Pikes Peak
"Tava" or "sun", is the Ute word that was given by these first people to the mountain that we now call Pikes Peak. The band of Ute people who called the Pikes Peak region their home were the "Tabeguache", meaning the "People of Sun Mountain". The Ute people first arrived in Colorado about 500 A.D., although their traditions state they were created on Pikes Peak. In the 1800s, when the Arapaho people arrived in Colorado, they knew the mountain as ""Heey-otoyoo' "" meaning "Long Mountain". Early Spanish explorers named the mountain ""El Capitán"" meaning "The Leader". American explorer Zebulon Pike named the mountain "Highest Peak" in 1806, and the mountain was later commonly known as "Pike's Highest Peak". American explorer Stephen Harriman Long named the mountain "James Peak" in honor of Edwin James who climbed to the summit in 1820. The mountain was later renamed "Pike's Peak" in honor of Pike. The name was simplified to "Pikes Peak" by the United States Board on Geographic Names in 1890.
Wallace Pike
Wallace Pike (22 December 1899 – 11 April 1999) was the last known Newfoundland World War I veteran. He enlisted as a volunteer in the Royal Newfoundland Regiment as an underage soldier. He saw action on the Western Front as a stretcher-bearer where he was wounded twice, once in the leg and once in the hand. At the end of his military service he held the rank of private. He was honored by Newfoundland Premier Brian Tobin as a veteran who "represented what would later become a Canadian tradition in times of conflict - that of humanitarian and life-saver". France awarded Pike its highest accolade, The Legion of Honour. The award was commemorated in 1998 by French Ambassador Denis Bauchard who praised Pike saying, "Through your courage you sealed forever the eternal bonds of friendship, solidarity and affection between our two countries." Wallace Pike died on April 11, 1999, aged 99 – just one month after the deaths of Newfoundland World War I veterans John Brinson and Alexander White.