The Ascent of McKinley
Hudson Stuck, Harry Karstens, Walter Harper, Robert G. Tatum, Johnny, and Esaias departed from Nenana on March 17, 1913. They reached the summit of McKinley on June 7, 1913. Harper, of mixed Scottish and Alaska Native descent, reached the summit first.
The party made atmospheric measurements at the peak of the mountain for purposes of determining its elevation. At the summit, their aneroid barometer read 13.175 inches, their boiling-point thermometer read 174.9 degrees, their mercurial barometer read 13.617 inches. The alcohol minimum recording thermometer read 7 °F. These measurements, with others taken at Fort Gibbon and Valdez, were reduced by C. E. Griffin, Topographic Engineer of the United States Geological Survey, to produce an elevation for Denali of 20,384 feet. The figure quoted by the National Park Service in 2005 is 20,320 feet.
"The tent-pole was used for a moment as a flagstaff while Tatum hoisted a little United States flag he had patiently and skillfully constructed in our camps below out of two silk handkerchiefs and the cover of a sewing-bag. The pole was put to its permanent use. It had already been carved with a suitable inscription, and now a transverse piece, already prepared and fitted, was lashed securely to it and it was planted on one of the little snow turrets of the summit - the sign of our redemption, high above North America." (from Ascent of Denali, page 105)
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