National Park Service

U.S. Department of the Interior

Crown Jewel of the North:

Frank Norris

An Administrative History of 

Denali National Park and Preserve, Volume 1

Crown Jewel of the North: 

An Administrative History of 

Denali National Park and Preserve

Volume 1 – General Park History to 1980

Produced by the Alaska Regional Office

National Park Service

U.S. Department of the Interior

Anchorage, Alaska

Author: Frank Norris

2006

Front cover: This rustic arch, erected by the Alaska 

Railroad in 1926, was located just a few yards away from 

the McKinley Park Station railroad depot. Situated at the 

beginning of the park road, it welcomed thousands of 

tourists to Mount McKinley National Park during the years 

prior to World War II. DENA 39-1, Denali National Park and 

Preserve Museum Collection

Back cover: Skinner Collection, 44-5-117, Alaska State 

Library
Table of Contents

List of Maps

Preface

Acknowledgements

Abbreviations

1. The Roof of the Continent 

A Land of Rugged Contrasts

Early Residents and Visitors

Notes

2. Charles Sheldon’s Vision

The First Park Advocates

Congress Opts for a Railroad

A Park Bill Becomes Law

Notes

3. Park Management Begins, 1917-1924 

Funding the New Park

Harry Karstens’ Appointment

Park Road Planning

Concessioner Headaches

Initial Road Construction

Notes

4. The Cabins-and-Snowshoes Era, 1925-1936

Moving Up to a New Headquarters

Park Patrols and Game Protection

Staff Changes and Headquarters Growth

A New Superintendent Takes Over

The 1932 Boundary Expansion: Its Causes and Effects

Park Developments, 1933-1937

Notes

5. A Diversified Federal Presence, 1937-1945

The McKinley Park Hotel

Impacts of Hotel Construction on the Park Concessioner

The Civilian Conservation Corps and its Contributions

Inholding Consolidations

Other Park Operations, 1937-1941

World War II: The Army Gets Involved

Notes

6. Postwar McKinley, 1946-1956 

A Challenging Transition to Peacetime

Korean War Impacts

Concessioner Difficulties

Constructing the Denali Highway

The Park Plans for New Visitors

The Wonder Lake Lodge: Further Considerations

Camp Denali Opens for Business

6. Postwar McKinley, 1946-1956 (cont.)

1

1

2

9

13

13

16

18

23

27

27

28

32

36

39

43

47

47

53

59

63

67

71

79

87

87

89

96

100

101

105

114

121

121

123

125

128

131

133

135

iv

v

vi

vii
Consolidating Park Ownership

Changes at Headquarters

Boundary Revision Proposals

Notes

7. Rubber-Tired Tourism, 1957-1971 

The Denali Highway Opens

The Mission 66 Program

The Fate of Mission 66: Successes and Failures

The Park Hotel: Success at Last

At Wonder Lake, the Dream Fades Away

Park Road Improvements: Controversy and Resolution

The Growing Value of Wilderness

Park Expansion Proposals

The Udall Expansion Proposal

The Alaska Legislature Establishes Denali State Park

Completing the Land-Consolidation Process

Operational Realities: Staff and Infrastructure

Park Patrols: The Invasion of the Snow Tractor

Concessions: U.S. Natural Resources Comes and Goes

The Anchorage-Fairbanks Highway

Notes

8. New Highway Impacts and the Park Expansion Process,1972-80

Improved Access and its Ramifications

The Park Hotel: Tragedy and a Spirited Response

Planning Begins for an Expanded Park

Southside Development Plans and Denali State Park Expansion

The Backcountry Use Plan

The 1976 Development Concept Plan

The Resurgence of Dog Patrols

Concessions and Business Development

Staff, Campgrounds, and Facilities

A Newly-Expanded Park and Preserve

International Recognition: Mixed Results

Tokositna Development Planning and the “Dome City” Concept

Mount McKinley or Denali? The Fight Over Naming Rights

Notes

Appendices:

A. Park Boundary Changes, 1917-1980

B. Park Visitation, Budget, and Staff, 1917-1980

C. Selected List of Park Employees, 1921-1980

D. Park Concessioners, 1923-1980

E. Population of Gateway Communities, 1910-2000

F. Growth of the Park Road, 1923-1938

G. Bridges on the Park Road, 1923-present

A Note About Sources

Selected Bibliography

Index

137

141

144

149

157

157

158

162

163

166

169

173

177

186

188

191

197

200

203

204

207

219

219

224

229

235

239

242

243

245

248

253

258

260

267

271

282

282

283

284

291

292

293

294

296

298

310
iv Crown Jewel of the North: An Administrative History of Denali National Park and Preserve

List of Maps

Map 1. Native Languages in the Park Vicinity

Map 2. Park Boundary Evolution, 1916-1917

Map 3. Park Boundary Growth, 1917-1932

Map 4. Major Land Actions, McKinley Park Station Area, 1922-1925

Map 5. Major Land Actions, McKinley Park Station Area, 1947-1961

Map 6. Kantishna Withdrawal, 1965

Map 7. Boundary Expansion Proposals, 1965-1970

Map 8. Boundary Proposals and Changes, 1972-1980

Map 9. Proposed Southside Development Sites, 1968-1980

4

19

32

34

139

180

182

232

236
Preface v

Preface

By any definition, the area surrounding North 

America’s highest peak is vast. Between 1917 

and the late 1970s, Mount McKinley National 

Park was America’s second largest national park 

(only Yellowstone was bigger), and since 1980, 

Denali National Park and Preserve—at more 

than 6,000,000 acres—has been almost twice as 

large as any “Lower 48” national park unit and it 

is exceeded in size by only the Gates of the Arctic 

and Wrangell-St. Elias park units, both located in 

Alaska. These two Alaska park units, however, 

are fairly young; both were born during a tumultuous 1970s-era statewide planning effort, and 

they were not established until President Jimmy 

Carter, in December 1980, signed the Alaska National Interest Lands Conservation Act. The area 

that began as Mount McKinley National Park, by 

contrast, is almost 90 years old. It was Alaska’s 

first national park, and for much of its history, 

the staff headquartered near McKinley Park Station represented virtually the only National Park 

Service presence in America’s northernmost 

territory.

Given the park’s enormous size, its long history, 

and its statewide importance, records related to 

Mount McKinley National Park and its successor, Denali National Park and Preserve, are far 

more numerous than those associated with any 

other Alaska park unit. The historian hoping to 

write the management history for most Alaska 

park units has a reasonable expectation of incorporating most of the pertinent records about that 

unit into a single-volume study. But such is not 

the case as it relates to the Mount McKinley/Denali park unit. Because an administrative history 

is the designated bureaucratic vehicle that melds 

together a broad variety of historical themes in a 

single work, the obvious question presents itself: 

should this history attempt to offer the same level 

of detail as other Alaska park histories, or should 

completeness be sacrificed for brevity’s sake? 

Depending on various circumstances, NPS historians have had wildly differing interpretations 

of their mandate; a recently-published Grand 

Canyon National Park administrative history, for 

example, is just 116 pages long, while an administrative history of tiny Pipe Spring National 

Monument, also in Arizona, runs a daunting 847 

pages.

The author of this study has attempted to steer 

a middle course between these two extremes. It 

was felt important to compile a broad range of 

the essential details relating to this park’s historical development, but it was also recognized that 

too much detail would make the study unwieldy 

and largely unusable. Given that middle course, 

the history of the Mt. McKinley/Denali unit is 

longer than most park histories, and for that reason it is being printed in two separate volumes. 

Volume 1, containing eight chapters, is a general 

park history for years up until 1980; it is thus a 

history of Mount McKinley National Park, although four specific historical themes—interpretation, resources management, mountaineering, 

and minerals management—have been omitted. 

Volume 2, containing the remaining six chapters, 

will be a general history of Denali National Park 

and Preserve (for the years 1980 to the present), 

plus a detailed look at the four themes noted 

above. It is anticipated that Volume 2 will be 

published in 2007.

Despite the greater-than-average length of this 

study, it is readily admitted that hundreds if not 

thousands of key documents were overlooked 

during its preparation. Given those omissions, 

many key events have certainly, if inadvertently, 

been discussed only briefly or have been altogether ignored. The sheer volume of these 

bypassed records—some known, others as-yetunearthed—is naturally an open invitation for 

future researchers who, it is fervently hoped, 

will continue the process of providing a comprehensive, dispassionate view of the park’s history. 

To assist tomorrow’s historians, a brief guide to 

potential research avenues has been included in a 

bibliographic note near the end of this volume.
vi Crown Jewel of the North: An Administrative History of Denali National Park and Preserve

History, by necessity, is a highly collaborative 

effort. And in the case of this study, I have been 

singularly fortunate to have gained information 

from, and worked with, a superb group of committed people—some in the Park Service, some 

not—who have gone to great lengths to supply 

the author with information in order to ensure 

that this story would be told, and told well. 

Among those to whom I am most indebted are 

William E. Brown, the author of the park’s historic resource study; Kristen Griffin, who collected 

scores of park historical files before the research 

for this study began; Jane Bryant, a longtime park 

employee who knows the answer to virtually 

any park-related question; Steve Carwile, a park 

employee since the pre-ANILCA days who is 

somehow able to unearth seemingly lost source 

materials; and William Nancarrow, a Denali-area 

legend who started working at the park in 1948 

and has stories about the park’s staff, concessioners and visitors that truly connect the park’s 

challenging past with its equally challenging present. I have heavily relied on the source materials, 

opinions, anecdotes, and critical observations 

that all five of these individuals have offered 

(though many of these contributions are not 

reflected in the endnotes), and the present study 

would have been far poorer without their help. 

I am indebted to two park employees for the 

graphics contained in this report. GIS specialist Jon Paynter has laboriously, and cheerfully, 

prepared all maps for the report; the sole exception was the Native languages map, prepared by 

Judy Kesler in the Alaska Regional Office. Ms. 

Bryant, noted above, is also single-handedly 

responsible for selecting, placing, and captioning 

the volume’s photographs. I gratefully appreciate 

her efforts.

Many others have helped along the way. One 

was longtime Denali-area resident Tom Walker, 

who has written a number of books and articles 

about the park’s cultural and natural history. 

Ann Kain, the park’s cultural resource manager, 

has patiently steered me through more than one 

bureaucratic thicket and is thoroughly conversant with the park’s history. The staff at Loussac 

Library (particularly Bruce Merrell), the Alaska 

Resource Library and Information Services, and 

the Anchorage Daily News library (both Sharon 

Palmisano and Lynn Hallstrom) have taken a 

keen interest in the study and guided me to a 

passel of little-known sources. The staff at the 

National Archives and Records Administration 

facilities in Anchorage, San Bruno, and College 

Park have freely aided and abetted me in my 

quest for obscure memos and files. Michelle 

Curran graciously allowed me to use portions 

of her dissertation pertaining to the work of 

the Board on Geographic Names. And a broad 

range of NPS personnel—at the park, in Washington, and in the regional office—have provided 

answers to questions and supplied key bibliographic materials. 

I wish to single out for praise the cooperation I 

have received from a number of park superintendents: all the way from George Hall, who served 

at the helm during the 1960s, to the present 

chief, Paul Anderson. All of these gentlemen 

gave freely of their time for interviews, and I’m 

thankful for the forthright, honest explanations 

that they provided to the many questions pitched 

in their direction. I’m likewise thankful for the 

observations of two superintendents’ sons, Jan 

Dick and Scott Ruesch; their comments provided 

a window into the accomplishments of their 

fathers and, in addition, they provided a refreshing view of the park from an adolescent’s point 

of view. I greatly appreciate the assistance of my 

two supervisors, Sande McDermott (now in the 

Intermountain Region office in Denver) and Ted 

Birkedal, who provided major managerial guidance, and I’d also like to thank my editorial advisors: Paul Anderson, Joe Van Horn, Ann Kain, 

Jane Bryant, and Steve Carwile, all at Denali 

National Park and Preserve. These five experts, 

taken together, have more than a hundred years 

of on-the-ground experience at the park; they 

graciously shared that experience with their innumerable suggestions and much- needed course 

corrections, and for that I am grateful.

AD – Assistant Director

AEC – Alaska Engineering Commission

AHC – Alaska Historical Commission

AKF – Alaska, Fairbanks Land Office

Acknowledgements
Abbreviations vii

AKRO – Alaska Regional Office (NPS)

AKSO – Alaska Support Office (NPS)

ANC – Anchorage (National Archives facility)

ANCSA – Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act

ANILCA – Alaska National Interest Lands Conservation Act

APG – Alaska Planning Group

ARA – Automatic Retailers of America

ARC – Alaska Road Commission

ARCC – Alaska Region Curatorial Center

ARLIS – Alaska Resources Library and Information Services

ARR – Alaska Railroad

ASA – Alaska State Archives

ATCO – Alberta Trailer Company

BLM – Bureau of Land Management

BP – Before Present

BPR – Bureau of Public Roads

CAA – Civil Aeronautics Authority/Administration

CCC – Civilian Conservation Corps

CCF – Central Classified Files

CP – College Park, Md. (National Archives facility)

CR&NW – Copper River and North Western (railroad)

D&C – Design and Construction

DCP – Development Concept Plan

DENA – Denali National Park and Preserve

DES – Draft Environmental Statement

DNC – Domestic Names Committee

DNR – Department of Natural Resources

DOI – Department of the Interior

DSC – Denver Service Center (NPS)

ECW – Emergency Conservation Work

EIS – Environmental Impact Statement

E.O. – Executive Order

ERA/FMC – Economic Research Associates/Fawcett, McDermott, Cavanagh, Inc.

FAA – Federal Aviation Administration

FB&M – Fairbanks Base and Meridian

FES – Final Environmental Statement

FY – Fiscal Year

GLO – General Land Office

GPO – Government Publications Office

GVEA – Golden Valley Electric Association

HB – House Bill (state)

HFC – Harpers Ferry Center (NPS)

H.R. – House of Representatives Bill (federal)

HRS – Historic Resource Study

ICOMOS – International Council on Monuments and Sites

JFSLUPC – Joint Federal-State Land Use Planning Commission

MOA – Memorandum of Agreement

MOMC – Mount McKinley National Park

NARA – National Archives and Records Administration 

NPCI – National Park Concessions, Inc.

NPS – National Park Service

Abbreviations
viii Crown Jewel of the North: An Administrative History of Denali National Park and Preserve

NR – Natural Resources 

NRHP – National Register of Historic Places

OHA – Office of History and Archaeology

ONPS – Operations/National Park Service

PCP – Project Construction Program

PLO – Public Land Order

PNRO – Pacific Northwest Regional Office (NPS)

R4 – Region IV (NPS’s western region, 1937-1962)

RCR – Cultural Resources Division (in the NPS’s Alaska Regional Office)

RD – Regional Director

RG – Record Group

S – Senate Bill (federal)

SAR – Superintendent’s Annual Report

SB – San Bruno, Calif. (National Archives facility)

SB – Senate Bill (state)

SCR – Senate Concurrent Resolution

SMR – Superintendent’s Monthly Report

SOI – Secretary of the Interior

TAC – The Architects Collaborative

TIC – Technical Information Center (NPS)

TVRR – Tanana Valley Railroad

UAF – University of Alaska Fairbanks

UBC – University of British Columbia

U.C. – University of California

UNESCO – United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization

USGS – U.S. Geological Survey

USNR – U.S. Natural Resources, Inc.

USO – United Service Organizations

WODC – Western Office of Design and Construction (NPS)

WR – Western Region (NPS)

YCC – Youth Conservation Corps
Abbreviations ix

Chapter One: The Roof of the Continent 1

Chapter One: The Roof of the Continent

On a clear day in south-central or interior Alaska, 

the sight is inescapable – and breathtaking. For 

more than a hundred miles in every direction, 

it looms over everything and dominates the 

scene. The Mountain, the Big One, the Tall One. 

The Koyukon called it Deenaalee, the Lower 

Tanana named it Deenaadheet or Deennadhee, 

the Dena’ina called it Dghelay Ka’a, and at least 

six other Native groups had their own names for 

it.1 In the late 18th century various Europeans 

came calling, and virtually everyone who passed 

by was moved to comment on it. The Russians 

called it Bulshaia or Tenada, and though explorers from other nations were less specific, even 

the most hard-bitten adventurers were in awe 

of its height and majesty. No American gave it 

a name until Densmore’s Mountain appeared 

in the late 1880s, and the name that eventually 

stuck—Mount McKinley—was not applied 

until the waning days of the nineteenth century.2 Government geologists soon recognized 

that the mountain was higher than any other in 

North America; thus it is not at all surprising that 

visitors, of all stripes, would forever be attracted 

to take in its view, rhapsodize about its ethereal 

beauty, record it in silver nitrate and celluloid, 

and hike on its flanks.

A Land of Rugged Contrasts

As outstanding as it is on its own, Mount 

McKinley is merely the highest point in the long, 

sinuous cordillera that winds from the Aleutian 

Islands to the Alaska-Yukon border. The Alaska 

Range, which forms the highest and northernmost portion of that cordillera, extends from 

the Lake Clark country, 160 miles southwest of 

McKinley, to the Tok-Tetlin area, 250 miles to the 

east. Within this range are a number of majestic 

mountains: more than a dozen reach at least 

12,000 feet above sea level, and peaks exceeding 

10,000 feet high are so numerous that several 

are as yet unnamed. Towering over the rest are 

Mount McKinley—which has two peaks, each 

more than 19,000 feet high—and Mount Foraker, with an elevation of 17,400 feet. The high 

country surrounding these peaks is so extensive that one can fly for more than 90 miles in a 

straight line and see almost nothing but glaciers 

and snowfields. Because most of the range above 

the 7,000 foot level is covered by snow and ice 

all year long, some 17 percent of Denali National 

Park and Preserve is perpetually snowbound.3

Mountains and snowfields, however, are just 

one element in the remarkable high country of 

the central Alaska Range. Much of the range, to 

be sure, is snow-clad only in winter, and many 

Alaska Range peaks beyond the immediate 

vicinity of Mount McKinley top out at 9,000 feet 

elevation or less. To the south of the mountain’s 

backbone lies a broad band of rugged foothills 

incised by glacial tongues that reach 30 miles or 

more beyond the high ramparts. Beyond the 

glaciers’ termini lies the great Susitna Lowland, 

which drains the entire area south of the Alaska 

Range crest and occupies the entire broad area 

south to Knik Arm and Cook Inlet.

North of the Alaska Range and northeast of the 

McKinley River, the mountain fastness gives way 

to a discontinuous series of highlands—the Outer 

Range, the Kantishna Hills and adjacent high 

country—with elevations reaching 4,500 to 6,000 

feet above sea level. Between these peaks are located various low, rolling valleys that are between 

two and ten miles wide. West of these highlands, 

and north of the Alaska Range at the western end 

of the park and preserve, is a broad, high plain, 

dotted with lakes and wetlands, that stretches out 

into the Tanana and Kuskokwim River drainages.4

Because of the huge differences in altitude between the Alaska Range and the adjacent country 

to the north and south, a stark contrast in life 

forms is evident to even the most casual observer. 

In the higher elevations, and particularly in 

glaciated areas, resident plants and animals are 

either scarce or nonexistent. Below that zone is 

a hundred-mile-long oval of sparse dry tundra. 

On the north side of the Alaska Range, a broad, 

pockmarked band beyond the dry tundra is 

dominated by moist tundra. Interspersed within 

the moist tundra, however are various river valleys and lower slopes where a mixed evergreen 

and deciduous forest (of white and black spruce, 

poplars, white birches, and various willow varieties) holds sway. Other areas more distant from 

the mountain heights, both to the north and 

south, are also composed of mixed-forest species. 

And several areas north of the Alaska Range, 

including much of the land in the vicinity of Lake 

Minchumina, is dominated by brush muskeg.5

The area’s animal life is similarly diverse. The 

region is justifiably well known for its so-called 

charismatic megafauna, and Denali’s bus drivers 

Mount McKinley, highest point on the 

North American Continent, viewed 

from the north. Charles Ott Photo, 

DENA 3557, Denali National Park & 

Preserve Museum Collection. 
2 Crown Jewel of the North: An Administrative History of Denali National Park and Preserve

are quick to note that many visitors equate a successful trip along the park road with their ability 

to spot five major mammals: barren ground 

caribou, Dall sheep, moose, wolves, and grizzly 

bear. Those same bus drivers, however, are quick 

to point out that the area offers excellent habitat 

for many other large animals, such as coyotes, 

lynx, red foxes, and black bear. They might also 

note that other species of mammals inhabit the 

park (for a total of 25), along with one amphibian 

species, 15 species of fish, and 166 bird species.6 

These animal species occupy a variety of habitats, 

and regarding most of the large mammal species, 

the areas that they inhabit may vary considerably 

from one year to the next. 

The Denali caribou herd, which inhabits the park 

and preserve, graze in many areas outside of the 

high country. Of other major mammal species, 

Dall sheep inhabit the Outer Range foothills 

and the lower slopes of the Alaska Range, and 

moose may be seen throughout the area below 

the 3,000-foot isopleths. Wolves, in several 

packs, inhabit many areas in the northern half of 

the “old park” as well as in certain areas in the 

so-called “northern additions” 

and in drainages south of the 

high peaks; and grizzlies are 

found both north and south of 

the Alaska Range, primarily in 

tundra and in adjacent riparian 

taiga vegetation. Only the higher, glaciated slopes are bereft of 

large mammals. Although most 

of the large mammalian species 

are found on both sides of the 

range, these animals (according to a recent management 

plan) “occur within the park in 

greater concentrations north 

of the Alaska Range than south of the range.” 

Furthermore, viewing opportunities are excellent 

on the northern slopes; by contrast, “most areas 

to the south of the range are not expansive and 

open and thus do not afford a comparable viewing experience.”7

Early Residents and Visitors

Although the present park and preserve supports 

a broad spectrum of plant and animal species, 

conditions in most of this area are fairly marginal for year-round human subsistence. Factors 

contributing to this marginality, all of which are 

a function of the area’s relatively high elevations, 

include a preponderance of tundra vegetation 

(and thus a lack of firewood) and relatively severe 

winters (with poor hunting prospects and periodic high winds). Thus it is perhaps no surprise 

that the earliest known sites in the area—Dry 

Creek, Walker Road, and Moose Creek, each 

more than 11,000 years old—are located outside 

of the park. The Carlo Creek and Panguingue 

Creek sites, which date from at least 8,000 years 

B.P., are also located just outside of the park 

boundaries.8 

Denali caribou frequently rest on 

snow patches during the summer. 

DENA 3861, Denali National Park & 

Preserve Museum Collection

 

Archeological excavation at the 

Teklanika West site, Teklanika River, 

1961. DENA 19-17, Denali National 

Park & Preserve Museum Collection
Chapter One: The Roof of the Continent 3

Based on the archeological record, human 

populations appear to have existed within the 

present-day park boundaries for more than 7,000 

years. The first known evidence of human occupation, a piece of charcoal from a bluff near 

the Teklanika River, has been radiocarbon dated 

to 7,130 ± 98 B.P.9 Humans appear to have stayed 

at that site, off and on, for more than 5,500 years. 

More recent prehistoric sites are found at Lake 

Minchumina, just northwest of the park, which 

are between 1,000 and 2,600 years old.10 Archeologists thus far have recorded 84 prehistoric 

or protohistoric sites in the park and preserve. 

Most of these sites consist of one or more lithic 

artifacts, and it is hypothesized that they are 

related to former hunting camps, overlooks, or 

butchering locations. Because of their lack of 

cultural context, however, archeologists can only 

guess at the age of most of these artifacts and at 

the functions they served.11

Because of the lack of broadly applicable evidence, there is considerable dispute about the 

cultural tradition of these early peoples. Some 

researchers consider the development of a recognizable Athabaskan cultural pattern began roughly 6,000 years ago. Others, however, feel that the 

earliest peoples were called Amerinds, while the 

separate Athabaskan tradition represents a later 

migration. And still others consider that people 

representing the Athabaskan tradition began living in Alaska as early as 11,000 B.P.12 Regardless 

of when they began, Athabaskan culture and ethnic identity has been traced back 1,500 years or 

more according to linguistic evidence, and about 

1,000 years through their material culture. 

For the past several hundred years, five groups 

of Athabaskan-speaking Indians have lived in the 

park and surrounding areas. (See Map 1.) These 

groups include the Ahtna, the Dena’ina, the Upper Kuskokwim (Kolchan), the Lower Tanana, 

and the Koyukon.13 The Ahtna, whose culture 

was centered on the Copper River valley, includes the southeastern part of the present park 

and preserve within its territory. The Dena’ina, 

a coastal group of Athabaskans centered along 

upper Cook Inlet, includes the southcentral part 

of the park and preserve. The Upper Kuskokwim culture, based on several villages along the 

Kuskokwim River, utilized lands near the western 

end of the park and preserve. The Lower 

Tanana people, based on various villages along 

the Tanana River, has long been centered on the 

present-day vicinity of Fairbanks and includes 

the northeastern corner of the park and preserve. 

And the Koyukon Athabaskan culture encompassed a vast stretch of the Yukon, Koyukuk, and 

Tanana River drainages, including the northern 

and western end of the park and preserve.14

Non-native exploration of the area surrounding 

the present-day park unit was slow in coming, 

primarily because it was distant from the coast 

and remote from easily navigable rivers. The 

Russians, who held a nominal jurisdiction over 

present-day Alaska from 1741 to 1867, never 

penetrated within 50 miles of the park unit. 

And while it is indisputable that virtually all of 

Alaska was being either directly or indirectly 

influenced by European-based explorers—indirect influences being trading networks and 

disease transmission vectors—the reality is that 

non-Natives, during this period, impacted the 

lives of those who either occupied or used the 

lands in Denali’s shadow less than other groups 

who lived along the coast or along major inland 

trading routes.15 By all accounts, non-Natives’ 

only direct influence on the area during this time 

was a series of uncoordinated attempts to apply 

names to the area’s mountains: Russian Creole 

explorer Andrei Glazunov, in 1834, applied the 

Ingalik name “Tenada” to the “great mountain” 

that loomed more than 100 miles northeast of 

his route along the Stony River, and William Dall, 

who took part in the ill-fated Western Union 

Telegraph Expedition of 1865-67, proposed that 

the mountain chain that divided the Yukon River 

from the coastal country to the south be named 

the “Alaskan Range.” Locals, over time, shortened his suggestion to the Alaska Range, a name 

that still stands.16

The purchase of Russian America by the U.S. 

government, at first, had few immediate impacts 

on Alaska outside of Sitka, and for more than 

a decade afterward, few Americans ventured 

north. But in 1880, a major gold strike took place 

along Gastineau Channel, and Juneau erupted 

into life. Soon afterward, more gold was discovered at nearby Douglas, and before long, an 

increasing number of prospectors headed north 

and began fanning across the north country. 

Gold was discovered along the Fortymile River, 

near the U.S.-Canada border, in 1886; and in 

1892-95, additional discoveries took place along 

Birch Creek (which caused Circle City to spring 

into existence) and along Resurrection Creek 

(which created the Hope and Sunrise boom 

towns, on the shores of Turnagain Arm).17 

Most prospectors were far less fortunate. As a 

group, however, they were willing to go virtually 

anywhere in search of the elusive yellow metal. 

A party led by Frank Densmore, for example, 

crossed from the Tanana to the Kuskokwim 

drainage in 1889; though he found no Eldorado 

along the way, his enthusiasm over the huge, unnamed peak to the southeast prompted his peers 
4 Crown Jewel of the North: An Administrative History of Denali National Park and Preserve Koyukon ' 

iii' 

c3 

• 

Native 

Langu

[ · ] Denal

Prese

Language G

- Aleut 

C::: Alutiiq 

- Athab

-- La

(S

C::::: Eyak 

-Haida 

!==:: lnupia

- Tiingit 

- Tsims

-Yupik 

Based on the University of Alaska, 

Alaska Native Language Center Map 

created by 

Arctic Environmental 

Information and Data Center, 1982. 

Data compiled by Michael E. Krauss 

Image Created June 2006 

NPS Alaska Regional Office 

Judy Kesler- Cultural Resources 
Chapter One: The Roof of the Continent 5

to call it “Densmore’s Mountain.” Densmore, 

or perhaps other prospectors during this period, 

may have entered the boundaries of the present 

park unit.18

Seven years after Densmore’s trek, another 

prospector, William A. Dickey, was one of several 

who approached the mountain from the south. 

Confronted at first by torrential rains and cloudy 

skies, Dickey was not able to get a clear view of 

the Alaska Range until he reached the so-called 

“great forks” of the Susitna River, near presentday Talkeetna. Although he and his fellow 

prospectors continued to ascend the Susitna 

until they reached “an impassable canon, whose 

upper end was blocked by a high waterfall,” 

they probably got no closer to the present-day 

park than Densmore. Unlike his predecessor, 

however, Dickey decided to publicize his trip in 

an influential Eastern newspaper. In the January 

24, 1897 issue of the New York Sun, he gave an 

avid, detailed description of the mountain he had 

encountered. In addition, he gave the mountain 

a new name—Mount McKinley—and justified 

it because both he and McKinley were awoved 

proponents of a gold standard, and McKinley’s 

nomination as the 1896 Republican presidential 

candidate “was the first news we received on our 

way out of that wonderful wilderness.” Dickey’s 

contention that the mountain was the highest in 

North America—soon corroborated by others—

gave additional credence to his verbiage, and a 

short time later the U.S. government accepted 

Mount McKinley as an official designation.19

Dickey’s sojourn up the Susitna River took place 

the same year as a huge gold strike took place 

along a tributary of the Klondike River, and 

although that discovery took place more than 

300 miles to the east, the impacts of the Klondike 

gold discovery soon reverberated throughout the 

north country. Individual prospectors were first 

to respond to the promise of riches, but before 

long, the U.S. Geological Survey and the U.S. 

Army began to play strong supporting roles; the 

two agencies engaged in various expeditions into 

Alaska’s unexplored hinterlands and searched 

for viable routes between the coast and various 

Interior prospecting areas.20

The fervor surrounding the Klondike strike resulted in the two agencies conducting five different expeditions into the countryside surrounding 

Mount McKinley in 1898 and 1899. In 1898, a 

USGS party headed by Josiah Edward Spurr and 

William Schuyler Post ascended the Yentna and 

Skwentna rivers, crossed over Rainy Pass, and 

left the area via the South Fork of the Kuskokwim 

River. That same year two other parties ascended the Susitna drainage, much as William Dickey 

had done two years earlier: George H. Eldridge 

and Robert Muldrow of the USGS, and Sgt. 

William Yanert of the U.S. Army. Both of these 

expeditions went farther inland than Dickey; 

both traversed the Broad Pass area and reached 

the north-flowing Nenana River before retreating 

back to Cook Inlet. 

The following year, two more Army parties 

entered the area. The first, led by Pvt. George 

Van Schoonhoven, ascended the Susitna drainage 

and reached the Broad Pass area before reversing course, much as the other exploring parties 

had done a year earlier. The other expedition, 

Facing page: Five different Athabaskan-speaking Indian groups have 

utilized the area now contained in 

Denali National Park and Preserve.

Mt. McKinley, from the south side, 

as William Dickey viewed it. The 

Chulitna River, near Talkeetna, is in 

the foreground. Candy Waugaman 

Collection
6 Crown Jewel of the North: An Administrative History of Denali National Park and Preserve

led by Lt. Joseph Herron, began by following 

in the footsteps of the 1898 Spurr-Post expedition; it ascended the Yentna River. This party, 

however, ventured north to the Kichatna River, 

crossed the Alaska Range via Simpson Pass, then 

made its way to the Kuskokwim River’s South 

Fork. Herron’s group differed from the SpurrPost expedition in that its goal was a route to the 

interior. As a result, Herron and his men nearly 

starved in the area’s swamps until rescued by 

the Natives of Telida village. Chief Sesui of the 

village accommodated the men until freeze-up 

that fall, after which villagers led the party to the 

headwaters of the Kuskokwim’s North Fork, 

near Lake Minchumina. Guides then led the 

party down the Cosna River to Fort Gibbon, the 

Army camp that had recently been built at the 

Yukon-Tanana river confluence.21 As a result of 

these combined efforts, military authorities were 

now familiar with the southern, eastern, and 

western margins of the present park unit, and at 

least one of these groups may have been the first 

to tread within the boundaries of Denali National 

Park and Preserve.22

By the fall of 1899, the Klondike rush was over; 

interest moved on to the beaches of Nome, and 

in 1902, a gold strike near the Tanana brought 

a new rush and prospectors began flocking to 

Fairbanks. During this same period, a flurry of 

new interest was shown in the Mount McKinley 

region; at least four unrelated expeditions were 

launched to the area in either 1902 or 1903. In 

the spring of 1902, the USGS dispatched Alfred 

H. Brooks, along with topographer De Witt Lee 

Reaburn, to explore “the largest unexplored 

area in southern Alaska and [run] a traverse to 

the Yukon which should connect the previous 

surveys of the Susitna, Kuskokwim, and Tanana 

rivers.” The Brooks-Reaburn party responded 

by ascending the Yentna River drainage to 

Rainy Pass, after which it dropped down to the 

northern flank of the Alaska Range and skirted 

it—first to the northeast and then to the east—all 

the way to the Nenana River, near present-day 

McKinley Park Station. The party then crossed 

the river, ascended the Yanert Fork for several 

miles, headed north over the Alaska Range and 

descended the Nenana River to the Tanana.23 

And that same year, engineers working for the 

Alaska Central Railroad began a two-year survey 

In the words of photographer Stephen Foster: “Chief Dearfan and his 

tribe of about 50 Indians –chief fourth 

from the left. Sesui second from right 

and wife who saved Lieut. Herron 

and 8 soldiers on first Govt. expedition in this section. March 10, 1919.

” Stephen Foster 

Collection, 69-92-330, University of 

Alfred H. Brooks led the first U.S. 

Geological Survey expedition exploring along the north slope of the 

Alaska Range in 1902, through what 

is now Denali National Park and Preserve. Portraits, #246, U.S. Geological 
Chapter One: The Roof of the Continent 7

effort that brought them from the Susitna Valley 

up to Broad Pass and on to the Tanana Valley.24

The following year—1903—witnessed the first 

attempt to climb Mt. McKinley. James Wickersham, the U.S. District Judge for Alaska, left 

the Fairbanks gold camp with four others. They 

floated down the Tanana River, then began 

ascending the Kantishna River. Upon reaching 

its confluence with the Toklat River, the party 

climbed Chitsia Peak, then headed southwest 

along the margin of the Kantishna Hills. They 

decided to ascend the mountain via Peters 

Glacier. They continued on to Jeffrey Glacier but 

were stopped cold by a “tremendous precipice,” 

now known as Wickersham Wall, that separated 

them from McKinley’s North Peak. The disappointed party had no choice but to descend from 

the mountain and return to Fairbanks. Just a few 

weeks later, another party came to the area with 

similar intentions. Led by Dr. Frederick Cook, a 

recent medical school graduate, the 18-man party 

followed a route much like Brooks and Reaburn’s 

the year before. They made several unsuccessful attempts to approach the mountain from the 

west; and they, like Wickersham, tried to climb 

McKinley via the Peters Glacier. The party then 

meandered along the base of the Alaska Range, 

probably as far east as the Easy Pass area; it then 

surmounted the ridge, rafted down the Chulitna, 

and descended the Susitna to Cook Inlet.25

Wickersham’s party, during its 1903 sojourn, 

stumbled across some “colors” along Chitsia 

Creek and filed mining claims that were recorded 

at Rampart.26 Spurred by the news, prospectors 

soon filtered into the area. The following year, 

Joe Dalton spotted gold along Crooked Creek 

in the nearby Toklat River drainage, and after 

Jack Horn and Joe Quigley struck pay dirt along 

Glacier Creek in early 1905 and returned to 

Fairbanks with the news, the Kantishna gold rush 

ensued. In July and August of that year, hundreds if not thousands of prospectors flocked to 

the hills and staked their length and breadth, and 

several instant towns sprang up: Roosevelt along 

the Kantishna River, Diamond City at the Moose 

Creek-Bearpaw River confluence, Glacier City 

near the Bearpaw River-Glacier Creek confluence, and Eureka (later Kantishna), where Moose 

Creek and Eureka Creek meet.27 

Up until this time, the area surrounding Mount 

McKinley was being explored and developed in a 

way similar to most of the rest of Alaska. Because of its isolation from navigable waterways, 

European-based peoples had filtered into the 

area somewhat later than many other areas in 

Alaska. The recent gold rush, however, suggested 

that this area might soon develop to an even 

greater degree. The possibilities seemed limitless. New visitors, however, would soon intrude 

upon the scene. These visitors are discussed in 

the following chapter.

