Wednesday, February 17, 2010

Don't mess with Diablo


So some wacko from Oakley with an axe to grind is trying to change the name of Mount Diablo. Seems his religious beliefs are offended by the name. Give me a break.

The name of the mountain goes back to an incident with the Miwok Indians. As recounted by the Save Mount Diablo organization:

"On a boggy day in 1806 a detachment of Spanish soldiers apprehended a band of Bay Miwok Indians in a marsh at the foot of a solitary California mountain. ..the Spaniards detained them in a nearby thicket as night fell. ....The next morning the soldiers woke in a dawn steam thick enough to blank the big mountain from sight. They found themselves bereft of their errant mission-folk .... Bedeviled as they were, they forswore the place Monte Del Diablo, Thicket of the Devil, and for years the name lingered like a fog over that marsh. Then when the English-speaking settlers arrived, the Spanish Monte was taken for Mountain and was thought to refer to the twin-shouldered mass looming nearby. So the mountain became Mount Diablo, made to bear an unholy namesake."

Now this religous zealot is trying to take away the name because it offends him. Whah! Even worse he wants to rename it to Mount Regan, which actually is pretty close to still calling it Mount Diablo.

Anyone wanting to help keep the mountain's history and namesake alive can order a t-shirt with a large portion of the proceeds going to Save Mount Diablo.

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