Nev. peak still honors disgraced Confederate leader
Jeff Davis Peak in Great Basin National Park in Nevada. Photo/National Park Service
By Benjamin Spillman, Reno Gazette-Journal
Jefferson Davis is famous mostly because he presided over the Confederate government that sought to preserve the institution of slavery and tear the United States asunder in the Civil War.
His dark stint in power is the reason city leaders in New Orleans recently removed a statue of Davis from a position of prominence in the city’s central business district.
The removal knocked the legacy of slavery from a cultural pedestal in New Orleans but hasn’t wiped the Davis name from other positions of high honor, including a mountain peak in a remote corner of Nevada.
At 12,771 feet in elevation Jeff Davis Peak towers over Great Basin National Park in Baker. There’s also a Jeff Davis Peak in Alpine County.
