Over the years, the High Sierra has attracted a diverse group of travelers and residents who have explored its rivers, valleys, mountain peaks, lakes and passes. These names are clues to the colorful and unusual aspects of the area's past, and the people and events that shaped it.In 1926, the Sierra historian Francis Farquhar wrote Place Names of the High Sierra. Published by the Sierra Club, it quickly became a standard reference book. Since then, more than half the names on the present topographic maps of the Sierra have been created, but Farquhar died before he was able to complete his planned revision.Peter Browning, who was given access to Farquhar's extensive revision notes, has written an entirely new book on the place names of the Sierra Nevada. He has perused many original sources, including the place-names files of national parks and forests, the decision lists of the U.S. Board on Geographic Names, and field notes of the U.S. Geological Survey topographers responsible for naming many of the features.This new book gives the derivation and lore associated with each name as well as quotes from many of the explorers and travelers of the Sierra Nevada.This book also has a very practical value. It gives the topographic map on which to find each of the almost 3000 place names. Altitudes of peaks, passes and lakes are given and each place is located by national park national forest, etc.

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 forest. 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

Over the years, the High Sierra has attracted a diverse group of travelers and residents who have explored its rivers, valleys, mountain peaks, lakes and passes. These names are clues to the colorful and unusual aspects of the area's past, and the people and events that shaped it.

Author and researcher Helen Carlson spent almost fourteen years searching for the origins of Nevada’s place names, using the maps of explorers, miners, government surveyors, and city planners and poring through historical accounts, archival documents, county records, and newspaper files. The result of her labors is Nevada Place Names, a fascinating mixture of history spiced with folklore, legend, and obscure facts. Out of print for some years, the book was reprinted in 1999.

Includes section "Book reviews."

This anniversary edition concentrates on the origins of the names currently used for the cities, towns, settlements, mountains, and streams of California, with engrossing accounts of the history of their usage. The dictionary includes a glossary and a bibliography.

Famed naturalist John Muir (1838-1914) came to Wisconsin as a boy and studied at the University of Wisconsin. He first came to California in 1868 and devoted six years to the study of the Yosemite Valley. After work in Nevada, Utah, and Colorado, he returned to California in 1880 and made the state his home. One of the heroes of America's conservation movement, Muir deserves much of the credit for making the Yosemite Valley a protected national park and for alerting Americans to the need to protect this and other natural wonders. The mountains of California (1894) is his book length tribute to the beauties of the Sierras. He recounts not only his own journeys by foot through the mountains, glaciers, forests, and valleys, but also the geological and natural history of the region, ranging from the history of glaciers, the patterns of tree growth, and the daily life of animals and insects. While Yosemite naturally receives great attention, Muir also expounds on less well known beauty spots.

A placename is often much more than just a label. A name may bespeak the history of a nation, the culture of a people, or the hopes of an individual. Such connections are revealed in this very large reference work on placenames of the world, which offers an in-depth look at the origins of each. First published in 1997, this 2006 edition contains 6,000+ entries--natural features such as mountains, rivers and lakes and human entities such as cities and countries. Each entry includes the name of the feature; a brief description and its geographical location; and the origin of the name with relevant historical, biographical and topographical details. Appendices give the meanings of common elements of non-English placenames (e.g., Abu, as in Abu Dhabi, means "father of"); major placenames in European languages (e.g., Pays-Bas and Paesi Bassi are the French and Italian names, respectively, for what English speakers call the Netherlands); and transcribed Chinese-language equivalents for the names of the world's countries and capitals.