The Obama administration will change the name of North America's tallest mountain peak from Mount McKinley to Denali, the White House said Sunday, a major symbolic gesture to Alaska Natives on the eve of President Barack Obama's historic visit to Alaska.
By renaming the peak Denali, an Athabascan word meaning "the high one," Obama waded into a sensitive and decades-old conflict between residents of Alaska and Ohio.
— AP
"Alaskans have informally called the mountain Denali for years, but the federal government recognizes its name invoking the 25th president, William McKinley, who was born in Ohio and assassinated early in his second term."
8 Comments
Fair decision.
I guess they could always change the name of the highest point in Ohio to % - McKinley, of course it wouldn't be a mount, nor a peak, maybe a hill or something of the sort...
"The peak got its officially recognized name in 1896, when a prospector was exploring mountains in central Alaska, the White House said. Upon hearing the news that McKinley, a Republican, had received his party's nomination to be president, the prospector named it after him and the name was formally recognized."
Would the name have stuck if McKinley lost the election? If it was a Democrat that was prospecting it would have been named Mount Bryan.
Be happy he didn't name it Mount Kenya,
Ba Da BOOM
I thought this was a Denali
Meanwhile: Donald Trump: I'll Change Denali Back to Mount McKinley
So, it's a trade off for drilling the arctic?
Trekkers, mountaineers and the mountain climbing media world-wide have called the mountain Denali, exclusively, for many decades. When Trump talks about it he just sounds stupid.
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