Notes - Chapter 1 

1 James Kari, Native Place Names Mapping 

in Denali National Park and Preserve, draft 

A prospector’s camp on Eureka Creek 

typifies camps on the creeks of the 

Kantishna Mining District during the 

gold rush. Prindle Collection, #526, 

U.S. Geological Survey
8 Crown Jewel of the North: An Administrative History of Denali National Park and Preserve

final report (Fairbanks, UAF Alaska and Polar 

Regions Dept., December 1999), 7-8. Earlier 

sources, such as Donald Orth’s Dictionary of 

Alaska Place Names, USGS Professional Paper 

567 (Washington, D.C., GPO, 1967, pp. 266-67, 

610) stated that the primary Native names for 

the peak were “Denali,” used by the Tanana, and 
Chapter One: The Roof of the Continent 9

“Doleika” or “Traleika,” used by the Dena’ina (Tanaina).

2 Orth, Dictionary, 610; Gail E. H. Evans, From Myth to Reality: Travel Experiences and Landscape Perceptions in the Shadow of Mount McKinley, Alaska, 1876-1938 (unpublished M.A. Thesis, 

U.C. Santa Barbara, February 1987), 57.

3 Alaska Planning Group, Final Environmental Statement, Proposed Mt. McKinley National Park 

Additions (Washington?, U.S. Interior Department, October 1974), 67; Phil Brease interview, June 

6-7, 2004.

4 Alfred H. Brooks, The Mount McKinley Region, Alaska, USGS Professional Paper 70 (Washington, GPO, 1911), 43-48; APG, FES, 66-67; Clyde Wahrhaftig, Physiographic Divisions of Alaska, 

USGS Professional Paper 482 (Washington, D.C., GPO, 1965), 29, 35-36, plate 1. The “Outer 

Range” is of local usage and is not a recognized place name.

5 Brooks, Mt. McKinley Region, 201; APL, FES, 79-81.

6 Carol McIntyre to author, email, June 20 and June 22, 2006.

7 APG, FES, 81-104, 577-81; NPS, General Management Plan, Land Protection Plan [and] Wilderness Suitability Review [for] Denali National Park and Preserve, Alaska [Denver, the author, 

November 1986], 131, 135.

8 Kristen Griffin, An Overview and Assessment of Archeological Resources, Denali National Park 

and Preserve (Anchorage, NPS, September 1990), 19, 22.

9 Ted Goebel, “Recent Research at Teklanika West: Site Stratigraphy and Dating,” in Frederick 

Hadleigh West, American Beginnings; the Prehistory and Paleoecology of Beringia (Chicago, 

University of Chicago Press, 1996), 341-43; Frederick H. West, “Teklanika West,” in same volume, 

pp. 332-41. West, the University of Alaska archeologist who first investigated the Teklanika site, 

originally estimated that earliest human activity there dated back to 8,000-12,000 B.P., but due to 

methodological advances, that date has since been revised several times. Ted Goebel to Research 

Coordinator, DENA, April 10, 1991; Griffin, Overview and Assessment, 22.

10 Griffin, Overview and Assessment, 26-28.

11 Ibid., 81-82, 179-98, 235-70.

12 Ibid., 28-29.

13 Ibid., 34-36. Dena’ina Natives were formerly known as the Tanaina.

14 Ibid., 37; James Kari, Native Place Names Mapping in Denali National Park and Preserve, draft 

final report (December 1999), Figure 1; Michael E. Krauss, comp., Native Peoples and Languages 

of Alaska (map), revised edition, 1982.

15 William E. Brown, A History of the Denali-Mount McKinley Region, Alaska (Santa Fe, NPS, 

1991), 11, 13.

16 Brown, A History, 14; Evans, From Myth to Reality, 58.

17 Michael Gates, Gold at Fortymile Creek; Early Days in the Yukon (Vancouver, UBC Press, 

1994), 32, 35-37, 65-67; Virginia Doyle Heiner, Alaska Mining History, A Source Document (OHA 

Series #17, July 1977, 263-64, 405; Mary J. Barry, A History of Mining on the Kenai Peninsula

(Anchorage, Alaska Northwest, 1973), 37-45.

18 Evans, From Myth to Reality, 59, 61.

19 Brown, A History, 16-18; Anchorage Daily Times, September 9, 1971, 9.

20 Brown (A History, p. 18) noted that in 1898, Congress asked the USGS to “become the Nation’s 

chief trailblazer in Alaska,” and as a result, the agency sent out several exploring parties that year. 

But other expeditions were the sole responsibility of the U.S. Army.

21 Brown, A History, 19-20; Evans, From Myth to Reality, 64-68, 382-85; Alfred Hulse Brooks, 

Blazing Alaska’s Trails, second edition (Fairbanks, Univ. of Alaska Press, 1973), 285-90; Morgan 

Sherwood, The Exploration of Alaska, 1865-1900 (New Haven, Yale, 1965), 160, 164-67, 174-76.

22 Lt. Herron’s 1899 expedition entered the present-day national preserve when it crossed Simpson 

Pass, and either the Eldridge-Muldrow or Yanert expeditions (both in 1898) may have entered the 

present-day national park when they crossed Broad Pass and arrived at the Nenana River. As noted 

above, Frank Densmore or another prospector may have entered the park earlier, in the late 1880s to 

mid-1890s.

23 Evans, From Myth to Reality, 71-74, 386-87; Brown, A History, 23-27; Brooks, The Mount 

McKinley Region, Alaska, 169-80.

24 Brown, A History, 19; Mary J. Barry, Seward, Alaska; A History of the Gateway City, Vol. I: 

Prehistory to 1914 (Anchorage, the author, 1986), 35-36.

25 Evans, From Myth to Reality, 75-80, 388-89; Brown, A History, 32-38, 55. Two excellent accounts of the Wickersham and later Mount McKinley expeditions are Terris Moore, Mt. McKinley: 

The Pioneer Climbs (Fairbanks, University of Alaska Press, 1967) and Tom Walker, Kantishna: 

Mushers, Miners, and Mountaineers (Missoula, MT, Pictorial Histories Publishing Co., 2005).

26 Brown, A History, 34. Gold miners had established Rampart, along the Yukon River, in 1896.
10 Crown Jewel of the North: An Administrative History of Denali National Park and Preserve

27 Ibid., 62-64.
Chapter One: The Roof of the Continent 11
12 Crown Jewel of the North: An Administrative History of Denali National Park and Preserve
Chapter Two: Charles Sheldon’s Vision 13

Chapter Two: Charles Sheldon’s Vision

As noted in Chapter 1, few non-Natives visited 

the Mount McKinley region—either north or 

south of the Alaska Range—before the 1890s. 

The first visitors were prospectors, followed by 

both civilian and military exploration parties. 

After the turn of the century, outsiders ventured 

closer to the mountain massif than they had previously, and in 1903 two parties—one from Fairbanks and another from outside of Alaska—made 

the first attempts to climb Mount McKinley. 

While both attempts were unsuccessful, the leaders of these parties left the area duly impressed 

by its scenic majesty, and one party found gold 

particles in a Kantishna Hills streambed. That 

discovery brought others into the area, and in 

1905 a gold rush brought thousands of prospectors, primarily from Fairbanks and nearby points.

The First Park Advocates

Virtually everyone who visited the north side 

of the Alaska Range during this period were on 

practical missions; the U.S. Geological Survey 

crews, for example, were asked to describe the 

area’s topography and geology for a government publication, the Army expeditions were 

making a general reconnaissance, and the two 

parties that arrived in 1903 were there to climb 

Mount McKinley, nothing more. Despite the 

pragmatism of these men, however, the reports 

that they wrote effusively described two remarkable qualities about the area: its scenery and its 

wildlife. The magnificence of the overall scenery 

by close-up observers, coupled with praise of the 

mountain massif, was first recorded by Muldrow, 

Eldridge, and Herron in the late 1890s, and virtually everyone who came thereafter was similarly 

impressed.

Beginning in 1902, the area’s remarkable wildlife—diverse and plentiful—was lauded as well. 

Alfred Brooks, for example, noted that “On the 

north slopes of the mountains, moose, caribou, 

and mountain sheep, or big horns, were unusually plentiful ... the party was never without 

fresh meat.” Wickersham, in 1903, wrote that 

“the beautiful rolling grass-lands and moss 

covered hills make it a favorite feeding ground 

for caribou, and the sharp crags to the east are 

the home of Tebay, the white sheep. ... We kill 

ptarmigan on the hills and ducks on the lakes – it 

is a hunter’s paradise.” And Dr. Cook and his 

party were profoundly impressed; “Here along 

the northern slope of the McKinley ground,” 

he wrote, we crossed the best game country in 

America. Caribou, moose, mountain sheep, 

and grizzly bears were constantly in evidence.”1 

Cook’s superlative—“the best game country in 

America”—would be repeated, in later years as a 

rallying cry. And Wickersham, too, saw something of the superlative as he traveled through the 

area; between Wonder Lake and the McKinley 

River, his party was delighted to discover a large 

spruce forest. Wickersham, obviously impressed, 

noted that “This forest ought to be withdrawn 

from disposal and preserved for the use of those 

who shall come after us to explore the highest 

and most royal of American mountains.”2

For Wickersham, or any other Alaska official, to 

suggest a scenic land withdrawal in 1903 was a 

highly unusual move. This is because conservation, as we know it today, was still in its embryonic stages. The United States, at this time, had 

established a ragtag series of forest reserves. 

These designations were only marginally effective, however, in stopping the ongoing desecration of the country’s forested lands, and the U.S. 

Forest Service had not yet been established.3 

The first federal bird reservation, on tiny Pelican 

Island in Florida—which was the initial element 

in what would later evolve into a nationwide 

network of national wildlife refuges—had been 

established only a few months earlier.4 And as far 

as national parks were concerned, the first had 

been established more than 30 years earlier, but 

by 1903, only eight had been established – and 

those few were being nominally administered by 

the U.S. Army, if at all. The Antiquities Act, and 

the national monuments established by that act, 

were still years in the future.5 

Conservation was even less of a concern in 

remote Alaska. Virtually the only lands in the 

District that were reserved for conservation 

purposes at the time were the Afognak Forest 

and Fish Culture Reserve, established in 1892; 

the small Alexander Archipelago Forest Reserve, 

which was a forerunner of what would become 

the Tongass National Forest; and Indian River 

Park, a tiny reservation on the outskirts of Sitka.6 

Pragmatic Alaskans, driven by the potential 

riches of the quickly-developing area, were in no 

mood to tolerate new federal land withdrawals, 

and the widespread protests that greeted President Roosevelt’s closure of Alaska’s coal lands, in 

November 1906, merely confirmed that notion.7

In the midst of this antagonistic atmosphere, a 

visitor from Vermont came to Alaska in search 

of the gamelands north of the Alaska Range. 

Charles Sheldon was financially comfortable, 

Early visitors to the north side of the 

Alaska Range were impressed with 

the

area’s abundant wildlife, referring to 

it as “the best game country in America.” DENA 3812, Denali National Park 
14 Crown Jewel of the North: An Administrative History of Denali National Park and Preserve

politically savvy, and moved with ease among 

members of the Eastern elite. Because of his 

wealth—gained from the supervision of various railroad construction projects and lucrative 

shares in a Mexican silver mine—he could well 

have retired and enjoyed a life of ease and idleness. But Sheldon was a hunter-naturalist, in 

the tradition of Theodore Roosevelt; he enjoyed 

“roughing it” and the accomplishments that 

came through physical hardship. And he also 

had a strong altruistic streak. Given those passions, he developed a deep interest in the study 

and preservation of mountain sheep, and upon 

advice from biologists Edward W. Nelson and C. 

Hart Merriam, he decided to travel to Alaska to 

observe the relatively little-known Dall sheep in 

its natural habitat.8

Sheldon, then 38 years old9, ventured down the 

Yukon River in the early summer of 1906. Along 

the way, in Dawson, he hired Jack Haydon, and 

after arriving in Fairbanks, he brought on Harry 

Karstens, another veteran of the Klondike stampede. Sheldon and the two packers approached 

the Mt. McKinley area much as Wickersham’s 

party had done three years earlier. To judge by 

his diary, which was published two years after 

his death, Sheldon thoroughly enjoyed the trip; 

he waxed ecstatically when he first saw Mount 

McKinley (in mid-July) from a hilltop near Wonder Lake, and he remained captivated by the area 

for the remainder of the summer as he wound 

through the area observing—and occasionally 

harvesting—the area’s sheep, caribou, bears, 

and other megafauna. He stayed as long as he 

could, knowing that if he delayed any further, 

he would miss the last Yukon River steamboat of 

the season. But when he left, he did so with two 

overriding convictions. First, he knew that the 

Dall sheep’s life history “could not be learned 

without a much longer stay among them and [he] 

determined to return and devote a year to their 

study. With this in view I planned to revisit the 

region...” He also was struck by both the usefulness and intelligence of one of 

his packers, Harry Karstens; he 

noted that the man was “brimful of good nature” and was 

fully supportive of Sheldon’s 

work.10

Just as he had promised, 

Sheldon returned to Fairbanks 

the following year for a longer 

sojourn in the shadow of Mt. 

McKinley. He and Karstens 

trekked south and entered the 

upper gamelands on or about 

August 1, 1907, and they immediately set to work building a cabin on the right 

bank of the Toklat River, opposite the mouth of 

present-day Sheldon Creek and just upriver from 

its confluence with present-day Cabin Creek. 

Sheldon’s primary purpose, it will be recalled, 

was to study the area’s Dall sheep populations 

and to collect a few specimens of them for study 

and display Outside. But he did far more. A man 

of catholic interests, he immersed himself in the 

studies of other mammal populations as well as 

on birds, vegetation, and other items of interest.11

And the more he learned, the more he grew to 

appreciate the area. In the middle of that winter, 

he first wrote in his journal about an idea that 

he had first discussed with Karstens back in 

the summer of 1906. Because of the “beauties 

of the country and of the variety of the game,” 

he wrote, the area “would make an ideal park 

and game preserve.” Tourists, too, would be an 

important part of the equation, and he easily 

anticipated the area’s “enjoyment and inspiration 

[that] visitors will receive.” The idea of a “Denali 

National Park,” which was broached in the January 12 diary entry, remained a fixture for Sheldon 

throughout the rest of his stay. He and Karstens, 

after that date, paid keen attention to the meandering wildlife in order to create park boundaries 

that might best protect them. And just prior to 

returning to Fairbanks, Sheldon noted that the 

sorrow he felt upon leaving the game country was 

tempered by his commitment to seeing the area 

become a designated game preserve.12

As noted above, the promulgation of a large 

national park in Alaska, at this early date, would 

have been a startling departure from the norm. 

But to Sheldon, such a proposition was not altogether surprising. The Boone and Crockett Club, 

of which he was a member, had gone on record 

as being interested in the establishment of game 

refuges. And as the longtime chair of the club’s 

Game Conservation Committee, the club’s position “inspired in him the thought of preserving 

Charles Sheldon made an expedition 

to the north slopes of the Mount 

McKinley region to hunt and study 

the little-known Dall sheep in the 

summer of 1906. Denali National Park 

and Preserve Museum Collection

Charles Sheldon is pictured here at his 

1906 camp at the Forks of the Toklat 

River where he collected specimens of 

the Dall sheep and other wildlife for 

the American Museum of Natural History. Karstens Library Collection
Chapter Two: Charles Sheldon’s Vision 15

this area after personally studying the situation in 

that land.” Another factor that underscored his 

interest was a darkening cloud on the horizon: 

market hunters. During his time in the gamelands, he had met several of these men at camps 

in the Savage, Teklanika, Toklat and Sanctuary 

river valleys. These camps helped supply meat 

to Fairbanks and adjacent mining camps. But 

their work worried him, and he was particularly 

appalled that half or more of the meat that they 

harvested was fed to their dogs before it was 

delivered to its destination.13

Shortly after he returned to New York, in January 1909, Sheldon pitched the idea of a game 

preserve in a speech at the Boone and Crockett 

club’s annual dinner. Club members responded 

with unmitigated enthusiasm. Politically, however, members recognized that Congress had a 

waning interest in conservation—Roosevelt was 

about to be succeeded by William Howard Taft—

and Sheldon recognized that the idea would have 

to wait. For the next several years, the park idea 

remained in an embryonic stage, but as time went 

on, Sheldon and other like-minded individuals 

continued to refine the idea that had first erupted 

during Sheldon and Karstens’ winter sojourn. 

In the meantime, Sheldon gained a key Alaskan 

ally. James Wickersham, the former district 

judge in Fairbanks, became Alaska’s non-voting 

delegate to Congress in 1909. Wickersham, by 

good fortune, was a friend of Sheldon’s. He had 

been an occasional guest at Boone and Crockett 

Club dinners, and because of his 1903 adventure 

on Mount McKinley and in the Kantishna area, 

he was familiar with the country and he admired 

both its scenery and its remarkable animal life.14

Wickersham, as it turned out, was the first of 

several parties to attempt a Mount McKinley 

ascent. Just two months later, Dr. Frederick 

Cook and Robert Dunn made it as far the 11,000-

foot level on Peters Glacier before turning back. 

Cook, obviously smitten by the mountain’s lure, 

returned in 1906 with Belmore Browne, Herschel 

Parker and Robert Barrill; he loudly claimed to 

have reached the top, but many were skeptical, 

and in 1910 Browne and Parker made another 

trek into the area and refuted much of what Cook 

had proclaimed as gospel. Cook’s claims, and the 

counter-claims of many others, made headlines 

for months afterwards, among both explorer’s 

groups and the general public.15

A 1910 trek up the slopes of Mount McKinley, by 

the so-called “sourdough expedition,” resulted in 

four Fairbanks men hauling a 14-foot-long spruce 

flagpole to the top of the mountain’s North Peak 

(19,470 feet). But McKinley’s South Peak—two 

miles to the southeast and 850 feet higher in 

elevation—remained elusive. So two years later, 

Browne and Parker returned to the mountain yet 

again, this time accompanied by Merle La Voy. 

Following another route up McKinley’s northern flanks, they muscled their way up past the 

19,000-foot level. Once there, however, a clear 

day turned into a snow-laden gale, and less than 

200 yards from the summit, they were forced to 

retreat down the ridge and back to a base camp 

on upper Cache Creek. While there, on July 6, 

they felt a major earthquake, most likely from the 

Denali Fault; the quake had a significant impact 

on their camp, and it launched major avalanches 

on the surrounding mountains. Low on food, the 

This group of Alaskan miners, the 

“Sourdough Expedition,” made the 

first ascent of Mt. McKinley’s north 

peak in 1910. DENA 4003, Denali 

National Park and Preserve Museum 

Collection
16 Crown Jewel of the North: An Administrative History of Denali National Park and Preserve

expedition returned to Fairbanks.16

A year later, a new expedition—headed by Archdeacon Hudson Stuck, accompanied by Harry 

Karstens, Walter Harper, and Robert Tatum—attacked the mountain once again. Once on the 

mountain, the party learned that the previous 

summer’s earthquake had strewn ice and boulders asunder and made the ascent, of presentday Karstens Ridge, far more difficult. Despite 

those impediments, the four men climbed up 

to the 17,500-foot level and camped. Then, at 4 

a.m. on June 7, they set off toward the summit. 

Hiking in full sun, a keen wind, and a temperature of -4° F., the group—first Harper, then the 

others—reached the top. Ninety minutes later, 

they headed back down, and less than two weeks 

later, all four safely reached the Tanana River. 

The party’s conquest of Mt. McKinley, North 

America’s tallest peak, captured the imagination 

of thousands. Among Alaskans, the men’s efforts 

were duly respected, but each soon returned to 

their previous lives with nary a look back.17

Congress Opts for a Railroad

In 1912, toward the end of Taft’s term, Congress 

showed more interest in Alaska than it had since 

the Klondike days of the late 1890s. In August 

of that year, it passed Alaska’s second Organic 

Act. This act changed Alaska from a district to a 

full-fledged territory, and it established a territorial legislature. More important from Sheldon’s 

point of view, however, the act established an 

Alaska Railroad Commission, which was asked 

to report on the most viable route for a government railroad between Alaska’s southern coast 

and the interior. In short order, the commission 

recommended several routes, including one that 

followed the Copper River and Northwestern 

Railway (CR&NW) and the Valdez-Fairbanks 

wagon road,18 and another that followed the 

old Alaska Central line from Seward to Turnagain Arm, continued north to the Matanuska 

(Chickaloon) coal fields, then northwest into the 

Kuskokwim drainage and the Iditarod River. 

Congress passed the Alaska Railroad Act on 

March 12, 1914, which provided funding to build 

the rail line. The legislation, however, did not 

bind the government to the previously-completed survey recommendations, and at one time, 

routes with five different warm-water termini 

were being considered. The three members 

of the newly-established Alaska Engineering 

Commission soon began surveying these routes, 

and in time, just two routes were under serious consideration: the CR&NW-based route 

noted above, and a new, Seward-based route that 

wound north up the Susitna River valley to Broad 

Pass, from where it descended to the Tanana 

River via the Nenana River and continued on to 

Fairbanks. Given the certainty that one of these 

two routes would be constructed, opportunists 

flocked to the mouth of Ship Creek (presentday Anchorage) and to Seward in hopes that 

President Woodrow Wilson would choose the 

Seward-based route. Those opportunists, evidently thinking that the government was unlikely 

to purchase the CR&NW from the powerful (and 

widely despised) Guggenheim-Morgan Syndicate, proved visionary; on April 10, 1915, Wilson 

signed an executive order choosing a route that 

would run from Seward to Fairbanks.19

Alaskans in general, and particularly the residents 

of towns along the proposed railroad route, were 

overjoyed to know that a major railroad was 

on the verge of construction in their territory. 

Charles Sheldon, however, had decidedly mixed 

Belmore Browne’s 1912 expedition 

traveled by dog team north to the 

Alaska Range, across it, and to the beginning of their climbing route on the 

north side of Mt. McKinley. Farquhar 

Collection, 81-208-17, University of 

Alaska Fairbanks Archives
Chapter Two: Charles Sheldon’s Vision 17

feelings about Wilson’s action. On the one hand, 

he knew that the new railroad—which would be 

built along the Nenana River—would make it far 

easier for tourists and nature-lovers of all stripes 

to visit the gamelands he knew so well. But he 

was also concerned because that same railroad 

would ease access for market hunters whom, he 

feared, might easily wipe out the area’s sheep, 

caribou, and other large game. These hunters, he 

knew all too well, would now have the responsibility to feed thousands of railroad construction workers in addition to Fairbanks and other 

Interior residents.20 Sadly, Sheldon’s concern 

had considerable justification; between 1913 and 

1916, market hunters harvested between 1,500 

and 2,000 Dall sheep each winter from the Toklat 

and Teklanika river basins alone.21

Given that challenge, Sheldon and his colleagues 

knew that they had to act quickly. In order to 

protect the cherished wildlife, they needed to 

convince Congress to pass a park bill, and in 

addition they needed to convince Congress to 

expend funds on park enforcement staff. And all 

of this needed to be done before railroad construction neared the boundaries of the newlyestablished park. Sheldon’s first response to the 

impending challenge was to secure passage, by 

the Boone and Crockett Club, of a resolution that 

endorsed the idea of a Mount McKinley National 

Park.22 This was accomplished on September 21, 

1915. Sheldon and Madison Grant—the latter a 

historian and fellow Club member—then organized as an ad hoc lobbying committee.

At the time that the Club’s lobbying campaign 

began, Alaskans were just as dead-set against 

federal regulations and reservations as they had 

ever been. They resented the 1908 Game Law, 

which had been passed over their objections. 

They resented President Taft’s 1910 withdrawal 

of Alaska’s oil-bearing tracts. And because the 

onset of World War I (in Europe) diverted some 

ships away from the Alaskan trade, they were 

particularly resentful of any actions that might 

prevent them from gaining access to locally available meat supplies. Sheldon, Grant, and other 

conservationists were firm in their desire to have 

a park established that would allow no commercial hunting. They knew, however, that many 

Alaskans might fight such a bill; and more important, they knew that any bill passing Congress 

would need to be completely acceptable to the 

state’s non-voting delegate, James Wickersham. 

Sheldon therefore began his campaign by writing 

his old friend and asking for his thoughts on the 

matter.23 Wickersham soon responded. Sheldon, 

as a result of that interaction, noted that any park 

in this area “should be created under provisions 

which will protect local interests in mining.” 

More specifically, any park bill would need to 

contain provisions protecting both existing and 

future mining claims.24

In the next few months, Sheldon contacted 

others for support, both inside and outside of 

government. That December, the Boone and 

Crockett Club Preservation Committee chief 

wrote to Stephen T. Mather, who at that time was 

Interior Secretary Franklin Lane’s assistant in 

charge of the national parks. (Congress did not 

establish the National Park Service until August 1916, after which Mather became the new 

agency’s director.) 

Sheldon told Mather that, with the possible 

exception of the Grand Canyon, nothing could 

compare to that “region of the Alaska Range for 

the grandeur of the scenery and the topographical interest...,” and because of the area’s “vast 

reservoir of game,” he had long “believed that 

someday this region must be made a national 

park.” In his letter, Sheldon was careful to note 

political realities regarding existing and future 

mining activity. Mather, at first, was less than enthusiastic. His primary focus was on additions to 

Yosemite, Sequoia, and Rocky Mountain national 

parks, along with establishing Grand Canyon; as 

a result, he would “temporarily forget” pushing 

for any other new park areas. But perhaps in 

response to the objections of Horace Albright, 

Mather’s assistant, Mather soon became fully 

supportive of Sheldon’s plan; in fact, he went so 

far as to speak with Boone and Crockett members on that subject at the club’s January 6, 1916 

meeting.25

Over the next few months, word spread about 

the Boone and Crockett proposal, and leaders 

both inside and outside Alaska voiced their support. On a national level, Sheldon soon learned 

that Belmore Browne of the Camp Fire Club of 

America had been formulating his own proposal 

for preserving the Denali landscape. (Browne, 

like Sheldon, was thoroughly familiar with the 

beauties of the Alaska Range; he was a veteran of 

three previous attempts to climb Mount McKinley, in 1906, 1910, and 1912.26) Browne quickly 

joined Sheldon’s effort, and soon afterward 

the American Game Protective and Propagation Association, headed by John B. Burnham, 

Based at cabins such as this one, 

market hunters harvested sheep, 

caribou and moose to sell in the mining camps and railroad construction 

camps. Charles Porter Collection, 

79G-11F-44, National Archives 
18 Crown Jewel of the North: An Administrative History of Denali National Park and Preserve

was included as well. Within Alaska, delegate 

Wickersham voiced his strong support for a park 

bill, recognizing that it would stimulate tourism 

to Alaska. Thomas B. Riggs, head of the Alaska 

Engineering Commission—which was then 

constructing the railroad between Seward and 

Fairbanks—also saw the bill’s benefits, noting 

that a national park would boost tourist travel 

along the line.27

Because Sheldon, Riggs, and Browne all knew 

the country well, and because all three men 

supported a park bill, they were the primary 

determinants of the park’s boundaries. Sheldon, 

in mid-January 1916, sent Riggs a description 

of the park’s boundaries as he envisioned them. 

That boundary included much of the magnificent 

gamelands located north of the Alaska Range; it 

also included the spine of the range itself, along 

with additional thousands of acres south of 

the Alaska Range. (See Map 2.) But it did not 

include the Kantishna area; in fact, it completely 

avoided the Kantishna Hills because of the preponderance of mineral claims and the potential 

for continued mining-related activity. Two weeks 

later, Thomas Riggs replied to Sheldon. He fully 

agreed with the general concept that Sheldon 

had presented, but it differed in several particulars. He told Sheldon that he was offering a new 

boundary 

which, I think, suits our conditions 

a little better than yours. I have so 

drawn the boundary as to be largely 

controlled by natural features; I have 

also eliminated about 700 square miles 

to the south of Mt. McKinley which 

would be of no use to anybody but 

which, when added to a withdrawal, 

makes the size of the park appear very 

formidable. 

Browne then weighed in with a suggestion to 

include additional acreage in a broad band south 

of Wonder Lake. Then, at some point between 

January and April 1916, someone—perhaps 

Mather or Albright, who were the only two 

Interior Department employees advocating for 

what would become the National Park Service—

responded by agreeing to Riggs’s general notions 

but by simplifying his boundary recommendations. Those revised boundaries were never 

again modified during the Congressional debate 

over the park bill.28

A Park Bill Becomes Law

Attention next moved to Congress. Wickersham, 

Browne, and Sheldon collaborated on the drafting of a park bill (H.R. 14775), which Wickersham submitted to the House of Representatives 

on April 18, 1916. An identical bill, S. 5716, was 

introduced by Senator Key Pittman of Nevada 

four days later. The two bills, as suggested by 

Sheldon’s earlier communications with Wickersham, broke rank with previous park bills in that 

they allowed hunting, but only for subsistence 

purposes. The bills specifically stated that

Prospectors and miners engaged in 

prospecting or mining in said park 

may take and kill therein so much 

game or birds as may be needed for 

their actual necessities when short of 

food; but in no case shall animals or 

birds be killed in said park for sale or 

removal therefrom, or wantonly.29

Movement on the park bill first took place in the 

Senate. The Committee on Territories recommended passage of the bill on May 15, and a 

report to accompany the bill appeared the same 

day. No changes were recommended by the 

committee. The Senate Committee Report gave 

three reasons for the park: “first, the stimulating 

of travel by tourists and sight-seers to Alaska; 

second, the preservation of the natural scenery, 

the facilitating of travel to the park, and the accommodation of tourists; third, the protection of 

game.” Backers stated that the bill was “heartily 

supported by the residents of Alaska and by various hunting, camping, and outing clubs.” The report noted that “the game in this vicinity is more 

abundant than anywhere in the United States,” 

but it also stated that “prospectors and miners 

engaged ... in the park may take and kill game 

therein for their actual necessities when short 

of food.” Animals or birds thus killed, however, 

could not be sold or wasted.30 The bill then 

moved on to the full Senate for consideration.

The Senate debated S. 5716 on September 8, 

where it was shepherded through by Sen. Key Pittman, a Nevada Democrat who headed the Committee on Territories. Pittman, back in 1897, had 

stampeded north as part of the Klondike gold 

rush, and he had remained in Alaska, as a miner 

and attorney, until 1902; he thus knew northern 

conditions.31 He was able to steer Wickersham’s 

bill through with just one amendment. Reed 

Smoot, a Utah Republican, objected to a provision stating that the violation of any rule or 

regulation promulgated by the Interior Secretary 

might be charged with a misdemeanor. Pittman, 

in response, said that this “is largely the same rule 

that obtains with regard to other national parks,” 

and he further stated that he had lived in Alaska 

“too long to think that [harsh punishment for 

the violation of such rules] would be possible.” 

The Senate, however, agreed to Smoot’s amend-
Chapter Two: Charles Sheldon’s Vision 19

Map 2. Park Boundary Evolution, 

1916-1917 ment.32

Advocates of a park bill, both in the House and 

Senate, made it plain that if the area’s game were 

to be preserved, quick passage of a park bill was 

necessary. Their efforts were temporarily stymied, however, by an informal rule of the House 

Committee on Public Lands stating that it could 

consider just two park bills in a calendar year. 

The Committee, for whatever reason, bypassed 

consideration of a Mount McKinley bill in 1916 

in favor of Hawaii and Lassen Volcanic national 

parks. Therefore, the committee did not debate 

the bill—still known as S. 5716—until January 

10 of the following year. Committee passage 

was swift, and it was forwarded on to the full 

House. The committee urged that the full House 

act swiftly on the bill; as its report noted, “the 

new railroad now under consideration will pass 

within a few miles of this section, and unless this 

park is created and this protection furnished it 

will mean that in a very short time the greatest 

game supply we have will be exterminated.”33 

Also urging quick action on the bill was geologist 

Stephen Capps, who published a major article 

in National Geographic Magazine about Mount 

McKinley’s potentially endangered game populations. A group of enthusiastic Congressmen, who 

had recently returned from the Fourth National 

Park Conference in Washington, D.C., also 
20 Crown Jewel of the North: An Administrative History of Denali National Park and Preserve

liberal appropriation.” The delegate, obviously 

skeptical, stated that “such a limitation in this 

bill is a mistake” because it would “leave open to 

spoliation the herds of wild game which are now 

within its boundaries.” But he later took a more 

conciliatory tone, noting that the sum “may be 

sufficient. ... The park itself is very large, and it is 

approached by game upon all sides, so that considerable money will have to be spent in protecting the game if you want it protected.”36

A second amendment, offered by Rep. William Stafford (R-Wisconsin) suggested another 

austerity measure: that any funds “derived from 

leases or other privileges” should be “turned into 

the Treasury as miscellaneous receipts” rather 

than “utilized for the continuous use of the 

park.” Stafford’s amendment, which involved 

the removal of a single sentence from Section 7 

of the Senate bill, generated little debate and was 

agreed to by voice vote. This amendment, as the 

one above, appears to have passed in light of the 

“present condition of the Federal treasury,” and 

the inclusion of both amendments may well have 

been underscored by the growing war clouds on 

the horizon and the fiscal implications of the U.S. 

getting involved in a foreign war.37

A third amendment, potentially explosive, dealt 

with the issue of hunting by prospectors and 

miners. As noted above, both the House and 

Senate bills had consistently included a provision allowing hunting by “prospectors and 

miners engaged in prospecting or mining in said 

park.” What provoked discussion, however, was 

whether the hunting privilege “should be under 

such regulations as the Secretary of the Interior 

may prescribe.” Rep. Stafford advocated that 

such language be included in the bill, arguing that 

the “occasion may arise when the Secretary of 

the Interior may think it necessary to proscribe 

the shooting of game ad libitum by prospectors 

there.” By so doing, he was following the lead of 

many leading conservationists, who hoped that 

this provision might limit or even eliminate hunting in the park. Another representative, however, 

had sought the views of Interior Secretary Lane, 

who felt that “under the provisions of this act 

that the provision was sufficiently safeguarded 

[without such language, and the Secretary] would 

have sufficient jurisdiction to take care of game 

in the Territory.” Delegate Wickersham, asked to 

weigh in on the debate, stated that “there were 

good reasons why [the provision] should not 

be put in,” and he further noted, to the best of 

his knowledge, that “there is a general park law 

which gives [the Secretary] that right without 

putting it in here.” Implied in Wickersham’s 

“good reasons” is that the battle over whether 

hunting should be allowed in the park had first 

been fought a year or more earlier. Conservationists, while not happy with the outcome, 

recognized that establishing a large park with a 

subsistence hunting provision was far better than 

no park at all. The outcome of Rep. Stafford’s 

effort was thus a foregone conclusion, and by 

voice vote, the provision was not included in the 

park bill.38

A final provision dealt with mining. Because 

prospecting had been active in the area for more 

than a decade, and because the small amount of 

prospecting within the proposed park’s boundaries was not perceived to be detrimental to the 

park’s primary purposes, both the House and the 

Senate bills proposed “that the mineral-land laws 

of the United States are hereby extended to the 

lands included within the park.” But Rep. Franklin W. Mondell (R-Wyoming) worried that “the 

mineral laws of the United States, some of them, 

do not apply to any part of Alaska,” so he recommended that the original sentence be replaced by 

one more appropriate: “Nothing in this act shall 

in any way modify or affect the mineral laws now 

applicable to the lands in said park.” Rep. McClintic, the floor leader, was “very glad to accept” 

Mondell’s substitution, and the House agreed to 

the amendment by voice vote.39 

The House then passed the entire bill by voice 

vote and sent it back to the Senate. But the 

House bill now differed from the Senate-passed 

bill in several aspects. So to reconcile those 

differences and to ensure a quick passage of the 

bill, Key Pittman, on February 20, stood up on 

the Senate floor and asked the Senate to concur 

in the amendments that the House had agreed 

to two days earlier. The Senate agreed to these 

changes by voice vote, and the bill was now ready 

to be signed by President Wilson.40 Charles 

Sheldon, who had been closely following the 

bill’s progress for more than a year (in fact, he 

had moved from his Vermont home to Washington in order to help move the bill through 

Congress), was given the honor of delivering the 

bill to the president. Wilson, at the moment, had 

other matters to consider; he had just two weeks 

left before being sworn in for a second term, the 

end of the 64th Congress brought a host of other 

Dall sheep in Mt. McKinley National 

Park. DENA 3889, Denali National 

Park and Preserve Museum Collection
Chapter Two: Charles Sheldon’s Vision 21

pleaded for quick passage.34

On February 19, S. 5716 was 

brought before the House, 

where it was the subject of 

detailed debate. Rep. James V. 

