Dunraven Pass is a mountain pass

Mountain pass

A mountain pass is a route through a mountain range or over a ridge. If following the lowest possible route, a pass is locally the highest point on that route...

 on the Grand Loop Road

Grand Loop Road Historic District

The Grand Loop Road Historic District encompasses the primary road system in Yellowstone National Park. Much of the system was originally planned by Captain Hiram M. Chittenden of the US Army Corps of Engineers in the early days of the park, when it was under military administration...

 between Tower and Canyon in Yellowstone National Park

Yellowstone National Park

Yellowstone National Park, established by the U.S. Congress and signed into law by President Ulysses S. Grant on March 1, 1872, is a national park located primarily in the U.S. state of Wyoming, although it also extends into Montana and Idaho...

, Wyoming

Wyoming

Wyoming is a state in the mountain region of the Western United States. The western two thirds of the state is covered mostly with the mountain ranges and rangelands in the foothills of the Eastern Rocky Mountains, while the eastern third of the state is high elevation prairie known as the High...

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History

In 1874, just two years after the park's creation, the Earl of Dunraven, a titled Irish Peer made a visit to Yellowstone in conjunction with a hunting expedition to the Northern Rockies. He was so impressed with the park, that he devoted well over 150 pages to Yellowstone in his The Great Divide, published in London by Chatto & Windus in 1876. The Great Divide was one of the earliest works to praise and publicize the park.

In 1878 during a U.S. Geological Survey of the park, Henry Gannett

Henry Gannett

Henry Gannett, M.E.; LL.D. was an American geographer who is described as the "Father of the Quadrangle" which is the basis for topographical maps in the United States.-Life:...

, a geographer working with the survey, named a peak just two miles southwest of Mount Washburn

Mount Washburn

Mount Washburn el. is a prominent mountain peak in the Washburn Range in Yellowstone National Park, Wyoming. The peak was named in 1870 to honor Henry D. Washburn, leader of the Washburn–Langford–Doane Expedition...

 in the honor of the Earl of Dunraven and the service his book had done for the park. In 1879, Philetus Norris

Philetus Norris

Philetus W. Norris was the second superintendent of Yellowstone National Park and was the first person to be paid for that position.- Early life :...

, the park superintendent gave the pass on the Grand Loop Road between Tower and Canyon the name Dunraven because of its proximity to Dunraven Peak

Dunraven Peak

Dunraven Peak el. is a mountain peak in the Washburn Range of Yellowstone National Park. In 1874, just two years after the park's creation, the Earl of Dunraven, a titled Englishman made a visit to Yellowstone in conjunction with a hunting expedition to the Northern Rockies...

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