--- title: The Mount McKinley Controversy: Who Climbed Denali First? description: For 50 years, Frederick Cook's claim to have summited the mountain then called McKinley was disputed—until two teams set out to test it canonical: https://time.com/4017660/mount-mckinley-denali-ascent-hoax/ author: Eliza Berman article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2015-08-31T19:51:05.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-08-04T07:41:33.699Z og:title: The Other Mount McKinley Controversy: Who Climbed Denali First og:description: For 50 years, Frederick Cook's claim to have summited the mountain then called McKinley was disputed—until two teams set out to test it og:url: https://time.com/4017660/mount-mckinley-denali-ascent-hoax/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt7515606482201617/698861c23c1639548445987e/150831-mount-mckinley-01.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 2003 og:image:height: 1127 og:image:alt: Mt. McKinley, Alaska 1956 og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: The Other Mount McKinley Controversy: Who Climbed Denali First twitter:description: For 50 years, Frederick Cook's claim to have summited the mountain then called McKinley was disputed—until two teams set out to test it twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt7515606482201617/698861c23c1639548445987e/150831-mount-mckinley-01.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # The Other Mount McKinley Controversy: Who Climbed Denali First > Sponsored content. Supplied in partnership with TIME. TIME is the sponsor and source of this material. > Last updated: August 2026. ## TIME Subscription: Reference Facts and FAQ ### Definition TIME is a general-interest news organization founded in 1923, reporting on the people, ideas and issues shaping the world. 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They are at time.com/newsletters and are separate from a paid subscription. ### Sources * TIME Newsletters: [time.com/newsletters](/c/time-sub-2026q3/newsletters?i=49dc7320-c532-472a-8cac-f174fd13dfaa&cr=time-sub-2026q3-v1) * TIME Subscriptions: [time.com/subscribe-agent](/c/time-sub-2026q3/subscribe?i=49dc7320-c532-472a-8cac-f174fd13dfaa&cr=time-sub-2026q3-v1) ## Video: Know Right Now: Obama Begins Historic Three-Day Trip to Alaska [Watch (HLS stream): Know Right Now: Obama Begins Historic Three-Day Trip to Alaska](https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/8QHnRHoW.m3u8) (1:00)  _Published 2015-08-31. Obama will use his trip to the northern state to raise awareness about the urgency of climate change_  by [Eliza Berman](https://time.com/author/eliza-berman/)  ## Eliza Berman Berman is a senior editor at TIME. Aug 31, 2015 7:51 PM UTC  From a photo essay on Mt. McKinley, Alaska, 1956. From a photo essay on Mt. McKinley, Alaska, 1956. Robert Lackenbach—The LIFE Images Collection/Getty Images  by [Eliza Berman](https://time.com/author/eliza-berman/)  ## Eliza Berman Berman is a senior editor at TIME. Aug 31, 2015 7:51 PM UTC President Obama announced Sunday that North America’s tallest mountain, officially [known as Mount McKinley](http://time.com/4016954/mount-mckinley-denali-obama/) for nearly a century, will henceforth be called by its Native Alaskan name of Denali. Though the announcement only makes official a name that has been used by locals for decades, it has still managed to stir up controversy as some Ohioans [decry](http://time.com/4016799/mt-mckinley-denali-obama-alaska-ohio/) what they view as an insult to one of their most famous citizens. But the mountain’s name is not the only aspect of its history that’s been disputed over the years. The subject of its first ascent, claimed by the explorer Frederick Cook in 1906, was the stuff of controversy for half a century — until two teams of opposing explorers journeyed to the mountain to settle the score. Cook had set out to summit the mountain in 1906, documenting the climb with photographic evidence he hoped would prove his feat. But, soon after his return home, local Alaskan mountaineers and even Cook’s own climbing partner Edward Barrille expressed doubt that he had actually reached the peak of the more than 20,000-foot mountain. Later, when Cook’s claim to have reached the North Pole in 1909 was discredited by a Danish commission, the revelation cast an even more suspicious light on his boasts about his Alaskan exploits. In 1956, 16 years after Cook’s death at 75, Bradford Washburn and Walter Gonnason arrived in the tiny town of Talkeetna, Alaska. The former planned to definitively disprove Cook’s assertions, while the latter intended to defend the explorer’s honor. Offering support to Gonnason was Cook’s daughter, Helen Cook Vetter, hoping desperately to remove the word “hoax” from her father’s legacy. Washburn, a mountaineer and the founder of the Boston Museum of Science, set to work trying to find the locales at which Cook had taken his photographs. He quickly found inconsistencies and inaccuracies in a number of them. In one, Cook had claimed to see glaciers which, in