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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. ]


R

RAE LAKE[Mount Whitney]
Named by R. B. Marshall, U.S.G.S., in 1906 for Mrs. William E. (Rachel Vrooman) Colby. (R. B. Marshall.)

RAFFERTY CREEK, PEAK (11,178)[Mount Lyell]
Captain Ogden Rafferty (1860-1922), Medical Corps, U. S. Army; A. B., Princeton, 1882; M. D., Columbia University, 1885; army surgeon, 1888; captain, 1893; major, 1901; lieutenant-colonel (retired), 1910.

Name given by Lieutenant McClure in 1895, when he was accompanied by Captain Rafferty on a patrol of Yosemite National Park. (N. F. McClure.)

RAMBAUD PEAK (11,023)[Mount Goddard]
Pete Rambaud, Basque sheepman, who brought the first sheep into Middle Fork of Kings River from Inyo side, via Bishop Pass, in 1877. (L. A. Winchell.)

RAMSHAW MEADOWS[Olancha]
Peter Ramshaw, a stockman of this region from 1861 to 1880. (Chester Versteeg.)

RAYMOND, MOUNT (8546)[Yosemite]
Israel Ward Raymond (1811-1887); influential in securing grant of Yosemite Valley to State of California, 1864; one of the first commissioners appointed by the governor to manage the Yosemite Valley and Mariposa Big Tree Grove, 1864, serving until 1886. Name given by Whitney Survey. (Biennial Reports of the Commissioners.—Mrs. George F. Ashton.)

RECESS PEAK (12,841)[Mount Goddard]
Named because of proximity to the First Recess of Mono Creek. Theodore S. Solomons discovered and named the First, Second, Third, and Fourth Recesses in 1894. (T. S. Solomons.)

RED-AND-WHITE MOUNTAIN (12,840)[Mount Goddard]
Named by Theodore S. Solomons in 1894. (T. S. Solomons; see illustration in S.C.B., 1899, II:5, plate XXIX, opp. p. 252.)

First ascent by Lincoln Hutchinson, James S. Hutchinson, Charles A. Noble, July 18, 1902. “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.” (S.C.B., 1903, IV:3, pp. 199-202.)

“Mr. Gardner visited the crimson-colored group noticed above, and which was about five miles north of the camp. The rocks were found to be of metamorphic slate, which continues about eight miles to the north, and is there lost under the granite. Enclosed in the slate, and having the same dip and strike, is a vein of white quartz rock sixty to seventy feet wide.” (Whitney: Yosemite Guide Book, 1870, p. 134.) This description appears to refer to Red-and-White Mountain specifically, although Red Slate Mountain was evidently included in the group named by the Whitney Survey “Red Slate Peaks.” There is no assertion and no evidence that Gardiner climbed to the summit of any of the peaks.

RED SLATE MOUNTAIN (13,152)[Mount Morrison]
Name appears on Hoffmann map of 1873 (Whitney Survey), but not clear whether applicable to this peak or to Red-and-White Mountain. (See Red-and-White Mountain.) Unlikely that Gardiner reached the summit of this peak, as it was too far from Whitney Survey camp on Mono Creek.

First ascent by Joseph N. Le Conte and Clarence L. Cory, June 22, 1898. (S.C.B., 1899, II:5, pp. 251-253.)

REDS MEADOW[Mount Lyell]
“Red” Satcher, a stockman, so called from his red beard.

REDWOOD MEADOW
Named in 1877 by W. B. Wallace, T. J. Witt, and N. B. Witt. (G. W. Stewart.) Bordered by good stand of Sequoia gigantea, with a large number of young trees. Patented land purchased from heirs of James H. Hamilton by Stephen T. Mather in 1921 and placed in trust to become public property when included in national park.

REFLECTION LAKE[Mount Whitney]
Named by Howard Longley and party, August, 1894. (S.C.B., 1895, 1:6, p. 192.)

REGULATION PEAK (10,500)[Mount Lyell]
Lieutenant Benson and a trumpeter named McBride were placing copies of the park regulations on trees throughout Yosemite National Park in 1895. Climbing to reconnoiter from a peak between Smedberg Lake and Rodgers Lake, McBride tacked a copy of the regulations on a tree and suggested the name Regulation Peak, and it so appears on Benson’s map of 1897. On McClure’s map of March, 1896, the name is placed in an ambiguous position, and later in entering the name on the U.S.G.S. quadrangle it became affixed to the wrong peak. To the true Regulation Peak, thus left vacant, the name of Volunteer Peak was assigned. (H. C. Benson.)

