Harv Galic:
Chronicles of Early Ascents of Half Dome
Part II: From 1884 to 1919
1884: Two daredevils
Ascenders: Alden Sampson, Phimister Proctor
James M. Hutchings wrote in his In the Heart of the Sierras:
During the severe winter of 1883-84 the ice and snow sliding down the smooth
back of the great Half Dome, carried with it over four hundred feet of the
rope Anderson had put up with so much care and risk, and several of the iron
eye-bolts with it. This deprived every enthusiastic climber of the pleasure
of ascending to its wondrous summit, and of obtaining the unequalled view from
that glorious standpoint. No one seemed imbued with sufficient ambitious
courage to replace it...
Rope or no rope, two young daredevils decided to reach the top
in the summer of 1884.
Those twin heroes were Alden Sampson, then of New York City, and
A. Phimister Proctor, then of Denver, both avid hunters and
outdoorsmen. Proctor would later become internationally renowned sculptor,
and Sampson an author and naturalist. Sampson and Proctor
would meet again in the fall of 1910, for an antelope hunting trip
in Edmonton, Canada. Proctor also named his second-born son
Alden, in honor of his Half Dome companion.
Here is a part of a letter about the Half Dome ascent that
Sampson sent to J. M. Hutchings, while
the latter was preparing his book about the Sierra:
In the Heart of the Sierras, Chapter 26, (Sampson's Letter):
...From Wawona, we had come in by the Glacier Point trail, and had
pitched camp for the night at Glacier Point. Here we had the good fortune
to meet Mr. Galen Clark, one of the pioneers of the Valley, and in answer to
our inquiries as to the view from the Half Dome, which was the most
prominent feature of the landscape, were told that there had formerly been
a rope to the summit, put up by Anderson, but that it was down, and would
probably so remain until some venturesome member of the English Alpine
Club should come along and have the goodness to replace it...
When we had at last made up
our minds to do [the Half Dome ascent],
we quietly reconnoitered the place, and made all
necessary preparations in entire secrecy, so that no one should have the
satisfaction of laughing at us if we failed. Then taking two hundred feet of
picket rope, a handful of lunch, and a lemon apiece, in the early morning we
rode from our camp in the Little Yo Semite to the base of the dome.
Sketch from Proctor's 1884 scrapbook.
Courtesy of
the A. Phimister Proctor Museum,
posted with permission. See more sketches.
Fortunately, in making this ascent, my companion and myself supplemented
one another's work. He would throw the reata like a native Californian,
so that when a pin was not thirty feet off, he would be sure to "rope it"
the first cast. The end of the reata once fast, one of us would pull himself
up by it, then stand upon the pin, ready to take up and make fast the old
rope, when the other had tied the lower end of the reata to it. But after a
while we came to a clean stretch of a hundred feet, where every pin had
been carried away; yet, at this point a difficult corner of the ledge had to be
turned. My companion, being barefooted, found that he could not cling to
the surface as well as I could, with hob nails under my feet, so I had the
pleasure of attempting this all to myself. The sensation was glorious. I did
not stake my life upon it, for I was sure I could make it. If I had slipped in
the least I should have had a nasty fall of several hundred feet. To be sure,
I was playing out a rope behind me attached to my waist, but supposing I
had fallen, with all this slack below me, my weight would have snapped it,
or the rope would have cut me in two. The difficult part here was that a
point had to be rounded on naked granite, that was both steep and slippery;
not the coarse, rough variety that one sometimes sees, but polished by
beating Sierra storms, and the snow-slides of innumerable winters. In the
hardest place of all, a little bunch of dwarf Spirea,
six or eight inches high,
which was growing in a crevice, gave me friendly assistance. What it lived
on up there I cannot imagine, as it grew in such a narrow crack of the ledge.
However, its roots had a tenacious hold; and a piece of partially rotten bale
rope afforded me a pull of ten or twelve pounds, quite enough to steady one
at the most dangerous moment.
My companion exercised great skill and patience in making throws
with the reata, often having to sit on the edge of a seemingly perpendicular
precipice, morally supported, to be sure, by a rope from his waist, attached
to the pin below him, but for actual physical support relying solely upon his
foothold on the iron eyebolt under his feet. I dare say that his experience
in one thing was similar to my own,—the feeling that when he clung to the
face of the rock it was seemingly trying to push him off from it. We succeeded
in putting up about half the rope the first day, and spent the night at our
camp below. In the afternoon of the second day we came to a long, smooth
stretch, without eyebolts or anything to offer assistance, not as steep as we
had encountered, but very slippery. After many unsuccessful attempts to
lasso the first pin a hundred feet away, with such precarious foothold as we
had, nearly two precious hours were consumed, and the task was apparently
hopeless, which would have given us another rather dangerous climb
without any assistance whatever to rely upon; at last by a fortunate cast
the reata caught the distant pin firmly, and as we made it taut, we could not
repress a shout of joyful exultation, for the enemy was now conquered and
the remainder of the ascent could be made with ease. We were soon upon
the summit, signaling those that we thought might possibly be watching us
from below.
In 1895, Sampson very briefly mentioned his Half Dome ascent
in a book edited by the future President Roosevelt.
He wrote: "A few years ago, a friend and I were cruising for our
amusement California, with outfit of our own, consisting of
three pack horses, two saddle animals, tent and camp furnishings...
[We] crossed the San Joaquin Valley and visited the Yosemite,
where the good fortune of finding Half Dome, with the Anderson rope
carried away by ice, gave us the opportunity for one delicious
climb in replacing it".
(from Sampson's article, "A Bear-Hunt in the Sierras",
in Hunting in Many Lands, edited by Theodore Roosevelt
and George Bird Grinnell, New York, 1895, pp. 187-219).
Much later, Proctor published his description of the ascent
in a booklet (pamphlet)
An ascent of Half Dome in 1884,
Grabhorn Press, San Francisco, 1945.
("After a good summer and fall of sketching at Grand Lake and
Flattop Mountain my horses' heads were, in the autumn of 1883, pointed
toward Denver. I had a studio on Laramie Street preparatory to a
winter's work in engraving and painting, and was about ready to put out
my shingle when, to my surprise,
Alden Sampson, of New York, with whom I had been on a couple
of hunting trips, dropped in. He was anxious for a sketching and hunting trip
and invited me to join him. As prospects for making a living in Denver that
winter were exceedingly slim, I accepted the invitation with alacrity.
It was December, however, and the Rockies were out of the question
and Mexico at that time was infested with bandits. We finally decided
on California. I looked forward to new scenes for sketching, new
experiences, and some hunting. So, with sketching and hunting outfits,
we boarded a Santa Fe train for Los Angeles...").
Due to copyright restrictions, I cannot reproduce the rest
of his dramatic description here.
Proctor's text, under the same title and identical in content,
was reprinted a year later
in the Sierra Club Bulletin, Vol. 31, No. 7, 1946, pp. 1-9.
Alden Sampson (1853-1925), was 31 at the time of his
Half Dome ascent. He was a student, and a brilliant orator
at Haverford College from 1869 to 1873, then a student
at Harvard from 1874 to 1880. He had wide interests in philosophy,
literature, painting, and art in general, and was an early advocate
of preservation of wild life and nature. In 1905, he held the
title "Game preserve expert of the U.S. Biological Survey".
In February 1906, he gave lecture at the Appalachian Mountain Club
in Boston, and talked, among other things, of his Half Dome ascent
in 1884. Read Sampson's obituary from the
New York Times of January 7, 1925.
Alexander Phimister Proctor
(1860-1950), was a noted American sculptor,
mostly specializing in portrayal of animals. His life is
well documented
on the Web. Even better, check his interesting autobiography,
Sculptor in Buckskin, University of Oklahoma Press, 1971,
published posthumously. Proctor grew up in Denver, Colorado,
and made his Yosemite trip with Sampson a few weeks before his
24th birthday. About a year after his Yosemite trip,
the Denver News describes young Phimister as
an honor to Colorado.
After living and working in New York and Paris,
Proctor moved to Palo Alto, California in 1918. For a while,
Stanford University leased
him a large space in the engineering building for his studio.
Stanford sport teams are called the 'Cardinals' today, but they
used to be known as the 'Indians' before. In 1922,
Proctor designed an early mascot for the 'Indians',
and Mrs. Proctor and Mrs. Williams (wife of the Chairman of the Board)
embroidered the design and helped to get it sewn on teams' blankets.
For the rest of his life, Proctor stayed mostly on the West Coast,
and died in Palo Alto, at his daughter's house, in 1950.
He was buried in the Mount Pleasant Cemetery, Seattle,
Washington. An exhibit devoted to Phimister Proctor
is opening in the Buffalo Bill Historical Center in Cody, Wyoming,
in June 2009.
1892: Banner year
Ascenders: Henry Reynolds, Samuel Foster (plus a guide, perhaps)
I thank Dennis Kruska for sharing his copy of the
following article from The Tourist:
Yosemite Tourist, Yosemite Valley, Vol. 3, Thursday,
April 14, 1892
A Daring Feet
Two Chicago Tourists Climb to the Summit of the South Dome
Of the many dangerous attempts at mountain climbing..., we have heard
of none quite so foolhardy and perilous as the feat so successfully
accomplished yesterday by Dr. Henry J. Reynolds and Samuel B. Foster,
both of Chicago... Actuated, we presume, by a courage and spirit
of audacity, characteristic of Chicago people, they found that the most
difficult feat to do in Yosemite, was to climb to the summit of
the South Dome, which had not been done before since 1879, and then only
by the aid of a rope ladder[!], long since rotted away...
The side of the dome above Mirror Lake, and below its crest, is
perpendicular... On the other or east side the dome is cone-shaped,
and here is where the rope ladder was built, extending... for 900 feet,
attached to iron bolts. And to this point the two Chicago visitors
wended their way at an early hour yesterday morning. They took with them
an old guide, who is an expert at throwing the lasso or rope.
They had heavy pointed spikes attached to their shoes, and each carried a
strong pole, steel pointed. They reached the foot of the old ladder at
11 o'clock, and at once commenced their perilous ascent. The guide
cautioned them of the danger of the climb. The promise of a good fee
quieted his fears. For about 600 feet they experienced very little trouble,
their spiked shoes and poles being sufficient. Here, however, they ran
against an almost abrupt face of granite at least thirty feet high.
The only way to get over this was for the guide to attach his rope to some
object on top of the ledge, which, after many fruitless efforts,
he did, and then climb up, hand over hand. In the meantime they
had painted, with crayons, on the face of the cliff, the words,
"Visit the World's Fair in Chicago, in '93".
Once on top of the cliff the remaining 300 feet was made without
much trouble, and at 12:35, P.M., they reached the summit of the
South Dome. Here they spent an hour gazing upon the wondrous scenery
5000 feet beneath them. The return trip was made in about 40 minutes,
and they reached the Stoneman [Hotel] in good time for dinner, not
much the worse for their climb. Now, we hope the authorities will take all
precautions to prevent any more such foolhardy attempts, not even by
Chicago people; and, although successful in this instance, it would,
in all probability, be attended with fatal results in ninety-nine
cases out of a hundred.