McClintic (D-Oklahoma) was 

asked to oversee debate related 

to the bill, and at the suggestion of Rep. Irvine Lenroot 

(R-Wisconsin), McClintic 

recommended that no more 

than $10,000 annually should 

be allotted “for the maintenance of said park ... unless 

the sum shall be first expressly 

authorized by law.”35 McClintic stated that “in offering 

this amendment we are only 

following a precedent that 

has been established in the creation of all the 

late parks.” (Indeed, bills establishing each of 

the three previous national parks, beginning 

with Rocky Mountain in 1915, had included the 

$10,000 annual budgetary limitation.) Rep. James 

R. Mann (R-Illinois) denounced the budget cap, 

and stated “I doubt very much whether in the 

course of a year or two $10,000 will be enough.” 

Rep. Lenroot, however, tried to ameliorate the 

differences between the two sides. He stated that

I am in favor of the creation at this 

time of national parks containing 

great scenic beauty or natural curiosities. [However,] I am opposed to 

the expenditure of any large sums 

of money on new national parks in 

the present condition of the Federal 

Treasury. ... In the very nature of 

things the amount that Congress will 

annually appropriate for the development of parks is limited. If you strike 

out all limitation ... it will amount 

to nothing so far as actual utility is 

concerned, and that money should be 

confined to four or five national parks 

until they are developed, and begin 

to gain some revenue... [A park bill] 

ought to be adopted, and so far as 

Alaska is concerned, by the time the 

Alaskan Railway is completed, by the 

time that tourist travel shall go there 

in any large numbers, that will be time 

enough for Congress to remove the 

limitation that ought to be adopted by 

this amendment.

Shortly after Rep. Lenroot’s statement, James 

Wickersham was asked if “$10,000 a year for the 

protection of game in one single park is a fairly 

bills to his desk, and the sinking of Allied ships 

by German submarines was forcing the U.S. ever 

closer to declaring war on the Central Powers. 

But Sheldon, for his part, visited the White House 

each day to see if Wilson was ready to sign the 

McKinley park bill. On February 26, perhaps 

frustrated that the bill had not yet been signed, 

Sheldon took the day off. But in an ironic footnote, Wilson chose that day to sign the park bill.41 

The following day, Horace Albright congratulated Sheldon for his part in the creation of a great 

national park. Sheldon, unaware of Wilson’s 

action, was dumbstruck. As Albright recounted 

it many years later, “He kicked himself the rest of 

his life that that was the one day he didn’t go up 

there.”42

What emerged from the legislative battle was a 

park that largely reflected the vision that Charles 

Sheldon and Harry Karstens had first developed 

almost a decade earlier. The new national park, 

the first to be established after Congress had 

created the National Park Service, encompassed 

an area of almost 1.6 million acres (see Appendix A);43 it stretched more than 100 miles from 

northeast to southwest, and it was between 20 

and 35 miles wide. Within those protected acres 

was North America’s highest peak, a remarkable 

array of plant and animal habitat, and perhaps 

most important, it gave legal protection to vast 

expanses of habitat where various large mammals 

thrived. Given those remarkable resources, Congress stated that its primary intent in establishing 

the park was “the freest use of the said park for 

recreation purposes by the public and for the 

preservation of animals, birds, and fish and for 

the preservation of the natural curiosities and 

scenic beauties thereof.” It further stated that 

“said park shall be, and is hereby established as a 

game refuge” although, as noted above, an exception was provided in order to allow subsistence 

Snowshoe hare in winter. Charles Ott 

Photo, DENA 3467, Denali National 

Park and Preserve Museum Collection
22 Crown Jewel of the North: An Administrative History of Denali National Park and Preserve

24 John M. Kauffmann, Mount McKinley National Park, Alaska; A History of its Establishment and Revision of its Boundaries (Washington, D.C., NPS, July 1954), 7-8. The verbiage 

Sheldon used in his December letter to Mather 

indicates that Wickersham had already weighed 

in on the subject.

25 Brown, A History, 89, 91; Horace Albright 

and Marian Albright Schenck, Creating the National Park Service; the Missing Years (Norman, 

Univ. of Oklahoma Press, 1999), 110.

26 Brown, A History, 38-41, 44-45.

27 Brown, A History, 91.

28 Kauffmann, Mount 

McKinley National Park, 6, 

9-10, Map 1. Sheldon had no 

qualms with Riggs’ proposed 

removal of the countryside 

south of the high peaks. As he 

stated, “I do not feel that the 

south lines are so important,” 

and his colleague Belmore 

Browne noted that the area 

was “not a game country” and 

was “a region which protects 

itself.”

29 64th Congress, 1st Session; H.R. 14775 

(April 18, 1916) and S. 5716 (April 22, 1916).

30 64th Congress, 1st Session, Senate Report 

No. 440, May 15, 1916.

31 Despite that familiarity, Pittman was apparently uninformed about where the proposed 

boundaries lay; he stated that the park was a 

“proposed 25-mile square” and that the north 

side of Mount McKinley had “a slope to the 

base which just about reaches to the [park’s] 

border line.” Congressional Record 64 (September 8, 1916), 14133.

32 Congressional Record 64 (September 8, 

1916), 14133-34.
Chapter Two: Charles Sheldon’s Vision 23

hunting by prospectors and miners.44

Thanks to the persuasiveness of Charles Sheldon and other visionaries,45 Congress and the President 

had established a large park that provided federal protection to the magnificent game herds located 

north of the Alaska Range. It was now up to the newly-minted National Park Service, along with such 

partners whom they could enlist in its behalf, to carry out the various goals that Congress had set 

forth.

Notes - Chapter 2

1 Evans, Gail E. H., From Myth to Reality: Travel Experiences and Landscape Perceptions in the 

Shadow of Mount McKinley, Alaska, 1876-1938, unpublished N.A. Thesis, U.C. Santa Barbara, February 1987, 72-79.

2 Ibid., 76-77.

3 Roderick Nash, Wilderness and the American Mind, revised edition (New Haven, Yale University 

Press, 1967), 133-38.

4 James B. Trefethen, An American Crusade for Wildlife (Alexandria, Va., Boone and Crockett 

Club, 1975), 122.

5 Richard West Sellars, Preserving Nature in the National Parks; A History (New Haven, Yale 

University Press, 1997), 11-14, 25-26.

6 Lawrence W. Rakestraw, A History of the United States Forest Service in Alaska (Anchorage, 

Alaska Historical Commission, 1981), 8-10, 16-21; Joan M. Antonson and William S. Hanable, 

Administrative History of Sitka National Historical Park (Anchorage, NPS, December 1987), 5-6.

7 Clarence Hulley, Alaska: Past and Present, third edition (Portland, Binfords and Mort, 1970), 

303; Walter R. Borneman, Alaska, Saga of a Bold Land (New York, HarperCollins, 2003), 240.

8 William E. Brown, A History of the Denali-Mount McKinley Region, 75; Evans, From Myth to 

Reality, 149-50; Timothy Rawson, Changing Tracks; Predators and Politics in Mt. McKinley National Park (Fairbanks, University of Alaska Press, 2001), 21.

9 Sheldon was born on October 17, 1867. See “Charles Sheldon,” Who Was Who in America; Vol. 

1, 1897-1942 (Chicago, A. N. Marquis, 1943), 1113.

10 Brown, A History, 77-83; Evans, From Myth to Reality, 150-51; Sheldon, The Wilderness of 

Denali (New York, Charles Scribner’s, 1930), 3. The quotes are from Sheldon, pp. 65 and 103.

11 Rawson, Changing Tracks, 22-23.

12 Sheldon, Wilderness of Denali, 261, 272, 385; Brown, A History, 85.

13 Brown, A History, 84-85; Tom Walker, “The Battle for McKinley Park,” Anchorage Daily News, 

December 15, 1991, C-6; Sheldon, Wilderness of Denali, xvi, 288, 293.

14 Brown, A History, 85; Rawson, Changing Tracks, 24.

15 Brown, A History, 35-43.

16 Ibid., 43-48; Belmore Browne, “Hitting the Home Trail from Mount McKinley,” Outing 62 (July 

1913), 387-404; Jane Bryant emails, November 23 and December 5, 2005.

17 Brown, A History, 48-54.

18 This route was known as the Valdez Trail until 1919, when it was known as the Valdez-Fairbanks 

Road, and by 1923 it was known as the Richardson Road. Frank Norris, Gawking at the Midnight 

Sun; The Tourist in Early Alaska, Alaska Historical Commission Studies in History No. 170 (Anchorage, the Commission, June 1985), 42; Alaska Road Commission, Annual Report for 1919 (Part 

I, p. 2092) and 1923 (Part I, p. 2095).

19 Lone Janson, The Copper Strike (Anchorage, Alaska Northwest, 1975), 139-41, 144; Mary 

Barry, Seward, Alaska; a History of the Gateway City; Volume II, the Alaska Railroad Construction 

Years, 1914-1923 (Anchorage, the author, 1993), 5-7, 13-15.

20 Rawson, Changing Tracks, 26; Brown, A History, 86.

21 Tom Walker, “The Battle for McKinley Park,” C-6; Stephen R. Capps, “A Game Country Without Rival in America; the Proposed Mount McKinley National Park,” National Geographic Magazine 31 (January 1917), 81.

22 Sheldon, as noted above, deferred to Native usage and consistently preferred “Denali,” and 

Archdeacon Hudson Stuck, an Episcopal prelate who organized the first successful summit climb in 

1913, was also an advocate of this term. Most others, however, recognized that “Mount McKinley” 

was the official name of the mountain; thus they were unwilling to consider another name for the 

proposed national park.

23 Brown, A History, 86. Sheldon sent his letter to Wickersham in October 1915.
24 Crown Jewel of the North: An Administrative History of Denali National Park and Preserve

33 64th Congress, 2nd Session, House Report No. 1273, January 10, 1917; Sellars, Preserving 

Nature in the National Parks, 12.

34 Capps, “A Game Country Without Rival in America,” 69-84; Brown, A History, 92; Janet McDonnell (NPS), email to the author, June 7, 2005.

35 Horace Albright, in his Creating the National Park Service; the Missing Years, p. 126, noted that 

Lenroot was “deeply opposed to more bureaucracy.”

36 Congressional Record 64 (February 19, 1917), 3628-30.

37 Ibid., 3628, 3630.

38 Ibid., 3628; Brown, A History, 93.

39 Congressional Record 64 (February 19, 1917), 3628, 3630.

40 Ibid. (February 20, 1917), 3662-63.

41 Ibid. (February 26, 1917), 4271.

42 Horace Albright interview (December 1986) in Boone and Crockett News 4 (Spring 1987), 4, as 

noted in Brown, A History, 92.

43 Just a few days after the park bill became law, Interior Secretary Lane noted that the park 

“embraces an area of approximately 2,200 square miles or 1,408,000 acres.” (64th Congress, 2nd 

Session, Senate Document No. 742, p. 2, March 2, 1917). These figures, which were gross estimates based on the lack of survey work that had been conducted in the area at that time, was widely 

quoted as accurate for years afterward. By the 1930s, cartographers had acquired the ability to 

make a far more accurate estimate. Despite that scientific progress, however, the NPS—as late as 

the 1970s—continued to use the old figures as the basis for the park’s area. In recent years, cartographers recalculated that the area within the original park boundaries was 1,591,897 acres – more 

than 183,000 acres larger than Lane had stated. DENA Ownership Map, Segment 01, AKRO-L 

Working Files.

44 United States Statutes at Large 39 (February 26, 1917), p. 938. 45 NPS founder Horace Albright, many years later, stated that “To Congress, the whole Territory of Alaska was 

some far-off place like Mars. It was really only the forceful work of the Boone and Crockett Club members 

(one of whom was Theodore Roosevelt) that brought McKinley enough recognition to make it a park. McKinley was ... a long, hard pull.” Albright and Schenck, Creating the National Park Service: the Missing Years, 

300-01.
Chapter Two: Charles Sheldon’s Vision 25
26 Crown Jewel of the North: An Administrative History of Denali National Park and Preserve
Chapter Three: Park Management Begins, 1917-1924 27

Chapter Three: Park Management Begins, 

1917-1924

Once President Wilson signed the Mount 

McKinley park bill, those who had pushed for 

the bill—Charles Sheldon, John B. Burnham, 

George Bird Grinnell, and others—were finally 

able to breathe a sigh of relief and congratulate 

each other for their role in protecting a large, 

valuable section of some of Alaska’s (and 

America’s) greatest gamelands. Thanks to their 

efforts, the magnificent foothills of the Alaska 

Range—which, remarkably, were immediately 

adjacent to North America’s highest peak—were 

now enclosed within the boundaries of a national 

park and would be managed by the newly-established National Park Service.

Funding the New Park

Once one and all had offered their congratulations, however, a sober reality sunk in; while 

Congress and the President had provided a 

template for the area’s protection, that template 

meant little because no funds had been appropriated; thus there was no staff to patrol the park 

boundaries, educate visitors and residents, and 

manage the park’s numerous resources.1 One 

and all were aware that the Alaska Engineering 

Commission’s railroad was already complete as 

far north as the farm town of Matanuska, with 

further progress sure to follow.2

Park advocates, therefore, dug in their heels and 

fought to provide an operations budget. Just 

one day after the park bill was signed, Interior 

Secretary Franklin Lane sent a letter to Treasury Secretary William G. McAdoo, asking for a 

$10,000 supplemental appropriation to protect 

the park’s wildlife. “There is no intention of 

immediately improving this park or making it 

accessible to the public,” Lane wrote, “our deep 

concern is for the immediate protection of the 

wild animals and their preservation for the enjoyment of the people in future years.”3 Lane’s 

message was soon forwarded to the Senate, and 

Senator Key Pittman agreeably submitted an 

amendment in the sundry civil appropriation act 

to obtain the $10,000 startup funds. But perhaps 

because the bill had been pushed through “as 

an emergency measure in order, that the large 

herds of wild animals ... might be protected from 

slaughter by hunters engaged in supplying the 

railroad camps...”, Congress was not immediately inclined to fund the park, particularly while 

war clouds were on the horizon.4 An equally 

important reason, however, was related to the 

new agency’s gaunt budget; as Rep. Lenroot’s 

testimony had made clear, the amount of funds 

allotted to the National Park Service—less than 

$800,000 per year—was insufficient to fund the 

long-established parks, let alone any new additions. Given the fact that the nearest rail line, at 

that time, was fifty miles or more from the park 

boundary, Congress bypassed McKinley in favor 

of parks that had more pressing concerns.5

The bleak budget outlook, however, did not 

prevent the park’s proponents from making annual attempts to create a funding base. Charles 

Sheldon, John Burnham, and others representing 

various game protection organizations repeatedly contacted Interior Department and NPS 

officials; they, in turn, sent letters to House and 

Senate leaders. But for four years, those entreaties went unheeded. Alaska’s Governor, Thomas 

Riggs, did what he could in the meantime to 

protect the park’s game. But inasmuch as the 

entire Territory had only two game wardens, all 

parties recognized that NPS funding was the only 

practical way to provide game protection.6

In November 1920, John Burnham once again 

suggested that the NPS undertake an effort to 

obtain a park appropriation, and this time, budgetary conditions seemed more favorable. But 

the area’s game conditions were deteriorating; as 

Bureau of Biological Survey chief E.W. Nelson 

noted after returning from Alaska, “unless something is done promptly to protect the game in 

this park there will be no game to protect. ... At 

present the park lines are absolutely ignored and 

during the past two years there has been great 

destruction of game and fur-bearing animals 

within its limits.” Given the looming crisis, James 

Good (R-Iowa) of the House Appropriations 

Committee invited several of the park’s principal 

advocates—including Charles Sheldon, Madison 

Grant, and George Bird Grinnell—to present 

testimony on December 16.7 At that hearing, 

Sheldon sounded an ominous tone, noting that 

“Since the Park was created it has received no 

protection. Market hunting has continued, railroad construction has brought numerous people 

into the region, the game has been slaughtered 

recklessly.” He further stated that “Next summer 

[1921] large numbers of men will be working on 

the railroad line next to the Park. The rails will 

soon be laid there, and unless protection shall be 

granted, excessive slaughter of the game will take 

place.”8 Indeed, by this time, railroad building 

south from Fairbanks had already reached the 

Healy construction camp, not far from the park’s 

northeastern corner, and trackage north from 

Henry (Harry) P. Karstens, first superintendent of Mt. McKinley National 

Park. Karstens Library Collection
28 Crown Jewel of the North: An Administrative History of Denali National Park and Preserve

Seward extended all the way to Gold Creek, 

which was just south of Chulitna Pass and less 

than 40 miles from the park’s southern boundary.9

The speakers at the House hearing proved 

convincing, and by early the following February, the NPS was optimistic that funds would be 

available to operate Mount McKinley National 

Park for the 1922 fiscal year.10 That optimism 

proved well-founded; the Sundry Civil Bill that 

Congress passed on March 4, 1921 (H.R. 15422) 

included $8,000 for park operations in the NPS 

budget.11 (See Appendix B.) Given the assurance 

of a budget, agency officials were then able to 

undertake two remaining key tasks: the writing 

of park rules and regulations and the selection 

of a superintendent. Another activity that took 

place at much the same time, aided by the ease 

of access fostered by railroad construction, was 

the survey and marking of the park boundary; 

this was performed by the General Land Office, 

another Interior Department agency. 

The park’s first rules and regulations, which 

were largely an outgrowth of language in the 

recently-passed Congressional act, were written 

in early 1921 by park advocate John Burnham 

at Mather’s request. After an agency edit of 

Burnham’s rough draft, they were forwarded on 

to Mather, who issued the three-page screed and 

arranged for its distribution. Assistant Interior 

Secretary Francis M. Goodwin approved the 

regulations on June 21.12

The momentum to survey the park’s boundary began in early 1920, when Congress allocated funds to the General Land Office for that 

purpose. No work took place that summer, 

however, so in December, representatives of 

various game protection organizations offered to 

underwrite “the printing of the notices in protection of the Mt. McKinley Park” and by February 

1921, 400 wildlife-protection warning signs had 

been delivered to Mather’s office. That summer, 

a party headed by the GLO’s Woodbury Abbey 

marked the park’s northern boundary from the 

Wonder Lake area all the way to the northeastern corner. GLO officials promised additional 

boundary survey work in 1922.13

Harry Karstens’s Appointment

During this same period, NPS officials appointed 

Henry P. (Harry) Karstens as the fledgling park’s 

first superintendent. Karstens, in many ways, 

was an ideal choice; he had been a north country 

resident since 1897 (he had long been known 

as “The Seventy Mile Kid” because he mined 

gold in the Seventymile Mining District), and he 

was also thoroughly familiar with the new park, 

having spent almost a year (between August 1907 

and June 1908) camping with Charles Sheldon in 

the upper Toklat River basin. In addition, he had 

played a major role in the June 1913 expedition 

that had resulted in the first successful ascent of 

Mount McKinley. On the basis of those trips, 

Sheldon held the highest regard for Karstens, 

and perhaps as a result, John Burnham and other 

park promoters also recommended his appointment.14 Karstens himself—perhaps at Sheldon’s 

instigation—had broached the subject with NPS 

officials as early as 1918. But Thomas Riggs, who 

was appointed as Alaska’s governor that year, favored another candidate: W.B. Reaburn, who had 

worked with Riggs on the Alaska-Canada Boundary Survey. For the next three years, a number of 

The Alaska Railroad provided access to Mt. McKinley National Park. 

Charles Sheldon Collection, 75-146-

02, University of Alaska Fairbanks 
Chapter Three: Park Management Begins, 1917-1924 29

others emerged as prospective superintendents. 

No applicant, however, could be selected until 

funding was in place. In February 1921, Mather 

asked Riggs to rank the various candidates; as 

expected, Riggs chose Reaburn, though he made 

it plain that he would have picked Karstens had 

Reaburn not been in the running. Of Karstens, 

he made the following keen observations:

Harry Karstens is an excellent man.... 

He is a good woodsman and thoroughly energetic, [but] he is very independent and would be apt to tangle up 

with the authorities the first time there 

should come a little disagreement. 

... [I]f Karstens should be appointed 

there might at times be friction not 

only with your office but with visitors 

to the park.15

Riggs, a realist, knew that Mather, and Mather 

alone, would make the final selection. The NPS 

Director fully recognized that Karstens might, 

some day, cause problems for the park and the 

agency. He had long ago promised Sheldon, 

however, that he favored Karstens for the job, 

and as soon as the agency was sure that the park 

appropriation had gone through, Mather offered 

Karstens the superintendency. In mid-April 

1921, Mather sent Karstens (who was then in 

Seattle) a long letter detailing the park’s rules 

and regulations along with his expectations of 

his conduct in the new position. The letter was 

part pep talk, part recitation of the recentlypassed park bill, and part bureaucratic primer, 

and Mather left little doubt that as the chief of a 

remote park, he would have enormous flexibility 

and independence in his new position. He noted 

that “It is my purpose ... to contribute as much 

as I possibly can to making your administration a 

success. [But] the rest is up to you.”16 

In that letter, Karstens was informed that while 

his role as superintendent would not take effect 

until July 1, he had already been “designated as 

Chief Ranger in the National Park Service at 

large, with salary at $10.00 per annum.” And, 

courtesy of two benefactors, Karstens was sent 

$300 for “personal expenses for the three months 

to July 1st.” Given that head start, Karstens soon 

boarded an Alaska-bound steamship, and by June 

he was already hard at work in his new position.17 

At that time, rails from tidewater had gotten as far 

north as the Hurricane Gulch, twenty miles by air 

from the park boundary, where a massive bridge 

was then under construction. From there, it was 

more than 70 miles before the “end of track” 

which was then just south of the “temporary construction camp” at Healy. Given the logistics of 

the situation, Karstens, in June 1921, established 

his first headquarters in Nenana. Although it was 

more than 60 miles north of the park boundary, 

Karstens chose Nenana because of its relative 

ease of park access and because it offered both a 

post office and telegraph station.

Upon arrival back in Alaska, one of Karstens’s 

first two tasks was to reconnoiter the right-ofway for the future railroad in order to ascertain 

a future headquarters location; the other was to 

take a trip along the park’s northern boundary 

line in order to size up the game situation. Regarding a park headquarters site, there was little 

doubt; by mid-July, he wrote that “I firmly believe 

Riley Creek to be the most logical entrance to the 

park,” in large part because the site “is beautifully 

situated for an entrance.”18 (The bottomlands 

of Riley Creek, at that time, had attracted little 

settlement, inasmuch as railroad work crews had 

not yet arrived; the only improvements were several small roadhouses and nearby residences.19) 

Later that summer, AEC Chairman Frederick 

Mears visited the area and backed Karstens’s 

choice. As for the park’s game prospects, he 

found two “trapper outfits” along the boundary 

between Savage and Sushana rivers. Karstens 

had cordial conversations with both groups of 

trappers, and noted that “they can hardly realize 

that provision has been made for the protection 

of the park and the game there in.”20

During the summer and fall of 1921, work crews 

made considerable progress on the government railroad; the Hurricane Gulch bridge was 

completed on August 8, and tracks thereafter 

moved quickly northward. During this same 

period, crews laboring south from Healy were 

faced with the daunting challenge of the Nenana 

River canyon. As historian Ann Kain notes, “The 

steep walls of the canyon required considerable 

rockwork, including blasting to construct three 

tunnels and chiseling a level roadbed along the 

canyon wall. [But] by the end of 1921, the government railroad clung to the canyon wall two 

hundred feet above the rushing Nenana River.”21

During September 1921, the AEC’s Frederick 

Mears selected the site for a depot near the 

Riley Creek crossing. Recognizing that the site, 

in all likelihood, would be the home base for 

most trips into the new park, the site was named 

McKinley Park Station. Bridge-building crews 

began to filter into the area soon afterward, and 

by November, the construction of the massive, 

900-foot-long Riley Creek bridge was underway. 

Concrete foundations for the bridge were poured 

during the brief, frigid days of December, and 

the bridge was complete by February 1, 1922. 

Inasmuch as work crews from the south, by this 

time, had laid tracks to the bridge’s southern 
30 Crown Jewel of the North: An Administrative History of Denali National Park and Preserve

edge, the completion of the Riley Creek bridge meant that the 

entire, 470-mile railroad from 

Seward to Fairbanks was now 

essentially complete. All that 

remained was the construction 

of a bridge over the Tanana 

River at Nenana.22

As noted above, Harry Karstens 

had decided in the early summer of 1921 that the Riley 

Creek area would be the major 

entrance area into the park, and 

by August, he had further decided that he would construct 

a park headquarters in the 

McKinley Park Station area.23

He “selected a sunny and sheltered spot on Riley Creek, for my Home Camp 

and Office near the Rail Road.” But soon afterward, he was informed that this parcel was on 

land that had already been selected by Maurice 

Morino, an Italian immigrant who had previously 

lived in Nome, Fairbanks, and Nenana. Sources 

have variously estimated that Morino located his 

site in 1910 or during the 1913-1915 period; he 

did not file for his parcel, however, until August 

8, 1921. In September 1921, anticipating the 

coming of the railroad, he was “building a large 

road house or hotel of logs to accommodate local 

travel.”24

Morino, moreover, was not the only area claimant. The railroad claimed a broad band of land—

100 feet in some places, 200 feet in others—on 

either side of the newly-laid railroad tracks.25 In 

addition, two individuals had claims: Pat Lynch, 

whose land was just south of Morino’s, and Mary 

Thompson, whose small parcel was located along 

Riley Creek east of the railroad. Neither of the 

private parties, however, was a threat to the NPS; 

Lynch, by 1922, had already moved on to Healy 

River, where he was operating a roadhouse, and 

Thompson, who had moved onto a portion of 

Morino’s original claim, was a temporary presence and was never a hindrance to any NPS land 

claims.26

Laying Out a Headquarters Site

Given these claims, Karstens sought out an 

unencumbered site and chose one on Lynch’s 

abandoned claim; it was along Riley Creek, just 

upstream from the Hines Creek confluence. He 

liked the site because it was “sheltered from the 

winter storms” and because water was easily 

available.27 In September 1921, he set to work 

on his “home cabin” just northwest of the creek; 

that cabin was “very nearly completed” by the 

end of November. Using materials that had 

been scrounged from recently-abandoned AEC 

construction camps, and little else,28 he then 

began work on a ranger cabin, followed by an 

office. By the following April, he proudly noted 

that his “base camp is in pretty good shape and 

fairly comfortable.” He noted, however, that due 

to a lack of funds for building construction, “everything is crude and frontier style,” and “such 

furniture we have is home made.” Base camp, by 

this time, consisted of three wooden buildings, a 

large tent, a partially-completed corral and “the 

necessary outbuilding.”29 These improvements 

were located along both banks of Riley Creek, 

just upstream from its confluence with Hines 

Creek (then called Morris Creek).30

Throughout the summer of 1921 and on into the 

fall, Karstens was the park’s sole employee. The 

park budget, however, encompassed funds for 

a second employee, and Mather had instructed 

Karstens to “look around for a suitable man to 

act as your assistant.”31 In late October, Karstens 

finally found “a man of sufficient capacity, ability, 

and experience, whom he felt he could trust as 

ranger to assist him in his patrol work.”32 That 

man, Marcus V. Tyler, entered the park payroll on 

November 1. (See Appendix C.) He remained 

on the job, however, only until late December. 

Tyler’s brief tenure, unfortunately, set an allThe Riley Creek railroad bridge was 

completed in February 1922.

The Alaska Engineering Commission 

railroad construction camp can be 

seen on the right of the photo. AEC 

G 140, Anchorage Museum of History 

The first Mt. McKinley National Park 

headquarters was located on Riley 

Creek, just upstream from the Hines 

Creek confluence. It was used from 

1921 to 1925. Karstens Library Collection 
Chapter Three: Park Management Begins, 1917-1924 31

too-familiar pattern for rangers to come; during 

the next few years, almost all of the newly-hired 

rangers remained for less than a year, and many 

left after just two or three months on the job. 

The reasons for the high turnover varied, but 

for all too many, the job was too dangerous, too 

isolating, and demanding of too much physical 

effort in comparison to other jobs with similar 

salaries.

During his first few months on the job, Karstens 

became aware that one of the major shortcomings of the new park was the poor placement of 

its eastern boundary. Park proponent Charles 

Sheldon was also aware of this problem and worried aloud that if a permanent population resided 

just east of the park entrance, they might soon 

lay waste to the plentiful wildlife populations that 

lay east of the existing boundary. To reduce that 

threat, Sheldon in April 1921 discussed the idea 

of extending the boundary several miles to the 

east with Alaska Delegate Dan Sutherland, NPS 

officials Stephen Mather and Arthur Demaray, 

and various General Land Office representatives. Sheldon first suggested that the boundary 

line be moved east to the railroad right-of-way; 

Demaray, however, noted that such an attempt 

“would result in bringing local opposition which 

might defeat the extension then proposed.” He 

thus scaled his plan back several miles to the 149th

meridian, a point to which all parties agreed. A 

month later, Sutherland submitted a House bill to 

effect the extension. The House passed the socalled “Sutherland Bill” on August 1 and sent it 

on to the Senate; almost six months later it eased 

through the Senate, and on January 30, 1922, 

President Warren Harding signed the bill into law 

(see Map 3 and Appendix A.)33

Sheldon and his colleagues felt that the boundary 

extension would preserve the animal populations at the eastern edge of the park because the 

149th meridian “could be effectively patrolled by 

guarding the few passes through which hunters 

would naturally pursue game.” Also, the erecting 

of a series of eastern-boundary survey posts, 

which had taken place in 1921 in anticipation of 

the bill’s passage, meant that “hunters could not 

plead ignorance as to the park boundary.”34 As 

was hoped, Woodbury Abbey of the GLO returned to the park in June 1922, and he surveyed 

much of the park’s boundary (both old and new) 

that summer.35 It remained to be seen, however, 

whether the newly-established eastern boundary 

would prove effective in preserving area wildlife 

stocks.

As noted above, the January 1922 boundary 

extension was largely the product of a series of 

discussions that had taken place in Washington 

in the spring of 1921, and the legislative process 

thereafter proved uncontroversial. In anticipation of that boundary extension, and recognizing 

that the park needed a substantial land base in 

the McKinley Park Station area, Interior Department officials prepared an executive order that 

withdrew portions of eight sections—a total of 

2,440 acres—“for use in connection with the 

administration of the Mount McKinley National 

Park and to protect a right of way for a proposed 

road into the park.” On January 13, 1922—less 

Superintendent Karstens was joined 

by his family at the first headquarters in late 1921. Harry Karstens, his 

wife Frieda Louise, a friend of the 

family, Helen Livingston, and their 

son Eugene are pictured here by 

the McKinley Park depot. Karstens 
32 Crown Jewel of the North: An Administrative History of Denali National Park and Preserve

than three weeks before he approved the park 

extension bill—President Warren Harding signed 

the executive order into law (see Map 4).36

Park Road Planning

Virtually everyone involved with the park—including Sheldon, Karstens, territorial officials, 

and the NPS’s Washington brass—recognized 

that for Mount McKinley to be a viable park unit, 

a road needed to be built west from the railroad 

into the park. (The 1916 Congressional report 

that accompanied the various park bills, in fact, 

had noted that “The construction of wagon and 

automobile roads in such country would be very 

simple and economical,” and in his first monthly 

report, Karstens declared that “a main artery 

road through the upper passes is the park’s most 

urgent need.”37

NPS officials in 1921 recognized that while 

the park itself was bereft of maintained roads 

or trails, the area surrounding the park offered several well-established routes. They also 

recognized that the primary task of the Alaska 

Map 3. Park Boundary 

Growth, 1917-1932

cross Savage River, Sanctuary River, Teklanika 

River, Igloo Creek, Sable Pass, East Fork, the 

Polychrome Pass, the “main Toklat,” and Highway Pass. The road would then proceed to “the 

mouth of Thoroughfare Creek” and on “to the 

meadows at the foot of Muldrow Glacier.” It 

would then cross the McKinley River on two 

bridges, “head southeast for a ways,” and then 

cross “the numerous tributaries of Clear [Clearwater] Creek” until it ended “about four or five 

miles from the base of the mountain [Mount 

McKinley]” at timber line along the “Muddy 

Fork” [Muddy River]. He declared this to be “a 

natural and interesting route for a purely park 

road.”39

ARC personnel, however, had other mandates. 

In September 1920, in response to a petition 

from several Kantishna-area miners, engineer 

Hawley Sterling (who headed the ARC’s Yukon 

District) made a reconnaissance for a wagon road 

to Kantishna; he left the railroad from Lignite via 

a “lower route” that skirted the park’s northern 

boundary and returned to lower Riley Creek via 
Chapter Three: Park Management Begins, 1917-1924 33

Road Commission—at that time an arm of the 

U.S. War Department—was providing access for 

Alaska’s miners, prospectors, traders, and other 

permanent residents. To cater to the needs of 

those who lived and worked in the Kantishna 

Hills, the ARC maintained a “dog trail” (i.e., pack 

trail) that connected the railroad to Eureka Creek 

(Kantishna post office). And because mining in 

that area was undergoing a postwar revival, the 

ARC was also converting a sled road between the 

village of Roosevelt (at the head of navigation 

along the Kantishna River) and Kantishna from a 

winter-only route to one that “is gradually being 

improved to summer standard.”38

During the early fall of 1921, Supt. Karstens 

wrote to his superiors in Washington and, based 

on his considerable knowledge of the new park, 

laid out his vision for the “good road” that 

would be needed to serve the new park’s visitors. 

Karstens felt that the road should begin at the 

soon-to-be-built Riley Creek train depot and 

would head west along the drainages of Morris 

Creek [Hines Creek] and Jenny Creek; it would 

the “upper route” through the 

high passes. In addition, Major 

John C. Gotwals made a preliminary survey for an auto road 

during the winter of 1920-21. 

That survey, which mirrored 

that of Sterling’s eastbound 

reconnaissance, followed much 

the same route that Karstens 

had described to his superiors, 

but toward the western end of 

the route—beginning in the 

Thorofare Pass area—Gotwals’s 

route continued west rather than southwest, and 

it terminated at Kantishna post office rather than 

at the base of Mount McKinley.40 

In a letter that fall, Gotwals explained that the 

Board of Road Commissioners had two mandates: first, to fund improvements for routes 

that could be used both in winter and summer; 

and second, funds should be spent on routes 

that were “the shortest possible distance from 

the center of the mining district to the Government Railroad.” (This was in line with the ARC’s 

general philosophy during the 1920s and 1930s, 

which was to construct road and trail feeders 

directly tributary to the railroad.) He noted that 

the route through the park was “admittedly the 

best natural mid-summer route to this mining 

district.” But he also noted that “the cost of construction of a wagon road upon this route would 

be very high due to the absence of timber and the 

consequent handicap upon winter freighting...” 

Therefore, for all-year purposes, “all of the 

extensive reconnaissances made to date indiSuperintendent Karstens and his 

National Park Service dog team

at the first headquarters, 1923. 

Karstens Library Collection

The first depot at McKinley Park Station was a converted box car. 

Superintendent Harry Karstens is 

seated on the left. Charles Porter 

Collection, 79G-11F-69, National 

Archives
34 Crown Jewel of the North: An Administrative History of Denali National Park and Preserve

cate as most favorable” the 85-mile-long “lower 

route” that started at the Lignite rail stop (just 

north of Healy) and continued to Kantishna via 

Savage, Crooked Creek, and Glacier City. (And 

based on that recommendation, the ARC in the 

spring of 1922 marked a trail along that route and 

established shelter tents along the way.) Gotwals, 

trying to address the NPS’s concerns, said that 

“there is every hope that at some time interest ... 

will be such as to justify wagon road construction. In the meantime,” however, he suggested 

that a pack trail be constructed “from Lynch’s 

Roadhouse at the mouth of Morris Creek to 

McKinley River, south of Wonder Lake.” This 

project would cost an estimated $26,000. He also 

suggested, at some later date, that the ARC might 

build “a wagon road from Lynch’s Roadhouse 

[at the future site of McKinley Park Station] 

to Middle River [Teklanika River] and from 

Kantishna Postoffice to Muldrow Glacier. ... No 

further stages of the development of this route 

are included as they are believed to be premature 

at this time.”41

After Washington officials received the news of 

the ARC’s preferred route, they passed it on to 

Karstens. They noted that 

This road, if built, would not only serMap 4. Major Land Actions, 

McKinley Park Station Area, 

1922-1925 plans. It announced that during the summer of 

1922, the 86-mile “Mt. McKinley Park Trail ... 

will be brushed out and tripoded [sic] at confusing points, eight tents with small stoves will be 

erected at about ten mile intervals for shelter, 

mileposts will be erected and sign boards placed 

at the principal points.” As far as future plans 

were concerned, the ARC further noted that, 

once the initial funds had been spent on the 

39-mile road upgrade, the NPS would submit 

estimates “for the improvement of successive sections to automobile standard as traffic conditions 

may demand.”44

Supt. Karstens, having been apprised of the April 

1922 agreement between ARC and the agency’s 

Washington officials, knew soon afterward 

that ARC crews would be marking a trail route 

through the park during the summer season. 

And he may well have intuited that a road would 

soon be built along the trail’s right-of-way. The 

can-do superintendent, however, was apparently 

not a man to wait, and—not knowing what route 

the ARC crews might take—had his own ideas on 

where a road west from McKinley Park Station 

toward Savage River might go. As early as the fall 

of 1921, he had noted that “in the spring ... it 

will be a good time to cut a road up Morris Creek 

Bench to its head ... which will make it possible 

for a team and wagon to go Fourteen or fifteen 
Chapter Three: Park Management Begins, 1917-1924 35

vice as a commercial road but would 

also give access by a short extension 

into the park to the Wonder Lake and 

Muldrow Glacier section. If Congress 

provides funds for the construction 

of this road, it will be an extremely 

difficult matter to secure Congressional appropriations for a road through 

Mount McKinley Park which will be 

purely a scenic one. Perhaps the largest park development that we can look 

forward to in the near future would 

be the construction of an outlook 

with rest cabins within easy walking 

distance of one another over the route 

you have in mind.42

Although the ARC was reluctant to commit to a 

wagon road through the park, NPS officials pursued the idea in face-to-face discussions. During 

those discussions the two parties made two 

major decisions; first, they agreed to cooperate 

on various trail and road construction projects 

in the McKinley Park area, and second, they 

agreed on a right-of-way for any proposed route 

into the park. On April 16, 1922, NPS Director 

Mather asked the ARC to prepare estimates for 

both a 110-mile marked trail between McKinley 

Park Station and the Kantishna Post Office, and a 

39-mile upgrading of the trail to a road, designed 

“to automobile standard,” between the same 

two points. Four days later, the ARC’s James 

Steese replied that the pack trail—completed 

with bridges and shelter cabins—could be built 

for $30,000, while the 39 miles of automobile 

road would cost an estimated $390,000. Mather 

agreed to Steese’s proposal. By forging this “informal agreement,” the ARC and the NPS agreed 

to spend funds together on a road from McKinley Park Station to Kantishna. 

The ARC thus agreed to 

de-emphasize its interest in 

competing routes outside of the 

park boundaries, while the NPS 

agreed to abandon the plan—

pushed by Supt. Karstens—that 

would have resulted in a road 

to the base of Mount McKinley. This agreement did not 

immediately obligate the NPS 

to underwrite road costs, nor 

did it set up a specific formula 

on how road construction expenses would be divided, but it 

did set the gears in motion.43

Mather soon submitted the 

roadbuilding estimate to Congress. In the meantime, the ARC went full-steam-ahead on interim 

miles with very little trouble.”45 The following June, he vowed “to brush out and construct 

some semblance of a wagon road from base 

camp to Savage River,” so he “took horses and ... 

cruised the upper and lower benches and found 

the lower easier for [a] temporary road.” Park 

staff apparently roughed out the road later that 

summer; in his August report, Karstens proudly 

noted that “our pioneer road into Savage River, 

though rough, is serving a good purpose.”46

That summer, as expected, ARC work crews 

forged the first routes into the park. Following 

the agreement between Steese and Mather, the 

ARC had an outfit in the park in July “erecting 7 

by 8 [foot] tents with a stove in each, at 12 to 15 

mile intervals, also putting up sign boards and 

blazing the trail.” By September, Karstens noted 

that “the trail leads along the higher benches, is 

well brushed out and blazed so it can be readily followed. ... The balance of the trail through 

the park to Wonder Lake is blazed where it goes 

through short stretches of timber but very little of 

it is tripoded in the open.” The tents, “which are 

very well put up,” had “a sign telling the distance 

to the tent on either side of it, also the distance to 

Kantishna or McKinley Park Station.”47 Karstens 

was doubtless disappointed that the ARC had 

not adopted the routes he had chosen—the 

ARC crew, for example, had shied away from his 

low-bench route west from McKinley Park Station, and it had also rejected his suggested route 

between the East Fork and Polychrome Pass 

in favor of one that clung high above the valley 

floor—but in his reports to Washington, Karstens 

remained a loyal soldier.48

If, in Karstens’s opinion, building “a main artery 

road through the upper passes was the park’s 

most urgent need,” then active steps toward 

protecting the park’s game ranked not far behind. 

In his first forays into the park after his appointSuperintendent Karstens roughed out 

a wagon road up Morris Creek (now 

Hines Creek) toward Savage River. 

Charles Porter Collection, 79G-11F-68, 

National Archives
36 Crown Jewel of the North: An Administrative History of Denali National Park and Preserve

a ten-year permit, and he also proposed that 

Woodbury Abbey be his business partner. (Abbey was now residing in the McKinley Park 

Station area “pending the awarding of [the] hotel 

and transportation permit which he has applied 

for.”) Interior Department officials were willing 

to give him a three year permit—later raised to 

five years after Sutherland’s intervention—but 

they eschewed any partnership between Kennedy and Abbey. Kennedy, in response, dragged his 

feet in the matter, but on May 4, 1923, he finally 

agreed to the agency’s stipulations and signed the 

permit. He thus became the park’s first concessioner.58 (See Appendix D.)

Kennedy had a good reason to hesitate before 

signing Mount McKinley’s first concessions 

permit, because he recognized that the NPS was 

under increasing pressure to have some sort of 

access and lodging arrangements for the waves 

of visitors who were expected to arrive that summer. The railroad, in 1923, had not yet begun 

widespread advertising and promotion campaigns to attract garden-variety tourists.59 There 

were, however, three groups who had announced 

upcoming visits, and all three had a great potential to affect tourism to the park for years afterward. These were a Congressional party, which 

arrived on June 7; the Brooklyn Daily Eagle party, 

which arrived on July 8-9; and the Presidential 

party, which arrived on July 15.

Once he signed the permit, Kennedy headed 

south to Washington state to stock his operation. 

But Karstens and others soon recognized that 

he was either incapable or unwilling to mount 

a reputable concessions service. For example, 

he returned to Alaska with just 15 horses, and in 

Anchorage he purchased second-hand equipment to round out his operation. And as the 

summer wore on, Karstens found that Kennedy 

was habitually underfinanced, he was unwilling 

to delegate responsibility to his hired help, and he 

was constantly trying to borrow the NPS’s tools 

and equipment. At one point, Kennedy—sensing 

that Karstens was losing patience with him—accused the superintendent of “trying to run him 

out.”60 Kennedy established a small, rude (and 

perhaps temporary) camp in the park that summer; perhaps as a result, only 32 recorded visitors 

entered the park out of some 217 that detrained 

at McKinley Park Station.61

Despite Kennedy’s failings, Karstens was forced 

to rely on the horse packer on more than one occasion that summer. When the 65-person Congressional party arrived, it made just a 90-minute 

stay at McKinley Park Station, but Karstens’ 

comments to the assembled crowd were so well 

received that James Steese (who was temporarily 

heading both the Alaska Railroad and the ARC) 

told the superintendent that because of “the 

many pleasant comments we have received concerning your [speech,] we may safely count upon 

receiving increased consideration at the hands of 

Congress next winter.”62

Plans called for the 70-person Brooklyn Daily 

Eagle party to ride on horseback from McKinley 

Park Station to the Savage River area in order to 

dedicate the park; in cooperation with the Interior Department and the NPS, representatives 

of this newspaper had dedicated several other 

This tent at Stony Creek was typical 

of those that the Alaska Road Commission erected in 1922 at 12- to 

15- mile

intervals along the newly-blazed park 

trail. Charles Porter Collection, 79G-
Chapter Three: Park Management Begins, 1917-1924 37

ment, Karstens “noticed well beaten horse and 

dog sled tracks on the old snow drifts” along 

the northern boundary, and he soon learned 

that “there had been two horses and several dog 

teams hauling game out of the hills very near 

all winter.” That discovery, along with earlier 

encounters with the two trapping parties (noted 

above), gave him the resolve “to build as many 

of the six or eight ranger cabins [in this year’s 

budget] as necessary for ranger night camps 

on their winter rounds.” Later that summer, 

Karstens repeated his interest in having “six 

cabins with barns and caches along the Northern 

Boundary.”49 But the wherewithal to build the 

cabins was not immediately available, and for the 

next three years, rangers patrolling the park’s 

northern boundary were forced to bunk in a 

cabin at the mouth of Savage Canyon that was 

variously described as old, badly decayed, and 

with “ground squirrels [that were] becoming a 

nuisance.”50 As late as the fall of 1925, Karstens 

ruefully noted that “the lack of sufficient ranger 

cabins, along the boundaries, makes it almost 

impossible for patrol.”51

Throughout 1921 and 1922, Karstens and other 

park staff had been able to work on the park’s 

most critical infrastructure needs, knowing that 

there would be few if any visitors interested in 

venturing into the park. In 1921, as noted above, 

the tracks of the government railroad were not 

yet complete, inasmuch as the Riley Creek bridge 

had not yet been completed. And the following year, tourists heading into the interior were 

forced to cross the Tanana River (at Nenana) 

on the ice in wintertime and by ferry during the 

summer, then shuttle over to equipment from the 

narrow-gauge Tanana Valley Railroad (TVRR).52

Concessioner Headaches

Because access to and through the area remained 

difficult, the park staff recorded no tourist visits 

in 1921 and just seven in 1922. But in anticipation of growth that was yet to come, the NPS was 

already considering solicitations from potential 

tourism developers.53 By January 1922, Karstens 

had already received three inquiries about 

“operating saddle trains into the park,” and by 

May of that year the agency was entertaining 

three serious proposals. Casey McDannel, the 

contractor of the Dining Car Department for 

the government railroad, applied for a permit to 

“hotels and roadhouses” in the park, including 

“a hotel as near to the base of Mt. McKinley as 

possible.” Woodbury Abbey, the GLO’s cadastral surveyor currently in the midst of the park’s 

boundary-marking project, proposed constructing six “log cabin hotels” between Savage River 

and the Clearwater Creek-McKinley River confluence, and for transport he planned to supply a 

string of riding horses. A final applicant was I.E. 

Van Kirk, a Healy freighter. Van Kirk hoped to 

obtain a permit primarily “for operating a freight 

outfit through the park to the Copper Mountain 

Mining properties on the west side of the park.” 

However, he also hoped to handle “saddle trains 

into the park for taking visitors who wish to go on 

either long or short trips,” and for this purpose 

he planned to erect “shelter tent stopping places 

at regular intervals for the accommodation of 

these visitors.”54 But as the summer wore on, 

interest in these proposals began to lag. McDannel abandoned his scheme, and Van Kirk “sold 

his packtrain and ... is not attempting to do any 

freighting.” As for Abbey’s plans, Alaska’s GLO 

chief, George Parks, was openly skeptical of 

them. Parks noted that Abbey had made no plans 

for “a good modern hotel” at the entrance of the 

park; his plan “fails to provide a stopping place 

near the base of Mt. McKinley;” he was vague 

on his sources of financial backing; his estimates 

for hotel construction were far too low; he “has 

never had any experience that would qualify him 

to take charge of a proposition of this kind;” and 

he was openly antagonistic to Supt. Karstens, 

based on the conduct of the recently completed 

boundary survey. Abbey, in Parks’s opinion, had 

evidently “expected to get the concession without question,” but after he discussed the matter 

with Parks, Karstens took no action on Abbey’s 

application.55 The park was therefore no closer 

to having a concessioner than it had been in May 

of that year.

During the course of these negotiations, the railroad was moving ever closer to completion, and 

beginning in the winter of 1922-23, the remaining 

hurdles to access were cleared away. Specifically, 

the Tanana River bridge was completed by February 1923, and the TVRR tracks were converted 

from narrow gauge to standard gauge in June 

1923.56 That summer, as a result, the park began 

to attract its first tourist groups. There to meet 

them was Dan Kennedy, a horse packer and game 

guide from Nenana, who had stepped into the 

vacuum created by the problems in Abbey’s application. Kennedy was by no means a stranger; 

his acquaintance with Karstens went back twenty 

years, and in the summer of 1922, he had taken 

Karstens and visitor W.F. Chandler of Fresno, 

California on a two-week pack trip into the 

park. He also had connections in Washington. 

Alaska Delegate Dan Sutherland, who apparently 

knew him, spoke to NPS officials about “pack 

and saddle train privileges in this park” in midDecember 1922.57 Karstens sought Kennedy out 

and finally located him a month later. Kennedy 

promised to provide “35 first class saddle horses” 

and “[as] much camp equipment as necessary 

to handle [the] tourist trade.” But he demanded 
38 Crown Jewel of the North: An Administrative History of Denali National Park and Preserve

“golden spike” that symbolically completed the 

Alaska Railroad. He continued on to Fairbanks 

and remained with the party until the presidential 

train, on its way back to Seward, passed the park 

headquarters in the wee hours of July 17.64

The “local people” with whom the Presidential 

party mingled were the residents at McKinley 

Park Station, and at that time, only two local 

residents—Karstens and Ranger Gustavus S. 

Buhmann—were NPS employees.65 Most of the 

remainder were railroad workers or miners. As 

noted above, the first area residents had been 

roadhouse owners Maurice Morino and Pat 

Lynch, and the area was a bevy of activity during 

the winter of 1921-22, when the Riley Creek 

bridge was being constructed. (See Appendix E.) 

Lynch soon moved on, but Morino remained, 

operating out of a new, larger roadhouse just 

north and west of the newly-constructed bridge. 

The residents were a diverse lot; on the one hand, 

Morino’s roadhouse was a “center for the rough 

and drunken element in this section,” and during 

these initial days of Prohibition, the proprietor 

made no secret of both manufacturing and selling home brew.66 But the civilized element was 

there, too; in the fall of 1922, a school opened 

up in a building that Karstens and others had 

constructed—with Mrs. Dave Firburn as the 

first teacher—and by 1924, meetings and dances 

were being held in a newly-renovated community 

hall.67 Throughout this period, the AEC (later the 

Alaska Railroad) had been relying on a converted 

Tanana Valley Railroad box car to serve as its ad 

hoc depot, but in 1925 it was finally replaced with 

a “very attractive rustic depot.”68

Initial Road Construction

Another element in town that summer, just 

beginning to make its presence known, was the 

Alaska Road Commission. As noted above, the 

ARC had been working with the NPS on a possible route into Kantishna since the spring of 

1921; in April 1922 the two parties had signed 

an “informal agreement” that encompassed 

financing and route selection, and later that 

year a route was roughed out and tents were 

erected at several points along the way. By the 

spring of 1923, the ARC was getting ready to 

start construction work toward Savage River 

with “a small amount of money.” And thanks 

to a generous, $700 donation from W.F. Chandler, who had been the park’s “first tourist” the 

previous summer, the NPS was able to share in 

the expenses. (See Appendix F.) NPS staff did 

the initial work that year, but in late June an ARC 

crew arrived. By September the road had been 

built to “first creek” (today’s Rock Creek), and a 

126-foot-long “native timber bridge” had been 

completed across the creek. (See Appendix G.) 

The cost of the season’s work—both federal and 

private funds—totaled slightly less than $5,000. 

Just $500 of the $4261 in federal funds came 

from NPS coffers; most if not all of the remaining 

funds came from the Alaska Road Commission.69

Road construction received a considerable boost 

when Congress passed the Act of April 9, 1924 

(H.R. 3682), which provided for a three-year 

road program for the nation’s national parks. As 

it pertained to Mount McKinley, it authorized 

the expenditure of $272,700 in NPS funds, which 

was judged sufficient to build 33 miles of road 

and 70 miles of trail. The passage of that act imMount McKinley National Park was 

formally dedicated on July 9, 1923. 

Most of the people attending were 

tourists in the Brooklyn Daily Eagle

Party. DENA 11407, Denali National 

Park and Preserve Museum Collection
Chapter Three: Park Management Begins, 1917-1924 39

western parks in recent years. In anticipation of 

that July 8 event, Kennedy and his men took a 

four-horse team to Savage “loaded with tents and 

horse feed.” Karstens and his ranger also hauled 

many goods to Savage, and by the evening of July 

7, final preparations were commencing for the 

party’s arrival. Try as he may, however, Karstens 

had only a vague idea when the party could be 

expected. On the evening of the 7th, the head of 

the Eagle party, citing a late-arriving train, sent 

a telegram announcing that the group would be 

unable to ride up to Savage River. Karstens and 

Kennedy, in response, spent an exhausting night 

hauling the assembled goods back to McKinley 

Park Station. The train bearing the Eagle party 

arrived the following evening, and many visitors 

detrained to a “tents and shelter” that had been 

hurriedly erected near the train depot. The park 

dedication was held nearby at 11 a.m. on July 9. 

A barbecue followed, and at 6 that evening the 

party headed north to Fairbanks.63

Less than a week later, President Warren G. 

Harding’s 70-person party visited McKinley Park 

Station as part of a month-long Alaska tour. At 

10:30 on the morning of July 15, the train pulled 

in, and for the next twenty minutes, “the President and party mingled with the local people” 

while Karstens spoke to various press representatives about the park and its needs. Karstens 

headed north with the party and continued to 

extol the park’s virtues. He was therefore at the 

north end of the Nenana River bridge that afternoon when President Harding drove home the 

plied a promise that the NPS would underwrite 

the lion’s share of road-construction funding. 

But until Congress provided a specific appropriation, it was unable to provide financial help. To 

allow for construction during the interim, Steese 

agreed to appropriate ARC funds, to be repaid 

under the NPS authorization noted above.70

Because the road between McKinley Park Station 

and Kantishna would be located on NPS land, 

and because the NPS agreed to be the primary 

funding source, agency officials moved to ensure 

that the road would be located and designed to 

standards demanded by the NPS, not the Alaska 

Road Commission. As H.R. 3682 (above) wound 

its way through Congress, officials of the two 

agencies broached this subject to some extent, 

but on April 9, 1924, Acting Director Arno Cammerer specified the agency’s philosophy in a letter to Col. Steese of the ARC. Cammerer asked 

ARC engineers, in their route choice, to allow 

the visitor going over the road the 

best possible views and vistas of the 

country, avoiding a straight line in 

road location and consequent cutting 

through hillside and forest growth 

merely to constitute it the shortest 

way between two points. [We believe] 

that the easy-curved roadways are 

particularly charming and pleasing 

in national park work. [We also ask 

that] care ... be taken in clearing for 

the roadbed by protecting the trees 

Maurice Morino, pictured here, operated a roadhouse, store, post office, 

cabins for rent and gardens on his 

patented homestead at McKinley 

Station. Frances Erickson Collection, 

Denali National Park and Preserve 

Museum Collection 
40 Crown Jewel of the North: An Administrative History of Denali National Park and Preserve

and shrubbery, springs, or beautiful 

rock formations; it is often possible, 

by switching the line of the road a 

few feet to preserve the particularly 

interesting bits of shrubbery, a spring, 

or even rock formations.71

Now that the two agencies were working 

together, and with a full recognition that work 

would continue on the road for several years to 

come, the ARC began to plan for a base of operations at McKinley Park Station. In May 1924, 

Hawley Sterling told Karstens that a warehouse 

and an office building were in the offing, and 

both buildings were completed by the end of 

June.72 Meanwhile, two crews of ARC workers, 

totaling some 80 or 90 men, were extending the 

road to the west. By September 19, Karstens was 

able to report that the road had been “graded for 

10 miles ... Savage Camp should be reached with 

autos next summer, having the horses working 

from there on.” The last of the road crew did not 

quit work until November.73

In 1924, the Alaska Railroad orchestrated its 

first tourism campaign, of which the lure of 

Mount McKinley played a major role. Brochures 

published that year extolled the railroad as “the 

Mount McKinley Route,” a slogan that, for years 

afterward, was repeated on company letterhead 

and the line’s box cars. And in addition, tourists who arrived in 1924 were the first to benefit 

from a “gentleman’s agreement” that had been 

worked out between Alaska’s major transportation companies. Such companies as the White 

Pass and Yukon Route, the Alaska Steamship 

Company, and the Copper River and Northwestern Railroad as well as the Alaska Railroad were 

becoming increasingly aware that tourists were 

an important part of their business. But until 

1924, they had never coordinated their pricing 

structures or schedules to cater to the packagetour traveler, who constituted the large majority 

of Alaska visitors.74 All of these improvements, 

however, had a scant effect on tourism to Mount 

McKinley. The poor condition of roads and 

trails, the necessity for park visitors to ride on 

packhorses for several miles, and the poor quality 

of accommodations all militated against park 

visitation.

Dan Kennedy continued to run the park’s concession operation in 1924, as he had the previous 

year. The NPS, disappointed at his inability to 

live up to the concessions permit—which called 

for the operation of three camps, not just the 

Savage operation—demanded greater compliThis was the second McKinley Park 

depot. In the background is a small 

octagonal structure that housed an 

interpretive display. The gateway 

arch and Morino’s homestead can be 

seen in the left background. DENA 

25-2.5, Denali National Park and 

Preserve Museum Collection

The Alaska Road Commission (ARC) 

established their base of operations 

at McKinley Station by constructing 

an office and a warehouse adjacent 

to the Alaska Railroad track near the 

McKinley Station depot. The photo 

looks northeast. Charles Porter Collection, 79G-11F-43, National Archives
Chapter Three: Park Management Begins, 1917-1924 41

ance. In addition, the agency wanted “a better 

grade of saddle horses, and a reduction of rates 

as last year’s rates were too high for [the] general 

public to stand.” To these Kennedy reluctantly 

agreed.75 And NPS officials, seeing that he now 

had an advisor (Fairbanks mayor Thomas Marquam) and a company name (Mount McKinley 

Tourist and Transportation Co.), were hopeful 

for greater success.76 But Kennedy and Marquam soon learned that Alaska’s steamship 

companies were refusing to sell many tickets to 

Interior destinations, and also that passenger 

trains stopped at McKinley Park Station late at 

night.77 As a result, the men refused to set up 

their camps until clients showed up. Thus it was 

not until late June that they finally got their Savage Camp into operation. The camp consisted 

of a 20’ x 60’ cooking and dining room, plus 

eight small (10’ x 12’) brown canvas tents, each 

equipped with “two iron cots, small stove, and 

a home made washstand.”78 Kennedy, however, 

was able to entice only 62 visitors into the park 

that summer.79 Trying to salvage a money-losing 

season, the fledgling company began to arrange 

for guided hunting trips out of the nearby community of Cantwell (see Appendix E); this caused 

Karstens considerable consternation, inasmuch 

as “the only good hunting country within a 

reasonable distance is along the Park boundary” 

and because the park had no easy way to patrol 

that area. Kennedy, at one point, even threatened 

to abandon his McKinley Park 

Station headquarters and relocate to Cantwell.80

By the close of 1924, Karstens 

had been on the job for three 

and a half years. He had accomplished much during that 

period, but he had done virtually everything by the sweat of 

his brow, with little help from 

others. He had established a 

headquarters, he had made a 

broad range of local residents 

aware of the park’s purposes 

and goals, he had coordinated 

road planning and construction, he had established a 

visitor program by selecting a 

park concessioner, and he had 

done his best to inform both residents and visitors what was allowed (and prohibited) within 

the park’s boundaries. The logistics of his job, 

however, were so daunting that anyone but a selfsufficient Alaskan would have resigned under the 

strain, and those same difficulties brought a high 

turnover to the one or two rangers that worked 

for him. The park headquarters, moreover, was 

poorly located and poorly constructed, and due 

to poor railroad scheduling and a balky concessioner, park visitation was virtually nonexistent. 

It had been a hard, disheartening three and a half 

years. But a new era of optimism, stability, and 

development—both in infrastructure and tourism—was on the horizon. This era is described in 

more detail in Chapter 4.

Notes - Chapter 3

1 Horace Albright, in his Creating the National 

Park Service, p. 205, noted that “Sadly, McKinley was treated like our other new parks, Lassen 

and Hawaii. No money was made available to 

staff, operate, or improve them. Not a red cent 

to hire a superintendent and rangers. Nothing 

for protection of the wild animals [and] nothing 

to make it possible for visitors to enjoy ... the 

magnificent Alaskan wilderness.”

2 The railroad’s progress, to be fair, was more 

illusory than real. In order to gain access to the 

Matanuska coal fields, the line from Anchorage to the Matanuska coal fields was completed 

in August 1916. But due to the absence, or 

poor quality, of track south of Anchorage, and 

because of a labor shortage brought on by World 

War I, the first train did not run from Seward 

(the line’s southern terminus) to Matanuska until 

September 1918. Walter R. Borneman, Alaska; 

Saga of a Bold Land, 264-65.

3 Franklin K. Lane to Secretary of the Treasury, 

February 27, 1917, in 64th Congress, 2nd Session, Senate Document 742, pp. 1-2.

4 Alexander T. Vogelsang to Sen. Thomas S. 

Martin, June 19, 1918, in “Appropriations, estimates” file, Box 109 (MOMC), Entry 6, RG 79, 

NARA CP; John Ise, Our National Park Policy

(Baltimore, Johns Hopkins Univ. Press, 1961), 

227.

The Savage Camp tourist facility had 

grown significantly by the 1924 season. B88-52-50, Anchorage Museum 

of History & Art
42 Crown Jewel of the North: An Administrative History of Denali National Park and Preserve

er, March 12, 1937, 9.

25 Alaska Railroad, Map of S4–T14S–R7W-FM 

Showing ARR Reserve-at McKinley Park Station (1935/1951), drawing R-1082-134, AKRO 

Lands Division files; Brown, A History, 154.

26 SMR for October 1922, 2; December 1922, 

1, 6; and January 1923, 5.

27 Brown, A History, 138, 140; SMR for Octo-
Chapter Three: Park Management Begins, 1917-1924 43

5 Annual Report of the Secretary of the Interior, Fiscal Year 1937, Table 4. From 1917 through 

1919 inclusively, NPS funds came from the War Department as well as the Interior Department; 

beginning in fiscal year 1920, all NPS funds were funneled through the Interior Department.

6 Vogelsang to Martin, June 19, 1918, see above; Arno B. Cammerer to John Burnham, in “Wild 

Animals, Part 1 & 2” file, Box 112 (MOMC), Entry 6, RG 79, NARA CP; Brown, A History, 94.

7 Nelson to Stephen T. Mather, December 9, 1920, in “Wild Animals, Part 1 & 2” file, Box 112 

(MOMC), Entry 6, RG 79, NARA CP; John Burnham to Mather, December 10, 1920, in “Rules and 

Regulations” file, Box 111 (MOMC), Entry 6, RG 79, NARA CP.

8 Charles Sheldon, “To the Committee on Appropriations of the House of Representatives,” in “Appropriations, estimates” file, Box 109 (MOMC), Entry 6, RG 79, NARA CP.

9 Borneman, Alaska; Saga of a Bold Land, 266.

10 Mather to William J. Rogers, February 1, 1921; John B. Burnham to Mather, February 10, 1921; 

both in “Rules and Regulations” file, Box 111 (MOMC), Entry 6, RG 79, NARA CP. Late in 1921, 

an NPS official stated that “it was only last year, after the most insistent and combined efforts on the 

park of the Park Service and the friends of the Alaskan game” that an appropriation was obtained. 

Arno Cammerer to Dan Beard, November 1, 1921, in “Wild Animals, Part 1 & 2” file, Box 112 

(MOMC), Entry 6, RG 79, NARA CP.

11 Carl C. Tousley to Mather, February 12, 1921, and Horace M. Albright to Dan Beard, October 

27, 1921, both in “Wild Animals, Part 1 & 2” file, noted above. Congress, in its FY 1922 allotment, was quite generous with the NPS; it granted $1.43 million to an agency that had never before 

received more than $1.06 million. Funding for Mount McKinley was one fortunate by-product of 

the additional funding allotment. Annual Report of the Secretary of the Interior, Fiscal Year 1937, 

Table 4.

12 Various items in “Rules and Regulations” file, Box 111, noted above.

13 Various items in “Rules and Regulations” file, Box 111, noted above; Arno Cammerer to Dan 

Beard, November 1, 1921, in “Wild Animals, Part 1 & 2” file, noted above; Mather to Karstens, 

April 12, 1921, in “Instructions” file, Box 110 (MOMC), Entry 6, RG 79, NARA CP; A. E. Demaray to Mr. Cammerer, June 20, 1922, in “Inspection” file, Box 110, noted above; SMR, August 

1921, 2, 4; September 1921, 2.

14 Grant Pearson, The Seventy Mile Kid; Wilderness Superintendent of Mount 

McKinley National Park (Los Altos, Calif., 1957), 1; Sheldon, Wilderness of the 

Upper Yukon; a Hunter’s Exploration for Wild Sheep in Sub-Arctic Mountains 

(New York, C. Scribner’s Sons), 1911; Albright to Beard, October 27, 1921, noted 

above.

15 William E. Brown, A History of the Mount McKinley-Denali Region, 135.

16 Brown, A History, 135-37; Mather to Karstens, April 12, 1921, in “Instructions” file, Box 110 

(MOMC), Entry 6, RG 79, NARA CP.

17 Mather to Karstens, April 12, 1921, in “Instructions” file, noted above; Cammerer to Beard, 

November 1, 1921, in “Wild Animals, Part 1 & 2” file, noted above.

18 Superintendent’s Monthly Report (hereafter SMR), Mount McKinley National Park, June 1921, 

passim.

19 Brown, A History, 138-39.

20 SMR, June 1921, 2; September 1921, 2.

21 Borneman, Alaska, Saga of a Bold Land, 266; Ann Bischoff Kain, Cultural Resource Management in Denali National Park and Preserve, Alaska, unpublished M.A. Thesis, Antioch University, 

March 2001, 162-63.

22 Borneman, Alaska, Saga of a Bold Land, 266; SMR, September 1921, 2; March 1922, 2; Frank 

Norris, Gawking at the Midnight Sun; the Tourist in Early Alaska, Alaska Historical Commission 

Studies in History No. 170 (Anchorage, the Commission, June 1985), 46; Brown, A History, 104. 

The Tanana River bridge was completed a year later, in February 1923, and in June of that year, the 

completion of a track-widening project between Nenana and Fairbanks (inasmuch as the Tanana 

Valley Railroad had been a narrow-gauge line) allowed the first through trains to travel from Seward 

to Fairbanks.

23 In the October 1921 SMR, p. 2, Karstens noted that the decision for the headquarters location was made “after considerable study” ... seeing as the park boundary was 15 miles west of the 

railroad at this time, “building in the Park would necessarily make it very hard to be prompt with 

reports and correspondence.”

24 SMR, August 1921, 3; September 1921, 3-4; Karstens to Director NPS, January 25, 1923, in 

“Lands-General” file, Box 110 (MOMC), Entry 6, RG 79, NARA CP; Fairbanks Daily News-Min-
44 Crown Jewel of the North: An Administrative History of Denali National Park and Preserve

ber 1921, 6.

28 In a story that appeared almost 30 years later (Harold E. Booth’s “Discovery of Mount McKinley,” National Parks Magazine 23 (January-March 1949), 23), Karstens once told the Fairbanks 

Chamber of Commerce that except for salary costs, his total expenditures during 1921 amounted to 

$35. According to Booth—who served as a park ranger during the mid-1940s—Karstens “had succumbed to the lure of a highly colored mail order catalog describing a wood-burning stove particularly suitable for the new cabin, and priced at $34.00. Then, having gone that far, he decided to buy 

two hinges for the cabin door.”

29 SMR for September 1921, 4; November 1921, 2; December 1921, 2; January 1922, 3; February 

1922, 2; March 1922, 2; and April 1922, 2, 6.

30 Brown, A History, 140; Jane Bryant, in a December 7, 2005 telephone call, suggests that “Morris” was a variant of “Maurice,” which was Morino’s first name.

31 Mather to Karstens, April 12, 1921, in “Instructions” file, noted above

32 Cammerer to Beard, November 1, 1921, in “Wild Animals, Part 1 & 2” file, noted above.

33 Congressional Record 67:1 (1921), 504; Congressional Record 67:2 (1922), 364. The term 

“Sutherland Bill” was quoted in SMR, June 1921, 2.

34 A. E. Demaray to Mr. Cammerer, June 20, 1922, in “Inspection” file, Box 110 noted above.

35 SMR, September 1921, 2; June 1922, 2; September 1922, 1.

36 Executive Order 3617, January 13, 1922. A year later, on March 2, 1923, Harding signed another directive (Executive Order 3800) that granted—for the same purposes—an additional 80 acres 

of land just south of the Riley Creek railroad bridge.

37 64th Congress, 1st Session, Report No. 440, p. 2; SMR, June 1921, 1-2.

38 Board of Road Commissioners for Alaska, Annual Report of the Alaska Road Commission, Fiscal Year 1921, Part II, 39; John C. Gotwals (Engineer Officer of the Board of Road Commissioners) 

to President of the Board, November 9, 1921, in Box 371 (General Files), Entry 6, RG 79, NARA

CP.

39 Superintendent to “Sir,” October 3, 1921, in Box 379 (General Files), Entry 6, RG 79, NARA

CP.

40 Brown, A History, 107-08; SMR, June 1921, 3; Gotwals to President of the Board, November 9, 

1921.

41 ARC, Annual Report, Part II, for 1922 (p. 56), 1924 (pp. 104-05), and 1926 

(p. 73); Gotwals to President of the Board, November 9, 1921.

42 Arno Cammerer to Karstens, March 30, 1922, in Box 379 (General Files), Entry 6, RG 79, 

NARA CP.

43 James G. Steese (ARC) to Stephen Mather, April 20, 1922, in DENA Historical File.

44 ARC, Annual Report, 1922, Part II, 56-57.

45 SMR, October 1921, 6.

46 SMR, June 1922, 2-3; August 1922, 2, 6.

47 SMR, September 1922, 4.

48 Karstens’ letter to his superiors (Superintendent to “Sir,” October 3, 1921, p. 2 in Box 379 [General Files], Entry 6, RG 79, NARA CP) suggests a low-elevation road, inasmuch as his proposed 

route “offers numerous ways from the East fork to the summit of Polychrome Pass (6 miles) it 

is a good hard bottom and easy road building; the numerous streams to cross will give very little 

trouble.”

49 SMR, June 1921, 1-3; August 1921, 3.

50 SMR, September 1924, 3; December 1924, 2; September 1925, 2.

51 SMR, November 1925, 9.

52 Borneman, Alaska, Saga of a Bold Land, 266; Brown, A History, 103-04, 118-19; Norris, Gawking at the Midnight Sun, 46.

53 NPS, Public Use of the National Parks; a Statistical Report, 1904-1940 (Washington, the author, 

1963), 5.

54 Arno Cammerer to Edward C. Finney, June 20, 1922, in “Inspection” file, Box 110 (MOMC), 

Entry 6, RG 79, NARA CP; Woodbury Abbey to Stephen Mather, May 9, 1922, in “Privileges” file, 

Box 111 (MOMC), Entry 6, RG 79, NARA CP.

55 George A. Parks to Secretary of the Interior, November 10, 1922, 11-20 in “Inspection” file, Box 

110 (MOMC), Entry 6, RG 79, NARA CP.

56 Borneman, Alaska, Saga of a Bold Land, 267; Norris, Gawking at the Midnight Sun, 46. Borneman, somewhat quixotically, noted that “The first train chugged across the [Tanana River bridge] on 

November 23, 1922, and it was hailed as complete on February 27, 1923.”

57 Cammerer to Karstens, December 11, 1922 and January 2, 1923, in “Privileges” file, Box 
Chapter Three: Park Management Begins, 1917-1924 45

111 (MOMC), Entry 6, RG 79, NARA CP; SMR, July 1922, 5; December 1922, 4; June 1923, 5. 

Karstens, in his July 1922 report, noted that Chandler “has the distinction of being the park’s first 

real visitor.”

58 Karstens to Director NPS (telegram), January 4, 1923; Edward C. Finney to Cammerer, January 

22, 1923; B.L. Vipond to Karstens, February 20, 1923, all in “Privileges” file, Box 111 (MOMC), 

Entry 6, RG 79, NARA CP; SMR, January 1923, 2, 4; April 1923, 2, 4; May 1923, 2, 3; George S. 

Stroud, History of the Concession at Denali National Park, unpub. mss. (Anchorage, NPS, March 

1985), 1.

59 Norris, Gawking at the Midnight Sun, 48-49; SMR, January 1923, 6-7; April 1923, 2; May 1923, 

1-2; Brown, A History, 155-56.

60 SMR, May 1923, 3-4; June 1923, 5, 6, 8; July 1923, 4, 7, 8, 10; Seward Gateway, June 27, 1923, 

4.

61 Norris, Gawking at the Midnight Sun, 106. The DENA historical collection contains a 1923 

Savage Camp photo, courtesy of the Candy Waugaman Collection.

62 Brown, A History, 155.

63 SMR, July 1923, 2-6.

64 SMR, July 1923, 7; Borneman, Alaska, Saga of a Bold Land, 268-69; Brown, A History, 156.

65 SMR, April 1923, 3; July 1923, 7.

66 SMR, January 1922, 2; February 1922, 2; Brown, A History, 154.

67 SMR, October 1922, 3; November 1922, 4; January 1923, 4; March 1924, 3, 5; April 1924, 3, 7; 

May 1924, 6; July 1924, 2; November 1924, 6; Grant Pearson, A History of Mt. McKinley National 

Park (n.p., NPS, 1953), 56. The community hall was a reconverted cabin; it opened in April 1924 

for “dances and other meetings” and continued to function in that capacity until July 4 of that year. 

The school apparently operated only through the 1924-25 school year.

68 SMR, April 1922, 2; September 1924, 4; Brown, A History, 118-19 (photos).

69 ARC, Annual Report, 1924, Part II, 116; SMR, April 1923, 3; June 1923, 6; September 1923, 2.

70 ARC, Annual Report, 1925, Part II, 88-89.

71 Cammerer to Steese, April 9, 1924, in File 630 (Roads), in Box 1412 (MOMC), Entry 7, RG 79, 

NARA CP. The NPS’s early attitude toward roads is set forth in Horace M. Albright and Marian 

Albright Schenck, Creating the National Park Service: the Missing Years (Norman, Univ. of Oklahoma Press, 1999), 298-99.

72 SMR, May 1924, 2, 3, 5, 6; June 1924, 3, 4.

73 SMR, April 1924, 6; May 1924, 4-7, 9; September 1924, 7; November 1924, 5; ARC, Annual 

Report, 1925, Part II, 89.

74 Norris, Gawking at the Midnight Sun, 48-49, 51.

75 SMR, January 1924, 2; March 1924, 3.

76 The company was organized beginning in December 1923 and was a reality by mid-March 1924. 

SMR December 1923, 3; March 1924, 2.

77 SMR, May 1924, 8; June 1924, 3, 6. The southbound train arrived at 1:15 a.m., while the northbound train arrived at 2:40 a.m.

78 SMR, June 1924, 3, 6; July 1924, 2; November 1924, 2.

79 NPS, Public Use of the National Parks; a Statistical Report, 1904-1940, 5. Not all who entered the park traveled by horseback, however. As noted earlier, miners going to and from the Copper Mountain and Kantishna 

areas often walked or traveled by dogsled; ARC crews entered on construction vehicles; and the first passenger 

cars entered the park. Karstens noted that on July 20, 1924, he and ranger Ernest McFarland “took the auto 

and drove out the park road [and] before we realized it we were at Savage Camp, the first auto to go into the 

park.” The following month, the superintendent drove several ladies to the head of Savage River; they thus 

had “the distinction of being the first visitors to go into the Park by auto.” SMR, July 1924, 4; August 1924, 

3.
46 Crown Jewel of the North: An Administrative History of Denali National Park and Preserve
Chapter Four: The Cabins-and-Snowshoes Era, 1925-1936 47

Chapter Four: The Cabins-and-Snowshoes 

Moving Up to a New Headquarters

During the waning days of the 1924 tourist season, Superintendent Harry Karstens was understandably frustrated with several major elements 

related to park operations. He had been unable 

to resolve the long-festering problem of where to 

locate the park’s headquarters, the park concessioner often complained about existing conditions and demanded unrealistic actions from 

Park Service staff, and railroad officials dampened prospects for tourism by serving McKinley 

Park Station in the dead of night. Karstens had 

no way of knowing it, but within a year each of 

these problems would be overcome and, as shall 

be seen, prospects for both visitors and for park 

resources would considerably improve.

One major problem dealt with land ownership 

and the logistics of park administration. As noted in the previous chapter, Karstens had arrived 

in the area in the early summer of 1921. Soon 

afterward he wrote, “I firmly believe Riley Creek 

to be the most logical entrance to the park,” inasmuch as the area was “beautifully situated for an 

entrance.”1 He then went to Fairbanks to claim 

land for a headquarters just west of the railroad 

right-of-way and just north of the bridge site, 

but General Land Office (GLO) personnel told 

him that roadhouse proprietor Maurice Morino 

had already staked out virtually all of the land in 

that area between the railroad right-of-way and 

the adjacent bluffs.2 He therefore established 

his headquarters south of Morino’s claim, in the 

bottomland near the confluence of Riley and 

Morris [Hines] creeks. 

Despite that rebuff, however, he told Washington officials—in the fall of 1921 and again a year 

later—that the park’s headquarters should be 

“on the high bench” north of the bridge. “I have 

always had in mind,” he wrote, “the erection of 

permanent buildings ... immediately west of the 

railroad station, from this point the road into the 

park will begin. The idea is to build ... a large 

rustic gateway for [an] entrance. ... Within the 

gate there will be a main thoroughfare, on either 

side of which will be park buildings located with 

an eye to efficiency and beauty.” Karstens hoped 

“to induce Mr. Moreno [sic] to relinquish such 

portions of his claim as this park needs,” and 

at a January 1923 community meeting, he was 

successful in getting him to do just that. Morino, 

however, soon reneged on that offer.3 

Later that year, the picture became even more 

complicated when the Alaska Railroad intervened. Col. Lee Landis, the general manager 

of the newly-completed line, asked Karstens to 

relinquish a large parcel just north of the Morino 

tract that “would be used in connection with 

the railroad hotel to be constructed at McKinley Park.” (Karstens had effective control over 

the parcel at that time because a January 1922 

presidential proclamation, noted in Chapter 3, 

withdrew the land for park administration and 

for a proposed road.) Landis also lobbied other 

Interior Department officials, and in early 1924 

he succeeded; on January 21, President Calvin 

Coolidge issued an executive order that was 

“reserved for use in connection with the construction and operation of railroad lines” (see 

Map 4). The hotel, as it turned out, was not built 

for more than a decade, but the railroad now had 

jurisdiction over a 240-acre tract that represented 

approximately the northern half of the McKinley 

Park Station area.4

Recognizing that he had few other options, 

Karstens began to look at areas along the park 

road away from McKinley Park Station. In midFebruary 1924, less than month after Coolidge 

issued the executive order, he had told Washington officials that “I believe it is time to take up 

the question of moving our headquarters from 

its present location to ... a beautiful spot ... one 

and two-thirds miles from the railroad.” A month 

later, Acting Director Arno Cammerer authorized 

Karstens to move the park headquarters to that 

spot.5 The site, just west of “First Creek” [Rock 

Creek], was “beautifully located and will give full 

control of those going into or out of the park.” 

Soon afterward, he dispatched a ranger and 

horse team to the site “to clear a portion of it for 

lumber yard and buildings.”6 The eastern park 

boundary, then at the 149th parallel, was less than 

two miles west of the newly-selected site.

Karstens, however, recognized that “as a matter of expediency and economy in many ways 

park headquarters should be near the railroad,” 

and in April 1924, he told Washington that he 

was delaying action on the move because of 

a “sudden change of heart in Mr. Morino.” 

Shortly afterward, he and a ranger “accompanied 

Morino over his homestead to look over land he 

is willing to relinquish for Park use.” But Morino 

later recanted his interest in that proposition. 

Karstens, in response, tried to get the GLO’s 

George Parks to work with railroad officials to 

be able to use part of their newly-acquired land 

near the depot.7 The matter of a park headquarThis 1931 Kantishna photograph 

shows Joe Quigley (left), Betty 

Edmunds, wife of ARC Foreman Chris 

Edmunds, Fannie Quigley, and Harry 

Liek. DENA 38-31, Denali National 

Park and Preserve Museum Collection
48 Crown Jewel of the North: An Administrative History of Denali National Park and Preserve

ters location was not resolved until September 

7, at an Anchorage meeting attended by Parks, 

Karstens, and the Alaska Railroad’s Noel Smith. 

At that meeting, Karstens was disappointed 

to hear that “Mr. Parks would not agree that I 

should get land at the railroad at McKinley Park 

for a headquarters,” primarily because “the 

Alaska Railroad wish[es] to hold this land for a 

hotel site, a railroad wye which runs up to it, and 

for other purposes.”8 

By good fortune, a major fire that had swept 

through the area in July 1924 had missed the 

bench just west of Rock Creek,9 so by October 

of that year, rangers were hard at work “clearing land out at the new headquarters” and they 

began hauling cabin logs to the site. Karstens 

hoped “to begin construction very early in the 

spring” so that the buildings would be ready 

before summer. In February 1925, Washington 

gave him permission to locate there; pending a 

supplemental appropriation for building construction, however, Karstens was cautioned to 

erect only “temporary structures which have to 

be dismantled, and without loss to the United 

States except for the labor put in.”10 Karstens 

followed orders to the letter, according to Grant 

Pearson: “There were no funds for the moving 

project. He salvaged three one-room cabins at 

the old Headquarters, tore them down, and rebuilt them at the new site. All the work was done 

by himself, the Chief Ranger, the Park Clerk, and 

two other Rangers.” Construction then commenced at the new site. By August 1925, the only 

building completed was the park office. (The 

sign “Superintendent’s Office” was emblazoned 

above this cabin’s front porch.) The Superintendent’s living quarters was erected a month 

later, and the clerk’s cabin began soon afterward. 

(Although the components that went into these 

structures were often recycled materials that had 

been hauled up from the former headquarters 

site, the buildings were by no means “temporary,” although the minimal level of funds that 

were invested in them may have suggested otherwise.) By the time winter arrived, the camp was 

by no means complete, and some staff endured 

the winter of 1925-26 in less-than-adequate accommodations.11

Locating and building a viable headquarters area 

was a major accomplishment that had long-term 

consequences for park development. The staking 

of this area, which was outside of park boundaries but was deeded “for use in connection with 

the administration of the Mount McKinley 

National Park” (as noted in the language of the 

1922 executive order), meant that park personnel 

would know about, and would be able to control, 

the comings and goings of traffic along the park 

road. It also meant that park personnel—for 

better or worse—would be divorced from the 

goings-on at McKinley Park Station; they also 

would be two miles from the railroad tracks and, 

given the sheltered location 350 feet higher in 

elevation, they would experience warmer winter 

temperatures and less windy conditions than 

those prevailing in the area surrounding the railroad depot. As future events would prove, living 

at the new headquarters site would prove to be a 

double-edged sword, with strong drawbacks as 

well as notable advantages.

Another major change that took place during the 

winter of 1924-25 was the transformation of the 

park’s concessioner. As noted in the previous 

chapter, a horse-packer named Dan Kennedy 

had been the only viable way for most visitors 

to see the park during the summers of 1923 and 

1924. His orneriness, however, proved grating to 

The two cabins were built from 

materials salvaged from the first 

headquarters and were used as 

ranger quarters. The weather station 

(right) was moved up from the first 

headquarters in 1925 and continues 

to record daily weather observations 

near this location. The Superintendent’s Office is on the left. Candy 

Waugaman Collection 
Chapter Four: The Cabins-and-Snowshoes Era, 1925-1936 49

both park visitors and NPS officials. (See Appendix D.) But 

in June 1925, things changed 

for the better when Dan Kennedy sold his interest in the 

company, supposedly because 

he “positively refuse[d] to do 

business in the park as long 

as [Karstens was] the superintendent.” James L. Galen, 

who purchased Kennedy’s 

stake, also headed the Richardson Highway Transportation 

Company, which was a major 

passenger carrier along the 370-

mile route connecting Valdez 

with Fairbanks. Beginning in 

1925, the team of President Galen and Vice-President Thomas Marquam was well on the way into 

transforming the Mount McKinley Tourist and 

Transportation Company into an economicallyviable operation that would host thousands of 

satisfied visitors during its 17-year tenure as the 

park concessioner.12

The Galen-Marquam partnership resulted in 

what was widely considered to be a progressive 

concessioner – and one that generally worked 

well with NPS staff. That partnership, in a 

larger sense, ushered in a period in which four 

partners—the concessioner, the National Park 

Service, the Alaska Railroad, and the Alaska Road 

Commission—were jointly responsible for park 

tourism development. Few of these organizations had many staff, and the budgets allotted 

to McKinley-area projects were often meager 

indeed. (See Appendix B.) These entities, 

however, were able to successfully work together 

on many matters during the period between the 

mid-1920s and the eve of World War II. These 

partnerships were fostered because the area was 

geographically isolated, because of informal relationships among the leaders involved, because 

of a “can-do” spirit, and because the parties 

involved shared many of the same overall goals.

One of the major roadblocks that was cleared 

away during the 1924-25 period was a financing 

arrangement for the construction of the park 

road. As noted earlier, the ARC and the NPS had 

established an “informal agreement” in 1922 on 

road construction, and in April 1924 Congress 

had authorized a three-year NPS road-construction program. But the NPS could not spend 

money on the road until it received a specific 

appropriation. The lack of such an appropriation 

meant that construction undertaken in 1924—

some $80,000 in total—was paid for by the ARC, 

with the expectation that the NPS would eventually provide reimbursement. That expectation 

was finally fulfilled when Congress passed the 

Act of March 3, 1925 (H.R. 10020). That act 

provided funds sufficient for 33 miles of road and 

additional trail mileage. These funds, expended 

on an annual basis, funded road construction 

through the 1927 season. Congress then passed 

the Act of March 7, 1928 (H.R. 9136), which 

provided sufficient funds to complete the road an 

additional 33 miles, to Copper Mountain.13

As a result of the two congressional acts, Alaska 

Road Commission crews—using primarily if 

not exclusively NPS funds—constructed many 

miles of the park road during the mid- to late 

1920s. (See Appendix F.) By the close of the 1924 

season, as has been noted, crews had graded the 

park road just ten miles west of McKinley Park 

Station, “with very little gravel on it as yet.”14 As a 

result, most visitors traveled via horseback to the 

newly-constructed Savage Camp. But during the 

1925 season, the road crews were able to extend 

the road all the way to the Sanctuary River (mile 

22). A lack of funding prevented further construction the following year, but in 1927 the road 

was extended to Igloo Creek (mile 34); in 1928, 

road crews pushed west another 41⁄2 miles to the 

crest of Sable Pass; and by the close of the 1929 

season, vehicles could drive all the way to the 

brink of the Toklat River’s East Fork (mile 431⁄2).15

In order to construct the road, ARC crews 

erected a series of camps that served as temporary bases of operation. The initial tents along 

the route were the line of small tents that crews, 

in 1922, had erected at 12-15 mile intervals 

between McKinley Park Station and Wonder 

Lake.16 Beginning in 1924, ARC road construction crews began erecting small tent camps every 

few miles (and not necessarily at sites where they 

had previously erected tents). Perhaps twenty 

of these ephemeral construction camps were 

thrown up altogether, and little obvious evidence 

marks those sites today.17 But at five sites along 

the way (at Savage River, Sanctuary River, Igloo 

The Alaska Road Commission built 

a two-part cabin as the center of 

its Savage River road construction 

camp. This was the only cabin built 

by the Alaska Road Commission that 

connected two 14’X16’ cabins facing 

each other, with an 8 foot “dog-trot” 

between them with a common roof. 

Herbert Heller Collection, 79-44-

1341, University of Alaska Fairbanks 
50 Crown Jewel of the North: An Administrative History of Denali National Park and Preserve

Creek, East Fork, and Toklat River), ARC crews 

constructed log structures between 1924 and 

1931. These cabins, which typically anchored an 

ARC tent camp, served two practical purposes; 

they served as sturdy, bear-proof cook houses for 

ARC crews during the summer and as shelters for 

ranger patrols during the winter. As construction progressed, these cabins gradually replaced 

the tents that the ARC had erected back in 1922 

when the new route to Kantishna had first been 

laid out.18 

NPS rangers, who had begun to patrol the park 

well before the ARC began road construction, 

had at first been forced to bunk in abandoned 

cabins along the way. Given the Commission’s 

cabin building, rangers were only too glad to use 

these substantial new structures once the brief 

construction flurry had passed at a given camp. 

But as shall be seen below, the NPS had created 

its own network of ranger cabins in the central 

park corridor, some of which were along the general road right-of-way. Cabins along the future 

road right-of-way included an Igloo Camp cabin, 

originally made by “California mountain men,” 

which Fritz Nyberg and Grant Pearson improved 

in the summer of 1926, and the Toklat Patrol 

Cabin, which Pearson and Lee Swisher built in 

the summer of 1927.19 

The various log cabins along the road corridor 

were similar but by no means identical. The first 

ARC cabin, built just east of Savage River in 1924, 

was a so-called “double log cabin” that consisted 

of two adjacent cabins bridged by a sheltered 

“dogtrot” walkway. Cabins built during the next 

three years, whether by the NPS or ARC, typically consisted of a single room, sometimes with 

a substantial entrance porch. Rangers at each of 

these cabins added additional nearby improvements such dog houses, an outhouse, and a 

storage cache.20

The ARC’s construction of the park to the Savage 

River considerably eased access for the Mount 

McKinley park visitor because it allowed the 

concessioner to provide comfortable, if rustic, 

amenities. In 1925, Savage Camp was finally 

accessible by road, and that same year Alaska 

Railroad officials jiggered their schedules to allow daytime stops at McKinley Park Station in 

both directions.21 As a result, traffic into the park 

increased from 62 (in 1924) to 206 (in 1925). In 

order to accommodate the new influx, the Mount 

McKinley Tourist and Transportation Company 

(see Appendix D) had four touring cars at its disposal; even so, late-summer tourists were so numerous that “the four cars had difficulty handling 

all who wished to go into the park.”22 That fall, 

concessions officials announced plans to make 

a substantial investment (between $25,000 and 

$30,000) in facilities and transport conveyances. 

The Sanctuary ARC camp had a 

1-room cabin on the north side of the 

park road and the wall-tent living 

quarters arranged around a circle 

drive on the south side. This original 

ARC footprint has become the present 

Sanctuary Campground. The Sanctuary cabin has not moved, but the road 

and new bridge were moved north 

of the cabin. Herbert Heller Collection, 79-44-1385, University of Alaska 

The Toklat Patrol Cabin was built 

by rangers Grant Pearson and Lee 

Swisher a few years before the park 

road reached this location. It was a 

valuable ‘relief’ cabin for rangers on 

winter patrols. Dan Wilder Collection, 

Courtesy of the Wilder Family
Chapter Four: The Cabins-and-Snowshoes Era, 1925-1936 51

They couched such an investment in hopes that 

the NPS would grant them a long-term contract; 

the agency, however, made it clear that because 

two years remained on the contract, it had little 

interest in amending it.23 The company also 

decided that its main camp would remain at Savage Camp, regardless of how far road construction progressed; it did so because of the camp’s 

nearness to the railroad, the spectacular Mount 

McKinley view, and the plethora of nearby 

points of interest. 

During this same period, the Alaska Railroad 

also stepped in to help. Recognizing the increasing importance of tourism, and endeavoring to 

satisfy the growing clientele, the Alaska Railroad decided to erect “a fine large rustic-type 

arch-way, over the park highway, about 500 feet 

south of the railroad depot.” Supt. Karstens also 

favored the idea, even though the park boundary 

was several miles to the west, because there was 

“nothing present which is indicative of Mount 

McKinley National Park...”. The arch was erected in May 1926. On a broader level, the railroad 

was also hard at work incorporating the park into 

its tourist image. Its advertising brochures and its 

boxcars soon began to proclaim that the Alaska 

Railroad was “the Mount McKinley Route,” and 

for years afterward, the railroad prominently 

mentioned both the park’s beauty and the rewards of a park visit.24 

Anxious to reap rewards from the increasing 

numbers of tourists, the concessioner purchased 

26 10’ x 12’ “tent-houses” for their Savage Camp 

guests, each of which was supplied with “two 

beds, washstands and other features.” For communal purposes, they also built a cook-house, 

garage, social hall, dining room, store tent, two 

barns and a feed and harness cache. The cookhouse was of frame construction, but all of the 

other improvements were built of canvas with a 

rough wood frame. The newly-improved camp 

buildings, which constituted the company’s base 

camp, were erected in May and June 1926. That 

fall, the canvas component of each building was 

packed away. Each spring, a camp of a similar 

size and complexity was rebuilt there.25 Given 

that arrangement, park visitation continued to 

rise. For the remainder of the decade the park 

attracted more than 500 visitors each summer, 

and in 1929 visitation topped 1,000 for the first 

time (see Appendix B). Times were good for the 

park concessioner, and in January 1929 the NPS 

renewed the company’s contract at the park; that 

contract was good for another ten years.26

Life among the Savage Camp tourists during 

this period is perhaps best summed up by the 

reminiscences of Lena Howard, who worked at 

the camp most of the summers between 1927 

and 1941. In excerpts from a 1972 interview, she 

noted that 

In 1926, the Alaska Railroad erected 

this rustic arch over the park road just 

beyond the McKinley Park depot. It 

was intended to give the visitor a 

sense of arrival at the park, although 

the park boundary was several miles 

to the west. Lingo Collection, Denali 

National Park and Preserve Museum 

Collection
52 Crown Jewel of the North: An Administrative History of Denali National Park and Preserve

caribou, bears, and foxes. This tour commenced 

in 1926 and continued through the early 1930s.29 

To provide park visitors a further diversion, the 

ARC in 1928 constructed a two-mile pack trail 

down the west side of the Savage River north 

from the bridge crossing. Over this route, the 

concessioner provided pack-saddle trips during 

the late 1920s and early 1930s.30

For those tourists who had the time and means to 

head farther into the park, the park concessioner 

offered a variety of extended trips. One two-day 

saddle-horse trip took the visitor to the head of 

Savage River, then back to camp via Sanctuary 

River; another trip headed out to Igloo Creek; 

while the most expensive trip, played out over 

eight days, took the visitor all the way to Copper 

Mountain. In order to support those trips, the 

concessioner, by 1928, built tent camps at Igloo 

Creek, Toklat River, and Copper Mountain; the 

Igloo facility was 5 tents and a cache, while the 

others consisted of three tents and a cache. The 

company also erected a tent at Polychrome Pass, 

presumably as a mid-day rest stop.31

Park Patrols and Game Protection

As noted above, the ARC in 1924 began to 

construct a series of patrol cabins along the park 

road, in 1927 the NPS built one of its own (at 

Toklat), and by 1931 there were six cabins scattered along the park road where rangers could 

either stay en route to more distant points or use 

as long-term bases of operations. The primary 

reason for the rangers’ patrols was to keep on the 

lookout for poachers, and extant records show 

that poaching was a constant menace during 

the park’s early years. Inasmuch as Congress, 

goaded by Sheldon, had established the park as a 

game refuge in order to protect the magnificent 

caribou, sheep, bear, moose, and other large animals, Karstens recognized that the prevention of 

poaching had to be a top priority. And because 

most potential poachers lived near the park’s 

northern and eastern boundaries, early enforcement efforts were concentrated in those areas. 

As late as the winter of 1927-28, rangers were 

forced to bunk in substandard “ranger stations” 

at Savage River, Boundary Creek, Ewe Creek, 

Toklat River, East Fork, Riley Creek, and Windy 

Creek. These structures were abandoned cabins 

that hunters or trappers had built before the park 

had been established.32

Toward the western end of the park, rangers had 

few if any cabins upon which they could rely. To 

overcome this lack of cabins, rangers in 1926 

began building their own. That April, the Stony 

Creek Ranger Station (near the Stony CreekSavage Camp – tents and horse corral. 

Candy Waugaman Collection 

The concession company’s touring car 

fleet. Candy Waugaman Collection 

Guests boarding the stage for a day 

trip. Lingo Collection 
Chapter Four: The Cabins-and-Snowshoes Era, 1925-1936 53

We had camps, tents, and they 

enjoyed the frontier life, and others 

didn’t, just like today. So many people 

said “Oh, when you get the hotel built, 

we’ll be back” and others would say 

“Don’t ever build the hotel, that’ll 

spoil it all.” People would be disappointed because there was no snow. 

“Oh, we expected to get lines of dog 

teams!” I said, “in the summertime?” 

(laughs) We had the horses at the 

camp, but [the company also] had 

cars, open cars. Studebakers, Dodges, 

Pierce Arrows.

And then they said “Do we get the 

same kind of food here that we get at 

home?” and they thought everything 

should be different. I think we had 

pork for one meal (they were 24-hour 

people) and roast beef for the other 

meal. (laughs) They thought they 

were eating sheep meat. We usually 

had ham and bacon for breakfast. 

And they always enjoyed sourdough 

hotcakes in the morning, that was a 

must.

Most of the [visitors] were from 

New York and California. They were 

the most traveled people. Mostly elderly people. At that time there were 

retired people and schoolteachers and 

doctors and very few young people at 

that time, because the young people 

couldn’t afford it. Most of them were 

24-hour people and [there were also] 

some 48-hour people. And the main 

thing was to see Mount McKinley and 

sometimes they would blame us for 

the mountain not being out! (laughs)

We had animals around the camp. 

We had foxes that would come to be 

fed and birds and ptarmigan. Different kinds of birds that would come 

around. Sometime from camp we 

could see caribou, sometimes moose.

[Camp manager Bobby Sheldon 

was] a great entertainer. He had a 

knack of keeping people happy. He 

was in Skagway at the time when 

Soapy Smith was killed [so] he used 

to entertain them at night with the 

account of “The Shooting of Soapy 

Smith.” And Harry Karstens, the Superintendent at the time, he gave talks 

about climbing the mountain.27

Some park visitors were interested in traveling to 

places beyond Savage Camp. While the tightlycontrolled schedules that most visitors followed 

during their Alaska tour ruled out longer trips, 

the company catered to more long-term visitors 

by hastening to construct sufficient improvements in the more far-flung areas of the park. 

One of the first areas to be developed, with the 

Alaska Road Commission’s concurrence, was the 

Savage River basin, in areas both north and south 

of the main concessions camp. Park records 

show that Supt. Karstens drove the first automobile to “the head of Savage River” in the summer 

of 1924. Then, in 1927, the ARC improved the 

“coach road” for nine miles up the west side of 

Savage River valley to a tent complex dubbed 

Caribou Camp. (In 1922, Olaus Murie of the 

U.S. Biological Survey had erected a corral in that 

area to capture caribou.)28 Over that route, the 

concessioner operated horse-drawn stages and, 

later, automobiles; the trip was called “the Big 

Game Drive,” along which could be seen sheep, 

Many guests enjoyed horseback riding. Candy Waugaman Collection 
54 Crown Jewel of the North: An Administrative History of Denali National Park and Preserve

evidence of Donnelly hunting inside the park 

boundary, but despite the “clear case” against 

him, Karstens discovered a serious “lack of 

cooperation on the part of the territorial game 

warden,” a man by the name of Burrows.41 And 

after a February 12 trial in nearby Healy (see 

Appendix E), he ruefully noted that “the prosecution failed because of the reluctance of the 

people, as represented by an average jury in this 

instance, to convict anyone for illegal hunting.” 

He recognized that changing public attitudes 

in this area “promises to be a slow and tedious” 

process “requiring much missionary work.”42 

The other case, more insidious, involved William 

N. Beach, a well-known and wealthy outdoors 

big-game hunter, writer, and filmmaker. In 

August 1922, Beach told NPS officials that he 

and fellow New Yorker George Godley planned 

to visit the park. Agency officials, wanting to 

disabuse Beach of the widely-held myth that 

“this Reservation was created for the benefit of 

big Game Hunters from the states,” told him 

that hunting was not allowed in the park. Beach 

was obviously disappointed, but decided to 

visit the park to film its wildlife. At the end of 

their trip into the park, the men told Karstens 

that they had “managed to get some very good 

moving pictures of game” during their visit.43 

But unbeknownst to Karstens, Beach had shot a 

Dall sheep near his Igloo Creek camp; an Alaska 

game warden passing through the camp saw the 

trophy but had made no move to report it. After 

returning to New York, Beach sent Karstens a 

new Mauser; the superintendent, perhaps perplexed by the gift, accepted the German-made 

rifle but didn’t use it. The entire incident may 

have been forgotten, but in the coming months, 

Beach attended a society dinner back east and 

bragged to his table companion that he had killed 

a sheep in Mount McKinley National Park. That 

companion was the NPS’s assistant field director. 

The agency soon obtained a signed statement 

from the flustered New Yorker acknowledging 

the illegal sheep kill. Karstens, once informed of 

the incident, returned the rifle, which was still in 

mint condition. Beach’s case was adjudicated in 

Fairbanks in September 1923. After some legal 

wrangling, Beach pled guilty, claiming that a lack 

of provisions forced him to act. A sympathetic 

U.S. Commissioner fined him just $10 and court 

costs. Karstens was somewhat miffed at the 

modest fine, but he observed that convicting 

anyone for illegal hunting in Alaska—let alone 

levying a fine—was “quite a feat.”44

The publicity engendered by these two cases, 

plus the park staff’s quiet proselytizing while on 

their intermittent treks along the park boundary, 

made it clear to area residents and any potential 

market hunters that the park was a game preserve in which the hunting laws were enforced. 

Given that state of affairs, enforcement problems 

tapered off beginning in the summer of 1924. By 

October 1924, two months into the fall hunting 

season, Karstens reported that there “has been 

no hunting within the park boundaries,” and by 

December, he noted that “attempts at hunting 

within the boundaries are few, the people living 

The McKinley Bar cabin was built by 

ranger Grant Pearson in 1926, located 

on the McKinley River close to the 

original (1917) park boundary. Also 

referred to as the Kantishna Ranger 

Station, it burned to the ground in 

1956. B67-23-47, Anchorage Museum 

of History & Art

The present Igloo Campground occupies the footprint of the earlier 

Mt. McKinley Tourist & Transportation Company’s Igloo Camp. Lingo 

Collection, Denali National Park and 

Preserve Museum Collection
Chapter Four: The Cabins-and-Snowshoes Era, 1925-1936 55

Boundary Creek confluence) 

was completed, and later that 

year rangers constructed a 

second cabin, on the northern 

forested edge of McKinley Bar 

(a few miles south of Wonder 

Lake), which was dubbed the 

Kantishna Ranger Station.33 

And beginning in March 1927, 

rangers erected a cabin at 

McLeod Creek, twelve miles 

west of the McKinley Bar station.34 No cabins were built 

west of McLeod Creek because 

poaching in that isolated area was not perceived 

to be a problem.

By the late spring of 1927, rangers could count on 

a rough assemblage of cabins—built by either the 

NPS, the ARC, or by prospectors—along both 

the northern boundary and along the right-ofway of the park road. But for rangers mushing 

west from headquarters to either the McKinley 

Bar or McLeod Creek cabins, there were few if 

any shelters west of the Toklat River’s East Fork. 

