In 1896, as news spread that Mr. McKinley had won his first term, a prospector exploring the mountain range declared that the tallest peak should be named in honor of the new president — a decision codified in 1917. (Mr. McKinley, assassinated in the first year of his second term, never stepped foot in Alaska.)
The mountain, which stretches more than 20,000 feet high, has been informally known as Denali for decades and, in 1975, Alaskans began to push for a formal name change.
Lawmakers from Ohio, the home state of Mr. McKinley, repeatedly objected to efforts to legislatively change the name, until President Barack Obama used his executive power to restore the Denali name in 2015.
-Both Senators Lisa Murkowski and Dan Sullivan have expressed support for calling the mountain Denali, according to the Anchorage Daily News.
“You can’t improve upon the name,” Ms. Murkowski, the chair of the Senate Indian Affairs Committee, said in a December statement, noting that it was “the rightful name for this majestic mountain to respect Alaska’s first people who have lived on these lands for thousands of years.”