Parts of the above text were reprinted in other newspapers:
The Daily Inter Ocean, April 27, 1892, p. 5:
World's Fair Doings
On Mountain Top
Chicago tourists are promoting the Columbian World's Fair
even upon the highest mountain ranges. A paper published
in the Yosemite Valley contains an account of
a daring feat accomplished by two Chicago tourists,
Dr. Henry J. Reynolds and Samuel B. Foster, who have climbed
to the summit of the South Dome, a mighty granite cliff,
on the face of which they have painted the words,
"Visit the World's Fair in Chicago, in 1893".
To climb the summit of the South Dome is a most difficult
feat to do, and many a member of the Alpine Club has cast
a longing look at the mighty mountain of granite whose
crest is over 5,000 feet above the floor of the valley.
The letters on the banner were getting bigger and bigger
as the story was spreading from paper to paper,
and the east side cliff eventually became the main, west face of the Dome:
Bismarck Daily Tribune, North Dakota, May 11, 1892, p. 2;
also
Worcester Daily Spy, Massachusetts, May 15, 1892, p. 6
Dr. Henry J. Reynolds and Samuel B. Foster,
Chicago tourists, recently
climbed to the summit of South Dome, one of the highest points of the
Yosemite range, and painted in enormous letters on one of the most
conspicuous cliffs the words: "Visit the World's Fair in Chicago, in 1893".
Reynolds and Foster were good friends,
frequently mentioned together in Chicago newspapers. Their
visit to California happened in mid-April of 1892. Samuel Foster
arrived "with his wife, two young children, a sister, and a nurse"
(The Los Angeles Times).
Both men were born in Canada, and both were good athletes.
Henry Reynolds was also the family physician of the Fosters.
It remains unclear who was the "old guide" who was with them atop the Dome.
Samuel Baxter Foster (1861-1896), was 30 years old
at the time of his 1892 Yosemite visit. Just a few months before that trip,
he was appointed local attorney for the Chicago and Grand Trunk
Railway Company. He
unexpectedly died a few years later
of typhoid fever, at age 34.
Henry James Reynolds
(1852-1949), was one of two Reynolds brothers who practiced medicine in
Chicago. His trip to Yosemite took place just few days before
his fortieth birthday.
Henry was the first Professor of Dermatology at the
College of Physicians and Surgeons in Chicago (later University of
Illinois College of Medicine). In his later years he became a businessman
and author of a book dealing with earliest known literary relics
(World's Oldest Writings, Chicago, 1938)
From a biographical sketch of the author
we learn that he had "invented the
Reynolds envelope sealer, patented in 1909, which is still
in world wide use". However, the Half Dome ascent is not mentioned.
He died in Chicago, in 1949.
1895: The Magee–Rawlings party
Ascenders: Thomas Magee Jr., Stewart Rawlings
Magee and Rawlings made their ascent on July 8, 1895.
A story about their climb, written skillfully by Daniel Foley,
appeared the next day in Foley's newspaper, the Yosemite Tourist,
printed in the Valley. It is a very detailed report, with no
exaggerations so abundant in many other early descriptions.
Yosemite Tourist, Vol. 6, Tuesday, July 9, 1895, p. 1
A Flag Floats From Half Dome.
The Summit of the Great Dome is Scaled.
Thos. Magee, Jr., and Stuart L. Rawlings Make the Ascent.
Eighteen years ago today, John Muir,
of glacial fame, Thos, Magee, one of the
well-known pioneers of San Francisco
and the late Geo. G. Anderson, the
latter acting as guide, ascended the Half
Dome [see
Part 1 of these Chronicles].
Mr. Thos. Magee, Jr., then a mere
boy, was left at the Anderson cabin, near
the dome, for he was too small to attempt
so perilous a feat.
But yesterday he, too, ascended the
Half Dome, and looked down upon the
Yosemite's wonders from its summit.
At an early hour yesterday morning
he and friend, Stuart L. Rawlings,
left camp Etnemere to attempt to do that
which had been done but once in about
fifteen years, reach the summit of the
Half Dome. They took horses and followed
the Cloud's Rest trail about two
miles beyond the Nevada Falls. Here
they followed the old Half Dome trail to
the Anderson cabin, the latter being
about a half mile from the dome. In the
good old days when those so inclined
could reach the top of the dome this cabin
was the starting point. Many, too, would
come here and remain over night, and
then be ready for the climb in the morning.
Here they left their horses yesterday
and after a not unexciting trip across
the "saddle", where on either sides were
the yawning canyons of the Merced and
Tenaya, they found themselves at the
foot of the climb, as it were; or rather at
the point where the old rope ladder or
support commenced, many of the iron
spikes of which yet remain.
Here they arrived at about 9 o'clock.
The Half Dome at this point is cone-shaped
and has a slope of about 50 degrees. It is
of solid granite with a rather rough surface,
tho' crevices and spurs of rock
are few and far between. They carried
with them about 200 feet of one-half inch
rope, a sixteen-foot pole and a hatchet.
Here they spent some time looking for
some signs of the trail or spikes leading
to the frowning summit 1000 feet above
them. But they looked for some time in
vain and were almost on the point of
giving up the attempt and returning.
But 100 feet or more up the side of the
dome they saw an iron pin or spike and
they assumed that they were supposed to
walk to this point which they did with
some little difficulty. Here they took off
their shoes and hung them on the pin,
for they knew that safety and shoe wearing
did not go together climbing the Half
Dome.
At the cabin they had found two iron
spikes, and to these principally they owe
their triumphal ascent of the dome.
Before leaving their comparatively safe
position at the first pin they had determined
upon all reasonable precautions
for safety. They saw that the old iron
pins were from thirty to fifty feet apart
and they knew that if the pins wore solid
and a rope could be attached in any way
to them that the ascent could be made
quite safely. But those spikes had been
in there twenty years. They agreed that
Mr. Magee should take the lead and that
in working from one spike to the one
above the rope should be attached to him
while Mr. Rawlings held the other end
and saw that it was securely fastened to
the pin below. Then, too, the pole
helped them to reach the points above.
And as Mr. Magee found a safe lodgment
for the rope Mr. Rawlings followed
safely and quickly. At one point they
threw the rope around a pin and pulled
it out. That will be kept as a souvenir of
the trip. In its place they drove one of
the iron pins they brought from the
cabin. Thus hand over hand, working,
creeping from ledge to ledge, spike to
spike, they climbed up the side of the
eastern slope of the Half Dome and about
1 o'clock they had reached the summit
and the 1000 foot incline was below them.
Down at Camp Etnemere there were
anxious eyes watching the summit of the
mighty dome, whose crest is almost 5000
feet above their grounds. Had they
reached it in safety, or had they made a
false step and been hurled into the awful
gorges on either side of the dome?
Slowly the seconds and minutes went by,
more sharply than ever were their eyes
directed toward its beautifully rounded
but awfully dangerous summit and at
about 2 o'clock Willie Hush fired the
signal gun for there floating from the
sixteen foot pole was the white flag, the
latter being about 5x8 feet. Then there
was joy in Camp Etnemere for the two
hazardous climbers were safely up there.
The flag can be quite plainly seen from
the floor of the valley, and no doubt but
that it will remain there until the storms
of next winter come.
On the summit they found a bank of
snow. There are three juniper trees up
there, two living and one dead. There is
no soil, except pulverized granite, and
John Muir says the juniper is the only
tree that could live under such conditions.
On one of the trees they cut their names
and '95, and on another one they cut the
name of the party, mentioned above, that
visited there eighteen years ago today.
They also brought back a small piece of
the dead tree. One of the most wonderful
things they saw or did was to crawl
out to edge of the ledge and look down
on Mirror Lake nearly 5000 feet below.
Those who have gazed over the iron railing
at Glacier Point can appreciate what
an addition of nearly 2000 feet more
means.
"I have been all through Switzerland",
remarked Mr. Magee, at their camp last
evening, for they made the return trip
quickly and safely arriving at Camp
Etnemere at 6 o'clock, "and I consider
the view from Half Dome equal to the
combined grandeur of Switzerland. I
would not take $1000 for the trip, were I
not able to duplicate it. I think the
commissioners should replace the rope guard
that was formerly there. In fact the State
Legislature should make a special appropriation
to put a guardway, stairway or
something of that sort, up to its summit".
Now that the ascent has been safely
made, new pins put in and the old ones
tightened, others are contemplating an
early trip to its crest.
The many visitors now here would
have been treated to a fire from the top
of the dome last evening but for the fact
that their matches had become damp.
"Camp Etnemere", mentioned in the text, puzzled me for a while.
There is/was no official camping place in the Valley with that name.
Turned out, the Magees had owned a property called "Etnemere Villa"
in Fruitvale, and they had simply assigned the same name to their
favorite camping spot in the Valley.
The same trip report, properly credited to the Yosemite Tourist, was reprinted
in the Sacramento Daily Record–Union, on July 20, 1895, p. 2.
Two San Francisco papers also covered the climb. A very short note
was printed in The Call on July 26, and a few days later
the Chronicle published a much longer and illustrated article
about Magee and Rawlings' feat. The text in the Chronicle
is basically a repetition of the Yosemite Tourist article
(although slightly shortened and re-worded), but the source is not
mentioned. Similarly, two illustrations from an earlier,
1881 article
in the Pacific Rural Press, are copied, but again without
any credit to the original source.
Check the Chronicle article,
if you wish.
Thomas Magee, Jr., (1867-1914),
was about ten years old when he
accompanied his father to Anderson's Cabin at
the foot of Half Dome's "Saddle" during his father's climb in 1877.
Junior's age was 28 at the time of his first ascent in 1895.
He would make it to the top at least once more (in 1903, see below).
Like his father, he had a successful career in real estate business.
He was killed when his automobile overturned in Cloverdale, in May 1914.
Stuart Lamar Rawlings (1875-1940),
was 20 at the time of this ascent.
He was born in Virginia City, Nevada, and died in Alameda County
in California. His obituary describes him as
"Piedmont social and business leader". He is probably the author
of a popular Cal "Palms of Victory" song (1896). The story of its composition
is told by Brick Morse: "Rawlings, an extremely tall, lanky, mining engineer,
certainly did not look like a poet. He was a member of the Phi Gamma
Delta fraternity, and as was the custom, the boys would gather around
a keg of beer at night and sing. Rawlings and the boys would hum a song
and improvise some words. One night, one of the boys said to him,
'I see where The Daily Cal is offering $5.00 for a Cal song —
Why don't you submit it?' He did and won the $5.00, which he took
and quickly converted into another keg of beer. Each night they sat
around singing, but no new song ever came to him."
The song has remained essentially unchanged to this day, and
it is still played after any successful Cal football game.
Since its lyrics is anti-Stanford in character, I don't
care to reproduce it here.
1895-1899: Call of the Wild
Ascenders (perhaps): Jack London, George Applegarth, Bert Applegarth
In April of 1900, Jack London submitted his story Dutch Courage
to Boston's Youth's Companion. It is a short text about two friends
who arrive in Yosemite Valley hoping to be the first to climb Half Dome
in many years. Their disappointment is "deep and grievous" when they
realize that somebody else had made it to the
top earlier that day, "robbing them of the chief pleasure of their trip".
