Early usage and trail construction The pass was named for
Stephen Mather, who served as the
Assistant Secretary of the Interior and head of the
National Park Service (NPS) from 1917 until 1929, by Chauncey J. Hamlin. Hamlin's was the first known party to cross Mather Pass by
pack train in August 1921, taking 3 days to do so, as it was necessary for them to construct a rough trail. The party was the first to make the trip north on what became the John Muir Trail from Mount Whitney, and Hamlin advocated for state funds to be used to complete the route. In 1923,
Susan P. Thew led the third-ever pack train over the pass and became the first woman to cross the pass during a photography expedition through the Sierra. During construction of the John Muir Trail, "serious consideration" was given to the idea of abandoning the proposed route over Mather Pass in favor of the gentler Cartridge Pass to the southwest; indeed, the Cartridge Pass routing was listed as the official one (as well as the main one in
Walter Starr’s first edition of the
Guide to the John Muir Trail) until the construction of the Golden Staircase portion of the trail north of Mather Pass. The segment of the John Muir Trail which traverses Mather Pass was completed by the
Forest Service during the summer of 1937, using three trail camps to construct 11.25 miles of trail at a cost of roughly $1,400 per mile in 1937 USD. It was the final segment of the trail to be built.
Modern day In 2019, following a heavy snowpack in the Sierra Nevada, a 67-year-old man hiking alone died near Mather Pass after he slipped on ice and his head struck a rock. == References ==