Mount McKinley, also called "Denali," is a mountain in south central Alaska. At 20,300 feet, Mount McKinley is the highest North American mountain peak.
In 1896, Mount McKinley was informally named in honor of William McKinley, who went on to become the 25th U.S. president. Twenty years later, the name became official. For generations before that, it was called Denali, from a Native Alaskan Koyukon word meaning "the high one." In 1975, Alaska began petitioning to change the mountain's name back to Denali, which the federal government did in 2015. The U.S. Department of the Interior reestablished the name Mount McKinley in 2025.