Originally named Greenland Mountain, in the mid-19th century the mountain was renamed. Like the town and the village, Hunter takes its name from John Hunter, a somewhat despised local landlord. It is not known when the mountain was first climbed, or by whom. A popular local legend has it that Hunter, or some other later landowner, went to the summit with a hand level in order to be sure they had indeed purchased the Catskills' highest peak, and were satisfied until an "unknown" peak appeared on the southern horizon — Slide Mountain, the range's true highest peak but not identified as such until 1886 (which makes this legend unlikely to have any basis in fact, as the necessary clearing at the summit for the fire tower was made well afterwards). For a time before Arnold Henry Guyot identified Slide, either Hunter or nearby Black Dome, central peak of the Blackhead Mountains, was thought to be the range's highest, in contrast to the claims of nearby hoteliers for Kaaterskill High Peak.