(One ranger report stated that “rangers must stop 

where night overtakes them. A spruce tree is the 

best shelter to be found, while in some barren 

sections it is difficult to find enough willows for 

fire-wood.”) To help bridge that gap, rangers 

built the Toklat Relief Cabin in the summer of 

1927. That December, however, ranger Grant 

Pearson nearly died during a December 1927 

blizzard while on patrol near Muldrow Glacier. 

In response, the park superintendent vowed that 

there had to “be enough cabins along the main 

trail through the park to enable the rangers to 

reach one in one day’s travel.” To fulfill that goal, 

Pearson began gathering logs for the Copper 

Mountain relief cabin. That cabin, which was 

located on the south side of the broad Thorofare River at Grant Creek, was erected in 1928.35 

Depending on the circumstances, rangers stayed 

in some of these cabins for overnight protection 

or for short layovers; cabins at the western end 

of the park, however—specifically the Toklat, 

Copper Mountain, and McKinley Bar cabins—

served as ranger bases of operation for extended 

wintertime periods.

The rangers, in the park’s early days, had good 

reason to carry on their boundary patrols 

because poaching was a constant threat. In his 

first foray into the park, in the spring of 1921, 

Karstens had encountered two trapping parties 

along the northern boundary and also “noticed 

well beaten horse and dog sled tracks on the old 

snow drifts.” The following March, he made a 

repeat reconnaissance; he found two hunting 

camps (one on the Savage River, one on Sanctuary); during the same period, he learned that 

there were “several parties camped just outside 

the line” at the park’s southeastern corner “who 

have brought in sheep to sell to the roadhouses.” 

To both groups, he could find nothing to prove 

poaching in the park, and he wistfully opined 

that there would have been more, except “beef 

shipped in from the States is fairly cheap, causing a poor market for those hunting game.”36 

Karstens felt that “most of the people in and 

around the park are well disposed ... to observe 

the rules and regulations, except a certain element who do not recognize any authority and 

take advantage of the small force for patrol to 

poach when ever possible.” That summer of 

1922, he readily admitted that hard evidence of 

poaching was “negligible” in the park, but as the 

head of a severely understaffed park, he often 

received rumors of rampant poaching going on 

in the Cantwell area, along the Toklat and Stony 

rivers, and elsewhere.37

For the next two years, protecting the park’s animal life proved a thankless, endlessly frustrating 

chore. Although Karstens and other park staff 

had few personal encounters with poachers, evidence found while on patrol underscored the fact 

that the practice was continuing.38 Trapping was 

also a problem, particularly at the remote western 

end of the park, where Slim Carlson on Clearwater Creek, Gus Bench on Birch Creek, and Slim 

Avery on Foraker River were “doing pretty much 

as they please.”39 Exacerbating the problem was 

the local residents’ laissez faire attitude toward 

hunting in the park; as Karstens noted, “People 

here deem it a crime to give evidence against illegal hunting; they admit it should be stopped, but 

are reluctant to give evidence,” and park personnel trying to enforce the game laws were called 

“informers and stool pigeons.”40

This attitude was painfully obvious in the prosecution of two poaching incidents. In February 

1923, Karstens found a hunting camp that Jack 

Donnelly had built inside the park boundary; he 

told Donnelly to leave but chose not to prosecute. Later that year, however, park staff found 

The Copper Mountain Cabin was 

located just south of Thorofare River, 

about halfway between the McKinley 

Bar Cabin and the Toklat Ranger 

Cabin. It provided welcome shelter in 

this treeless area. DENA 3975, Denali 

National Park and Preserve Museum 

Collection
56 Crown Jewel of the North: An Administrative History of Denali National Park and Preserve

ages, and he also hoped to add a five-mile strip 

north of the park between the railroad and the 

Toklat River. The “wild game” located beyond 

the park’s northern boundary, he claimed, was 

“probably the greatest attraction which the Park 

Service will have,” and the eastern and southeastern sections contained “a good deal of game.” 

In addition, an extension was needed because it 

was difficult to enforce or monitor hunting access 

into the existing park.51

Mears’s proposal was forwarded to George A. 

Parks of the General Land Office, who made a 

thorough investigation and issued a final report in 

November 1922. It was not encouraging. Parks 

obtained statements from Olaus Murie, Maurice 

Morino, and even Harry Karstens that debunked 

the notion that the eastern strip was laden with 

game; he noted, in fact, that it 

“contains no game of any kind 

other than birds.” In addition, 

Murie—according to Parks—

stated that the caribou that 

often grazed north of the park 

boundaries were indicators of 

a particularly large herd and 

“that unless the surplus caribou 

are killed, the range within the 

park will soon be overstocked.” 

And in response to Mears’s 

ease-of-patrol argument, Parks 

stated that virtually all hunters 

hoping to enter the park would 

use either Riley Creek or Windy 

Creek, and to him, “efficient rangers can patrol 

these places just as easily as they can forty miles 

of railroad.”52 Interior Department officials in 

Washington lost further interest in the idea. But 

for the remainder of the decade, Karstens and his 

staff made repeated recommendations to have 

the boundary moved eastward: either to the railroad, to the Nenana River, or merely to have the 

mile-wide strip that had been the subject of the 

January 13, 1922 executive order included in the 

park.53 The problem remained unresolved.

An even murkier problem related to the protection of the park’s game was a clause in the park 

bill related to subsistence hunting by miners and 

prospectors. As noted in Chapter 2, such a clause 

had been insisted upon by Alaska Delegate James 

Wickersham, and as a result, Section 6 of the park 

bill—which stated that “no person shall kill any 

game in said park ...” had an express provision 

“that prospectors and miners engaged in prospecting or mining in said park may take and kill 

therein so much game or birds as may be needed 

for their actual necessities when short of food; 

but in no case shall animals or birds be killed 

in said park for sale or removal therefrom, or 

wantonly.”54 The area in and around the park, at 

the time, was ripe for prospecting; and as reports 

throughout the 1920s show, prospecting (which 

was legal because of Section 4 in the park bill) 

took place in many drainages within the park.55 

Karstens, mindful of Section 6 and its rationality, soon developed misgivings about it. First, 

he found the section unenforceable, inasmuch it 

allowed virtually all nearby residents to claim that 

they were prospecting. In addition, however, the 

fact that prospectors often killed numerous park 

animals for their dog teams (whether or not the 

meat was “for their actual necessities when short 

of food”) seemed to be a flagrant flouting of the 

section’s intent. 

His inability to distinguish between prospectors, 

miners, and other hunters led him to suggest, as 

early as February 1923, that “a regulation should 

be inserted ... making it compulsory for prospectors and visitors to any one mine, when practical, 

to get a permit to enter the park, and to report 

when coming out and show entrance permit...”, 

and two months later, he noted that “game ... is 

getting thinned out around Copper Mountain 

where quite a number of prospectors and miners have been located”. At year’s end, Interior 

Secretary Hubert Work charged in his annual 

report (after his July visit) that “few prospectors observe the rules; the majority wantonly kill 

game for themselves and dogs. ... if the present rate of destruction continues the object for 

which the park was created will be defeated.”56 

Park staff was well aware that the farther reaches 

of the park—in the Toklat River drainage and 

beyond—was “where promiscuous hunting [was] 

done very extensively.” In order to deal with the 

problem, therefore, Karstens dispatched rangers into those areas beginning in the winter of 

1925-26; given that presence, they were able to 

document the extent of the problem and discuss 

the park’s regulations with miners and prospectors from Copper Mountain, Kantishna, and 

nearby areas.57

The Stony Creek Ranger Station 

provided shelter for rangers patrolling the park’s northern boundary. 

Pictured here are rangers Wallace 

Anderson and Lee Swisher along with 

Arch Sisley, packer for J.C. Reed’s 1931 

USGS party. J. C. Reed, U.S. Geologi-
Chapter Four: The Cabins-and-Snowshoes Era, 1925-1936 57

close to the park, are as a general rule, showing 

more interest and better feeling regarding the 

park.”45 The only known case of poaching that 

fall had been perpetrated by two Nenana-area 

Natives. Karstens soon learned that the two 

men were nearly destitute due to a poor fish run 

that year. In addition, they mistakenly thought 

that the kill site was outside of park boundaries, and Karstens saw that they were “pretty well 

scared and repentant.” Given those conditions, 

Karstens chose not to prosecute, and neither 

they nor other Natives were suspected in future 

poaching incidents.46 The “better feeling” that 

Karstens had noted in 1924 continued into the 

following year; that September, the superintendent optimistically told his superiors that “several 

patrol trips were made by the rangers on which 

they found no hunting on the boundaries or in 

the park.”47 The problem of illegal hunting, of 

course, did not disappear; miscreants along the 

park borders, primarily trappers southwest of 

Kantishna, would continue to make illegal kills 

for the remainder of the decade. By the mid1920s, however, park staff had successfully halted 

the widespread depredation of park wildlife by 

those market hunters and local residents who 

lived near the northern and eastern park boundaries.48

Complicating the problem of enforcing the 

park’s hunting laws during the mid- to late 1920s 

was the arbitrary location of the park’s eastern 

boundary. As noted in Chapter 3, the eastern 

boundary had been extended east as a result of 

discussions that Charles Sheldon had begun in 

April 1921. Sheldon had initially suggested that 

the boundary line be moved east to the railroad 

right-of-way; Demaray, however, noted that 

such an attempt “would result in bringing local 

opposition which might defeat the extension 

then proposed.” Given that opposition—real or 

perceived—Alaska delegate Dan Sutherland submitted a bill to move the boundary to the 149th

meridian. That bill encountered little opposition 

and was signed by President Harding on January 

30, 1922.49 

The ink from his signature was hardly dry, however, before NPS officials began to lobby for the 

boundary to be moved farther to the east. On 

February 3, 1922, Karstens—perhaps unaware of 

Washington activities in the matter—wrote that 

“if the park eastern boundary is not run down to 

the railroad ... opportunities ... to poach park 

sheep ...are going to cause great temptation to 

any one owning a gun, and will require a large 

force of rangers to patrol the eastern boundary.” 

That May, he further stated that the three-mile 

section between the new boundary and the 

railroad “should be taken into the park” because 

“it will be a source of trouble as long as it is open 

... the head of Riley creek and the head of Windy 

creek sections are really wonderful game countries and it is a crime to leave that small stretch of 

country out of the park.” 50 AEC official Frederick Mears concurred with that recommendation, 

and on May 29 he wrote a formal proposal to Interior Secretary Albert B. Fall “to extend the eastern boundary of the park to the Railroad.” He 

wanted to include, in the southeastern end of the 

park, all of the Cantwell and Windy creek drainBy 1921, prospectors had begun staking claims in the Copper Mountain 

area, deep inside the original boundaries of Mt. McKinley National Park. 

Because of this camp’s remoteness 

and difficulty of access, prospectors 

relied on hunting to supply their 

dietary needs. Brooks Collection, 68-

32-313, University of Alaska Fairbanks 
58 Crown Jewel of the North: An Administrative History of Denali National Park and Preserve

bill (H.R. 8126) until the December of that year; 

Rep. Charles Curry (R-Calif.) steered it through 

a January 4 committee vote, and it reached the 

House floor in mid-January. But the person who 

spoke on behalf of the bill, Rep. Louis Cramton 

(R-Mich.), supported not only the repeal of 

the budget limitation, but he further stated that 

“if there is prospecting, the prospector should 

not be permitted to kill game.” Cramton knew 

that conditions for prospecting in the park had 

dramatically changed in recent years, to the point 

that “there is no prospecting at the present time 

in the park area.”65 But he may also have been 

tipped off that several poaching incidents had 

taken place in the last two years and that there 

were “about 35 or 40 trappers” along the park’s 

northern and eastern boundaries, “practically 

all” of whom had “from 5 to 9 dogs which are 

fed principally on caribou and sheep.”66 Alaska 

Delegate Sutherland admitted to a “reluctance 

about making a change in the status quo,” but 

he also remarked that “I feel I have to yield to 

the inevitable, to the onward trend of conservation, which is extending all over the Territory.” 

Cramton then moved to amend H.R. 8126 to 

include the repeal of the last provision in Section 

6, and the full House accepted the amendment 

and passed the entire bill.67 Unanimous votes on 

March 27 and May 14 brought the language in 

the Senate and House votes together, and on May 

21, President Herbert Hoover signed H.R. 8126 

into law.68 This law eliminated the park’s $10,000 

budgetary ceiling (which had been a provision of 

the original park bill), and it also prohibited prospectors from killing game, for any reason, within 

the park boundaries.

Staff Changes and Headquarters Growth

As noted above, the key to the NPS being able 

to protect its wildlife—and to put a human face 

behind the laws and regulations under which it 

operated—was having a viable staff. As noted in 

the previous chapter, Superintendent Karstens 

was the park’s only staff member from July 1921 

until the following November. (See Appendix 

C.) From then until July 1924, a single ranger 

worked with Karstens. Due to the stress of both 

working and living conditions, however, five men 

served in that role during that 30-month period. The first ranger to serve more than a year, 

Ernest McFarland, left in a cloud of acrimony in 

September 1924. But during that same period, 

Karstens hired Fritz A. Nyberg, who had been 

part of that summer’s ARC crew, and shortly 

afterward he brought on Robert H. Degen.69 

Karstens was pleasantly surprised with both 

men; in his October report, he noted that “the 

two young huskie rangers are doing excellent 

work, they are both very much interested in the 

park and their work and deserve much credit 

for their willingness under all conditions.” Two 

months later, Degen left for personal reasons—it 

was “a case of either the Girl or the Job and the 

Girl won”—but Nyberg stayed on. A year later, 

the Superintendent recognized Nyberg as a cut 

above the other rangers, and the two men were 

openly weary of training rangers for what turned 

out to be short-term assignments. In January 

1926, Karstens noted that “men who can stand 

the isolation and the hardships of the trail, are 

very hard to find and after a few weeks’ trial, do 

not always show up as well as might be and their 

resignations are then requested.”70 But just when 

he seemed to be most despairing of his staff, a 

25-year-old from Michigan, Grant Pearson, landed a job as temporary ranger. Pearson, who had 

been in Alaska less than a year, enjoyed working 

at the park so much that he remained there—as a 

ranger, chief ranger, or superintendent—for most 

of the next thirty years. Pearson, along with NyBefore 1928, prospectors traveling 

through the park could lawfully hunt 

inside the park for their own needs, 

but not to feed dog teams. Alaska 

Road Commission Collection, PCA61-

77-1187, Alaska State Library
Chapter Four: The Cabins-and-Snowshoes Era, 1925-1936 59

Meanwhile park staff and advocacy groups 

searched for ways to lessen the harvest level. 

Efforts began back in the spring of 1923 when, 

in response to the rumored establishment of a 

corporate mine in the Copper Mountain area, 

the National Parks Committee (an NPS “friends” 

group chaired by George Bird Grinnell) passed 

a resolution asking the NPS director to prohibit 

mining-company employees from killing game 

“for community food service.” Instead, they 

advocated the killing of game only “by bona fide 

prospectors for their own use.” Acting Director 

Arno Cammerer responded to those actions by 

recommending “that certain zones be established 

within the park where hunting will be prohibited.”58 Superintendent Karstens broached 

Cammerer’s idea with the park’s prospectors; 

he suggested “closing the eastern portion of the 

Park between the Stony and the railroad [where 

prospecting possibilities were acknowledged 

to be poor] to all hunting. ... The prospectors I 

have talked with on the subject are in favor of this 

and will sign a petition to that effect.”59 During 

the same period, Karstens broached the same 

subject more broadly; at an Anchorage speaking 

engagement that May, he “brought up the question of illegal hunting and the fallacy of allowing 

so-called prospectors to hunt promiscuously. 

... I asked their assistance to, if not possible to 

eliminate hunting altogether, at least give a hand 

toward regulating it for the ultimate benefit of all 

concerned.”60

Little activity took place on this issue during 

the next couple of years, but in the meantime, a 

seemingly unrelated issue—the park’s budgetary 

ceiling—gathered steam. As noted in Chapter 2, 

Section 7 of the park act noted “that no appropriation for the maintenance of said park in excess of $10,000 annually shall be made unless the 

same shall have first been expressly authorized 

by law.” The agency’s first appropriations for the 

park, in the 1922 through 1924 fiscal years, were 

just $8,000.61 (See Appendix B.) But by March of 

1924, with Congress on the verge of authorizing 

a three-year roadbuilding program for the park, 

Alaska Delegate Dan Sutherland submitted a bill 

(H.R. 8020) that would have eliminated that proviso within Section 7.62 That bill went nowhere, 

and the NPS continued to fight an uphill battle 

with Congress to provide minimal park funding.63

Then, in 1927, the subject arose again in a bill 

submitted by Sen. Frank B. Willis (R-Ohio), the 

chair of the Committee on Territories and Insular 

Possessions, after a favorable recommendation 

by Interior Secretary Work. S. 5006 was deemed 

necessary because the park road, by now, was 

some 22 miles long. (See Appendix F.) It was 

further anticipated that “maintenance will be 

fairly heavy” on the road and that estimates for 

1929 maintenance work on the park road, then 

being prepared, “will probably exceed $10,000.” 

Given the broad support in Congress for the park 

road, S. 5006 emerged from its committee on 

February 15 and it passed the Senate on February 

28.64 

The House did not submit its own version of the 

This prospector’s cache at Copper 

Mountain represents considerable 

effort in transporting materials to this 

remote location. Dog teams were a 

primary means of travel for prospectors in the park. Nyberg Collection, 

DENA 1500p31, Denali National Park 

and Preserve Museum Collection
60 Crown Jewel of the North: An Administrative History of Denali National Park and Preserve

of 1925, it will be recalled, park staff moved the 

park headquarters up to a new site that was south 

of the park road and west of Rock Creek. That 

year, park personnel were able to complete only 

the superintendent’s residence and the nearby 

clerk’s cabin before winter set in. These buildings, moreover, were slapped together so quickly 

that both men spent most of November working 

on their quarters during their off hours.79

The following year, construction continued. In 

April 1926, work began on a new park office or 

administration building, and two months later 

rangers began to erect a chief ranger’s cabin for 

Fritz Nyberg, who was selected for that newlyestablished position. Both of those buildings 

were completed in late July.80 Later that summer, 

construction began on a combination cookhouse 

for dog feed and a cache for dog-food storage; that work was supplemented the following 

summer by the construction of new dog kennels. Also constructed in 1927 was the park’s 

first garage; this wood-sided affair was a vast 

improvement over a “temporary shelter of poles 

and canvas” that had been hurriedly constructed 

in late 1925 in hopes that staff would be able to 

start the park’s “auto truck,” which was its sole 

motor vehicle at the time.81 All of these buildings 

were constructed by park rangers using locallyavailable tools at almost no cost to the taxpayer, 

and the layout of the camp squarely separated the 

residential and work areas from the dog kennels. 

Regarding utilities, coal for the park was delivered once a year to McKinley 

Park Station by the Healy River 

Coal Company.82 Outhouses 

were the norm at first, but in the 

summer of 1927 the park ordered chemical toilets for each 

of the park residences.83 Water 

had to be obtained, bucket by 

bucket, from Rock Creek, and 

garbage disposal (at a newlyestablished dump site on the 

edge of the headquarters area) 

was also each employee’s responsibility.84 Evidence of this 

early lifestyle, as it turned out, 

was fleeting indeed; most of 

the headquarters’ first-generation buildings were 

demolished during the 1930s and 1940s, and all 

traces of both the first dog kennel site (1927-

1938) and dump site have been obliterated.85

Refinements came to the headquarters area in 

the summer of 1927 when an ARC crew graded 

out the ramrod-straight “main street” that has 

visually defined the headquarters area ever since. 

Karstens noted that the work would be “the first 

step towards the construction of a well-defined 

system of streets. This street ... leads due south 

toward the dog-kennels and other outhouses 

[outbuildings]. Tourists, who greatly enjoy 

viewing the dogs, now have the benefit of a good 

walking place for the ‘pilgrimage.’”86 Dogs, in 

fact, had long been an integral part of park operations. Karstens had purchased the park’s first 

dogs—a team of seven “good, young dogs”—in 

February 1922. He built the first dog houses that 

fall, and by the close of 1923 there were thirteen 

dogs in the park’s care, a number that would 

more than double in the next few years.87 Each 

year through 1925, Karstens had the park’s dogs 

spend each summer at Hadley’s Camp, a fish 

camp 25 miles down the Tanana River from Fairbanks.88 But by 1926, he had grown to recognize 

that “the Alaskan sled-dogs are always a source of 

interest to our park visitors here.” As a result, he 

decided to clear ground in the newly-established 

headquarters area (“about 200 to 250 feet further 

south than where formerly located” and near 

present-day residences 26 and 34) and have the 

dogs live year-round at the park.89 His provision 

of a large area specifically allotted to the park’s 

dog teams may have marked the first time that 

NPS staff constructed facilities with park visitors’ 

needs in mind. Neither Karstens nor other park 

employees, however, were particularly sentimental about dogs; their primary purpose was to 

conduct wintertime patrols, and park employees 

often culled animals that were either “worthless 

through old age” or simply too numerous for 

their needs.90

In March 1928, an increase in the park’s budget promised further refinements to the headquarters area. Karstens, noting that the recent 

allotment “is the first amount that has ever been 

allotted to this park for new construction,” stated 

that “all future development about headquarters will be influenced by the proper spacing of 

these buildings and the space reserved for future 

construction.” He then invited the participation 

of Thomas C. Vint, the agency’s Chief Landscape 

Fritz Nyberg is pictured in July 

1928 at a headquarters cabin. 

Supt. Karstens noted that on 

Nyberg’s first day of work, August 

29, 1924, he fitted Nyberg out 

“and sent him [by railroad] to 

Cantwell with instructions to go 

up Windy into the park, cross over 

and come down the Cantwell [Nenana] River.” Nyberg Collection, 

DENA 1502p52, Denali National 

Park and Preserve Museum Col-
Chapter Four: The Cabins-and-Snowshoes Era, 1925-1936 61

berg, became two of the best known rangers at 

the park, and no further complaints were voiced 

about the quality of the park’s ranger staff.71

To work at the park during this period was not 

merely to have a job; to a far greater extent, it was 

an immersion in a lifestyle. All park personnel 

during this period—be they rangers, laborers, 

the park clerk, or the superintendent—served 

as jack-of-all-trades. And depending on the 

circumstances, virtually everyone played a hand 

at building and maintaining cabins, loading and 

hauling coal, carrying water and sewage, hitching 

up the horse team72, feeding the dogs, entertaining dignitaries, maintaining the weather station73, 

interacting with concession employees, and answering visitors’ questions. Then as now, weather and snow conditions could be extreme, and 

the sun did not directly shine on the headquarters area for more than a month during December and January.74 Staff sometimes endured long 

periods of isolation, even at headquarters,75 and 

the staff was so small (and often so dispersed) 

that there were few opportunities for community 

social activities, either among themselves or with 

McKinley Park Station residents. A ranger’s salary was often significantly less than the prevailing Alaska wage rate—a fact that Karstens often 

grumbled about—and training opportunities 

were practically nonexistent.76 Thus it was little 

wonder that park jobs had a high turnover. But, 

as noted above, a few rangers loved the rugged, 

raw lifestyle and the freedoms it offered.

A common theme in Karstens’s reports to 

Washington was a plea for more staff and a higher 

budget, and as the years rolled by, both grew. In 

July 1924 the staff increased to three with the addition of a new ranger, and a year later, Karstens 

was able to hire his first clerk, Ralph Mackie. By 

1926 the staff had risen to six, and by the end of 

the decade eight men were on the payroll. The 

budget, during this period grew from the $8,000 

that had been allotted in fiscal years 1922-1924 

up to $35,000-plus in fiscal years 1929 and 1930. 

(See Appendix B.) These increases did not stop 

the superintendent from clamoring for more 

employees and a higher budget; despite the fact 

that Mount McKinley was almost as large as Yellowstone, the country’s largest national park,77

Mount McKinley’s budget and staff were still 

skeletal in comparison to most other national 

parks. A glance at national park budgets from the 

1925-1930 period shows that Mount McKinley 

National Park consumed less than one-half of 

one percent of the agency’s budget; by contrast, 

both Yosemite and Yellowstone accounted for 

more than ten percent of the 1925 budget and 

five percent of the 1930 budget. Of ten sampled 

parks, only two—Hawaii and Lassen Volcanic—

were funded more poorly than Mount McKinley.78

Aside from game protection, one of the most 

important tasks that park rangers performed was 

the construction and maintenance of park buildings. As noted above, rangers played an important role (along with the Alaska Road Commission) in building and caring for a series of cabins 

along the park road. Just as important, however, 

was the rangers’ role in constructing a new, 

functional base of operations. In the summer 

Ranger Grant Pearson at the McLeod 

Creek cabin, which in 1927 was under 

construction. Pearson began work at 

the park in February 1926 and retired 

as superintendent in November, 1956. 

DENA 6-1, Denali National Park and 

Preserve Museum Collection 
62 Crown Jewel of the North: An Administrative History of Denali National Park and Preserve

summer of 1929, a 27,000-gallon reservoir was 

excavated, a pump and gasoline engine was 

installed, water and sewer mains were laid, and 

“fifteen inches of dry moss put on [to] keep it 

from freezing.” The system was completed that 

September.103 Just a month later, Liek purchased 

a Kohler lighting system, and soon afterward the 

lighting plant was installed in the basement of the 

park’s office building. At first, wires were simply 

strung via the “roof-to-roof method,” but in 1931 

a series of light poles were erected throughout 

the headquarters complex.104 Because the water 

and sewer lines were vulnerable to freezing, park 

staff in 1932 decided to open up the trenches 

again and lay a steam line adjacent to them, to be 

powered by a second-hand, wood-fired boiler. 

That project was completed in 1933 and proved 

satisfactory, for the most part, for the remainder 

of the decade.105 But throughout this period, 

there was no attempt to provide central heating to homes and offices; instead, coal was the 

predominant fuel source.106

The other major development during this period 

was that trucks and automobiles were taking over 

many of the duties previously assigned to horse 

teams. As noted in Chapter 3, Karstens had 

purchased the park’s first car (a Ford) back in 

the spring of 1922; he had done so, using his own 

funds, to power a wood saw. Three years later, 

he bought an “auto truck.” He was so convinced 

of the truck’s usefulness that he looked forward 

to getting rid of the park’s horses and, instead, 

purchasing a small tractor to pull stumps, haul 

logs, maintain headquarters-area roads, and 

similar tasks.107 No such tractor was purchased, 

however, and the park continued to keep a team 

of horses; they were used primarily during the 

winter and came in especially handy in midwinter, after the ARC crew had left, to make the 

two-mile trip between headquarters and McKinley Park Station. They also hauled supplies to 

the park’s cabins. They were useless, however, in 

deep snow conditions.108 In 1932, park personnel bought “a new Ford Model B runabout with 

pick-up body,”109 and three years later—a decade 

after the idea was first floated—they finally purchased a Caterpillar tractor. As a result, horses 

were used only sporadically after 1934, and they 

apparently disappeared entirely from the park by 

the end of the decade.110

Aside from their work at headquarters, NPS 

rangers were also busy constructing a series of 

patrol cabins along the park’s northern border during this period. As noted above, patrol 

rangers during the late 1920s used a series of 

cabins—some built by rangers, others holdovers 

from prospecting days—along that portion of 

the boundary between the Nenana and Toklat 

rivers. But at least one of those cabins was in 

“very dilapidated condition,” and by 1929, Liek 

stated that two or more “shelter cabins will have 

to be erected along the [northern boundary] line 

Harry Karstens at the new 

headquarters sled dog kennel. 

Nyberg Album, Denali National Park 

and Preserve Museum Collection
Chapter Four: The Cabins-and-Snowshoes Era, 1925-1936 63

Architect, to help plan new construction.91 But 

Vint, who arrived in the summer of 1929, recommended that the headquarters be moved back 

to McKinley Park Station. Vint’s recommendation, however, was later overruled. Because of 

his stance, he played no role in the headquarters 

planning process.92

Karstens, as noted above, was looking forward to 

working with Vint on a variety of park projects, 

both at headquarters and elsewhere. Such a 

working relationship, however, never took place 

because the superintendent resigned his position in September 1928. What brought about 

his resignation—an argument with a stubborn 

ranger that got out of hand—was unremarkable 

enough;93 for over thirty years as a gold miner, 

mail carrier, guide, freighter, and superintendent, 

he had had no qualms about arguing, shouting, 

or fighting as the occasion demanded, and he 

had little patience for slackers or bureaucratic 

niceties.94 NPS officials were well aware of his 

volcanic temperament when they hired him; but 

they also knew that no one knew the country 

better, no one could work so hard and so effectively under such trying conditions, and no one 

could represent the new park better than he. He 

was thus eminently qualified to pioneer the new 

park, and because he was consistently supported 

by Charles Sheldon, agency officials gave him the 

benefit of the doubt. Over the years, he earned 

his fair share of critics, and the Interior Department held at least one full-blown investigation 

of his conduct.95 Karstens persevered through it 

all, but as the 1920s wore on, it became increasingly obvious that the park was changing. By the 

summer of 1928, the park had emerged from its 

most rustic phase; increasing attention was being 

paid to tourists, the staff and physical plant had 

increased beyond the bare-bones level, and the 

demands of a growing bureaucracy were turning 

him from a woodsman and dog-musher into a 

desk jockey and program manager. He gradually 

came to realize that it was time to move on, and 

on September 19, he told Washington, “I have 

had enough.”96 Karstens rued his resignation 

for the rest of his life, and more than once he 

petitioned agency officials to be rehired.97 But it 

was not meant to be. When he died in November 

1955, he was lauded by thousands of Alaskans, 

and Outside conservationists, as the irreplaceable human face behind the early exploration of 

the park area, the taming of the mountain, the 

pioneering of the park, and the guiding of the 

park unit, from scratch, into a position of both 

visibility and broad respectability.98

A New Superintendent Takes Over

The man tabbed to replace Karstens was Harry 

Liek, who was then serving as the assistant chief 

ranger at Yellowstone National Park. Horace 

Albright, who drove the selection process, was 

serving as Yellowstone’s superintendent, and 

the agency’s first director, Stephen Mather, was 

still on the job; but within months, illness forced 

Mather to step aside, and Albright took over the 

agency’s reins. Albright picked Liek, in part, 

because of his dependability, his administrative skills, and his leadership qualities. Both 

the Washington office and the park staff looked 

forward to a changing of the guard. Here was 

a chance to start afresh, free of the personality 

conflicts that had surfaced all too often during 

the Karstens superintendency.99

Liek arrived at the park in early December 1928 

and immediately undertook “a general survey of 

conditions,” including “several trips ... by dog 

team to nearby points.”100 Despite the predominant cold and dark, he soon learned that 

park activity at the headquarters area centered 

on construction and improvement activities. 

During that winter, rangers were hard at work 

on the warehouse and the horse barn, and they 

also repaired the interior of the administrative 

office and the superintendent’s residence. By 

June 1929 these projects were completed. That 

summer, work commenced on a new superintendent’s residence and a new dog-feed cache 

and sled storage building, both of which were 

completed the following spring. Then, in short 

order, came an electric light plant (1931), a garage 

(1931), a comfort station (1932), and a boiler 

house (1932).101 Most of these structures were 

built by NPS rangers, along with laborers who 

were hired on an as-needed basis; only occasionally, as with the superintendent’s house, did the 

agency hire outside contractors.102

The completion of these buildings portended 

two major developments. First, it signaled 

that the agency fully intended to supply basic 

amenities—water, sewage, light, and heat—to 

the isolated, rustic headquarters complex. In 

February 1927, the park had requested funds 

for a “water supply and drainage system.” That 

project was approved, and in the spring and 

Taken in 1935, this photograph still 

shows the early configuration

of the new park headquarters. Note 

that the park kennels were located in

what is now the residential area. 

Lincoln Washburn Photo, DENA 3906, 

Denali National Park and Preserve 

Museum Collection 
64 Crown Jewel of the North: An Administrative History of Denali National Park and Preserve

far more marketable than a west-end location. 

Both sites, moreover, had problems: the Mile 

66 site would not be accessible by the park road 

for several more construction seasons, and the 

McKinley Park Station was a difficult choice because it was located outside the park boundaries.

The agency, as part of its park plans, tolerated 

and even encouraged aviation access to the park. 

During the late 1920 and early 1930s, the air age 

was in its infancy in the park vicinity, as indeed 

it was throughout Alaska Territory. Pioneering 

aviator Carl Ben Eielson had landed the first 

airplane in the park during the spring of 1924 as 

part of an experimental airmail contract between Fairbanks and McGrath; according to one 

source, he had landed “a number of occasions 

... upon the slopes of ... Copper Mountain.” 123 

The area, at that time, supported “quite a number 

of prospectors and miners.”124 Later that year, 

pilot Noel Wien landed on a “short gravel bar” 

along the Bearpaw River; he and his party were 

headed for Kantishna, another active mining 

area.125 Between 1925 and 1927, the Alaska Road 

Commission bladed out its first two airfields in 

the vicinity: a 1500-foot strip near Lake Minchumina, built as an emergency landing area for 

flights between Fairbanks and Tokotna, followed 

by the 600-foot-long Kantishna Aviation Field, 

“on the left limit of Moose Creek between the 

creek and Wonder Lake,” which was used by area 

miners along with an occasional tourist.126 In 

1926 the park’s concessions chief, James L. Galen, applied to the NPS “for permission to operate airplanes in the park, using some of the gravel 

bars of our rivers as landing fields.” But Galen 

soon had second thoughts and the “airplane sight 

seeing service” was indefinitely delayed.127

As the 1920s gave way to the 1930s, a long-running, nationally-publicized aviation rescue operation brought an unexpected change to Mount 

McKinley National Park. Carl Ben Eielson, the 

Superintendent Harry Liek, right, was 

photographed here with National 

Park Service Director Horace Albright 

and Mrs. Albright who visited Mt. 

McKinley National Park in 1931. 

DENA 27-76, Denali National Park and 

Preserve Museum Collection

The new superintendent’s house, 

across the park road from the main 

headquarters, was completed in early 

summer 1930. It was destroyed by 

fire in October 1939. DENA 4-6.5, 

Denali National Park and Preserve 

Museum Collection 
Chapter Four: The Cabins-and-Snowshoes Era, 1925-1936 65

so rangers can make patrols from there instead 

of patrolling farther back in the interior.”111 In 

1930, rangers erected a boundary-line patrol 

cabin along the East Fork of the Toklat, followed 

by similar structures at the mouth of Sunday 

Creek112 in the Savage River drainage (1931), 

lower Toklat River (1931), and “Shushana Creek” 

(Sushana River, 1932).113 Cabins were also built 

in the park’s southeastern corner. A new Upper 

Windy cabin, near Cantwell, was built in 1931 

to replace a 1924 NPS-built cabin, and the Riley 

Creek cabin, located halfway between the Upper 

Windy cabin and headquarters, was erected the 

same year.114

The ARC, by the time of Liek’s arrival, had 

completed the park road almost as far as Sable 

Pass, about 39 miles west of McKinley Park Station (see Appendix F). Given a reliable funding 

stream thanks to annual NPS appropriations, 

Commission crews made remarkable strides 

during the next several field seasons. In 1929, the 

road was pushed ahead to the eastern bank of the 

Toklat River’s East Fork, and the following year, 

crews pushed ahead and conquered a masterful, if dizzying, route up to Polychrome Pass and 

beyond. In 1931, the road was extended eight 

miles, including the half-mile-long double bridge 

across the Toklat River (see Appendix G). And in 

1932, the ARC had perhaps its most productive 

year ever when it built 111⁄2 miles of new road and 

surmounted Highway Pass, Stony Hill Overlook, 

and Thorofare Pass to Mile 66; this latter point 

had a commanding view of Mount McKinley, the 

Thorofare River gorge, and many other areas in 

the central and western portions of the park. The 

ARC built more than 27 miles of road during the 

summers of 1929 through 1932. Construction 

costs during those years totaled approximately 

$425,000, which was about $16,000 per mile.

