Together with Mount Judge Howay, which lies northeast across the deep valley of Tingle Creek, it was known as one of the Snow Peaks, and until its renaming in 1944 was referred to by old-timers as Old Baldy. Its name commemorates Robie Lewis Reid, a noted historian and educator whose colleague Frederic W. Howay is commemorated by Mount Judge Howay. Although relatively low, views of it dominate the mountain skyline from western Abbotsford and is also visible from Maple Ridge, North Surrey and New Westminster-Coquitlam, though from most of Mission it is invisible due to intervening smaller mountains and hill country.