Headwaters Hill, Colorado
Headwaters Hill is a mountain in central Colorado. It is geographically significant, because its summit sheds water into three divergent river basins that reach sea-level at three separate places in two different oceans. In other words, Headwaters Hill forms a major triple divide: a special kind of hydrological apex.
Elevation: 11,862'
Geographic coordinates: 38.34763 -106.25296
This mountain was unnamed until July 12, 2001, when the topynym "Headwaters Hill" was accepted and made official by the U.S. Board on Geographic Names. If you'd like a good, solid overview of Headwaters Hill - the geography, the history of the naming effort, the people involved, and so forth - then I'd encourage you to read what's probably the best and most-comprehensive single article ever written on the topic. It's called "Playing the Name Game", by Ed Quillen, and it was published in Colorado Central Magazine in September 2001, shortly after Headwaters Hill had been officially named.
The placename "Headwaters Hill" is now included in the Geographic Names Information System database, and as a result its label is being included on an increasing variety of maps. The first published maps to show Headwaters Hill were printed works, both copyright 2006:
The image on the left is from the first edition of Benchmark's Colorado Road and Recreation Atlas; the image on the right is from the 2006 revision of National Geographic's La Garita / Cochetopa Hills Trails Illustrated Map. In 2007 a geocache was placed on Headwaters Hill, in recognition of its interesting geography.
Online map links:
- Google Maps has labeled Headwaters Hill since 2008.
- MapQuest has labeled Headwaters Hill since 2010.
- The corresponding USGS topo map quads were last updated in 2001, but unfortunately the name "Headwaters Hill" wasn't approved quite soon enough to be included in that revision. (You'll see a crosshair in the center of your screen, marking the summit of Headwaters.)
Below is a small section of an interactive map I customized to show the location of Headwaters Hill and how to get there:
If Google Maps is working properly, you should see a shaded-relief map with a yellow pin in the center, marking the location of Headwaters Hill. I've highlighted the various faces of the mountain to indicate the three watersheds that are common to its summit. The lines represent trails that provide access to Headwaters Hill. You should be able to pan, zoom, and so forth, but if you really want to learn more details about Headwaters Hill, I think you'll find that the full version of that map is more functional.