Fun Fact June 7, 2021.

Today in history, and we’re going North, to Alaska!  I’m currently working on an audio book about the history of Alaska.  It was on this date in 1913 that the first successful assent of the highest peak in North America was made by a missionary named Hudson Struck.  The mountain he and two other climbers reached the peak of is Denali, formally Mount McKinley.  Denali is an Athabascan Indian name for the mountain and means “the high one.”  At 20,320 feet the south peak towers above all the other peaks in the Alaska Range.  It is surrounded by Denali National Park, which covers 6.1 million, with an “M”, acres.  Larger than the state of Massachusetts. Although always known as Denali by the Athabascan people, in 1889 was named after a prospector named Frank Densmore. In 1896, it was renamed in honor of Senator William McKinley, who became president that year.  Mount McKinley National Park was established as a wildlife refuge in 1917. In 1980, the park was expanded and renamed Denali National Park and Preserve. In 2015, the mountain was officially renamed Denali. 

Fun Fact June 7, 2021.
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