#Buythebookin2027 (An Introduction to this Blog)

Last summer, by accident, I realized I needed to write a book that would be part trail guide and part history (or "her-story", actually):  a book that reveals the forgotten stories of all the strong women for whom some of Colorado's peaks and lakes are named.

I realized this in the midst of my summer 2016 research on and writing about the abolitionist and writer Anna Dickinson, for whom two Colorado peaks are named:  the remote 11,814 ft Mount Dickinson and the accessible but rarely-climbed 13,281 ft Mount Lady Washington.  I am still working on my hybrid manuscript about Dickinson (part fiction, part list, part biography), but it led me to this other idea.  Every time I told people I was writing about Anna Dickinson -- even people hiking on the trail at Mount Lady Washington's base -- they looked at me blankly.  No one knew who Anna Dickinson was.  When I hiked Mount Rosalie later in the summer, I asked people I knew if they knew who Rosalie Bierstadt had been.  Some of them guessed Albert's wife (correct), but no one knew anything else about her (nor did I).  I wished ardently for a trail guide that would tell me about these women who were deemed famous/important enough for the men in the geological surveys to name peaks for them.

And then I realized I needed to write that guide.

My goal, then, has become to hike as many of the mountains and to reach as many of the lakes as I can in the next decade, to blog about my hikes and the research I do on the women, and then to assemble all that writing into a book by 2027.  YOU can help by following this blog, by hiking the trails, and by reading the histories and links I post about each woman namesake.  The point is to keep the memory of these incredible women were alive.

It's going to be challenging.  Do I include the mountains named for Native American tribes, which, of course, included women?  Do I include the mountains named for women's body parts (Nipple Mountain, Iron Nipple)?  Do I include the mountains and lakes named "Flora" or "Bonita" or "Hermosa," when those were as likely to refer to the beauty of the place as to specific women?  The U.S. Geological Survey gives places named after men the men's last names but places named after women first names (or nicknames), which makes the job of tracing exactly who that name was intended to honor even more difficult.  Who was Eva?  Edith?  Helen?  Dolores?  Isabelle?  We know who Governor Evans was (and we know what he did); we know who Stephen Long was; we know who Albert Bierstadt was.  It's easy to find copious history on these men, and -- not accidentally -- it's relatively easy to access the places named for them (that does not mean it's easy to climb them -- Long's Peak, for example, has a perfectly accessible trailhead on Colorado Highway 7, but it remains the most difficult mountain I have ever climbed).  It is often difficult to get to the trailheads for these peaks and lakes named after women. . .but it is not impossible.

As my readers, you can help me decide.  I'll hike and then blog; you comment and add ideas.  Then you can see your feedback in action in the book in 2027. . .

A quick note on my credibility:  I'm an avid hiker, a lover of mountains since I climbed Deer Mountain in Rocky Mountain National Park at age 9 (and Long's Peak at age 14).  I am from flat-land Iowa, but we vacationed in Colorado every summer, and I worked in Colorado as a camp counselor and hiking guide in college.  I've lived in the mountains of New Mexico, Alaska, Guatemala, and now Colorado, where I've lived and hiked since 2011.

From the top of Mount Helen, June 27, 2017

Here's the rough list (with places I've already visited in bold, places I'm uncertain about in italics -- stay tuned for retroactive blog posts on Mount Lady Washington and Mount Rosalie from last summer's hiking) -- compiled from the excellent database HERE:

To climb/explore and then write about:

-- Sisters Peak (Hinsdale Co.)??

-- Amherst Mountain (Columbine Peak Quad)???

-- Anita Peak (Routt Co.)

-- Apache Peak?

-- Arapaho Peak? Arickaree?  (origin of Native American names here)

-- Augusta Mountain (Gunnison Co.)

-- Betty Lake (Boulder Co.)

-- Calico Mountain (Chaffee)??? (commentary)

-- Calypso Cascades (RMNP)

-- Carrol Lakes (El Paso Co.)???

-- Carroll Creek (Fremont Co.)

-- Celeste (Stunner) Pass (Conejos Co.)

-- Chapeta Mountain (Gunnison Co.)?

-- Cherokee Lake? (Hinsdale Co.)

-- Cheyenne Lake?  (El Paso Co.)

-- Cimarrona Peak (Hinsdale Co.)?

-- Columbia Mtn (Clear Creek Co.)

-- Dolores Mountain (Dolores Co.)

-- Dora Mtn (Gore Range) -- also Dora Mtn in Custer Co.

-- Dyke Col (???) Pass

-- Edith Lake (Clear Creek Co.) -- privately owned

-- Edith Mountain (Hinsdale Co.)

-- Electra Lake (La Plata Co.)

-- Emma Burr Mountain (Chaffee/Gunnison)

-- Ethel Lake (Clear Creek Co)

-- Ethel Peak (Jackson/Routt Co) -- near Fort Collins, about 50 min drive to TH

-- Florence Lake (Garfield Co)

-- Geneva Peak?? (Montezuma quad)

-- Georgia Pass?

-- Hagar Mountain (Clear Creek Co)

-- Hermosa Peak? (just means “sister”)

-- Imogene Pass (Ouray Co)

-- Iron Nipple Peak (Sangre de Cristos -- ha)

-- Isabelle Glacier (Boulder Co)

-- Jenny Lake (Boulder Co)

-- Josephine Lake (Eagle Co)

-- Kelly Lake (Eagle Co)

-- La Garita Peak?

-- La Grulla Lake? (Conejos Co)

-- Lake Agnes (Grand Co)

-- Lake Ann (Chaffee Co)

-- Lake Annella (Conejos Co)

-- Lake Caroline (Clear Creek Co)

-- Lake de Nolda (Conejos Co)

-- Lake Dorothy (Boulder Co)

-- Lake Esther (Eagle Co)

-- Lake Evelyn (Grand Co)

-- Lake Isabel (Boulder Co)

-- Lake Meredith (Crowley Co)

-- Lake Nanita (Grand Co)

-- Lake Rebecca (Gunnison Co)

-- Lake Verna (Grand Co)

-- Marcellina Pass (Gunnison Co)

-- Marion Lake (Custer Co)

-- Mariquita Peak (Culebra Range)

-- Mays Peak (El Paso Co)???

-- Minnie Mountain (Hinsdale Co)

-- Miranda Peak (Culebra Co)

-- Mount Aetna??? (Chaffee Co)

-- Mount Alice (Boulder Co) (18 miles RT, from Wild Basin in RMNP)

-- Mount Ashley (Larimer Co)???

-- Mount Dickinson (Larimer Co -- 11,000 ft)

-- Mount Emma (Sneffels Range)

-- Mount Eva (Clear Creek Co)

-- Mount Eve (Eagle Co)

-- Mount Flora (Clear Creak Co)

-- Mount Helen (Breck quad)

-- Mount Ida (Front Range)

-- Mount Lady Washington (Longs Peak quad)

-- Mount Rhoda (Howardsville quad)

-- Mount Susan (Clear Creek quad)

-- Navajo Peak???

-- Palmyra Peak? (Telluride)

-- Rosalie Peak

-- Saint Sophia Ridge (Sneffels Range)

-- Santa Maria Pass (Mineral Co)

-- Squaw Mountain (Routt)

-- Stella Mountain (Gunnison)

-- The Dyke (Gunnison) -- ha?

-- Uneva Peak (Summit)???

-- Victoria Lake (Conejos)

-- Virginia Peak (Sawatch)

-- Widow Creek (Ouray)??

-- Zenobia Peak (Moffatt)???