High Sierra Topix

We have a lot of folks here from different walks of life that may not know about our beloved range.

What kinds of things do you want to know about Sierra History?

Geology?
Emigrant trails?
Powerful People in preserving the land?
Great Historical places to visit?

Seems like we can do this forum proud with our collective knowledge.

Discussion appreciated..

rlown wrote:What kinds of things do you want to know about Sierra History?

One of the best resources for the history of the Owens valley & S Sierra is:
http://www.owensvalleyhistory.com/

I recently discovered that the road up to Horseshoe Mdw wasn't completed until the early 60s. Its purpose? To provide access to a proposed Disney developed ski resort @ Trail peak. The '64 Wilderness act put a kibosh on those plans.



Anyway, in order to gain access to Goldens, Tunnel Mdw airfield was created in the 30s, from which people could hike up & over Siberian. This is the background to the famous Yeager GT exploits from the 50s detailed here:

http://www.owensvalleyhistory.com/sierr ... age40.html

I'd like to know more about the Pre-Columbian history and cultures that used to call the Sierra home. (An archaeological site would be a great destination for a trip, but advertising them on a forum is unwise.) Information on trade routes, populated areas, and methods/tools/skills used by ancient people is all fascinating to me.

I'd like to find the definitive book on Sierra Nevada Geology, with more detail on roof pendants and volcanic activity. Mary Hill's book is too general.

vandman wrote:I'd like to find the definitive book on Sierra Nevada Geology, with more detail on roof pendants and volcanic activity. Mary Hill's book is too general.

Perhaps have a look at "Exploring the Highest Sierra" by James G. Moore. I'm not qualified to say its the definitive book, but its pretty detailed and comprehensive

I love reading first-hand accounts from prior to say, for a date, 1950. For instance, the old Sierra Club Bulletin had wonderful stories from Theodore Solomons, Bolton Coit Brown, Joseph LeConte, Marion Randall Parsons, and James S. Hutchinson. Everyone may have read John Muir, but I find the perspective of, for example, the Brewer Survey fascinating. As Carne_Del Muerto said, anything prior to the arrival of Europeans would also be fascinating (and probably illuminating) if it exists. Why didn't anyone bother to interview the Miwok and Piute people who had lived there for who knows how long to learn their perspective? I also wish someone would collect the photographs of LeConte, Cedric Wright (Ansel Adams best friend who Adams thought was an excellent photographer even if he wasn't a singular artist in the class of Adams or Edward Weston), and others from that time into a book.

copeg wrote:

vandman wrote:I'd like to find the definitive book on Sierra Nevada Geology, with more detail on roof pendants and volcanic activity. Mary Hill's book is too general.

Perhaps have a look at "Exploring the Highest Sierra" by James G. Moore. I'm not qualified to say its the definitive book, but its pretty detailed and comprehensive

I have a copy of Moore's book, and it might be the definitive book, but I'm hoping there might be something that goes even deeper. Maybe a college text book? I haven't found one yet.

This is what I have in my library, which is OK but a little bit basic:
Geology of the Sierra Nevada (Revised Ed.) - University of California Press; 2 edition (May 15, 2006)

I took an Environmental Geology course in college and the text book was excellent in covering the Sierra. Wish I had the book, or even the name of it to share but the book was long ago sold back to the book store...

EDIT: Our own giantbrookie would be an excellent person to weigh in here, but references cited in this article might be a good place to look. Also just stumbled upon this link while searching around; really cool site! http://geomaps.geosci.unc.edu/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

ERIC wrote:This is what I have in my library, which is OK but a little bit basic:
Geology of the Sierra Nevada (Revised Ed.) - University of California Press; 2 edition (May 15, 2006)

I took an Environmental Geology course in college and the text book was excellent in covering the Sierra. Wish I had the book, or even the name of it to share but the book was long ago sold back to the book store...

EDIT: Our own giantbrookie would be an excellent person to weigh in here, but references cited in this article might be a good place to look. Also just stumbled upon this link while searching around; really cool site! http://geomaps.geosci.unc.edu/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

I had a great book also from college, but I don't know what happened to it or the title. That geomaps site is great. i took some of those maps on a trip last year into the Ionian basin, and they were very informative. Excellent maps! Very detailed. Helped to explain the bizarre geology of the Goddard Pendant.

I would love to hear anything about mining, I've read Mine in the Sky by Joseph M. Kurtak and thoroughly enjoyed it.