However, the victor is stranded atop the Dome, and they rush to help him.
They climb the mountain and save the man.
When reading this narrative, my first impression was that the author
had only second hand knowledge of Anderson's route. Perhaps he saw it
from the Saddle, perhaps he even tried to reach some of the pins and
eyebolts on the steep slope, but his description does not read like
the account of somebody who really did complete the ascent.
I include several passages from London's text below,
and let you the reader make the judgment.
The above analysis would have been the end of the story,
had I not found the following biographical note by David Parry
about a San Francisco architect, George Adrian Applegarth:
"Applegarth in his youth was a friend of Jack London's.
They would sail together on the Oakland Estuary and once cycled all
the way to Yosemite and then climbed Half Dome".
David helped me to get in touch with George Applegarth's son Jerrold,
who, without reservations, confirmed the family tradition about the Half
Dome climb: "What David Parry said was accurate. My father often told
stories about Jack London and their growing up together in
Oakland. George, his brother Bert, and Jack London, did bicycle to
Yosemite, and they used a borrowed rope to climb Half Dome. I don't
recall much more about the trip. This must have occurred when they were
in their teens".
Was Jack London really one of the early Half Dome climbers?
We shall have a closer look at this intriguing possibility later.
But first, here is London's description of his two young
fictional characters, Gus Lafee and Hazard Van Dorn,
reaching the base of the Dome at dawn:
Dutch Courage, by Jack London
The Youth's Companion, Boston, November 29, 1900, Vol. 74, Iss. 48, pp. 622-623
Original illustration
for London's story from
the Youth's Companion,
Thanksgiving issue, 1900.
...Dawn was brightening into day when the panting lads threw themselves
down at the summit of the Saddle and began taking off their shoes...
And above them, bathed in the full day, rose only the majestic curve of the Dome...
Some seventy feet above them projected the first eye-bolt. The winter
accumulations of ice had twisted and bent it down till it did not stand more
than a bare inch and a half above the rock—a most difficult object
to lasso at such a distance. Time and again Hazard coiled his lariat in
true cowboy fashion and made the cast, and time and again was he baffled
by the elusive peg. Nor could Gus do better. Taking advantage of inequalities
in the surface, they scrambled twenty feet up the Dome and found they
could rest in a shallow crevice...
The peg was now fifty feet away, but the path they must cover to get
to it was quite smooth, and ran at an inclination of nearly fifty degrees.
It seemed impossible, in that intervening space, to find a resting-place...
They knotted the two lariats together, so that they had over a hundred feet
of rope between them; and then each boy tied an end to his waist...
[Gus] struck out like a cat, on all fours, clawing energetically as he
urged his upward progress, his comrade paying out the rope carefully.
At first his speed was good, but gradually it dwindled. Now he was fifteen
feet from the peg, now ten, now eight—but going, oh, so slowly! Hazard,
looking up from his crevice, felt a contempt for him and disappointment
in him. It did look easy. Now Gus was five feet away, and after a
painful effort, four feet. But when only a yard intervened, he came to a
standstill—not exactly a standstill, for, like a squirrel in a wheel,
he maintained his position on the face of the Dome by the most
desperate clawing.
He had failed, that was evident. The question now was, how to
save himself. With a sudden, catlike movement he whirled over on his back,
caught his heel in a tiny, saucer-shaped depression and sat up...
...The second time, just as it seemed as if his slide would be repeated,
he made a last supreme effort and gripped the coveted peg. By means of
the rope, Hazard quickly joined him. The next peg was nearly sixty feet away;
but for nearly half that distance the base of some glacier in the forgotten
past had ground a shallow furrow. Taking advantage of this, it was easy for
Gus to lasso the eye-bolt. And it seemed, as was really the case,
that the hardest part of the task was over. True, the curve steepened
to nearly sixty degrees above them, but a comparatively unbroken
line of eye-bolts, six feet apart, awaited the lads. They no longer
had even to use the lasso. Standing on one peg it was child's play to
throw the bight of the rope over the next and to draw themselves up to it.
[The boys then get to the top, meet the stranded
"bronzed and bearded man", and they all safely descend back to the Saddle].
Read the complete text of Dutch Courage.
Jack London atop Half Dome?
The Applegarths
Did London know George
Applegarth? Absolutely! Jack
London's first love, Mabel Applegarth, was George's cousin
(Mabel and George shared the same grandparents: John Applegarth and Jane
Clarkson Applegarth). George was born in 1875, his brother Herbert
("Bert") in 1873, and Jack in 1876, so they were well matched.
Biker
Was Jack London a bike enthusiast? Yes!
However, he got his first bike and learned to ride only as late as 1895.
Before that year, he simply could not have made a bicycle trip to Yosemite.
His first bicycle was a present from his half-sister. Her main motivation was
to make it easier for Jack to get to his high school, but it did not take
long before Jack began making extensive bike trips all around the Bay Area
and beyond.
Yosemite
Did London ever visit Yosemite before his story
Dutch Courage was published in 1900?
He may have visited Yosemite more than once in the 1890s, but
only one such trip is well documented and dated. It took place in
early August of 1895, when London and his friends ended up in
a camp near the Bridal Veil Falls. Russ Kingman quotes
the Yosemite Tourist newspaper,
and lists the party as: "John C. Dewey, Mrs. Edward Applegarth of Riverdale,
Miss Mabel and Ted Applegarth, and Jack London of Oakland,
Bert Applegarth of Hanford, and Tom Ling late of China".
The paper does not say which means of transportation they used to get
to Yosemite. Note that George Applegarth is not on the list, and there
are other indications suggesting that
the Half Dome ascent which Jerrold Applegarth refers to,
did not happen during the 1895 trip.
Mountaineering
Jack was an adventurous young man, and it would be no surprise
if he had considered a Half Dome ascent during his teen years.
It is quite possible that his original plan was to do that climb
during the 1895 trip.
However, recall that Magee and Rawlings made a successful ascent
of Half Dome just a few weeks before the arrival
of the London party (see above).
Rather than follow in someone else's footsteps,
Jack may have decided to change his plans and
focus on an entirely different goal: El Capitan!
The editor of the Yosemite Tourist, Daniel J. Foley, was so impressed
by the subsequent daring adventure, that he printed the following story
in all August 1895 issues of his paper:
Yosemite Tourist, Friday, August 2, 1895,
p. 1
Out All Night
Down near the Bridal Veil there are two camping parties...
Tuesday they joined forces and [decided to make] a side trip to the top
of El Capitan... At an early hour that morning Misses Mabel Applegarth,
Jessie Supplee [of Chicago] and R. Parrow [of Selma, California],
Bert and Ted Applegarth and Jack London, left camp. In the distance,
far above their heads, to the left of El Capitan, was an apparent open
space. By reaching the top of the wall at this point they could then
go quickly to the rear of El Capitan and then come out to its summit.
But they didn't. They took along sixty feet of rope. Their first attempt
to gain the top of wall was a failure and so they changed over
to an other one. Here they clambered, step by step, hand over hand,
for hours. Fortunately, Jack London knew how to handle the rope,
for he would attach it to a spur of rock and then they would crawl up.
In many instances the girls had to be "boosted" by some of the boys.
Late in the afternoon they gained the top of the wall. Too late to
go to the top of El Capitan, they started to reach the road at Gentry's;
but night coming on they camped for the night. Around a blazing fire,
supperless and blanketless, they passed the night... An early morning
start brought them back to camp in time for breakfast.
We don't know the exact route that the party followed to the rim.
It could have been a scramble along one of several difficult chutes
just west of El Capitan, perhaps up the Ribbon Creek or El Capitan Gully.
The latter is a class-4 route, with some serious exposure in places (see
Bob Burd's
picture and description).
Could London and friends
have climbed Half Dome immediately after their El Capitan adventure?
That is not very likely. Editor Foley, of the Yosemite Tourist
was quite religious in reporting all exciting climbs
made by tourists in and near the Valley, but
the only Half Dome related event he lists in 1895 is the Magee-Rawlings ascent.
Alternatively, if Jack London did not come to the Valley
with a plan to climb Half Dome in 1895,
he could have been inspired by Magee and Rawlings,
and could have decided to use his skills and courage to pursue
the Half Dome ascent the next time he was in Yosemite.
1896-1899
Could London have climbed the Dome with the Applegarth brothers
in later years? If he made the ascent, presumably that would have
happened before 1900, the year when
his story Dutch Courage was published.
Here is a brief timeline of London's life from 1896 to 1899.
In the summer of 1896 he was quite busy
preparing for the entrance exams at the University of California,
Berkeley. Could he have taken a few weeks off to visit Yosemite again?
There is no evidence supporting or excluding this possibility. However,
the Yosemite Tourist did not register any Half Dome climb in 1896,
and it did not have Jack London mentioned in its lists of visitors.
In July 1897, Jack leaves Oakland for Alaska, where he stays for almost
a year. He could have made a quick trip to Yosemite before
his departure, but I found no evidence of this. Unfortunately,
I do not have access to post-1896 issues of the Tourist,
and so could not consult this rich source of information about Yosemite
visitors in the last years of the nineteenth century.
In July 1898, Jack London is back in California. He briefly
tries prospecting in the Sierra foothills, then starts writing about
his gold rush experiences in the Klondike. Did he find time for
Yosemite that summer? Sadly, possible clues seem to have been lost.
There was an original photo at one time in the
Special Collections at Stanford University, showing
Jack London with Mabel Applegarth and John Herbert Applegarth
(George's brother) in the Yosemite Valley. According to Library records,
the photo was taken in 1898. However, when I tried to confirm that date,
which allegedly had been written on the back side of the photo, it turned
out that the original print was missing, and only a negative remained.
Without that print, it was impossible to confirm
that the photo was really from 1898, and not, e.g.,
from that earlier trip in 1895. The evidence of a London
trip to Yosemite in 1898 is therefore inconclusive.
The following summer, in 1899, Jack London was
mostly staying in Oakland and writing. An opportunity
for a biking and mountaineering trip to the Valley was certainly
present, but no firm evidence of such a trip in 1899 has been found so far.
Letters
The previous paragraphs are mostly based on published material
(or lack of thereof).
Is there anything about Yosemite and Half Dome in Jack London's private
notes? Two letters from London's correspondence
indeed confirm a trip to Yosemite, but unfortunately,
the trip date is not given, and we do not
know if this was the 1895 trip, or a different one.
One letter is from London himself. On April 22, 1899,
he writes to Cloudsley Johns: "I once rode a saddle horse
from Fresno to the Yosemite Valley, clad in almost tropical nudity,
with a ball room fan and a silk parasol..." Jack also tells
that there were women and a Chinese cook in his party, and that they
visited the Mariposa Big Trees grove along the way,
but it remains unclear to which year this is referring.
