Splendid Mountains; Author: Peter Browning
 
Most of the less well known early explorers of the Sierra Nevada were private individuals, rather than government expeditions or cartographers. The more literate ones had accounts of their achievements, adventures, and mishaps published in newspapers and journals, often accompanying them with photographs, drawings, and hand-drawn maps. Most of these wilderness travelers have been immortalized by having their names placed on mountains, lakes, and streams: Frank Dusy; Wales, Wallace, and Wright; Theodore S. Solomons; Bolton C. and Lucy Brown; Joseph N. and Marion LeConte; Lt.
Nathaniel Fish McClure; Cornelius Beach Bradley; James E. Hutchinson. These are foremost among the few who pioneered the routes that are followed by so many at the present day.
Bolton Coit Brown in 1895 wrote: . . . all the splendid mountains away off north and east of Paradise Valley, where the map shows nothing, were beautiful exceedingly . . . .
In 1896 Brown made the first ascent of Mount Clarence King, and wrote: The top of the summit block slopes northwest, is about fifteen feet across, and as smooth as a cobblestone. If you fall off one side, you will be killed in the vicinity; if you fall off any of the other sides, you will be pulverized in the remote nadir beneath