 The summit offers a wide view of a wide area in Humboldt, Mendocino, Trinity and Del Norte counties north to the state of Oregon.Due to the high visibility of the top of Mount Pierce and the inability to see Mount Diablo from the northwestern corner of the state, a new principal meridian, the Humboldt meridian was established in 1853 intersecting the survey base line at the summit of Mount Pierce which still governs the surveys in the northwestern corner of California.The summit of Mount Pierce was marked with a tower of iron bars, now gone, but currently noted by an array of antennas, a geodetic marker and a plaque, placed on October 4, 2003 on the sesquicentennial of the establishment of the Humboldt Meridian Initial Point by Deputy Surveyor Henry Washington on October 6, 1853.