When driving through the mountains on our way to the ski hill or hiking trail, I never tire from the awesome beauty of the Alberta mountains. What has always intrigued me is the variety of mountain names. Where did they come from? What is their meaning or tribute?
Helicopter view of Alberta Rockies
There are over 1000 named Alberta mountains and many more named peaks as part of some of larger mountains. The majority of the officially accepted names were given between 1880 and 1920 during the exploration of the mountains followed by the surge of alpinists into western Canada.
The types of names and origins of these names vary greatly.
It should be noted that many of these mountains have traditional names through the various First Nations peoples who lived in this amazing region. Most of the First Nations’ mountain names were ignored for the ‘new’ names, but not all.
Table of Contents
Alberta Mountains – Name Categories
There are many ways one could categorize the names of the mountains. For instance, many of the Alberta mountains were named soon after World War I, so tributes to military personalities, events, places, and things were given through naming of mountains. Such as the 22 mountains named after British battleships active in World War I. Some have pretty cool names including Mount Invincible, Mount Sparrowhawk and Mount Shark. Others are not so cool such as Mount Indefatigable (say that ten times quickly).
Certain mountains were named after British Royalty, politicians, prominent folks, guides, explorers, climbers, and even relatives.
Other mountains were named for characteristics they have, such as their shape, colour, or a unique feature.
Mountains were also named for wildlife, vegetation, weather experienced, or views taken in.
The categories I have chosen to highlight are, ‘Shape Descriptors’, ‘Vague Descriptors’, ‘Weather Inspired’, and my favourite “Its Called What?” category.
The mountains described below are only a sampling of many more that would fit into each category.
Alberta Mountains Shape Descriptors
This category relates to the naming of a mountain based on its shape.
Castle Mountain (elevation 2,766m or 9,075 ft). Traditional Blackfoot name – Miistukskoowa
Located midway between Banff and Lake Louise sits this magnificent mountain that truly has the appearance of a massive castle.
Castle Mountain in winter
In 1946, following World War II, Castle Mountain was temporarily changed to Mount Eisenhower in honour of General Dwight D. Eisenhower. The mountain’s name was changed back to Castle Mountain in 1979 after much public pressure. The highest point on the mountain was named Eisenhower Peak to keep the general’s tribute alive.
Heart Mountain (elevation 2,135m or 7,005 ft)
Heart Mountain was named in 1957 and the name says it all. The unique folding and faulting of this mountain formed an amazing heart shape at the summit.
Heart Mountain showing its unique heart-shaped peak
Heart Mountain offers a challenging and rewarding hike/scramble. It definitely gets your heart pumping, both from exertion and from the views at the top.
Sue after conquering the scramble up Heart Mountain
The Three Sisters (elevation 2,940 m or 9,646 ft) Traditional Stoney Nakoda name – Ĩ-ktomnĩ
The name of “The Three Nuns” was given sometime in the winter months of 1883 when the three peaks that make up this mountain were blanketed in snow, appearing like nuns’ habits.
The Three Sisters adorned with snow
Soon after, in 1886, the name was changed to “The Three Sisters”.
A view of the Three Sisters from across the Bow Valley
The three peaks were also referred to as three sisters through a traditional Stoney Nakoda story of Ĩ-ktomnĩ , the old trickster who would promise the three sisters marriage when he was in trouble.
Big Beehive
This small mountain, which is located near Lake Louise truly resembles a beehive with is rounded shape and textured surface. An easy hike from the Chateau Lake Louise.
The Big Beehive near Lake Louise in Banff National Park
Turtle Mountain (elevation 2,210 m or 7,251 ft) Traditional Blackfoot name’s translation – The Mountain That Moves
The original shape of this mountain inspired the name of Turtle Mountain due to the rounded shape of the mountain similar to a turtle shell.
Turtle Mountain showing the impact of the Frank Slide
The shape of the mountain changed dramatically in 1903 when 30 million cubic metres of rock broke off the mountain, raced down the slopes, and buried a portion of the coal mining town of Frank. This catastrophe is known as the Frank Slide. Between 70 to 90 people lost their lives with only 12 bodies being recovered.
