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Place Names of the High Sierra (1926)
by Francis P. Farquhar

[ A, B, C, D, E, F, G, H, I, J, K, L, M, N, O, P, Q, R, S, T, U, V, W, Y, & Z. ]


G

GABB, MOUNT (13,700)[Mount Goddard]
“Another patch of slate was seen, however, in passing down the San Joaquin River from Camp 188 to Camp 189; these form rather prominent knobs, one of which was called Mount Gabb.” (Whitney Survey: Geology, 1865, p. 397.)

William More Gabb (1839-1878), of Philadelphia, joined the Whitney Survey as paleontologist in 1861. Portrait in S.C.B., 1925, XII:2, plate XLIV.

“The paleontologist was a distinctly loquacious person. One can imagine, then, the laughter of these lean, brown men when Dr. Cooper, the serious, the unbending, announced that he had discovered a new species of the old brachiopod genus, Lingula; and that in honor of his friend William More Gabb he bad bestowed upon it the name of Lingula gabii.” (Brewster: Life and Letters of Josiah Dwight Whitney, 1909, p. 239.)

The Whitney Survey party, led by Professor Brewer, crossed the Sierra from Owens Valley by Mono Pass and descended Mono Creek to the San Joaquin. Camps 188 and 189 were on Mono Creek. The identity of the peak originally named Mount Gabb is obscure. On J. N. Le Conte’s map of 1907 the name was given to the peak most nearly corresponding in position to that on the Whitney Survey map, but this peak has no slate on it.

First ascent by A. L. Jordan and H. H. Bliss, June, 1917. (S.C.B., 1918, X:3, p. 292.)

GABBRO PEAK (11,022)[Bridgeport]
Gabbro is a granitoid variety of diabase, in which the augite takes the form of diallage.” (Le Conte: Elements of Geology, 5th edition, 1907, p. 212.)

GALE PEAK (10,690)[Mount Lyell]
Named by Lieutenant N. F. McClure for Captain George Henry Goodwin Gale, 4th Cavalry, U. S. Army, acting superintendent of Yosemite National Park in 1894. (N. F. McClure.) Born in Maine, 1858; graduated U. S. Military Academy, second lieutenant, 1879; first lieutenant, 1884; captain, 1892; major, 1901; lieutenant-colonel, 1907; colonel, 1912; retired, 1914; died 1920.

GARDINER, MOUNT (12,903)[Mount Whitney]
“Two peaks lying just in front of it [the crest] are especially fine; they are between five and six miles east of Camp 180; both are probably over 14,000 feet high, the northern being a little the highest. This we named Mount King, and the southern one Mount Gardner.” (Whitney Survey: Geology, 1865, p. 392.)

The name is spelled GARDNER on Hoffmann’s map of 1873, in the official Publications of the Whitney Survey, and in the early editions of King’s Mountaineering in the Sierra Nevada. Nevertheless, in the official catalogue of Yale University, in the obituary notice in American Journal of Sciences (1912), and in Who’s Who in America (1910-1911), and in other reliable Publications, it is spelled Gardiner.

James Terry Gardiner, born in Troy, N. Y., 1842; attended Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute; honorary Ph.B., Sheffield Scientific School, Yale, in 1905, as of 1868; inspector, U. S. Ordnance Corps, 1861-1862; accompanied Clarence King to California, 1863; after a year in construction work on San Francisco Harbor, joined California State Geological Survey (Whitney Survey), 1864, and served until 1867; member of Brewer party in Kings and San Joaquin regions, 1864; with King, made map of Yosemite Valley, 1866-1867; accompanied King on first ascent of Mount Clark, 1866; member Geological Survey of the 40th Parallel (King Survey), 1867-1872; member U. S. Geological Survey of the Territories (Hayden Survey), 1872-1875; director State Survey of New York, 1876-1886; practiced as civil engineer, New York; died at Northeast Harbor, Maine, 1912. (American Journal of Science, 4th series, Vol. 34, October, 1912, p. 404; Who’s Who in America, 1910-1911; Brewster: Life and Letters of Josiah Dwight Whitney, 1909, pp. 236, 237, 306; Appalachia, 1878, I:4, pp. 233-234; Biographical Notice of Clarence King, in Transactions of the American Institute of Mining Engineers, vol. 33, 1903.)

