Joseph N. ("Little Joe") LeConte

1870-1950

University professor of mechanical and hydraulic engineering, and the second President of Sierra Club (after John Muir and before William E. Colby, for the years 1915 - 1917.

Son of Joseph LeConte, a well-known geologist at the University of California who validated John Muir's glacial theories about the origin of Yosemite Valley.

Joseph N. LeConte, like his father, was a charter member of the Sierra Club. He served on the board of directors for 42 years (1898 - 1940).

Joseph N. LeConte made many mountaineering trips in the Sierra beginning in 1887. He was a photographer and chronicler of many Sierra Club outings.

He made a series of triangulations of major peaks from Mt. Ritter to Mt. Whitney to facilitate accurate map-making. His map of the central portion of the Sierra Nevada Mountains and of the Yosemite Valley was published by the Sierra Club in May of 1896.

Francis P. Farquhar dedicated his book Place Names of the High Sierra (San Francisco: Sierra Club, 1926), to Joseph Nisbet LeConte, “Mountaineer and Explorer of the High Sierra.”).

His photographs of Hetch Hetchy Valley before the construction of the dam remain an inspiration of the beauty of Yosemite's buried treasure.

Some of Joseph N. LeConte's writings include:

Joseph N. LeConte, My First Summer in the Kings River Sierra,” Sierra Club Bulletin [hereafter SCB] 26:1 (February 1941), 9-14.
Joseph N. LeConte, “The Sierra Club,” SCB 10:2 (January 1917), 135-141 (article written by Joseph N. LeConte on the twenty-fifth anniversary of the Sierra Club) [offsite resource - internet archive - archive.org]
Joseph N. LeConte, “The Ascent of the North Palisades,” SCB 5: 1 (January 1904), 3.
Joseph N. LeConte, “The High Mountain Route between Yosemite and the King’s River Cañon,” SCB 7: 1 (1909), 16-18.