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How Not to Name a Mountain · Street Smart Naturalist

• 0:01
  SPEAKER_00: Greetings,
• 0:02
  SPEAKER_00: this is David B.
• 0:03
  SPEAKER_00: Williams and the podcast of my newsletter,
• 0:05
  SPEAKER_00: The Street Smart Naturalist,
• 0:08
  SPEAKER_00: Explorations of the Urban Kind.
• 0:10
  Every week I share my observations and adventures with the
• 0:13
  human and natural world
• 0:14
  SPEAKER_00: around Seattle,
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  SPEAKER_00: Puget Sound,
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  SPEAKER_00: and the Pacific Northwest.
• 0:18
  SPEAKER_00: Today's episode focuses on one of my long-term interests, place names.
• 0:23
  SPEAKER_00: To learn more about my work, please go to my website, geologywriter.com.
• 0:27
  You will also find a link to my Substack newsletter and my
• 0:30
  previous four years of newsletters,
• 0:32
  SPEAKER_00: as well as images tied to this week's episode.
• 0:36
  SPEAKER_00: Thanks again for joining me on this adventure,
• 0:38
  SPEAKER_00: and welcome to Podcast 9 of The Street Smart Naturalist,
• 0:43
  SPEAKER_00: How Not to Name a Mountain,
• 0:45
  SPEAKER_00: January 30,
• 0:45
  SPEAKER_00: 2025.
• 0:48
  Since Election Day,
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  the President has issued a vast and horrible horde of executive orders,
• 0:53
  SPEAKER_00: Most of them have been short-sighted and narrow-minded.
• 0:56
  SPEAKER_00: Many have been racist, mean-spirited, and vindictive.
• 1:00
  SPEAKER_00: Others have been perplexing,
• 1:02
  and one or two can be classified as mainly the gestures of a megalomaniac.
• 1:06
  I would like to comment on one of the latter ones,
• 1:09
  in part because it has a Seattle connection.
• 1:12
  SPEAKER_00: In 1886, William Andrews Dickey arrived in Seattle.
• 1:17
  SPEAKER_00: It was the home of his wife's parents, Dillis and Sarah Ward.
• 1:21
  Dickey was a chess prodigy and a star pitcher for the Seattle
• 1:24
  Reds and supposedly
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  SPEAKER_00: one of the first baseball players in Seattle to throw a curveball.
• 1:29
  SPEAKER_00: Around 1893,
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  SPEAKER_00: he moved to Denny Hill and lived at its high point,
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  SPEAKER_00: 4th and Blanchard,
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  SPEAKER_00: with his wife and her parents.
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  SPEAKER_00: Formerly wealthy, but now not, Mr. Ward nicknamed Denny Hill Poverty Row.
• 1:42
  SPEAKER_00: Ten years after arriving in Seattle,
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  SPEAKER_00: Dickey traveled to Alaska,
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  attracted by recent discoveries of placer gold around the mouth
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  of the Shashitna
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  SPEAKER_00: River at Cook's Inlet.
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  SPEAKER_00: His plan was to head upriver and find the source for the gold.
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  SPEAKER_00: Luckily,
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  SPEAKER_00: he wrote,
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  SPEAKER_00: in June,
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  SPEAKER_00: the days are so long that it is never too dark to see to kill mosquitoes,
• 2:03
  SPEAKER_00: unquote.
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  When the weather finally cleared two weeks into the trip,
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  he sighted a great mountain.
• 2:09
  SPEAKER_00: Dickey wrote,
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  SPEAKER_00: all the Indians of Cook's Inlet call it Bolsho Mountain,
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  SPEAKER_00: which is their word for anything very large,
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  SPEAKER_00: unquote.
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  SPEAKER_00: Actually, Bolsho is the Russian word for big as in the Bolshoi ballet.
• 2:22
  To the indigenous people of the region,
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  the mountain was and still is Denali.
• 2:27
  SPEAKER_00: The name came from Denali,
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  SPEAKER_00: a word from Denaka or Kayukan Athabaskan,
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  SPEAKER_00: the indigenous language of the Alaskan interior.
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  SPEAKER_00: According to an article in ICT News,
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  SPEAKER_00: Denali means the long one,
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  though some people also refer to the mountain as either the big
• 2:45
  one or the great one.
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  SPEAKER_00: After returning from Alaska,
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  SPEAKER_00: Dickey wrote an article which appeared in the January 24,
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  SPEAKER_00: 1897 New York Sun,
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  SPEAKER_00: noting,
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  SPEAKER_00: quote,
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  the total absence of the Great Alaska Range on the government
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  charts of Alaska,
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  SPEAKER_00: unquote,
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  he appears to have decided that it was his obligation to bestow
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  a new name on Denali.