Alberta Mountains Vague Descriptors
There are so many mountains in Alberta so you would think some thought would go into giving each mountain a specifically unique name if possible. In this category the descriptive names given are somewhat vague.
Massive Mountain (elevation 2,435m or 7,989 ft)
This mountain was named in 1918 after the Massive Range that the mountain is part of. Ironically Massive Mountain is by far the smallest mountain in this range.
Massive Mountain with it’s taller neighbours in Massive Range
The tallest three are each over 2,900 m (9,500 ft) in elevation, while Massive Mountain measures in at a mere 2,435 m (7,889 ft). Perhaps someone felt sorry for this runt of the mountain litter. Sort of like when we named our Bichon Shih Tzu puppy ‘Bruiser’.
Wonder Peak (elevation 2852m or 9,357 ft)
The mountain was named in 1913 as it inspired wonder. Personally, all mountains give me that impression.
Fairview Mountain (elevation 2,744m or 9,003 ft)
This mountain was named in 1894 for its view from the top, which overlooks Lake Louise and beyond.
Fairview Mountain beside Lake Louise in springtime
Now this seems to be a rather muted name for the spectacular view one gets at the ridge top. I’ve seen the view from the top of the ridge and in my opinion I would have given it a more awe inspiring label.
Checking out the ‘fair’ view on the top of the ridge on Mount Fairview
Today, describing something as fair suggests it is okay, or so-so. I presume the name had a slightly more robust meaning in 1894!
Observation Peak (elevation 3,174m or 10,413 ft)
This mountain was named in 1898 by a climber who found it to have the best viewpoint he had ever climbed. Again, a slightly under-rated name in my opinion. If the view was that great you would think a more awe inspiring name would be in order.
Utopia Mountain (elevation 2,602m or 8,537ft)
A climber named the peak in 1916 when he could look down from the top at his comfortable base camp. As a balance to the previous two muted mountain names, this name seems somewhat of an overkill. Was his comfortable camp really like Utopia? Wow! I wonder wear he got his gear.
Alberta Mountains Weather Inspired
In general, I imagine weather related mountain names are given for the weather related events the climbers or explorers at that particular time.
Storm Mountain
There are actually two mountains with the same Storm Mountain name. Storm Mountain (Banff National Park) and Storm Mountain (Kananaskis Country).
Storm Mountain in Banff National Park beside Highway 93
Both mountains were named in 1884 by the same explorer, George Mercer Dawson. In both cases George experienced inclement weather on his visit.
Storm Mountain in Kananaskis Country beside Highway 40 south of Spray Lakes Trail
I think George lacked a bit of imagination when it came to naming mountains. The mountains are about 100 kilometres (60 miles) apart, so perhaps he thought no one would catch on to the duplication of mountain names.
Perhaps if George had experienced nice weather at one of these mountains we would have two different names.
Wind Mountain
Perhaps it was an uninspiring day for Eugene Bourgeau when he named this mountain in 1858. He noticed the clouds were curling around at the peak. Again, what would the mountain’s name be today if it were a calm sunny day in 1858?
Wind Mountain near the Spray Lakes Reservoir in Kananaskis Country
Two other mountains were named Tornado Mountain and Cyclone Mountain respectively. Both names indicate weather events that technically do not occur in these mountainous locations. In both cases the climbers who named these mountains were describing the severity of the weather they faced. No doubt to them, the high winds they encountered felt like a hurricane or tornado.
Alberta Mountains “It’s called what?”
Certain Alberta Rocky Mountains ended up with names that caused some head scratching.
Tunnel Mountain
Tunnel Mountain, which borders the town of Banff, got its name during the building of the railroad in the 1880’s. A rather weary team of surveyors assumed the easiest rail path would be to follow the Bow River. They then realized multiple river crossings and cliffs would cause major headaches. They proposed instead, to drill 275 metre (900 ft) tunnel through the small mountain.