First ascent by Joseph N. Le Conte and Bolton Coit Brown, 1896. (S.C.B., 1898, II:3, p. 81.)

GARFIELD GROVE[Kaweah]
Named by R. B. Marsball, U.S.G.S., for James Abram Garfield (1831-1881), twentieth president of the United States. (R. B. Marshall.)

GAYLOR LAKES[Mount Lyell]
Jack Gaylor, for many years a ranger in Yosemite National Park; died in service, April, 1921.

GEM LAKE[Mount Lyell]
Originally named “Gem-o’-the-Mountains” by Theodore C. Agnew, miner, and so shown on McClure’s map of 1896. (N. F. McClure.)

GENERAL GRANT NATIONAL PARK[Tehipite]
Established by act of Congress, October 1, 1890, under a clause added to the bill for establishing Yosemite National Park; comprises four square miles. Named by Secretary of the Interior, John W. Noble, for the General Grant tree, the largest sequoia in the park.

“The name ‘General Grant National Park’ was adopted for the park by the Secretary, because this name had become, by common consent, that of the largest tree there, and which it is understood is among the greatest if not itself the very greatest of the ‘sequoia gigantea.’ The propriety of adopting the name needs no explanation or defense. The people have already baptized the tree with the name of our great and noble general, and the park could not consistently be called aught else, unless it were ‘The Union’.” (Annual Report of the Secretary of the Interior, for 1890, p. 125.)

The tree was named in August, 1867, by Mrs. Lucretia P. Baker, of Visalia, for Ulysses Simpson Grant (1822-1885), commander-in-chief of the United States Army, 1864-1869; eighteenth president of the United States. The compliment was acknowledged by General Grant in a letter to Mrs. Baker. (Walter Fry.)

GENERAL SHERMAN TREE[Tehipite]
Named in 1879 by James Wolverton for General William Tecumseh Sherman (1820-1891), commander-in-chief of the United States Army, 1869-1883 (Walter Fry.)

GENEVRA, MOUNT (13,037)[Mount Whitney]
Mrs. Genevra Magee (Mrs. W. E. Magee). Named in 1899 by Miss Helen M. Gompertz, J. N. Le Conte, and others, who with Mrs. Magee were on the Summit of Mount Brewer. (Mrs. J. N. Le Conte.)

Climbed by Norman Clyde, July 15, 1925; probably first ascent. (S.C.B., 1926, XII:3, p. 307.)

GEORGES CREEK[Mount Whitney]
“The chief Indian headquarters of the mid-southern part of the valley was at Chief George’s rancheria on the creek which still bears his name.” (Chalfant: The Story of Inyo, 1922, p. 143.) Chief George was a leader of the Piute Indians in the Owens Valley fighting in 1863.

GIANT FOREST[Tehipite]
“After a general exploration of the Kaweah basin, this part of the Sequoia belt seemed to me the finest, and I then [1875] named it ‘the Giant Forest.’ (Muir: Our National Parks, 1901, p. 300.)

Hale D. Tharp was the first white man to visit Giant Forest, 1858. (Walter Fry.)

Lands in Giant Forest and vicinity, patented prior to act of 1890 creating Sequoia National Park, were purchased in 1916 and reconveyed to the United States for $70,000, of which $50,000 was appropriated by act of Congress, July 1, 1916, and $20,000 was contributed from the funds of the National Geographic Society. Subsequent purchases of patented lands were made by the National Geographic Society from funds donated by individuals, and reconveyed to the United States, 1920-1921. (National Geographic Magazine, January, 1917, pp. 1-11; July, 1921, pp. 85-86— Progress in the Development of the National Parks, by Stephen T. Mather, Department of the Interior, 1916, p. 7—Report of the Director of the National Park Service, for 1920, pp. 50, 115; same, for 1921, p. 15.)

