Mount Stanford, at an elevation of , is on the Kings-Kern Divide in

Kings Canyon National Park Kings Canyon National Park is a national park of the United States 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 ren ...

. It is named for

Stanford University Leland Stanford Junior University, commonly referred to as Stanford University, is a Private university, private research university in Stanford, California, United States. It was founded in 1885 by railroad magnate Leland Stanford (the eighth ...

. It is the fifteenth tallest mountain in California and is located about from University Peak which was named for the

University of California The University of California (UC) is a public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university, research university system in the U.S. state of California. Headquartered in Oakland, California, Oakland, the system is co ...

History

On August 1, 1896 Professor

Bolton Coit Brown Bolton Coit Brown (November 27, 1864 – September 15, 1936) was an American painter, lithographer, and mountaineer. He was one of the original founders of the Byrdcliffe Colony in Woodstock, NY, part of what is now referred to as the Woodstock A ...

of Stanford made the first recorded ascent and requested that it be named Mount Stanford. Since there was another peak with the same name in Placer County, he suggested the peak he climbed be named Stanford University peak if his first choice was rejected. The decision was made to give the name Castle Peak to the summit in Placer County and Brown's first choice was accepted. Three years later, on August 16, 1899, Stanford University's President,

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 Universi ...

, also make the ascent with his wife and a party from Stanford. He had previously climbed in the

Alps The Alps () are some of the highest and most extensive mountain ranges in Europe, stretching approximately across eight Alpine countries (from west to east): Monaco, France, Switzerland, Italy, Liechtenstein, Germany, Austria and Slovenia. ...

. In 1911, the U. S. Geological Survey (USGS) named a peak in honor of

Leland Stanford Amasa Leland Stanford (March 9, 1824June 21, 1893) was an American attorney, industrialist, philanthropist, and Republican Party (United States), Republican Party politician from Watervliet, New York. He served as the eighth governor of Calif ...

, an American tycoon, politician and founder of Stanford University. The name originally given this summit was Stanford Peak but in 1982 the USGS changed its name to Mount Stanford. This other peak, with an elevation of , is located to the north-northeast overlooking Pioneer Basin in the

John Muir Wilderness The John Muir Wilderness is a wilderness area that extends along the crest of the Sierra Nevada of California for , in the Inyo National Forest, Inyo and Sierra National Forests. Established in 1964 by the Wilderness Act and named for naturalist ...

Getting There

Mount Stanford is described as an exposed scramble (). It can be ascended by experienced mountaineers without ropes or special equipment during the late summer months. It can be most easily be reached from the Onion Valley trailhead, west of

Independence Independence is a condition of a nation, country, or state, in which residents and population, or some portion thereof, exercise self-government, and usually sovereignty, over its territory. The opposite of independence is the status of ...

and off U. S. Route 395.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Stanford, Mount Mountains of Kings Canyon National Park Mountains of Tulare County, California Mountains of Northern California