Talk:Josiah Whitney

NPOV for section on California Geological Survey
I'm concerned about the section on the CGS: some of the language seems overly pro-Whitney, and there are no citations. Marked it with : hoping other editors will get to this before I do. hike395 07:05, 15 March 2007 (UTC)


 * I'm actually surprised you find the article too pro-Whitney. Seems like it paints the picture of someone who was somewhat difficult to get along with (which I think he was).  Can you point out a couple specifics where some change might be needed? Glendoremus 17:54, 15 March 2007 (UTC)


 * Language that seems POV to me, especially with no citation, is below. It's not all pro-Whitney: it just seems judgmental to me. Who believes these to be true? They seem like value judgements:
 * "tactical error"
 * "grew impatient"
 * "tactlessly complained"
 * "after their experience with Whitney"
 * "survey was significant"
 * hike395 02:22, 16 March 2007 (UTC)


 * Okay, that helps. Thanks. Most of it is easy to fix or cite but I'll have to pull some books off the shelf when I have a chance.Glendoremus 19:28, 16 March 2007 (UTC)

Railroad Survey of Sacramento Valley
A documentary I was watching in one my courses mentioned a very interesting thing about Josiah. it said that Leland Stanford, when he was governor of California and president of Central Pacific, used Josiah's credentials as a geologist to proclaim the Sacramento Valley a "rugged mountain region." In doing this, Stanford was able to secure more funding for the railroad then he needed. Because Josiah was able to do this for Stanford, Mt. Whitney was named in his honor. I wonder if someone could verify this, because I'm too lazy to get around to do it myself. Memoryisawful (talk) 21:05, 2 July 2008 (UTC)


 * Clarence King of the California Geological Survey (headed by Josiah Whitney) named the peak when he tried unsucessfully to climb it in 1864. I don't think that California's governor nor the legislature were involved in naming the peak.
 * Source: "Up and Down California" by William Brewer 199.168.200.4 (talk) 12:58, 1 July 2023 (UTC)

Confirming Memoryisawful's point
As for the railroad, government funding was greater in "mountainous" terrain. Whitney described the base of the Sierra Nevada Mountains as the place where, going northeast from Sacramento, the gradient in the valley's floor increased. That was highly favorable to the railroad's financing. (These were loans and land grants, rather than money grants, but in any case, they were a huge help.) For an authoritative source, the best place to look would be Empire Express: Building the First Transcontinental Railroad, by David Haward Bain. (I read it years ago, don't have a copy, can't directly confirm the source, but it's quite likely in that book.) Another source, less authoritative but useful, and easy to find: This thread which discusses the topic in some detail. About the naming of the mountain for this particular act of Whitney's (which is a different detail from Whitney's description, and its improvement of the railroad's financing), it's in the thread I mentioned. Oaklandguy (talk) 01:29, 18 January 2019 (UTC)