Peak on Mt. Hunter named after Ted Stevens

A NEW NAME— Congress passed legislation to rename South Hunter peak to Stevens Peak in honor of the late Senator Ted Stevens. Photo by Diana Haecker

WASHINGTON D.C. — The U.S. House of Representatives passed a bill today  that honors the late Senator Ted Stevens by naming a peak on Mount Hunter and part of an ice field in Alaska after him. The Senate earlier this week passed a similar bill.

In the next 30 days, the US Geological Place Names board is supposed to christen a feature on Mount Hunter that was simply known as South Hunter peak as “Stevens Peak”. The peak stands almost 14-thousand feet tall and it was the highest unnamed peak in Alaska.

Senator Lisa Murkowski has introduced the legislation to name the peak and the ice field after Stevens. The northern and eastern half of the Chugach Mountains will become the Ted Stevens Ice Field.

According to her spokesman, she selected that peak since it is the highest peak in Alaska that has not yet been officially named. He said it was selected since it is visible from the Parks Highway and because it is in Denali National Park which Senator Stevens had a key role in expanding in the 1980 Alaska National Interest Lands Conservation Act.

Ted Stevens died in an airplane crash near Dillingham on August 9. His remains were buried this week at Arlington National Cemetery. Governor Sean Parnell was there to represent Alaska at Stevens’ funeral and he proclaimed Stevens’ birthday on November 18 as Ted Stevens Day.