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Mountains
Born in the shadow of the Front Range in
Colorado, I have always loved mountains. Below is information about
three of my mountain-related pursuits: writing a book about the naming
of Colorado's summits, climbing Colorado's "Fourteeners" (peaks over
14,000 feet in elevation), and visiting the high points of various
states.
Selections from the manuscript Names Atop the Rockies:
Chronicling Colorado's History Through the Naming of Its
Mountains
From the
introduction:
This is the story of names - the names
of mountains within the 104,100-square-mile rectangle of land called
Colorado.
Colorado, the backbone of the North American continent,
is best known for its mountains. Within its borders stand 54 "Fourteeners"
- mountains higher than 14,000 feet in elevation - out of only sixty-eight
peaks that tall in the contiguous United States. More than six hundred
surpass the lofty 13,000-foot mark.
The state is home to more than
four thousand named summits, pillars, ridges and cliffs. For each, there
is a story about how its name came to be. And each story is a small
swatch, a few threads, of Colorado history. This book aims to stitch those
swatches together, revealing the mosaic of cultural, natural and economic
forces that melded a richly diverse state.
Those stories make
mountain names intriguing. And they're the reason I'm writing this
book.
This book is designed with the amateur historian and the mountain
enthusiast in mind. You can use it as a guide while driving the back roads
of Colorado's high country. Or, if you're simply interested in the
colorful events and characters of Colorado history, you can read straight
from start to finish.
The book is divided into two sections. The
first is an overview of Colorado history, illustrated by place names. The
second separately examines how summit names describe the unique natural
and historical character of each of Colorado's major mountain ranges.
Mountain names essentially represent a fingerprint for each of these
ranges, reflecting the environmental forces that created them and the
cultural forces that settled them. Each chapter - beginning with the Front
Range and ending with the Mesa Country - includes a series of maps
indicating the location of several mountains. The text discusses the name
origins of summits in each chain or area, divided by sub-range. (The
Sangre de Cristo chapter, for instance, is divided into sections about the
northern and central Sangre de Cristos, the Culebra Range, the Wet
Mountains and the Spanish Peaks area).
Unfortunately, the scope of
this book - as any other - is limited. It offers general "bird's-eye" maps
showing mountain ranges and individual summits. Folks interested in
identifying individual mountains from the highway should take a look at
Joe Milligan's recent Guide to the Colorado Mountains series, or the
four-volume series Colorado Skylines by the state's leading mountaineer,
Robert Ormes. Both identify many Colorado mountains from major roads:
Milligan in photographs and Ormes in sketches. Milligan's books are
available in stores; Ormes' set, which he published on his own in the late
1960s and early 1970s, can be found at the Denver Public Library and the
Colorado Historical Society.
A final note: Since there are 4,200
individual named summits in Colorado, this work is incomplete - and always
will be. The origins of many names demand further digging; others are
buried forever in the sediment of time.
From "Part 1:
Names as Vessels of History":
There is poetry in place names, and character. Names, in a
way, are the memory of the land. Fastened thickly to the landscape, place
names reflect the people, the environment and the historical forces that
created our nation. They are fascinating and tangible reminders of our
common heritage. They allow our ancestors to speak to us.
Let your
eyes fall on the map of any American place. You see the lie of the land,
of course: the rivers, the cities, the mountains. But in the names of
those places, you witness the afterimages of the distinct - and often
colliding - ethnic, cultural, natural and economic currents that melded
the nation we now know.
Visible, too, are the sweat, will and
creativity of the individuals who provided the muscle that built our
country. Author George Stewart, in his classic work Names on the Land,
describes place names as "grown out of the life, and the life-blood" of
those who have gone before us. "From the names might be known how here one
man hoped and struggled, how there another dreamed, or died, or sought
fortune, and another joked, twisting an old name into a new one," Stewart
writes.
Coloradoans did all that, and more.
The Rocky
Mountains of Colorado are rich with names - just as they are wealthy in
ore, timber, snow and majestic vistas. These mountain names weave a poetic
tapestry as they echo the personality of people - great and average - who
have lived among them.
A handful of examples: Seven Utes Mountain.
Uncompahgre Peak. The Sangre de Cristo Mountains. Culebra Peak. St. Vrain
Mountain. Kit Carson Mountain. Mount Richthofen. The Mosquito Range.
Quandary Peak. Last Dollar Mountain. The Maroon Bells. Mount Sneffels.
Challenger Point.
Nearly every Colorado mountain has a name. Behind
nearly every name is a story. Together, those stories offer an exploration
of the state's diverse and fascinating history - and a unique profile of
its people.
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Last updated October 19,
2007
The material located at this site is not endorsed, sponsored or provided
by or on behalf of North Carolina State University.
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