9/28/00 12:25 p.m.
The Case for Mount Reagan
He spoke of a shining city on a hill.

Greg Kaza has climbed 43 of the 50 state highpoints. He served three terms in the Michigan House (1993-1998).

ountains play a prominent role in the Judeo-Christian tradition. Moses was summoned by God to Mt. Sinai's summit, where he received the Ten Commandments (Exodus 19, 20). Jesus rejected Satan's temptations on a mountain summit where he viewed "all the kingdoms of the world" (Matthew 4:8). The majesty of mountains, so closely linked to the supernatural, is also invoked by humankind in remembrance of great individuals of the past. Ten U.S. presidents have mountains named in their honor — as have legislators, governors, and military leaders. Others so honored include the geologists, surveyors, and adventurers who tempted fate by ascending mountains.

Conservative Ronald Wilson Reagan will be remembered as one of the greatest U.S. presidents of the 20th century. The Reagan tax cut of 1981 launched an 18-year economic boom — interrupted only by the brief 1991 recession — that stands as one of the longest in our nation's history. His tenure saw the beginning of the end of Soviet Communism, and its seven-decade long threat to the Free World.

House Republicans renamed Washington's National Airport in honor of President Reagan. If GOP lawmakers get their way, there will also be a Reagan monument on the Mall, a Reagan U.S. coin, and a Reagan $10 bill. But another appropriate way to honor Mr. Reagan would be to name a magnificent natural feature — like a mountain — after our nation's greatest conservative president.

Liberals may object that Reagan does not deserve such a great honor. But there is ample precedent for naming mountains for U.S. presidents of various political persuasions. In Alaska, the greatest mountain on the North American continent, and the highest peak in the U.S. (20,320 feet), was named by Congress on Feb. 26, 1917, for Republican President William McKinley, assassinated 16 years earlier. To this day some disagree with the name change. The state of Alaska still calls the mountain "Denali," or "The Great One." The controversy continues; there are two competing Republican bills pending in Congress. One, sponsored by Rep. Don Young of Alaska, would rename "McKinley" as "Denali." Another, sponsored by Rep. Ralph Regula, who represents McKinley's home town in Ohio, would retain "McKinley" as the mountain's name.

"McKinley" proponents note that the name was in use before congressional action. Popular legend has it that an Alaska sourdough, enamored of McKinley's support for the gold standard in the 1896 election, named it in his honor after the race. (Denali supporters note many mountain climbers use the Athabaskan Native American word for the peak.)

Other mountains named for U.S. presidents include Washington (6,288 ft.), Adams (5,744), Jefferson (5,712), Monroe (5,384), Madison (5,367), Lincoln (5,089), Eisenhower (4,761), Garfield (4,500) and Pierce (4,310). All are located in of New Hampshire.

The place-naming process is usually handled by the Reston, Va.-based U.S. Board of Geographic Names (BGN). The Board's literature asserts that it "does not consider names that commemorate or may be construed to commemorate living persons . . . (A) person must be deceased at least five years before a commemorative proposal will be considered." A Mount Reagan, therefore, will not emerge from the bureau anytime soon.

Criteria published by the BGN's Domestic Names Committee, however, cite factors to be considered when deciding on "name problems and proposals." These would buttress any attempt to establish Mount Reagan through the legislative process. Among the criteria:

* Established usage: "A geographic name that has appeared consistently in written usage and (or) has been expressed consistently in verbal usage, and that is supported by historical and (or) current written materials and (or) in folklore."

* Historical usage: "A geographic name given and used during the early history of a place or feature, the name may be either obsolete or in current use."

* Unnamed Feature: "A geographic entity that is not known to have had a verbal or written name."

Other criteria include "legal and legislative action."

There are no examples of established or historical usage for a Mount Reagan. There are, however, many unnamed natural features in Reagan's home state of Illinois and his adopted home state, California. But there are problems with choosing either state.

Dixon, Reagan's hometown, is in gently rolling farmland in northwest Illinois. There are no mountains. The state's highest point, Charles Mound, 60 miles to the northwest, is a very modest 1,735 feet.

California features several spectacular mountain ranges, and the highest peak in the Lower 48, Mt. Whitney (14,494), named for the late J.D. Whitney, chief of the state's Geological Survey. There are several possible choices for a Mount Reagan in the remote White Mountain range in central California along the Nevada border. But any attempt to rename a California peak in honor of President Reagan is likely to face serious opposition, and take many years.

A more logical place to name a mountain for President Reagan is in the northeast corner of New Hampshire. This is the state where the future president dramatically seized a microphone at a public debate and reminded the nation who was paying for it; the state of rugged individualism whose motto is "Live Free Or Die." It is there that we should search for Mount Reagan.

New Hampshire's Presidential Range, in the White Mountain National Forest, features a vast alpine zone, the greatest east of the Mississippi. Hikers using the Tuckerman Ravine Trail that begins near Pinkham Notch, N.H., are greeted by a display, meant to educate would-be climbers, that includes details of every death that has occurred on Washington. The less adventurous can drive or take a train to the summit, where some of the world's fastest winds, in excess of 230 mph, have been recorded. Few who climb Mount Washington are likely ever to forget the vast alpine tableau of giant boulders and rare vegetation where ice-covered glaciers once stood.

Mount Washington is roughly at the center of the Presidential Range, which is about 15 miles long and five miles wide. The range is in northern New Hampshire, about 75 miles northwest of Portland, Me. To Washington's north is Mount Adams, named for the second president, and two lower summits that are part of its mass: Mount Sam Adams and Mount Quincy Adams; Mount Jefferson, named for the third president; and Mount Madison, named for the fourth. To Washington's south are mountains named for James Monroe; Dwight Eisenhower, formerly called Mount Pleasant; and Franklin Pierce, known as Mount Clinton until 1913. South of the Presidential Range are peaks named for Abraham Lincoln and James Garfield.

Atop Mount Washington, looking south-southeast, one can see a natural feature named "Boott Spur" (5492) about a mile and a half away; the Spur is the best possible site to be renamed Mount Reagan, because of its elevation and its accessibility to Mount Washington, visited by thousands of climbers every year. The Spur also invokes the symbolism of the American West that Reagan knew and loved.

President Reagan, echoing those who began the American adventure, used to speak of our country as a shining city on a hill. Congress's naming of this mountain in his honor would be a fitting and lasting tribute to this great man.