William O. Owen
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William Octavius Owen (1859–1947) was a surveyor and civil engineer.[1] On August 11, 1898, William Owen organized the first ascent of Grand Teton, which at 13,775 feet (4,199 m)) is the highest peak in the Teton Range, in the U.S. state of Wyoming.[2] Known by his nickname "Billy" even in adulthood due to his small stature, Owen served as the U.S. Mineral Surveyor for Wyoming and as U.S. Examiner of Surveys for the Department of the Interior until 1914.[3] Owen was also elected as Wyoming State Auditor and served four years (1895–1899).
In 1891 and again in 1897, Owen made attempts to reach the summit of Grand Teton, and was nearly killed on the second attempt. In 1898, a party of six sponsored by the Rocky Mountain Club managed to get four climbers to the summit on August 11 of that year.[2] Though Owen was the organizer of the group, Franklin Spencer Spalding was the more experienced climber and was the first man on the summit. Joining Owen and Spalding were local ranchers Frank Petersen and John Shive. Petersen had previously accompanied Owen during their 1897 expedition.[2] One day after their successful ascent, Spalding, Petersen and Shive climbed Grand Teton again to erect a rock cairn at the summit. Though no one disputed the claim by the four climbers that they had indeed reached the summit of Grand Teton, it had long been believed that the first successful ascent had been made more than a quarter–century earlier in 1872 by Nathaniel P. Langford and James Stevenson while serving as members of the Hayden Geological Survey of 1871.[2]
