President-elect Donald Trump has announced that Denali, the highest mountain in North America, will be renamed after the 25th president of the United States, William McKinley, who was assassinated in 1901.
Former Democratic President Barack Obama sided with Alaska in 2015, ending a decades-long naming dispute and officially renaming the mountain Denali. The peak was officially known as Mount McKinley in 1917.
“They took his name off Mount McKinley,” President Trump said in a speech to supporters in Phoenix on Sunday. “He’s been a great president,” Trump, a Republican, said, adding, “The administration will bring back the name of Mount McKinley because I think he deserves it.”
The mountain, which stands over 20,000 feet (6,100 meters) above sea level, was named after McKinley in 1896, when gold prospectors exploring the area heard that Mr. McKinley, a champion of the gold standard, had won the Republican presidential nomination. It was named Mt.
In a 2015 order signed by President Obama that changed the name to Denali, the U.S. Department of the Interior said McKinley had never visited the mountain and had no “significant historical ties to the mountain or Alaska.” he pointed out.
Denali, which means “High One” in the local Athabaskan language, was officially named the peak’s name by the state of Alaska in 1975, which subsequently pressured the federal government to adopt the name as well.
Alaska Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R) opposed President Trump’s promise to rename mountains.
“There’s only one name that fits the tallest mountain in North America: Denali, the Great Mountain,” Murkowski wrote in a post on X.
According to the White House’s presidential website, McKinley became president in 1897 after serving two terms as governor of Ohio, leading the country to victory in the Spanish-American War and promoting protective tariffs to promote U.S. industry. pulled up.
