Apparently in the Trango Towers region the first climbers in the area were guided by a local. Nobody had seen these spires before so when the climbers asked the guide what the names were, he just pulled names out of thin air, not wanting to dissapoint his clients.

lcarreau wrote:Why, Arizona ... as in, why the holy hell am I living here ...?

I love Why! What a neat little place. I assumed it was named because it's at a Y-junction of two highways.

For unusual place names, just go east a bit onto the Tohono O'odham Indian Reservation. There are little towns/locales like Gurli Put Vo, Uhs Kug, Schuchk, Totopitk, Kaka, and my favorite, Peach Pu. There's even a small road-side sign pointing to Peach Pu off of state route AZ-86.

There's always Cumsack Mountain up in BC!
http://travelingluck.com/North%20Americ ... #local_map

Hate to leave the phallic theme but other weird names:

Charlies Bunion (Smokies)
The Nipple (Guadalupes)

Here in the east there's a chimney rock and a buzzard's rock every where you look. We've also got a few Sugarloafs. There seems to be few Mollie's Nipples out in the southwest.

We have a place here called Kouchibouguac.

Ragged Mtn is fairly common, 2 in Maine, 1 New Hampshire, 1 Virginia, 1 Colorado, Ragged top mtns in Wyoming and Arizona- probably others. Pocomoonshine Mtn ( Maine) is not unique but sounds cool since there is one in New York spelled with a k and hyphens. There were a couple of mtns in Maine that were renamed in deference to native American and gender sensibilities.

Monument.....and there is a Ragged Peak In Yosemite NP too.

There are a surprising number of Pilot Knobs out there ("One of 103 summits within the United States, including... See also: Pilot Mountain (disambiguation)") -- someone should really make a complete list. What is a "Pilot Knob," anyways? Is there some knob you turn to pilot a ship? Do all of these knobs resemble a Pilot?

seano wrote:There are a surprising number of Pilot Knobs out there ("One of 103 summits within the United States, including... See also: Pilot Mountain (disambiguation)") -- someone should really make a complete list. What is a "Pilot Knob," anyways? Is there some knob you turn to pilot a ship? Do all of these knobs resemble a Pilot?

The name refers to prominent peaks that were used for navigation across the wilderness in 19th century. I think even Grand Teton was referred to as Pilot Knob at some point.

Arthur Digbee wrote:Hate to leave the phallic theme but other weird names:

Charlies Bunion (Smokies)
The Nipple (Guadalupes)

Utah has SEVERAL Mollies Nipples, but I haven't met Molly yet .........

South Six-Shooter Peak. Utah

Gold, silver, and eagle are all fairly common, even variations of the three ('Golden Eagle', Quicksilver, etc).

For unique place names, how about Ubehebe (Crater) in Death Valley NP, California: