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HAECKEL, MOUNT (13,422) | [Mount Goddard] |
HALF DOME (8852) | [Yosemite] |
“The whole appearance of the mass is that of an originally dome-shaped elevation, with an exceedingly steep curve, of which the western half has been split off and has become engulfed. Hence the name, which is one that seems to suggest itself at first sight of this truly marvelous crest of rock.” (Whitney Survey: Geology, 1865, p. 416.)
“The front of the dome, on the other hand, appears by contrast smooth and fresh. It has been formed rather recently through the rapid scaling off of successive thin plates or sheets cleft by close-set parallel partings of an accentuated fissure zone. A body of these plates still clings to the dome front at its, northeast end, and it is there that one may observe the character of the fissure zone noted. Ice that formerly lodged at the foot of the great precipice no doubt has served to accelerate its recession.” (Matthes: Sketch of Yosemite National Park, 1912, p. 47.)
“Tesaiyak. The Half Dome, generally spelt Tisayac.” (Whitney: Yosemite Guide Book, 1870, p. 17.)
“Tissaack, South Dome in Yosemite, is . . . the name of a woman who according to tradition was transformed into the mountain.” (Kroeber: California Place Names of Indian Origin, 1916, p. 62.) For versions of the Indian legend, see—Powers: Tribes of California, in Contributions to North American Ethnology, III, 1877, pp. 364, 367-368; and Bertha H. Smith: Yosemite Legends, 1904, pp. 45-54.
“Until the fall of 1875 the storm-beaten summit of this magnificent landmark was a terra incognita, as it had never been trodden by human feet. . . . This honor was reserved for a brave young Scotchman, a native of Montrose, named George G. Anderson, who by dint of pluck, skill, unswerving perseverance, and personal daring, climbed to its summit, and was the first that ever successfully scaled it. This was accomplished at 3 o’clock p.m. of October 12, 1875.” (Hutchings: In the Heart of the Sierras, 1886, pp. 456-457— See, also, S.C.B., 1920, X:1, pp. 101-102.)
“A year or two before Anderson gained the summit, John Conway, a resident of the valley, and his son, excellent mountaineers, attempted to reach the top from the Saddle by climbing barefooted up the grand curve with a rope which they fastened at irregular intervals by means of eye-bolts driven into joints of the rock. But, finding that the upper portion of the curve would require laborious drilling, they abandoned the attempt, glad to escape from the dangerous position they had reached, some 300 feet above the Saddle. Anderson began with Conway’s old rope, which had been left in place, and resolutely drilled his way to the top, inserting eye-bolts five to six feet apart, and making his rope fast to each in succession, resting his feet on the last bolt while he drilled a hole for the next above. Occasionally some irregularity in the curve, or slight foothold, would enable him to climb a few feet without the rope, which he would pass and begin drilling again, and thus the whole work was accomplished in less than a week.” (Muir: Picturesque California, edited by John Muir, 1888, vol. I, pp. 71-72.—See, also, Whitney: Yosemite Guide Book, 1870 p. 96.)
HALSTEAD MEADOW | [Tehipite] |
HAMILTON LAKES | [Tehipite] |
HAPPY GAP | [Tehipite] |
The name is mentioned as known to John Fox, pioneer of Kings River, in 1896. (S.C.B., 1897, II:1, p. 45.)
HAPPY ISLES | [Yosemite] |
HARRISON PASS | [Mount Whitney] |
“Ben Harrison herded sheep in upper Kern in ’80s. Was part Cherokee Indian. He climbed up to saddle of pass from the south, but did not travel or herd over the pass. He built a monument on the pass. It was probably used by sheepmen in 1875 or 1876.” (Chester Versteeg, from Robert M. Woods.)
HASKELL MEADOW | [Kaiser] |
HAZEL GREEN | [Yosemite] |
HEATHER LAKE | [Tehipite] |
HELEN LAKE | [Mount Goddard] |
HELEN LAKE | [Dardanelles] |
HELEN LAKE | [Mount Lyell] |
HELL-FOR-SURE PASS | [Mount Goddard] |
HELMS MEADOW | [Kaiser] |
HENRY, MOUNT (12,197) | [Mount Goddard] |
HERMIT, THE (12,352) | [Mount Goddard] |
“The traveler will be greatly attracted by a very sharp peak or butte that rises on the south wall. From its isolated position as viewed from the valley we called it the Hermit. . . . It really forms the termination of several peaks which, however, are not visible from below.” (Solomons: Manuscript prepared for the Sierra Club, 1896, p. 78.)
