The Athabascan native people of Alaska called the mountain Denali for generations. But in 1886 a gold prospector christened the mountain Mount McKinley after President William McKinley and the US government recognized the name in 1917. This sparked plenty of controversy and a serious push to reinstate the native name has been going on since 1975. In 1980 Mount McKinley Park became Denali National Park and Preserve but the mountain was still called McKinley until President Barack Obama reinstated Denali as the official name of the iconic mountain in 2015, ditching Mount McKinley for good. Any way you look at it, the tallest mountain in North America at 20,310 feet (6,190 meters) is one gorgeous bump on the map.

Denali from the National Park

Denali mountain in Alaska.

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