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  He chose to honor President William McKinley because he had
• 3:10
  first heard the news of
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  SPEAKER_00: his nomination while in the wilderness.
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  SPEAKER_00: Dickey estimated the mountain to be over 20,000 feet high,
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  SPEAKER_00: quote,
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  SPEAKER_00: no doubt the highest in North America,
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  SPEAKER_00: unquote.
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  SPEAKER_00: He was actually right.
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  SPEAKER_00: In 1975,
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  Alaska's state board on geographic names attempted to change
• 3:27
  the name back to the
• 3:28
  SPEAKER_00: indigenous name,
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  starting the pathetic tradition of being someone who felt he
• 3:33
  had the right to abuse
• 3:34
  SPEAKER_00: his power,
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  despite having no regard for the indigenous people and no
• 3:38
  relationship to the mountain.
• 3:40
  SPEAKER_00: Ohio Congressman Ralph Regula blocked the renaming for 34 years.
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  Not until six years after Regula's retirement was President
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  Obama's Secretary of
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  SPEAKER_00: the Interior,
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  SPEAKER_00: Sally Jewell,
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  SPEAKER_00: a Seattleite,
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  SPEAKER_00: able to have the mountain renamed Denali in 2015.
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  Most of Ohio's House representatives thought the return to
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  Denali was a travesty
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  SPEAKER_00: and a miscarriage of presidential power.
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  SPEAKER_00: Regula compared Obama to a dictator.
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  SPEAKER_00: It doesn't.
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  SPEAKER_00: Their actions illustrate their lack of consideration,
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  SPEAKER_00: sympathy,
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  SPEAKER_00: and empathy for others who are different from them.
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  SPEAKER_00: By the way,
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  the act to change the name is known as Restoring Names That
• 4:41
  Honor American Greatness.
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  True Greatness understands that what made this country great is compassion,
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  SPEAKER_00: diversity,
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  SPEAKER_00: and respect for others,
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  SPEAKER_00: not pathetic displays of pettiness.
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  SPEAKER_00: Consider,
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  SPEAKER_00: in contrast,
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  how the Washington Board of Natural Resources recently renamed
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  Two Peaks in the
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  SPEAKER_00: Glacial Peak Wilderness –
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  Crook Peak is now Goat Mountain and McCall Peak is now
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  Huckleberry Mountain.
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  Both of the new names are based on indigenous names and replace
• 5:08
  the names of
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  SPEAKER_00: Lieutenant George Crook and Lieutenant James McCall,
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  who were involved in an 1858 massacre of innocent Wenatchee
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  tribal members.
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  The president's plans to change the names of Denali and the
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  Gulf of Mexico pale in
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  SPEAKER_00: comparison to what is happening with immigrants and their families,
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  SPEAKER_00: to people of color,
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  SPEAKER_00: and to the LGBTQ plus communities,
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  SPEAKER_00: as well as what will happen to the environment.
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  But these name changes are illustrative of how this president
• 5:35
  operates and how it
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  SPEAKER_00: leads to capitulations.
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  SPEAKER_00: For example,
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  the Associated Press immediately stated that it will use the
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  official name change
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  SPEAKER_00: to Mount McKinley,
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  SPEAKER_00: unquote.
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  Aren't there far more important issues to address and far
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  better ways to make this
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  SPEAKER_00: a great country?
• 5:54
  SPEAKER_00: Once again,
• 5:55
  SPEAKER_00: this is David B.
• 5:56
  SPEAKER_00: Williams,
• 5:56
  author and voice of the Seattle Street Smart Naturalist
• 6:00
  Explorations of the Urban Kind,
• 6:02
  a weekly newsletter and podcast focusing on the human and
• 6:05
  natural world around Seattle,
• 6:06
  SPEAKER_00: Puget Sound,
• 6:07
  SPEAKER_00: and the Pacific Northwest.
• 6:09
  SPEAKER_00: For more information about my books,
• 6:11
  SPEAKER_00: walks,
• 6:11
  SPEAKER_00: and talks,
• 6:12
  SPEAKER_00: and a link to sign up for my newsletter and podcast,
• 6:14
  SPEAKER_00: check out my website,
• 6:16
  SPEAKER_00: geologywriter.com.
• 6:18
  And don't forget to slow down,
• 6:20
  pay attention,
• 6:21
  and enjoy the world around you.