The mountain was named by John Wesley Powell after the Illinois Senator Lyman Trumbull.

Birds present include red crossbills, Steller's jays, common ravens and many others.

Trumbull mesa is capped by a 3.6 million year old dark grey basalt lava flow, one of the first eruptions in the Uinkaret volcanic field.

The volcanic field has spawned at least 213 known eruptions since then, including seventeen lava flows that poured into the Grand Canyon and dammed the Colorado River.

Trumbull lava flow cap protects the colorful Moenkopi Formation beneath that would have otherwise been eroded away long ago.

In historic times the members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints used the area to harvest lumber to build many of the structures in St George, Utah.