I learned from Claude Fiddler via a friend that "Constitution Peak" was the name Norman Clyde gave to Peak 13,920+ on the occasion of his first ascent of it in 1927. He wrote this in the summit register he left there.
I just ran across a copy of a 1907 topo map in my files that was marked up by Chester Versteeg. (I don't know when he did this.) Versteeg had scribbled many place names, and marked this one "Mt. Constitution." Interestingly, it has an elevation: 13,938'. (Other scribbles were Lake Serene for what we now call Upper Crabtree Lake, Mt. Sunburst for Caltech Peak, Mt. Marsh (made official just a few years ago), Frontier Circle for Mts. Pickering and Joe Devel, Mt. Cabot for Mt. Newcomb, Tawny Boy for Tawny Point.) Versteeg is well-remembered for having named more Sierra features than anyone else--many of which were eventually adopted. He is also known for being second only to Norman Clyde in the number of Sierra Nevada first ascents.
Somewhat motivated, I then looked through my past slides, and discovered I had taken a picture of the summit register on 23 Aug 1998. Of course, this register is long gone. I wished I had taken more and better pictures, but it's the best I have:
Of interest is the page on the left, where a fellow (J Haycock?) wrote in 1935 that he had found signs of a cairn, but no record of a previous ascent. That is followed by an entry by Norman Clyde, stating that he had climbed it 6 or 8 years earlier. Clyde dated his entry July 22, 1939.
I tried to enhance it with Photoshop, but either I'm just not that good, or the slide is just too poor. Both, undoubtedly:
On the right, you can barely make out "...called Constitution...maps."
This register held an interesting story that I wished I'd copied. A fellow had written that he and his friends had just reached the summit, and were tossing pebbles down a crack. Then they heard a faint metallic ping. Investigating, they saw a bandaid can about four feet down. They were able to retrieve it, and found the original register inside. The last entry had been ten years earlier.
Probably far more history than you are interested in.
