Topographic relief is significant as the summit rises 2,900 feet (880 meters) above South Fork Imnaha River in 1.5 mile.

The summit is composed of Columbia River basalt which overlays limestone and Mesozoic granodiorite of the Wallowa Batholith.

[5] A limber pine growing at the 8,000-foot level on the mountain's southeast slope is likely the oldest living thing in Oregon and ranks third in the limber pine size category in the United States.

[6][5] This landform's toponym was proposed by Willard Webster Eggleston and officially adopted May 1, 1929, by the United States Board on Geographic Names to remember William Conklin Cusick (1842–1922), an Oregonian and pioneer botanist who specialized in the flora of the Pacific Northwest and in particular the Wallowas and Blue Mountains.

[7] The resident of Union, Oregon, made the first botanical studies of the Wallowas by collecting and classifying plants from 1896 through 1910.