HETCH HETCHY | [Yosemite] |
[Editor’s note: This grass may be Dichelostemma capitatum, commonly known as “blue dicks” or “grass nuts.”—dea]
“An explanation of the meaning of the word Hetch Hetchy has been obtained through the kindness of John Muir, who says: ‘I have been informed by mountaineers who know something of the Indian language that Hetch Hetchy is the name of a species of grass that the Tuolumne Indians used for food, and which grows on the meadow at the lower end of the valley. The grain, when ripe, was gathered and beaten out and pounded into meal in mortars.’ The word was originally spelled Hatchatchie.” (Sanchez: Spanish and Indian Place Names of California, 1922, p. 332.)
“Hatchatchie Valley (erroneously spelled Hetch Hetchy).” (Powers: Tribes of California, in Contributions to North American Ethnology, III, 1877, p. 357.)
“The Lower Tuolumne Yosemite, that I am about to sketch—called ‘Hetch Hetchy’ by the Indians—is said to have been discovered by one Joseph Screech, a hunter, in the year 1850, one year before Captain Boling and his party discovered Yosemite, in their pursuit of marauding Indians. . . . My first excursion to Hetch Hetchy was undertaken in the early portion of November, 1871.” (John Muir: Hetch Hetchy Valley, in Overland Monthly, July, 1873, pp. 42-43.)
“Hetch Hetchy is claimed by a sheep-owner named Smith, who drives stock into it every summer, by a trail which was built by Joseph Screech. It is often called Smith’s Valley.” (Same, pp. 49-50.)
“The valley was first visited, in 1850, by Mr. Joseph Screech, a mountaineer of this region, who found it occupied by Indians. This gentleman informed me that, up to a very recent date, this valley was disputed ground between the Pah Utah Indians from the eastern slope and the Big Creek Indians from the western slope of the Sierras; they had several fights, in which the Pah Utahs proved victorious. The latter still visit the valley every fall to gather acorns, which abound in this locality.” (Notes on Hetch Hetchy Valley by C. F. Hoffmann, read by J. D. Whitney at meeting of California Academy of Natural Sciences, October 21, 1867, in Proceedings, vol. III, part V, 1868, p. 370.)
HETCH HETCHY RESERVOIR | [Yosemite] |
Project originated in 1901, when Mayor James D. Phelan applied for reservoir sites at Lake Eleanor and Hetch Hetchy. Applications denied, 1903, and again in 1905, by E. A. Hitchcock, Secretary of the Interior. In 1908, James K. Garfield, Secretary of the Interior, granted permit allowing City to develop Lake Eleanor and Cherry Valley, and if these proved insufficient, then Hetch Hetchy. In 1910, Secretary of the Interior R. A. Ballinger required the City “to show why the Hetch Hetchy Valley and reservoir site should not be eliminated from said permit.” An Advisory Board of Army Engineers, composed of Colonel John Biddle, Lieutenant-Colonel Harry Taylor, and Colonel Spencer Cosby, was appointed to investigate and report to the Secretary of the Interior. Report rendered February 19, 1913. Secretary of the Interior Walter L. Fisher, on March 1, 1913, declared that action on this matter should not be taken by the Secretary of the Interior, but that a grant should be made only upon specific authority of Congress. A bill was introduced in the next Congress, and was passed after extensive hearings had been held.
References: Proceedings before the Secretary of the Interior in re use of Hetch Hetchy Reservoir Site in the Yosemite National Park by the City of San Francisco, Washington, 1910.— Report of Advisory Board of Army Engineers to the Secretary of the Interior, Washington, 1913.— The Hetch Hetchy Water Supply for San Francisco, report by John R. Freeman, San Francisco, 1912.— Robert Underwood Johnson: Remembered Yesterdays, 1924, pp. 307-313.— Badè: Life and Letters of John Muir, 1924, II, pp. 360-361, 384-385, 388-389, 416-423.—Muir: The Yosemite, 1912, pp. 249-262.—Muir: in S.C.B., 1908, VI:4, pp. 211-220; in Outlook, November 2, 1907; in Century, January, 1909.— See, also, S.C.B., 1908, VI:4, pp. 264-268; 1908, VI:5, pp. 321-329; 1909, VII:1, pp. 69-71, 1909, VII:2, p. 133; 1910, VII:4, pp. 260-263; 1913, IX:1, pp. 44-45; 1914, IX:2, pp. 174-176, 192-199.