GIBBS MOUNTAIN (12,700)[Mount Lyell]
Wolcott Gibbs (1822-1908), professor of science at Harvard, a lifelong friend of Professor Whitney. (Brewster: Life and Letters of Josiah Dwight Whitney, 1909, p. 80.)

The name was given by the Whitney Survey, and, although not mentioned in the Geology volume of 1865, appears on the Hoffmann-Gardiner map, 1867.

GILBERT, MOUNT (13,232)[Mount Goddard]
Grove Karl Gilbert (1843-1918), geologist; author of famous monographs on the Henry Mountains (Powell Survey, 1877) and Lake Bonneville (U.S.G.S., 1890). (S.C.B., 1919, X:4, pp. 391-399, 430; 1920, XI:1, pp. 60-68.) (R. B. Marshall.)

GILLETT MOUNTAIN (8300)[Dardanelles]
Named in 1909 by R. B. Marshall, U.S.G.S., for James Norris Gillett; member of Congress, 1903-1907; governor of California, 1907-1911. (R. B. Marshall.)

GILMAN LAKE[Bridgeport]
Robert Gilman Brown, born in New Hampshire, 1864; A.B., Dartmouth, 1886; studied at Columbia School of Mines; vice-president and general manager, Standard Consolidated Mining Co., Bodie, California, 1905, when lake was named for him by engineer of that company who was mapping Green Creek basin for power development; consulting engineer and director of various English mining companies; living in London, 1926.

GIRAUD PEAK (12,539)[Mount Goddard]
The peak was probably named for Pierre Giraud, sheepman of Inyo County, widely known as Little Pete. (See Little Pete Meadow.) Pierre and his younger brother, Alfred, grazed sheep for many years at the bead of the South and Middle forks of Kings River. The spelling “Giroud” on the maps is erroneous. (W. A. Chalfant.)

Climbed by Norman Clyde, September 1, 1925; no evidence of prior ascent. (S.C.B., 1926, XII:3, p. 307.)

GLACIER POINT[Yosemite]
“There is one point overhanging the valley, about half a mile northeast of the Sentinel Dome, and directly in a line with the edge of the Half Dome. This is called Glacier Point. . . . This combines perhaps more elements of beauty and grandeur than any other single view about the valley.” (Whitney Survey: The Yosemite Book, 1868, p. 96.)

The precise origin of the name is not given. It does not appear in Hutchings’ earlier publications, nor in the Whitney Survey report of 1865.

GLEN AULIN[Mount Lyell]
“It was probably in the winter of 1913-1914 that he (R. B. Marshall, U.S. G.S.) came to me in the office of the U. S. Geological Survey here in Washington, with a Mount Lyell sheet in his hand and pointing out this little valley on the map, told me what a beautiful spot it is and asked me to suggest a name. I at once suggested Glen Aulin, ‘beautiful valley or glen,’ and wrote it for him in this way, that it might be correctly pronounced—the ‘au’ as in author. The correct Gaelic (Irish) orthography is Gleann Alainn. (Letter from James McCormick, now Secretary, United States Geographic Board, February 11, 1926.)

GLEN PASS[Mount Whitney]
Glen H. Crow, assistant in U.S.G.S., ranger in U. S. Forest Service, brother of Mrs. R. B. Marshall. The name should be spelled with one n. (Mrs. R. E. Marshall.)

GOAT MOUNTAIN, CREST (12,203)[Tehipite]
Said to have been named on account of mountain sheep, erroneously called goats, once seen there. (J. N. Le Conte.)

First recorded ascent by J. N. Le Conte and party in 1896. (S.C.B., 1897, II:2, p. 79.)

