BACKGROUND

On Indigenous Peoples Day, 2017, Karn Stiegelmeier introduced a resolution from the Summit County Board of Commissioners (which she chaired) to rename the Gore Range to one that honored the original inhabitants of the region - the Ute Indians . And thus began a campaign that continues today. (Click HERE for photos of the ceremony.)

 

The motivation was driven by both a push and a pull. The push: George Gore was entirely unworthy of such a spectacular namesake. The pull: the Ute Indians and their forebears had been worthy stewards of the land for thousands of years, until their forced removal in 1881.

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For several years after the introduction of the resolution, the three Ute tribes (Northern, Southern, and Ute Mountain Utes) considered candidate names, settling eventually on NUCHU, which means "the people" or  "Ute" in their language.

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In September, 2020, a formal request was submitted to the national USGS Board of Geographic Names, asking that the Gore Range be renamed the Nuchu Range (click HERE to read the formal request). The national USGS board in turn has asked the newly-constituted Colorado Geographic Naming Advisory Board to examine the request in detail, and they will hopefully recommend approval.

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The request seeks to change only the name of the range, not any of the other places in Colorado with the official name "Gore," namely 3 creeks, 2 campgrounds, a trail, a pass, a canyon, and a lake. (Click for map.)

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GORE'S TRIP

Irishman Sir George Gore visited the US from 1854 to 1857. He traveled widely on the plains of what would become Nebraska, South Dakota, Wyoming, and Montana, with a brief side‐trip into the future states of Utah and Colorado (although never south of the Colorado River). His provisions were legendary: his fur‐lined commode and brass bedstead illustrate the extravagance that filled 30 wagons with his supplies, attended by 50 servants. His sole aim was hunting trophy game, supported by scouts, beaters, hounds, and a vast arsenal of firearms and ammunition.  

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Gore earned the deep animosity of both Native Americans and the US government, simultaneously. His cruel slaughter of countless game animals deprived the native population of a vital food supply, and his American host, the Superintendent of Indian Affairs, wrote, "George Gore... received from me a passport to travel through the Indian country in the spring of 1854; and... he greatly abused the privileges granted to him by a wanton destruction of the game upon which Indians rely solely for Support." Even the plaque "honoring" Gore at the summit of Gore Pass notes, "More than 2,000 buffalo, 1,600 elk and deer, 100 bears were massacred for sport…."  

 

Late in his trip, Gore and his crew knowingly violated his passport when they penetrated into the Black Hills, sacred lands granted by treaty to the Sioux Indians. Previous interlopers had been summarily killed. The Sioux discovered Gore's party, surrounded, overwhelmed, and disarmed them, and then ... they let them go, unharmed. It was an astonishing gesture, after his depredations.  

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While he paid his attendants a fair wage, Gore revealed his true feelings about them at the end of his trip, in the remote reaches of the Yellowstone River. As he prepared to disband the crew, Gore felt that the men were not offering enough money for his remaining wagons and gear, so out of spite he burned the lot (except for his guns and trophies) in front of them, and departed for St. Louis.  

 

As mentioned, Gore never ventured south of the Colorado River, and thus never set foot in the core of the magnificent mountain range later named after him.

 

REFERENCES

"A Celtic Nimrod in the Old West" Montana Magazine, 2016

"Sir George, the buffalo slayer" Salt Lake Tribune, 1997

"Expedition of Excess" Billings Gazette, 2002

"Recasting the Gore name in Colorado" Boulder Camera, 2009

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BOOKS

1. The Amazing Adventures of Lord Gore - A True Saga from the Old West by Jack Roberts, Sundance, 1977

2. Speaking Ill of the Dead - Jerks in Montana History, by Dave Walter, Morris, 2000.

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Read how public opinion caused the USGS to name CHIPETA PEAK in the Sawatch Mountains HERE

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UTE HISTORY 

The mountains of Colorado and Utah were the homeland of the Ute Indians and their predecessors for millennia - probably more than 10,000 years.  Of the eleven Ute tribes, the White River tribe occupied North Park, Middle Park, and the White and Yampa river valleys, with territories extending westward to eastern Utah. In 1881, they were forcibly removed under armed escort of the US Army from their ancestral lands to reservations in Utah and SW Colorado. See the Discovery Channel documentary: "How The West Was Lost : The Utes Must Go"

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HOW DID THE NAME OF THE RANGE ARISE?

The earliest reference we have found (unearthed by Jay Browne) is from the September 1, 1868 edition of the Rocky Mountain News (link). Its founder and editor William Byers had just returned from the first recorded ascent of Long's Peak with John Wesley Powell and others, and wrote that from the summit they could see a number of mountain ranges, including "Gore's Range." That name later (1870s) appeared on maps from the Hayden expeditions. The USGS was founded in 1879, and the name was then made official.

Roots of naming the Gore Range Jay Browne, 2017 (rev 2024).

See also 1985 letter from BGN Chair

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