A view of Tunnel Mountain and Mount Rundle from the Vermillion Lakes near Banff
When this proposal hit the desk the railways general manager, he flipped out, as this idea would stall the advancement of the railroad for over a year. He promptly rejected the proposal and demanded a different route be found.
On further study, an alternate route was discovered away from the river that not only avoided several river crossings, a tunnel, but also two big hills!
Map of the proposed route of the rail line through the mountain
Needless to say, the tunnel was never built. However, the name ‘Tunnel Mountain’ inexplicably became official for this small mountain.
In 2016, fifteen First Nations proposed to begin the process of renaming the mountain from ‘Tunnel Mountain’ to ‘Sacred Buffalo Guardian Mountain’. The historical First Nations name meant Sleeping Buffalo, as that is its appearance. The bureaucratic waiting game has been ongoing ever since for the Geographical Names Board of Canada to make it official. Now that is what I call bureaucracy!
Mount Paul
Mount Paul is located near Jasper, Alberta above the shores of beautiful Maligne Lake.
The mountain was named by a revered naturalist, author, and painter, Mary Schaffer, who spent years exploring the Canadian Rockies. Mary discovered Maligne Lake in 1908.
On her second expedition to the lake in 1911, she brought along her nine year old nephew, Paul Sharples. You guessed it, she named one of the backdrop mountains surrounding the lake after her young nephew.
Mount Paul beside Maligne Lake near Jasper
Mount Paul seems rather informal with respect to naming mountains, but I guess there were no hard and fast rules.
In my view, this mountain had the potential for a significantly more robust name than “Paul”!
Mount Fifi
The story begins on an official Prime Ministerial trip along the newly built CPR national railway through the Canadian Rockies in 1886. Canada’s Prime Minister Sir John A MacDonald and his wife Lady Agnes wended their way through the Rockies.
Mount Fifi in Banff National Park
Accompanying Agnes was her personal assistant Edith Orde, and Edith’s dog. It was decided (not sure who the decision makers were) to name a couple of the mountains on the railway route for Edith and her dog Fifi. Two of the mountains along the Sawback Range are officially known as Mount Edith, and Mount Fifi. I kid you not.
Watermelon Peak
In 1966, five climbing buddies decided to make a first ascent up a rather tall mountain, which topped out at 3,094 metres (10,151 feet). The hike in and the climb up the mountain was about 12 kilometres (7.5 miles) in length with a vertical gain of some 1,150 meters (3,785 feet). Despite lousy weather, they were successful on this first ascent. How did they celebrate? They ate the four kilogram (9 lb) watermelon they carried up with them. The watermelon must have been amazing, as they named the mountain after the delicious fruit. Watermelon Peak became the name on maps.
Map showing featured Alberta Mountains
How to name an Alberta Mountain?
Certain principles and procedures now exist through the Geographical Names Board of Canada that would negate many of the mountain names if they were proposed today. For example, persons should be deceased for at least one year before their names are to be considered for a mountain name (think of Mount Paul).
Also, if the proposed name is only significant to a specific group, names with no relevance to a particular area or names likely to generate local opposition (refer to Mount Watermelon & Mount Fifi).
What are some of the more interesting geographical names in your area?
Great article Dave! Thanks for researching this!!
Thanks Phil. Always up for some good research!
This is such an informative post! Thanks for sharing!
Thanks Margie. Sue thinks I’m crazy with all the research.:)
All the mountains up your way make me feel a sense of wonder Dave, even the ones that aren’t really massive.
As an aside, some of your articles inspired me to recently buy a video course on the geography of North America. I have tried to find something in local colleges and universities for a long time, but either nothing was available or was too technical for a dilettante. We shall see…
Yes, even the small mountains are amazing. The video course sounds very cool Ray. Glad to play a small part in your inspiration to figure out this continent. I agree that some of the research papers I’ve come across can be overly technical. Obviously for targeted audiences. Let me know how the video course goes.
