Denali is the tallest mountain peak in North America, rising to 20,320 feet (6,194 meters) above sea level in Interior Alaska. The mountain is unique among the great summits, it rises from its base alone and isn’t part of an associated mountain range complex. Athabaskan people have occupied the region for centuries with evidence of earliest human habitation occurring some 12,000 years ago and to the first people of Alaska, the mountain has been known as Denali or the Great One for literally thousands of years.
It was in 1896 that a gold prospector named William Dickey advocated the naming of the mountain for the Republican Presidential nominee at the time, William McKinley. Dickey suggested the name in part because of McKinley’s support for a gold standard. McKinley never had a connection to Alaska or Denali. Most Alaskans still refer to the mountain as Denali.
History of Denali National Park and Preserve
Efforts to preserve the lands near Denali began with the establishment of Mount McKinley National Park on February 26, 1917. Ironically, little of Denali was included in the original park. This was corrected by establishing Denali National Monument on December 1, 1978, however the name Mount McKinley remained. With passage of the Alaska National Interest Lands Conservation Act (ANILCA) on December 2, 1980, part of the naming controversy was addressed by the joining of Park and Monument into the Denali National Park and Preserve.
Alaska’s Legislature voted to formally change the name Mount McKinley to Denali in 1975. The Alaska Board of Geographic Names moved to revert the mountain’s name to Denali after formation of Denali National Park and Preserve in 1980. Support for the change was found with the United States Board of Geographic Names, but action by the agency was and has been blocked by Congressional members from McKinley’s home state of Ohio.
Denali and Ohio Partisan Politics
Efforts by the United States Board of Geographic Names to correct Denali’s name were originally blocked by Ohio Representative Ralph Regula. The Board is bound by policy not to address a geographic name change while any bill concerning the subject of the modification is pending in Congress. Regula made it a regular practice to introduce legislation every two years to retain the name McKinley. Though the bill would never pass, it always left the issue pending, thus blocking action by the Board of Geographic Names.
Representative Regula has retired from Congress, but unfortunately Representatives Tim Ryan and Betty Sutton have decided to take over where Regula left off. In response to their efforts, an editorial in the Anchorage Daily News offers tongue in cheek to rename a few of the geographic features found in Ohio.
Most Alaskans believe outside interests with little connection to the land should not be able to impose their own names on Alaska’s geographic features. People here will continue to know the mountain as Denali, which should be the only right course of action for Ohio’s Representatives.
Copyright © 2009 by Alan Sorum
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