What follows is a brief history of one of the most famous mountains in the world as far as its name and height:

• Long before the peak was “discovered” by “explorers” in the 1800s it was already well known. The Indians knew about it and probably even climbed it. The Ute called it “Tava” which meant “Sun Mountain.” The Arapaho called it “Heey-otoyoo” for “Long Mountain.” The Spanish went with “Montana del Sol” and “El Capitan” for “Mountain of the Sun” and “the Captain.”

• Zebulon Montgomery Pike, who on November 15, 1806, saw a mountain “which appeared like a small blue cloud” put the height of what he called the “Grand Peak” at 18,581'. This is mostly because he thought the plains were at 8,000', instead of 4,700'. And while he did not reach the summit, it is generally accepted that he only thought it could not be climbed on that day, under those conditions, and not that it would never be climbed. Simply, he and his men were not dressed for the winter conditions and had run out of food.

• The Major Stephan Long scientific expedition, where Dr. Edward S. James and party summited on July 14, 1820, put the height at 11,507' for the opposite reason of Pike-they underestimated the height of the plains. Major Long named the peak “James Peak” since Pike had not climbed it and for more than 20 years the mountain had two names; “Pike’s Peak” and “James Peak.”

• The name issue was pretty much put to rest in 1843 after John Fremont made a famous map and labeled the mountain “Pike’s Peak.”

• The Hayden survey put the height at 14,147' in 1875.

• In 1891 the U.S. Board of Geographic Names recommended an end to possessive forms in place names thus “Pike’s Peak” became “Pikes Peak.”

• Charles Hartman put the height at 14,109' in 1907.

• The USGS revised Hartman’s number to 14,009.79' (rounded to 14,110') in 1913.

• The Colorado legislature established the spelling of “Pikes Peak” in 1978 so that it is spelled without an apostrophe by law.

• In July 2002, the USGS again revised the height of “Pikes Peak” to 14,115'.

• April 2024, here we go again: This time it’s NOAA that has revised Pikes Peak down 2 feet to 14,107'. (Apparently ignoring all the heights back to 1907.)