The great debate of our era is not health care, nor snowmaking at Chapman Hill, nor budget cuts and layoffs, nor even who wore the chicken suit to the Durango City Council meeting a few months back. Soon the talk in coffee shops, on downtown street corners and in e-mails shared with friends and co-workers will center on the 8,161-foot-high mountain that towers over us on the north end of town.

Yes, it's a great place for recreation, the elk love it there and it's pretty in the fall. But what's it called? Animas Mountain vs. Animas City Mountain. Don't be shy. Pick a side. The former is less cumbersome; the latter gives tribute to a now-defunct town that pre-dates Durango.

Signs at the trailhead north of 32nd Street have it both ways. The city's permanent sign says Animas Mountain; the Bureau of Land Management's posted sign to keep people off the trails in the winter says Animas City Mountain. But didn't mom say you can't have it both ways?

One of the people most keenly involved in this debate is Robert McDaniel, a Durango native and director of the Animas Museum - tucked at the base of the mountain in question.

With a group of 38 first-graders on the way and in the midst of moving important documents and items around the museum, McDaniel's eagerness to discuss the issue Wednesday morning was shaky.

“Of all the controversies I know about," McDaniel divulged during a revealing phone interview, “that's not one of them."

At first it seemed he was just trying to duck the dispute. But it became clear that he really did believe there were more important things on his mind. Yet he was kind enough to point me in the direction of a few old maps and a book, and he offered this: “I don't think I've ever called it Animas City Mountain."

Duane Smith, Fort Lewis College professor and author of as many books on Southwest Colorado's history as there are railroad ties through town, goes with the truncated title. He has lived here since 1964, and, “It's always been called Animas Mountain," he said.

The research he's done always refers to it that way. He assumes it was named by the Hayden Survey, which came through in 1874. “They named everything else here," he said.

But it's Animas City Mountain on any federal map, including U.S. Geological Survey topographical maps dating from 1896.

Lou Yost, executive secretary for domestic names for the U.S. Board on Geographic Names, a branch of the USGS, said the official record is indeed Animas City Mountain. It's that way in state and federal references from as far back as 1906. In that year, Yost said by phone from his Reston, Va., office, it appeared on Henry Gannett's Gazeteer of Colorado.

There's an Animas Mountain in the Weminuche Wilderness, on other side of the valley from Pigeon and Turret peaks, Yost pointed out. He speculated that somewhere along the way someone might have wanted to make a distinction between two Animas Mountains.

Cathy Metz, director of Durango Parks and Recreation since 1996, said, “Everybody calls it Animas Mountain."

She looked back at joint agreements made with the BLM on managing the trailhead and trails, and it occurred to her that anything generated by the BLM used “City," while anything generated by parks and rec did not.

“Isn't that interesting?" she asked, before conceding: “The reality is it is their property."

Richard Speegle, former outdoor recreation planner for the BLM, replied to this reporter's query: “That's a good question. We went back and forth all the time."

Because the town at the base of the mountain was called Animas City as early as 1874, it's easy to see why the mountain could have gotten that name. Perhaps over the years, and after the demise of Animas City in 1948, townsfolk came to know it simply as Animas Mountain. In the booklet The Animas City Story, written by longtime Animas City resident Retha Beebe Luzar in the late 1970s, it's referred to twice as Animas Mountain in the first three pages.

“I don't think it matters what the federal government says," Smith said. “Who cares what they call it?"

So if you want to be lazy and “fit in" like a local, then go ahead, call it Animas Mountain. But if you want to be right and proper, call it Animas City Mountain.

Andrew Gulliford, professor of Southwest studies and history at Fort Lewis College, leans toward Animas City Mountain. But he brings up another issue, soon to dominate Durango circles just like this messy name controversy: What's the proper route up Animas City Mountain - clockwise or counterclockwise? Gulliford, apparently shirking from this new hullabaloo, says both he and his dog are flexible.