The same trip seems to have been mentioned in
a letter from John Herbert Applegarth
to Jack London, dated November 25, 1906, when Bert talks
about London "on horseback with a lace curtain for a
shirt, and a pink parasol... on the way to the Yosemite".
Again, no date is indicated. (Bert's letter, recently
rediscovered by Ms. Russell, is cataloged as "JL 1933",
in the Huntington Library collection).
Conclusion
In spite of some intensive searching, no other written source was found
confirming London's bicycle trip from Oakland to Yosemite with George
Applegarth, or his ascent of Half Dome. In contrast,
his climb near El Capitan, a mountaineering feat
in its own right, is established
beyond a doubt, thanks to the report in the Yosemite Tourist.
One could argue that perhaps "El Capitan" and "Half Dome"
somehow got mixed up as the story was retold in George Applegarth's
family, but the intriguing possibility that there was no mixup, and that Jack
London made it to the Dome, is by no means ruled out.
If anybody has more information, please let me know.
Acknowledgments
I thank Natalie Russell, from the Huntington Library, and
Dennis Kruska, for their help in my Jack London related research.
1901: Anxious to make the ascent
Ascender (perhaps): Kittie Tatsch
Skirt dance on Glacier Point.
Illustration from the Atlanta Constitution
showing Kittie Tatsch and her balancing act. (Photo: Julius Boysen).
Jack London (previous paragraph) and Katharina "Kittie" Tatsch,
a heroine of this segment, may or may not have climbed
Half Dome, but there is certainly another (weak) thread that connects them.
In October of 1902, Jack London traveled to Europe,
initially hired as a war-correspondent to write about
the Boer War in South-Africa. In August of 1904, Kittie Tatsch
married a British soldier from that war, John Backhouse.
Kittie was a local celebrity in the Yosemite Valley
at the end of the nineteenth century. Sadly, her last name was
incorrectly transcribed in some early records on Yosemite history
as Tatch, and this incorrect spelling has been used frequently
ever since. Her fame was established by a series
of photographs by Julius Boysen, showing her balancing in various
poses on the overhanging rock at Glacier Point. In one of newspaper
interviews with Kittie, she announces her plan to climb Half Dome in 1901:
Atlanta Constitution, March 24, 1901, p. A5
Some of the Perils of Modern Photography,
by M. C. Craft [Mabel Clare Craft]
Of all the remarkable photographs taken of that eight wonder of the world, the
Yosemite Valley, none is more amazing than a series of photographs recently taken
of the overhanging rock at Glacier Point by Julius Boysen, a local photographer.
...In the accompanying series of photographs, Miss Kittie Tatsch, head waitress
of the Sentinel hotel, a young woman with a cool head and, apparently, entirely
destitute of nerves in the ordinary sense, did a high kick on this perilous perch
and took the pose so calmly and so accurately that not even a tremor occurred to
disturb the photograph.
...Miss Tatsch is a Milwaukee young woman who lived in California for years.
She is slender, muscular, blonde and loquacious... [She] has worked for several seasons
in the valley, and her adventurous spirit has taken her to all the high places
thereabouts. She has climbed all the trails again and again both on horseback
and afoot. She is one of the very few who have climbed to the top of
Sentinel Dome... Miss Tatsch merely laughs at those who would make a heroine
of her, and says that she does not know what fear is and
announces her intention to climb Half Dome this spring, if possible.
No one has been up the Half Dome for years. Some years ago an old sailor
was engaged for several summers drilling rings into the rock. In these
rings a rope was run and by means of the rope venturesome stocking-footed
climbers, to the number of about fifty, including
several women, made their way over the shelf of rock, which affords not
the slightest foothold. The heavy snows of several winters so rotted
the rope that it was pronounced unsafe and was taken down.
Katharina (Kittie) Tatsch,
around 1890.
Since then no one has been up, but Miss Tatsch is anxious to make the trip.
Katharina Tatsch (1867-19??), born in Iowa,
was one of several children in the family of a Prussian immigrant Jacob Tatsch.
Shortly after Katharina mother's
death, her father remarried, and the family moved from
Iowa to Wisconsin (Milwaukee). Katharina then came to California, and
found a job as a waitress in Yosemite. In 1904, she is invited to
work in California Hall at the World's Fair in St. Louis.
On her first day in St. Louis, she meets John Backhouse, an
Englishman from Leeds, a few years younger than her.
He also works at the Fair in a "live exhibition" that recreates scenes from
de Boer War in which he had participated.
Several days later, in mid August 1904,
they get married.
The nuptials have attracted attention of many
reporters who came to St. Louis to cover the Exhibition. Who could have
guessed that only three months later,
just before the closing of the Fair,
John would be killed when trying
to mediate in a fight between two other Fair's employees. I couldn't
find anything about Mrs. Backhouse after her husband's death.
She is not listed under that name in the 1910 or 1920 U.S. censuses.
Did she die? Did she remarry? Did she move to Leeds to live with
John's family? Kittie's youngest sibling, her half brother Otto Phillip Tatsch,
died in Pennsylvania in October 1968, at the age of 88. He worked
as litographer and printer in Erie, but
apparently didn't have any children. I couldn't locate descendents
of Kittie's other siblings. Would we ever learn anything
about Kittie in her later years?
1903: Tom Magee Again
Ascenders: Thomas Magee Jr, Richmond Hobson
Daily Nevada State Journal, May 20, 1903, p. 5
A Daring Feat
Special to The Journal:
Yosemite, May 19.—Capt. Hobson, hero of the Merrimac,
and Thomas Magee of San Francisco yesterday accomplished the
remarkable feat of scaling Half Dome, which is five thousand feet high.
The men were equipped with ropes and spikes. Many times a slip
meant death. The trip covered an entire day.
This was an excellent example of a badly planned trip.
It was probably scheduled too early in the season (May 18), on heels
of a snow storm that had hit the Valley a day and a half earlier.
Even more troubling,
the climbers had reached the base of the eastern slope only at
3 p.m., and yet they continued on. No wonder, night caught them still
high on the cliff. In the end, they also ran out of pins.
It was only by sheer luck that they escaped serious injuries or deaths:
San Francisco Chronicle, May 20, 1903, p. 1
Climbed Up Half Dome
Tom Magee and Captain Hobson Successfully Attempt Difficult Feat
Special Dispatch to the "Chronicle".
Yosemite Valley, May 19.—Captain Hobson, the hero of Santiago,
and Thomas Magee, a well-known society and club man of San Francisco,
have performed one of the most daring exploits ever accomplished in the
Yosemite valley, successfully climbing the almost inaccessible heights of
perpendicular Half Dome. It was early in the morning when Hobson and Magee,
accompanied by ex-Mayor Phelan of San Francisco, started out for the
bottom of the dome by the way of the Vernal and Nevada Falls trail. The
trail, even to the foot of the gigantic dome, is considered a good day's
journey, but the party was energetic and pressed on with such vigor that the
steep ascent was reached by 3 in the afternoon.
Here Phelan gave one look at the mass of smooth rock rising for 3000
feet above him, and, deciding that discretion was the better part of valor,
returned to Sentinel Hotel, reaching there late in the afternoon.
Hobson and Magee then began the ascent. Magee, who was the last to
make the climb, some five years ago, although under much more favorable
conditions, going on before. After leaving the trail at the end of the Saddle
the smooth granite curves over at an angle of 40 degrees.
To keep their footing and prevent sliding over the immense precipices below,
Magee went ahead with a stout rope and a bundle of iron spikes on his shoulder.
With one hand he would hang on to some small fissure in the rock, and
with the other drive his spikes into the openings in the white granite. This
accomplished, he would secure the rope and Captain Hobson climb up from
below. Then Magee would tie the rope about his waist, and with the other end
tied to the stake below him and held secure by Hobson go up another steep
ascent. Sometimes they would lose their footing and slide for several yards
before being caught and held by the rope. Their clothing was torn and their
flesh bruised and bleeding. Still they kept on toward the top.
The sun was just setting when the top was reached and before its last
beams had disappeared a twenty-foot flag was flying from the small pole
which they had lugged up the mountain side. Hobson said the sight was the
grandest he had ever seen.
Then the difficult descent was begun in the evening twilight, which deepened
into total darkness as the two slowly made their way down the steep sides.
Magee said it was only a question of the pins holding out, for they were forced to
take up part of the number because of their inability to carry so much dead
weight. Near the bottom they ran short of pins and their only extra one slipped
from Magee's hand. Hobson, bending far over the 1000-foot ledge, grasped at
the pin as it fell, and succeeded in seizing it. Had he missed the pin it would
probably have meant death, for the penetrating cold of the night would have
made it impossible for them to hang on the narrow ledge until morning.
Captain Richmond P. Hobson,
around 1903
The heights of Half Dome were originally climbed years ago by a man
named Anderson, who spent a week making the trip performed by Hobson
and Magee to-day. He used pitch on his shoes to keep from falling and drove
spikes into the rocks as he went along. This feat was considered a miracle then,
and the Indians, seeing his camp fire at night, almost went crazy from fright[!].
Later several other persons tried the ascent, one of them fainting from fright
on the way. Guardian Clark of the valley had all the old pins removed to prevent
future accidents. Both Magee and Hobson are very much worn out tonight,
but will be all right with a good night's rest.
Richmond Pearson Hobson (1870-1937),
age 32 at the time of the ascent,
was a celebrity touring the country, following his release from
a Cuban prison after the Spanish-American War. His life is
well documented on the Web.
During the weekend of May 16-17, 1903, Capt. Hobson,
Tom Magee, and many other dignitaries,
gathered in Yosemite Valley, hoping to meet President Roosevelt.
However, Roosevelt, together with Muir, camped out of the Valley,
near the Glacier Point, and avoided the crowd. Hobson, who had some
previous mountaineering experience, apparently decided to make the best of
this trip to Yosemite by joining Magee in the Half Dome climb.
1903: The Gibson Brothers
Ascenders: Otis Gibson, Ted Gibson, their friends
Apparently, there were some doubts among the inhabitants of the Yosemite
Valley about Magee's and Hobson's accomplishment (above), because nobody had seen
them climbing or summiting the Dome. Some oldtimers even regarded the
whole story as a hoax. Then, to everyone's surprise, two young boys
repeated the feat on July 11, 1903, and several other
teens joined them at the top on July 12. Here is how the
Oakland Tribune described the event in their popular "The Meddler"
column:
Oakland Tribune, July 25, 1903
...The sceptical denizens of the valley have [finally] been convinced,
and the two heroes [Magee and Hobson] are indebted to two boys, neither of
whom is over sixteen years of age, for corroboration of their sensational
story. The boys are the sons of the late attorney, Gibson, who had a hand
in the framing of the charter. They made the ascent of the Half Dome
on Saturday two weeks ago and remained on the summit all night.
They built a fire that was seen by scores of campers in the valley.
The following day three other lads, friends of the Gibsons, also made
the perilous journey up the perpendicular cliff, bringing food
to the hungry youngsters and the five returned together.
They reported that they had found evidence of the visit of
Magee and Hobson.
