Ladden Cone

Ladden Cone is a summit of 7014' near Donnelly Peak. Interestingly, the name is probably a typo, the original name was "Ladder Cañon", which is described by Atlas Fredonyer in two 1855 letters.

Ladden Cone is cited as being in the State of Nevada 1914 map (see below), but it does not appear in that map. It could be that "Ladden Cone" was "Lassen Cone"? No record of anyone named Ladden has been found in that area.

An Improved Topographical Map of the Northern & Middle Mines. Compiles from the most recent & authentic Surveys, showing a practicable Route for the great Atlantic & Pacific Rail-Road, through the Sierra Nevada at Fredonyers Pass. With a faithful delineation ... (1854) shows what appears to be Ladder Canyon?

The print version of the above describes a letter from Milleson that appeared in the April 30 1855 Sacramento Daily Union titled "Fredonyer's Pass-A Description of the Mountains in that Region by Dr. Fredonyer.":

"Being weary of proceeding so far to the northward part of the company and myself determined to take a direct west course as possible, and force a passage over the Sierra Nevada at any point rather than make the great circuit by Lassen's Pass. For this purpose we pursued our journey up the Canon Valley, near a SW direction, over a sterile but interesting district, covered with innumerable little pieces of obsidian of different colors; about midway in the valley we passed through a volcanic causeway varying from one to two hundred feet in width and over a mile in length, with perpendicular walls fifteen feet high. The valley on the north and western sides is lined by a ridge of basaltic cliffs, increasing in height and grandeur until they reach the head of the valley at Ladder Canon, and sixteen miles distant from the mouth of High Rock Canon.'

"To the south of Ladder Canon lies Mount Observation, rising to an elevation of nearly three thousand feet above the planes of the interior basin of a conical shape, the summit and flanks intirely destitute of vegetation."

A similar letter appears in a 1855 California state government document about a wagon road:

"On the north west side of Mount Observation lies Crater Valley which is the aperture of an extinct volcano of an oval shape and about five hundred yards in diameter At the south west side of the crater is situated Ladder Canon which is utterly impassable. Beyond a rocky defile at the north side of the mount rises a high ridge of basaltic cliffs presenting a bold and precipitous front to the eastward. At the foot of these cliffs lies Canon Valley bounded on the east side by the Pillars of Atlas and extending in a north west course about eighteen miles to the termination of that ridge. A few miles from the head of the valley is the Augitie Causeway This is a volcanic fissure of about a mile and a half long and from one to two hundred feet broad each side forming a perpendicular wall fifteen feet high The bottom between them has been filled up with drift to an unknown depth with drift."

Ladder Canyon appears in the 1863 DeGroot's map of Nevada (David Rumsey).

Ladden Cone does not appear in the Division Peak (1980) map, though it does appear in the Division Peak (2018) map.

Ladden Cone it is listed as the western most peak in Humboldt County.

It does appear on the Humboldt County General Highway Map (2017).. Sadly, that map also has Division Peak appearing twice!

Earthpoint has the location at S11 T37N R23-1/2E

Resources

• GNIS
  • Citation: "State of Nevada: 1914, scale 1 inch=12 miles. Department of Interior, General Land Office, Clay Tallman, Commissioner, compiled from the Official Records of the General Land Office and other sources, under the direction of I. P. Berthong, Chief of Drafting Division, GLO."
    • However Ladden Cone does not appear on that map?