Formerly called Mount Clinton for 19th-century governor DeWitt Clinton of New York,[4] in 1913 it was renamed after President Franklin Pierce (1804–1869), the only president born in New Hampshire, although it was several decades before the name was widely recognized.

[5] Its summit offers a wide view of New Hampshire's mountains.

The shortest trail route to the summit of Pierce is from a parking lot to the west of the mountain on Mount Clinton Road just off Route 302.

[7] The Appalachian Trail and Webster Cliff Trail approach from Mount Jackson in the south and meet Crawford Path just north of the summit before continuing to the northeast.

All three of these peaks are included on the peak-bagging list of four-thousand footers in New Hampshire.