A common sentiment in Alaska is that while President Donald Trump has ordered the name of North America’s tallest peak to be changed from Denali to McKinley, Alaskans will call it what they want.
And popular consensus seems to favor Denali.
Jeff King, a four-time winner of the Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race, whose kennel operates just outside Denali National Park and Preserve, told the Associated Press:
“I don’t know a single person that likes the idea, and we’re pretty vocal about it,” King said. “Denali respects the Indigenous people that have been here and around Denali for tens of thousands of years.”
The 20,310-foot peak had been known as Denali until 1896, when a gold prospector unofficially named the peak after William McKinley in support of the then-presidential candidate.
Even though McKinley had never been to the mountain and ha