Jeff Davis Peak ditches Confederate namesake, officials say. Here’s what it will be called
A mountain named after a Confederate leader is getting a name change, officials said Thursday.
Jeff Davis Peak in the Humboldt-Toiyabe National Forest of California will cut its ties with its namesake and now be called the Da-ek Dow Go-et Mountain, the U.S. Board on Geographic Names (BGN) said in a statement to McClatchy News.
The mountain was originally named after Confederate President Jefferson Davis. The peak near Lake Tahoe is a “volcanic plug that rises from a treeless ridge in the Mokelumne Wilderness,” SFGate reported.
“A slaveholder, Davis firmly believed in the importance of the institution of slavery for the South,” the American Battlefield Trust reported on its website.
Davis had no known ties to California and allegedly opposed California’s statehood because it wouldn’t allow slaves, CapRadio reported.
The new name comes from the Washoe language and translates to “saddle between points,” according to BGN.
“It was provided to the BGN by the Woodfords Community of the Washoe Tribe of Nevada & California,” the board said. ”Both names have the support of the Alpine County Board of Supervisors, the California Advisory Committee on Geographic Names, and the U.S. Forest Service.”
Efforts to change the Jeff Davis Peak name started in 2017, according to CapRadio. The Alpine County Board of Supervisors first considered the proposal then, according to the news outlet.
“It may sound straightforward to say, ‘Well, we want to change a name,” Jennifer Runyon, a researcher with the U.S. Board on Geographic Names, told CapRadio. “There are just so many moving parts — it really is a matter of getting input from so many different entities.”
Protesters and activists across the U.S. have called for controversial monuments, especially those tied to the Confederacy, to be removed or destroyed in recent weeks. As the national conversation continued, Alpine County leaders suggested Jeff Davis Peak be renamed as well, SFGate reported.
The Jeff Davis Peak name has been changed officially on BGN’s searchable names system but won’t be on printed maps and other products immediately, officials said.
The board is still looking at changing a nearby Jeff Davis Creek to Da-ek Dow Go-et Wa Tah, according to BGN.
