From 1858 to 1861, the Butterfield Overland Mail, the first public transportation service spanning from the Mississippi to the Pacific with passenger and mail service, used the 2400-foot peak to the northeast as a beacon, visible to drivers and passengers for 30 to 40 miles. In that era it was called Abercrombie Peak for Col. J.J. Abercrombie of the U.S. Army, who was active in defense of this frontier. Waterman Ormsby, a newspaper reporter traveling on the first Butterfield stage to pass this way, remarked that the peak resembled a fortress. The height was later renamed Castle Peak.