Park officials, hoping to keep in touch with their 

far-flung staff, decided to install a telephone line 

that paralleled the park road. The park had built 

its first telephone line in 1924 between McKinley 

Park Station and the Savage River area, in the 

midst of road construction. The line was constructed by park staff using materials furnished 

by the Alaska Road Commission; the wires were 

“temporarily laid on trees and brush,” although 

“occasional fastenings and insulators have been 

used where necessary.”115 That line, which was 

used only by the NPS, the ARC, and the concessioner, was overhauled in 1926 and extended 

to Sanctuary River. It remained a ground line, 

however, until the summer of 1930, when an 

Anchorage contractor won a bid to string an 

overhead line, using tripods, all the way from the 

McKinley Park Station to the Copper Mountain relief cabin. The contract was completed 

on December 1 of that year, and it worked “just 

fine” for awhile.116 Wind, however, played havoc 

on the line, and in the years to follow the line 

was strengthened by the liberal use of guy wires, 

“dead men,” and—on the river bars—vertical 

poles as a replacement to tripods. Line maintenance, however, remained an ongoing headache.117

In the midst of all this activity, NPS officials at 

long last began to plan for the park’s future. This 

effort may have begun in late August 1926, when 

NPS Director Stephen Mather visited the park. 

Mather, along with Superintendent Karstens, had 

spent nine days in the park, primarily on horseback, and went as far west as the upper Moose 

Creek and Copper Mountain areas. Karstens 

recalled that during their many conversations, 

there were “many ideas conceived for the future 

development of this large game preserve.”118 

Eighteen months later (see above), Karstens remarked that “this park has reached a period in its 

development where the services of the landscape 

engineer [Thomas C. Vint] are very necessary.” 

Vint, in fact, visited the park in August 1929, and 

although some of his recommendations dealt 

with the headquarters area, others pertained to 

more remote areas.119 

A primary decision, as it turned out, centered on 

whether the agency should support the construction of a hotel toward the west end of the park 

road. This notion was admittedly fairly fanciful 

at the time, inasmuch as the road that year had 

been built less than half the distance between 

McKinley Park Station and Kantishna. (See 

Appendix F.) Vint, however, had three potential 

hotel sites from which to choose. One, near the 

foot of Peters Glacier, had first been suggested 

back in 1908 by Charles Sheldon, and in 1927 

Superintendent Karstens (who had accompanied 

Sheldon on his earlier expedition) had reiterated the advantages of that site.120 A second site, 

on “the high bench on the west face of Copper 

Mountain,” was touted by Major D. H. Gillette 

of the Alaska Road Commission. And the park 

concessioner, James L. Galen, touted a site high 

above the confluence of Glacier Creek and the 

broad Thorofare River bar.121 Vint, asked to 

choose, steered clear of all three sites; instead, he 

selected a location just west of Thorofare Pass, 

at Mile 66 of the trail that connected the road 

terminus with Kantishna. The site was chosen, 

in part, because (according to one article) it was 

“the first point ... from which an unobstructed 

view of Mt. McKinley may be obtained.”122 

Vint’s choice, however, was tentative at best. 

First, Vint in 1929 was also planning a hotel in the 

vicinity of McKinley Park Station; this site, which 

was also favored by the park concessioner, was 
66 Crown Jewel of the North: An Administrative History of Denali National Park and Preserve

the privilege of landing a plane in a national park, 

and for several years thereafter, Mount McKinley 

was the only park to allow the practice.131

The 1932 Boundary Expansion: Its Causes and 

Effects

As noted above, Congress had extended the 

park’s eastern boundary to within three miles of 

McKinley Park Station in early 1922, and ever 

since that time, park personnel recognized that 

the linear, arbitrary nature of the boundary line 

made game protection difficult. Interior Department officials, however, were satisfied with the 

status quo, and Washington-based NPS officials 

felt likewise. Chief landscape engineer Thomas 

Vint, for example, wrote in January 1930—after 

his visit to the park the previous summer—that 

the area between the eastern boundary and the 

Nenana River “has little scenic value and is not 

important as a part of the park areas except in the 

protection of game.” For this reason, he did not 

recommend a park boundary extension to the 

Nenana; instead, he opted for “a game preserve 

subject to the protection of the Park Service and 

its regulations.” But in early 1931, NPS Director Horace Albright changed the agency’s stance 

when he stated unequivocally that “I want to see 

the park boundary extended east at least to the 

Alaska Railroad.” Vint, in response, repeated 

his previous suggestion, to which Albright, in a 

June 1931 letter to George Parks (who was now 

Alaska’s governor) reached out even farther, stating that the park boundary should be extended 

to the river. Parks, reprising some of his 1922 

arguments, did not favor any extension that 

would include the railroad corridor. But Albright 

conversed with Parks during his visit to Alaska 

that August; perhaps as a result of that talk, Parks 

wrote that if the NPS “must move the east park 

line out to the railroad, he would not oppose 

our [draft] bill.” As the extension idea gained 

momentum, it appeared that the only real point 

of contention was whether the boundary line 

would be the railroad or the river; prominent 

proponents espoused each of these points of 

view.132 To some extent, advocates of both positions based their arguments on the detrimental 

impacts of existing settlement patterns. Governor Parks, not normally a conservationist, recommended an extension to the river—and NPS control of much of the land near the McKinley Park 

railroad station—in order to avoid “administrative problems that may be exceedingly difficult 

to control” – specifically, “undesirable citizens 

[who] have squatted on the lower reaches of Riley Creek and conducted bootlegging establishments to the detriment of the railroad employees 

and others.” But Director Albright, who favored 

a smaller extension, felt that the conditions seen 

at the Morino homestead and along the railroad 

were problems that were best avoided. Parks’s 

viewpoint eventually won out.133

Meanwhile, other voices were urging the northward expansion of the park toward its western 

end. The primary reason for the proposed 

expansion was the provision of a hotel site near 

Wonder Lake. As noted above, Thomas Vint in 

1929 had selected a hotel site at Mile 66 of the 

park road. However, rangers who patrolled the 

area, along with U.S. Geological Survey field personnel, were quick to trumpet Wonder Lake—

then just outside of the park—as a site superior to 

that at Mile 66. As noted in an Interior Department report, “Wonder Lake has an excellent view 

and many advantages for a hotel that do not exist 

elsewhere in the park.” And because clouds in 

this area often obscured tourists’ views of Mount 

McKinley, a visitor’s time at a Wonder Lake hotel 

“could be well spent fishing as well as enjoying 

the scenery nearby.” Fred Moffit, a USGS field 

geologist who spent the summer of 1930 in the 

area, believed that the “boundary should be 

extended so that Wonder Lake would be within 

the park.” He assured NPS officials that the 

boundary line thus proposed would avoid “any 

mining interest within the proposed extension 

area;” he further noted that the “abundance of 

pasture on the lowlands” surrounding the lake 

“attract the wild animals of the park” along with 

“a large number of beaver in this area which 

would be protected from trappers.” Vint, in early 

March 1931, agreed with the plan; he promised 

that “I believe we will regret not having Wonder Lake in the Park if there is any possibility of 

us getting it.” NPS Director Horace Albright, 

who flew over the area that August, also agreed; 

he asked that the boundary line in this area be 

“moved northward to a point one half mile north 

of Wonder Lake and this extension should be 

uniform in width clear to the west line or rather 

the northwest corner.” Governor Parks, asked to 

comment, urged just one small modification; that 

the straight, generally north-south boundary line 

at the east end of the Kantishna Hills be replaced 

by a sinuous line that would follow ridgelines and 

other topographic features. Parks’s proposal for 

this area was readily adopted.134

Finally, two boundary-change proposals along 

the southern boundary were put forth. One from 

Thomas Vint of the NPS would have moved the 

boundary south “to include some of the land 

beyond the terminals of the Glaciers,” while one 

from Stephen Capps of the USGS would “throw 

out the watersheds and streams flowing south 

toward the Cook Inlet, as well as creeks like 

Cantwell which are inaccessible from the real 

park, and on which there are no big game animals.” Both of these proposals were discarded at 

the agency level.135
Chapter Four: The Cabins-and-Snowshoes Era, 1925-1936 67

young flier who had pioneered air service into 

the park, was famous because he took part in 

several historic flights: one from Point Barrow to 

Spitzbergen, Norway, another to the Antarctic, 

and many others “to remote regions of Alaska, 

carrying medical supplies to sick and injured” 

(according to a Congressional report). In the fall 

of 1929, word reached the outside world that the 

vessel Nanuk, with a full complement of both 

furs and passengers, was icebound off the coast 

of northeastern Russia. The intrepid Eielson 

flew west from Teller, Alaska toward the ship, but 

tragically, he got caught in a blizzard and died 

in a crash on Siberia’s Wrangell Island. Rescue 

parties were sent out to search for both Eielson 

and the stranded freighter, but it wasn’t until late 

January 1930 that Eielson’s body was located 

among the wreckage. Joe Crosson, another 

young Alaska pilot, recovered Eielson’s remains 

a month later, and by early March, Fairbanks 

business interests were seeking a way to honor 

the former Fairbanks resident. In recognition 

of his pioneer role with Alaskan air-mail service 

back in 1924, they contacted Congressional 

friends seeking a way to enshrine Eielson’s name 

on the territory’s maps. On March 19, a U.S. 

Senate resolution (S. J. Res. 155) was submitted to 

change the name of Copper Mountain to Mount 

Eielson. The resolution, which had no organized 

opposition, moved quickly through Congress and 

on June 14, President Hoover signed the measure 

into law.128

Even before Eielson’s death, the air industry was 

beginning to make dramatic new inroads into the 

park. On April 13, 1928, pilot Matt Nieminen 

of Alaskan Airways, Inc., based in Anchorage, 

attempted to fly over the top of Mt. McKinley 

while an assistant took photographs. He didn’t 

make it; instead, the plane ascended to the 

19,000-foot level but then had to turn back. Nieminen eventually succeeded in his quest, in August 1930. But during the intervening two years, 

a small but active tourist-flight industry had taken 

root in Fairbanks, and one of the most popular 

destinations was Mount McKinley. According to 

one account, “flying tourists to Mount McKinley 

was big business out of Fairbanks” in 1930.129

Recognizing flightseeing’s economic potential, the park concessioner moved to provide 

aviation-related services. In May 1930, after 

obtaining the NPS’s permission, it arranged with 

Alaskan Airways to “provide airplane transportation for their patrons flying from Savage Camp to 

points of interest in the park, including trips to 

Mt. McKinley.” Meanwhile, an airline representative checked out the Savage Camp and Mt. 

Eielson areas for specific landing sites. In early 

July of that year, the concessioner “cleared away 

a large landing field near Savage Camp” which 

was considered to be “one of the best landing fields in Alaska at the present time,” and on 

July 7, company pilot Joe Crosson inaugurated 

service from the field. Accompanying him in the 

Fairchild 71 was Governor George Parks and 

other dignitaries. This service continued from 

the airstrip for the remainder of the summer and 

for years thereafter; the trip was expensive ($35) 

but deeply gratifying. The concessioner, rethinking its earlier plans, apparently felt that the 

Savage Camp airstrip was sufficient for its needs, 

because—after pondering the matter for several 

years—it opted to not establish another landing 

field in the Mt. Eielson area.130 The concessioner’s use of the Savage River area marked a 

milestone in NPS history. It marked the first time 

that the agency had granted a park concessioner 

Airplanes servicing Savage Camp 

landed on a graded section of gravel 

bar until a landing strip was built by 

the Mt. McKinley Tourist & Transportation Company in 1930. Frances 

Erickson Collection, Denali National 

Park and Preserve Museum Collection
68 Crown Jewel of the North: An Administrative History of Denali National Park and Preserve

By the time the agency’s recommendations had 

moved to the legislative arena, the ensuing bill 

(H.R. 6485) was relatively noncontroversial. Introduced by Alaska Delegate James Wickersham 

on December 21, 1931, it was debated in the 

Committee on the Public Lands a month later; 

thanks in part to the support of Interior Secretary 

Ray Wilbur, it was passed on to the full House, 

where it was debated on February 1 and passed 

two weeks later. Two minor amendments were 

added: one ensured that all land between the 

railroad and the river would be part of the park, 

while the other guaranteed that “any valid existing claim, location, or entry under the land laws 

of the United States” would not be affected by 

the park expansion.136 A day after the bill passed 

the House, it was referred to the Senate’s Public 

Lands and Surveys Committee, which passed it 

without amendment on March 3. Less than two 

weeks later, the full Senate passed the House bill, 

and on March 19, President Hoover signed the 

bill into law (see Map 3 and Appendix A.)137 The 

boundaries thus agreed to would remain in place 

for the next 46 years.

The NPS, at long last, had its headquarters site 

within the park boundaries, rather than in a withdrawn strip such as had existed since 1922. It 

was also able to prevent a proliferation of private 

landowners in the vicinity of McKinley Park Station. Finally, the park extension ensured greater 

control over future accommodations in that area. 

As Horace Albright noted, “A new hotel will 

sooner or later be erected near the railroad and 

this park road. This hotel should be on park land 

and built under park policies regarding architecture.”138

The park expansion, however, was not without 

its negative aspects, most of which had been foreshadowed by the railroad-versus-river discussions of 1931, noted above. As the bill wended 

its way through Congress, park superintendent 

Harry Liek noted that the bill “is not going to be 

so popular, as far as the sportsmen of the interior 

are concerned. The mountains lying adjacent to 

the ARR has [sic] always been a happy hunting grounds for many hunters and trappers...”. 

Once the bill became law, the superintendent 

spread the word about it by putting up a sign 

on the post office wall, and he also promised to 

put up signs “along the Nenana River and at the 

north and south entrances” along the railroad 

right-of-way. Fortunately, park personnel had 

few problems with game-related enforcement; 

in December 1932, Liek was able to report that 

“the settlers and railroad employees along the 

right-of-way are obeying the law regarding hunting, trapping ect. and with one exception, we are 

having no trouble with any one.”139

But he was even more concerned about how to 

deal with various McKinley Park Station-area 

residents. Some had clear title to their land, and 

others were on their way toward qualifying for a 

patent, and still others had filed for a homestead 

“but failed to conform to the requirements and 

let their land slip by default.” Particularly aggravating was a fourth category, namely “an element 

These posts, shown in this 1930 

photo, marked the original (1917) 

park boundary between Wonder Lake 

and the McKinley River. DENA 39-37, 

Denali National Park and Preserve 

Museum Collection
Chapter Four: The Cabins-and-Snowshoes Era, 1925-1936 69

living close to the depot who have just squatters’ 

rights, and living in any old cabin that has a roof 

on it.” Liek acerbically noted that “they realize 

about 30 gallons to the acre and have no scruples 

as to whom they sell it to. Fights and drunken 

brawls are a common occurrence in this district, 

and these men are a detriment to any community.”140

Once the Congressional act had been signed, 

the Park Service officials’ first move was to rid 

the Station area of squatters and any residences 

that remained on the public lands. In August 

1932, Superintendent Harry Liek told his superiors in Washington “of certain dilapidated 

and decayed cabins ... in the vicinity of Riley 

and Hines Creek, which were inhabited ...by 

various individuals ... who had never declared 

their intention of filing for homestead or trading 

rights but preferred to live as squatters upon the 

public domain.” Later that month, Washington 

informed Liek “that if the cabins were on public 

land and the occupants were given proper notice 

to vacate and remove their property, that they 

should be torn down.” According to Duke E. 

Stubbs, a disgruntled local resident, park staff 

supposedly “ordered all who were living in the 

area and had both possessory claims and valid 

entries under the General Land Office, to vacate 

their homes, the dead line being set for December 1, 1932...”.141 Stubbs, however, protested the 

agency’s action to the Interior Secretary, inasmuch as the 1932 act had seemingly protected 

“any valid existing claim, location, or entry under 

the land laws of the United States, whether for 

homestead, mineral right of way, or any other 

purpose whatsoever, or shall affect the rights of 

any such claimant, locator, or entryman to the 

full use and enjoyment of his land.”142

In response to Stubbs’ protest, the General Land 

Office dispatched examiner H. K. Carlisle, who 

visited the area and provided a report, dated 

May 18, 1933, on the legitimacy of the various 

marginal land claims. (He did not address three 

other claims that were being adjudicated prior to 

the 1932 expansion.)143 Carlisle’s report identified twelve people within the newly-expanded 

park boundary that fit within his criteria; “in almost every case,” he noted, “the rights or claims 

of these persons are of a possessory nature only.” 

The GLO, meanwhile, asked park staff to “refrain 

from ejecting any of the claimants” until the investigation was complete. That summer and fall, 

the GLO attempted to contact each of the twelve 

and establish their rights to the land in question; 

Alaska Delegate Anthony Dimond, meanwhile, 

urged NPS chief Arno Cammerer to be patient, 

stating that “bonafide locators and claimants 

[should] be permitted to remain in undisturbed 

possession of their claims.” The claims’ varying degree of legitimacy soon became apparent; 

five of the twelve claimants did not respond to 

the GLO notice that was sent to them and thus 

lost their opportunity to file for a parcel. One 

other claimant discovered that his claim was on 

land owned by the Alaska Railroad, not by the 

National Park Service; and local fox farmer Duke 

Stubbs was awarded a patent for his 35-acre 

parcel and was thus no longer a claimant. None 

of the five remaining marginalized claimants—of 

those who responded to the GLO notice—received land as a result of the process begun in the 

wake of the 1932 expansion.144 The three claims 

that were already being adjudicated prior to the 

boundary expansion were successfully transferred to private parties. Two of the claims were 

settled even before Carlisle turned in his report; 

John Stephens, who had a 133.76-acre parcel 

that surrounded the Windy railroad station, was 

awarded a patent on February 9, 1933, and Duke 

Stubbs, as noted above, received his patent on 

With the 1932 park boundary extension, many squatters’ cabins such as 

this one south of Morino’s Roadhouse, were now within the national 

park. Transient residents who lived 

in these cabins were asked to leave. 

DENA 4-47.6, Denali National Park 

and Preserve Museum Collection
70 Crown Jewel of the North: An Administrative History of Denali National Park and Preserve

April 4. Maurice Morino, the roadhouse owner 

and McKinley Park Station postmaster, was the 

last to receive a patent; he obtained his 120-acre 

parcel on August 1, 1934.

Beyond the issue of ownership, however, Duke 

Stubbs was also angry at the Federal government because actions following the 1932 park 

expansion caused damage to his cabins. During the fall of 1932, as noted above, Stubbs had 

not yet gained a patent for his 35-acre parcel, 

which included a store and fox farm; Stubbs did, 

however, own the “Canyon Road House Cabins,” which were the former Allred Roadhouse 

just east of the railroad at Moody. In October 

of that year (according to his own account) he 

received “notice to vacate and 

remove his personal property 

from the park area by the park 

authorities.” Apparently park 

staff then removed his property 

from his cabins, caused damage 

to the cabins, and unlawfully 

occupied them. In response, 

Stubbs complained to the Interior Department, and between 

October 1932 and October 

1933 he made several requests 

for damage compensation totaling more than $2,000; in addition, he wrote two other 1933 

letters in which he claimed that 

park staff had “almost daily” 

trespassed on his land and thus 

“resulted in the ruination of his fox-farming industry.” Superintendent Liek, asked to comment 

on the allegation, repeatedly denied “any trespass 

upon the lands of Mr. Stubbs by himself or any 

of his employees;” the “Canyon Road House 

Cabins” at Moody, he asserted, had been built by 

the Alaska Railroad and were currently on park 

land.145 

In October 1933, Stubbs went to Washington 

to press his case, but NPS officials “explicitly 

explained to him that there was no authority of 

law under which his claims for damages and rent 

may be considered by this Department with a 

view to their adjudication and settlement, and 

it was suggested to him that any relief in that 

connection must come through congressional 

enactment.” Stubbs, in response, sought out 

Delegate Tony Dimond, who on January 3, 1934 

submitted a bill (H.R. 6177) “to provide for payment of damages to certain residents of Alaska 

caused by reason of extending the boundaries of 

Mount McKinley National Park.” An identical 

companion bill, S. 2238, was submitted a week 

later by Senator Clarence Dill (D-Wash.), Chairman of the Committee on Claims. H.R. 6177 

was considered on May 4 by the House Committee on Claims; it passed, though not without a 

strongly-worded dissent from Interior Secretary 

Harold Ickes. Two weeks later, the Senate took 

up action; it adopted the House’s committee bill, 

added one small amendment, and passed it on to 

the full Senate, which passed it on June 13. Five 

days later, the House passed the same bill and 

presented it to President Roosevelt. On June 28, 

however, Roosevelt vetoed the bill because he 

agreed with the assertions that Interior Secretary 

Ickes had made earlier to the House Committee 

on Claims.146

Stubbs, however, would not give up. At the 

beginning of the next Congressional session, 

Delegate Dimond introduced a private relief bill 

on their behalf (H.R. 1635); three weeks later, the 

head of the Senate Committee on Claims, Lewis 

Schwellenbach (D-Wash.), introduced a bill (S. 

1386) to “confer jurisdiction on the Court of 

Claims” to hear their case. Ickes, who was asked 

to comment to the Congressional committee 

chairs, recommended “that the proposed legislation, in its present form, be not favorably considered by the Congress.” As a response to Mr. 

Stubbs’s complaints, however, he felt “that the 

matter would be more appropriate for consideration by judicial authority.... The Department, 

therefore would have no objection to the consideration of Mr. Stubbs’ claims by the Court of 

Claims, should the Congress see fit to amend the 

proposed legislation to limit the consideration of 

this matter by that body.”147 Given that opinion, 

both houses of Congress passed the Senate’s 

version of the bill, and on June 14, 1935, President Roosevelt passed the “special jurisdictional 

act,” dubbed Private No. 81. The Act asked the 

Court of Claims “to hear, determine, and render 

judgment upon the claim, or claims, of Duke E. 

Stubbs and Elizabeth S. Stubbs ... for any losses 

and damages sustained by [them] in the silver 

Duke and Elizabeth Stubbs owned 

and operated this fox farm near Riley 

Creek, just east of the railroad depot. 

Denali National Park and Preserve 

Museum Collection
Chapter Four: The Cabins-and-Snowshoes Era, 1925-1936 71

fox farming and trading post business, or other 

business and occupation, conducted by them ... 

at McKinley Park, Alaska.” After the passage of 

that bill, attorney Horace S. Whitman filed suit in 

the Court of Claims (in the case Duke E. Stubbs 

and Elizabeth S. Stubbs vs. the United States, No. 

43093) to recover damages. On December 6, 

1937, the court awarded the Stubbs $50,000 in 

damages, a figure that the Interior Department 

felt was “excessive” and “conjectural.” The 

Department considered appealing the case to 

the Supreme Court; that process went nowhere, 

however, and on July 26, 1938, the Stubbs were 

paid “to satisfy the judgment issued by the Court 

of Claims in Stubbs’ behalf.”148

Park Developments, 1933-1937

During the mid-1930s, roadbuilding was the 

major park development activity. As noted 

above, the park road had been bladed out to 

Mile 66 during the 1932 construction season; 

the last few miles of that road, however, were 

in poor condition, essentially impassible to 

passenger vehicles. The following year, Alaska 

Road Commission construction crews pushed 

farther westward. (See Appendix F.) In 1933, 

crews battled their way through the treacherous 

Eielson Bluffs, but given their smallest construction budget since 1926, they extended the road 

just one and one-half miles. The remainder of 

the park road, however, was over flatter, more 

undulating countryside; as a result, crews opened 

up approximately five miles of new road during 

each of the next three years. By the end of the 

1936 construction, crews had completed the park 

road all the way to the Reflection Pond area, just 

east of Wonder Lake.149 

The extension of the park road all the way to 

Wonder Lake paved the way for new developments to take place at the western end of the 

park. And chief among the anticipated developments was a planning effort for a new hotel. As 

noted above, planning during the late 1920s had 

focused on a consideration of several sites in the 

Thorofare Pass-Glacier Creek area; in 1929, in 

fact, NPS landscape architect Thomas Vint had 

decided on a hotel site at Mile 66 along the route 

between McKinley Park Station and Kantishna. 

This site was just north of Copper Mountain, 

which, as noted above, would soon be renamed 

Mt. Eielson. Just three years after Vint made his 

choice, however, Congress’s decision to expand 

the park diminished the agency’s interest in 

the site, at least for the time being. By acting to 

expand the park’s boundaries eastward to the 

Nenana River, Congress was now able—at long 

last—to more actively consider the construction of a federally-funded hotel adjacent to the 

railroad at McKinley Park Station. Given the 

limited amount of time that most visitors spent at 

the park, economics dictated that a site near the 

railroad was far more likely for hotel construction than one located at the far western end of 

the park. In addition, the expansion of the park 

boundary northward was specifically crafted to 

ensure the inclusion of a Wonder Lake hotel site 

in the park; that way, the agency would be free to 

build a hotel near Wonder Lake (which was just 

27 miles by air from Mt. McKinley’s summit) instead of being limited to the Mile 66 area (located 

35 miles from the summit).150

Wonder Lake had been under consideration as a 

hotel site for some time prior to the 1932 expansion. Park rangers had been familiar with the 

area at least since 1926, when they had constructed a patrol cabin at McKinley Bar, a few miles 

south of Wonder Lake, which they dubbed the 

Kantishna Ranger Station. During this period, 

homesteaders John and Paula Anderson lived at 

the north end of Wonder Lake, and ranger Grant 

Pearson fondly recalls stopping at the cabin 

and enjoying the Andersons’ hospitality. The 

Andersons left their homestead in 1929.151 But 

as has been recounted above, the 1930 visit of a 

U.S. Geological Survey crew to the area started 

a process to add a 4-mile-wide strip north of the 

existing park boundaries in the Kantishna area; 

that strip—which was expressly created to provide for a hotel site—had won broad bureaucratic 

approval by March 1931. That July, NPS Director 

Horace Albright arrived at McKinley Park Station 

for an inspection trip into the park. Intrigued 

by Wonder Lake’s potential as a hotel site, he 

planned to take a horseback trip out to Vint’s site 

at Mile 66 and continue on to Wonder Lake. No 

sooner had Albright arrived at the park, however, 

than he fell victim to appendicitis, and he had to 

be flown to a Fairbanks hospital. Despite that 

setback, the agency still backed a Wonder Lake 

hotel site; as the New York Times noted in 1933, 

Wonder Lake was “where a hotel will probably 

be built, the view of the great mountain being 

especially fine from the lake shore.”152

The Alaska Road Commission, in 1933 

and 1934, had challenging work building the road across Eielson Bluffs, just 

west of present-day Eielson Visitor 

Center. DENA 25-0.5, Denali National 

Park and Preserve Museum Collection
72 Crown Jewel of the North: An Administrative History of Denali National Park and Preserve

The NPS’s hotel selection process during this 

period made no inclusion for the park’s concessioner, so once the agency had made it clear 

that it was not interested in the Mile 66 site, the 

company proposed improvements there of its 

own. In July 1932, with the park road still miles 

away, park concessioner James Galen joined 

Superintendent Liek and the local Alaska Road 

Commission leader on “a trip to the Vint Site at 

Mile 66 for the purpose of selecting [a] camp 

site and choosing [a] location for the new road.” 

Later that year, Albright gave Galen permission 

“to establish a temporary camp at Mile 66 this 

coming season,” to be called Camp Denali and 

to be located on a spur road 500 yards away 

from the main highway.153 But in March 1933, 

Albright reneged on his promise, citing a lack of 

road-improvement funds for the spur road. The 

following spring, Galen “made arrangements for 

the construction of a new camp ... to be built 

66 miles from McKinley Park Station.”154 The 

company placed orders for camp construction 

materials in May, but a long shipping strike that 

began that month forced the company to cancel 

those orders. “Considerable activity” took place 

at the site later that summer. In October 1934, 

Galen asked the agency for (and soon received) 

permission to establish a permanent camp at 

the site, and the following spring, the company 

erected a “lunch station ... to serve the visitors 

who visit that point and return the same day.” In 

1936, the company replaced its building with two 

tents: “one large for a dining room and one small 

for the kitchen.” These were “used by the tourists who stay in the park for 48 hours” and were 

thus able to take an all-day excursion toward the 

western end of the park road.155

Meanwhile, the federal government exhibited 

an interest in hotels in several park areas. In 

the summer of 1934, it corroborated Albright’s 

1932 statement—that a new hotel would “sooner 

or later be erected near the railroad”—when it 

stated that railroad officials, park operators and 

steamship officials were trumpeting the idea 

of “a first class hotel [to] be built by the Alaska 

Railroad at McKinley Park Station.” The plan’s 

main backer may have been Col. Otto Ohlson, 

the railroad’s general manager, who was “enthusiastic over this proposed plan and is making 

every possible effort to have it formulated.”156 By 

mid-winter, even bolder plans had surfaced; after 

meetings with Interior Secretary Harold Ickes, 

NPS Director Arno Cammerer, and park concessioner James Galen, “considerable interest” was 

being shown in two new hostelries: a lodge at 

the Camp Denali site as well as a hotel near the 

railroad. By the spring of 1935, the idea of the 

McKinley Park Station hotel had lost steam, but 

plans for a lodge at Mile 66 continued until midsummer.157 In September of that year, however, 

NPS landscape architect Ernest A. Davidson was 

dispatched to the park and asked to survey the 

various hotel sites. Davidson, after an extensive 

on-the-ground investigation, decided that the 

best hotel site would be on a knoll just southwest 

of Wonder Lake. That choice, during the next 

year, was backed by Washington officials as well 

as a Congressional party that visited the site. The 

Alaska Road Commission, apprised of the decision, carved out a two-mile spur road connecting 

the proposed hotel site to the main park road.158

During NPS Director Horace Albright’s 

1931 visit to Mt. McKinley National 

Park, he stayed at Savage Camp and 

attempted a horseback trip to Wonder Lake with Superintendent Harry 

Liek. After Albright (second from 

left) developed abdominal pains, 

they turned back and summoned a 

doctor and airplane to Savage Camp. 

Albright was flown to Fairbanks 

where his appendix was removed. 

DENA 3847, Denali National Park and 

Preserve Museum Collection
Chapter Four: The Cabins-and-Snowshoes Era, 1925-1936 73

What was particularly surprising about these developments 

was that they were proposed 

at a time of low visitation and 

poor economic prospects. In 

both 1932 and 1933, at the 

depth of the Great Depression, 

fewer than 400 tourists visited 

Mount McKinley National 

Park; this total was lower than 

in any year since 1925. Each 

year thereafter saw healthy 

increases in visitation, but the 

1936 total of 1,073 tourists—

though larger than that of any previous year—

was still far smaller than at any other national 

park. And because of that poor visitation, the 

park’s concessioner consistently lost money during this period. 159 

The company’s poor economic performance, 

however, did not prevent it from offering a 

diversity of services. In late 1933, for example, it 

issued a brochure offering the “big game drive” to 

the head of Savage River; auto trips to Sable Pass, 

Stony Hill, and “Mt. Eielson” (Mile 66); horseback trips from Mt. Eielson south to McGonagall Pass and Muldrow Glacier; fishing trips to 

either Wonder Lake or the so-called “Clearwater 

Lakes;” scenic flights across the park from the 

Savage Camp airstrip; or hunting trips, to either 

the Mt. Dall country (west of the park) or the 

Wood River country (east of the park). For the 

next several years, it continued to offer much the 

same program; the only changes were based on 

the location of the road terminus.160

A key to growth at the park was access, and during this period, new airstrips were roughed out to 

improve that access. The idea of a landing field at 

McKinley Park Station had first surfaced in 1923 

by a Fairbanks company interested in serving the 

area. Nothing was done, however, until the early 

1930s. In September 1932, just a few months 

after the park’s boundaries were expanded to 

include the area, Superintendent Liek reported 

that local roadhouse owner Maurice Morino 

had “leveled off the ground on the other side of 

the track so that a plane can land there in case of 

emergency.” This airstrip, just 700 feet long, was 

located entirely on the parcel that Morino had 

claimed. A year later, Liek noted that “the airport 

at McKinley Park Station” was “in excellent condition.” The so-called “Morino field” continued 

to be used, on an occasional or emergency basis, 

for the remainder of the decade.161 During this 

period, the concessioner continued to use the 

Savage River airstrip for scenic flights, and individuals visiting the park in their own craft were 

also free to use it; the Alaska Railroad, however, 

intervened when, in 1936, the concessioner tried 

to begin commercial flights between Fairbanks 

and Savage River Camp.162

During the same period, aircraft explored other 

parts of the park area. At Kantishna, the 800-foot 

aviation field on the “left limit of Moose Creek” 

near Wonder Lake was still used occasionally, after having been improved, with Territorial funds, 

during the 1931 fiscal year. But the field was not 

always usable, and late one fall, a Kantishna-area 

miner reached the area by landing with skis “on 

the river bar at Copper Mountain.” In a similar case in 1933, the wife of a prospector along 

Crooked Creek, near Stampede Creek, had a 

medical emergency; the pilot, flying into the area 

from the Savage River airstrip, landed on a river 

bar ten miles from the claim. He walked in, performed an operation “by candle light” and thus 

saved the woman’s life. The pilot returned to the 

plane and flew on to Fairbanks.163 Not long after 

that incident, the nearby Stampede Mine kicked 

into operation after years of dormancy, and by 

the eve of World War II, operator Earl Pilgrim 

had bladed out an airstrip 21⁄2 miles downstream 

from the mine, at the Stampede Creek-Clearwater Fork confluence.164

Given the increasing length of the park road, 

an array of patrol cabins scattered along the 

park boundaries, and the extension of the park 

boundaries to the Nenana River, rangers during the mid-1930s were able to patrol the park’s 

boundaries, and thus protect the park’s large 

animal populations, more effectively than ever 

before. During the early 1930s, as noted above, 

rangers reported a severe shortage of furbearers 

on the park’s margins, and “extreme low prices 

on furs” exacerbated the trappers’ plight.165 

Throughout this period, local trappers could 

count on at least some assistance from the territorial legislature; since 1915, it had instituted a 

bounty on wolves, and in 1929, a similar bounty 

was in place for coyotes. But in early 1933, territorial authorities announced that due to lack of 

Paula Anderson filed for a 160 acre 

homestead on the shores of Wonder 

Lake. She and John Anderson prospected and mined in the Kantishna 

and Copper Mountain areas, raised 

foxes and sled dogs, and provided 

accommodations for travelers in the 

area. Stephen R. Capps Collection, 

83-149-2381, University of Alaska 

Fairbanks Archive
74 Crown Jewel of the North: An Administrative History of Denali National Park and Preserve

arrived at the park on April 17. Beginning near 

the Upper Windy Creek Ranger Cabin at the 

southeastern end of the park, the party moved 

northward down the Nenana River’s left bank, 

placing monuments—iron posts, three feet 

long and two inches in diameter—at one-mile 

intervals.170 After reaching Moody Station at the 

park’s northeastern corner, it then turned west 

and made similar monuments on its way to the 

Toklat River. By June the group was meandering down the ridgelines toward the corner in 

the Moose Creek-Boundary Creek area; it then 

headed toward the north end of Wonder Lake 

and continued on to the southwest. By August 

the men had marked the boundary all the way to 

the right limit of the McKinley River. But by that 

time, the group had exhausted its funds. The rest 

of the boundary survey would have to wait.171

A diversity of park activities were 

advertised in this 1935 Mt. McKinley 

Tourist & Transportation Company 

brochure. Candy Waugaman CollecPark Trips 

All rates approved by the National Park Service 

BY AUTOMOBILE 

1. McKinley Park Station to Savage Camp, view 

of Mt. McKinley, round trip fare .. ·-····---$ 7.50 

2. Savage Camp to head of Savage River, big 

gan1e dri\•e, round trip fare........................ 5.00 

3. Savage Camp to Sable- Pass and Polychrome 

Pass, round trip fare .................. - ................ 10.00 

4. g4-hour All Expense Trip. McKinley Park 

Station to Savage Camp, Savage Camp to 

Polychrom·e Pass, three meals and lodging at 

Savage Camp and return to railroad ........ 25.00 

5. One-day All Expense Trip. McKinley Park 

Station to Savage Camp, Savage Camp to 

Stony Hill, three meals and lodging and re· 

turn to railroad .................. -............................ 35.00 

6. Two-day All Expense Trip. McKinley Park 

Station to Savage Camp, Savage Camp to 

head of Savage River, Savage Camp to Mt. 