The first person known to have scaled that cliff
was an adventurous Scotch tourist[!] who went up by means of pegs
which he imbedded in the rock. He carried a rope which he fastened
to a peg on the summit, and after that many people made the trip
with the assistance of the rope, but in time it rotted and therefore
nobody essayed the perilous journey until Hobson and Magee
pioneered it once more.
"The Meddler", whose primary interest was in restoring
Tom Magee's and Richmond Hobson's reputation,
had only vaguely identified the boys. However, after some
careful searching, it became clear that "the late attorney Gibson",
referred in the article, could only have been
a noted San Francisco lawyer, William Franklin Gibson (1855-1902).
Among his other activities, he was a member of the Board of Freeholders
which prepared a new Charter of the City and County of San Francisco
in the mid 1890s. William and his wife Caroline
had seven children: five girls and two boys. It then became easy to
establish the identity of the Gibson brothers. Unfortunately,
their three friends would remain nameless. Note that
the Gibsons (and their friends) were the youngest Half Dome climbers in the
post-Anderson era.
Otis Gibson (1884-1950), was the second child of
Caroline and Will Gibson. He was eighteen at the time of his Half Dome
ascent. One year later, he graduated from the California School of
Mechanical Arts in San Francisco. He identified himself as
"civil engineer" in the 1920 and 1930 Censuses, and was an
associate member of the American Society of Civil Engineers.
In 1917, he married Viola Bennett, and
they had three children, all born in San Francisco:
Francis Ward Gibson (1918-1977), Viola Elizabeth Gibson (1919-2009), and
Otis George Gibson (1921-1956). I am adding those names with the hope that
some of their descendants may have more information about Otis' and Theo's
Half Dome ascent.
Theodore Gold Gibson (1886-1965), was the third child
in William F. Gibson's family. Theo was 16 in the summer of 1903. He
was the best student in his class in
the Wilmerding School of Industrial Arts, in San Francisco, where he graduated
as a "cabinet maker" in 1904. Between November 1912 and November 1914 (and
possibly beyond), Theodore had a Yosemite National Park concession
to operate an auto "stage line". His "Yosemite Auto Stage Company",
was nominally connecting Stockton and Yosemite Valley, and
brought in 46 people during the summer of 1914. However, a National Park
report shows that all of his traffic originated at Crockers
(Sequoia post office), and there were no direct passengers from Stockton
that year. In the 1920 and 1930 Censuses, Theodore
identified himself as "draftsman". He moved to San Mateo and married
Della Orpha Widner in 1919 or earlier. They had five children. Their
firstborn, John Roscoe Gibson, also known as Jack Gibson,
was born in 1920. Other children in the family were
Caroline Annette Gibson (1922-1945), Walter Gold Gibson (1924-2002),
Virginia Margaret Gibson (1927-2008), and Robert Gibson (1930-2000).
Note added March 2012: Theodore Gibson's
granddaughter, Diane, found and kindly sent the following paragraph from
the family maintained "Memories of the Gibson Family", related to the
Half Dome climb:
"Around 1900, Ted and Otis took a Sierra trip with two or three of
their buddies. They left San Francisco with two burros laden with all
their gear... On they went across the canyon that is now Hetch Hetchy,
and eventually to the back side of Half Dome. Pipes had been seated
in the granite of this dome to support ropes serving as hand supports to
reach the top. By the time they got there, the ropes had rotted away or
had been removed. So the group used a pack rope to lasso from pipe to
pipe to get up the steepest slopes. Those on top stayed the night, and
enjoyed the comfort of bonfire that was seen down in the Valley. This is
of little importance except that Burton Holmes, a well known travel
writer and lecturer of his day, was one of those in the Valley who saw it.
When he appeared later in San Francisco he had the "boys" as his guests
and mentioned them in his lecture. They brought the burros back with
them to their house on Dolores Street [in San Francisco] and grazed them
on various vacant lots until they were sold..."
1904: Dynamite and rockets—Celebrating the 4th
Ascenders: Jack Kelsey, Lester Jordan, Milton Main
The Call, San Francisco, July 5, 1904, p. 2:
Fireworks on Half Dome.
Yosemite, July 4.—Jack Kelsey, Lester Jordan and M. C. Main left here
yesterday morning to scale Half Dome, the loftiest, most sublime pile in
the Yosemite. The Kelsey party took along a large quantity of dynamite and fireworks and last night the people in the valley were treated
to a sight seldom witnessed.
Evening News, San Jose, July 11, 1904, p. 8:
Climbed the Famous Half Dome
Perilous feat accomplished by San Jose boy in Yosemite
M. C. Main of this city is one of the few who have scaled the famous
half dome at Yosemite park. The following account of the ascent is given in a telegram from Yosemite:
When Lester Jordan of Whittier, Jack Kelsey of San Francisco
and M. C. Main of San Jose climbed the famous Half Dome
(renamed Le Conte Half Dome in honor of the late Professor Joseph Le Conte,
under the auspices of the Sierra Club[!]) on the Fourth of July for the
purpose of setting on dynamite and fireworks in celebration of the
Nation's birthday anniversary, they accomplished a feat very seldom
attempted by others.
The boys left the valley early on the morning of July 3d, and were
until 4 o'clock in the afternoon making the ascent to the summit.
The first impression the people on the floor of the valley had of their
success was the flashing of a mirror to them. At 7 o'clock in the evening
a bright red light was observed burning on the top of the summit, and the
firing of dynamite and rockets proceeded very quickly afterward.
It was a sight worth going many miles to see and was enjoyed
exceedingly by the tourists and residents of the valley. The feat of the
young men brings to mind other equally daring adventurers who have succeeded in accomplishing the task...
[A brief review of Hutchings', Anderson's and Miss Dutcher's
ascents, based on Hutchings' In the heart of the Sierras follows].
Note added in October 2010: Recently I found
Jack Kelsey's detailed and dramatic report
of this climb in another San Francisco paper.
Immediately following his Half Dome climb, Milton Main was
involved in an early search and rescue mission in Yosemite:
Milton Main's pilot license, signed by Orville Wright, 1925.
From the collection of his great grandson,
Coral Springs, Florida, posted with permission.
San Francisco Chronicle, July 12, 1904:
Forced to camp on North Dome all night
T. L. Brown of this city gets lost in the Yosemite and causes much anxiety
Yosemite, July 11,—Much anxiety was occasioned last night by the
disappearance of T. L. Brown and his son of San Francisco. Late at night
a searching party, consisting of A[d?]an Bates of Palo Alto and
Burt Corbin of Fair Oakes, started out to find them. This morning
Milton Main of San Jose, who achieved distinction last week by climbing
South Dome, joined in the quest to relieve the anxiety of Mrs. Brown.
Mr. Brown returned to camp to-day at noon, having missed both searching
parties... Arriving on top [of North Dome] he could not find his way
back down the mountain side and was compelled to spend the night there
without blankets or food, though the temperature was below the freezing
point.
Note: San Francisco Call of July 14, 1904, identifies
the two members of the search party (above) as Burke Corbett, Jr., a son
of Burke Corbet of San Francisco, and Allen Bates of Palo Alto.
Milton Charles Main (1884-1963),
was a 20 years old student at the time of his
Half Dome ascent. He was born in Santa Cruz, and studied in San Jose.
Following his studies, he worked as an engineer, then
developed interest in flower industry and founded
"Seabright Bulb Company" at the Santa Cruz coast.
He was also an early airplane enthusiast, and flew his own
engine up and down the coastline. After WWII, he moved to
Florida, where he died in 1963.
Check several photos from
his family album.
Jack Milton Kelsey (1883-1955),
was born in Texas, but he was
a member of an old Southern California family.
He was a resident of San Francisco in the early decades of the twentieth
century, then living in the Los Angeles area,
where he died in 1955.
"Lester Jordan of Whittier" is
Lester Orin Jordan (1880-1959),
who lived in Huntington Park (near Whittier), during the 1910 Census.
He was born in Kansas. His
WWI registration card shows his occupation as 'fireman'. After WWI,
he and his wife Margaret moved to Exeter,
Tulare County, California, where he died in 1955.
Royal Quesnel(?), cca 1914.
1912: Kodak moment
Ascenders: Royal Quesnel, Aaron Walker, other people
For a long time, my only evidence of this ascent were
several undated photos
published in the 1914 edition of John Harvey Williams' book
Yosemite and Its High Sierra. The "Foreword"
of the book bears the date November 15, 1914,
and the photos could have been from 1914, or any earlier year.
Caption for the photos on page 86 reads "Climbing the Half Dome",
and on page 87, "Overhang at Summit of Half Dome".
The photos are credited to "R. O. Quesnal", but there is nothing
in the text of the book that would explain circumstances
or date of the climb, or any other detail about the photographer.
Search of the Mariposa County voter registers
revealed the true name of the alleged photographer:
Royal O. Quesnel [not Quesnal] was an electrician
registered in the Yosemite precinct in Novembers of 1912 and 1914.
He lived in the Valley and probably worked for the Yosemite National Park
when Williams was collecting material for his book.
Roy may have offered a few photos from his collection to the author.
His climb probably took place some time between 1912 and 1914.
It is unclear if Quesnel was the climber shown on the photos, or if
he was the person behind the camera, but at least two people
must have been involved in the ascent. Who was the other person?
We may never know. Those Half Dome pictures were no longer used in the
1921 edition of Williams' book.
Royal Otto Quesnel (1882-1958), may have
been in his early thirties at the time of the ascent.
He and his younger brother Forrest were born in California,
but before the turn of the century his parents moved
from Saticoy (near Santa Paula, Ventura County) to Seattle,
where his father found job as carpenter. Roy returned to California
and worked as electrician in Yosemite Valley until about 1915 or 1916.
He married Johanna Sagmeister, and their first son, Frank Robert Quesnel
was born in San Francisco in 1917. Another family relocation followed
soon thereafter, and Roy became electrician for the Ford Motor Company in
Seattle. Daughter Jean and son Theodore were born in Seattle in 1919 and
1921. Before 1930, Johanna and Roy were divorced, and she got custody
of their children. He may have briefly lived in Santa Paula,
where his mother had resided.
In 1942, during the WWII draft, he was registered in Bronx, NY.
Following this east coast excursion, he returned to California, where he
died in the Placer County in 1958.
Note added in October 2010:
A letter by Royal Quesnel
to his future wife, Johanna, and his notes on back sides
of photographs taken while he was in Yosemite, give more details about
this climb (in fact, series of climbs!): On Saturday, August 17, 1912,
one Mr. A. Walker summited Half Dome, probably the first man atop
the Dome since 1904. Four days later, on the 21st, Walker made another
ascent, this time with Roy. They both climbed Half Dome once more
that season, "on a Sunday", but the exact date couldn't be determined.
Roy had his camera with him on both of his trips, and wrote: "I had a pleasure
of taking the first camera upon the dome... it was my old stand-by..."
We know that this was not the "first camera upon the dome", but it was
probably the first time when a modern camera, with flexible rolled film,
not plates, made it to the top of Half Dome.
A special 'thank you' to Marily Quesnel for finding and sharing this interesting
document.
