Pig Snout not on the map

Thursday, Dec. 15, 2005 | 7:13 a.m.

On a map of Nevada, you'll find Vinegar Peak, Jackass Flats and Skull Mountain.

You will not, however, find Pig Snout Butte -- despite the fact that the hill on the border of Lincoln and Nye counties looks like, well, a big pig snout.

Calling it Pig Snout, according to a little-known state board that recommends names for Nevada's mountains, valleys and everything in between, would be inappropriate.

"We have to be careful stewards," said Susan Tingley, chairwoman of the Nevada State Board on Geographic Names. "There are only so many unnamed mountains, rivers and valleys. It is very difficult to rename something once it is named and once that name has been used by the public."

The board, which has no budget, was created by the 1985 Legislature to "coordinate and approve geographic names within the state for official recommendation to the U.S. Board on Geographic Names."

Places such as Jackass Flats at the Nevada Test Site were named long before the state board was created.

But in the 20 years since, board members have dealt with some pretty unusual requests for names, said Joseph Tingley, Susan's husband and the board's executive director -- a nonvoting administrative position.

For example,Teacup Wash and Drill Hole Wash were named at the Nevada Test Site, he said. Teacup Wash is shaped like a teacup, and Drill Hole Wash has lots of drill holes from the testing of geological formations prior to shafts being dug for underground nuclear bomb detonations.

Pig Snout Butte was nixed after members of the U.S. Forest Service told the board they felt the name was inappropriate.

The board consists of representatives from the Nevada Bureau of Mines and Geology; UNR; UNLV; Nevada State Library and Archives; Nevada Transportation Department; Nevada Conservation and Natural Resources Department; Nevada Historical Society; the U.S. Bureau of Land Management; the Forest Service; and the Inter-Tribal Council of Nevada.

Susan Tingley, who has been a board member for 15 years, said the biggest controversy it has had to address was in 1991 when a proposal was submitted to change the name of unincorporated Stateline (in Northern Nevada) to Lake Tahoe.

The attempt failed because of strong opposition from Incline Village residents, who felt their businesses would be damaged by the name change, Tingley said.

Also area casinos had planned their marketing around the name Stateline and the cost of changing it would have been significant, she said.

"There were objections from so many people," Tingley said. "Yet there was not much opposition to changing the name of State Line (in Southern Nevada) to Primm," which eventually was approved.

It's not a quick or easy process to name something.

For example, the federal board, on a recommendation from the Nevada board, recently approved the name Exploration Peak for a small mountain that overlooks the Mountains Edge residential development 12 miles southwest of Las Vegas, just south of State Route 160.

Submitted by project developer James Brewer, the name pays tribute to the early Nevada explorers who traveled along the Old Spanish Trail, which runs through the Mountains Edge development.

The name was considered at public hearings in September 2004 and in January and got support from the public and congressional leaders before being sent to the federal board with a recommendation for approval.

Some proposed names, however, just don't cut it.

For example, a Las Vegas songwriter wanted to name an indistinguishable bump in the road near Interstate 15 and U.S. 93 Coyote Springs Hill because he had written a song called "The House on Coyote Springs Hill," Tingley said. The proposal failed.

Ed Koch can be reached at 259-4090 or at koch@lasvegassun.com.