Official announcements from the U.S. Congress, U.S. Geological Survey, and the Alaska state government

Trump Plans to Rename Alaska's Denali Back to Mount McKinley in Honor of William McKinley

Dec 23, 2024, 01:05 AM

U.S. President-elect Donald Trump has announced plans to revert the name of North America's tallest mountain from Denali back to Mount McKinley, honoring William McKinley, the 25th U.S. President who was assassinated in 1901. The mountain, located in Alaska and standing over 20,000 feet tall, was officially renamed Denali by former President Barack Obama in 2015, a move that ended a long-standing naming dispute. Denali, meaning 'the High One' in the local Athabascan language, had been the name used by Alaska's native population. Trump's decision aims to restore the name Mount McKinley, which was first used in 1896 after a gold prospector named the mountain in honor of McKinley, who was a champion of the gold standard and had won the Republican nomination for president that year. Trump stated that McKinley was a 'great president' and deserves to have the mountain named after him.