Leadville is the highest incorporated city in the United States. Residents there endure harsh winters, thin air, and times of economic hardship. Yet, a panorama of 14,000-foot mountains keep us attached to the city and community.
This setting is dominated by Mount Elbert. I remember climbing it as a child with my family. It taught me lessons about cooperation. It challenged every ability I could summon when I kayaked a creek that flowed through a valley it created. It has served as the backdrop for one of my favorite family photos and a best friend’s wedding.
So many others have had similarly profound experiences with it. Mount Elbert has given me a cherished opportunity to belong to a community that is formed around a shared attachment to one of the highest peaks in the nation, its range, and the ranges nearby.
It is out of my concern for my mountain community that I oppose the College of William & Mary’s campaign to rename part of Mount Elbert in its honor. In early January, the college filed an application with the U.S. Board on Geographic Names to have an area near Mount Elbert — known as South Elbert — renamed Mount William & Mary.
I understand that William & Mary Professor Ken Kambis, who has headed this proposal, has spent time on Mount Elbert, and it’s likely that his experiences have been as profound as mine. I can understand why the thought of honoring his college with the power of Mount Elbert is appealing.
The problem is that Mount Elbert is not his nor his college’s to take. Perhaps Kambis has not yet spent enough time on Mount Elbert to understand that yoking its power to serve the prestige of his Virginia college would violate the meaning of this mountain for the very community he is seeking to join.
More than 450 people with significant ties to Mount Elbert have signed a petition opposing Kambis’ proposal. Mount Elbert is not some object that is destined to be symbolically owned by an institution for the purposes of fund-raising letters. Rather, it is a mountain that offers shared spiritual refuge for anyone who chooses to engage it.
The College of William & Mary’s attachment to Lake County is too tenuous to warrant renaming part of one of our most important mountains.
In addition, this renaming
risks obscuring the technical definition of a mountain. A mountain must be 300 feet higher than any connecting saddle or ridge. This is why South Elbert is not technically a mountain in the first place.
Finally, this proposal was submitted with almost no meaningful community engagement. Many learned about the petition from a news story.
The concern here is that outside organizations, with limited links to our community, start making decisions like this without seeking our input or advice. Circumventing so many stakeholders undermines the deliberative ideals that should govern a geological phenomenon as special as this mountain.
Edwin Camp is a native son of and local businessman in Leadville.
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