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View is NW to Meade Peak. 10/26/01 by Rick Baugher
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Mount Mansfield
This outing takes us to the Preuss Range where some of the highest peaks of Idaho's southeastern corner are found. In the early twentieth century these were called 'the phosphate lands' and were part of the Peale Mountains. At present, the several mountain ranges south and east of Pocatello are referred to as
'the southeast highlands'.
Head up the Right Hand Fork Georgetown Canyon. After about 3 miles you'll come to a likely spot to climb out of the canyon if your goal is to climb regional monarch Meade Peak el 9957'. On 10/26/01 Meade was not on my menu. Instead, I continued up canyon another 2 miles, then grunted up a west face to the 9768' summit 1.5 miles south of Meade.
As an outdoors person, you are probably familiar with the usual aftermath of the first significant snowfall of autumn. The ground is still warm so everything underfoot is slippery and gooey. Under a blue sky, snow laden tree branches drip a 'deferred rain'. Welcome to Mount Mansfield el 9768' on the Great Basin-Columbia Divide, third highest peak in the 7 county area of southeastern Idaho.
From the Mississippian limestone summit of Mount Mansfield el 9768' the view is NW to Meade Peak. Meade is the parent, and Mansfield's prominence is 606'. Both peaks are on the Caribou County- Bear Lake County line. On 10/26/01 I was unable to locate any sign of prior summit visitation; so slapped together this tiny cairn and left a note, before slip sliding my way down the south ridge.
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View NE toward Mt Mansfield from the summit area of Mount Peale el 9400'+ on 6/12/02. Photo by Rick Baugher.
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View NE toward Mt Mansfield from the summit area of Mount Peale el 9400'+ on 6/12/02. While neither of these mountains carry an official name, it is worth remembering the work of the pioneering US Geologists in this section. The first was Albert Charles Peale (1849-1914), Green River Division, Hayden Survey, here in 1877. The giant of SE Idaho geology is George Rogers Mansfield (1875-1948), pictured here, who worked the field seasons of 1909-1916, and periodically thereafter until 1935.
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Photo courtesy USGS.
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In 1909, three years after production of phosphate began in southeastern Idaho, the US Geological Survey sent a Harvard geology instructor, George Rogers Mansfield, to study and report on the area's geology and geography. His work at the time was of no little consequence, for the results would determine which lands the federal government would withhold as a phosphate reserve, and which would be thrown open to settlement. Seven topographic maps were made and Mansfield had a hand in naming many of the mountain features. Photo courtesy USGS.
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