“Mt. Whitehorn is a very striking feature,” wrote Arthur Oliver Wheeler [1860–1945], “owing to the precipitous rock ramparts, like mighty walls, that stretch out from it to the Grand Fork Valley. It is surrounded by glaciers, but it is not very white and does not convey the impression of a horn.”

This sharp conical peak was referred to by Arthur Philomen Coleman [1852–1939] in 1907 or 1908 as “The White Horn.” Elizabeth Parker [1856–1944] says it is so called “from some twoscore waterfalls shining like silver or foaming white down vertical purple cliffs on either side.” It was first climbed by Conrad Kain [1883–1934] in 1911.