Mt. Dana
Mt. Gibbs

Fri, Aug 6, 1993

With: Terry Davis

   Etymology
Mt. Dana
Mt. Gibbs
 Story Map Profile
Mt. Dana later climbed Sat, Jul 19, 2008

Mt. Gibbs (12,773 ft.)

Named by Olmstead in 1864

Also Canyon, Lake

"'Started for the summit [of Mt. Dana] but took the next peak s. of Mt. Dana, fearing O. [Frederick Law Olmsted] could not reach the other. This I managed to get his horse up, so that he rode to the top, where we lunched. He named the peak Mt. Gibbs.' (Brewer diary, August 31, 1864, in BL.)

"Oliver Wolcott Gibbs (1822-1908), professor of science at Harvard, 1863-87, a a lifelong friend of J. D. Whitney. Brewer and Olmstead made the first ascent. Olmstead was the chairman of the first Board of Commissioners to manage the Yosemite Grant, 1864.

Gibbs Canyon was named by Israel C. Russell in the early 1880s. (Russell, Quaternary, 336.) Gibbs Lake was first named on the Mono Craters 15' map, 1953."
- Peter Browning, Place Names of the Sierra Nevada

"The indomitable Brewer, leaving Hoffmann in care of the others, accompanied Olmstead to Yosemite and on up to the high country of the Tuolumne. They rode horseback nearly to the summit of the peak just south of Mount Dana and named it for their friend Professor Oliver Wolcott Gibbs of Harvard. "Strange enough," says Brewer in his notebook, "we saw a group of persons on Mount Dana, clear against the sky. These turned out to be the party of a Mr. St. Johns, including a little girl six years old and a man sixty-two years old and lame. We met them at the Soda Springs next day.""
- Francis P. Farquhar, History of the Sierra Nevada

References to can also be found in these files:
    • More of Bob's Trip Reports

    For more information see these SummitPost pages: Mt. Dana - Mt. Gibbs

    This page last updated: Sat Apr 7 17:02:14 2007
    For corrections or comments, please send feedback to: snwbord@hotmail.com