A. Walker could have been Aaron Murrey Walker (1887-1923),
who was born in Oklahoma, but lived most of his life in the Sierra
foothills, in or around Yosemite. Aaron would be 24 years old during
that 1912 Half Dome ascent. Mr. Walker was killed in a work related accident
in 1923. He was married, and had many brothers and sisters who lived in North Fork,
Mariposa, and San Francisco at the time of his death. I am hoping that
some of his relatives would see this note and corroborate Aaron's
involvement in a series of Half Dome climbs in 1912.
1914 or later: Angry father
Ascenders: Mary Curry, Donald Tresidder
The following episode is described in several books and articles about
Donald Tresidder, a one-time president of Stanford University.
It is not quite clear if it happened during Donald's
first year in Yosemite (1914), or later. Donald Tresidder (1894-1948),
a young student from Indiana,
first arrived in Camp Curry in Yosemite Valley in 1914.
He learned to cook, and lived and worked in the Valley
every summer during his college years. Mary Curry (1893-1970)
would eventually become his wife. Here is a brief mention of their
Half Dome ascent from Sandstone and Tile, Stanford Historical
Society Newsletter, Vol. 6, No. 2, Winter 1982:
On one occasion he [Tresidder] was fired by Mr. Curry for
taking his daughter Mary Curry with him on an ascent of
Half Dome, which at that time did not have the cables
that now make it a fairly routine excursion...
Shirley Sargent in her Yosemite & Its Innkeepers adds:
Father Curry was much less gentle
when he discovered that Don had taken Mary up the hazardous ascent of Half
Dome, even though Mary explained that she had persuaded Don to let her go...
1915: Pillsbury's Rope
Ascenders: Pillsbury, Murray, Marx, Anspach, Templeton, Putnam, Brake, Vandervort, eight or nine others
The first brief note about Arthur Pillsbury's Half Dome
ascent appers to have been printed in the Mariposa Gazette:
Mariposa Gazette, August 7, 1915, p. 1:
A.C. Pillsbury headed an interesting group
of climbers who made ascent
of Half Dome recently. In the party of seventeen were six ladies. A
ladder of spikes was their means of accomplishing this dangerous and
difficult feat. Mr. Pillsbury took motion pictures of the scene.
Seven days later, the Los Angeles Times had more to say about
this trip:
The Pillsbury party at Half Dome,
in August 1915
Los Angeles Times, August 15, 1915, p. V12
Where Human Foot Had Never Trod
Angelenos scale the famous Hanging Rock,
Regarded as an Impossible Climb Even by Expert Mountaineers
Fighting their way to the top of Half Dome, the most inaccessible
point on any of the mountains about the Yosemite Valley, A. C. Pillsbury
and seventeen college students, several from this city, spent last
Saturday night on the summit and made the descent the next day.
This is the first time on record that a party of tourists has ever scaled
the mountain, and reached the top of the dome. The summit is 9500 feet
above sea level and the last 1000 feet of the climb was made with rope
ladders[!] The grade is said to average 75 per cent.
The picture shows the party at the point of the dome, which
rises hundreds of feet above a massive rock on the top of
the mountain proper[?!] The rock itself is 1000 feet high. The overhanging
rock at the summit of the dome projects out from the wall eighty feet and
the rock slab on which a venturesome student is seated sticks eight feet out
into yawning space. There is a sheer drop of 3000 feet from this point.
The party spent one night on the point and built a huge bonfire that
lighted up the surrounding heights for miles, to the delight of many
tourists on the floor of the valley who had observed the climbers through
field glasses during the afternoon. At midnight the bonfire was pushed over
the point, making the longest stream of falling fire in the history of
the State.
A. C. Pillsbury, who was guide for the party, is a well-known photographer.
He packed his motion-picture camera to the top and took several reels
of film depicting the cloud and moonlight effects, as well as the vista
observed from that point.
Six girls were in the party. All of them are students at Stanford
University...
(Also reprinted in the Charlotte Daily Observer, North Carolina,
September 9, 1915, p. 4)
There was a quick reaction to this extremely sloppy written report. In a letter to the Editor (
Los Angeles Times, August 17, 1915, p. II5), Henry Osborne, who climbed the Dome in the early 1880s, wrote: "
The feat of seventeen college students, several from this city, accompanied
by the photographer A. C. Pillsbury, of climbing the Half Dome in the
Yosemite Valley..., is a very notable achievement in mountain climbing.
But it is not quite accurate to say that 'this is the first time on
record that the top of the Dome has been reached by human beings',
although it is probably true it has not been done [frequently] during the last
thirty years...
"
Strangely and unfortunately,
Stanford or Palo Alto newspapers from August 1915,
did not mention Pillsbury's ascent or the names of Stanford students who had
participated. Fortunately, a few more details can be found in a recollection by Charles Thomas Vandervort, a member of the Pillsbury party, published in
the San Francisco Chronicle in August 1932, seventeen years after the Pillsbury team climb:
San Francisco Chronicle, August 13, 1932, p. 12
Editor, The Chronicle
— Sir: I noticed in yesterday's Chronicle
an account coming out of Yosemite under date of August 8 [1932] setting
forth the mountain climbing exploits of
Warren Loose and Jean Husted. I do not wish in any way to
detract from the noteworthy achievement of Mr. Loose and Miss Husted,
on the contrary, I believe it should have due acclaim...; but in
establishing mountain records and climbing to highest peaks we
must remember the generations which have gone before.
The statement that
"Loose and Elden Dryer were the first to reach the top
of Half Dome without the aid of rope or cable" is not only
untrue but shows a great lack of knowledge of what I call the
"middle" history of the great Tissiack. Most books on the subject
state that Anderson first climbed this peak
in the seventies and then go on to describe
the cable which was attached in 1919. Between these dates many mountaineers
visited the Yosemite and to them Half Dome was not only an inspiration
but a challenge. I climbed Half Dome unaided by rope or cable, once in 1915
and eight times in 1916, but I was not the first to accomplish this feat.
During the summer of 1915,
Mr. Pillsbury succeeded in raising enough
money for 900 feet of substantial rope for Half Dome and a group of
eight college men volunteered to put it up. I was first
up with the new rope. Other members of the party were the late
Bay Murray,
son of Professor Murray of Stanford University; young
Marx,
son of Professor Marx of the same institution;
Mr. Anpach [Anspach], now
a practicing attorney at Glendale, Cal. The event was recorded
in motion pictures by Mr. Pillsbury from a perilous position
on the side of the mountain, where we suspended him by a rope.
After the rope was established, others climbed the mountain to help
commemorate the event. My pictures of the party on top show the faces
of "Dink" Templeton,
Miss Dorothy Putnam of Stanford and
Miss Ann Brake
of the University of California...
Charles T. Vandervort
Menlo Park, Aug. 10, 1932.
There is a possibility that Pillsbury (or the National Park Service?) made some
improvements on the Half Dome route in the summer of 1916:
Mariposa Gazette, July 15, 1916, p. 1:
Half Dome —
New iron pegs, soldered with melted sulfur, have
replaced the old and a new half-inch Manila rope had been stretched
from top to bottom. Headed by A.C. Pillsbury, a party of sixteen went
up to the summit of the Dome after completing the safety measures.
Roland G. Marx. From
the Stanford Quad, 1911.(Or, perhaps, the Gazette was simply belatedly reporting on the upgrades made during the previous summer, described in Vandervort's article, above).
"Bay Murray" is
Francis King Murray (1895-1929), a son of
Prof. of Greek at Stanford, Augustus Taber Murray (1866-1940).
Onetime Leland Stanford footballer and trackman, and prominent
in college dramatics, where he earned the nickname "Bay".
Graduated in 1917, with Phi Beta Kappa rank.
Died of kidney failure in Boston, in 1929. Obituaries in the Time
(magazine), Monday, April 15, 1929, and the New York Times,
April 3, 1929. p. 25. Survived by his wife and three children.
There were two professors Marx at Stanford, brothers
Charles David Marx (1857-1939) and Guido Hugo Marx (1871-1949),
both working in the School of Engineering.
Each brother had a son and three daughters.
"Young Marx" was probably Charles' eldest child,
Roland Grotecloss Marx (1889-1976).
Roland got his AB in Civil
Engineering (Stanford class of 1911), and continued studying at Stanford
for a higher degree. He was an early radio amateur at Stanford.
It is less likely that "young Marx" was referring to his cousin,
Guido Van Dusen Marx (1900-1939).
Guido was professor Guido H. Marx's son, but he was probably
still in high school during Pillsbury's ascent.
"Mr. Anpach" is
Wilmur Claire Anspach (1894-1955).
He got his AB (Pre-legal) at Stanford, class of 1917,
then a degree from Harvard.
Stanford's Quad 1917 lists him playing cornet
in Stanford University Orchestra (together with Charles Vandervort, clarinet!).
He began working as attorney in Glendale in 1922. Wilmur and his wife
Sue Lively (Anspach) had two children.
"Dink Templeton" refers to a star athlete and a talented coach
at Stanford University,
Robert Lyman Templeton (1897-1962).
His life is well
documented on the Web.
Dorothy Putnam (1890-1970)
was born in Illinois, and after
studying for two years at University of Illinois, transferred to Stanford
and got her AB in History, class of 1916. Next year she
received her high school teaching credentials, but stayed at Stanford
as secretary of the School of Education, and
as departmental librarian. She described her experience at this
function in "[Ellwood] Cubberley as Known by His Secretary," in
the California Quarterly of Secondary Education,
Vol. 8 (April 1933), pp. 243-244. She may have left that job
after 1937. In the "Stanford Alumni directory"
printed in 1956, her unconfirmed address was in Salinas, California.
She died in Palo Alto, in 1970.
From the San Jose Mercury Herald
August 15, 1915, p. 27.
"Ann Brake" was Anna Beatrice Brake (1896-1977).
She was described as a first year student in Letters and Science,
from San Jose, in the 1914-1915 University of California Register.
An issue of
San Francisco Chronicle of November 12, 1916, p. 52, briefly
mentioned her in an article entitled New Talent in Cast of U. C. Junior
Farce: "...Among the newcomers, who are famed for their good looks
already, and who promise to make their marks in college theatricals are
Jessie Todhunter, Ann Brake, Katherine Woolsey,
[and others]". In her Senior year at Berkeley, she was awarded
Phoebe A. Hearst Scholarship. She graduated in the class of 1918, then
got a nursing degree from the Bellevue Hospital of New York City in 1921.
In 1922, in a
wedding ceremony in the Yosemite Valley, she married
Dr. Morton Ryder, a New York physician. They lived in Rye, N.Y., and had
three children. Anna died in Carmel, N.Y., in 1977.
Charles Thomas Vandervort (1892-1980)
was born in South Dakota,
and died in Southern California. He got his Pre-legal AB at Stanford
in the class of 1917. The Stanford Quad, 1917 lists him playing clarinet
in Stanford University Orchestra (together with Wilmur Anspach, cornet!). After Stanford, he spent some time in the Army.
In 1922, when he became "commandant" of William Warren School
(private military school, later Menlo Junior College,
in Menlo Park, California), his title was "Major Vandervort".