GODDARD, MOUNT (13,555)[Mount Goddard]
“Thirty-two miles north-northwest is a very high mountain, called Mount Goddard, in honor of a Civil Engineer who has done much to advance our knowledge of the geography of California, and who is the author of “Britton & Rey’s Map.” (Whitney Survey: Geology, 1865, p. 382.) George Henry Goddard was engaged for several years (1853-1855) in surveying for a practical wagon route across the Sierra Nevada. In 1855 he ascertained that the boundary angle between California and the then territory of Utah was situated in Lake Tahoe and not, as supposed, in Carson Valley. He prepared a map of California, published by Britton & Rey in 1857. Born in England about 1817; naturalized American citizen, 1861; lived in San Francisco for many years. (U.S.C. & G. Survey: Report for 1900, appendix 3, p. 264. Report of Surveyor-General of California, 1856, p. 101.)

Brewer’s party of the Whitney Survey in 1864 made two unsuccessful attempts to reach the summit. (Whitney Survey: Geology, 1865, pp. 392, 394, 398,399.)

“We found the Sierra Club register in the monument on the summit and inscribed our names with those of fifteen others who have made the ascent since September 23, 1879, when, as a small yellow document proclaims, the mountain was first climbed by Lil A. Winchell and Louis W. Davis.” (S.C.B., 190l, III:3, p. 255, notes of a climb of Mount Goddard in 1900 by Harley P. Chandler. See, also, S.C.B., 1922, XI:3, p. 251.)

GOLDEN TROUT CREEK[Olancha]
In 1903 President Roosevelt sent Dr. Barton Warren Evermann to the Kern region for the express purpose of reporting on the remarkable golden trout, several specimens of which had been scientifically described. Dr. Evermann found in this creek a variety different from any theretofore described. He named it Salmo roosevelti.

“This is the most beautiful of all the trouts: the brilliancy and richness of its coloration is not equaled in any other known species; the delicate golden olive of the head, back, and upper part of the side, the clear golden yellow along and below the lateral line, and the marvelously rich cadmium of the under parts fully entitle this species to be known above all others as the golden trout.” (Evermann: The Golden Trout of the Southern High Sierras. Bulletin of the Bureau of Fisheries, 1905, Vol. 25, p. 28.—See, also, S.C.B., 1912, VIII:3, pp. 193-199.)

This creek was once known as Whitney Creek, because its source is near the peak ascended by Clarence King in 1871, which he supposed to be Mount Whitney. Long after the error was discovered in 1873, the name remained attached to the creek. Later it was called Volcano Creek, on account of the cinder-cones in the vicinity. (Mount Whitney Club Journal, 1902, no. 1, p. 2; 1903, no. 2, pp. 41-43.) The U.S.G.S. fixed the name Golden Trout Creek, retaining the name Volcano for the falls only. (R. B. Marshall.)

GOODALE MOUNTAIN, CREEK[Mount Goddard]
Thornas J. Goodale, a pioneer of Owens Valley, who had a location on the creek. In 1871 be was editor of the Inyo Lancet. (W. A. Chalfant.)

GOODALE PASS[Mount Goddard]
Probably for Gus G. Goodale, son of Thomas J. Goodale, at one time a ranger, U. S. Forest Service. (W. A. Chalfant.)

This pass is on the main route between North Fork of Mono Creek and head of Fish Creek.

GOODE, MOUNT (13,068)[Mount Goddard]
By authority of the U. S. Geographic Board (1026), this name has been transposed from the peak properly called Black Giant to a hitherto unnamed, peak on the main crest.

Richard Urquhart Goode, U.S.G.S.; topographer from 1879; later geographer in charge of surveys in western United States; born in Virginia, 1858, died 1903; graduate of University of Virginia. (U.S.G.S.: Twenty-fourth Annual Report, 1903, pp. 287-290.)

GORGE OF DESPAIR[Tehipite]
Named in 1879 by L. A. Winchell. (L. A. Winchell.)

GOULD, MOUNT (12,858)[Mount Whitney]
Wilson S. Gould, of Oakland, was a member of the Le Conte party in the Kings River region in 1896. On July 13, 1896, he and Joseph N. Le Conte climbed the peak north of Kearsarge Pass, which Le Conte named Mount Gould. (S.C.B., 1897, II:2, p. 85.)

