Re: Senator Boxer reintroduces Mt. Andrea Lawrence Designation Act

Today in Washington, California Democratic Senator Barbara Boxer reintroduced a bill to rename an Eastern Sierra mountain peak after local environmental leader Andrea Lawrence.

http://www.monolake.org/today/2011/05/10/senator-boxer-reintroduces-mt-andrea-lawrence-designation-act/



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 05/12/2011 05:48PM by eeek.

What do folks think of this process of eponymous naming of natural earthly features?
I think an environmentalist would object to this sort of artificial adoration and the use of a natural feature to pay tribute to human efforts. Naming trails is bad enough (at least those are the result of human activity). I believe there is a rule in the NPS (although this is not in a park) against naming landmarks after humans. Isn't that is a good rule?

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The cure for a fallacious argument is a better argument, not the suppression of ideas.
-- Carl Sagan

It's not a final NPS decision to name, or not name, geographic features...the Bureau of Geographic Names (part of the USGS) does so. Except, if this bill passes, Congress will have done so.

That said, I think an agency overseeing land with features named Tenaya, Conness, Young, Lyell, Dana, Parker, Vogelsang, Fletcher, Evelyn, Babcock, Nelson, Matthes, just to begin such a list, likely doesn't object on philosophical grounds.

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ttilley
It's not a final NPS decision to name, or not name, geographic features...the Bureau of Geographic Names (part of the USGS) does so. Except, if this bill passes, Congress will have done so.

That said, I think an agency overseeing land with features named Tenaya, Conness, Young, Lyell, Dana, Parker, Vogelsang, Fletcher, Evelyn, Babcock, Nelson, Matthes, just to begin such a list, likely doesn't object on philosophical grounds.

Have there been any eponymous names used officially in the parks in the last 75 years? There have been eponymously named features in the past. However, I do not think the NPS favors that currently. Prior names have been left for historical interest in Yellowstone but no new ones established, for example. I assume the same occurred in Yosemite. The Bureau of Geographic Names does not absolutely control or originate naming necessarily but apparently serves as a method to standardize, identify, and catalog the features, at least according to this source:

http://geography.about.com/od/historyofgeography/a/US-Board-On-Geographic-Names.htm

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The cure for a fallacious argument is a better argument, not the suppression of ideas.
-- Carl Sagan

My copy of Browning's Place Names of the Sierra Nevada doesn't say when the Matthes name was approved, but it does say that it was "made more formally by Reid Moran, a YNP ranger, in 1949".

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ttilley
My copy of Browning's Place Names of the Sierra Nevada doesn't say when the Matthes name was approved, but it does say that it was "made more formally by Reid Moran, a YNP ranger, in 1949".

I am sure there are isolated exceptions, which do not prove that eponymous naming is preferred or officially sanctioned by the NPS. Eponymous naming has been progressively unpopular for many years and was even criticized by members of the Washburn, Langford, Doane Yellowstone Expedition in 1870. Cape Canaveral <--> Cape Kennedy is a good example of this controversy.

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The cure for a fallacious argument is a better argument, not the suppression of ideas.
-- Carl Sagan

Just going through the "A"s in Browning's book and restricting to NPS (for Kings Canyon, post-1942):

Agassiz Col: Name "first appeared on the 1948 Mt. Goddard 15' map" (Kings Canyon/Inyo NF border) Next to Mt. Agassiz, so you may consider this extending an existing naming.
Amelia Earhart Peak: Approved by BGN in 1967 (Yosemite)
Mount Anna Mills: Approved by BGN in 1985. (Sequoia)
Ansel Lake: Named for Ansel Franklin Hall, ranger at Sequoia NP. (Sequoia)
Mount Ansel Adams, approved by BGN in 1984. (Yosemite/Inyo NF border)
Ardeth Lake: "Otto M. Brown, a YNP ranger from 1927 to 1946, named this lake for his wife." (Yosemite)
Avonelle Lake: Named for Otto Brown's daughter. (Yosemite)

Doesn't mean there haven't been controversies that would be interesting to discuss, but naming features on NPS land after people isn't isolated, at least in the Sierra.

