humbug mountain was originally known as me-tus by the indigenous tututni people. when american settlers located the mountain, they initially named it sugarloaf mountain. in 1851 it began to be called tichenor's humbug when an exploring party sent by captain william v. tichenor, founder of port orford, got lost and headed north of the port instead of south. tichenor stated that the name was chosen "to palliate their gross failure."