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Greenhorn Mountains
n south-central Colorado, just west of Pueblo and east of the Sangre de Cristo Range, rise the Wet Mountains. A comparatively small range, the Wets are about 45 miles long and ten miles wide. The range’s southern terminus is Greenhorn Mountain, which, at 12,349 feet, is also its highest peak. In 1993, the mountain and 22,000 acres surrounding it were protected as the Greenhorn Mountain Wilderness area. The place name “Greenhorn” has usually been credited to one source: The Comanche chief Cuerno Verde who was killed in 1779 while leading a reckless charge against a Spanish expeditionary force near the base of present day Greenhorn Mountain. According to place name writer Maxine Benson, Cuerno Verde—literally Green Horn in Spanish— was known for his “striking headdress.” But rumors of another Greenhorn lurked about south-central Colorado in the late 1800s. In 1877, botanist Samuel Scudder climbed Hamilton Peak (13,658 feet) which is just southeast of the Blanca massif, or about 30 miles south of the Crestone massif. Both
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Trail & Timberline
By Woody Smith
are located in the Sangre de Cristo Range. Scudder’s accountdescribes the view north from Hamilton’s summit framed by Mt. Blanca and Mt. Lindsey, wherein “rise the craggy tops of the Greenhorn Mountains.” A long forgotten article from the Rocky An 1879 map by the General Land Office (above). A similar map Mountain News from "Thayer's New Map of Colorado" of 1873 (below). also mentions a mysterious “Greenhorn range.” Writing Northeast, Pike’s peak rears his huge proin July 1883, the unnamed author boldly portions, in plain view, and, seemingly only claims an ascent of a peak known as “Cre- a few miles distant, overlooking the vast stone,” but which was most likely present- plains eastward and beyond; while in the intervening space can be seen the Greenhorn day Kit Carson Mountain. “Directly south ‘Old Blanco,’” the au- range, Wet Mountain valley, Rosita, and Silthor writes, “robed on his northern slope ver Cliff, so near, apparently, that you might with eternal snow… To the southeast the cast a fingerstone in their midst…” (Rocky Spanish peaks… stand out in bold relief. Mountain News, July 29, 1883). But the description, though detailed, leaves questions. If there is a Wet Mountain Valley, where are the Wet Mountains? Most notable is the apparent failure to mention the present day Crestone massif by any name—though obviously the question is made more difficult by the fact that the 1883 writer was standing on the peak he called “Crestone.” Certainly the massif, including both Peak and Needle, is noteworthy. Rising just two miles southeast of present day Kit Carson Mountain, its rugged form dominates the view. The answer may be, that as far as the 1883 writer knew, the Crestone massif was part of the “Greenhorn range.” Subsequent research has uncovered the long forgotten Greenhorn Mountains which appeared regularly on Colorado maps from the 1870s to the 1890s. On some maps, the “lost” Greenhorns were a line of mountains clustered near La Veta Pass. On other maps they stretched from the northern Sangre de
