Denali: The Alaskan Wild
Denali National Park was first established almost 100 years ago. At the time, the park and North America’s tallest mountain were known by another name. Many Americans knew the famous peak as Mount McKinley.
In the late 1800s, gold miners unofficially named the peak after William McKinley, the 25th U.S. president. At the time, McKinley was still a presidential candidate.
McKinley himself never traveled anywhere near the mountain. But the name stuck.
In Alaska, however, locals continued to call the mountain “Denali.” The word Denali means “the high one” for the Athabascan people, many of whom lived north of the mountain.
The area became a national park on February 26, 1917. Its name was Mount McKinley National Park. Some naturalists disagreed with the naming decision. A debate continued for more than half a century, a sign of the area’s long and complex history.
In 1975, Alaskan state officials asked the federal government to change the name to Denali to honor the native Alaskans. But congressional members from the state of Ohio - where McKinley was from - opposed and blocked the renaming efforts.
In late 1980, weeks before his presidency ended, Jimmy Carter increased the size of the park from 800,000 hectares to 2.4 million hectares.
The expanded park also took on a new name. It became the Denali National Park and Preserve.
The naming debate, however, was not over. Although the park took the name of Denali, the mountain itself still remained Mount McKinley for another 35 years.