
Train along the John Muir Trail in Lyell Canyon
[Dale Stuart photos]
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Pack Train along
the John Muir Trail crossing Lyell Creek
[Dale Stuart photos] |
Along the John
Muir Trail
[Stefan Krempl photo] |
Along the John
Muir Trail
[Dale Stuart photo] |
Along the John
Muir Trail
[Stefan Krempl photo] |
Along the John
Muir Trail - Forester Pass
[Stefan Krempl photo] |
Along the John
Muir Trail
[Stefan Krempl photo] |
Along the John
Muir Trail - McClure Meadow
[Stefan Krempl photo] |
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Mount
Ritter and the Ritter Range is named for the great German geographer
and founder of the science of modern comparative geography -
Karl Ritter (1779 - 1859). It was named by the Whitney Survey
in 1864. Karl Ritter was a professor of history at the University
of Berlin in the 1840s when Whitney was a student at the university.
[Left:
Ron Karpel photo] |
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Background
and Mt. Whitney photo (above) courtesy of Patitucciphoto. |
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Trans-Sierra
Highway |
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Slim
Randles "Night Ride" |
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Olancha |
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More
Sierra Place Names |
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More
Sierra Place Names |
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George
Brown, Native American |
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To
the Top of Mt. Whitney by Rena Moore |
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 This page was last updated on
25 August 2007 |
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| Woods Lake, Barigan Stringer,
Big Five Lakes, Black Rock Pass, Bubbs Creek, Chiniquapin Basin,
Crabtree Lakes, Forgotten Canyon, Franklin Pass, Golden Trout
Camp, Granite Basin, Johnson Peak, Jordan Hot Springs, Mt. Chamberlin,
Muro Blanco, Painted Lady, Poison Meadow, Sawmill Pass, Sawtooth
Peak, Shotgun Pass, The Miter, Miter, Golden Trout, Table Mountain,
Tulainyo Lake, Tyndall Creek, Wallace Lake, Vacation Pass, Whaleback,
Whitney Portal, Zumwalt Mewdows, Avalanche Creek, Battalion Lake,
King Spur, Golden Staircase, Fin Dome, Devils Washbowl, Chocolate
Peak, Blackcap Basin, Bench Lake |