A Bit of History

Longs Peak is named for Major (later Colonel) Stephen Harriman Long (1784-1864) of the U.S. Army Engineers. In June 1820, Long and 19 men traveled up the Platte River. Later in the summer they reached the South Platte, and followed its course until the mountains came insight. Long described a massive giant peak which stood out boldly and grandly before them, but they didn't climb it. He simply called it "Highest Peak" on his 1822 map, "Geographical, Statistical and Historical map of Arkansas Territory". In the following years, however, the name "Long's Peak" prevailed. On modern USGS maps, as is usually the case, the apostrophe is simply dropped, and the form "Longs Peak" is what everybody uses now.

The first documented ascent of Longs Peak was made on August 23, 1868, by a party consisting of Major John Wesley Powell [Wes Powell], a one-armed science professor from Illinois, William N. Byers, editor of the Rocky Mountain News, Denver, and John Colton Sumner [Jack Sumner], a tracker and mountaineer. Three Powell's students were also participating: Lewis W. Keplinger, Samuel W. Garman, and Ned E. Farrell. [In a 1906 letter, Jack Sumner says the ascent happened on August 4, 1868]. After two or three days of wearisome and hazardous struggle with ropes and ladders on the south side of the mountain, the party planted the American flag on its summit, and left the usual box of records in a mound, as a mark of their achievement. Several years later, a different route, through the Keyhole, became the main way of reaching the summit. It was heavily promoted by a settler who lived close to the route, Elkanah J. Lamb. In addition to farming, he established a lodge for visitors called Longs Peak House. He, and later his son Carlyle, guided people up and down Longs Peak, charging $5 a trip. Carlyle apparently made hundreds of ascents in the 1880s and 1890s.