Photo by Matt Cohen.

Mt. McKinley—the tallest mountain in North American—is officially being renamed to Mt. Denali, per President Barack Obama’s orders.

The President is headed to Anchorage, Alaska today to meet with leaders from the Alaska Native community, Governor Bill Walker, Lt. Governor Byron Mallot, and Senator Lisa Murkowski to discuss ways the Federal Government and Alaska Native tribes can strengthen their relationship. To kick off that meeting, the White House announced yesterday that they’re changing the name of the mountain to its original name: Mt. Denali.

Denali was officially named “Mt. McKinley” in 1896, when a prospector who was exploring the mountains of that area heard that William McKinley had been nominated as a candidate for president. Thus, in a show of support, he named the tallest peak of the Alaska Range after him. It should be noted that McKinley—the 25th president, who was assassinated six months into his second term—never visited Alaska.

And thus the name of Mt. McKinley has always been a source of contention among Alaskans. Natives always referred to it as Denali, which means “the great one,” and its location is of great cultural significance to Alaskan Athabascans.

Earlier this summer I had the immense pleasure of traveling to Denali where I spent a week in the park. Although the mountain was officially called “Mt. McKinley,” hardly anyone in Denali calls it that and, as I found out, thinks of the name as a kind of subtle faux pas. The mountain is staggeringly and breathtakingly tall—so tall that cloud cover around the peak of it is so frequent, only a small percentage of visitors to the park are lucky enough to get a full glimpse of it on a clear day.

I was lucky enough to get a near-perfect view of the mountain after a day-long hike. It’s size and beauty truly lives up to its name as “the great one,” rather than that of a President who never step foot in the park, let alone the state of Alaska.