Greenhorn Mountain is the
highest summit of the
Wet Mountains
The Wet Mountains are a small mountain range in southern Colorado, named for the amount of snow they receive in the winter as compared to the dried Great Plains to the east. They are a sub-range of the Sangre de Cristo Mountains, in the southern R ...
range in the
Rocky Mountains
The Rocky Mountains, also known as the Rockies, are a major mountain range and the largest mountain system in North America. The Rocky Mountains stretch in straight-line distance from the northernmost part of western Canada, to New Mexico ...
of
North America
North America is a continent in the Northern Hemisphere and almost entirely within the Western Hemisphere. It is bordered to the north by the Arctic Ocean, to the east by the Atlantic Ocean, to the southeast by South America and th ...
. The
prominent peak is located in the
Greenhorn Mountain Wilderness
The Greenhorn Mountain Wilderness is a U.S. Wilderness Area located northwest of Walsenburg, Colorado in the San Isabel and Pike
Pike, Pikes or The Pike may refer to:
Fish
* Blue pike or blue walleye, an extinct color morph of the yellow wa ...
of
San Isabel National Forest
San Isabel National Forest is located in central Colorado. The forest contains 19 of the state's 53 fourteeners, peaks over high, including Mount Elbert, the highest point in Colorado.
It is one of eleven national forests in the state of Colo ...
, southwest by west (
bearing 238°) of the
Town of Rye,
Colorado
Colorado (, other variants) is a state in the Mountain West subregion of the Western United States. It encompasses most of the Southern Rocky Mountains, as well as the northeastern portion of the Colorado Plateau and the western edge of the ...
,
United States
The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country Continental United States, primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 U.S. state, states, a Washington, D.C., ...
, on the boundary between
Huerfano and
Pueblo counties. The summit of Greenhorn Mountain is the
highest point
A list of highest points typically contains the name, elevation, and location of the highest point in each of a set of geographical regions. Such a list is important in the sport of highpointing. A partial list of highpoint lists is below:
World ...
in
Pueblo County, Colorado
Pueblo County ( or ) is a county located in the U.S. state of Colorado. As of the 2020 census, the population was 168,162. The county seat is Pueblo. The county was named for the historic city of Pueblo which took its name from the Spanis ...
.
[ The peak's summit rises above timberline, which is about in south-central Colorado.
]
Geography
The massive Greenhorn Mountain can be seen from Colorado Springs
Colorado Springs is a home rule municipality in, and the county seat of, El Paso County, Colorado, United States. It is the largest city in El Paso County, with a population of 478,961 at the 2020 United States Census, a 15.02% increase since ...
, Pueblo
In the Southwestern United States, Pueblo (capitalized) refers to the Native tribes of Puebloans having fixed-location communities with permanent buildings which also are called pueblos (lowercased). The Spanish explorers of northern New Spain ...
, Trinidad
Trinidad is the larger and more populous of the two major islands of Trinidad and Tobago. The island lies off the northeastern coast of Venezuela and sits on the continental shelf of South America. It is often referred to as the southernmos ...
, and also from along Interstate 25
Interstate 25 (I-25) is a major Interstate Highway in the western United States. It is primarily a north–south highway, serving as the main route through New Mexico, Colorado, and Wyoming. I-25 stretches from I-10 at Las Cruces, New Mexi ...
rising over above the great plains to the east. The mountain's habitats are protected within the secluded Greenhorn Mountain Wilderness Area, which is only accessed by a few trails and a 4-wheel drive road on its north.
Name origin
The original name for the mountain peak was Cuerno Verde. The name comes from ''Cuerno Verde
Cuerno Verde (died September 3, 1779) is the Spanish name for Tavibo Naritgant, a leader of the Comanche, likely of the Kotsoteka Comanche, in the late 18th century.
Life
Cuerno Verde ("Green Horn" in English), is the Spanish name given to Tavi ...
'' (Green Horn) given by the colonial Spanish of the Provincias Internas
The Provincias Internas, also known as the Comandancia y Capitanía General de las Provincias Internas (Commandancy and General Captaincy of the Internal Provinces), was an administrative district of the Spanish Empire created in 1776 to provide ...
to two, father and son, Jupe Comanche
The Comanche or Nʉmʉnʉʉ ( com, Nʉmʉnʉʉ, "the people") are a Native American tribe from the Southern Plains of the present-day United States. Comanche people today belong to the federally recognized Comanche Nation, headquartered in ...
band ''mahimiana paraibo'' or ''war chiefs.'' The younger Cuerno Verde was known to the Comanches as "Man Who Holds Danger." On September 3, 1779, younger Cuerno Verde, his son, medicine man, four principal chiefs, and ten of his warriors, were killed near Greenhorn Mountain by the men of the expedition of Spanish troops and native American allies (Apache
The Apache () are a group of culturally related Native American tribes in the Southwestern United States, which include the Chiricahua, Jicarilla, Lipan, Mescalero, Mimbreño, Ndendahe (Bedonkohe or Mogollon and Nednhi or Carrizaleño a ...
, Ute, and Pueblo
In the Southwestern United States, Pueblo (capitalized) refers to the Native tribes of Puebloans having fixed-location communities with permanent buildings which also are called pueblos (lowercased). The Spanish explorers of northern New Spain ...
) under Juan Bautista de Anza
Juan Bautista de Anza Bezerra Nieto (July 6 or 7, 1736 – December 19, 1788) was an expeditionary leader, military officer, and politician primarily in California and New Mexico under the Spanish Empire. He is credited as one of the founding f ...
.[Elizabeth A.H. John, ''Storms Brewed in Other Men's Worlds,'' Texas A&M University Press, College Station 1975, pages 584-589 (2nd ed. University of Oklahoma Press, 1996).
]
On April 4, 1906, the United States Board on Geographic Names decided to use the English translation, Greenhorn, for the name it carries today.
See also
*List of mountain peaks of Colorado
This is a list of major mountain peaks in the U.S. State of Colorado.
This article comprises three sortable tables of major mountain peaksThis article defines a significant summit as a summit with at least of topographic prominence, and a m ...
**List of the most prominent summits of Colorado
The following sortable table comprises the 100 most topographically prominent mountain peaks of the U.S. State of Colorado.
Topographic elevation is the vertical distance above the reference geoid, a mathematical model of the Earth's sea le ...
**List of Colorado county high points
This is a list of all 64 counties of the U.S. State of Colorado by their points of highest elevation. Of the 50 highest county high points in the United States, 30 are located in Colorado. The highest point in Colorado is the summit of Mount ...
References
Sources
*Pekka Hämäläinen, ''The Comanche Empire,''Yale University Press, New Haven & London 2008, pages 103-104
External links
Sangres.com: Greenhorn Mountain
{{Protected areas of Colorado
Mountains of Colorado
Mountains of Huerfano County, Colorado
Mountains of Pueblo County, Colorado
San Isabel National Forest
Sangre de Cristo Mountains
North American 3000 m summits