Mount Foraker

Mount Foraker is a 17,400 feet (5,300 m) tall mountain in the central Alaska Range, in Denali National Park, 14 miles (23km) southwest of Mount McKinley. It is the second highest peak in the Alaska Range, and the fourth highest peak[1] in the United States. It rises almost directly above the standard base camp for Mount McKinley, on a fork of the Kahiltna Glacier.

The mountain was named in 1899 by Lt. J.S. Herron, USA, for Joseph B. Foraker, U.S. Senator from Ohio. Its North Peak was first climbed on August 6, 1934, and its higher South Peak was climbed four days later on August 10, by C.S. Houston, T.G. Brown, and Chychele Waterston.

This peak along with Mount McKinley was called "Bolshaya Gora", or "big mountain", by the Russians. The Tanaina Indians of the Susitna River valley and Tanana Indians to the north are reported to have had the same name (Denali) for Mt. Foraker as they had for Mount McKinley, and it appears as if the names were not applied to individual peaks but instead to the Mount McKinley massif. The Tanana Indians in the Lake Minchumina area, however, had a broadside view of the mountains and thus gave dinstinctive names to each. According to Rev. Hudson Stuck, these Indians had two names for Mount Foraker; "Sultana" meaning "the woman" and "Menlale" meaning "Denali's wife", Denali being Mount McKinley.