[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 actually 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.
Langford and Stevenson reported finding a small walled structure near the Upper Saddle 455 ft (139 m) below the summit of Grand Teton.
While a number of prominent people sided with Owen's rendition of which party had made the first successful ascent, Franklin Spencer Spalding stated he believed that Langford and Stevenson had actually been first.
[6] He scaled the Grand Teton again in November 1924 to celebrate his 65th birthday and found the records he left at the summit 26 years earlier.