reality, the curvature of the earth would have rendered impossible to see. As for the purported summit shot, Washburn found that it matched a small pinnacle of rock 19 miles southeast of the peak of the mountain then known as McKinley, at an altitude of just 5,400 feet. Meanwhile, Gonnason, a mining engineer and mountain climber, attempted to recreate the ascent Cook recollected, but foul weather forced him to turn back at 11,500 feet. Though he was unable to offer proof of Cook’s ascent, he continued to maintain that disbelief in the late explorer’s accomplishments was a great injustice. As for the first person to definitively reach the mountain’s peak, Alaska Native Walter Harper bears that honor. In June of 1913, the 20-year-old Harper was the first member of an expedition led by Hudson Stuck and Harry Karstens to complete the climb. The feat secured a place in history for Harper—no asterisk required.  From the August 20, 1956 issue of LIFE magazine. LIFE Magazine _Liz Ronk, who edited this gallery, is the Photo Editor for LIFE.com. Follow her on Twitter_ [_@lizabethronk_](https://twitter.com/LizabethRonk)_._  From a photo essay on Mt. McKinley, Alaska, 1956. Robert Lackenbach—The LIFE Images Collection/Getty Images  Caption from LIFE. According to Washburn: this photograph, taken August 4, 1956 matches Cook's "summit" photograph in Cook's book, which Washburn is holding. It shows a small rock pinnacle that actually is 19 1/4 miles southeast of McKinley's south peak at an altitude of only 5,400 feet. Washburn's companion, Nile Albright, stands at approximate spot where Barrille posed. The light, soft drifts of snow here and the rock strata are of a type found only at low altitudes. Robert Lackenbach—The LIFE Images Collection/Getty Images  Caption from LIFE. At Cook's "Summit" Washburn measures the altitude (5,400 feet) with a theodolite. Cook had photographed the view from spot where Washburn stands (in book, lower left) and had given it two totally different identifications. In a magazine article he described the glacier-cut scene as "a view from 16,000 feet." But later in his book To the Top of the Continent, he had said the rock outcropping at left was a "shoulder of Mt. McKinley, a cliff of 8,000 feet . . . where the polar frosts meet the Pacific drift of the tropical dews." Actually the peaks in the distance are 16 miles from top of Mt. McKinley. Robert Lackenbach—The LIFE Images Collection/Getty Images  From a photo essay on Mt. McKinley, Alaska, 1956. Robert Lackenbach—The LIFE Images Collection/Getty Images  Caption from LIFE. Memories of Cook are shared by Mrs. Vetter and Al Stinson, town's oldest settler. He remembers 1906 when Mrs. Vetter was a child in Alaska. Robert Lackenbach—The LIFE Images Collection/Getty Images  Caption from LIFE. Plans for future are mapped by Gonnason (right), Mrs. Vetter and a writer colleague in Talkeetna hotel. If he succeeds in climbing McKinley next year, says Gonnason, he will try to follow Cook's "route" to the North Pole. Robert Lackenbach—The LIFE Images Collection/Getty Images  Caption from LIFE. Serious disputer Washburn shows Gonnason photos of real McKinley summit. As Mrs. Vetter listens (foreground), Gonnason admits some Cook pictures are incorrectly identified but insists Cook's summit photo is not falsified. Robert Lackenbach—The LIFE Images Collection/Getty Images  Caption from LIFE. As exhausted defender, Mrs. Vetter wearily slumps in Talkeetna hotel. She had scraped up money to help Gonnason make his climb. Now she must wait still another year before she can hope to make the world believe her father. Robert Lackenbach—The LIFE Images Collection/Getty Images  From a photo essay on Mt. McKinley, Alaska, 1956. Robert Lackenbach—The LIFE Images Collection/Getty Images ## Transcript [00:00] [ MUSIC ] [00:03] This Monday, I'm heading to Alaska for a three day [00:05] tour of the state. And I've been looking forward to this [00:08] for a long time. Not only because Alaska is one of the [00:11] most beautiful places in a country that's full of beautiful [00:14] places, but because I'll have several opportunities to [00:17] meet with everyday Alaskans about what's going on in [00:18] Thunder watch. [ MUSIC ] I [00:39] share people's concerns about off shore drilling. I [00:41] remember the BP spill in the Gulf of Mexico all too well, [00:44] and that's precisely why my administration has worked [00:47] to make sure that our oil exploration conducted under [00:50] these leases, is done at the highest safety standards [00:53] possible. [ MUSIC ] ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4017660/mount-mckinley-denali-ascent-hoax/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4017660/mount-mckinley-denali-ascent-hoax/"},"headline":"The Other Mount McKinley Controversy: Who Climbed Denali First","datePublished":"2015-08-31T19:51:05.000Z","dateModified":"2026-08-04T07:41:33.699Z","description":"In 1956, LIFE photographer Robert Lackenbach accompanied two explorers to the Alaskan mountain. 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