Denali rises as fitting, fair name for our highest peak

Though we greatly respect and admire the legacy of Niles-born and Poland-raised President William McKinley, his ascent to the highest office in the land did not and should not grant him naming rights in perpetuity to the highest mountain peak in our land.

President Obama recognized as much this week when he used an executive order to revert Mount McKinley to its informal yet original name of Mount Denali. That name has been used for centuries to describe the peak among Alaska Native tribes and other residents of our 49th state.

At 20,320 feet, the mountain stands as North America’s tallest, and it’s still growing at a rate of about one millimeter per year, according to the National Park Service. The mountain is filled with glaciers and covered at the top with snow year-round. Its high-gusting winds make it perilous for the adventurous few who seek to climb it.

It was that metaphor of adventure that gold prospector William Dickey tapped into when renaming the peak Mount McKinley shortly after the former Ohio governor won the Republican Party nomination for president in 1896. Dickey’s self-interest in McKinley’s wish to transfer the United States to the gold standard played a key role in his decision, many historians note. After McKinley’s assassination, Congress acted in 1917 to make the name change permanent and official.

In short, politics and passion powered the name change. Practicality and fairness got the heave-ho.

Practically speaking, the name Denali is abundantly more fitting. “Denali,” after all, means “the high one” in the Athabaskan languages of the Alaska Natives living around the mountain. Clearly the name Denali fits North America’s highest peak like a glove. McKinley, on the other hand, owes its roots to Scotch-Irish families that specialized in medicine. We fail to see much of a connection to the peak.

What’s more, in fairness to indigenous Alaskan tribes, the name change is long overdue. Dan Sullivan, an Ohio native and U.S. senator from Alaska, said he is “gratified” that Obama changed the name.

Alaska Gov. Bill Walker said, “Alaska’s place names should reflect and respect the rich cultural history of our state, and officially recognizing the name Denali does just that.”

MCKINLEY OR BUST

The logic and fairness behind the decision, however, continues to elude many McKinley-or-bust enthusiasts. For some, it seems as if ain’t no mountain is high enough to use controversy as a political football while other pressing issues that merit our lawmakers’ attention are neglected.

Some, including GOP presidential candidates Mike Huckabee and Donald Trump, vow to repeal the name change.

They and others argue that Obama overstepped his authority; he did not. Federal law permits the secretary of the Interior to unilaterally rename national landmarks if requests for changes filed with the U.S. Board of Geographic Names are not answered in a reasonable time frame. As Interior Secretary Sally Jewell points out, “I think any of us would think that 40 years is an unreasonable amount of time.”

We would agree. In addition, plenty of memorials in Ohio and elsewhere already pay homage to the nation’s 25th president – deservedly so. Such honors, including beautiful McKinley national memorials in Niles and Canton, rightly honor the last Civil War veteran to serve as president of the United States.

Though rarely listed among the top 10 greatest presidents, McKinley also is rarely listed among the worst. He did serve Ohio and the nation proudly and effectively. His accomplishments include establishing the gold standard as the official backing of American currency in a rejection of inflationary proposals, ending lingering sectionalism between the North and the South, leading the nation to a decisive victory in the Spanish-American War and annexing the independent Republic of Hawaii in 1898 to make it a U.S. territory

Angered legislators such as House Speaker John Boehner and Sen. Rob Portman would do well to connect with historians in Ohio to find an appropriate building, statue, roadway, bridge or other landmark to place in McKinley’s name – preferably in his home state. There was little common sense used in naming a mountain peak about 4,000 miles from McKinley’s Mahoning Valley birthplace as a national tribute to him in 1917. It makes even less sense today.