Kern Canyon
On the advice of Clarence King, Langley had selected Mt. Whitney and vicinity as the site for an attempt to determine the amount and quality of the heat being sent to the earth by the sun. There he erected a "bolometer," a device that measured the radiant heat of the sun by correlating the radiation-induced charge in electrical resistance of blackened metal foil with the amount of radiation absorbed. Hauling sufficient wood to the site to construct the low 400-foot-long trestle the device required was a considerable challenge. Langley was not satisfied to take measurements only at the base of the mountain, however, and eventually he tried to establish a camp on the summit. It was already September, and high winds and biting nighttime cold made summit readings difficult. Portions of the Langley party nonetheless spent several nights on the summit, and at least one night they were joined by Wallace, Wright, and Wales. The results of Langley's scientific efforts were inconclusive, but out of his group came one of the first small attempts at southern Sierran resource protection. Attached to the Langley expedition from the U.S. Army was a Captain Otho E. Michaelis, temporarily assigned to the Signal Corps, and from his involvement apparently resulted the creation in September 1883, of the Mt. Whitney Military Reservation. The reservation withdrew from sale much of the Sierra Crest in the upper Kern, including Mounts Williamson, Whitney, and Langley. In 1883 the weather bureau was still attached to the Army Signal Corps, and the reservation apparently was created for additional scientific work under these auspices. Little came of the designation, however, and it was abolished after the turn of the century and most of its lands were added to the Sierra Forest Reserve.