REINSTEIN, MOUNT (12,595)[Mount Goddard]
Named by R. B. Marshall, U.S.G.S., for Jacob Bert Reinstein, a regent of the University of California from 1897 to 1912. (R. B. Marshall.) A.B., University of California, 1873; a charter member of the Sierra Club; died, 1911.

RETURN CREEK[Mount Lyell]
Shown on Wheeler Survey map, 1878-1879.

REVERSED CREEK[Mount Lyell]
“One unfamiliar with the geology of the basin will be surprised to find that June Lake . . . instead of discharging its drainage northward into Mono Valley, as would seem most natural, drains southward into the hills and is tributary to Rush Creek. The ancient drainage has been reversed by the deposition of morainal debris; we have therefore called the stream draining June and Gull lakes, Reversed Creek. The drainage before the site of June Lake was occupied by a glacier must have been northward.” (Israel C. Russell: Quarternary History of Mono Valley, in Eighth Annual Report of the U.S.G.S., for 1886-87, p. 343.)

RIBBON FALLS[Yosemite]
“The Indians call this Lung-oo-too-koo-yah, or the graceful and slender one; while a lady, whose name shall be nameless, once christened it ‘Virgin’s Tears’.” (Hutchings: In the Heart of the Sierras, 1886, p. 398.) “Lungyotuckoya. The Virgin’s Tears Creek, meaning Pigeon Creek.” (Whitney: Yosemite Guide Book, 1870, p. 16.)

“Mr. Hutchings, who, were it not for his exuberant imagination, might have learned better, gives the signification of ‘Lung-oo-to-koo-ya’ as ‘Long and Slender,’ and applies it to what he calls the Ribbon Fall. His name is better than his interpretation.” (Bunnell: Discovery of the Yosemite, 1880, p. 215.)

The total drop of the falls when full is 1612 feet, probably the longest in the world. (Figures from U.S.G.S. Map of Yosemite Valley, 1907, 1922, 1:24,000.)

RICHARDSON PEAK (9845)[Dardanelles]
Shown on Wheeler Survey map, 1878-1879. “I was accompanied [June, 1879] by Mr. Thomas Richardson, who has a sheep range in Cherry Valley and vicinity, and who is perfectly familiar with the rugged country south of the Relief trail.” (Wheeler Survey: Report of Lieutenant M. M. Macomb, in Annual Report of the Chief of Engineers, U. S. Army, for 1879, Appendix F of Appendix OO, p. 257.)

RICHTER CREEK[Mount Whitney]
This name is undoubtedly incorrect, as the stream waters lands once owned by I. P. Rittger, an early settler near Lone Pine. (W. A. Chalfant.)

RITTER, MOUNT (13,156)[Mount Lyell]
“Ritter is the name of the great German geographer [Karl Ritter, 1779-1859], the founder of the science of modern comparative geography.” (Whitney: Yosemite Guide Book, 1870, p. 101.)

Clarence King, approaching from the southwest, attempted to climb the mountain (probably in 1866), but did not quite reach the summit. (Whitney Survey: Yosemite Book, 1868, p. 98.)

First ascent by John Muir, October, 1872. (Muir: The Mountains of California,; 1894, pp. 52-73; first published in Scribner’s Monthly, July, 1880.) For subsequent notable ascents see: Russell: Existing Glaciers of the Sierra Nevada, in Fifth Annual Report of the U.S.G.S., for 1883-1884, p. 315; and S.C.B., 1922, XI:3, p. 248; S.C.B., 1893, I:1, p. 10; S.C.B., 1905, V:3, pp. 186-193; Appalachia, February, 1893, VII:1, pp. 1-8.

RIVER VALLEY[Tehipite]
Name now in general use for cañon of upper Middle Fork of Kaweah River.

RIXFORD, MOUNT (12,856)[Mount Whitney]
“ From several points on top of the Gardner Divide compass readings of the salient points in the basin were made and sketch maps were drawn. One of these points, the highest between the Main Crest and Mt. Gardner, was climbed by President [David Starr] Jordan, Professor and Mrs. Cubberley and the writer (and later by other members of the same party), and was found to be a peak worthy of christening. Records in a cairn on top showed that it had been climbed previously by Dr. Emmet Rixford of San Francisco, with two companions, and by Professor [Bolton Coit] Brown. We gave the name Mt. Rixford to this point.” (Vernon L. Kellogg: A Stanford Party in the Kings River Canyon, in Sunset Magazine, November, 1899, p. 18.—See, also, S.C.B., 1900, III:2, pp. 149, 169.)

