Gallagher Head Lake now Gallaher Head Lake

Here's an interesting bit of news regarding mountain names.

Those who hike in the Teanaway region of the central Cascades are probably familiar with the Gallagher Head Trail, Gallagher Head, and Gallagher Head Lake. Apparently, these places are all misnamed. Since 1961, USGS mapmakers, thinking they had corrected a spelling, were actually misspelling one.

The correct name should be Gallaher Head, named for James and Eliza Gallaher, two Pennsylvania natives who had moved to Roslyn in the late nineteenth century and staked mining claims in the mountains of the Teanaway.

The surviving members of the Gallaher family, including Deborah Gallaher of Seattle, lobbied Washington state cartographers and the U.S. Geological Survey to correct the error. And they have. Here's the official record of the change (as a PDF file).

Here's a recent trip report from the area (trail names in our database have yet to be updated). So get out those pencils and change your topo maps. What was once Gallagher Head is now Gallaher Head.

Photo of Gallaher Head Lake by "Slugman."