The Ketchum Keystone, August 24, 1895 The geological survey corps of E.T. Perkins, Jr., is now at Sawtooth. During the past few weeks it has been operating on the headwaters of the various streams tributary to Wood river from the north. The highest of the peaks at the head of East Fork of Wood river has been duly confirmed with … Continue reading
In this article Harry Curtis claims that in 1892 he climbed a peak at the head of Wood and Big Lost rivers that was a thousand feet higher than Hyndman Peak. Interesting he did so with E.T. Perkins of the USGS. While the story seems based on a confused recollection it does demonstrate how little was known about Idaho’s mountains … Continue reading
Mountain climbers and obsessive peak-baggers have a common goal: to stand atop a specific mountain or series of mountains. It is generally accepted that you must stand on the highest point of a mountain to claim a successful ascent. Thankfully, about 95% of the time, there is no dispute as to the mountain top’s exact location (true summit) and its … Continue reading
Lyman Marden was a member of the USGS team that surveyed the Borah Peak quadrangle. He wrote an article entitled Climbing the Slopes of Mount Borah—the Dean of Idaho Peaks about the survey. This article appeared in the Idaho Statesman in 1935. In 1950, he wrote the following report for the Boise Public Library. —An account given to the Boise Public Library … Continue reading
In the early 1920s, Hyndman Peak was considered Idaho’s highest summit. After an article (not yet located) in the Idaho Statesman declared Hyndman the highest, a protest was sent to the Statesman and subsequently published by the paper. The protest, set out below, declared Patterson Peak in the White Clouds as the highest Idaho summit and claimed it was 13,000 feet high. … Continue reading
Lee Morrison was a USGS topographic engineer who led many mapping expeditions in Idaho in the 1920s and 1930s. He announced in 1929 that his calculations had identified an unnamed peak in the Pahsimeroi Mountains of the Lost River Range as being much higher than Mount Hyndman. The peak was soon there after named Borah Peak (aka Mount Borah). In … Continue reading