MCKINLEY, MOUNT

Mount McKinley, Alaska. highest peak (20,320 ft ) in North America, located near the centre of the Alaska Range, south central Alaska, U.S. Lying 130 mi (210 km) north-northwest of Anchorage in Denali National Park and Preserve (q.v.), the mountain rises abruptly 17,000 ft above its base at the higher, more southerly of its two peaks. The upper two-thirds of its massive summit is covered with permanent snowfields that feed many glaciers, some surpassing 30 mi in length. In 1794 George Vancouver, the English navigator, sighted the mountain from Cook Inlet (Gulf of Alaska). The first attempt to climb it was made in 1903 by an attorney, James Wickersham, who was unsuccessful. A much-publicized but fraudulent claim by Frederick A. Cook, a physician, that he had reached the top inspired the conquest of the north peak in 1910 by two prospectors, William Taylor and Peter Anderson. On June 13, 1913, Hudson Stuck and Harry Karstens led a party to the south peak, the true summit. Known to the Indians as Denali (The High One) and to the Russians as Bolshaya Gora (Great Mountain), it was named Densmores Peak in 1889 after Frank Densmore, a prospector. The modern name was applied in 1896 by William A. Dickey, another prospector, in honour of William McKinley, who was elected president of the United States later that year. Efforts were undertaken in the mid-1970s to restore its original Indian name.