Mount Crocker

{{Infobox mountain

| name = Mount Crocker

| photo = Mount Crocker.jpg

| photo_caption = North aspect, summit to right

| elevation_ft = 12458

| elevation_ref = Peter Browning, Place Names of the Sierra Nevada: From Abbot to Zumwalt, Wilderness Press, 1986, {{ISBN|9780899970479}}, page 50.{{cite peakbagger|pid=38723|name=Mount Crocker, California|accessdate=2022-05-18}}

| prominence_ft = 858

| prominence_ref =

| isolation_mi = 1.77

| isolation_ref = {{cite web|url=https://listsofjohn.com/peak/32576|title=Crocker, Mount - 12,458' CA|website=listsofjohn.com|accessdate=2022-05-18}}

| parent_peak = Red and White Mountain

| listing = Vagmarken Club Sierra Crest List{{cite vagmarken |access-date=2022-05-18}}

| etymology = Charles Crocker

| map = California#USA

| map_caption = Location in California

| map_size = 250

| label_position = bottom

| country = United States

| state = California

| region = Fresno / Mono

| region_type = County

| part_type = Protected area

| part = John Muir Wilderness

| range = Sierra Nevada

| coordinates = {{coord|37.4829291|N|118.8253923|W|type:mountain_region:US-CA_scale:100000_source:GNIS|format=dms|display=inline,title}}

| coordinates_ref = {{cite gnis|id=258924|name=Mount Crocker|accessdate=2022-05-18}}

| topo = USGS Mount Abbot

| type = Fault block

| rock = Granodiorite

| age = Cretaceous

| first_ascent = 1929

| easiest_route = {{YDS|3}}

}}

Mount Crocker is a remote {{convert|12,458|ft|meter|adj=mid|-elevation|abbr=off|sp=us}} mountain summit located on the crest of the Sierra Nevada mountain range in northern California, United States. It is situated in the John Muir Wilderness, on the boundary shared by Sierra National Forest with Inyo National Forest, and along the common border of Fresno County with Mono County. Crocker ranks as the 291st-highest summit in California. Topographic relief is significant as the north aspect rises {{convert|2,500|ft|m|abbr=off|sp=us}} above McGee Creek in approximately one mile. It is nine miles northeast of Lake Thomas A Edison, and approximately {{convert|15|mi}} southeast of the community of Mammoth Lakes.

History

File:Charles C Crocker by Stephen W Shaw.jpg

This mountain's toponym was officially adopted in 1911 by the U.S. Board on Geographic Names. The name was applied during a 1907–09 survey by Robert Bradford Marshall of the USGS to honor Charles Crocker (1822–1888), an American railroad executive who was one of the founders of the Central Pacific Railroad, which constructed the westernmost portion of the First transcontinental railroad.Erwin G. Gudde, California Place Names, University of California Press, 1969, {{ISBN|9780520266193}}, page 96.[http://www.yosemite.ca.us/library/place_names_of_the_high_sierra/c.html Francis P. Farquhar, Place Names of the High Sierra (1926)] He was one of the four robber barons, along with Mark Hopkins, Collis Huntington and Leland Stanford (also known as The Big Four), who formed the Central Pacific Railroad. Mount Crocker is one of four peaks named after the Big Four that surrounds Pioneer Basin, the others being Mount Hopkins, Mount Huntington, and Mount Stanford.

The first ascent of the summit was made August 25, 1929, by Nazario Sparrea, a Basque shepherd.[https://www.yosemite.ca.us/library/climbers_guide/mammoth_pass_to_mono_pass.html George Bloom and John D. Mendenhall, A Climber’s Guide to the High Sierra (1954)]

Climate

According to the Köppen climate classification system, Mount Crocker is located in an alpine climate zone.{{cite encyclopedia |url=https://www.britannica.com/place/Sierra-Nevada-mountains/Climate |title=Climate of the Sierra Nevada |encyclopedia=Encyclopædia Britannica}} Most weather fronts originate in the Pacific Ocean, and travel east toward the Sierra Nevada mountains. As fronts approach, they are forced upward by the peaks (orographic lift), causing them to drop their moisture in the form of rain or snowfall onto the range. Precipitation runoff from the north side of this mountain drains into McGee Creek which empties at Crowley Lake, and from the south aspect to Lake Thomas A Edison via Mono Creek, thence South Fork San Joaquin River.