Why the name of Alaska’s Peak was changed from Mt. McKinley to Denali

Denali, the highest peak in North America, dominates the Alaskan landscape and is nothing short of breathtaking. It stands at 20,310 feet, its white peaks and rocky terrain tower over the horizon. For generations, natives lived in and around the mountain. Different tribes had a variety of names for it, but they all meant pretty much the same thing: “the great one” or “the tall one.”

“On clear days you can see it from many directions and it’s magnificent,” says Joan Antonson, executive director of Alaska Historical Society.

The United States bought Alaska from Russia in 1867 for $7.2 million and took possession of the territory. And at the end of the 19th century, prospectors rushed toward Alaska and the Yukon in search of gold. When he encountered the mountain, one of those prospectors, William Dickey, was captivated by its geography—and size. Motivated by the recent nomination of Republican candidate William McKinley for president, he named the Alaskan mountain “Mount McKinley” in an article he published in New York Sun.

The name stuck and became official in 1917. Almost a century later, in 2015, the Obama administration officially renamed the peak Denalia name Alaskans had historically fought for and which originated from Alaska’s Athabascan tribe, which roughly translates to “The Big One.”

For many, the name Denali honors and preserves the mountain’s Native American history. Those who advocated “Mount McKinley”—including Republican politicians from Ohio, McKinley’s home state—wanted to recognize the legacy of a historic national figure.

1896: William Dickey names Mount McKinley

In August 1896, after the discovery of gold near the Klondike River in Canada’s Yukon Territory, about 100,000 miners heading for the Yukon (in northwestern Canada) and Alaska in a frantic search for gold. Among them was prospector William Dickey, a graduate of Princeton University.

“It was just a time of incredible change for the interior natives with the arrival of non-natives who didn’t just come through—they stayed,” says Antonson.

In his 1897 New York Sun articleentitled “Discoveries in Alaska,” Dickey estimates the height of the newly discovered mountain at 20,000 feet. He named the peak “Mount McKinley” shortly after hearing that McKinley had won the Republican nomination.

“That fact was the first news we received on our way out of that wonderful wilderness,” Dickey wrote. (Some had previously known the mountain as Densmore’s Peak, named after prospector Frank Densmore in 1889.)

Dickey supported the presidential candidate’s commitment to the gold standard, which would keep the value of gold high, in contrast to Democratic candidate Williams Jennings Bryan, who favored a silver standard. McKinley defeated Bryan in the presidential election of 1896. And the name Mount McKinley stuck.

President William McKinley on the porch of his home in Canton, Ohio. McKinley, who was assassinated in 1901, never visited Alaska.

1917: Creation of Mount McKinley National Park

In the next two decades, many conservationists and explorers who climbed the mountain began to call for the formation of a national park there to preserve its beauty and wildlife and regulate hunting. Among the staunchest advocates was Belmore Browne, who had made three attempts to climb Denaliand American naturalist and naturalist Charles Sheldon.

“Sheldon was the power broker; he was truly a political powerhouse,” says Tracy Salcedoauthor of Historic Denali National Park and Preserve: The stories behind one of America’s great treasures. He had that explored Denali for two years and went to Washington, DC, to lobby for the name change.

The establishment of national parks across the United States began in the previous decade under Theodore Roosevelt, who became president after President McKinley was assassinated in 1901.

Many proponents of the national park at Mount McKinley wanted to call it “Denali National Park.” They were partly inspired by Alaskan missionary Hudson Stuck, who led the first successful ascent of the mountain and referred to the mountain as Denali.

“(Stuck) felt strongly that it should keep the Native name — that there’s no reason it should be named after a politician who had never been to Alaska,” said Brian Okonek, who organized and led expeditions in Denali from 1979 to 2000.

Historically, the tradition in American geographic naming was to use the name of a familiar figure rather than the native name, Salcedo says. According to the National Park Service, Thomas Riggs of the Alaska Engineering Commission said“I don’t like the name Denali. It’s not descriptive. Everyone in the United States knows about Mt. McKinley and the various efforts that have been made to climb it.”

Sheldon and Browne wanted to ensure the bill’s speedy passage, and although they disagreed with Riggs, they left the final decision in his hands. In 1917, President Woodrow Wilson signed the creation of Mount McKinley National Park into law.

1970s: The debate resurfaces

Even into the early 1970s, “the drive to call it ‘Denali’ never died from the time of Hudson Stuck,” especially among those who attempted to climb the mountain over the years, says Tom Walker, author of Denali Journal and McKinley Station: The People of the Pioneer Park That Became Denali.

In the 1970s, Alaskans were inspired by the movement to pass the 1971 Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act. Alaska, which became a state in 1959, petitioned the US Board on Geographic Names in 1975 to change the peak’s name to Denali. But Ohio representatives to Congress continually blocked these efforts at the federal level.

Senator Mike Gravel from Alaska said so New York Times in 1977 that changing the peak’s name to Denali “will right a longstanding injustice.” Rep. Ralph S. Regula, who represented McKinley’s home district, said Times in 1980 that the name Denali “has only limited and local recognition” while the summit is “public land belonging to all Americans.” Some travel and business groups also argued that a name change would require updates to books, guides and maps.

President Jimmy Carter signed the Alaska National Interest Lands Conservation Act in 1980 to greatly expand conservation efforts across Alaska. The triple the size of the national park at Denali. As part of a proposed compromise, the surrounding areas of the peak became Denali National Park and Preserve, while the name of the mountain itself remained Mount McKinley, according to the National Park Service.

2015: Name change to Denali

In 2015, President Barack Obama became official renamed Mount Denaliunder a secretarial order signed by US Secretary of the Interior Sally Jewell. The Obama administration cited a 1947 law that allows the Secretary of the Interior to give weight to geographic names.

“We are simply reflecting the desire of most Alaskans to have an authentic Alaskan name for this iconic Alaskan feature,” Interior Department officials said in prepared documents. sore Washington Post. They said they “have no intention of disrespecting President McKinley’s legacy”.