The Rocky Mountain News “Colorado Q & A,”  Jan. 20, 1957:

Q: Often, as I traveled the road between Glenwood Springs and Aspen, I have been impressed by the beauty of that solitary peak called Mt. Sopris. How did this lovely mountain get its name?

A: That beautiful mountain was named for an interesting Colorado pioneer, Captain Richard Sopris … [when] a small group of men headed by Sopris left July 1, 1860 and explored a number of areas … As they traveled up above Glenwood Springs, they were so impressed by the beauty of the great peak rising there that they named it for their leader.

Sopris and his men were “Fifty-Niners” — prospectors who came to the Rocky Mountains after gold was discovered in 1859 on the South Platte River. Their 1860 exploration didn’t yield any gold, but it did put Mt. Sopris on the map, along with other geographical features, according to Linda Bjorklund’s book “Richard Sopris in Early Denver”:

Although the Sopris prospectors were disappointed about the lack of gold, the information they recorded along the way proved to be an invaluable resource for mapmakers trying to chart … what would become Colorado. Under the direction of the first territorial governor, William Gilpin, Ebert’s 1865 Map of Colorado Territory was drawn using much of the information provided by the Sopris party.

At that time, maps showed the Rocky Mountains’ Western Slope as “Ute Indian Territory,” in accordance with U.S. Government treaties. The Utes, or Nuche as they call themselves, traveled through the mountains in the summer, hunting and gathering food for winter, which they’d spend in the lowlands.

Just over a hundred years after the U.S. government removed the Northern Ute tribes from Colorado, Carbondale residents considered returning the original Indigenous name to the iconic landmark, according to Pat Noel’s commentary in The Valley Journal on Dec. 10, 1987: 

… [P]erhaps it’s time we rectified the situation. After all, who was Richard Sopris? An itinerant surveyor who wandered through the Valley a relatively short time ago … who had the audacity to pencil in his name on the midvalley’s most dramatic geologic feature … [W]ouldn’t it be more fitting to call the mountain by its older, Indian name? But what is the old name? 

After making a host of phone calls this week to people who should know (who in turn made even more phone calls to others), this writer was unable to learn of it. One local historian … even suggested that the Utes had no name for the mountain and called it in their Nahuatl language merely “the big mountain with snow on top.”

The subject was raised again in 2009, when a group of elders representing the three Ute tribes were gathered in Carbondale. According to an eyewitness, the elders were asked if they knew what their ancestors called the mountain. Their answer was unequivocally, “No.” The name, if there ever was one, had been lost for generations.

Undeterred, one well-meaning local requested the Ute translations for several individual English words, then assembled them into a phrase: “Ancient Mountain Heart Sits There,” which was enthusiastically shared throughout the Carbondale community. Now, some people mistakenly believe that phrase was the original Ute name for Mt. Sopris.

Unfortunately, although the intention was to apply an Indigenous name to the beloved landmark in recognition of the First People, appropriating their language does not honor the Ute’s cultural naming practices.

As for the man whose name is still on the map, Richard Sopris achieved a lasting legacy, recorded in his obituary in the Weekly Register-Call (Denver) on April 14, 1893:

A Prominent Denverite and an old Colorado pioneer passed away… For the past [30] years he had been a resident of Denver. In 1861, he organized Company C of the First Colorado Infantry Regiment, and was commissioned its captain … In 1864 he was elected Sheriff of Arapahoe County … and in 1878 was elected [Denver’s] mayor for two terms … [H]e was appointed Park Commissioner in 1881, serving until [1892].

Decades later, Sopris’ work as head of the Denver Parks Department was cited as a reason to rename the city’s largest public park after him in the letters section of Rocky Mountain News on Dec. 14, 1949:

 … [R]egarding a proposal to change the name of City Park … I quote from [the book] “Colorado Pioneers in Picture and Story”; “Capt. Richard Sopris was a pioneer of 1859 … and [when] he was appointed Park Commissioner [he] immediately began the difficult task of making a park out of the 320 acres which the city had purchased from the state.” [As] a lasting testimonial to the public-spirited pioneer … may I suggest the name of “Sopris Park.”

The renaming of Denver’s City Park never happened, but the name “Sopris” was given to the new public park in the center of the little town of Carbondale, which had bloomed under his namesake mountain.

Were he to return to Carbondale today, Captain Richard Sopris might be surprised to see his name everywhere: on street signs, elementary schools, businesses, even in the title of a weekly newspaper.