President Trump vowed on Monday to restore the name of North America’s highest peak, Alaska’s 20,310-foot Mount McKinley, to Mount McKinley, reigniting a long-standing controversy.
“We will restore the name of our great President William McKinley to Mount McKinley, where it belongs, where it belongs,” Trump said after being sworn in at the U.S. Capitol on Monday.
Trump also said he plans to rename the Gulf of Mexico the Gulf of America and said he would sign an executive order to implement the changes on his first day in office.
Trump described the 25th President McKinley as “a natural businessman” and praised the former president for “making our country very rich through tariffs and talent.” Republican McKinley also expanded U.S. territory after the Spanish-American War.
In 1896, a prospector called the peak Mount McKinley in honor of William McKinley’s presidential nomination, and the name stuck. However, disagreements have dogged the name for decades.
In 2015, then-President Barack Obama renamed Denali, a name long embraced by Alaskans that roughly translates to “Great Mountain” in Alaskan . Coyokon Athabaskanan Alaska Native language.
The pledge to rename Denali has faced opposition from environmental groups and Alaska politicians, including Republican U.S. Sen. Lisa Murkowski.
“There is only one name worthy of North America’s tallest mountain: Denali — the Great Mountain,” Murkowski wrote on X after Trump mentioned the plan in a speech last month.
“No! This is Denali!” Sen. Scott Kawaski, D-Alaska, wrote last month next to a photo of the snow-capped mountains against a blue sky.
The conservation group Sierra Club said renaming the mountain “goes against the wishes of Alaska Natives, Alaska’s elected officials and centuries of tradition.”
“For centuries, the people of Coyocon have referred to this mountain as ‘Denali,’ and even the state’s elected officials have Also opposed to attempts to rename it: “It’s clear that Donald Trump is more interested in culture war stunts than addressing the concerns of the American people. “
Georgia Republican Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, a staunch Trump supporter, said last week that she would direct her staff to draft legislation to change the name to take effect on federal maps and administrative policies, CBS reported.
According to the National Park Service, the debate over the mountain’s name dates back more than 100 years, long before the national park where the mountain is located was established.
A team drafting legislation to create a park to protect wildlife is divided over the name. An involved hunting naturalist pushed for the park to be named “Mountain.” Denali National Park” in 1916, citing the name locals gave the mountain.
The federal government ultimately named the towering peak in the Alaska Range “Mt.” “McKinley” in 1917, commemorating the president who served from 1897 to his assassination in 1901.
The controversy arose again in 1975 when the state of Alaska asked that the mountain be named Mount McKinley. Although the change was blocked for decades, the park was renamed Denali National Park and Preserve in 1980.
