Mount Cargill has three peaks (Cargill, Holmes and Zion).
In Maori legend they represent the petrified head and feet of a princess of an early Otakou tribe. The mount was however known to the Maori community as kapaka-tau-mahaka – “snaring pigeons with a string’ – and following European settlement it was given the name of the lay leader of the Otago colonists – Captain William Cargill.
William Lanarch bought the summit of Mt Cargill in 1872. It was then covered in forest, but later several large fires severely reduced the forest cover. Grazing of stock continued over the land, while just to the west several farms started on Pigeon Flat. Following Larnach’s death, the land became a scenic reserve.
– From DoC hard copy information sheet