Emmet Rixford; M. D., Cooper Medical College, San Francisco, 1891; B. S., University of California, 1887; Professor of Surgery, Stanford University, since 1909.

ROARING RIVER[Tehipite]
Named by Frank M. Lewis in the’70s. (Frank M. Lewis.)

ROCK ISLAND LAKE[Bridgeport]
“I named the stream Rock Creek, and the lake Rock Island Lake, from a large granite island that was visible near the northern end.” (N. F. McClure, in S.C.B., 1895, I:5, p. 178.)

RODGERS PEAK (13,036), LAKE[Mount Lyell]
Captain Alexander Rodgers, 4th Cavalry, U. S. Army, acting superintendent of Yosemite National Park, 1895 and 1897; born in New Jersey, 1852; graduated U. S. Military Academy, second lieutenant, 1875; first lieutenant, 1879; captain, 1887; major, 1899; lieutenant-colonel, 1903; colonel, 1906, retired 1911; lieutenant-colonel and colonel, Connecticut Infantry, 1898-1899.

The peak was named by Lieutenant McClure in 1895 and appears on his map of March, 1896. In the same year Lieutenant Benson named Rodgers Lake and gave the same name to the peak south of it. Owing to duplication of name, the U.S.G.S. dropped it from peak near Rodgers Lake, substituting name Regulation Peak, which was transferred from original location. (N. F. McClure, H. C. Benson.)

On Le Conte’s map of 1896 the peak is called Mount Kellogg, a name probably given by John Muir for Albert Kellogg, botanist.

ROSE LAKE[Mount Goddard]
Named by R. B. Marshall, U.S.G.S., for Rosa Hooper, daughter of Major William Burchell Hooper, of San Francisco, and sister of Selden S. Hooper, an assistant of the U.S.G.S. Miss Hooper is now a miniature painter in New York. (R. B. Marshall, Mrs. Mary Hooper Perry.)

ROWELL MEADOW[Tehipite]
Dr. Chester Rowell, of Fresno. Chester H. Rowell says his uncles Chester and George used to run sheep there years ago and had a sort of “shotgun” title to the meadow.

ROYAL ARCHES[Yosemite]
“The name given to the rocks now known as ‘The Royal Arches’ is Scho-ko-ya when alluding to the fall, and means ‘Basket Fall,’ as coming from To-ko-ya, and when referring to the rock itself it was called Scho-ko-ni, meaning the movable shade to a cradle, which, when in position, formed an arched shade over the infant’s head. The name of ‘The Royal Arch’ was given to it by a comrade who was a member of the Masonic Fraternity, and it has since been called ‘The Royal Arches’.” (Bunnell: Discovery of the Yosemite, 1880, p. 212.)

“Cho-ko-nip'o-deh (baby basket), Royal Arches. This curved and overhanging canopy-rock bears no little resemblance to an Indian baby-basket. Another form is cho-ko'ni; and either one means literally ‘dog-place’ or ‘dog-house.’” (Powers: Tribes of California, in Contributions to North American Ethnology, III, 1877, p. 364.)

RUSH CREEK[Mount Lyell]
An old name; shown on Hoffmann-Gardiner map of 1863-1867, in Whitney’s Yosemite Book, 1868.

RUSKIN, MOUNT (13,000)[Mount Whitney]
Named by Professor Bolton Coit Brown in 1895 for John Ruskin (1819-1900), English writer and critic. (J. N. Le Conte.)

RUSSELL, MOUNT (14,190)[Mount Whitney]
Israel Cook Russell (1852-1906); M.S., C.E., LL.D. (New York University); assistant geologist, Wheeler Survey, 1878; geologist, U.S.G.S.; professor of geology, University of Michigan, 1892-1906; geological researches in Mono Lake and Mount Lyell regions, 1881-1883. Published: Existing Glaciers of the United States, in Fifth Annual Report of the U.S.G.S., for 1883-1884, and Quarternary History of Mono Valley, California, in Eighth Annual Report of the U.S.G.S., for 1886-1887. (R. B. Marshall.)

RUTHERFORD LAKE[Mount Lyell]
Lieutenant Samuel McPherson Rutherford, 4th Cavalry, U. S. Army, on duty in Yosemite National Park, 1896; born in Pennsylvania, 1869; graduated U. S. Military Academy, second lieutenant, 1892; first lieutenant, 1899; captain, 1901; major, 1916; lieutenant-colonel, 1917; colonel, 1920; colonel, National Army, 1917-1919.


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