"McKinley" Since 1917, Alaska's Highest Peak Is Redesignated "Denali" 389
NPR reports that the Alaskan mountain which has for nearly a century been known officially as Mt. McKinley will revert to the name under which it's been known for a much longer time: Denali. President Obama is to "make a public announcement of the name change in Anchorage Monday, during a three-day visit to Alaska." Interior Secretary Sally Jewell's secretarial order of August 28th declares the name change to be immediately effective, and directs the United States Board on Geographic Names "to immediately
implement this name change, including changing the mountain's name in the Board's Geographic
Names Information System and notifying all interested parties of the name change."
Denali: It Ain't a River in Egypt! (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
We're living in Denali.
According to http://thedailyshow.cc.com/vid... [cc.com] Jordan Klepper.
Not a new idea (Score:5, Informative)
Alaska has been trying to get this change done since 1975, but all the Congressfolks from Ohio have continually blocked it and/or introduced laws to try and make it permanent...for stupid Ohio-ego reasons?
It's also worth noting that McKinley never set foot in Alaska, never did a damn thing for them, and the mountain was named after him BEFORE he was elected. It'd be like Trump buying Pike's Peak and renaming it Trump's Peak or something.
Re: (Score:2, Troll)
If that happens I suspect I won't be the only one photoshopping a squashed cat onto the summit.
Re:Not a new idea (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Not a new idea (Score:5, Interesting)
Actually, there's a better place for this. New Hampshire has a range of mountains known as the Presidential Range. Mount Washington is probably the best known of these. There are several peaks in this range that don't have names associated with Presidents (or patriots like Samuel Adams and Benjamin Franklin). I'd propose renaming one of those mountains after McKinley. New Hampshire actually renamed Mt. Clay (named for Henry Clay) to Mt. Reagan, though the US government still considers the peak to be Mt. Clay.
Re:Not a new idea (Score:5, Informative)
I think he was having a dig at how flat Ohio is. The highest mountain there is like a speed bump.
Re: (Score:2)
Nope, it's a highway overpass. Well at least in NW Ohio. The eastern part of the state has some pretty decent hills. The southern part of the state has some gravel piles the glaciers left behind too.
Re: (Score:3)
Actually, there's a better place for this. New Hampshire has a range of mountains known as the Presidential Range. Mount Washington is probably the best known of these. There are several peaks in this range that don't have names associated with Presidents (or patriots like Samuel Adams and Benjamin Franklin). I'd propose renaming one of those mountains after McKinley. New Hampshire actually renamed Mt. Clay (named for Henry Clay) to Mt. Reagan, though the US government still considers the peak to be Mt. Clay.
Sorry, nope. All peaks shall be named after President Trump. No other names shall be permitted. For convenience, all peaks shall be helpfully numbered, so Mount Washington may be referred to as Mount Trump 371.
It's OK, you'll learn to love the new naming conventions like I did!
Re: (Score:2)
Ohio should feel free to ask Obama to rename the highest mountain in Ohio to "Mt. McKinley."
Right next to Mt. Czolgosz.
Re:Not a new idea (Score:5, Informative)
and the mountain was named after him BEFORE he was elected.
Well, given it was named after him 16 years after he was assassinated and unless they let dead presidents stay in office, I would say that at the point it was named after him he had already been president as long as he would ever be.
Re: (Score:3)
Re: (Score:3)
But it already had a permanent name: Denali. What was the definition of permanently prior to 1896?
Re: (Score:2, Informative)
As long as President Obama is will to pay the 300 million dollars or so to replace every textbook and reference book that says the highest mountain in the US is Mount McKiney out of his own pocket I am fine with it.
Re:Not a new idea (Score:5, Interesting)
As long as President Obama is will to pay the 300 million dollars or so to replace every textbook and reference book that says the highest mountain in the US is Mount McKiney out of his own pocket I am fine with it.
I wonder who paid the money out of their own pockets to change all the textbooks when the changed the name of Cape Canaveral to Cape Kennedy, then back to Cape Canaveral.
Perhaps that is not as important, depending on one's political stripe?
Re: (Score:2)
From my experience most history books I had stopped well before 1960. Heck they almost did not get past WWII.
