Location: Kern County, California

According to pioneer Tehachapi businessman Pete Vukich (b 1916) "it's called Double because of the way that mountain looks, it's been called that as long as I can remember".

This mountain is not cited on the diseño (ca 1840) of the Mexican Land Grant Rancho La Liebre (which was directly south), nor on the survey maps of W.P. Blake for the Pacific RR (1854). The Southern Pacific RR opened service through Tehachapi in 1876 but the company long ago discarded all historical records. However, the peak name was almost certainly given during the late 1860's, by someone in the employ of General Edward Fitzgerald Beale (1822-93). At that time Beale was purchasing all available land in the vicinity and creating his mammoth (265,215 acre) Téjon Ranch. Beale originally earned fame in the Mexican-American War after our defeat at the Battle of San Pascual (1847). He prevented what otherwise would have been the destruction by General Andrés Pico (1810-76), of the us "Army of the West" (once 1,458 men, reduced to 100 wounded survivors), commanded by General Stephen Watts Kearney (1784-1848). The nearest aid was Commodore Robert Field Stockton (1795-1866), in command of a us Navy flotilla anchored in San Diego harbor. That night was bitterly cold and the rain that had poured all day continued, but with "Kit" Carson (1809--68) as guide, Beale went for help. At one point Beale's boots dislodged a few stones, so they desperately tried crawling barefoot over slippery rocks and through nearly impenetrable chaparral until they were past the enemy lines. When they were safely distant, Beale's bloody and swollen feet would not accept his boots so he hiked barefoot for remaining 60 miles. Somehow they made it, but Beale refused to collapse until he had made his report. The subsequent rescue of Kearney turned the tide of the war in California. Later, promoted for bravery to Captain, he acted as a courier to Washington during and after the war (1845-49), and brought the first news of gold. He surveyed potential railroad routes to California (1853); gained respect as a fair and honest Superintendent for Indian Affairs (1853-56); created the exotic (but short lived) us Army Camel Corps for the 1st Dragoons that he now commanded at nearby Fort Téjon, and engineered a road through "Beale's Cut" (1857) that opened a northern portal to landlocked Los Angeles. He was Surveyor-General of California- (1861-65), when he purchased Rancho La Liebre.

The exact date this peak received its name remains indefinite, but it was quite obviously given as a description of the nearly twin knobs that form its summit. Name appears on USGS Neenach topo (1943).

Peak was on the original 1946 HPS Peak List.