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Elephant Back Mountain

Mountain in Yellowstone NP, Rocky Mountains near Lake, WY

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Hayden wrote in his Geological Survey report “On account of the almost vertical sides of this mountain, and the rounded form of the summit, it has received the name of the Elephant’s Back (p. 99).”

View of Yellowstone Lake from Elephant Back Mountain:

Interestingly the Elephant Back term was originally associated with present day Mount Washburn. Hayden inexplicably transferred the name to this Yellowstone Lake ridge in 1871 (Whittlesey 97-98):

This name, as now applied, refers to a different feature from that originally designated by it. Many years before the Park was discovered, it was used to denote the long ridge of which Mt. Washburn is the commanding summit, and which was distinctly visible from beyond the present limits of the Park, both north and south. It so appears upon Raynolds’ map of [297]1860, and was so used by the Washburn Expedition (1870), by Captain Barlow (1871), and by Captain Jones (1873). The United States Geological Survey, however, in 1871, transferred the name to an inconspicuous ridge more than a thousand feet lower than the surrounding mountains. Whether the change was made by accident or design does not appear. Captain Ludlow, as late as 1875, refers to it and deplores the fact that it had taken place.

— Chittenden page 296

Sources

Chittenden, Hiram Martin. Yellowstone National Park. Cincinnati: The Robert Clarke Company, 1895. https://www.gutenberg.org/files/42112/42112-h/42112-h.htm.

Hayden, Ferdinand Vandeveer. “Fifth Annual Preliminary Report of the United States Geological Survey of Montana and Portions of Adjacent Territories: Being a Fifth Annual Report of Progress.” Report. Annual Report. Washington D.C., 1872. USGS Publications Warehouse. https://doi.org/10.3133/70038938.

Whittlesey, L.H. Yellowstone Place Names. Second. Wonderland Publishing Company, 2006. https://books.google.com/books?id=Qs4rnQEACAAJ.