Not every Wasatch or Oquirrh mountain peak is named, nor does history record the origins of each title.
Wasatch was originally spelled "Wahsatch," but the "h" was deemed unnecessary. It is a Ute word meaning mountain pass or low place in a high mountain.
 | Deseret News graphic Wasatch mapRequires Adobe Acrobat. |
Oquirrh is a Goshute word meaning shining or west mountain.
Here's an alphabetical list of what is known about some of the peaks' and canyons' names for the Wasatch Mountains, east of Salt Lake City:
Albion Basin: An old Celtic name for England or Great Britain. It was given the name by English miners in the 1870s.
Alta: Named in 1871 by miners, the word means high or upper in Spanish.
Brighton: Probably named for either Thomas W. Brighton or William Stuart Brighton, who built homes in the area in the late 1800s. It also could have been named for a city in England.
City Creek Canyon: Named after the creek that Brigham Young titled in 1847.
Big and LittleCottonwood canyons: Named by Brigham Young for their plentiful cottonwood trees and for one canyon being larger than the other.
Dromedary Peak: So named because it resembles a dromedary camel when viewed from a particular angle (elevation 11,107 feet).
Emigration Canyon: Originally called Canyon Creek but soon called Emigration because of its importance to the 1847 pioneers who traveled through it to enter the Salt Lake Valley.
Ensign Peak: Named by Wilford Woodruff and other early pioneers who climbed the peak in July 1847 and unfurled some type of ensign or flag there.
Little Matterhorn Peak : Most hiking books also refer to this peak as the "Pfeifferhorn." It was named for Chick Pfeiffer of Salt Lake City in the 1930s.
Lone Peak: Presumably named for its prominence in an isolated setting at the south end of the Salt Lake Valley.
Mill Creek Canyon: Named after the creek, which received its title on Aug. 22, 1847, at the first general conference of the LDS Church in the Salt Lake Valley. The name is after a mill that John Neff, an early settler, built in the canyon.
Mount Olympus: Named after the ancient Mount Olympus in northeast Greece, an inspiring and majestic peak.
Deseret News graphic Highest peaksRequires Adobe Acrobat. | |
Mount Tuscarora: Tuscarora was chief of the same-named Indian tribe in North Carolina and New York. How the name was applied here isn't clear.
Mount Van Cott: Named after Lucy Van Cott, the first woman dean of women at the University of Utah.
Mount Vision: An Oquirrh mountain that's home to Ch. 2 and Ch. 4 broadcasting transmitters.
Neff's Canyon: Titled after John Neff, an early settler who built a flour mill in nearby Mill Creek Canyon.
Parleys Canyon: Named after Parley P. Pratt at an LDS Church Conference in 1847 because he started building a toll road up the canyon, called the Golden Pass.
Red Butte Canyon: Given its name after the creek, named by Brigham Young at the first general conference of the LDS Church in the Salt Lake Valley.
Storm Mountain: Presumably named because it was a stormy place.
Twin Peaks: So named for its nearly identical icons that rise as the highest points in the Salt Lake Valley (11,489 and 11,433 feet) and located on the Utah County-Salt Lake County line. There are also shorter Twin Peaks to the northwest (11,330 and 11,328 feet) and also much shorter ones found east of Ensign Peak.
Source: "Utah Place Names," by John W. Van Cott, University of Utah Press
E-MAIL: lynn@desnews.com