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There’s nothing like a little controversy to put a smile on History Snoop’s lips, especially when it’s a game of tug-of-war between Oregon and California. Now, down in the Golden State, they’re going to tell you that Harriette Eddy, a local girl, was the first woman to climb Mount Shasta. Never mind that Harriette never claimed to be first on that historic climb. “I was one of the first party of ladies who ever made the ascent,” she told a Yreka newspaper. Led by John Pierce, who is credited as the first man to make the ascent two years earlier, 11 men, accompanied by five women, began the arduous final ascent on Sept. 9, 1856. The date was chosen to commemorate the sixth anniversary of California’s admittance to the Union as a state. Now, here is where the controversy begins. Mary White, who accompanied Harriette on the climb, did claim to be the first woman to reach the summit. “The matter excited as much interest and speculation at that time as a presidential election,” Mary told a reporter, “and considerable money was wagered that I would not reach the summit.” Mary would not only reach the summit, but thanks to husband James who had taken all bets offered against his wife’s success, she apparently made it to the top long before any of the other women in the party. “He had given such care to the preparations of my saddle and other equipment,” Mary said, “that I was able to remain mounted after the other ladies of the party had been obliged to abandon their animals.” The couple and three other men got up earlier than the other climbers and, at 3 a.m., from their camp on the cold, damp sand of the timberline, they mounted their horses and began the “toilsome ascent by the light of the moon.” By 11 a.m., Mary and James reached the top. “Then, my husband,” said Mary, “to make it fully true that I had been on the summit, lifted me up and placed me on the highest point of the peak, and there I sat on the snow.” A Mount Shasta Herald newspaper editor told the story a bit more colorfully 32 years later. “In a moment of rapture the gentlemen picked Mrs. White from her feet, and placed her in a sitting position on top of the highest rock on the summit of Mount Shasta’s hoary peak and did homage to her as a living monument, and the first female who had ever ascended to the summit of grand old Shasta.” On their way down the mountain, Mary and James met the rest of the party who would reach the summit later that afternoon. For a little over an hour, members of that group enjoyed the view and congratulated each other on their achievement. They repaired a broken flag staff that still held the U.S. flag that John Pierce had placed there two years before, and then each signed a Bible and other religious books, hiding them in the rocks. Mary White permanently moved to Oregon sometime before 1870 and from her Portland home she told her story. Harriette Eddy, a member of a prominent Shasta Valley family, remained in California. We may never know who was really “first,” but my money is on the lady who decided to hail from the Beaver State. Writer Bill Miller is the author of “History Snoopin’,”a collection of his previous history columns and stories. Reach him at [email protected] or WilliamMMiller.com .