Re:Not a new idea (Score:5, Funny)
And then another $300 million to change the textbooks from Mount McKiney to Mount McKinley.
Re:Not a new idea (Score:4, Insightful)
It'd be like Trump buying Pike's Peak and renaming it Trump's Peak
Please don't give him any ideas...
Re: (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:Let's see ... (Score:5, Informative)
If Obama had renamed McKinley to Mt Obama, you might have a valid argument. All he did was what the state of Alaska had been asking for for nearly 40 years.
Re:Let's see ... (Score:5, Insightful)
If Obama had renamed McKinley to Mt Obama, you might have a valid argument. All he did was what the state of Alaska had been asking for for nearly 40 years.
And basically everyone else EXCEPT Ohio had been wanting. So, majority rules sucka!
Re: (Score:2)
It *is* a planet. It's just a dwarf planet.
Of course, the correct terminology is now "Little Planets".
Re: (Score:3)
When the residents have appealed to the Congress to carve a chunk out of the Oregon Territory and make it separate, they have initially proposed naming it Columbia Territory [wa.gov]. It was changed to Washington during the discussions in the Congress, because someone suggested that it would be confusing because of District of Columbia...
OTOH, when Washington became a state, there was a plebiscite for its constitution, which spelled out the name. So one could argue that it was, in fact, approved by the populace in t
However.... (Score:5, Funny)
... because it's not one of the 8 highest mountains in the world, the USGS has decided to declare it a "dwarf mountain" and says that it doesn't really count as a mountain. ;)
Re:However.... (Score:5, Funny)
But.. it "identifies" as a mountain. Who the heck are YOU to be so judgmental?
Re:However.... (Score:5, Funny)
I sexually Identify as an active volcano. Ever since I was a boy I dreamed of towering over the landscape dropping hot sticky lava on disgusting hikers. People say to me that a person being a volcano is Impossible and I’m fucking retarded but I don’t care, I’m beautiful. I’m having a plastic surgeon install rugged peaks, a caldera and fissure vents on my body. From now on I want you guys to call me "Denali" and respect my right to kill from above and kill needlessly. If you can’t accept me you’re a ifestíophobe and need to check your geographical feature privilege. Thank you for being so understanding.
Re: (Score:2)
Call me Popocatépetl.
Re: (Score:2)
You should change that name. Denali isn't a volcano... I could see you being a Redoubt though! https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/... [wikipedia.org]
Re: (Score:2)
I know it isn't. I kept it because it was relevant to the article, but "volcano" gave me more descriptive words for the copypasta than "mountain."
Re: (Score:2)
True, mountains are about as boring as geotechnical engineering... Also, as Mugatu would say, "Volcanoes are so hot right now."
Re: (Score:2, Interesting)
It may not be the "highest," but it is the tallest, at least above water. Everest and friends have to stand on stools to overcome Denali's 18,000 ft base to peak height.
"Denali" = anagram for "Denial" (Score:2)
"Denali" = anagram for "Denial"
Worked on many projects code named "Denali".
Just saying...
Re:"Denali" = anagram for "Denial" (Score:5, Informative)
Also "nailed", "leadin", "Daniel" and "Aldine". Less common examples would be enalid (marine grass), Delian (Greek league of city states), and alined (rarer spelling of aligned).
Thank you, grep and /usr/share/dict/words!
Curious (Score:5, Interesting)
How is it that the Interior Secretary can unilaterally declare a name change? There has been a long congressional issue over this. It was a congressional act that named it in 1917. Note that it's mostly an Ohio (President McKinley was from Niles, Ohio) delegation that's previously resisted the name change.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/... [wikipedia.org]
Re: (Score:2)
How is it that the Interior Secretary can unilaterally declare a name change?
Guess we wouldn't have this problem then, as the name of the Mountain would have continued to be Denali, and never called McKinley.
Although it would be kinda cool if the people of Alaska would rename some part of Ohio and demand Ohio's citizens accept it. Let's just call it state's rights, Alaskans by and large wanted it to return to Denali, so why shouldn't they.
Re: (Score:2)
How is it that the Interior Secretary can unilaterally declare a name change?
