What mountain was officially known as Mount McKinley until 2015?
Denali–Mount McKinley naming dispute Denali–Mount McKinley naming dispute The name of 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 mountain had been unofficially named Mount McKinley in 1896 by a gold prospector, and officially by the Federal government of the United States in 1917 to commemorate William McKinley, who was President of the United States from 1897 until his assassination in 1901. The name "Denali" is based on the Koyukon name of the mountain, "Deenaalee" ("the high one"). The
Denali–Mount McKinley naming dispute McKinley, after William McKinley of Ohio, who had been nominated for the Presidency, and that fact was the first news we received on our way out of that wonderful wilderness." By most accounts, the naming was politically driven; Dickey had met many silver miners who zealously promoted Democratic presidential candidate William Jennings Bryan's ideal of a silver standard, inspiring him to retaliate by naming the mountain after a strong proponent of the gold standard. In a United States Geological Survey (USGS) report in 1900, Josiah Edward Spurr refers to "the giant mountain variously known to Americans as Mount Allen, Mount