Talk:Santa Monica Mountains

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I have a project on santa monica mountain. would someone give me more info? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 69.238.73.76 (talk • contribs) 18:28, 13 March 2006 69.238.73.76

Everything we have is in these pages. If there is particular info you need we may be able to point you to the right place. -Will Beback 02:42, 14 March 2006 (UTC)

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User2004, which redirects to Will Beback, added a list of named peaks in the SMM. What is the source of this list? The reason I ask is that Mount Bell appears to be fictitious, and certainly is not in the USGS list of names in California. (Also, the claim that Mugu Peak is the westernmost is wrong. I can fix that, but it indicates unreliability of the entire list. But Mount Bell is "missing information" rather than "conflicting information".)--Paleolith (talk) 07:13, 3 January 2008 (UTC)

I don't recall the source. Mt. Bell is widely described on the Internet. [1][2][3]. What's the real westernmost named peak? ·:· Will Beback ·:· 22:36, 7 January 2008 (UTC)

OK, thanks. Apparently it is invariably referred to as Mt Bell, and I was searching for "Mount Bell" as the article refers to it. However, the number of references found by Google is tiny -- on the same order as the number for Barney Knob, a summit near the intersection of Decker Road and Encinal Canyon Road known to the USGS but almost no one else, and not accessible to the public. Less than 1/10 as many references as for Mt Lee. The Burbank topo quad shows the 1587' point with no name. It also shows a 1600+' point between there and Mt Lee, also with no name. The USGS web site does not include it.

The westernmost is Laguna Peak. Pretty obvious to anyone who has stood on top of Mugu Peak. Laguna Peak is an antenna forest blocking the view of Oxnard. ;-)

This is all part of the question of what is a named feature, whose names, do we include informal names, etc. This is partly philosophical and partly practical. If we want a single citation, then I don't know where we can go other than the USGS. If we include other names, then we'll need to cite them all, and I imagine there are a LOT more names given informally (Eagle Rock for example). And what is the purpose of including the list? That might drive how it is derived and cited.

Here's the USGS list, east to west. What would you think about switching to this list, better formatted and with notes added of course, and perhaps sorted by height as is the current list. I do have qualms about a couple of the listings, especially Point Dume and Parker Mesa.

Feature_Name	Latitude	Longitude	El. m.	El. Ft.	Map_Name
Mount Hollywood	34.1280637	-118.3011874	492	1614	Burbank
Mount Lee	34.1347299	-118.3209103	521	1709	Burbank
Cahuenga Peak	34.1369520	-118.3259105	553	1814	Burbank
San Vicente Mountain	34.1286176	-118.5128608	598	1962	Canoga Park
Castellammare Mesa	34.0438975	-118.5595268	108	354	Topanga
Parker Mesa	34.0447306	-118.5734161	79	259	Topanga
Calabasas Peak	34.1122286	-118.6520307	644	2113	Malibu Beach
Saddle Peak	34.0758404	-118.6584189	851	2792	Malibu Beach
Laskey Mesa	34.1755606	-118.6811996	428	1404	Calabasas
Mesa Peak	34.0625069	-118.7189758	555	1821	Malibu Beach
Brents Mountain	34.0858398	-118.7225875	513	1683	Malibu Beach
Goat Buttes	34.0952841	-118.7389771	388	1273	Malibu Beach
Solstice Hill	34.0344516	-118.7498093	170	558	Malibu Beach
Ladyface	34.1350057	-118.7731458	619	2031	Thousand Oaks
Castro Peak	34.0858398	-118.7853675	855	2805	Point Dume
Point Dume	34.0016746	-118.8062001	56	184	Point Dume
Negrohead Mountain	34.1097284	-118.8098136	619	2031	Point Dume
Saddle Rock	34.0952843	-118.8298142	635	2083	Point Dume
Barney Knob	34.0775070	-118.8787049	527	1729	Triunfo Pass
Sandstone Peak	34.1202843	-118.9309301	899	2949	Triunfo Pass
Boney Mountain	34.1116734	-118.9592645	865	2838	Triunfo Pass
Clarks Peak	34.0833405	-118.9634310	600	1969	Triunfo Pass
Conejo Mountain	34.1883387	-118.9842666	548	1798	Newbury Park
La Jolla Peak	34.1152843	-119.0484349	466	1529	Point Mugu
Mugu Peak	34.0925068	-119.0548238	384	1260	Point Mugu
Laguna Peak	34.1086176	-119.0642687	433	1421	Point Mugu

--Paleolith (talk) 16:11, 9 January 2008 (UTC)

On further thought (previous entry was added last night but not signed until now), I'm thinking that the list should include all USGS summits but allow for others as well. At the moment I'm aware of four summits not on the USGS list, of which Mt Bell is probably the least known. The others are Bee Rock, Glendale Peak, and Tri-Peaks. There are certainly more, as I haven't even really looked. Also, I would use the standard method for presenting coordinates. Unfortunately the ones which most need coordinates are the non-USGS ones, and finding a reference for those is harder. --Paleolith (talk) 16:11, 9 January 2008 (UTC)