The Ascent of Denali (Mount McKinley) / A Narrative of the First Complete Ascent of the Highest / Peak in North America

ILLUSTRATED NEW YORK CHARLES SCRIBNER’S SONS 1918

Copyright, 1914, by CHARLES SCRIBNER’S SONS Published February, 1914
BOOKS BY HUDSON STUCK, D.D., F.R.G.S. PUBLISHED BY CHARLES SCRIBNER’S SONS VOYAGES ON THE YUKON AND ITS TRIBUTARIES A Narrative of Summer Travel in the Interior of Alaska Illustrated. 8vo Net $4.50 “His book is a worthy contribution in a fascinating field of natural and geographical science as well as an entertaining record of highly expert and continually risky exploration.” —Phila. North American. THE ASCENT OF DENALI (MT. MCKINLEY) Illustrated. 8vo Net $1.75 “A wonderful record of indomitable pluck and endurance.” —Bulletin of the American Geographical Society. “Its pages make one wish that all mountain climbers might be archdeacons if their accounts might thus gain, in the interest of happenings by the way, emotional vision and intellectual outlook.” —New York Times . TEN THOUSAND MILES WITH A DOG SLED A Narrative of Winter Travel in Interior Alaska Illustrated. 8vo Net $1.75 “One of the most fascinating and altogether satisfactory books of travel which we have seen this year, or, indeed, any year.” —New York Tribune.
“This startlingly brilliant book.”— Literary Digest.
To SIR MARTIN CONWAY ONE OF THE WORLD’S GREATEST TRAVELLERS AND CLIMBERS WHOSE FASCINATING NARRATIVES HAVE KINDLED IN MANY BREASTS A LOVE OF THE GREAT HEIGHTS AND A DESIRE TO ATTAIN UNTO THEM THIS BOOK IS DEDICATED WITH RESPECT AND ADMIRATION

Forefront in this book, because forefront in the author’s heart and desire, must stand a plea for the restoration to the greatest mountain in North America of its immemorial native name. If there be any prestige or authority in such matter from the accomplishment of a first complete ascent, “if there be any virtue, if there be any praise,” the author values it chiefly as it may give weight to this plea.
It is now little more than seventeen years ago that a prospector penetrated from the south into the neighborhood of this mountain, guessed its height with remarkable accuracy at twenty thousand feet, and, ignorant of any name that it already bore, placed upon it the name of the Republican candidate for President of the United States at the approaching election—William McKinley. No voice was raised in protest, for the Alaskan Indian is inarticulate and such white men as knew the old name were absorbed in the search for gold. Some years later an officer of the United States army, upon a reconnoissance survey into the land, passed around the companion peak, and, alike ignorant or careless of any native name, put upon it the name of an Ohio politician, at that time prominent in the councils of the nation, Joseph Foraker. So there they stand upon the maps, side by side, the two greatest peaks of the Alaskan range, “Mount McKinley” and “Mount Foraker.” And there they should stand no longer, since, if there be right and reason in these matters, they should not have been placed there at all.