So You Want to Name a Mountain…? By Woody Smith
“In the Wilderness Act of 1964 Congress established the National Wilderness Preservation System composed of federally owned areas to be administered ‘...for the use and enjoyment of the American people in such manner as will leave them unimpaired for future use and enjoyment as wilderness….’ Though wilderness designations are a modern invention, a fundamental characteristic of elemental wilderness is that features are nameless and the cultural overlay of civilization is absent. No wilderness is today totally free of placenames and cultural artifacts, but a goal of Federal wilderness area administration is to minimize impacts and traces of people.”
United States Board on Geographic Names. Principles, Policies, and Procedures: Domestic Geographic Names, Chapter 3, Policy IV— Wilderness Names.
38
Trail & Timberline
B
ack around the turn of the last century I had the bright idea of naming adjoining peaks for Carl Blaurock and Bill Ervin, the first two people to climb all of Colorado’s known 14,000-foot peaks. They finished the 46 known peaks in 1923, climbing “new” Fourteeners as measurements improved. The peaks that seemed appropriate were two of Colorado’s highest unnamed twin summits, the 90th and 99th highest in the state. Unnamed 18,832 (proposed Mt. Blaurock) and Unnamed 13,811 (proposed Ervin Peak) are located in the San Juan Mountains about 10 miles west of Lake City, near 14,000-ft. Redcloud and Sunshine Peaks. But there were two obstacles. First, the two unnamed peaks are in the Redcloud Wilderness Study Area, and the 1964 Wilderness Act prohibits naming, without
good reason, in Wilderness Areas, or areas under study for wilderness designation. Second, another party had recently proposed a different, smaller, “Mt. Blaurock” in the Sawatch Range. Despite attempts to join forces with the other party and try to get the big peaks for Blaurock and Ervin, my efforts were rebuffed. However, soon an adjoining Ervin Peak was added to the other proposal. Faced with two proposals for Blaurock and Ervin, the U.S. Board on Geographic Names (USBGN) chose the non-wilderness peaks. As it stands, Blaurock and Ervin have been relegated to the 186th and 234th, rather than the 90th and 99th highest peaks in the state—an outcome that remains inadequate. Feel free to fix it. Prior to the Blaurock-Ervin decision,
