Denali
Denali, formerly Mount McKinley, is the highest mountain in North America.[1] It is located in south central Alaska and rises 20,310 ft (6,190 m) above sea level.[2]
A gold prospector suggested the name "Mount McKinley" in 1896. U.S. President William McKinley was a supporter of the gold standard.
In June 1913, Hudson Stuck and Harry Karstens led an expedition to the summit. In 1972, Sylvain Saudan skied down the mountain's sheer southwest face, earning the title "skier of the impossible."
In 2015, Secretary of the Interior Sally Jewell changed the name of the mountain to Denali, an approximation of the native name.[3]
The name Mount McKinley
In the 19th century, Russian residents called the mountain Bolshaya Gora (the big mountain), an attempt to translate the local Indian name into Russian. In 1896, gold prospector William Dickey wrote an article for the New York Sun in which he suggested the name "Mount McKinley." This was soon after William McKinley, a supporter of the gold standard, received the Republican Party nomination for president. At first, this name was treated as a political joke. After McKinley was murdered in 1901, the name Dickey had bestowed seemed a fitting tribute to the slain president.[4] The 1911 edition of Britannica gives the name as "Mount McKinley," and this was the only name that was widely used at the time.[5]
The name Denali
In June 1913, Hudson Stuck and Harry Karstens led the first expedition to the summit.[6] In his account of the expedition, published in 1918, Stuck argued that the name of the mountain should be changed to "Denali," which he claimed was the traditional Indian name of the mountain.[7]
In 1975, the State of Alaska requested that the federal government change the name of the mountain to Denali. The U.S. Board on Geographic Names has authority over U.S. geographic names, but it rarely rejects a state's request for renaming. In this case, the renaming was held up for many years by a Congressman from Ohio, McKinley's home state. It was finally approved in 2015.[3]
"Denali" is the Secret Service code word for Sarah Palin.[8]
References
- ↑ Denali (2023-05-08).
- ↑ U.S. Department of the Interior, U.S. Geological Survey
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 "Mount McKinley Will Again Be Called Denali," New York Times, 30 August 2015.
- ↑ "Denali or McKinley? How a 19th century political ‘joke’ turned into a 119-year-long debate", Washington Post, August 31, 2015.
- ↑ "Alaska," Encyclopedia Britannica (1911).
- ↑ Woodside, Chris, "Who led the first ascent of Denali?"
- ↑ Stuck, Hudson, The Ascent of Denali (Mount McKinley): A Narrative of the First Complete Ascent of the Highest Peak in North America. (1918)
- ↑ Palin Code Name: 'Denali', Washington Post, September 10, 2008.
