Samuel Hitt Elbert Edward Moody McCook, was reappointed Governor. Samuel Elbert was appointed to the Supreme Court of the State of Colorado in 1877 where he served until 1889. Elbert served as the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court from 1879 to 1883. Samuel Elbert died on November 27, 1899. Elbert County, Colorado; Elbert, Colorado; and Mount Elbert, the highest peak in the Rocky Mountains, are named in honor of Samuel Hitt Elbert. Grateful miners named Mount Elbert after the governor because he brokered a treaty with the Ute tribe, which opened up more than of Indian reservation to mining and railroad activity.
Mount Elbert of gneiss and schist. Unlike mountains of similar altitude elsewhere, Elbert lacks both a permanent snowpack and a prominent north-facing cirque, which can be attributed to its position among other mountains of similar height, causing it to receive relatively small quantities of precipitation. Mount Elbert was named by miners in honor of Samuel Hitt Elbert, the governor of the then-Territory of Colorado, because he brokered a treaty in September 1873 with the Ute tribe that opened up more than of reservation land to mining and railroad activity. The first recorded ascent of the peak was by H.W. Stuckle in 1874,