There are so many beautiful mountains up there, amazing! Leave it to the government to tie everything up in you know what. Near Las Vegas, there are two mountains that are both just under 12,000 feet, big guys!
Those are definitely big mountains you’ve got in Vegas. Considering las Vegas itself is only at about 2000 feet in elevation, the almost 10,000 ft. peaks are certainly big!
The name of the mountains is a fascinating topic, and your awesome pictures give us some insight into some of those names. I’m reminded that we once had a family reunion in Minnesota at Woman Lake. Right next to it were Father Lake and Child Lake. We joked about the lack of creativity at the time, but since Minnesota is known as The Land of 10,000 Lakes, perhaps it’s hard to be creative after a while.😊
Thanks so much Pete! I agree that there has been some naming fatigue in areas with large numbers of geographic features. We have similar related naming practices here. For example, there are three mountains named Sunrise, Noonday, and Sunset.
Do all 10,000 lakes have names? That’s a lot of names.
You are so fortunate to live amid such beautiful and majestic mountains!
Thank you so much Hien. We keep reminding ourselves never to take for granted the beauty of these incredible mountains.
It is always interesting to learn how the names of mountains came to be. Since my husband’s name is Paul, I like to think that is a good name for a mountain. It is also very biblical. A great article as always, Dave.
Thanks Darlene! I can understand your positive view of the name of Mount Paul, but you have to admit bestowing the honour on a 9 year-old nephew is a bit of a stretch. 🙂
There are a few bible related mountain names such as Mount Babel and Holy Cross Mountain.
Thanks for such a fun and interesting article! I’d love to see a map of Alberta peaks with all the names on it sometime.
I found a map of Vancouver Island with the major peaks listed, and there are some amusing (and head-scratching) names. How about Eliza Ears East? (I couldn’t find Eliza Ears West – maybe Eliza only had one ear.) We also have Big Baldy and Golden Hinde (the tallest at 7,200 feet). Or, if you’re looking for a lukewarm recommendation, we also have Okay Mountain. I haven’t been there, but I guess it must be okay… 😉
You’re very welcome Diane! It would have to be a very large map to show all the mountain names at once. A website called PeakVisor shows most of the mountains. It’s a worldwide tool, so it’s database must be huge!
Love the names on Vancouver Island. There’s an Old Baldy Mountain and a Mount Baldy in Alberta? Popular name! Okay Mountain fits right in with Fairview Mountain as understated names! No mountain deserves a mediocre label 🙂
I loved this post, Dave. I’ve read it twice, will read it again to take in the beautiful photos and fascinating information. Thank you for loving to research and share these great stories.
Thanks so much Wendy. I enjoyed the research which helps as it takes a lot of it :). Not too tough taking a decent photo of mountains, especially when the sun is shining!
And hey, we have a Mt. Baldy here in California. I’ve never been though. When I was a young child my uncle lost his life there while picnicking with my aunt and their four young children. Some hikers accidentally sent a few large rocks/small boulders rolling down the mountain. One landed on Uncle Fred and he died. So bizarre. Anyway, no one in my family wanted to visit Mt. Baldy after that…
What a freak and tragic accident. I can fully understand your family’s reluctance to visit the mountain with such a sad memory.
Thank you, Dave and Sue –
I greatly appreciate all of the research and information that you share.
I had never thought of the naming of mountains before – fascinating!
Thanks Donna! I’m not sure what sparked the whole dive into this subject. It might have been the story behind Tunnel Mountain!
This scenery is fabulous and not something we see where we live. Our mountains are ancient and worn away.
Thanks Carol. Yes, these mountains are pretty amazing. Keep in mind you have amazing scenery in your neck of the woods too!!!
I really enjoy your articles on the Alberta Rockies. The comparison of Massive Mountain and Bruiser made me chuckle!
Always a good read!
Thanks so much Nelle! Quite the history behind these mountain names, isn’t there! When I saw the size comparison of massive Mountain with its neighbours, Bruiser came right to mind 🙂
Having lived outside of the region for many years I did not know that Mount Eisenhower had changed names, until now. I’d always liked the mountain for it’s shape.
