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CARTOLOGIUMThe living atlas
Survey desk + sources & coordinates
WGS 84
SOVEREIGN TOPONYMIC INTELLIGENCE

The Place-Name Graph

GNIS is the official federal standard containing over one million features: official names, variant spellings, ancestral Indigenous roots, BGN formal dockets, and vanished towns. A map doesn’t merely locate a place; its names encode sovereign history and geopolitical disputes.

USGS GNIS & U.S. BOARD ON GEOGRAPHIC NAMES (BGN)

The Place-Name Authority Graph

Every place name on a federal map is a sovereign political decision. Explore how Indigenous toponyms, botanical indicators, and renaming disputes are docketed in the national gazetteer.

4 Curated Toponymic Case Studies
GNIS TOPONYMIC TREEFEATURE ID: #1414314
CANONICAL MODERN NAME
Denali
Feature Class: Summit · Denali Borough, Alaska
ANCESTRAL INDIGENOUS TOPONYM
Denali (English form derived from Koyukon deenaalee; other Alaska Native languages have distinct names)
FORMER / SUPERSEDED NAMES
Denali (federal usage, 2015–2025; remains an Alaska-recognized and Koyukon-derived name)
HISTORICAL VARIANTS & SPELLINGS
Mount McKinleyBolshaya GoraDensmore's PeakMount Churchill
BGN OFFICIAL DOCKET HISTORYDECISION YEAR: 2015

This dossier’s 2015 date identifies the historical federal recognition of Denali under Secretary’s Order 3337. That order is superseded: Order 3424, dated 14 February 2025, reinstates Mount McKinley for federal use and retains Denali National Park and Preserve. Alaska recognized Denali in 1975 and its 2025 resolution supports retaining that name. These are institutional records alongside a longer language history; see A Name Is a Layer for the dated comparison and community source.

OFFICIAL STATUTORY CITATION
View Official Federal BGN Register / DOI Document

Toponymic Lineage Case Studies

4 Deep Dockets
BGN 2015GNIS #1414314
Indigenous Restoration

Denali

This dossier’s 2015 date identifies the historical federal recognition of Denali under Secretary’s Order 3337. That order is superseded: Order 3424, dated 14 February 2025, reinstates Mount McKinley for federal use and retains Denali National Park and Preserve. Alaska recognized Denali in 1975 and its 2025 resolution supports retaining that name. These are institutional records alongside a longer language history; see A Name Is a Layer for the dated comparison and community source.

Inspect Docket
BGN 1895GNIS #24185
Toponymic Density / Generic Names

Cottonwood (Arizona / National Generic Toponym Cluster)

GNIS contains over 1,400 features named 'Cottonwood' across the American West. Why is everything called Cottonwood? In arid desert hydrology, the presence of Populus fremontii (Fremont Cottonwood) was the primary indicator of near-surface riparian groundwater for desert travelers, making it the most frequently applied empirical landscape name in Western cartography.

Inspect Docket
BGN 1907GNIS #248742
Catastrophic Genesis

Salton Sea

Before 1905, USGS maps labeled this depression 'Salton Sink'—an arid salt flat 235 feet below sea level. When the California Development Company diversion canal breached in March 1905, diverting the entire Colorado River into the basin for nearly two years, the BGN was forced to issue an urgent emergency naming decision in 1907 renaming the feature 'Salton Sea'.

Inspect Docket
BGN 1961GNIS #123456
Vanished Boomtowns

Bodie / Chloride / Contention City

GNIS maintains special 'Historical' feature class tags for over 15,000 vanished settlements that appeared on 19th-century USGS topo maps but have zero modern permanent population. These names survive as cartographic anchors for property boundaries, mineral rights, and archaeological registers.

Inspect Docket