Mount Harvard facts for kids
Quick facts for kids Mount Harvard |
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| Highest point | |
| Elevation | 14,421 ft (4395.6 m) NAVD88 |
| Prominence | 2360 ft (719 m) |
| Isolation | 14.92 mi (24.0 km) |
| Listing |
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| Geography | |
 Mount Harvard
Location in Colorado
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| Location | High point of Chaffee County, Colorado, United States |
| Parent range | Sawatch Range, Highest summit of the Collegiate Peaks |
| Topo map | USGS 7.5' topographic map Mount Harvard, Colorado |
| Climbing | |
| First ascent | August 19, 1869 (first recorded) |
| Easiest route | Hike |
Mount Harvard is a very tall mountain in the Rocky Mountains of North America. It is the third highest peak in the Rocky Mountains and the fourth highest in the contiguous United States (the main part of the U.S. without Alaska and Hawaii).
This impressive mountain is 14,421 feet (4,395.6 meters) high. It is the highest point in the Collegiate Peaks area. Mount Harvard is also the highest point in Chaffee County, Colorado. It is even higher than any point in the United States to its east.
You can find Mount Harvard in the Collegiate Peaks Wilderness. This area is part of the San Isabel National Forest. The mountain is about 11.7 miles (18.9 km) northwest of the Town of Buena Vista. The mountain was named after Harvard University.
History of Mount Harvard
Mount Harvard got its name in 1869. A group of students from the first Harvard Mining School named it. They were on an adventure with their professor, Josiah Whitney. Professor Whitney is also the person who Mount Whitney is named after.
This same group also named the mountain next to Harvard, Mount Yale. They named it after Professor Whitney's old school, Yale University. The group climbed Mount Yale first. They thought it was over 14,000 feet tall.
On August 19, 1869, two members of the group, S. F. Sharpless and William M. Davis, were the first to officially climb Mount Harvard. Harvard and Yale were the first mountains over 14,000 feet in the Sawatch Range to be named after universities. Later, other nearby mountains were named for Princeton, Columbia, and Oxford. This is why this part of the Sawatch Range is called the "Collegiate Peaks."
The Pole on the Summit
In 1962, three students from Harvard University tried to put a 14-foot metal pole on top of Mount Harvard. The pole had a sign that said, "Mt. Harvard, 14,434. This sign erected at an altitude of 14,434 making it the second highest point in the contiguous United States."
However, it got dark before they could reach the very top. They had to leave the pole a few hundred yards below the summit. The next year, two more Harvard students, Tim Wirth and his brother John, finished the job. Tim Wirth later became a Congressman and a Senator for Colorado. A student from Cornell University also helped them.
They carried the pole the rest of the way up the mountain. The pole stayed on the mountain for about 20 years. It disappeared sometime in the 1980s. It was likely removed as part of an effort to clean up Colorado's tallest mountains.
See also
