Although modest in elevation, relief is significant since the mountain rises up from tidewater at Harriman Fjord in Prince William Sound in less than six miles.

The peak was named in 1908 by Ulysses Sherman Grant and Daniel F. Higgins for Grove Karl Gilbert (1843-1918), a geologist with the United States Geological Survey who was part of the 1899 Harriman Alaska expedition that explored this area.

On June 14, 1960, a Pacific Northern Airlines Lockheed L-749A Constellation aircraft crashed near the summit, killing all 14 persons aboard.

[4] It was on the final leg of a flight from Seattle to Anchorage, after having just dropped off 52 cannery workers and fishermen in Cordova.

Crews, Hans Metz, Helga Bading, and Bob Bailey, in what was described as poor weather conditions.