| Mt. Cameron |
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Name History (Mt. Cameron)Title: Naming of Mt. Cameron Entered by: 14erFred Added: 5/17/2010, Last Updated: 5/17/2010 Sources: Eicher, D.J. (2001). Civil War High Commands. Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press. Hart, J.L.J. (1925). Fourteen thousand feet: A history of the naming and early ascents of the high Colorado peaks (First Edition). Denver, CO: The Colorado Mountain Club. Although the name "Cameron" was first associated in print with the mountain in 1873, the precise origin of the name remains uncertain. However, two distinct possibilities exist. First, the mountain may have been named for Robert Alexander Cameron (February 22, 1828 - March 15, 1894), who served as a Union general during the American Civil War and helped establish Colorado Agricultural Colonies in Fort Collins and Greeley during the 1870s. Alternatively -- and perhaps more likely given its proximity to Mount Lincoln -- the mountain may have been named for Simon Cameron (March 8, 1799 - June 26, 1889), Republican senator from Pennsylvania and President Lincoln's first Secretary of War, whom he fired for corruption after Cameron had been in office less than ten months. Allegedly, Lincoln asked Congressman Thaddeus Stevens (also from Pennsylvania) about Cameron's honesty, and Stevens replied, "I do not believe he would steal a red hot stove." Cameron demanded a retraction, so Stevens admitted his statement might have been incorrect. Cameron is also the namesake of Cameron Cone (10,705 ft.), a mountain summit in El Paso County, and Cameron Pass (10,276 ft.) in north central Colorado. |
