Granado Mountain

Duane's take

Here's how the official marker tells it, and I'm just along for the ride. You're rolling through Jeff Davis County right now, and out there rising six thousand and seventy-six feet into that big Trans-Pecos sky is a peak that's been called at least three things in its life, and every one of those names carries a story worth knowing. Traditionally it went by Granado Mountain, or La Granada, and the name came from a man named Trinidad Granado, a rancher born in 1868 who would live all the way to 1958, ninety years on this earth, with a mountain to show for it.

His ranch sat right at the base of that peak, as close to the stone as a man could set his boots without climbing. But to understand how Trinidad Granado ended up there, you've got to go back further. The original owner of that tract, mountain and all, was a Belgian-born man named Anton Diedrick Dutchover, one of the founding settlers of this country.

He acquired the land and the mountain from the State of Texas in 1876. Now Dutchover was no stranger to hard service. He'd served with Texas troops in the Mexican War and later worked at Fort Davis as a civilian stock herder.

The man put down roots so deep they'd anchor a family for generations. His third daughter, Dorothea, was born in 1872. In 1890, Trinidad Granado married her, and just like that, the Dutchover story and the Granado story became one.

Then Dutchover passed in 1904. Six years after that, in 1910, Trinidad Granado purchased the land and created the ranch. A man building something lasting, right there at the foot of the mountain that would carry his name.

And it did carry his name, for decades. Until 1964, when Governor John Connally issued a gubernatorial proclamation and renamed it Barry Scobee Mountain. So out there in Jeff Davis County stands a peak with a Belgian pioneer at its foundation, a rancher's family woven through its history, and a governor's pen changing its name a full century after Dutchover first set eyes on it.

The mountain doesn't much care what anybody calls it. It just keeps standing.

What the marker says

The 6,076-foot high peak traditionally known as Granado Mountain or La Granada was named for Trinidad Granado (1868-1958), a rancher whose ranch was at the base of the mountain. The original owner was Belgian-born founding settler Anton Diedrick Dutchover who acquired the tract and mountain from the State of Texas in 1876. Dutchover served with Texas troops in the Mexican War and was employed at Fort Davis as a civilian stock herder. Trinidad Granado married Dutchover's third daughter, Dorothea (1872-1943), in 1890 and created the ranch on land he purchased in 1910, six years after Dutchover's death. In 1964, Governor John Connally, through a gubernatorial proclamation, renamed the mountain Barry Scobee Mountain. (2015)