In the late twenties he submitted his MA Thesis
to the Department of Education at Stanford ("Military Training in
the Secondary Schools of the United States", 1929).
Arthur Clarence Pillsbury (1870-1946)
was a well known photographer.
He studied Mechanical Engineering at Stanford University, and was
preoccupied with cameras and photography while still a student.
After the 1906 San Francisco earthquake he left Bay Area
and purchased a studio in Yosemite Valley, where he was a
licensed photographer at the time of the 1915 ascent of Half Dome. Learn more about A. C. Pillsbury's work and legacy at a website maintained by his granddaughter Melinda.
What happened to Pillsbury's "motion picture"?
What happened to the movie that Pillsbury
had made during his trip? The earliest public screening of the segment covering the Half Dome ascent was in Palo Alto's Varsity Theatre on September 30, 1915, see the ads in Palo Alto and Stanford newspapers. Many similar presentations followed in 1916, as the newspaper articles below at.
San Jose Mercury Herald, March 11, 1916, p. 8:
Church Notices
...At the First Methodist Episcopal church, Santa Clara
and Fifth streets...
The evening service will be of unusual attractiveness...
Dr. Williams will speak briefly on God and Nature, then
Arthur C. Pillsbury will present Yosemite in Pictures and Story.
There will be five reels of motion pictures and colored views of
Yosemite and the High Sierras; motion pictures of the climbing of
Mt. Lyell and Half Dome. Mr. Pillsbury is an expert, and his
motion pictures and colored views are unsurpassed.
Los Angeles Times, March 13, 1916, p. III2:
College Boys Up High in Sierras
The thrilling ascent of Half Dome by fourteen university students
is one of the new features that will be shown this week by David A. Curry
at the Little Theatre. Last year the annual hike of the Sierra Club was
the feature and the best part of this is retained as it shows the members
reaching the summit of Mt. Lyell.
Half Dome is known to every Yosemite lover. It is a massive rock
which rises 9000 feet in the air and to make the climb requires nerve,
strength and daring. Often the moving picture operator was in danger of
falling thousands of feet to the valley below.
San Jose Mercury Herald, March 17, 1916, p. 11:
A frame from
Pillsbury's movie shows a group of (mostly) Stanford students at the top
of Half Dome in August 1915.
Pictures of Yosemite are Shown at Normal
Miss Mildred Clemens Gives Interesting Illustrated Lecture
Appearing under the sanction of the United States department of the
interior and in the interest of a corporation which is planning the
opening of a chain of hotels and other accommodations for tourists,
Miss Mildred Leo Clemens a relative of the late Samuel M. Clemens
(Mark Twain), lectured last evening at the normal assembly hall on the
Yosemite valley before a large audience of normal students and their friends.
The pictures which accompanied the talk were truly remarkable.
The lecture was illustrated by 2500 feet of motion pictures and some
150 stereopticon views...
Among the most interesting of the pictures are several showing the
Sierra club in one of its annual hikes through the park and a large party
of Stanford students climbing Half Dome and Glacier Peak...
Miss Clemens spoke of the hotel accommodations and travel facilities to
be found in the reservation[!] and of the plans of a new corporation
for the erection of
magnificent hotels in the valley and hospitable
chalets through the rest of the park...
Oakland Tribune, May 10, 1916, p. 14:
Sierra Snow Scenes Shown by Lecturer
Alameda, May 10.—David Curry gave his Yosemite lecture last night
in the First Congregational Church, showing a mile of film
of the wonderland... The most sensational view of the main Valley showed
ten University boys and girls climbing Half Dome,
with the aid of ropes tied to the same spikes driven by Anderson
years ago when that intrepid climber established a record which
stood for a quarter of century, as the only person[!]
to climb the giant rock...
Oakland Tribune, August 1, 1916:
Yosemite Guide to Talk of Trails
"Yosemite Valley Trails" will be the subject of a moving picture
lecture to be given by Harold Wurta, Yosemite guide, Friday evening,
at the Boulevard Congregational church. The feature of the lecture
will be the showing of college students climbing Half Dome...
The further destiny of the movie remained a mystery to me for quite a while. I was hoping that it had been
preserved in a movie archive or perhaps in a Sierra Club depository. Then one day Derek Cheng sent me a note with a link to the National Film Preservatin Foundation (NFPF) website, which was offering a free viewing of a 3-minutes clip from Pillsbury's movie (thank you Derek!) The great news was that the clip contained an amazing 60-seconds long segment showing the Half Dome ascent. The bad news was that those three minutes hosted by NFPF were all that remained from the original 35mm film by the Pillsbury Picture Company. The rest of the movie apparently deteriorated before it could have been preserved.
1917: Divided loyalties
By early Spring of 1917, the war in Europe had been raging
for almost three years. Some Americans of German origin were divided
and confused on how exactly to react on German militarism and conquer.
On April 6, 1917, the U.S. Congress declared war on Germany. President
Wilson specially addressed "men and women of German birth
and native sympathy who live amongst us". He stressed that most of them
are "as true and loyal Americans as if they had
never known any other fealty or allegiance. They will be prompt to stand
with us in rebuking and restraining the few who may be of a different mind
and purpose. If there should be disloyalty, it will be dealt with with a
firm hand of stern repression..."
Later that Spring, when the first
American troops were already on their way to Europe, the following incident
was recorded in a local newspaper.
Ascenders: Otto Sammet, Cecil Badger, James Carson
San Francisco Chronicle, June 16, 1917, p. 9
German Defi Placed on Top of Half Dome
Camera Club Climbers Find Notice Signed by Otto Sammet of S. F.
Special Dispatch to Chronicle.
Yosemite, June 15.—James Carson and Cecil Badger of the
California Camera Club party have succeeded in climbing
to the top of Half Dome, which rises to the perpendicular
height of one mile above the floor of the valley,
being compelled to climb over the smooth surface of the
dome barefooted. When they arrived at the top and were about
to plant the camera club pennant, they found a cloth sign
mounted on a shrub, on which was written "Deutschland above all"
and signed by "Otto Sammet of San Francisco". They also found
a pieplate, on which he stated he would like to meet
any one reaching the top while he was in the valley.
As Badger is about to enlist with the U S Navy on his return
to San Francisco, Sammet was soon apprised of the fact that
someone had found his sign, when Government rangers called on him
at Camp Curry, where he is a guest. His message has been turned over
to the proper Federal authorities, who are taking the matter up.
Otto Wilhelm Sammet (1891-1981), was 26 at the time
of this climb. He was an immigrant, working in San Francisco as
a piano repairman. I don't know if he had faced any consequences
from the "Federal authorities" for his action. Otto became an American citizen in 1926.
In later years, he was a carpenter, cabinet maker,
a real estate agent, and at one time, a director of the San Francisco
Zither Club. He was married to Edna M. Sammet, but it doesn't appear
that they had any children.
Cecil Frank Badger (1887-1969), was 29 in 1917.
He was born in Indiana, and worked in various places on the West Coast.
When he was drafted in 1917, he was a foreman
with Dinwiddie Construction Company in San Francisco.
After WWI, he returned to Indiana. He married Miss Opal Banta in 1921,
and worked as electrician. They probably did not have any children.
The second Camera Club climber, James Carson,
could not be positively identified.
1917: Popular sport
Many other people took advantage of Pillsbury's rope, but only
few names of Half Dome visitors were recorded in newspaper accounts
from that period.
Ascenders: Mary Curry, Hilmer Oehlmann, Carl Kennedy
San Francisco Chronicle, June 3, 1917, p. 37 (with an error in the title!)
Girls climb Half Dome in the Yosemite
Miss Mary Curry and Two U. C. Medical School Juniors Accomplish Feat
Camp Curry, June 2.—The mountain of Half Dome... was climbed
for the first time this season by Miss Mary Curry, the daughter of the
late "Stentor" of Yosemite, accompanied by two juniors in the
medical school of the University of California, Carl Kennedy and
Hill Oehliman [Hilmer Oehlmann].
Half Dome... is the most daring climb in all the park east [west?] of the backbone
mountains, Ritter and Lyell. The last 500 feet of the ascent can only be
made by clinging to finger and toe-told supports, aided by the not too
trustworthy rope, which the more careful Alpiners discard. Miss Curry in
past seasons has achieved fame by climbing most of the difficult heights
of the Yosemite and by mountaineering in the high Sierra eastward of the
valley proper. She is a graduate of Stanford University...
Kennedy and Oehliman are experienced mountaineers, having spent
last summer at Camp Curry and taken some of the more difficult hikes and
climbs in the valley.
Hilmer Oehlmann (1895-1983) would later become a
manager, and then the president of the Yosemite Park and Curry Company.
Ascenders: Mary Curry, Hilmer Oehlmann, George James
San Francisco Chronicle, June 19, 1917, p. 13
Half Dome Has No Terrors For This Author
George Wharton James Climbs a Mile-High Precipitous Bluff in the Yosemite
Camp Curry, June 18.—George Wharton James of Pasadena, author
traveler and lecturer on Western life and landscapes, made his present
brief visit to Yosemite especially notable by climbing the mile-high,
precipitous bluff of Half Dome... He was accompanied on the perilous trip
by Miss Mary Curry...
The only other member of the party was Hilmer Oehliman, a junior student
of the University of California, who, with Miss Curry, made the premier
climb of the mountain this spring.
"Half Dome I do not consider an especially dangerous climb to anybody who
has a strong pair of legs, strong nerves, strong self control and good
common sense", said James when he was resting from the feat. The ascent
in the steepest places approaches about 65[?] per cent, and if one slips
he is done for... "Half Dome is worth while for any true mountaineer, and
it is a good place to stay away from for anybody else".
George Wharton James (1858-1923), was a
popular lecturer and journalist, writing more than 40 books and many
articles and pamphlets on California and the American Southwest.
Ascenders: Employees of Camp Curry, and others
Hanford Morning Journal (Hanford, California), July 17, 1917, p. 6
Many Climbing Half Dome This Season Among Camp Curry Guests and Help
Camp Curry, Cal., July 14—The first brisk thunder shower from the high Sierras was enjoyed yesterday afternoon by the three thousand people in the valley and the eight hundred guests in Camp Curry...
The precipitous mountain of Half Dome, which like the keystone state of Pennsylvania in the arch of the original union, heads in the north and south walls of the Yosemite on the east, has this season become the familiar climbing ground for Camp Curry people. Besides a score or more of guests who have made the mile high ascent, nearly a third of the Camp Curry force have this season looked down on the deep trough of Tenaya canyon and the main valley from the rim teeth of its many overhanging rocks. Tuesday [July 10] a party of eight employees made the climb, passing three other hikers on the 500 foot "rope slide" and making camp's score for the season 70 people...
Ascenders: Harold Maundrell, Willie Ritchie
San Jose Mercury Herald, July 23, 1917, p. 10
4000 Campers Now in the Yosemite Valley
Camp Curry, July 22—(...)
