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Mount.
Diablo: Surveys
& Celebrations
Museum of the San Ramon
Valley, Danville, CA - June 1 to July 28,
2001
[The following
information was taken from the Museum of the San Ramon Valley, Danville, CA
website]
Mt. Diablo: Surveys
& Celebrations
Underwritten by San Ramon Valley Rotary, Target and Chevron
Year 2000 was
California's Sesquicentennial. But this year the communities surrounding
Mount Diablo celebrated their own 150th anniversary. On July 18, 1851, Col.
Leander Ransom placed the Initial Point for surveying public lands in
two-thirds of California and all of Nevada. Mt. Diablo State Park was founded
in 1921 and is celebrating its 80th birthday in 2001 as well.
This exhibit was
open from June 1 to July 28, 2001. It displayed historic surveying equipment
and information about Col. Ransom's expedition to the top of Mt. Diablo.
Stunning photographs of the mountain by Stephen Joseph and Bill Hockins were
shown. Artifacts from the early years of the State Park and surveying
equipment used in the San Ramon Valley during the 1920s were displayed.
A special feature
was information and artifacts from the Whitney Geological Survey, the first
scientific survey done in California after Statehood. The UC and Jepson
Herbaria loaned the Museum two botanical specimens (taken from Mt. Diablo in
1862) and a field book from William Brewer who directed the field party and
botanical department for that famous Survey. Brewer's diaries of the Whitney
Survey are in print: Up and Down California in 1860-1864 The Journal of
William H. Brewer (UC Press, Berkeley). This exhibit was created as a
partnership between the Museum and the Mount Diablo Surveyors Historical
Society. On Saturday, July 21 from 10:30-1:30 the Society hosted a
celebration of the Initial Point on the Summit of Mt. Diablo.
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