At his rally in Phoenix on Sunday (January 19), Trump had said, ‘They took his name off Mount McKinley…He was a great president, and we will restore his legacy by bringing back the name Mount McKinley’
read more
Denali, which Trump wants to rename Mount McKinley after former President William McKinley, is the tallest peak in North America. AP
A day before his inauguration as the 47th president of the United States, Donald Trump announced during a rally that he intends to rename Denali, North America’s tallest mountain, back to Mount McKinley.
The move is ostensibly to honour the 25th US president, William McKinley, who was assassinated in 1901.
At his rally in Phoenix on Sunday (January 19), Trump had said, “They took his name off Mount McKinley…He was a great president, and we will restore his legacy by bringing back the name Mount McKinley.”
Here are five key things to know about the mountain Trump wants to rename:
1. Officially renamed Denali in 2015
The mountain, standing at over 20,000 feet (6,100 meters), was officially named Mount McKinley in 1917 after being named informally by a prospector in 1896 to honour McKinley, a supporter of the gold standard.
In 2015, then-President Barack Obama officially restored the mountain’s original Athabascan name, Denali, which means “The High One.”
2. William McKinley never visited the mountain
Despite its long association with McKinley, there is no record of the 25th president ever visiting the mountain or Alaska. In a 2015 order, the US Department of the Interior even mentioned that McKinley had no “significant historical connection to the mountain or to Alaska.”
3. The cultural significance of ‘Denali’
Denali was the name given to the peak by Alaska’s indigenous Athabascan people long before the US officially recognised it.
The state of Alaska adopted the name in 1975 and had been lobbying for decades to ha