Construction was begun on approach roads in 1914; clearing floor of Hetch Hetchy Valley completed, 1917; construction of dam begun, 1919; dam completed and reservoir filled, 1923. (See, also, Lake Eleanor.) Hydro-electric power available at main power-house, Moccasin Creek, 1925; aqueduct for city water-supply not yet completed (1926).
HILGARD, MOUNT (13,350) | [Mount Goddard] |
“The rocks of the First Recess, which opens southward just above the valley, have striking individuality. The granite is very pure and creamy in appearance. Mount Hilgard, named in honor of Professor Hilgard of the University of California, stands at the head of this splendid side gorge.” (Theodore S. Solomons: Unexplored Regions of the High Sierra, in Overland Monthly, January, 1897, p. 74.) From this it appears that the name was originally given to the mountain shown on the U.S.G.S. map (edition of 1912) as Recess Peak.
Eugene Woldemar Hilgard (1833-1916); native of Bavaria; professor at University of Mississippi, and at University of Michigan; professor agriculture at University of California, 1875-1903; professor emeritus, 1903-1916.
Climbed by Charles F. Urquhart, July, 1905, probably the first ascent. (Letter from George R. Davis to Walter L. Huber, September 14, 1916.)
HITCHCOCK, MOUNT (13,188) | [Mount Whitney] |
Charles Henry Hitchcock (1836-1919); professor of geology, Dartmouth College, 1868-1908; emeritus, 1908-1919; conducted the first high mountain observatory in United States, on Mount Washington, N. H., winter of 1870-1871.
HOCKETT MEADOWS, LAKES, TRAIL | [Kaweah] |
“Although this is one of the oldest trails into the mountains, it is the roughest. Both the Hockett and Jordan trails were ‘built’ for the purpose of diverting the travel to the mines of Inyo County from the Walker Pass. According to the ‘franchises’ that were granted for the construction and operation of these two toll-trails, they were intended to be converted into wagon-roads as soon as possible; but the collapse of the Inyo mining boom in the early ’60s defeated the enterprise, and no attempt was ever made to build any part of a road through the rough mountains.” (P. M. Norboe: Trails into the Mt. Whitney and Kern River Regions, in Mt. Whitney Club Journal, 1903, no. 2, p. 67.)
HOFFMANN, MOUNT (10,921) | [Yosemite] |
Charles Frederick Hoffmann (1838-1913); born at Frankfurt-am-Main, Germany; educated at an engineering school; topographer with Frederick W. Lander on Fort Kearney, South Pass, and Honey Lake wagon-road survey, 1857; came to California, 1858; member of California State Geological Survey, under Josiah Dwight Whitney, throughout its existence, 1860-1874; professor of topographical engineering, Harvard, 1871-1872; married Lucy Mayotta Browne, daughter of J. Ross Browne, 1870; associated with brothers-in-law, Ross E. Browne and Alfred Craven, in mining engineering at Virginia City, Nevada, 1874-1876; managed mines in Mexico, and at Forest Hill Divide, California, 1878-1886; investigated mines in Siberia and in Argentina; associated with Ross E. Browne in practice of mining engineering, with offices in San Francisco, 1888-1906. (Ross E. Browne.) Portrait in S.C.B., 1923, XI:4, plate cxi, and S.C.B., 1925, XII:2, plate XLIV.
Whitney says in a letter to his brother, May 3, 1862: “Hoffmann does as well in his place as anyone could possibly do. He is a German, twenty-four years old, formerly topographer to Lander’s wagon-road expedition, with a capital eye for hills and orography in general, and no vices.” (Brewster: Life and Letters of Josiah Dwight Whitney, 1909, p. 214.)