The first known ascent was made by J. N. Le Conte, Hubert Dyer, Fred Pheby, C. B. Lakeman, 1890. “The main crest, 12,000 feet in elevation, was reached on July 20; and later in the day a lofty peak just to the north of pass was ascended. Inasmuch as we were the first persons ever to touch its summit, we named it University Peak.” (Hubert Dyer: Camping in the Highest Sierras, in Appalachia, 1892, VI:4, p. 295.) The name University Peak was subsequently transferred to a higher peak south of Kearsarge Pass. (J. N. Le Conte.)

GRACE MEADOW[Dardanelles]
Grace Sovulewski, now Mrs. Frank Ewing, of Yosemite, daughter of Gabriel Sovulewski, long in the government service in Yosemite National Park.

GRANITE BASIN, CREEK, PASS[Tehipite]
The field party of the Whitney Survey under Brewer visited Granite Basin in 1864, as shown by the Hoffmann map of 1873, on which the basin is unmistakably delineated. “The region around the crest of the ridge between the forks of the Kings consists of granite masses, with spurs projecting out from them, and embracing basins of bare rock, each having a small lake at the bottom.” (Whitney Survey: Geology, 1865, pp. 392-393.)

GRANT LAKE
Shown on map as early as 1871. (Whitney: Yosemite, Guide Book, pocket edition, 1871.)

GRAVEYARD MEADOWS[Mount Goddard]
Named by sheepmen because of the graves of two of their number who were murdered and lie buried there. (J. N. Le Conte.)

GRAY PEAK (11,581)[Mount, Lyell]
One of the Merced group. Shown on McClure maps of 1895 and 1896 as Gray Peak or Mount Hayes; on Le Conte map of 1893 as Gray Peak.

GREAT WESTERN DIVIDE[Olancha, Mount Whitney, Kaweah, Tehipite]
Called by the Whitney Survey (Geology, 1865, p. 382) the western ridge. Shown on Le Conte map of 1893 as Great Western Ridge. On W. R. Dudley’s sketch map accompanying his account of a visit to the Kaweah Peaks in 1896 (S.C.B., 1898, II:3, opp. p. 185) it is called Western Divide. First shown as Great Western Divide on Le Conte map of 1896 in S.C.B., 1897, II:2.

GRIZZLY POINT OR PEAK[Yosemite]
Charles A. Bailey made the first ascent about 1885, according to Hutchings, who quotes a letter from Bailey describing the ascent. (Hutchings: In the Heart of the Sierras, 1886, pp. 454-455.)

GROUSE MEADOWS[Mount Goddard]
Named by L. A. Winchell in 1879. (L. A. Winchell.)

GRUNIGEN CREEK[Kaweah]
Originally known as Lake Cañon Creek. It runs by the home of the Grunigen family, formerly spelled von Grueningen. (George W. Stewart.)

GULL LAKE[Mount Lyell]
So called by Israel C. Russell in his Quarternary History of Mono Valley, California (in Eighth Annual Report of the U.S.G.S., for 1886-1887, p. 343) and shown on W. D. Johnson’s map accompanying it.

GUYOT, MOUNT (12,305)[Mount Whitney]
“Immediately west of us was a bare granite cone or pyramid, with great snow masses (September 3d [1881] on its northern and eastern slopes. This the party agreed, at [Captain J. W. A.] Wright’s request, to call Mount Guyot, in honor of the distinguished Swiss geologist and geographer, whose lectures for two years at Princeton, New Jersey, are among the pleasantest recollections of is college days. The pass was also named Guyot Pass.” (Elliott: Guide to the Grand and Sublime Scenery of the Sierra Nevada, 1883, p. 49.)

W. B. Wallace built a monument on summit, 1881. (G. W. Stewart.)

Arnold Henri Guyot (1807-1884); born in Switzerland; came to America, 1848, at instance of Louis Agassiz; professor of physical geography and geology, Princeton, 1854-1884; explored the Appalachian Mountain system; made first ascent of Mount Carrigain, White Mountains, New Hampshire, 1857. (Appalachia, July 1907, XI:3, pp. 229-239.)


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