Confederate Name Removed from Sierra Nevada Peak Near Tahoe

A mountain sitting in the middle of the Sierra Nevada near Tahoe will no longer bear the name of the president of the Confederacy.

The Board on Geographic Names has approved a new name for Jeff Davis Peak, which sits just south of Lake Tahoe in Alpine County. The peak will now be known as Da-ek Dow Go-et Mountain, which was proposed by the Hung-A-Lel-Ti Woodfords Washoe Tribe and translates to “saddle between points.”

Jeff Davis Peak is believed to have been named after Confederate President Jefferson Davis, who was the slave-owning President of the Confederacy during the Civil War. Historians believe the peak was named by a group of Confederate sympathizers who settled in nearby Summit City.

The movement to rename the Sierra peak holding the Confederate president’s namesake has been in motion since 2017, when San Rafael resident Anthony Oertel began the conversation. Since then, support to rename the peak has been voiced by various Native American groups and California Governor Gavin Newsom.

There is currently a request to also rename a nearby creek dubbed Jeff Davis Creek to Da-ek Dow Go-et Wa Tah, which is under review. The creek would bear the same name as the peak, as “Wa Tah” is Washoe for “water.”

The peak is just another example of areas in Northern California being considered for a name change to scrub any confederate or racist terms from the area. Recently, Christopher Columbus and Sir Francis Drake statues have been removed from areas in Sacramento and San Francisco. There was also a movement to rename the city of Fort Bragg, named after Confederate general Braxton Bragg, as well as a petition to rename the popular Negro Bar State Recreation Area in Folsom.