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The name of Denali, the highest mountain in North America, became a subject of dispute in 1975, when the Alaska Legislature asked the U.S. federal government to officially change its name from "Mount McKinley" to "Denali". The name Denali is based on the Koyukon name of the mountain, Deenaalee ('the high one').
In 1896, a gold prospector named it "Mount McKinley" in support of then-presidential candidate William McKinley, who later became the 25th president; McKinley's name was the official name recognized by the federal government of the United States from 1917 until 2015.
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."
Mount McKinley National Park was renamed Denali National Park and Preserve in 1980 (the eponymous mountain itself was renamed Denali by the state government in 1975, [1] and the federal government in 2015, [2] but the federal government reverted the name of the mountain itself to Mount McKinley in 2025)
In 2015, under former President Obama, the Department of the Interior officially changed the mountain’s name from Mount McKinley to Denali, 40 years after Alaska made the same name change.
McKinley, who was born in Ohio, had no actual connection with the mountain or Alaska. His name became associated with it after William Dickey, a gold prospector in the late 1800s who was fond of ...
He said he planned to “restore the name of a great president, William McKinley, to Mount McKinley, where it should be and where it belongs. President McKinley made our country very rich through tariffs and through talent.” The 19-0 vote in the state Senate came just over a week after the House passed the measure 31-8.
In early February, Interior Secretary Doug Burgum issued Secretary's Orders 3423 and 3424, directing the BGN to update GNIS with "Gulf of America" and "Mount McKinley", respectively. [39] The BGN rejected several proposals to revert Mount McKinley back to Denali, because overriding an executive order would require Congressional intervention. [40]