Harold Maundrell, the famous Olympic miler and two-miler,
and Willie Ritchie, who have been spending several weeks in Camp Curry,
yesterday climbed Half Dome. At noon they flashed down mirror signals
by the sun in response to Stentor Curry's resounding call up the
mile-high cliff. The athletes on the mountain top enjoyed a wonderful
view over the deep valley and more than a hundred people have made
the picturesque and adventurous climb of the Dome this year, more than
half of them being from Camp Curry.
One statement in this article is not consistent with facts.
David "Stentor" Curry was indeed known
for his thunderous voice, but he could not have called Maundrell and
Ritchie from the Valley floor in the summer of 1917.
He sustained a bizarre but serious foot injury earlier that year, and
died on April 30, 1917, in a San Francisco hospital.
Harold Hugh Maundrell (1885-1967), was a noted Stanford runner
from 1906 to 1909, but he did not participate
in any Olympic games (nor were the one-mile or two-miles runs featured as
Olympic disciplines at that time). "Olympic" in the article was probably a reference to
the Olympic Club of San Francisco. "Willie Ritchie", whose
true name was Gerhardt Anthony Steffen (1890-1975),
was born in San Francisco.
He held the title of the world lightweight boxing champion from 1912 to 1914.
A note in the San Francisco Chronicle of July 27, 1917, confirms his presence
in Yosemite that summer ("Willie Ritchie only arrived from Yosemite the
night before, but he donned his gymnasium suit and commenced sparring right away...")
1919: McAllister's Cable Route
The person who deserves most credit for making our current route
up Half Dome accessible and enjoyable is almost forgotten today.
The best way to pay tribute to that visionary and benefactor would be
by naming this Yosemite Park attraction after him
— McAllister's Cable Route.
Sierra Club Bulletin, Vol. 11, No. 1, January 1920
Page 92 (in "Secretary's Report"):
The stairway up Half Dome, erected in the name of the club through
the generosity of Mr. M. H. McAllister, was completed last summer [1919]
and has proved to be a great attraction. An account of the trail will be
found in "Notes and Correspondence", but we wish again to express our
appreciation of this public-spirited action.
Pages 101-102
(in "Notes and Correspondence"):
The Half Dome trail and stairway
Some time ago Mr. M. Hall McAllister, of San Francisco, a member
and good friend of the Sierra Club, offered to erect under the Club's
auspices a stairway to the summit of Half Dome. This generous offer
was accepted by the directors of the club. Permission was granted by
the National Park Service and the work was completed last spring.
Many visitors to the valley last summer keenly appreciated the opportunity
to scale Half Dome in safety, and to see the wonderful views
which the summit affords. We are glad to publish the following
description of this cable stairway:
McAllister's photo, 1919 (detail).
Note the
stair section in the
upper part of the picture.
It consists of two sections. The first one is on the small dome, or saddle,
and consists of a zigzag trail and stone steps covering about six hundred
feet. The second section leads up the big incline on the large dome.
This slope is of polished granite, about eight hundred feet in length.
On this incline, which varies from forty-five to sixty degrees, is placed
a double hand-rail of steel cables set into a double line of steel posts
thirty inches apart, like those of a steamer's gangplank. These steel
posts are set into sockets drilled in the granite every ten feet and at
intervals of one hundred feet heavy chains bolted in the rock will help
to strengthen the cables or take up any strain on them. When the
season is over the caps on the top of each post will be unscrewed, the
cables, which are anchored permanently at the top and bottom of the
rock, will be lifted out of the posts, and the posts taken from their
sockets and stowed away off the rock until spring. It is not thought
that the cables lying flat on the rock, and being also held by the safety
chains, will be at all disturbed by the spring ice-avalanches.
The trip can be made as follows: About three hours from the foot
of the Vernal Falls Trail on mule-back to the foot of the zigzag trail
or "Rock Stairway"... Leaving the mules at this point, a walk of about
three hundred yards and a rise of six hundred or seven hundred feet
take you to the foot of the cable stairway, where a climb of another eight
hundred feet, holding to the wire cables, will lend you on the summit of
Half Dome.
It is best to wear rubber-soled tennis shoes, as the granite is so
smooth and slippery that spiked soles are dangerous. For those who
feel at all timid safety belts are provided, which fasten you to the
cables so that it will be impossible to slip and meet with an accident.
The work was done under the direction of experts from the Sierra
Club, and part of the expense shared by the park authorities. The
stairway has now been completed and turned over to the Yosemite
National Park for the use of the public. The memorial plaque at the
foot of the stairway reads:
Erected
1919
Under Auspices of the
Sierra Club
To Remember
Captain George Anderson
Who First Ascended this Dome in
1875
A photo plate in the same issue shows
"The new cable stairway up Half Dome" (Plate XXX).
It is clear from the picture, that some kind of
wooden or metal stairs
were built between the cables on the steepest part
of the lower segment of the cable route. The stairs didn't survive long,
and were never replaced later. Description of the route also mentioned
"safety belts" fastened to the cables. I don't know when the use
of those (quite impracticable) belts was discontinued.
Another description of the new cable route can be found in the
Report of the Director of the National Park Service to the Secretary
of the Interior For the Fiscal Year Ended June 30, 1919, Washington,
1919, p. 67:
(Yosemite National Park)
Half Dome Scalable Now
A very useful contribution to the park was made this year [1919]
by the donation, through the Sierra Club, of a protection for the
trail to the top of Half Dome.
A double row of iron posts about waist high were set in holes
drilled in the rock. Through "eyes" in the top of these posts,
formed by turning the metal back in the form of a loop,
a steel cable was stretched and securely anchored at the ends. The
cable formed a hand rail on either side of the trail, by which a
person could pull himself up the steep rock slope. This double cable
took the place of a single rope which was attached to small bolts in
the rock face and afforded only one aid by which the climber pulled
himself up hand over hand. The old arrangement was dangerous
and unsafe. It was placed by an old sailor in the late eighties[!].
McAllister's photo, 1919 (detail). A ranger guides a group of visitors.
The new cable was installed early in July, and it
was used by climbers who appreciated keenly the opportunity
of seeing the wonderful view from the top of Half Dome, with its sheer drop
of practically 5,000 feet to the valley below.
There is more about cost and circumstances related to the
construction of the cable route in the above quoted issue of the
Sierra Club Bulletin, pp. 102-103:
Hall McAllister
wrote to William F. Bade, the President of the Sierra Club, on
October 23, 1919: "...I can assure you it was a great pleasure to plan
and carry out this scheme, of which I had thought for some years, but
naturally felt timidity in attempting to undertake a task which might
result in failure from financial or physical reasons..."
McAllister also provided an account of project's total cost:
Paid by M. Hall McAllister:
Labor, steps and trail on saddle and cable stairway on big incline: $2,903.09
Material for above: $833.48
Total: $3,736.57
Furnished by Yosemite National Park:
(estimated amounts, including cost of connecting trail from Cloud's Rest Trail to Gateway):
Transportation for entire work: $271.00
Tools and equipment for entire work: $350.00
Total: $621.00
Grand total: $4,357.57
In spite of good intentions, it appears that cable posts
were not removed in the following
winter seasons. Results were predictable:
Sierra Club Bulletin, Vol. 11, No. 2, January 1921, p. 201
The cable stairway up Half Dome, donated to the park by Mr. McAllister,
proved very satisfactory, and enabled thousands to reach the summit of the
Dome, which heretofore had been a very hazardous undertaking. Early in the
season [of 1920?] snow avalanches carried away nearly one hundred feet of the
iron supports, yet the cable itself remained intact, resting on the surface
of the Dome, and many made the ascent while this condition prevailed.
Later the Park Service repaired the stairway, and it is now in first-class
order. From experience, it is advisable to remove the supports at the
opening of the winter season, for snow avalanches are inevitable, and injury
to the cable is almost a foregone conclusion. A new flag was hoisted on the
overhanging rock of the Dome, and it will be necessary to renew it every
spring.
It probably took several years before the Park Service fine tuned
the winter closure procedure. I didn't find any reports of problems with the
cable route after this 1922 account:
Berkeley Daily Gazette, June 30, 1922, p. 2
Cable on Half Dome is Wrecked by Snow
Yosemite National Park, Calif., June 30.—The famous double cable
up the smoothed side of Half Dome was wrecked by the fierce snows of
last winter, but many hikers continue to "take a chance" on climbing
the great glacier-carved mass of granite
The last winter was "unusual" all over California and in the
High Sierra country of Yosemite the fall of snow was beyond previous
records. Half Dome, standing 4,900 feet above Yosemite Valley,
still wears part of its snowy crown, indicating the great depth
of the fall at that altitude. The heavy snow snapped the right cable
like a cotton string, so that the entire lower part is gone.
The left cable is down flat on the rock for more than 300 feet
of the climb, making it difficult and perhaps dangerous for anybody
to attempt the ascent unless he or she be equipped with a cool head
and stout arms.
For many years Half Dome was thought unscalable.
Then Captain George Anderson performed the prodigious feat of dragging
himself to the top by clinging to the cracks in the granite plate,
driving pegs as he went. A rope subsequently was strung up the side
of the dome but this had to be replaced every year, and Hall McAllister,
of San Francisco, interested in promoting exploration and love of
the out-of-doors, generously donated a double steel cable, erected on
stanchions, which for several years has made the ascent of
Half Dome possible for women as well as men.
No plans for restoring the cable have been made, as the government
has no funds for such work.
The Evening News, San Jose, July 7, 1922, p. 7.
Half Dome Unscalable Now
Cable Broken
Yosemite, Cal. — Heavy snows last winter tore away the famous
double which for several years has enabled daring hikers to
pull themselves up to the top of Half Dome, a great glacier-carved
mass of granite which rears itself 4900 feet above the floor
of the Yosemite Valley. Despite the loss of the cable, many
summer visitors here are bold enough to try for the top anyway.
M[atthew] Hall McAllister (1860-1948),
a San Francisco businessman,
was born in California. His father was in close family relation
with a noted San Francisco lawyer and judge, Matthew Hall McAllister,
and young McAllister was actually named after him.
In 1892, young Hall was one of founders of
"Otis McAllister, Inc", a company still
active in the worldwide trade of food products. Hall not only helped
with the Half Dome cable route, but also financed
Sierra Club's Shasta Alpine Lodge at Horse Camp in 1922.
In 1920, McAllister donated his photoalbum of views of the
Half Dome cable stairway to the Sierra Club Library. I don't know if
the Album is still available for public viewing. Four of his
striking photos were published in the National Geographic Magazine,
Vol. 41, No. 4, April 1922, pages 343-347.
Hall had one son, Otis (who founded an organization similar
to the Sierra Club in Mexico),
and two daughters (Ethel, who became Mrs. Grubb, and Marion).
In addition to the Sierra Club, he was a
prominent member of the California Academy of Sciences,
and in the 1920s and 1930s also a chairman of their Conservation Committee.
M. Hall McAllister died in Redlands, California, at the age of 87.
Fine Print:
© 2008, 2022 by H. Galic
First posted at www.stanford.edu in 2008. Revised in 2022.
No part of this online document, photos included, may be reproduced without written permission of the author.
