The last frontier is known for its many surprising history facts and panoramic views.
Recently, I flew to Alaska and experienced something very different from what I expected. It’s not rare that every time you visit another place you’re not familiar with, you don’t see what you expect, but Alaska blew my mind away. It made me realize that there is more beyond what we study in a history class.
For example, the highlight of the trip was when we got asked, is it Mt. McKinley or Denali? Almost everybody, if not everyone, knows Mt. McKinley is the highest point in North America. It’s one of the most famous landmarks of the the United States. People from all around the world travel to Alaska just to get a glimpse of its beauty. One detail they don’t teach us very often that makes this mountain even more attractive is the fact that Mt. McKinley it's not the accurate name as of 2015. Native Alaskans have called the peak, Denali, for centuries. In 1896, a gold prospector named it Mt. McKinley in support of former president William McKinley. The United States formally introduced that name after president Wilson signed the Mount McKinley National Park Act in 1917. Later on, the State of Alaska’s Board of Geographic Names changed the name back to Denali in 1975.
However, on a federal attempt to change the name, it was negated by the delegation of Ohio, home of former president McKinley. On August 20, 2015 president Barack Obama visited Alaska and next to the Secretary of Interior, Sally Jewell, issued a Secretarial Order officially changing the name to Denali.
All of our lives we get thought that Alaska only consists of fishing, wildlife and mountains full of snows, but, I saw something very different to that believe. Although it’s not a cosmopolitan state, it’s a very modern city where lots of people from around the world and natives live. Alaska counts with numerous amounts of neighborhoods and the houses are relatively contemporary. It contains two important main highways that take you from city to city, sightseeing very beautiful panoramas. Having all that modern style to it, the interesting thing about Alaska is that it mixes its unique lifestyle with its wildlife and natural preserved beauty. You could either be driving around the city or around the mountains and you will most likely have an encounter with the native animals and little old towns that surround Alaska.