Whitney, Brewer, and Hoffmann were in the vicinity of Mount Hoffmann in 1863, and one or all may have climbed it. The summit and the view are described in the report. (Whitney Survey: Geology, 1865, p. 424.) Clarence King climbed it in October, 1864. (King: Mountaineering in the Sierra Nevada, 1872, pp. 144-145.) In 1867 a photograph was taken of the summit by W. Harris, showing Hoffmann himself with his transit. This photograph is among the plates accompanying The Yosemite Book, issued by the Whitney Survey in 1868. (See, also, S.C.B., 1923, XI:4, plate CXIII.)
John Muir climbed Mount Hoffmann, July 26, 1869. “Ramble to the summit of Mount Hoffmann, eleven thousand feet high, the highest point in life’s journey my feet have yet touched.” (Muir: My First Summer in the Sierra, 1911, p. 199.)
HOMERS NOSE (9005) | [Kaweah] |
The Indians say that the first Wutchumna Indians were “created” here by Tsohit, the Eagle God, and the Wolf God. (George W. Stewart.)
HOOPER, MOUNT (12,322) | [Mount Goddard] |
HOOVER LAKE | [Bridgeport] |
Lake named in 1905 by engineer of Standard Consolidated Mining Co., when making map of Green Creek basin for power development. (T. J. Hoover, E. H. Nutter.)
HOPKINS, MOUNT (12,300) | [Mount Goddard] |
HORSE CORRAL MEADOW | [Tehipite] |
HORTON LAKE | [Mount Goddard] |
HOSPITAL ROCK | [Tehipite] |
In 1860, Hale D. Tharp and John Swanson stayed here for three days while the Indians healed Swanson’s injured leg. In 1873 Alfred Everton was accidentally shot in a bear-trap that he had himself set. George Cahoon carried Everton to the rock, where he left him while he went for assistance. From this incident Hale Tharp gave it the name Hospital Rock. In 1893 James Wolverton lay here during his last illness. (Walter Fry, in Sequoia National Park Nature Guide Bulletin, No. 5, February 17, 1925.)
HUMPHREYS, MOUNT (13,972) | [Mount Goddard] |
Named by Whitney Survey; not mentioned in reports, but appears on Hoffmann’s map of 1873. The identity of the peak now known as Mount Humphreys with that on Hoffmann’s map and in Wheeler Survey reports is discussed by J. N. Le Conte in S.C.B., 1022, XI:3, pp. 249-250.
John Muir speaks of climbing Mount Humphreys in Century Magazine, November, 1891, p. 86, and also describes the view from the summit in Overland Monthly, January, 1875. (S.C.B., 1921, XI:2, p. 182.) But he was undoubtedly mistaken in the identity of the mountain. (S.C.B., 1922, XI:3, pp. 250-251; Badè: Life and Letters of John Muir, 1923, I, p. 388.)
An illustration by William Keith in Picturesque California, edited by John Muir, 1888, vol. I, opp. p. 12, confirms the opinion that the peak climbed by Muir was one of the “Evolution Group.”
First ascent, July 18, 1904, by James S. Hutchinson and Edward C. Hutchinson. (S.C.B., 1905, V:3, pp. 153-173.) For other ascents, see S.C.B., 1920, XI:1, pp. 56-59; S.C.B., 1921, XI:2, pp. 203-204; S.C.B., 1922, XI:3, p. 313.
HUNTINGTON LAKE | [Kaiser] |
Huntington Lake reservoir formed in Big Creek basin by three dams constructed for Pacific Light & Power Corporation by Stone & Webster, 1912-1913; fourth dam constructed and level of reservoir surface raised thirty-five feet, 1916-1917. Pacific Light & Power Corporation consolidated with Southern California Edison Company, 1917. (Hydroelectric Power Systems of California, U. S. Geological Survey Water-Supply Paper 493, by Frederick Hall Fowler, 1923, pp. 640-642.)
HUNTINGTON, MOUNT (12,393) | [Mount Goddard] |
HURD PEAK (12,224) | [Mount Goddard] |
HUTCHINGS, MOUNT (10,787) | [Tehipite] |
HUTCHINSON MEADOW | [Mount Goddard] |
Edward Church Hutchinson, president and managing director of Kennedy Mining and Milling Company, Amador County, who accompanied his brother on first ascent of Mount Humphreys.
HUXLEY, MOUNT (13,124) | [Mount Goddard] |
HYATT LAKE | [Dardanelles] |
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