Centuries ago, Alaska’s native Koyukon people settled on the name “Denali” for the tallest mountain in North America.
Then, in 1896, a random European-American gold prospector decided to name it after presidential candidate William McKinley — and kicked-off a controversy that has raged ever since.
On Monday President Donald Trump revived that dispute when he changed Denali’s name back to Mount McKinley in an executive order Monday.
“A short time from now, we will be restoring the name of a great president, William McKinley, to Mount McKinley, where it should be and where it belongs,” Trump announced earlier in his inauguration speech.
The change is opposed by both of Alaska’s Republican senators, as well as by many other Alaskans and representatives of the state’s indigenous people.
So why is Trump changing it, and does his plan make any sense?
On a clear day, you can see Denali from more than 133 miles away in the Alaskan city of Anchorage. Towering 20,310 feet above sea level, it has long been a landmark to indigenous Alaskans — with many names coined by different groups.
The name that’s now most popular in Alaska comes from the Koyukon language, spoken on the north side of the mountain. It comes from deenaalee, meaning “the high one.”
That name wasn’t well known to the Europeans who visited Alaska, though. The peak went unnamed on George Vancouver’s 1794 visit, while an 1839 map by the German Russian explorer Ferdinand von Wrangel used the name coined by the nearby Deg Hit’an people, who called it Tenada (or “the great mountain”).
According to the U.S. Geological Survey, the Russians called it “Bolshaya Gora” (or “big mountain”), while U.S. prospectors often called it “Densmore’s Peak,” after a prospector called Frank Densmore who regularly raved about its beauty.
Yet in 1896 another prospector named William A. Dickey visited the area, later writing an account of his trip for The New York Sun. The first news he heard from the outside world on his return trip was that former Ohio governor William McKinley had received the Republican nomination for president.
Apparently this excited Dickey enough to name the mountain after McKinley. According to The Fairbanks Daily News-Miner, it was actually a political jab: Dickey had met many silver miners in Alaska who supported moving the U.S. dollar back to the silver standard, whereas McKinley (and presumably Dickey) favored the gold standard.
The moniker might never have caught on but for McKinley’s shock assassination by an Ohio anarchist in 1901. The desire to honor McKinley’s memory made the name more popular, and it was officially adopted by the U.S. government in 1917 — despite there being zero connection between McKinley and Alaska.
Even at the time, not everyone agreed with calling the peak McKinley. Charles Sheldon, a hunter and naturalist who had spent much time in the area, had strongly campaigned for it to be called Denali, as had mountaineer Belmore Browne.
“In looking backward over the history of the big mountain, it seems strange and unfortunate that the name of McKinley should have been attached to it,” said Browne in 1913.
In 1930, Sheldon likewise noted: “The Indians who have lived for countless generations in the presence of these colossal mountains have given them names that are both euphonious and appropriate.”
He asked: “Can it be denied that the names they gave to the most imposing features of their country should be preserved? Can it be too late to … restore these beautiful names?”
In fact, it wasn’t too late. By 1975 enough momentum had grown that Alaska’s Republican governor Jay Hammond, and a majority of its state legislature, requested an official name change to Denali.
Denali National Park (Shutterstock)
Yet the effort failed in Congress due to the opposition of legislators from Ohio, chiefly GOP representative Ralph Regula. The U.S. Board on Geographic Names was legally forbidden from considering a name change if any laws about it were pending in Congress, which Regula exploited by filing a new law every year from 1975 until his retirement in 2009.
Many Alaskans continued to use “Denali” in daily life, and Alaska Republicans never gave up on the cause. Soon after Regula’s retirement in 2009, GOP senator Lisa Murkowski began pushing again, and the idea gained traction.
In 2015, the Obama administration finally intervened, arguing that the 40-year delay in answering Alaska’s request gave the federal government the authority to settle things. On August 28, the mountain’s name was changed to Denali.
“Denali” has been embraced by Alaska, a state with a strong tradition of independence from the “lower 49” and an unusually high proportion of native residents.
“We’ve been calling it Denali since I moved up here,” said Alaskan conservative talk radio host Dave Stieren in 2015. “If folks in Ohio are really intent on naming Alaska places, maybe they’d let us name some of theirs?” joked Anchorage’s Democratic mayor Ethan Berkowitz.
Still, some Republicans continued to oppose the former name — not least of all Donald J Trump.
While campaigning for the Republican presidential nomination, he repeatedly criticized the Obama administration’s decision. He was joined by Regula (who claimed that Obama “thinks he is a dictator”), Ohio-born speaker of the House John Boehner, and former Alaska governor Sarah Palin.
Trump has since returned to this theme, claiming in a speech in January 2025: “McKinley was a very good, maybe a great president. They took his name off Mount McKinley. That’s what they do to people.”
The two men have something in common: Tariffs. i since I moved up here,” said Alaskan conservative talk radio host Dave Stieren in 2015. “If folks in Ohio are really intent on naming Alaska places, maybe they’d let us name some of theirs?” joked Anchorage’s Democratic mayor Ethan Berkowitz.
Still, some Republicans continued to oppose the former name — not least of all Donald J Trump.
While campaigning for the Republican presidential nomination, he repeatedly criticized the Obama administration’s decision. He was joined by Regula (who claimed that Obama “thinks he is a dictator”), Ohio-born speaker of the House John Boehner, and former Alaska governor Sarah Palin.
Trump has since returned to this theme, claiming in a speech in January 2025: “McKinley was a very good, maybe a great president. They took his name off Mount McKinley. That’s what they do to people.”
The two men have something in common. William McKinley, who was famous for introducing tariffs on foreign goods.
Trump promised in his speech Monday that he 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 through talent.”
His executive order later reviving “Mt. McKinley” is entitled: “Restoring names that honor American greatness.”
“It is in the national interest to promote the extraordinary heritage of our Nation and ensure future generations of American citizens celebrate the legacy of our American heroes,” Trump wrote in the order. “ The naming of our national treasures, including breathtaking natural wonders and historic works of art, should honor the contributions of visionary and patriotic Americans in our Nation’s rich past.”
Both of Alaska’s Republican senators, Lisa Murkowski and Dan Sullivan, oppose the change.
“Uh. Nope. It’s Denali,” said Murkowski on X after Trump’s speech. “There is only one name worthy of North America’s tallest mountain: Denali, the Great One.”
Sullivan, whose wife, Julie Fate, has indigenous Alaskan ancestry, recounted how at a meeting in 2017 both he and Murkowski had urged Trump not to change the name. “If you change that name back now,” Sullivan told him, “[my wife’s] going to be really, really mad.”
