Mt. McKinley to Denali: How A Mountain's Renaming Got Tied Up in Politics

Pictured is a portrait of the party that first climbed Denali in Sept. 1913. The party was led by Hudson Struck, not pictured, Robert Tatum, possibly left, Walter Harper, center, Harry P. Karstens, and two young Native Americans named Johnny and Esaias.

If a president is going to risk angering Ohio, it probably makes sense to hold off until after Election Day. That may be one reason President Obama waited until now to rename America's tallest mountain. Mount McKinley — the name given a century ago in 

Denali is six million acres of wild land, bisected by one ribbon of road. Travelers along it see the relatively low-elevation taiga forest give way to high alpine tundra and snowy mountains, culminating in North America's tallest peak, 20,320' 

President Obama announced Sunday that North America's tallest mountain, officially known as Mount McKinley for nearly a century, will henceforth be called by its Native Alaskan name of Denali. Though the announcement only makes official a name that has 

Pictured is a portrait of the party that first climbed Denali in Sept. 1913. The party was led by Hudson Struck, not pictured, Robert Tatum, possibly left, Walter Harper, center, Harry P. Karstens, and two young Native Americans named Johnny and Esaias.