Just realized tourists keep calling Denali 'Mount McKinley' like it never changed

I was fishing near Talkeetna last weekend and overheard a guide telling his group the mountain is 20,320 feet high, but he kept calling it McKinley. That name got officially changed back in 2015, nearly 10 years ago now. I grew up here in Fairbanks and my dad always called it Denali, even when the maps said otherwise. It matters because it's about respecting the local Athabascan name, not some old political thing from the 1890s. How do you handle telling visitors the right name without sounding like a jerk?

2 comments

2 Comments

nathan54521d ago

Just tell them "it's called Denali now unless you want the mountain to correct you with a rockslide." Nothing wins an argument like a little natural disaster humor.

claire_hayes3521d ago

The real kicker is that Denali was always called that by the local Koyukon people long before any of us showed up, so technically we're just catching up. What's the best way to get people to respect indigenous names?