The consideration to change the name of Kit Carson Peak, one of the San Luis Valley’s tallest peaks, is still waiting on completion of tribal outreach. The Colorado Board of Geographic Names said they are still deep in the process of reaching out to all 574 federally recognized tribes. They will provide an update at the next meeting in the summer. 

The board also indicated that Saguache County Commissioners may take up public meetings to consider a county-backed proposal. 

Kizzen Laki, a Crestone town trustee, said that residents of Crestone and the town board are open to collaboration with tribal leaders to discuss a potentially different name from Mount Crestone, which is the favored name among Crestonians. 

Among the proposals are Frustum Peak, Lawrence Peak, Tabeguache Ute Peak, and Mount Crestone. Frustum Peak is currently the name that, without a different name chosen by the board, would be the name Gov. Jared Polis would sign off on. 

The Lawrence Peak proposal was withdrawn by the proponent. So it’s down to three, unless tribes submit another proposal or the county commissioners decide on something new through public meetings. 

While the town of Crestone is open to tribal collaboration, the current favorite proposal among locals is Mount Crestone. However, this poses a potential issue because neighboring mountains are named Crestone Peak and Crestone Needle. The United States Board of Geographic Names has a policy against duplicative names. Without this policy, there could be three mountain peaks with a Crestone name, all within a few miles of one another. 

Here is the issue, broken down: 

  • “Kit Carson Peak” doesn’t actually exist in the eyes of the federal government. It is called that on 14ers.com, but otherwise is not a named peak.  
  • “Kit Carson Mountain” does exist, but it is the entire mountaintop consisting of Columbia and Challenger peaks and the unnamed frustum-shaped peak, which is locally known and recognized as Kit Carson Peak.
  • The locals of Crestone have always referred to this mountain as Mount Crestone or Crestone Mountain. They are one and the same. This is the name they would prefer.  
  • Crestone Peak is a 14,000-foot mountain slightly southeast of Kit Carson Peak. 
  • Crestone Needle is also a 14,000-foot mountain slightly southeast of Kit Carson Peak, and is essentially just the next peak over from Crestone Peak. 
  • If Mount Crestone is adopted as the name and signed into existence, it would create a duplicative issue for the board. It could then consider changing the names of Crestone Peak and Crestone Needle. 

It’s geographic and legal gymnastics that are currently on hold and may be for some time. With Crestone and Saguache County officials considering new proposals, an official name change could be a long way out. 

There is also support for keeping things just the way they are. John Carson, Kit Carson’s great-grandson, who was a college and high school history teacher in La Junta and a reenactor and historian at Bent’s Old Fort, is working to make sure the mountain keeps its name. 

Carson has sent letters to the advisory board and indicated that the history department at the University of Alaska Anchorage would also be sending a letter to the group. Carson didn’t indicate whether or not the letter from Alaska would be in support or opposition of renaming Kit Carson. 

The Citizen has reached out to the University of Alaska’s history department to clarify Carson’s comment, but has not received a reply at the time of writing. 

“The geography of the place, and I understand that’s the title of your group, but it comes down to understanding what the man was really doing and what he didn’t do. …” Carson said during the meeting on Monday. “There’s personal reasons, of course, family reasons, and when you try to defame my family name, I’m gonna have to do whatever I can to prove that’s in error.”