MATTERHORN PEAK (12,279 ft.) | Named by Wheeler Survey in 1878 |
'That the name is a poor one there can be no doubt ... there is only the
barest suggestion of resemblance to the wonderful Swiss mountain after which
it is called.' (Lincoln Hutchinson in SCB 3, no. 2, May 1900: 162-63.)
Lt. McClure, in 1894, gave the name to what are now the 'Finger Peaks' because
of the striking resemblance to alpine peaks; his map of 1896 thus has
'Matterhorn' misplaced, even though LeConte's of
1893 has it in the right place. (Farquhar
files: letter from McClure, Oct. 22, 1920.)"
- Peter Browning, Place Names of the Sierra Nevada
"During the 1950's [Gary] Snyder became involved with the San Francisco Beat
movement. After Snyder and Jack Kerouac climbed Matterhorn Peak in the
northern Sierra Nevada, Kerouac used Snyder as the model for Japhy Ryder,
the itinerant mountain-climbing poet of Dharma Bums (1958), a man who took
his Zen practice beyond the confines of formal study."
- ECO Books
|