Guess we wouldn't have this problem then, as the name of the Mountain would have continued to be Denali, and never called McKinley.
Although it would be kinda cool if the people of Alaska would rename some part of Ohio and demand Ohio's citizens accept it.
Let's just call it state's rights, Alaskans by and large wanted it to return to Denali, so why shouldn't they.
That's fine, but it doesn't belong to the people of Alaska. It's a national asset.
And a side note for those commenting on Obama, and Rep. vs. Dem. The Ohio delegation has been from both parties.
Re:Curious (Score:4, Informative)
Re:Curious (Score:4, Informative)
C'mon, anon, at least elevate yourself to the type of anon who RTFA.
Re:Curious (Score:5, Informative)
Not every issue is a Republicans vs Democrats issue, or a Right vs Left issue. This is one of the (increasingly rare) state vs. state issues. In fact, I'm pretty sure you could find any number of Ohio Democrats (as well as Ohio Republicans) that had been busy opposing this.
Re: (Score:2)
C'mon, anon, at least elevate yourself to the type of anon who RTFA.
She's going to get in as much trouble as when Chris Christie hugged the present occupant.
It must be admitted... (Score:5, Insightful)
...McKinley had nothing to do with the mountain. Or even all that much with Alaska--it was not acquired by the US during his administration, became a district before he took office, and remained one for his entire term.
I'm trying so hard to care about this (Score:5, Funny)
In other News.... (Score:5, Funny)
Trump announces that he will reverse the renaming if he gets elected
Hillary says it will be renamed to Mt. Edmund Hillary.
Hell, a president can change anything to anything with a stroke of a bureaucrats pen these days.
Naming things after politicians (Score:2, Insightful)
Naming things after politicians is stupid. Politicians are gone and forgotten in a matter of years; things like mountains are around for hundreds of years.
If you want to name a building after a politician, knock yourself out, but I fail to see why anyone would support remembering some politician for hundreds of years.
Good grief (Score:2)
But Ol Olsoc, he isn't without a bit of sympathy, so let me tell ya a story that will gladden yer hearts.
Remember when that no good womanizing liberal socialist JFK passed away? He of turning the White house into Camel
On the bright side... (Score:2)
At least the administration hasn't yet taken over more millions of acres and banned all access to evil, disgusting, polluting, scourge-on-the-face-of-the-earth humans.
Oh, dang...now I gave them an idea. My bad.
First Sitting president to Visit Alaska (Score:3, Informative)
Alaska is a huge expanse, over twice the size of Texas, constituting almost 18 percent of the land mass of the USA. Obama is the first sitting president to visit. Only like 750,000 people live there. Amazing.
At only 21000 feet, Denali doesn't even rank in Earth's highest (altitude) places. Remarkably it is in the top 3 for prominence. No longer will the mountain have to be referenced as "Denali (Mt. McKinley)" or "Mt. McKinley (Denali)". People will no longer have to explain the two names over and over and over.
If only he'd do something else reasonable like creating an executive order forcing the use of the metric system!
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2, Insightful)
You do realize McKinley had nothing to do with Alaska or the mountain, right? It was an arbitrary president's name for ~100 years and now its not. If you can't wrap your little head around that one you would be hopelessly confused by doublespeak.
Re:Ministry of Truth? (Score:5, Insightful)
I'm not saying it shouldn't be renamed. I'm merely noting the 'monumental' efforts needed to update all existing documentation referring to the new Mt.Denali.
Well, they should have thought of that when they had to change all the books from Mount Denali to Mount McKinley
The cost isn't all that much anyhow. You ever see a map hanging on the wall with Ceylon or East Germany or Czechoslovakia or Yougoslavia? They become a footnote in history. current things like textbooks might get a sticky label inserted to note the name change, otherwise it's life as usual.
Re: (Score:3)
The people complaining about the cost of changing maps are not actually worried about the cost of changing maps.
Correct, they are still mad the present occupant is not of the right pigmentation to suit them - all the outrage occam's to that.
