Currently, what are the oldest registers on the summits of various California peaks?

Ralston Peak isn't any major peak but my Dad hiked it while a boy scout in about 1952. It would be pretty cool for me to find his name on a summit register.

A better question to propose would be:

"What summits of California Peaks still hold a valid register?"

What would an "invalid" register be?

Everything from Business Cards, scribbles on a piece of TP etc and finally NO register at all. You would amazed at one finds inside them canisters these days.

Don't know about CA, but the oldest one I've found to date was from 1910.

> You would amazed at one finds inside them canisters these days.

A condom, some binoculars, water, a dollar bill, and a cliff bar. Sigh.


> Ralston Peak isn't any major peak but my Dad hiked it while a boy scout in about 1952. It would be pretty cool for me to find his name on a summit register.

There are a fair number of registries dating back to the 50's and older- but Ralston is very unlikely to be among them.
Even if it currently had one, Ralston gets far far too much traffic for a registry to last more than a few weeks

Check out this link, Marmaduke, and scroll down to Ralston Peak: (http://www.oac.cdlib.org/findaid/ark:/1 ... 01-1.3.6.4)
There doesn't seem to be an online archive, so you'll have to actually go to the library and acquire the book itself. This is something I've been tempted to do for quite a while just to enjoy looking at some of my boring old entries.

But, to help answer the op's question:

The oldest Sierra register I've ever seen was the 1912 book on Midway Mtn. This was back in late July, 1979. There were actually 2 books at the time. The old one was completely filled and many of the more recent pages had been jammed with signatures in the margins and even in the small spaces between some of the entries. The newer book (the one I signed) was only partially filled; it was nice that whoever placed the new book left the old book for others to enjoy, but...

...unfortunately the old book was stolen a mere 1 or 2 weeks after I saw it. This is according to Robin Ingraham Jr. who climbed Midway in 1987 expressly for the purpose of viewing such an historic register. The thieves even bragged about the theft in the newer register- perhaps only a page or so after my signature. Pretty sad...

Roper mentions the old 1912 book in his Climber's Guide (1976) as being perhaps the oldest register in the Sierra, but recently an 1895 record was found and later rescued by Claude Fiddler from Mt. Woodworth: (http://www.sierraclub.org/sierra/200807/iwashere2.asp).

boyblue wrote:Check out this link, Marmaduke, and scroll down to Ralston Peak: (http://www.oac.cdlib.org/findaid/ark:/1 ... 01-1.3.6.4)
There doesn't seem to be an online archive, so you'll have to actually go to the library and acquire the book itself. This is something I've been tempted to do for quite a while just to enjoy looking at some of my boring old entries.

But, to help answer the op's question:

The oldest Sierra register I've ever seen was the 1912 book on Midway Mtn. This was back in late July, 1979. There were actually 2 books at the time. The old one was completely filled and many of the more recent pages had been jammed with signatures in the margins and even in the small spaces between some of the entries. The newer book (the one I signed) was only partially filled; it was nice that whoever placed the new book left the old book for others to enjoy, but...

...unfortunately the old book was stolen a mere 1 or 2 weeks after I saw it. This is according to Robin Ingraham Jr. who climbed Midway in 1987 expressly for the purpose of viewing such an historic register. The thieves even bragged about the theft in the newer register- perhaps only a page or so after my signature. Pretty sad...

Roper mentions the old 1912 book in his Climber's Guide (1976) as being perhaps the oldest register in the Sierra, but recently an 1895 record was found and later rescued by Claude Fiddler from Mt. Woodworth: (http://www.sierraclub.org/sierra/200807/iwashere2.asp).

Hey great info, will look into the links. I'm a bit of history freak on different levels. I would find this interesting. Thanks again!!
I know sometime back, the year? I don't know but the Sierra Club took a lot of the registers and put them in their "museum of sorts" in San Francisco and the building burned and all were lost.