The peak of political incorrectness? Should mountains honoring Jeff Davis be renamed? One is in the Sierra, the other in eastern Nevada

A little-known peak in Alpine County, Calif., was named by Southern sympathizers for Confederate President Jefferson Davis. Now at least one man wants the mountain renamed. A little-known peak in Alpine County, Calif., was named by Southern sympathizers for Confederate President Jefferson Davis. Now at least one man wants the mountain renamed. Photo: John Parrot/Stocktrek Images, Getty Images/Stocktrek Images Photo: John Parrot/Stocktrek Images, Getty Images/Stocktrek Images Image 1 of / 63 Caption Close The peak of political incorrectness? Should mountains honoring Jeff Davis be renamed? 1 / 63 Back to Gallery

Jefferson Davis never set foot in California or Nevada, but two peaks — one in each state — bear the name of the president of the Confederacy.

One, the third-highest mountain in Nevada at 12,771 feet high, towers over Great Basin National Park. The other, 444 miles to the west, is a little known and rarely climbed volcanic plug near Lake Tahoe in Alpine County.

The latter's rugged, near-vertical slopes seem out of place with the surrounding terrain. They look like they belong in Arizona's Monument Valley.

Matthew Holliman on the mountaineering forum Summitpost.org calls the crag "unquestionably the most impressive summit in the Lake Tahoe Area."

Supposedly settlers of nearby Summit City, a mining boom town that has long since vanished from the landscape, were Confederate sympathizers who named the crag after the slave-owning leader of the South.

So far, there hasn't been a huge outcry for California and Nevada to change the name of the two Jeff Davis peaks, possibly because both are in remote areas well out of the public eye.

"I've never heard a peep, not one," Steven Mietz, superintendent of Great Basin National Park, told the Reno Gazette-Journal when asked in May if the Nevada mountain's name generated any controversy.

Same with Jeff Davis Peak in California. "No controversy that we know of," said Clare Long, public information officer for the Stanislaus National Forest.

But with the recent violence in Charlottesville, Va., and the backlash against Confederate monuments erected during the Jim Crow era, that might be changing.

An Aug. 18 letter in the Las Vegas Review-Journal urged Nevadans to support the renaming their Jeff Davis Peak.

"Confederate symbols on public land, in effect, endorse a movement founded on white supremacy," wrote reader Anna Blige Henderson.

"We must show the country that Nevada gives no safe harbor to such hatred."

Less than two weeks ago, the city of San Diego removed a plaque honoring Davis in the park at Horton Plaza.

At least one person in California wants to see Jeff Davis' name erased from the volcanic formation in Alpine County.

Insurance salesman and history buff Anthony Oertel of San Rafael is the driving force behind the Frederick Bee project, a website dedicated to the memory and deeds of Frederick Bee, a leading figure in 19th-century Northern California.

Bee, a self-described capitalist, wore many many hats. He was a Gold Rush pioneer, miner and merchant. He worked for the Pony Express and erected the first telegraph wires over the Sierra Nevada. He developed Sausalito, which has a street named after him, lobbied for the San Francisco Chamber of Commerce, and operated a vineyard near Martinez.

But perhaps his noblest calling was defending Chinese immigrants against discrimination and persecution. His efforts led to China appointing him consul to represent the interests of the Chinese community.

"Frederick Bee was a builder of the telegraph over the Sierras," Oertel said. "Bee should be recognized with his name on a summit, instead of a traitor to the Union."

In an email, Alpine County Supervisor David Griffith said he was skeptical about changing the name of the peak, but had no strong feelings about it and and would listen to the community before making any decision.

"To date there hasn't been any significant local controversy over the name of Jeff Davis Peak that I am aware of," Griffith said.

Asked about the suitability of having a mountain named after Davis in the light of the recent events in Charlottesville, Va., Griffith noted that at the time of the Civil War, it was a close call whether this part of the Sierra would join the Union or the Confederacy. (California entered the union as a free state.)

"The history of Charlottesville and the old South is very different than the history here, so while the events at Charlottesville are likely to have significant ramifications though out the old South, as they should, I am not convinced that it applies here," he said.

While it's easy to request a name change for a landmark on federal land, getting it approved isn't.

Any member of the public can submit a change-of-name request through the U.S. Board on Geographic Names. The board then researches the request, assesses whether it's justified, and sees if there are objections to the proposed change.

The board has a history of granting changes to names deemed racial slurs or vulgar. But it's not clear whether glorifying historical figures who fought for or led the Confederacy would warrant a name change in California.

If the board does not act in a reasonable time on a request, a 1947 statute gives the secretary of the Interior the authority to change names on his or her own. Sally Jewell, Interior secretary under President Obama, used this law to change the name of Mt. McKinley to Denali over the objections of Ohio congress members.