The highest mountain in North America is in the Alaska Range, in the state of the same name, which has been part of the United States since 1867. Its altitude is 6,190 meters and although it is very far from the figures of the Himalayas, it is one of the most complicated mountains to climb. the mountain It is called Denali or Mount McKinleydepending on what reading of US history each one assumes. That choice is today a metaphor of the new time that seems to have begun this January 20, 2025.
Donald Trump, new occupant of the Oval Office, is clear. This Monday, during his inauguration speech, he said he will change the name of Denali Mountain to its former name of McKinley. “I would restore the name of a great president (…) where it should be and where it belongs. “President McKinley made our country very rich through tariffs and talent,” the Republican said.
The Aleuts were the original inhabitants of this part of the world. Alaska’s name comes from the Aleutian word “Alyeska,” which means “great land” or “great country.” The Aleuts were the first to use this term to refer to their land. They called the imposing mountain in their landscape Denaliwhich means “the Great” in the language of the Athabaskans or Athapascas (a group of languages to which the Aleuts belonged).
“President McKinley made our country very rich through tariffs and talent,” Trump said
This mountain of more than 6,000 meters is the third ultra-prominent peak in the world (more than Everest). Its base is located on a plateau of about 600 meters above sea level, so the rest is a “wall” of 5,500 meters.
After the purchase of Alaska from Russia in 1867, the Americans repopulated and renamed the region. In 1896 the mountain was named by a gold prospector as “Mount McKinley”, in honor of the then candidate and future 25th president of the United States, William McKinley. The new name was official since 1917.
Alaska, which was once Russian
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In 1867, the US reached an agreement with Russia to keep the 1,723,336 km2 of Alaska in exchange for 7.2 million dollars. The country of the tsars had established a colonial presence in parts of North America in the first half of the 18th century, but few Russians had settled in Alaska. After the defeat in the Crimean War, Alexander II of Russia decided to make cash by selling those possessions.
Alaska against Ohio, until Obama arrived
For years, Native American rights activists pushed to restore the peak’s original name. In fact, mountaineers and climbing fans continued to prefer to talk about ascend Denali (quite a challenge).
In 1975, the state of Alaska launched a proposal to rename the mountain so that it would officially be “Denali.” Five years later, Denali National Park was created and the Alaskan authorities took the opportunity to change the name of the peak. However, the US Committee on Geographic Names retained the name “McKinley”.
The battle over the name of the mountain has pitted legislators from Alaska in Congress against those from Ohio, where McKinley was from. That fight and that indeterminacy ended Barack Obama in 2015. On August 30 of that year, just before a presidential visit, it was announced that the oronym “Denali” would be restored in accordance with the designation of the Alaska Geographic Board and “to reflect the heritage of the natives“.
In a statement at the time, the White House said the designation recognized Denali’s “sacred status for generations of Alaska Natives.” Obama’s team recalled that McKinley “never set foot in Alaska” and “for centuries” the mountain had been called Denali, “a name widely used throughout the state today.”
Trump as a McKinley 2.0
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Reading William McKinley’s biography produces a kind of déjà vu. He was the 25th president of the United States and served as president between 1897 and 1901. During the 1880s he was an important member of the Republican Party. As a congressman, he was responsible for increasing tariffs on imports (as Trump now announces). For the 1896 presidential election, he entrusted his campaign to Mark Hanna, who introduced new advertising techniques that revolutionized political campaigns (as Trump has done now with social networks and the collaboration of Elon Musk). With McKinley as president, the US became a world power after its victory over Spain. Re-elected in 1900, on September 6, 1901 he was shot by an anarchist. He died eight days later.
Not even in Alaska they want McKinley
Now, in the same way that he wants the Gulf of Mexico to be the Gulf of America, Trump wants the mountain to be McKinley again. But not even yours from those frozen lands They are for the work.
Dan Sullivan, senator of the Alaska Republican Party, has been disagree with the name change. The same as Alaska Senator Lisa Murkowski. “It’s called Denali, which means ‘The Big One.’ So I would just suggest to President Trump, who wants everything to be great, that they already have a great name for it,” he said.
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