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Perhaps I'm the only one who cares, but the continuing dismemberment of the Sawatch Range is annoying.
The Sawatch Range boasts 15 peaks over 14,000 feet; it's the highest range in all 3,000 miles of Rocky Mountains. Of the five highest peaks in Colorado, four lie in the Sawatch Range -- Elbert, Massive, Harvard and La Plata.
Like most ranges in the Rockies, it trends north-south,
stretching from the Eagle River to Poncha Pass, 90 miles
or so,
according to my standard reference, Guide to
the Colorado Mountains
by Robert Ormes with the
Colorado Mountain Club.
But when I was watching the news the other night,
concerning the missing U.S. Air Force bomber, the report
said the search was concentrating on the New York
Range.
There is a New York Mountain, 12,500 feet, in the north part of the Sawatch Range, and I presume that's what they were talking about. There's also a 12,811-foot New York Peak near Aspen in the Elk Range, and it's not far away, at least as the crow flies.
Scan my references as I might, I can't find a New
York Range
anywhere in Colorado. Maybe they were
talking about some generic New York range,
off in
the Adirondacks, and they were as lost as the pilot
apparently was.
But now we've acquired a New York Range, formerly part
of the Sawatch Range. Elbert and Massive seem safe so far,
but a bit to the south, big pieces have often been removed
from the Sawatch Range to form the Collegiate
Range.
These peaks bear the names of Ivy League universities,
and I once climbed the highest of them, 14,421-foot Mt.
Harvard. Not only does it offer a spectacular view, but
afterward, when applying for jobs and being asked about my
educational background, I could truthfully say that I've
been to Harvard, and went as high as I could get
there.
The collegiate names go back to 1864, when Professor Josiah D. Whitney of Harvard, then in charge of the California Geological Survey, determined that a 14,495-foot peak in the Sierras was the highest in the United States.
He wasn't absolutely sure, given all the high summits in Colorado, so in 1869, he lead a group of students and teachers from Harvard's new mining school on a trip to the Sawatch Range, where they measured all the big peaks.
The highest in the bunch was named Harvard, in honor of the expedition's sponsor, and another was named Yale for Whitney's alma mater.
That started the process, and Princeton, Columbia, etc. were added over the years. As for that big one in California, Whitney named it after himself.
Colorado is a rarity among western states in that our highest peak, Mt. Elbert, is named for a lawyer and politician, not a surveyor. Wheeler Peak in New Mexico, Gannett Peak in Wyoming, King in Utah, along with Whitney in California -- all are named for surveyors. So is Mt. Everest, for that matter. That's only fair, I suppose -- how would we know which ones were highest if it weren't for surveyors?
Back to the Sawatch Range. It is pronounced the same as
the town and county of Saguache, a Ute term. According to
the Ute dictionary published in 1977 (before that, Southern
Ute was not a written language), Saguache means
blue-green place.
It's blue-green
because the
Nuche lexicon does not distinguish between the two colors
-- the same adjective, sagwa,
applies to a green
pepper (sagwa-ciruu) and to blue corn (sagwa-kumuy).
The Sawatch Range isn't the only range that gets chopped up and pieced out. To my thinking, the Sangre de Cristo Range, longest in the Rockies, starts at Methodist Mountain, just south of Salida, and extends at least to Glorieta Pass east of Santa Fe.
But many authorities halt the Sangres at La Veta Pass, interrupt it with a Culebra Range, then resume the Sangres at the state line.
At its headwaters, the Arkansas River is flanked by the Sawatch and Mosquito ranges. Around here, we figure the Mosquitos end at Trout Creek Pass, where the Arkansas Hills start, but geologically, they're part of the Mosquitos, and probably should bear the same name.
Along the Front Range, what do you call the high spot between Denver and Colorado Springs? Monument Hill? Palmer Divide? Black Forest Divide? I've seen all those names, and more.
Clearly we need to eliminate some of this confusion on
our ranges. I suggest the appointment of an Official State
Geographer, empowered by law to arrest the next blow-dry
correspondent who mentions a non-existent New York
Range
and put the offender in public stocks for a
period of no more than a fortnight.
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