SAGUACHE COUNTY — The Town of Crestone Board of Trustees has signed a letter to Gov. Jared Polis and the Colorado Geographical Naming Advisory Board in favor of changing the name of Kit Carson Peak to Mount Crestone.

During a regular meeting of the board on Dec. 13, agenda item, "Letter Regarding Kit Carson Mountain Name Change-Kizzen Laki," was briefly discussed by Trustee Kimberly Martinez as Trustee Laki was absent from the meeting. Martinez did not read the letter aloud during the meeting so the exact text is unknown. The Valley Courier has requested a copy of the letter.

Martinez said, "We have petitions throughout the town, you don't have to be a registered voter, or a citizen, it is just the community in general support that we don't name it Mount Vesuvius or something like that...its Crestone Mountain, it has always been Crestone Mountain to the old-timers." Martinez added, “I think it is a great idea."

As reported previously in the Valley Courier, Kit Carson Mountain in the Sangre de Cristo Mountains is under consideration for a name change in a proposal before the Colorado Geographical Naming Advisory Board (CGNAB). The proposition references Carson’s violence against Navajo and Apache tribes in the 1800s. Carson was a frontier legend, fur trapper, wilderness guide, Indian agent, and U.S. Army officer. In 1865, Carson became the commander of Fort Garland.

The board was created by Gov. Polis in 2020 to evaluate proposals concerning name changes, new names, and name controversies of geographic features and certain public places in the State of Colorado and then make official recommendations to the governor.

In an interview with this reporter in September 2022 regarding the possibility of changing the name of Kit Carson, Polis said, "First, we give heavy weight to what local residents want. The geographic naming board sends recommendations to me that we advance to the federal government. Often it begins with a classroom of students, or local officials, and it builds — and the naming board is part of that. It starts with local residents."

Last month, the Saguache County Commissioners voted in favor of a name change, Commissioner Tom McCracken said the commissioners did not choose a name.

The 14,165-foot peak is in the Rio Grande National Forest and in documents presented before the geographical naming board, a 2021 letter from U.S. Forest Service Supervisor Dan Dallas stated, "I am in complete support of the proposal as drafted." Dallas continued that in consultation with tribal governments support for the name change was offered and the Navajo Nation officially responded with a statement that in part read, "The Navajo Nation fully supports renaming Kit Carson Mountain..." The forest service continues to support the name change.

If the state board recommends a name change to Polis and he accepts it, the proposal then goes before the federal U.S. Board on Geographic Names domestic names committee (BGN). Name changes for natural features such as Kit Carson must be, "for a compelling reason," according to the federal body.

According to Gina Anderson, Public Affairs Specialist with the US Geological Survey, the US Board on Geographical Names, staff from the board met with representatives of the Colorado Geographic Naming Advisory Board (CGNAB) and the U.S. Forest Service on Nov. 21 to review current and historical maps of the area and to determine the extent of the various geographic names. Anderson said she expects the issue will be a topic at the next meeting of the CGNAB on Jan. 24, 2024.

The summit was first called Frustum Peak by the Wheeler Survey. In that expedition, Lieutenant George Montague Wheeler, United States Army Corps of Engineers, led expeditions for surveys west of the 100th Meridian between 1869 and 1879.

The summit was named Kit Carson Peak by a 1906 BGN decision. In 1970, the BGN voted to change the name to Kit Carson Mountain.

According to the federal geographic naming board, in 2008, a proposal was submitted to the BGN to change the name of Kit Carson Mountain to Mount Crestone, stating that most locals in Crestone referred to the peak as Crestone Peak and that the name Kit Carson Mountain applied to a different mountain to the east. The proponent of that change also proposed that the highest unnamed summit on Kit Carson Mountain be named Tranquility Peak. In 2010, a proposal was submitted to apply the name Kit Carson Peak to the same unnamed summit. In 2011, the BGN voted not to approve any of these proposals and reaffirmed the previous Kit Carson Mountain decision.

Name changes do happen.

On Dec. 14, Sen. Michael Bennett commented on the committee passage of the Mt. Blue Sky Wilderness Area renaming. The change aligns the name from the previous name of the Mount Evans Wilderness Area. In the case of Wilderness Area names, only Congress can make name changes.

“Renaming the wilderness area surrounding Mount Blue Sky is an important step to honor the federal government’s responsibility to Tribal communities, and restoring threatened and endangered fish in the Upper Colorado and San Juan River Basins will help protect our ecosystems and provide certainty to water users in Colorado, said Senator Bennet

In September, the name of Mount Evans was officially changed to Mount Blue Sky by the federal board. The process was a several-year collaboration between tribal, state, county, and local governments.

The Colorado Geographical Naming Advisory Board will next meet on Jan. 24, 2024, from 5 to 7 p.m. and will be on Zoom with meeting ID 885-7290-3329 with the password 266179.