Denali is the tallest mountain in North America and is today protected by Denali National Park and Preserve in Alaska. Long before Europeans arrived, Alaska Natives had their own name for the mountain in their own language. These people, the Koyukon Athabaskans, have lived near the mountain for centuries and they called it Denali, meaning "The High One." When the Russians arrived in Alaska, they called it Bolshaya Gora, a literal translation of the indigenous name "Denali".
Then in 1896, American gold prospector William Dickey renamed the mountain as a political statement of support for presidential candidate William McKinley. The government officially recognized the name as McKinley when President Woodrow Wilson signed the Mount McKinley National Park Act of February 26, 1917.
In 1975, the Alaska state legislature requested that the U.S. Congress change the name of the mountain back to its original native name, which was how it was commonly referred to within the state. However, members of the Ohio congressional delegation blocked the efforts by Alaskans since McKinley was from that state, so the Board of Geographic Names was incapable of making the change.
The fight to keep the name was led by Ohio Representative Ralph Regula. Instead of simply blocking the name change, Regula offered a compromise: keep the name Mount McKinley but change the name of the national park surrounding it to Denali. The compromise was accepted but not by Alaskan lawmakers, who continued to fight for a name change. Regula continued to block the effort until his retirement in 2009.
William McKinley, a native Ohioan, was the 25th President of the United States, and though the tallest mountain in north America was named after him, McKinley never visited Alaska. The reason gold prospector William Dickey named it after the Presidential candidate was because McKinley was in favor of using the gold standard while his opponent was in favor of the silver standard. McKinley is not a well-known president, except for the fact that he was assassinated in his second term and his vice president was Theodore Roosevelt, who then became president. The Ohio delegation fought to maintain the name of Mount McKinley simply to honor a fellow Ohioan.
Operating under President Obama's order, Secretary of the Interior Sally Jewell announced the official name change. She was empowered to do so because of a federal law stating that if the Board of Geographic Names does not act in a reasonable amount of time, the Secretary of the Interior can take action. Jewell said, "I think any of us would think that 40 years is an unreasonable amount of time." (http://www.usnews.com/news/articles/2015/08/31/hailing-mckinley-ohio-lawmakers-blast-obamas-denali-name-change)
Photo: doi.gov (Sally Jewell)
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