Re: Ministry of Truth? (Score:3)
Well the good news is all the history textbooks will have to probably be reprinted anyway due to something called THE ALWAYS MOVING FORWARD PROPERTIES OF GOD DAMN LINEAR TIME
Re: (Score:2)
Are you suggesting we should wage war on people that don't want the maps to change?
Re: (Score:2)
We dealt with that by leaving all the names alone. It is amusing living in close vicinity to Prince William and Prince George's counties within 20 miles of the capital of the United States.
Re:Ministry of Truth? (Score:5, Insightful)
You mean, that it was named McKinley in the first place?
Because there was a totally arbitrary political renaming - but this one wasn't it.
Re: (Score:2, Interesting)
Re: (Score:3)
Oh FFS. There are plenty of arguments to make to associate the office of the presidency with Orwell but this is one of the weakest.
Obama is not retracting all textbooks that reference the mountain and throwing anyone who ever went there in some Stalinist gulag. He's changing the name back to what it was before some random dude named it after a guy from Ohio who had never been there. If this is Orwellian, then so is any government-initiated change of any kind.
Re: (Score:2)
Having just recently read 'Nineteen Eighty-Four', I can't help but see the parallel.
Which part? Someone erasing the mountains name to call it Mount McKinley?
Or changing the name back to it's original name?
Let it be known! (Score:5, Funny)
It can no longer be said that President Obama hasn't accomplished anything during his term in office.
Re: (Score:3)
Re: (Score:2)
So we can replace it with the actual Electoral College, the two parties.
Re:What's the point? (Score:5, Insightful)
Who said he was?
He's making Alaskans happy with the stroke of a pen. What's the problem with that?
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
The cost of changing all the documents and textbooks that reference that mountain.
If the folks in Alaska want to call it chicken pot pie that is fine with me. This is useless and does nothing to make the world a better place.
Re: (Score:3)
Who said he was?
He's making Alaskans happy with the stroke of a pen. What's the problem with that?
His haters have spent the last 8 years going nucking futs about everything he has ever done, and a whole lot he hasn't
So even thougt he was doing by law, what he was asked to do by duly elected Alaskan politicians, the core group of haters see this as yet another abuse of his power.
So it's same old, same old. People living in the bubble.
Re: (Score:2)
What, you expect him to give them their lands back with an executive order?
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
These are actually more substantial than renaming the mountain. I'd like to see more things done like this. Again, the window to go through Congress closed quite awhile ago, but I'd still like to see more steps like this to help the Alaskan native people return to their way of life as much as possible.
Ummm, mining and large scale logging are hardly a 'return to their native way of life'. It is simply a sop to the Alaskan Native voting block - which tends to be Democratic in a rabidly Republican state.
Re: (Score:2)
Re:What's the point? (Score:5, Insightful)
Why fix small issues that take virtually no effort to fix when you can blow them off because there are much larger issues that are nearly impossible to fix.
I mean, my house has a foundation issue that will take a year or two for me to save up the money to repair, so it makes sense for me to stop taking out the trash and cleaning the cat's litter box. I have to focus on the big issue, right? The trash and cat shit can wait a couple of years.
Re: (Score:2)
Why AC? Honestly, I think Mount GrumpySteen has an awesome ring to it.
Re: (Score:2)
I have no problem with the mountain being called Denali. However, I'm not sure what this really accomplishes. Many mountains in the world aren't called by the name given them by the native peoples.
And if they really want to give it the name used by the original inhabitants, it needs to be called "Y'tng'ag'wlll''... ahh, dammit, can't get the typography right for creatures without facial tentacles.
Re:Since when we gave a politician so much power? (Score:5, Informative)
2015 - 1977 = 38 years
The Interior Department said the U.S. Board on Geographic Names had been deferring to Congress since 1977, and cited a 1947 law that allows the Interior Department to change names unilaterally when the board fails to act "within a reasonable time." The board shares responsibility with the Interior Department for naming such landmarks.
http://bigstory.ap.org/article/f60262f7cb8a4363b3a38b7a035ed66b/white-house-says-mount-mckinley-be-renamed-denali [ap.org]
Re: (Score:3)
Congress did not fail to act; it failed to act in accordance to the desires of those who wanted the change.
There is a huge difference.
Re: (Score:2)
We already moved - away from you, to the suburbs.
