Mount Jordan is a remote mountain summit located on the Kings–Kern Divide of the

Sierra Nevada The Sierra Nevada () is a mountain range in the Western United States, between the Central Valley of California and the Great Basin. The vast majority of the range lies in the state of California, although the Carson Range spur lies primarily ...

mountain range, in

Tulare County Tulare County ( ) is a county located in the U.S. state of California. As of the 2020 census, the population was 473,117. The county seat is Visalia. The county is named for Tulare Lake, once the largest freshwater lake west of the Great Lakes. ...

of northern

California California is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States, located along the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the List of states and territori ...

. It is situated on the shared boundary of

Kings Canyon National Park Kings Canyon National Park is an American national park in the southern Sierra Nevada, in Fresno and Tulare Counties, California. Originally established in 1890 as General Grant National Park, the park was greatly expanded and renamed to Kings ...

with

Sequoia National Park Sequoia National Park is an American national park in the southern Sierra Nevada (U.S.), Sierra Nevada east of Visalia, California. The park was established on September 25, 1890, and today protects of forested mountainous terrain. Encompassing ...

, southwest of

Mount Stanford Mount Stanford, at an elevation of , is on the Kings-Kern Divide in Kings Canyon National Park. It is named for Stanford University. It is the fifteenth tallest mountain in California and is located about from University Peak (California), Unive ...

, and one mile west of

Mount Genevra Mount Genevra is a remote mountain summit located on the Kings–Kern Divide of the Sierra Nevada mountain range, in Tulare County of northern California. It is situated on the shared boundary of Kings Canyon National Park with Sequoia National ...

, which is the nearest neighbor.

Topographic relief Terrain or relief (also topographical relief) involves the vertical and horizontal dimensions of land surface. The term bathymetry is used to describe underwater relief, while hypsometry studies terrain relative to sea level. The Latin word ...

is significant as the north aspect rises above Lake Reflection in 1.3 mile. Mount Jordan ranks as the 84th highest summit in California, and the fifth-highest peak on the

Kings Kings or King's may refer to: *Monarchs: The sovereign heads of states and/or nations, with the male being kings *One of several works known as the "Book of Kings": **The Books of Kings part of the Bible, divided into two parts **The ''Shahnameh'' ...

–

Kern KERN (1180 AM) is a commercial radio station licensed to Wasco-Greenacres, California, and serving the Bakersfield metropolitan area. The station is owned by American General Media. The radio studios and offices are in the American General Me ...

Divide.

History

The mountain's name was proposed by the

Sierra Club The Sierra Club is an environmental organization with chapters in all 50 United States, Washington D.C., and Puerto Rico. The club was founded on May 28, 1892, in San Francisco, California, by Scottish-American preservationist John Muir, who be ...

in 1925 to honor

David Starr Jordan David Starr Jordan (January 19, 1851 – September 19, 1931) was the founding president of Stanford University, serving from 1891 to 1913. He was an ichthyologist during his research career. Prior to serving as president of Stanford Univer ...

(1851–1931), the founding president of

Stanford University Stanford University, officially Leland Stanford Junior University, is a private research university in Stanford, California. The campus occupies , among the largest in the United States, and enrolls over 17,000 students. Stanford is consider ...

. This mountain's name was officially adopted in 1926 by the

United States Board on Geographic Names The United States Board on Geographic Names (BGN) is a federal body operating under the United States Secretary of the Interior. The purpose of the board is to establish and maintain uniform usage of geographic names throughout the federal governm ...

. Dr. Jordan, with a party of Stanford associates, spent several weeks of 1899 in the Bubbs Creek region, exploring and mapping Ouzel Creek, to which he gave its name, and he climbed Mount Stanford on August 16, 1899. In July 2020, the president of the Sierra Club denounced Jordan for being one of the "vocal advocates for white supremacy and its pseudo-scientific arm, eugenics." The president also announced, "We will also spend the next year studying our history and determining which of our monuments need to be renamed or pulled down entirely." It is not yet clear on how such a reassessment would affect the status of Mount Jordan, which the club had helped to name. The probable

first ascent In mountaineering, a first ascent (abbreviated to FA in guide books) is the first successful, documented attainment of the top of a mountain or the first to follow a particular climbing route. First mountain ascents are notable because they en ...

of the lower north summit was made July 15, 1925, by

Norman Clyde Norman Clyde (April 8, 1885 – December 23, 1972) was a mountaineer, mountain guide, freelance writer, nature photographer, and self-trained naturalist. He is well known for achieving over 130 first ascents, many in California's Sierra Nevada an ...

, who is credited with 130 first ascents, most of which were in the Sierra Nevada.

Climbing

Established climbing routes: * From the south – First ascent in 1936, by two Sierra Club parties led by Lewis Clark and Carl Jensen * North face – August 3, 1940, by Art Argiewicz and six others * West face – descended August 3, 1940, by Art Argiewicz and party

Climate

Mount Jordan is located in an

alpine climate Alpine climate is the typical weather (climate) for elevations above the tree line, where trees fail to grow due to cold. This climate is also referred to as a mountain climate or highland climate. Definition There are multiple definitions of ...

zone. Most

weather front A weather front is a boundary separating air masses for which several characteristics differ, such as air density, wind, temperature, and humidity. Disturbed and unstable weather due to these differences often arises along the boundary. For in ...

s originate in the

Pacific Ocean The Pacific Ocean is the largest and deepest of Earth's five oceanic divisions. It extends from the Arctic Ocean in the north to the Southern Ocean (or, depending on definition, to Antarctica) in the south, and is bounded by the continen ...

, and travel east toward the Sierra Nevada mountains. As fronts approach, they are forced upward by the peaks, causing them to drop their moisture in the form of rain or

snowfall Snow comprises individual ice crystals that grow while suspended in the atmosphere—usually within clouds—and then fall, accumulating on the ground where they undergo further changes. It consists of frozen crystalline water throughout ...

onto the range (

orographic lift Orographic lift occurs when an air mass is forced from a low elevation to a higher elevation as it moves over rising terrain. As the air mass gains altitude it quickly cools down adiabatically, which can raise the relative humidity to 100% and cr ...

). Precipitation

runoff Runoff, run-off or RUNOFF may refer to: * RUNOFF, the first computer text-formatting program * Runoff or run-off, another name for bleed, printing that lies beyond the edges to which a printed sheet is trimmed * Runoff or run-off, a stock market ...

from the mountain drains north to

Bubbs Creek Bubbs Creek is a -long tributary of the South Fork Kings River in the Sierra Nevada of California, within Kings Canyon National Park. The creek originates near Junction Pass (east of Forester Pass), in northeastern Tulare County. It flows north t ...

, and south into headwaters of the

Kern River The Kern River, previously Rio de San Felipe, later La Porciuncula, is an Endangered, Wild and Scenic river in the U.S. state of California, approximately long. It drains an area of the southern Sierra Nevada mountains northeast of Bakersfiel ...

References

External links

* Weather forecast
Mount Jordan
{{DEFAULTSORT:Jordan, Mount Mountains of Tulare County, California Mountains of Kings Canyon National Park Mountains of Sequoia National Park North American 4000 m summits Mountains of Northern California Sierra Nevada (United States)

History

Climbing

Climate

See also

References

External links