Bear Digging and Denali / NPS
Earlier this month, at a speech in Phoenix, President-elect Trump said he'd change the name of America's tallest mountain, Denali, in Alaska, back to its previous name, Mount McKinley.
President Obama switched the official name of the mountain to Denali in 2015, both to honor and recognize the original name used by native Alaskans, and also to reflect what most people in the state called the mountain, according to the AP. In 2016, Trump initially brought up changing the mountain's name back to McKinley, though it's unclear why this appears to be a pet issue for the New Yorker.
“McKinley was a very good, maybe a great president,” Trump said in his speech. “They took his name off Mount McKinley, right? That’s what they do to people.”
Republican Senator Lisa Murkowski immediately took to social media to respond to Trump's suggestion.
“There is only one name worthy of North America’s tallest mountain: Denali — the Great One,” Murkowski wrote on X.
"Denali” is an Athabascan name that translates to “the high one” or “the great one.” President William McKinley, incidentally, never visited Alaska. The mountain came to be named after him when a prospector called it McKinley in honor of the president and the name became officially recognized.
Arguing about the proper name of the mountain has persisted for more than a century. Naturalist Charles Sheldon, who was instrumental in the creation of the area's national park, advocated for the name to be Denali. But, since Mount McKinley was the name recognized by the federal government when the national park was created, the park's first name was Mount McKinley National Park. It merged with Denali National Monument in 1980, and the entire unit took the official name Denali National Park and Preserve.