Re: (Score:2, Insightful)
Don't argue facts with the wingnut faction infected with Obama Derangement Syndrome. They simply roll off like water off of duck's feathers. They have their own reality and won't acknowledge any other.
Re: (Score:3, Insightful)
So..here we go with Obama and the PC folks, basically needing to re-write history again. No more old symbols, if it is something a white guy did, gotta take that down, etc.
Geez...why are we needing to tear down everything old or rename it in the name of political correctness or whatever. Let things be and build from there, eh?
every time i see someone whine about "political correctness", i notice what they're really asking for is continuing permission to be a jerk to others.
Denali was originally known by that name not only by native peoples in the area, but also locally by the state of Alaska [gpo.gov].
so not only are you really asking, "hey, why can't i continue being disrespectful to native Alaskans?", you also hate states' rights. good work there.
Re: "There are no comments." (Score:5, Interesting)
Well, for one thing, Mount McKinley was just named that by some asshole during William McKinley's Presidential campaign, and somehow it took. It was still 'Denali' right up until Woodrow Wilson established McKinley National Park when the name was made official. There's no historical reason for naming that particular mountain after William McKinley, who's sole contribution to Alaskan history basically involves not offering to sell it back to Russia (who, while owning Alaska, named the mountain "Bolshaya Gora" which means "Big Mountain").
Of all the things to get upset about, this just isn't one of them.
Signed,
Someone sitting in Ohio right now, where we're supposed to be all fired up and angry about a mountain that bore the name of an Ohioan President being renamed by Presidential fiat.
Re: (Score:2)
The mountain formerly known as Denali, then McKinley.
Re:For me, it will always remain the mountain... (Score:5, Interesting)
I can't remember who it was... it might have been Halldór Laxnes... who said that a piece of nature isn't really a piece of nature unless it doesn't have a name. That is, the first thing people do once they start interacting with an object or place is to give it a name, and so once something is named it starts to become about the history of people rather than the history of the land itself. And that if you want to establish a real connection with nature, you don't go sit on top of that well-known named peak that people climb... you go to that little nameless stream or that remote nameless cliff or whatnot - places which tell only their own story.
Re: (Score:3)
Originally known as "Your finger, you fool!"
Re: (Score:2)
You sure about that?
http://www.gmc.com/denali-luxu... [gmc.com]
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:3)
Dad, I thought you couldn't read slashdot at work anymore. Ever since they caught you jerking off to Natalie Portman posts.
By the way, mom says get the butt plug out of your ass before coming home. Her bull has a treat for you.
Re: (Score:2, Insightful)
You are an idiot.
The people of Alaska have been asking for this name change for decades.
In fact, hardly anyone really calls the mountain McKinley anymore, people have been calling it Denali.
It has nothing to do with Obama or his ego.
That you think it does it purely the result of you being very stupid and gullible. It's time someone delivered you this bad news.
Re: (Score:2)
So you are going to stop calling it Obamacare?
Why do that? People are happy to play partisan politics with stuff, in this case he made it, he owns it.
Re:ummmm (Score:5, Informative)
Re:ummmm (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:ummmm (Score:5, Informative)
Indeed. In mountaineering circles it's always been Denali as well. Pretty much every group that has a physical connection to the mountain has always called it Denali.
-Chris
Re: (Score:2)
"...making mountains out of mole hills"
In this case, it was making a mountain into a speed bump.
Re: (Score:3, Interesting)
Re: (Score:2, Insightful)
Poltically correct bullshit.
States rights are good when you want to break federal law. But state rights are shit when the state wants to name something in it.
Reminds me of the Civil War, where the States Rights issue was that the south was rebelling against states rights and wanted a strong federal government. But 150 years later, it's forgotten by the losers, and they assert they were on the other sides of the states rights issue. Always changing their story, because reality is against them.
Re:ummmm (Score:5, Insightful)
Or, it's you who is rewriting history. You're focusing on the fact that the South supported using federal power to back the Fugitive Slave Clause in the Constitution, and then to expand federal regulation of slavery via the Fugitive Slave Law of 1850.