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Frank Furter
What do folks think of this process of eponymous naming of natural earthly features?

I'm of two minds about it. Some figures are so inextricably linked with the history of the area (in some cases, with the very survival of the area as we know it) that naming major features after the likes of John Muir, Ansel Adams and Stephen Mather doesn't bother me at all. With "less-than-huge" figures, especially when they start naming things after their kids, I think it gets to the point where it could get (and perhaps has gotten) out of hand. I'm not sure where we draw the line. The arbitrary "don't name it after a living person" doesn't really solve much. The bigger question is what constitutes "huge" (with respect to positive impact on the preservation of an area)? Maybe if we say, you can't name it after anybody until they've been dead for, I don't know 10 years? 25 years? 50 years? That would tend to weed out the people who may have been impressive in their day but who don't stand the test of time.

Another option, of course, as you suggest, is to simply not do it but, as I said, I don't have an issue with it as long as you're talking about figures whose names would be associated with the place for a VERY long time after their deaths, whether something was named for them or not.

--David

The problem nowadays is that they often name things after people who are still alive. I really have a big problem with that, because it's almost always someone still in government. It's basically a form of self-aggrandizement among our country's ruling-class. Note that this isn't a new thing either. Mt. Whitney was named after Josiah Whitney while he was very much alive too.

That said, I don't have too much of a problem with the mountain peak being named after Andrea Lawrence if they jettison the first name and call the mountain peak just Mt. Lawrence. I don't like including the first name, because most mountains in the Sierra that are named after someone just use the person's last name. It's Mount Whitney, not Mount Josiah Whitney. And it's not a major peak they naming after her, so though she might not be one of the giants among the conservationist and environmentalist movement, I think it's a suitable and not an overstated tribute to her.



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 05/13/2011 09:08PM by plawrence.

I agree wholeheartedly that first names should not be included. Personally, I would rather see significant peaks on a topo map named rather than just identified by altitude. I'll leave the arguement for whose names to others.

Still waiting on "Marmot Rock" 10,750' to the right of Ragged Peak. Still waiting, waiting,---------.

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tomdisco

Still waiting on "Marmot Rock" 10,750' to the right of Ragged Peak. Still waiting, waiting,---------.

Send me the $50 as mentioned on another thread and it will be so named.

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Old Dude

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tomdisco
Still waiting on "Marmot Rock" 10,750' to the right of Ragged Peak. Still waiting, waiting,---------.

It'll be there right after Chick-on Pass?

WL7241, WL8793, EL8720, EL13,100. Not much ring and easily confused.

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Old Dude



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 05/13/2011 04:27PM by mrcondron.

I can't find a specific NPS directive about naming, but the following document (25 mb) from the USGS discourages naming in Wilderness Areas that is commemorative of persons:

http://geonames.usgs.gov/docs/pro_pol_pro.pdf

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The cure for a fallacious argument is a better argument, not the suppression of ideas.
-- Carl Sagan

Franky,
I often wonder how popular the John Muir Trail would be if it wasn't named.
(so <not so> secretly I'd prefer they didn't name trails)

I do like that many peaks and lakes are named though.

I am going to write Barabara and suggest the following:
Cupcake Hill
Hostess Pass
Fruitpie River
Twinkie Peak
Ding Dong Dome
Coronary Artery

That being said the quick look of:
http://www.alimar.org/index.html
I have no problem naming something after her.

I do have a problem naming Airports after living people (SJ).
And I have a problem when they sell out the names of venues when it was
written that they were not suppose to.

Eye Climbed Hostess Half Dome,
Peace

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I don't really care about the names of things I climb. I mean, if you're a rock climber it all quickly becomes nonsense anyways (page through a book of climbing routes at any location for a few laughs). I mean, come on - what did Julius Caesar ever do to earn a peak name in the Sierra? Sure, it overlooks Lake Italy, but what did Italy ever do to get a lake named after it in the Sierra? (and so on and so forth, etc etc etc)

That said, I'm always happy to see the recognition of a powerful and strong outdoors woman - especially in history, they are far too often looked over in favor of their male counterparts.