The mountain, Rainier, would not be viewed differently if called a different name/Rebecca Latson file

Were the name of Mount Rainier, and that of Mount Rainier National Park, changed to Mount Tacoma and Mount Tacoma National Park, it would unleash "chaos in geography, history, and science."

That was the view of the United States Geographic Board, which a century ago was asked by Congress to allow the name change. The board rejected, with no small amount of consternation, that effort to have the park's name, and the mountain it was named after, replaced with Tacoma.

"I beg to call your attention to the fact that this is the fourth time during the past 34 years in which the Geographic Board has been called upon to decide whether or not there is any justification in the proposition to change the established name of Mount Rainier to Mount Tacoma, and in each case has decided most emphatically against any change," wrote C. Hart Merriam, chairman of the board, in rejecting the request from Congress.

The 1924 request was not made idly. The Joint Resolution from Congress requesting the name change noted that:

Whereas it is the universal practice, out of respect for the American Indian, to perpetuate, wherever possible, in the geographical nomenclature of the United States the names used by the American Indians; and

Whereas the man for whom Mount Rainier was named, as the commander of a British ship, engaged in depredations along the Atlantic seaboard in armed opposition to the Government of the United States; and,

Whereas perpetuating the name "Rainier" is contrary to the wishes of the sovereign State of Washington, as expressed in a memorial passed by the legislature of said State in the session of 1917 and addressed to the members of the United States Geographic Board, petitioning the baord to substitute for the name "Rainier" the most appropriate name that the board might, after a hearing, selection: Therefore, be it

Resolved by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, That from and after the passage of this resolution the mountain heretofore known as "Mount Rainier," the national park heretofore known as "Mount Rainier National Park," and the national forest heretofore known as "Rainier National Forest," shall be known and designated on the public records as "Mount Tacoma," "Mount Tacoma National Park," and "Tacoma National Forest," respectively...

But it was not to be, Congressional intent be damned.

In dismissing the call for a change of names, the Geographic Board ignored the argument that Peter Rainier, for whom the mountain was named by Captain George Vancouver, of the British navy, in 1792, "was an enemy to our country." More so, he supported slavery, his opponents said.

Rather, the board replied, "Vancouver's 'right to name the mountain is well attested by the fact that since 1792 no geographer of any nationality has ever challenged the name."

Furthermore, Merriam wrote back to Congress, "[N]o geographic feature in any part of the world can claim a name more firmly fixed — fixed by right of discovery, by right of priority, by right of international usage, and by the conspicuous place it holds in the literature, atlases, and official charts of the civilized nations of the earth. To change it would be a blow to the stability of geographic and historical nomenclature, and a reflection upon the intelligence of the American people. The name has become the property of the world and is no more a local matter than the name of the Andes of South America or the HImalaya of India. Think of the chaos in geography, history, and science that would result if new names were given to the world's most prominent landmarks.

"The records of science in the field of geology and in studies of glaciers, mammals, birds, reptiles, insects, forests, and humber plants contain thousands of references to Mount Rainier, and our museums include thousands of specimens whose labels hear the name," he continued. 

Merriam also pointed to the many other names Vancouver attached to geographic areas of Washington state — "Puget Sound, Mount Baker, Port Orchard, and Whidbey Island — were named for British officers of his own ship" — yet there was no clammoring for those names to be changed.

"If our sense of patriotism should lead us to cancel English place names because we were once at war with England, would not the map of the United States look like a skinned can?"

As for the argument that Native Americans referred to the mountain as "Tacoma," Merriam pushed back, saying it was a generic name used for snow-capped mountains, and that Indian tribes in the region each had their own name for the mountain.

"These are distinctive names, applied to Rainier and no other mountain," Merriam wrote in reference to the various tribal names for the mountain. "And still the people of Tacoma ask for 'the restoration of the original and rightful name of the mountain!' But this is exactly what they do not want; they want the name of their city."

And so Rainier it remained.