First detected by an American explorer Peter Skene Ogden in 1827, McLoughlin has a complex name-place history. Ogden called the volcano Mt. Sastise after the Shasta Native Americans that helped him reach the Rogue Valley, but this name was later exchanged with Mount Shasta in northern California, then called Pit Mountain. To local residents, Mount McLoughlin's English name was Mount Pitt, though it came to be referred to by other names including Mt. John Quincy Adams, Mt. Clear View, Snowy Butte, and Mt. Madison, also appearing in maps as Mount Pitt, Mount Simpson, and Mount Jackson. Though the volcano was also known as Mount McLoughlin during the 1800s, it was officially renamed in 1905 by the Oregon Legislative Assembly after Dr. John McLoughlin, a factor for the Hudson's Bay Company noted for helping American settlers in the 1830s and 1840s. An important figure in the local fur trade, McLoughlin was also known as the Father of Oregon. The change from Pitt to McLoughlin was later confirmed by the United States Board on Geographic Names in 1912.