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 change rapidly, and afternoon thunderstorms are common in the summertime; hailstorms and snow are possible year-round. An electrical storm on the mountain's summit was considered remarkable enough to be reported in the July 1894 issue of "Science". Mount Elbert is part of the Sawatch Range, an uplift of the Laramide Orogeny which separated from the Mosquito Range to the east around 28 million years ago. The tops of this range were heavily glaciated, leaving behind characteristic summit features and other such clues. For example, the base of Elbert on the eastern side exhibits large igneous and metamorphic rocks deposited when