Oregon’s Swastika Mountain got its name long before the Nazis rose to power—and in the many years since then, for reasons unknown, the name has endured. But now, activists are pushing to change it.
The Oregon Geographic Names Board, a volunteer committee tasked with renaming Oregon landscapes and bodies of water, has confirmed that the 4,197-foot-tall mountain, located in Oregon’s Umpqua National Forest, will likely be named Mount Halo, reports Grace Smith for the television station KEZI-TV.
The change comes, in part, thanks to Oregon resident Joyce McClain, who first learned about the ill-named butte after reading a news report back in January about two hikers who were rescued from a snowstorm on Swastika Mountain.
“I couldn’t believe what I was reading, and so I had to do something about it,” McClain tells KEZI-TV.