But slavery was pretty much the only case where the South was for federal intervention. In practically every other matter, they favored local rights over federal regulation. The Civil War was about slavery, not states' rights. But because the North won, they got to abolish slavery and weaken states' rights at the same time.
As a friend often tells me, before the Civil War people would say "the United States are", and since the war they say "the United States is".
Re:Just a question (Score:4, Insightful)
Yeah, I can't possibly figure out why we would want to do anything for a people that were systematically killed, evicted off their lands, repeatedly lied to by the government, repeatedly had treaties broken by the government, kept from practicing their religion, had their kids taken away, had their sacred lands taken away for mining if anything valuable was found on those lands, shoved onto reservations (which could also be taken away if anything valuable was found there), and treated as inferior in every way.
Gosh, it's almost like we realized we were giant assholes to a particular group of people for a few centuries and feel bad about it.
Re: (Score:3)
Gosh, it's almost like we realized we were giant assholes to a particular group of people for a few centuries and feel bad about it.
Wait a second there. I was born a few decades ago, so could not have been an asshole to anyone for centuries. Second, every group has been shit on by someone else over the course of the centuries you are crying about. The Mongols invaded Europe from Asia, many white people died. The Vikings invaded from north Europe to the rest of the continent, even sacking Rome, and many white people died. Europeans invaded Africa and the Americas, many dark skinned people died. Now the descendants of the Spanish invaders
Re: (Score:3)
Wait a second there. I was born a few decades ago, so could not have been an asshole to anyone for centuries. Second, every group has been shit on by someone else over the course of the centuries you are crying about. The Mongols invaded Europe from Asia, many white people died. The Vikings invaded from north Europe to the rest of the continent, even sacking Rome, and many white people died. Europeans invaded Africa and the Americas, many dark skinned people died. Now the descendants of the Spanish invaders are complaining that they aren't being allowed to invade more areas they feel entitled to. In Africa, just a decade ago, one tribe killed a million people from a rival tribe.
So when you make it sound like only one group in all of history has ever been an asshole, and one or another group of people has always the victims, your argument falls flat. As the AC said, it's happened between groups for all of history, and everyone can find a centuries old grievance if they want.
it's almost like we should recognize a history of people being dicks to others and try to do better, not try to outdo dickery.
Re: (Score:3)
So they're not really any different than European or any other settlers who came later.
Except they didn't have new technology or new diseases, nor did they emigrate in masses faster than ever before.
Yup, some people slowly walking into another area over a land bridge was exactly the same as European settlement into North America.
Re: (Score:3)
Foreign countries don't even agree on what to call each other let alone specific places. I know a little "Japanese" (Nihongo) and from what I understand no one from that country would refer to it as "Japan". It is "Nippon" or "Nihon", "Japan" from what I've heard is a really bad 1,500 year old Portuguese pronunciation of a Chinese word referring to the island chain off of China's coast. I think this is far from an isolated situation, anyone know other languages similar craziness?
Germany vs Deutschland vs Tyskland... All the same place but named after different tribes living there 2000 years ago plus some language drift.
Also pretty much all major cities in Europe that doesn't have super easy names have different names in every single neighbouring language.
Re: (Score:2)
oreign countries don't even agree on what to call each other let alone specific places. I know a little "Japanese" (Nihongo) and from what I understand no one from that country would refer to it as "Japan". It is "Nippon" or "Nihon", "Japan" from what I've heard is a really bad 1,500 year old Portuguese pronunciation of a Chinese word referring to the island chain off of China's coast. I think this is far from an isolated situation, anyone know other languages similar craziness?Correction: 500 year old (from roughly 1500s) bad Portuguese pronunciation, Monday morning and my brain isn't completely up and running.
You can start with 'Indians'. 'Ol Columbus was a tad confused at times.
Must of been the wine.
Apache were calling themselves Indians (Score:3, Interesting)
You can start with 'Indians'. 'Ol Columbus was a tad confused at times.
Columbus was right but for the wrong reason. Before European contact, the Apache were calling themselves Inde, meaning "the people". Words for "people" resembling Inde or Dene are common in the Athabaskan languages that were spoken in what are now the southwestern United States, Alaska, and the Northwest Territories of Canada.