Crags of Lone Peak, Wasatch Mountains

Improvement Era, vol. 23, no. 5, March 1920, pp. 394 to 395

Lambourne, Alfred

There is a sacredness attached to the tops of mountains, among all peoples and in all lands. It is as marked among the primal trihes as among the most highly civilized races. The legends and histories of the five continents are rich with reference to the sacred heights. "The tops of mountains," says Thoreau, "are among the unfinished parts of this globe where it is a slight insult to the gods to climb." But others have thought differently. The mountain tops were the abodes of the heathen gods. Parnassus and Olympus were pantheons to the ancient Greeks; the Himalayas and Fusiyama are sacred to Buddha. What says Scripture? There is the exultation of the Psalmist and the Song of Solomon, "Yet have I set my kingdom upon the holy hill of Zion." "Until the day break and the shadows flee away, I will get me to the mountain of myrrh and the hill of frankincense." Moses received the Tables of the Law on Sinai, and Christ retired into the mountain to pray. Our western heights are different, and the Indian shunned them. Impressive and grand are the silence and solitude of the upper Wasatch. Lone Peak is one of the most noble heights of the range. The human beings seen toiling up the snow slope in our picture were the very first of men to reach the granite summit. They were members of the United States Geological Surveying party, and scaled the mountain in 1871. The view from Lone Peak is of the utmost interest and grandeur. Mountain ranges beyond the number of counting are seen within the vast circumference. The view includes portions of Utah, Wyoming and Nevada. One sees unbroken solitudes and the abodes of men. Far away may be seen the entire surface, dotted with its many islands, of Utah's Inland Sea. Alfred Lambourne.