About Glacier's toponyms

By GEORGE OSTROM

While working at getting the name Going to the Sun Road changed back to its original Going to the Sun HIGHWAY, why not start a movement to change more names in Glacier?

Whereas: Highly placed federal bureaucrats prefer projects with no foreseeable end, involving mechanical routine, proper forms, meaningless rules, and empty jargon.

Whereas: All humans are temporary occupants of planet earth without permanent claim to land, sea, or air.

Now Therefore: Comes "Citizens for Fairness" seeking redress under the law whereby all mountains, ridges, lakes, waterfalls and other prominent geographic features of Glacier National Park bearing unromantic or historically insignificant names be redone, thus ensuring new generations rightful participation in geographic naming activity.

Witnesseth: Many current names came from Harry's cousin who worked for the boundary survey crew, or for a politician who only visited Glacier long enough to find the nearest outhouse. The existing system blatantly stifles the normal dynamics of creative cartography.

Witnesseth: The native Americans who named many features were a transient population of warring tribes exercising tenuous control, forcing one another into, away from, or across the mountains in a helter skelter manner, with no one people occupying the lands for more than a few generations. Each tribe used different geographic designations.

Few of the invading whites involved with the early "naming period" of the land destined to be Glacier Park were involved on-site for more than a decade, and often only a few months or days. Some never saw the mountains bearing their names.

Now therefore: Let the new naming process begin with authorizing legislation from the U.S. Congress and immediate implementation by the National Park Service of the Interior Department. The Sierra Club is hereby informed that changing names does not involve Environmental Impact Statements.

While we are waiting for this to happen, I've taken the liberty of working on ideas that would follow the pattern of current peak names such as Almost A Dog, Never Laughs, Bad Marriage, Single Shot, and Wood Biter. These names are clearly more romantic and interesting than Mt. Gould, Mt. Reynolds, Mt. Allen, Mt. Henry. Mt. Brown, etc. Naturally any new name submitted should be based on something that happened there or a fitting characteristic.

First, Mt. Reynolds. Charles Reynolds was an editor of Field and Stream who knew about Glacier because of stories written by James Willard Schultz. So what? There was an early and legendary ranger named Al Reynolds known as "Death on the Trail," but he has no mountain named for him.

About Mt. Allen! Named for Cornelia Allen, granddaughter of President Lincoln's Secretary of State. Is that exciting? One time a kid hiking there with us threw up. "Lost Lunch Peak"- isn't too great but it beats the heck out of Allen.

Mt Gould -named for a Californian who knew several explorers and investigated a crooked government Indian agent. Not bad, but Gould is still … Gould. "Charged by Goats" is better? "Cloud Catcher" is nice.

Mt Brown is named for a railroader from Illinois who came to Lake McDonald on the train in 1894 to hunt and fish. He met Charlie Russell and they probably had a snort or two of whiskey and smoked cigars. While there Brown climbed the mountain and named it after himself. That's not fair? The Kootenai called it Wolf Hat … better than brown.

Waterton was named many things by different Indian tribes over the years but the name it now bears came from an 1S58 British explorer who honored a naturalist back in England. The Canadians might want to stick with Waterton, but we could name our half of the lake something more appropriate, like "Our Half."

Perhaps some of you could join me in thinking up better names for inappropriate designations now on Park maps.

I'll be busy lobbying this idea to our elected officials, so maybe some of you could start working on the new names. That way we'll be ready when they get the bill through Congress.

We've probably got plenty of time.