"McKinley" Since 1917, Alaska's Highest Peak Is Redesignated "Denali"

NPR reports that the Alaskan mountain which has for nearly a century been known officially as Mt. McKinley will revert to the name under which it's been known for a much longer time: Denali. President Obama is to "make a public announcement of the name change in Anchorage Monday, during a three-day visit to Alaska." Interior Secretary Sally Jewell's secretarial order of August 28th declares the name change to be immediately effective, and directs the United States Board on Geographic Names "to immediately implement this name change, including changing the mountain's name in the Board's Geographic Names Information System and notifying all interested parties of the name change."

Comments

Not a new idea

[Anonymous Coward]

Alaska has been trying to get this change done since 1975, but all the Congressfolks from Ohio have continually blocked it and/or introduced laws to try and make it permanent...for stupid Ohio-ego reasons?

It's also worth noting that McKinley never set foot in Alaska, never did a damn thing for them, and the mountain was named after him BEFORE he was elected. It'd be like Trump buying Pike's Peak and renaming it Trump's Peak or something.

Re:Not a new idea

[donscarletti]

and the mountain was named after him BEFORE he was elected.

Well, given it was named after him 16 years after he was assassinated and unless they let dead presidents stay in office, I would say that at the point it was named after him he had already been president as long as he would ever be.

Re:Not a new idea

[Hognoxious]

I think he was having a dig at how flat Ohio is. The highest mountain there is like a speed bump.

Re:Not a new idea

[LWATCDR]

As long as President Obama is will to pay the 300 million dollars or so to replace every textbook and reference book that says the highest mountain in the US is Mount McKiney out of his own pocket I am fine with it.

Re:"Denali" = anagram for "Denial"

[Rei]

Also "nailed", "leadin", "Daniel" and "Aldine". Less common examples would be enalid (marine grass), Delian (Greek league of city states), and alined (rarer spelling of aligned).

Thank you, grep and /usr/share/dict/words!

Re:Since when we gave a politician so much power?

[Anonymous Coward]

2015 - 1977 = 38 years

The Interior Department said the U.S. Board on Geographic Names had been deferring to Congress since 1977, and cited a 1947 law that allows the Interior Department to change names unilaterally when the board fails to act "within a reasonable time." The board shares responsibility with the Interior Department for naming such landmarks.

http://bigstory.ap.org/article/f60262f7cb8a4363b3a38b7a035ed66b/white-house-says-mount-mckinley-be-renamed-denali

Re:Curious

[nomadic]

Yes.

Re:Curious

[QuasiSteve]

Efforts to change the peak's name back to Denali date back to 1975. The Washington Post reports that Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-AK) recently added language in a spending bill that would reestablish the mountain's original name.

C'mon, anon, at least elevate yourself to the type of anon who RTFA.

Re:Let's see ...

[Anonymous Coward]

If Obama had renamed McKinley to Mt Obama, you might have a valid argument. All he did was what the state of Alaska had been asking for for nearly 40 years.

Re:ummmm

[rockmuelle]

Indeed. In mountaineering circles it's always been Denali as well. Pretty much every group that has a physical connection to the mountain has always called it Denali.

-Chris

Re:Curious

[Fire_Wraith]

Yes - and not just her, this is something that all of the Alaska politicians have been pushing for, for several decades now. The current governor of Alaska, who is also a Republican, also hailed the decision.

Not every issue is a Republicans vs Democrats issue, or a Right vs Left issue. This is one of the (increasingly rare) state vs. state issues. In fact, I'm pretty sure you could find any number of Ohio Democrats (as well as Ohio Republicans) that had been busy opposing this.

Re:ummmm

[AK Marc]

The name was Denali before the White Man reassigned the name to honor a white man. It'd been unofficially Denali to locals ever since. The feds refused to let the locals name it until 1980, when the federal park was renamed to Denali National Park and Preserve. It'd been officially Denali to locals ever since. Why should the feds disregard the local names for things, and force their own names on local features?

First Sitting president to Visit Alaska

[Wargames]

Alaska is a huge expanse, over twice the size of Texas, constituting almost 18 percent of the land mass of the USA. Obama is the first sitting president to visit. Only like 750,000 people live there. Amazing.

At only 21000 feet, Denali doesn't even rank in Earth's highest (altitude) places. Remarkably it is in the top 3 for prominence. No longer will the mountain have to be referenced as "Denali (Mt. McKinley)" or "Mt. McKinley (Denali)". People will no longer have to explain the two names over and over and over.

If only he'd do something else reasonable like creating an executive order forcing the use of the metric system!