I remember as a child then teenager identifying the mountain as Eisenhower. I’m glad the name was changed back to Castle and I think it was a good move to name the tallest peak as Eisenhower.
I absolutely enjoyed this review of the Alberta Mountain names, Dave. It was very factual, interesting, and entertaining. I enjoyed the anecdotes a lot, and espec. the watermelon story. Who would ever hike with a 9-pound watermelon?! I am impressed at the long list of mountains you and Sue have hiked and explored here, with these breathtaking photos. I liked seeing the mountain shapes from afar to compare it to the name. Tunnel mountain, for example, really does look like a buffalo. Great post, thanks so much, and cheers to you and Sue.
Thanks so much Jet. It took plenty of research and was fun finding these great to crazy names and origins. Watermelon Mountain definitely sparked my interest and the story of the first ascenders was hilarious. Some of the photos were from awhile back, such as Sue in front of Heart Mountain and the summit shot on Fairview Mountain. I’m looking forward to Tunnel Mountain being named more appropriately. There is a hotel on the side of the mountain called Buffalo Mountain Lodge. Ahead of the game!
Awesome post, Dave.
Thanks so much Jim!
Such interesting stories about how mountains in Alberta got their names. I have to say Heart Mountain is my favorite because the summit does look like a heart! It’s amazing how nature can create whimsical shapes like this. This post reminds me of the names of mountains and hills in China, or at least the southern part of the country where I’ve been. I remember many of them were named after animals or fruits. I wasn’t able to see a dolphin when I saw Dolphin Hill, though.
Thanks Bama. Yes, it is sometimes a puzzle as to how some mountains or hills were named. I too am amazed at the resulting heart shaped peak of heart Mountain after rather forceful thrusting and faulting a few tens of millions of years ago.
Great article! Very informative. Now, I take it Mt. Bourgeau is named after Eugene Borgeau, who was referred to when talking about Wind Mountain. Here is one I have wondered about…. Mt. Inglismaldie. But I had to look it up to spell it correctly and in so doing, found the answer: “The mountain was named in 1886 by park superintendent George A. Stewart after Inglismaldie Castle in Kincardineshire, Scotland.”
Thanks Mandy,
Yes, the same Eugene Bourgeau who named Wind Mountain had a mountain named after him in 1860. A mere 162 years ago!
I get a kick out of some of the hard-to-say mountain names. Mount Inglismaldie ranks right up there with Mount Indefatigable!
Way cool Sue. I learned so much more about Alberta and Canada in general – especially BC – after having an encounter with Sasquatch-Bigfoot in the Adirondacks of NY state. Most sightings seem to be in the PNW in the States and these regions of Canada. I wondered how those mountains got their names.
Ryan
Thanks Ryan. Well, that’s one way of learning more about the mountains of the Pacific Northwest and Western Canada.:)
If you think Alberta has a lot of mountains, check out a topographical map of BC!
That’s a lot of mountains with a lot of names! I most like the names that parallel the shape of the mountain. I don’t know the ones you mention here, since I’ve never had the pleasure of living near them or hiking them, but I think if I saw the ones named for their shape, I’d be able to identify them. I lived near Mt. Tamalpais in Marin County for many years. An ‘easy hike’ compared to most of the mountains you show. I like the name because it’s original to the Native Americans who lived here. My son and family ski in the Sierras in Squaw Valley, some amazing mountain slopes which have recently been renamed to Palisades Tahoe. It will take people a long time to get used to the new name. Thanks for all of this research and info. And the photos!
Thanks Pamela. Yes, a lot of names indeed.
There are a few of the mountains around here that retained their original name or refer to First nations origins, such as Mount Athabasca, Mount Assiniboine, and Mount Yamnuska.
I didn’t realize Squaw Valley had been renamed. I think it is a very good step forward!
Some of the mountains around here are also beginning to get renamed back to their First Nations names. There were certain disrespectful and derogatory names of the mountains that are being renamed to their original First Nations names.