Mount Johnson

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MarkWestman

Trad climber

Talkeetna, Alaska

Feb 22, 2016 - 10:37am PT

Talkeenta Ranger station looking it up and calling me back...will update

I'm not back in the office for a few weeks, but hopefully the guys who are there can help. I am the one who overhauled our library in recent years, I'm trying to think if I've seen this info in there or not- there are some lengthy Bradford Washburn texts in there which might reveal it. The other useful info might be Vin Hoeman's giant route database, which often lists naming origins and FA info.

Gregory Crouch

Social climber

Walnut Creek, California

Topic Author's Reply - Feb 22, 2016 - 10:41am PT

Check that out, team. It links straight to the map. Cool

Look at this killer pic on p193

That's our baby

crankster

Trad climber

No. Tahoe

Feb 22, 2016 - 11:14am PT

Maureen at Denali Ranger Station in Talkeetna...best guess is that Dr. Cook likely named it for an expedition sponsor. It appears to be an unofficial name, not in the place names book.
She's looking into it and I'll let you know if she finds anything.

Gregory Crouch

Social climber

Walnut Creek, California

Topic Author's Reply - Feb 22, 2016 - 11:33am PT

Thanks, Crankster... I think that's probably how it played out.

Be interesting to hear back from her. And AMAZING to me that those mountains might have no official names! Compared to named bumps in Iowa, those are pretty significant terrain features.

MarkWestman

Trad climber

Talkeetna, Alaska

Feb 22, 2016 - 11:51am PT

Just talked with Roger Robinson- he also thinks it likely that Cook named these peaks after people who backed his expeditions.
Vin Hoeman's mapping records also indicated that Cook was the person who named them.

MarkWestman

Trad climber

Talkeetna, Alaska

Feb 22, 2016 - 11:53am PT

We're trying to reach Dave Johnston and Brian Okonek also. If anyone knows it will be them.

Dolomite

climber

Anchorage

Feb 22, 2016 - 12:02pm PT

I can walk across the street and poke around the Vin Hoeman archives at the UAA Library, if anyone thinks the question may be answered therein.

Gregory Crouch

Social climber

Walnut Creek, California

Topic Author's Reply - Feb 22, 2016 - 12:08pm PT

I appreciate everybody's efforts. Gonna be weird that one of the best pieces of alpine terrain in North America ends up being named for some douchbag in Ohio who doesn't deserve the naming of a bump in Iowa. (And no, we're not talking about Mt. McKinley, whatever that is.)

MarkWestman

Trad climber

Talkeetna, Alaska

Feb 22, 2016 - 12:21pm PT

Dolomite- when I talked with the ranger station this morning Maureen read me the Vin Hoeman entry for Johnson- it referred to it as "Dr. Cook's 'Mt. Johnson'"

Somewhere Cook must have described his naming of these peaks.

Fritz

Trad climber

Choss Creek, ID

Feb 22, 2016 - 12:45pm PT

Nice work all. Greg: I did a quick & dirty clean-up on the photo you posted a link to on pg 193.

To the top of the continent; discovery, exploration and adventure in sub-arctic Alaska. The first ascent of Mt. McKinley, 1903-1906
by Cook, Frederick Albert, 1865-1940
Published 1908

Gregory Crouch

Social climber

Walnut Creek, California

Topic Author's Reply - Feb 22, 2016 - 01:21pm PT

Thanks, Fritz. Blows my mind to see a FA I would do 90 years later in a 1906 photo...

Fritz

Trad climber

Choss Creek, ID

Feb 22, 2016 - 07:22pm PT

Bump for Mount Johnson group synergy.

Wonderful to see how so many folks helped out on this thread.

climber

away from the ground

Feb 22, 2016 - 07:56pm PT

Greg, I sent you a PM with the info. Let me know if you got it.

ms55401

Trad climber

minneapolis, mn

Feb 22, 2016 - 09:48pm PT

Come on, Supertopo, the gauntlet is thrown... prove your worth.

I laughed when I read this. You hang out here, right? You must know the scene.

Brian in SLC

Social climber

Salt Lake City, UT

Feb 22, 2016 - 10:31pm PT

Combed through a bit of Cook literature...found a reference to a Henry Johnson but not sure that's it.

In Cook's "My Attainment of the Pole" he spends a bit of time on the McKinley climb. In the chapter titled "The Mt. McKinley Bribery" he writes:

The only reason given that I should have faked the climb of Mt. McKinley is that, in some vague way, I was to profit mightily by a successful report. The expedition was to have been financed by a rich Philadelphia sportsman. He did advance the greater portion of the sum required. We were to prepare a game trail for him. Something interfered, he relinquished his trip, and did not send the balance of the money promised.

I don't find any reference to a Johnson in Dunn's Shameless Dairy of an Explorer. Or Browne's Conquest of Mt. McKinley. Or in any of Cook's books.

Kinda gave thought to Iver Johnson, given the McKinley connection (yikes). Would have been a son that inherited the company but maybe one was a sportsman who gave Cook some funding (or firearms) for his trip(s). I don't think it was ever a Philadelphia company though.

Eldridge Johnson cofounder of Victor? Affluent, liked to hunt, lived in Philly. That might work.

Handjam Belay

Gym climber

expat from the truth

Feb 22, 2016 - 10:55pm PT

My best friend's magnus opum...the old Stairway to Heaven.
So sick. An alternate reality.
Chapeau Mt. Johnson.

Gregory Crouch

Social climber

Walnut Creek, California

Topic Author's Reply - Feb 23, 2016 - 07:59am PT

Brian in SLC -- I think you're likely on the trail of the right guy with that line of inquiry... I'm still pretty astonished that we don't actually know who those west side of the Ruth peaks are named for... and that nobody seems to know. I'm sure the answer is out there lurking somewhere, perhaps in plain sight, but the NPS Denali NP people don't seem to know, and no obvious answer is presenting itself....

Gregory Crouch

Social climber

Walnut Creek, California

Topic Author's Reply - Feb 23, 2016 - 08:07am PT

I laughed when I read this. You hang out here, right? You must know the scene.

I try and avoid it as much as possible by steering clear of the politics and flame wars. Always amazes me to see how many people I've met and climbed with in the last thirty years show up here, however. My people, for better or worse. Annoyingly, there's a lot of worse. (And how'n the f*#k has it become thirty years?)

But I am pretty psyched with how much help I've received from "the crowd" so far on this thread.

I'll be even more psyched if we can get to the bottom of the big mystery--who is the namesake of this amazing peak?