Those following along with the many requests to rename various natural features around Colorado have probably heard of the proposal to change the name of 14,115-foot Pikes Peak to its indigenous name, Tava Mountain. That said, there was another recent renaming proposal for the landmark outside of Colorado Springs that was quite different, shining light on a part of Colorado history that’s not talked about much – the infamous ‘Colorado Brown Stain.’
Per reporting from The Gazette, former Denver patent attorney D’Arcy Straub was recently informed that the multiple renaming proposals he had submitted to the U.S. Board of Geographic Names two years ago were denied, and among them was the call to rename Pikes Peak as Fluorite Mountain.
Fluorite, which can be described as a colorful halide mineral consisting of calcium and fluorine, doesn’t have much name recognition among members of the general public, but its presence on Pikes Peak led to a discovery that still impacts the world today – and the failed renaming proposal paid homage to that.
According to the National Institutes of Health, an alternative use of this mineral dates back to research that started in 1901, when a young dental school graduate named Frederick McKay left the East Coast with hopes of starting his own dental practice near the mountains in Colorado Springs. Upon arriving, however, he discovered that many locals had “grotesque” brown stains on their teeth, sometimes to the extent that an entire tooth was splotched with a dark brown the shade of chocolate – and his research began.
Startled by the bizarre condition, McKay started to look into why this discoloration was occurring locally, soon discovering that the brown-stained teeth condition wasn’t mentioned in any dental literature at the time. Colorado Springs residents had their suspicions – consuming too much pork or inferior milk, or maybe drinking calcium-rich water – but their guesses weren’t quite right.
It wouldn’t be until 1909 that McKay found a path toward answers related to what had become known as the “Colorado Brown Stain” – but solving the mystery would still be decades away. A renowned dental researcher by the name of Dr. G.V. Black teamed up with McKay in Colorado Springs to aid in his research, shocked that a condition impacting nearly 90 percent of local children remained a mystery.
“I spent considerable time walking on the streets, noticing the children in their play, attracting their attention and talking with them about their games, etc., for the purpose of studying the general effect of the deformity,” wrote Black. “I found it prominent in every group of children. One does not have to search for it, for it is continually forcing itself on the attention of the stranger by its persistent prominence. This is much more than a deformity of childhood. If it were only that, it would be of less consequence, but it is a deformity for life.”
Their search for answers continued for several years, and while much of the funding for the effort was self-provided by McKay, the City of Colorado Springs did provide him with a grant of $300 in 1910 – quite a bit at the time considering he was initially hired as a dental associate in the city in 1901 for $75 per month. The following year, McKay was given $150 from the Colorado Dental Association for the study, and he soon got $800 from the National Dental Association, as well.
Black continued to investigate the condition with McKay until his 1915 death, and during that time, he and McKay discovered that molted enamel was caused by developmental imperfections in children’s teeth – with children being at risk of having brown teeth, but not adults whose teeth had calcified without the stains. The pair also discovered that those with brown teeth were “surprisingly and inexplicably resistant to decay.”
Locals suggested that it could be something in the drinking water resulting in the condition, and while Black had remained skeptical of this theory through his death, McKay was intrigued.
McKay made a major life move in 1917, relocating to New York City to study periodontics and practice the new specialty, though his interest in the Colorado Brown Stain remained.
McKay caught a big break in his ongoing research in 1923, when he traveled to Idaho to investigate a report from local parents who indicated the same brown stains started to appear on children’s teeth after the construction of a water pipeline sourced by a warm spring several miles away. Nothing odd was found during his analysis of the water, but he did advise the town to pick another source. The town switched sources, and the browning stopped. McKay had confirmed that indeed, it was something in the water, he just didn’t know what it was.
More similarities were found elsewhere in the United States, where one community using a certain water source would be home to children with brown stains while another community not far away but using a different water source would not.
Now teamed up with Dr. Grover Kempf of the United States Public Health Service, McKay and his new partner published a report on their findings which caught the eye of Aluminum Company of America-chemist H.V. Churchill, who had long battled concerns that aluminum cookware was poisonous. After all, one of the towns impacted by the brown stains was Bauxite, Arkansas, which was owned by the aluminum company.
Churchill conducted a test of the Bauxite water with better equipment than what McKay had access to, and lo and behold, it was discovered that the town had notably high levels of fluoride. After another test, Churchill wrote a letter to McKay in 1931 informing him of the discovery. Within a few months, it was confirmed that other water samples collected by McKay showed the same high level of fluoride, as well, and McKay had his answer to what was causing the discoloration of children’s teeth in Colorado Springs 30 years after his quest began.
Questions remained though – particularly how fluoride was sneaking into Colorado Springs water supplies. Per Gazette reporting, the answer was in how fluorite found in the Pikes Peak region would erode and work its way into the water system.
But remember, the Colorado Brown Stain wasn’t entirely a negative condition – it came with a key positive, too.
Additional testing took place and it was soon discovered that by introducing a small amount of fluoride into the water supply intentionally could make teeth resistant to decay while also avoiding the browning effect – and the rest is history.
In 1945, Grand Rapids, Michigan became the first city in the world to systematically add fluoride to its drinking water and after 11 years, the rate of local tooth decay among children had dropped by 60 Percent. This was the long-awaited result of what turned out to be a major medical discovery, with fluoride now serving as a key means of helping children grow strong, healthy teeth, found in toothpaste and water supplies in many countries around the globe – and it all started in Colorado Springs with an aspiring dentist’s recognition of the Colorado Brown Stain.
It’s estimated that more than 300 million people have access to the benefits of fluoridated water today, all thanks to McKay.
McKay ended up returning to Colorado Springs in 1940 during the later stages of his research, initially retired but soon practicing dentistry again. He lived long enough to see his hard work come to fruition, passing away three years after the positive results of the Grand Rapids study on August 21, 1959. Throughout his life and after it, he received many awards and much praise for his achievements.
Original article online at: https://www.denvergazette.com/outtherecolorado/2026/08/05/colorado-brown-stain-the-incredible-history-behind-a-failed-attempt-to-rename-pikes-peak/