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| Daylight Fades on Eisenhower |
If you had climbed Mt. Eisenhower during the 1960s and the early 1970s you would have seen it on the map as Mt. Pleasant, not Eisenhower. It was officially renamed in 1969.
Earlier maps and narratives of hiking the mountains referred to the Mountains variously as Mt Pleasant, Dome Mountain and Pleasant Dome and even Mt Prospect if one goes back to the early 1800s.
The moniker Mt. Pleasant, according to legend and lore hearkens back to the days of the Crawford family and specifically to their role as guides to the summit of Washington and the ancillary peaks. Legend has it that one of the first parties to climb this mountain, led by Abel Crawford, brought along a jug of O-B-Joyful and when they were "pleasantly" looped from drinking it at the summit, declared it a very pleasant mountain and the name stuck.
In the 60's hikers erected a huge cairn atop the mountain, so large that it could be seen from the valley below. It had the appearance of a large nipple atop the pleasantly round summit and thus the legend of Pleasant continued!
Given the bald dome of the summit, it is certainly more than fitting that it was later named for Eisenhower.
The moniker Mt. Pleasant, according to legend and lore hearkens back to the days of the Crawford family and specifically to their role as guides to the summit of Washington and the ancillary peaks. Legend has it that one of the first parties to climb this mountain, led by Abel Crawford, brought along a jug of O-B-Joyful and when they were "pleasantly" looped from drinking it at the summit, declared it a very pleasant mountain and the name stuck.
In the 60's hikers erected a huge cairn atop the mountain, so large that it could be seen from the valley below. It had the appearance of a large nipple atop the pleasantly round summit and thus the legend of Pleasant continued!
Given the bald dome of the summit, it is certainly more than fitting that it was later named for Eisenhower.
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