Sierra Nevada Place Names
From Abbot to Zumwalt
by Peter Browning
This is the third edition of the book Place Names of the Sierra Nevada, first published in 1986. In this book are the place names of the Sierra Nevada from the Lake Tahoe basin south to Walker Pass.
Not included are place names within Yosemite National Park, with the exception of the names for the features on the park’s boundary with the adjacent national forests. All other Yosemite names are in the book Yosemite Place Names. The origin of the names within the Lake Tahoe Basin are in the book Tahoe Place Names. Both those books are also published by Great West Books.
Altitudes of most peaks and lakes are given, and the name of the topographical map and the feature’s location on that map are also provided. The names of the current 7.5' maps are referenced to their positions on the former 15' map series. There is an extensive bibliography. New in this edition are two indexes: one is of those who named features, and the other of those whose names appear in the text of various entries.
The US Board on Geographic Names has officially defined the Sierra Nevada as extending from the gap south of Lassen Peak, on the north, to Tehachapi Pass, on the south. The region covered by this volume, however, is limited on the north by roughly the northern boundary of Alpine County, on the south by Walker Pass and Lake Isabella, on the east by US 395 and the Nevada state line, and on the west by several things: elevation, major roads, permanent settlements, map boundaries, and the author's arbitrary decisions.
Crazy Lake (11,079). Florence Lake - LR. Named in 1948 by a DFG survey party. The lake is in a bleak area. Scott M. Soule, a biologist,
commented in his report that “anyone visiting this lake is crazy.” (Heyward Moore, FPP 25, no. 5, spring 1984: 10.) (SiNF)
Keith, Mount (4,249 m.–13,940). Mt. Williamson - UL. William Keith (1838–1911), charter member of the Sierra Club, noted California landscape painter.
(SCB 8, no. 2, June 1911: 130.) The peak was named by the LeConte party from the summit of University Peak, July 12, 1896. (SCB 2, no. 2, May 1897: 84.) (KCNP, 1NF)
Trade paperback,
320 pages, 6 x 9,
two early maps, bibliography, two indexes.
ISBN: 0-944220-23-1
$19.95
For more information see: Introduction, Ordering Information