---
title: Improvement Era
description: Monthly periodical of the Mormon church, 1897 onward. This library holds the issues of November 1897 to December 1930.
authors:
  - Lambourne, Alfred
collections:
  - periodicals
tags:
  - magazine
  - improvement-era
periodical: Improvement Era
volume: 23
number: 5
published: 1920-03
publisher: Young Men’s Mutual Improvement Associations
publisher_place: Salt Lake City
language: en
type: magazine
reference: 'Lambourne, Alfred, "Crags of Lone Peak, Wasatch Mountains," *Improvement Era* 23, no. 5 (March 1920): 394–395.'
source:
  url: https://archive.org/details/improvementera2305unse
  transcription: Transcribed from the Internet Archive scan of each issue (the item for each issue is named in the issue's own source); unnumbered advertising leaves are omitted, printed page numbers are kept as page markers.
  identifier: improvementera2305unse
start_page: 394
end_page: 395
rights:
  status: public-domain
  basis: US publication 1930 or earlier (published 1920-03)
  source: https://archive.org/details/improvementera2305unse
  publication_year: 1920
  note: The Internet Archive item metadata carries a blanket "© Copyright by Intellectual Reserve, Inc." notice. The library owner judged it inapplicable because this issue was published in 1920, before 1931; a scan-level notice does not restore copyright.
---

# Crags of Lone Peak, Wasatch Mountains

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Crags of Lone Peak, Wasatch Mountains

    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.

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