How Wheeler Peak got its Name

From Kathy Rountree:

Wheeler Peak, or Mt. Wheeler if you prefer, hasn't always been called that. The first name of the mountain was Too-bur-rit. Recorded by Col. J.H. Simpson in 1858, he could not determine what this Indian name meant.

In 1855 Lt Colonel Steptoe called it Jefferson Davis Peak; Davis was at that time the Secretary of War of the United States and later the President of the Confederacy.

Members of The White Mountain Mission climbed the peak in 1855 and named it Williams Peak for the first white man to the top. There is a great description of the bristlecone pines in their journal. ..."looking for all the world like a canyon full of elk."

In 1859 Col. Simpson named it Union Peak "for its double yet connected form".

In 1869 Lt. Geo. M Wheeler and group of people from his survey climbed it from the west and called it Wheeler Peak.

The name must have been quite a controversy in the 1860's onward as the Civil War raged and sympathies for both North and South were present amongst the local population. Calling it Union Peak or Jeff Davis may have stirred up trouble. Boone Tilford who had mining claims south of Osceola at a place called Hogum, hailed from the south and in his diaries referred only to Jeff Davis Peak. Other accounts of the time refer to it as Union Peak.

Today, topographical maps show that both the names Wheeler and Jeff Davis are used: Wheeler Peak is the western one, at 13,063 feet, while Jeff Davis Peak is the eastern peak, at 12,771 feet. They are the second and third highest peaks in Nevada. From the town of Baker, Jeff Davis is the big mountain seen, blocking the view of Wheeler.

Interestingly this is not the only peak named for Wheeler. To the northeast of Taos, NM stands another Wheeler. It is near the same height and as you come to Taos from the west it looks much like Snake Valley.