Maturango Peak

Maturango Peak, the highest summit in California’s Argus Range, rises 8,843 feet in the desert near China Lake. Despite its prominence as the range’s chief peak, it stands on land controlled by the Naval Air Weapons Station China Lake, making access restricted. The name Maturango was in use by 1877, when it appeared on the Wheeler Survey Map. Its origin remains uncertain. It may derive from the Spanish word maturrango, a term used in Buenos Aires for a European and also for a poor horseman or a bad horse, or it may preserve the name of Malarango, a chief of the Coso people.

California · United States