Eielson, close-up of Mt. McKinley and r eturn 

to railroad, 154 miles round trip, Including 

six meals and two nights' lodging ............ 42.50 

SPECIAL TRIPS 

7. Horseback Trip from Mt. Eielson to McGonogall Pass, three-day trip: 

1 'person ...................................................... 82.50 

2 persons, each .......... ·-·····-························ 67.50 

3 persons, each............................................. 62.50 

4 persons, or more, each .......................... 52.50 

8. Horseback Trip from Mt. Eielson to McGonogall Pass. 4-day round trip. Same as above ex· 

cept spending fil"st afternoon at the snout of 

Muldrow Glacier, exploring moraine, Ice caves, 

etc., at a cost of $7.50 per person additional 

to 3-day trip. 

9. Fishing Trips, for trout and grayUng, from 

Mt. Eielson to Wonder Lake or C!eanvate1· 

Lakes, of three or more days, may be taken 

at rates comparable to those to McGonogall 

Pass. 

10. Special Trips from Mt. Eielson to Mt. McKin· 

ley, Mt. Foraker, and to other interesting 

points in the Park may be arranged. 

AIRPLANE SERVICE 

11. Scenic Flight from Savage Camp to Mt. Eielson and Muldrow Glacier, near the base or 

Mt. McKinley, passing over Sable, Polychrome, 

Highway and Thorofare Passes, fare, each 

person.................................................................. 35.00 

CAMPS. Base Camps, (American Plan) 

Tents occupied by two persons, per person, pet· 

day, $2.00. Exclusive use of tent by one person, 

per day, $3.00. 

Note-During periods of .heavy travel, tent 

houses at base camps will not be reserved for exclusive use of one person. The Company reserves 

t h e right to allocate these lodgings. 

MEA LS Base Camps Field Camps 

Breakfast ....... - ........... $1 .50 .............. _ ..................... $2.00 

Luncheon .................... 2.00 ...................................... 2.00 

Dinner ........................ 2 00 ... - ............................ _ . 2.00 

Weekly Rates to all Guests: 

All Meals, each ........................................................ $1.50 

Lodgings, per night... ............................................. 1.00 

(Full Rates on all Transportation) 

RATES FOR CHILDREN 

Under 5 years (unless occupying individual 

bed, in which case one-half adult rate will be 

charged). no charge. 

From 5 to 12 years, One-Half Adult Rate. 

Twelve years and over, Full Adult Rate. 

(Above rates for children apply to both camp 

accomodations and automobile transportation. 

but not to horseback trips or airplane fligh ts.) 

OTHER RATES 

Saddle uorse, per hour ........................................ $ 2.00 

Saddle horse, one-half day.................................. 3.50 

Saddle horse, per day.......................................... 5.00 

Pack horses, per day ..................... -.................... 5.00 

Guide service, per day ........................................ 10.00 

* Hunting and Fishing 

While hunting or shooting is not permitted in 

McKinley Park, grayling and trout fishing may 

be found and freely enjoyed in practically all 

clearwater streams and lakes of the Park. However, we specialize in taking hunting parties to 

, areas adjacent to the Park, namely the Mount 

Dall country, west of the Park, and to the Wood 

River country, lying just east of the Park boundary, continuing eastward, following the north 

slope of the -i\]aska Range to the Richardson 

Trail. 

Excellent hunting for caribou, mountain sheep 

(ovls dalli), moose, grizzly, and bla.cl< beat• may 

be had In either of these areas. 

'rhe Wood River country is easily accessible, 

the heart of the game country being reached the 

second day's travel trom McKinley Park Station 

or from our Savage Rive r Camp. 

For hunting trips we furnish everythingguides, packers, horses, grub, all camp and other 

equipment, except hunter's guns, ammunition and 

his bunting license. 

Detailed Information and rates Will be furnished upon application. Reservations should be 

made early f or fall hunting trips. 
Chapter Four: The Cabins-and-Snowshoes Era, 1925-1936 75

funds, no bounties would be awarded for either 

species after March 31 of that year. The combined effect of these factors forced a number of 

trappers to move elsewhere or to move into other 

lines of work.166 But those who stayed posed 

virtually no threat to the park’s small or large 

game. Both before and after the expansion of the 

park boundary, rangers who patrolled the park’s 

perimeter consistently reported no signs of 

trapping or poaching. Instead, rangers typically 

reported that the game was “in excellent condition,” and they sensed a cooperative attitude 

from those who lived and worked adjacent to the 

park.167

In order to ensure that hunters, trappers, and 

other park neighbors paid attention to the 

boundary that Congress had changed in March 

1932, the NPS established two patrol cabins 

in the newly-expanded park area. The Lower 

Windy cabin, five miles east of the year-old 

Upper Windy cabin, was erected between July 

and September 1932. Soon afterward, rangers 

began work on a cabin at Moody, at the northeastern corner of the new park. That work was 

not completed until the following year.168 The 

final ranger cabin established in the wake of the 

boundary expansion was located along Moose 

Creek, north of mile 75 on the park road, in 

either 1935 or 1936. All three of these were tworoom cabins, and thus roomier than almost all 

of the ARC cabins as well as the previously-built 

NPS cabins.169

In order to make the new boundary visually 

recognizable, the General Land Office sent out 

a party in 1933 “to commence a survey and to 

establish the new park boundary line.” That 

party, which consisted of Cadastral Engineer 

Floyd G. Betts, Surveyor Leonard M. Berlin, 

and six men from the agency’s Juneau office, 

In 1936, the Juneau GLO office organized a party 

to complete the boundary survey. Given the 

predominant terrain at the park’s western end, it 

was decided to conduct this survey in late winter. 

A six-man crew—which again was commanded 

by Floyd Betts and Leonard Berlin—left Juneau 

on February 25. The crew arrived at the park 

shortly afterward, and after conferring with NPS 

officials, it headed west on March 12. Support 

problems for the GLO crew were eased considerably by NPS rangers, who ferried freight to their 

base camp by dog team; an airplane, which twice 

landed near the McKinley Bar ranger station, 

brought additional goods. Soon work began on 

the survey itself: first to complete the northwest 

boundary line, then generally southward toward 

the summit of Mount Russell, at the southwestern corner of the park. As related by Ray 

Cruden, one of the survey crew, the men endured 

“temperatures averaging 26 below zero,” which 

complicated the task of setting the various 

monument markers. These posts were employed 

throughout the lowlands, but as the party “left 

the timber and began ascending the barren 

slopes of the Alaska Range,” posts were replaced 

by rock cairns and tripods. Cruden noted that 

“at every high point along the line, rock cairns 

about seven feet high were built by piling rocks 

as high as a man could reach. They can be seen 

for miles.” The party completed its survey on 

April 27; after that, however, a harrowing 12-day 

snowshoe trip to the Igloo ARC camp lay ahead. 

Cruden, reflecting back on the 550-mile trek, was 

effusive in his praise of the ARC and the NPS; 

their “splendid cooperation was one of the highlights of the trip,” in his opinion.172

During the early- to mid-1930s, the park supported a small staff, each of whom did a remarkable diversity of tasks (see Appendices B and 

The Lower Windy Creek cabin was 

one of the 2-room ranger patrol 

cabins

built during the early 1930s to 

provide a base for patrolling the new 

eastern park boundary. DENA 6-7, 

Denali National Park and Preserve 
76 Crown Jewel of the North: An Administrative History of Denali National Park and Preserve

C).173 Officially, each employee worked eight 

hours per day, six days a week; the superintendent admitted, however, that rangers did 

far more.174 Throughout most of this period, 

the staff consisted of just seven men: a superintendent, five rangers, and a clerk. (The only 

deviation from this constant was a fourteenmonth period in 1933 and 1934 when funding 

restrictions prevented the hiring of a clerk.) The 

superintendent, Harry Liek, remained in charge 

throughout this period; he served more than 

ten years, from the late 1920s through the late 

1930s. Stability, moreover, was a hallmark of the 

ranger crew as well: Grant Pearson, first hired in 

1926, remained on the staff until the late 1930s; 

John Rumohr, hired in 1930, stayed for more 

than twenty years, and Louis Corbley, hired in 

1931, became chief ranger and worked at the 

park until the outbreak of World War II. Other 

rangers—Wallace Anderson, Aubrey Houston, 

and Edward (Ted) Ogston—worked there for 

several years before moving on. The park’s clerks 

remained, too: C.E. Richmond was on the park 

payroll for more than two years, while his successor, Carl Lottsfeldt, stayed at the park for 31⁄2 

years. Mount McKinley, in short, offered a sense 

of permanence to many on the park staff; it offered rustic comforts and, because of its isolation 

and the shared nature of park responsibilities, it 

offered employees a strong sense of community. 

Most headquarters residents were single men, 

who enjoyed the park’s unencumbered lifestyle 

and the hard-working, can-do attitudes of their 

compatriots.

As noted above, headquarters-area construction 

activities during the late 1920s and early 1930s 

were primarily aimed at improving the park’s 

infrastructure: utilities development along with a 

power house, garage, and stable. By the mid1930s, park management recognized that ranger 

housing needed to be upgraded. As a result, 

the two major construction projects during this 

period involved residences for the clerk and 

rangers. In September 1933—just weeks after the 

park’s clerk vacated his job—funds were allotted 

for a new employee’s residence. The following 

month, the clerk’s old quarters were demolished, 

and the following spring, construction began on 

a replacement. This building, with five rooms 

and a basement, was designed in the agency’s San 

Francisco office and was said to be “far superior 

to the general run of residences in the interior of 

Alaska.”175 Toward the end of the 1934 summer season, a new clerk was hired, and work 

was stepped up to have it ready for him. Crews, 

however, ran low on supplies, and the building—

still unfinished—was not occupied until January 

1, 1935.176 Meanwhile, work was proceeding 

apace on a “ranger’s club”–i.e., a residence for 

single rangers–that had been in the works since 

the spring of 1934. The eight-room residence, 

constructed to much the same standards as the 

clerk’s residence, was completed in the spring 

of 1935. It saw little immediate use, however, 

because of its high heating demands.177

During the winter of 1936-37, Mount McKinley 

National Park turned twenty years old, and NPS 

employees were able to look back on more than 

fifteen years of active park management. During 

that period, which has since been characterized as the “cabins and snowshoes era,”178 two 

superintendents and a smattering of rangers, 

clerks and allied personnel had done wonders. 

They had built two different headquarters areas; 

the newer one, now more than ten years old, was 

a handsome, rustic work complex that was fully 

able to support the multitudinous activities of 

the small park staff. The staff, during that period, 

had constructed a long string of patrol cabins 

Located in the Nenana River canyon, 

between the Alaska Railroad and 

the river, the Moody cabin provided 

patrol rangers with a shelter along 

the new 1932 boundary. DENA 6-49, 

Denali National Park and Preserve 

Museum Collection
Chapter Four: The Cabins-and-Snowshoes Era, 1925-1936 77

that stretched along the park’s boundaries. 

Working in concert with the Alaska Road Commission, a scenic road had been bladed out more 

than 80 miles toward the west end of the park, 

and a series of patrol cabins were scattered at intermittent points along that route. The park had 

also successfully worked with two other partners, 

the Alaska Railroad and the Mount McKinley 

Tourist and Transportation Company, to develop 

the park’s tourist potential. The Alaska Railroad, 

dubbed the “McKinley Park Route,” did what 

it could to stimulate visitation to the park, and 

it also did its best to encourage the construction 

of a tourist infrastructure within the park. The 

park’s concessioner, meanwhile, did its best to 

make the tourist’s experience a satisfying one 

by constructing and maintaining a series of tent 

camps, auto tours, and horseback excursions. 

By the winter of 1936-37, there was every reason 

to believe that these patterns were beginning 

to mature and that the park would enjoy an 

extended period of continuity and slow growth. 

As Chapter 5 notes, however, the next few years 

would prove anything but placid. The prevailing 

sense of order would be destabilized first by a 

stronger hand of government intervention, which 

would be quickly followed by even more destabilizing actions brought on by world events. These 

events, in combination, brought this nostalgic 

period to an abrupt halt.

Notes - Chapter 4

1 SMR, June 1921, 2.

2 SMR, September 1921, 3-4.

3 SMR, October 1921, 6; October 1922, 6; 

January 1923, 4-5.

4 SMR, January 1924, 3; Executive Order 3946, 

January 21, 1924. By December 1924, the railroad had dropped all plans for a hotel at the site; 

the idea was not considered again for more than 

a decade. Dan T. Kennedy to Director NPS, 

December 29, 1924, in “Privileges” file, Box 

111 (MOMC), Entry 6, RG 79, NARA CP.

5 Karstens to the Director, February 15, 1924; 

Cammerer to Karstens, March 21, 1924; both 

in “Quarters” file, Box 111 (MOMC), Entry 6, 

RG 79, NARA CP; SMR, March 1924, 5; April 

1924, 5.

6 SMR, June 1924, 4; September 1924, 4.

7 SMR, April 1924, 5-6; June 1924, 3-4; 

Karstens to the Director, April 25, 1924, in 

“Quarters” file, Box 111, cited above.

8 SMR, September 1924, 3-4.

9 SMR, July 1924, 1, 3, 4.

10 SMR, October 1924, 1, 4, 6; Cammerer to 

Karstens, February 5, 1925, in “Instructions” 

file, Box 110 (MOMC), Entry 6, RG 79, NARA 

CP.

11 SMR, September 1925, 1, 4, 5; November 

1925, 3, 6, 8; December 1925, 1, 3, 4; Grant 

Pearson, The Seventy Mile Kid; Wilderness Superintendent of Mount McKinley National Park

(Los Altos, Calif., Signal Press, 1957), 9.

12 ARC, Annual Report, 1925, Part II, 15; 

SMR, September 1925, 2; Kennedy to “Gentlemen,” June 17, 1925, in “Employment-General” 

file, Box 110 (MOMC), Entry 6, RG 79, NARA 

CP.

13 ARC, Annual Report, Part II, for 1925 (p. 

89) and 1928 (p. 66). H.R. 10020, passed during the 68th Congress, 2nd Session, and H.R. 

9136, passed during the 70th Congress, 1st 

Session, were the annual Interior Department 

appropriations bills.

14 SMR, September 1924, 7.

15 ARC, Annual Report, Part II for 1925 (pp. 

86-88), 1926 (pp. 73-76), 1927 (pp. 61-66), 

1928 (pp. 61-67), 1929 (98, 105-06), and 1930 

(pp. 61-64); SMR for November 1925, 1; April 

1926, 2; September 1927, 1; October 1927, 3; 

September 1928, 2; October 1929, 1.

The “Ranger’s Club,” completed 

in 1935, was built specifically as a 

residence for single rangers. It now 

serves as the park headquarters 

building. The arrow at left shows the 

location of ranger Harold Herning’s 

room in late 1939. Beatrice Herning 

Collection, Denali National Park and 

Preserve Museum Collection
78 Crown Jewel of the North: An Administrative History of Denali National Park and Preserve

This late-1930s winter view of the 

main street at park headquarters

 shows much change since Karstens 

began building there in 1925. DENA 

3-7.7, Denali National Park and Preserve Museum Collection 

16 SMR, July 1922, 9; January 1923, 6.

17 SMR, June 1924, 4-5.

18 Gail Evans, “Patrol Cabins, Mount McKinley National Park” National Register of Historic 

Places nomination, December 1985, in park 

NRHP files, ARO-RCR; Harold A. LaFleur, 

Classified Structure Field Inventory Reports

for these five structures, December 29, 1975, in 

List of Classified Structures files, AKRO-RCR. 

Scattered references suggest that ARC crews 

built four cabins (at Savage [1924-25], Sanctuary [1925-26], Igloo Creek [1927], East Fork 

[1928], and Toklat River [circa 1930-31]). See 

SMR for November 1924, 5; September 1925, 

7; May 1930, 2; LaFleur, and Grant Pearson, 

with Philip Newill, My Life of High Adventure, 

(New York, Ballantine Books, 1962), 35; Jane 

Bryant, email to author, January 18 and 19, 

2006. Because no date is readily available for 

the construction of the ARC Toklat River cabin, 

the above dates are estimates based on the 
Chapter Four: The Cabins-and-Snowshoes Era, 1925-1936 79

February-to-October 1931 completion date of the Toklat River bridges.

19 NPS rangers built or improved both the Igloo Cabin and the Toklat Patrol Cabin (Pearson Cabin) 

at least three years before park road construction reached those points. Pearson, My Life of High 

Adventure, 44; A. Lewis Koue and Robert V. Simmonds, Historic Structure Report, Part I, Toklat 

Patrol Cabin Complex, Building Number 4 and Supporting Structures, Class CC (San Francisco, 

NPS), June 1970.

20 SMR, November 1924, 5; Jane Bryant email, July 14, 2006.

21 A daytime arrival was possible because, beginning in 1925, passengers overnighted at the railroad hotel at Curry, 99 miles to the south. Mather to Dan Kennedy, January 21, 1925, in “Privileges” file, Box 111 (MOMC), Entry 6, RG 79, NARA CP; Norris, Gawking at the Midnight Sun, 47.

22 George S. Stroud, History of the Concession at Denali National Park (formerly Mount McKinley 

National Park), unpub. mss., ARO Concession Division, p. 3.

23 SMR, September 1925, 5; February 1926, 4.

24 SMR, April 1926, 3; May 1926, 3; Norris, Gawking at the Midnight Sun, 49.

25 SMR, September 1925, 4; May 1926, 3; June 1926, 2, 4.

26 NPS, Public Use of the National Parks; a Statistical Report, 1904-1940

(Washington, the author, 1963), 5; Stroud, History of the Concession, 5.

27 Lena Howard interview, August 4, 1972, Tape #506, DENA Archives.

28 SMR, August 1922, 2; August 1924, 3; ARC, Annual Report, Part II, 1928 (p. 66) and 1929 (p. 

105).

29 SMR, June 1926, 4; Norris, Gawking at the Midnight Sun, 107; Gail E. H. Evans, From Myth to 

Reality: Travel Experiences and Landscape Perceptions in the Shadow of Mount McKinley, Alaska, 

1876-1938 (unpublished M.A. thesis, University of California Santa Barbara, February 1987), 260.

30 ARC, Annual Report, Part II, 1929 (p. 105); Norris, Gawking at the Midnight Sun, 107.

31 Stroud, History of the Concession, 3. According to longtime park employee Jane Bryant (email 

to author, August 29, 2005), the concessioner’s Igloo Camp was located east of the park road, at the 

east end of the old ARC camp and just north of Igloo Creek. The company’s Toklat Camp was on 

the east side of the Toklat River bridge, across the river from the ranger station and the ARC camp. 

The Copper Mountain Camp was originally placed within a few yards of the NPS’s Copper Mountain Ranger Station, on the south side of Thorofare River. But when the road reached that area, the 

Copper Mountain Camp was abandoned in favor of Camp Denali, located two miles to the northeast.

32 SMR, December 1924, 2, 7; January 1926, 2; February 1926, 1; March 1926, 1, 6; November 

1926, 5; February 1927, 5; January 1928, 4.

33 SMR, March 1926, 3; April 1926, 3; July 1926, 3; August 1926, 3; October 1926, 3.

34 This cabin was completed that summer, and finishing touches were applied during the winter of 

1927-28. SMR, March 1927, 5; August 1927, 2; September 1927, 2; January 1928, 2.

35 SMR, December 1927, 6; February 1928, 3; June 1928, 6.

36 SMR, June 1921, 2; February 1922, 3; March 1922, 1-3.

37 SMR, October 1921, 5, 7; July 1922, 9; September 1922, 4; January 1923, 2.

38 Evidence of poaching activity was reported in the following SMRs: February 1923, 4, 5; March 

1923, 1, 5; and January 1924, 4.

39 SMR, March 1923, 5; May 1923, 5; September 1923, 5.

40 SMR, January 1924, 4, 7.

41 Historian Morgan Sherwood noted that game wardens during this period were less than professional; wardens “were selected and retained for political reasons ... that they were often unqualified—sometimes barely literate—and reluctant to arrest violators.” Sherwood, Big Game in Alaska; 

a History of Wildlife and People (New Haven, Yale, 1981), 48.

42 SMR, December 1923, 3; January 1924, 4; February 1924, 2.

43 SMR, November 1921, 3; August 1922, 4; September 1922, 2.

44 Brown, A History, 156-57; SMR, September 1923, 2-3, 6.

45 SMR, October 1924, 4, 6, 8; December 1924, 1.

46 Frank Norris, Alaska Subsistence; a National Park Service Management History (Anchorage, 

NPS, September 2002), 35-36.

47 SMR, September 1925, 7.

48 Poaching did not disappear, however, and at least one incident was recorded each year between 

1926 and 1929. See the following SMRs: March 1926, 6; April 1927, 4; January 1928, 2-3; November 1928, 3; and October 1929, 3.

49 Congressional Record 67:1 (1921), 504; Congressional Record 67:2 (1922), 364. The term 

“Sutherland Bill” was quoted in SMR, June 1921, 2.
80 Crown Jewel of the North: An Administrative History of Denali National Park and Preserve

50 SMR, January 1922, 5; May 1922, 2, 4; June 1922, 2; Karstens letter, May 15, 1922, in “Boundaries” file, Box 109 (MOMC), Entry 6, RG 79, NARA CP; A. E. Demaray to Arno Cammerer, June 

20, 1922, in “Inspection” file, Box 110 (MOMC), Entry 6, RG 79, NARA CP.

51 John Kauffmann, Mount McKinley National Park, Alaska; a History of its Establishment and 

Revision of its Boundaries (Washington, NPS, July 1954), 12-14.

52 Ibid., 14-19.

53 A boundary extension to the railroad was included in SMRs of October 1924 (pp. 7-8) and January 1928 (p. 5); to the Nenana River in SMRs of August 1922 (p. 5) and October 1927 (p. 2); and 

the mile-wide “proclamation strip” in SMRs of October 1922 (p. 6), April 1924 (pp. 5-6), May 1924 

(p. 3) and December 1925, 3.

54 United States Statutes 39 (February 26, 1917), p. 938, Section 6.

55 Between 1921 and 1926, numerous superintendent’s reports mentioned prospecting activity in 

the park. Most of the early reports centered on Copper Mountain and on Sanctuary, Savage, and 

Sushana rivers, although others continued to prospect lesser-known drainages. By 1924, it was 

generally agreed—by USGS investigators as well as by prospectors themselves—that “there are no 

mineral deposits east of ... the Stony Fork district”, and as the decade wore on, Copper Mountain 

area remained the only area of sustained mining interest. SMR, September 1921 to August 1926, 

passim.

56 SMR, February 1923, 4; April 1923, 5; January 1924, 6-7; Cordova Times, December 24, 1923.

57 SMR, December 1925, 7; May 1927, 5; January 1928, 5.

58 Various documents, April to June 1923, in “Appropriations – General” file, Box 109 (MOMC), 

Entry 6, RG 79, NARA CP.

59 SMR, May 1924, 5; October 1924, 8.

60 SMR, May 1924, 3.

61 Horace Albright, in his Creation of the National Park Service, p. 90, stated that “When a new 

park was created ... congressmen inclined to get the cart before the horse. An amendment would 

get tacked on limiting annual expenditures to tiny amounts. Of course, we’d have to go back and 

ask for more.”

62 Congressional Record 65 (March 18, 1924), p. 4474; John Ise, Our National Park Policy (Baltimore, Johns Hopkins Press, 1961), 229.

63 As noted in 1926, for example (Congressional Record 67 [January 11, 1926], 1843-46), Rep. Allen Treadway (R-Mass.) advocated the elimination of all park funding inasmuch as “no tourists visit 

Mount McKinley” and “nothing we can do can remove that wonderful peak.”

64 Congressional Record 68, pp. 965, 3817, 5061-62; 70th Congress, 1st Session, Senate Report 

No. 552, March 16, 1928, pp. 1-2.

65 Congressional Record 69, pp. 1539-40.

66 SMR, March 1926, 6; April 1927, 4; December 1927, 6; January 1928, 2-3.

67 Congressional Record 69, pp. 1539-40.

68 Congressional Record 69, pp. 5047, 5434, 8672, 9787.

69 SMR, August 1924, 6; September 1924, 3, 5.

70 SMR, October 1924, 8; December 1924, 4; December 1925, 2-3; January 1926, 1, 5.

71 Pearson with Newill, My Life of High Adventure, vii-xi, 4, 23-25. Karsten complimented his 

rangers in the following SMRs: February 1926, 6; February 1927, 5; December 1928, 3.

72 The park owned and used horses for a wide variety of tasks from the early 1920s until about 

1940; to house them, the stable was constructed in 1928 and 1929. SMR, passim.; Dave Snow, et 

al., Historic Structure Report, Mt. McKinley Park Headquarters Historic District and Wonder Lake, 

Vol. 2 (Anchorage?, NPS-ARO, January 1, 1987), 23-24.

73 SMR, October 1927, 1; May 1928, 2; October 1929, 3.

74 SMR, April 1927, 3; November 1929, 2; December 1929, 1.

75 SMR, December 1926, 1.

76 SMR, June 1923, 7. Karstens attended three superintendents’ conferences (in 1923, 1926, and 

1928) during his seven years on the job, but no one on his staff had any formal training during that 

period. SMR, September 1923, 2; December 1923, 2; October 1926, 1; February 1928, 1.

77 SMR, October 1924, 4; November 1926, 3; NPS, Land Status Map, DENA, ARO-L; NPS, Index, National Park System and Related Areas, 1982 (Washington, the author, 1982), 61.

78 U.S. Bureau of the Budget, Budget of the United States (Washington, D.C., Government Printing 

Office), 1925 and 1930 editions.

79 SMR, November 1925, 2-6.

80 SMR, November 1925, 6; April 1926, 3; June 1926, 3; July 1926, 1, 3

81 SMR, August 1926, 3; July 1927, 5; September 1927, 3.
Chapter Four: The Cabins-and-Snowshoes Era, 1925-1936 81

82 SMR, January 1926, 3; November 1926, 3.

83 SMR, July 1927, 2.

84 SMR, December 1927, 5.

85 One of the two remaining buildings from this early period is the old office (administration) 

building, which was moved in 1950 from its original location—just south of the park road and just 

east of the headquarters’ “main street”—to a new location north of the park road. This building was 

then used as the park’s first museum building and now serves as an employee quarters. The other 

building, the generator (boiler) building, is still in its original location and configuration; it presently 

houses the Cultural Resource Division office. Harold A. LaFleur, Jr., “Classified Structure Field 

Inventory Report” for DENA-22, January 2, 1976, LCS Files, AKRO; Jane Bryant email, July 5, 

2006.

86 SMR, July 1927, 3.

87 SMR, February 1922, 1, 3; October 1922, 4; December 1923, 2; November 1927, 2; December 

1927, 4.

88 SMR, May 1922, 4; November 1922, 2; May 1923, 4; May 1924, 8; November 1924, 1; November 1925, 2, 3.

89 SMR, May 1926, 2. The 1926-38 location of the dog kennels is shown on the park’s January 

1937 master plan map, which is located in the “HQ HSR” folder, DENA HQ NRHP files, AKRORCR.

90 SMR, April 1927, 2; November 1929, 2; December 1929, 2.

91 SMR, March 1928, 2.

92 Brown, A History, 145.

93 SMR, August 1928, 2; October 1928, 1.

94 Grant H. Pearson, The Seventy Mile Kid, 1-7, 9.

95 Charles Sheldon to Horace Albright, Jan. 10, 1923, in “Wild Animals, Parts 1 & 2” file, Box 112; 

Dan Kennedy to Richardson Highway Transportation Co., June 17, 1925, along with various other 

letters, all in “Employment – General” file, Box 110; Woodbury Abbey to Cammerer, July 27, 1923, 

in “Privileges” file, Box 111; all in Entry 6, RG 79, NARA CP.

96 Pearson, The Seventy Mile Kid, 9, 13; Karstens to the Director, September 19, 1928, in “Karstens 

Resignation” file, Ann Kain Collection, DENA. Several sources have suggested that the death of 

Charles Sheldon, who had lent him so much support over the years, played a role in his resignation. But Sheldon’s death was on September 21, two days after Karsten resigned. Who Was Who in 

America; Vol. 1, 1897-1942 (Chicago, A. N. Marquis, 1943), 1113.

97 Brown, A History, 164.

98 Fairbanks Daily News-Miner, November 29, 1955, 1; SMR, December 1955, 1.

99 Brown, A History, 173-74; Sellars, Preserving Nature in the National Parks, 87.

100 SMR, December 1928, 1.

101 Dave Snow, et al., Historic Structure Report, Mt. McKinley Park Headquarters Historic 

District and Wonder Lake, Vol. 1 (Anchorage?, NPS, January 1, 1987), 3; SMR, June 1929, 3; July 

1929, 2; April 1930, 2; May 1930, 2; January 1931, 2; June 1931, 2; June 1932, 2; October 1932, 3.

102 SMR, April 1930, 2; May 1931, 2; May 1932, 2.

103 SMR, April-September 1929, passim.

104 SMR, October 1929, 1-2; November 1929, 2; July 1931, 3; October 1931, 3.

105 SMR, March 1932, 2; July-November 1932, p. 3; May-July 1933, 2-3; November 1933, 1-2; 

January 1934, 3; September 1934, 4; December 1938, 2, 4.

106 SMR, October 1933, 3; November 1933, 2; June 1938, 3; September 1938, 3.

107 SMR, April 1922, 2; March 1924, 4; November 1925, 1, 2, 9.

108 SMR, February 1927, 3; August 1930, 2; March 1931, 2; December 1931, 3; July 1933, 2; 

August 1933, 2, 4, 5; November 1933, 2.

109 SMR, August 1932, 2. The Ford Motor Company manufactured the Model B, a variant of the 

Model A, between 1932 and 1934.

110 SMR, July 1934, 7; August 1934, 6; October 1935, 5; October 1938, 3; July 1939, 2.

111 SMR, February 1927, 5; March 1929, 2.

112 SMR, December 1924, 2; March 1926, 6; October 1929, 3; April 1931, 1; May 1931, 2. The 

new Sunday Creek cabin was referred to as the “Ewe Creek” cabin because it replaced a 1925 NPSbuilt cabin at the Ewe Creek mouth.

113 Harold A. LaFleur, “Building Inventory for Mt. McKinley National Park,” September 12, 1975, 

in “HQ Building Development” file, DENA archives; SMR, April 1930, 2; May 1930, 2; September 

1931, 3; February 1932, 2; June 1932, 2. 

114 SMR, January 1931, 2; June 1931, 3; July 1931, 4; August 1931, 3; January 1932; H. David 
82 Crown Jewel of the North: An Administrative History of Denali National Park and Preserve

Evans and Gail E. H. Evans, Historic Structure Report, Upper Windy Creek Patrol Cabin (Anchorage, NPS, February 1992), 9.

115 Henry Karstens to Director NPS, August 1, 1924, in “Telephone and Telegraph Service” file, 

Box 112 (MOMC), Entry 6, RG 79, NARA CP; January 1924, 5; May 1924, 4; June 1924, 6; July 

1924, 3.

116 SMR, May 1926, 2; June 1928, 3; July 1930, 2; August 1930, 3; December 1930, 3.

117 SMR, June 1931, 2; September 1931, 3; June 1932, 1-2; September 1932, 2; June 1933, 2.

118 SMR, August 1926, 1-2.

119 SMR, March 1928, 2; August 1929, 1.

120 Brown, A History, 179, 181.

121 SMR, August 1927, 1; June 1928, 1-2.

122 SMR, September 1929, 3; July 1932, 2; Alaska Weekly, September 20, 1929, 7; Brown, A History, 176, 181-82; Fairbanks Daily News-Miner, May 3, 1934, 5.

123 71st Congress, 2nd Session, House Report No. 1387 (May 6, 1930), p. 2; Donald Morgan, 

“Above the Northern Trail,” Farthest North Collegian III:1 (1925), 7-8; Robert W. Stevens, Alaskan 

Aviation History, vol. 1, 1897-1928 (Des Moines, Wash., Polynyas Press, 1990), 153-54.

124 SMR, April 1923, 3, 5; September 1923, 2; December 1924, 8.

125 Stevens, Alaskan Aviation History, vol. 1, 176-77.

126 ARC, Annual Report, Part II, for fiscal years 1926 (p. 71) and 1927 (p. 58), and 1929 (p. 94); 

SMR, July 1927, 5; Charles Caldwell Hawley, Wesley Earl Dunkle; Alaska’s Flying Miner (Boulder, 

University Press of Colorado, 2003), 148. The Kantishna field, which is near the present-day North 

Face Lodge, was extended 200 additional feet in 1929.

127 SMR, July 1926, 4; Daily Alaska Empire (Juneau), June 30, 1926, 1.

128 71st Congress, 1st Session, Senate Report No. 385 (April 11, 1930); House Report No. 1387

(May 6, 1930); New York Times, March 23, 1930, II, 1; Walter Borneman, Alaska, Saga of a Bold 

Land, 294-95.

129 Stevens, Alaskan Aviation History, vol. 2 (1929-1930), 907.

130 SMR, May 1930, 3; July 1930, 2-3; September 1932, 1; September 1933, 6; Stevens, Alaskan 

Aviation History, vol. 2, 1002-04; Stroud, History of the Concession, 7.

131 Stevens, Alaskan Aviation History, vol. 2, 1002; Janet McDonnell email, June 2, 2005.

132 Kauffmann, Mount McKinley National Park, Alaska; a History of its Establishment, 20-27.

133 Ibid., 24; Brown, A History, 187.

134 Kauffmann, Mount McKinley National Park, Alaska; a History of its Establishment, 27-33; 

Albright, “Memorandum for the Washington Office,” August 18, 1931, in informational file cabinet, 

top drawer, DENA Archives.

135 Kauffmann, Mount McKinley National Park, Alaska; a History of its Establishment, 33-35.

136 Congressional Record 75, pp. 3051-52 (February 1, 1932) and pp. 3952-53 (February 15, 

1932). Homesteader Duke Stubbs, in 1934, wrote a letter that was later included in a House report, 

stating that “on January 25, 1932, and unknown to Mr. Wickersham ... the Park Service slipped in 

an amendment changing the east line of the park to the west bank of the Nenana River.” Congressional testimony, however, clearly indicates that Wickersham was fully aware of, and approved, the 

suggested action. 73rd Congress, 2nd Session, Senate Report No. 1019 (May 17, 1934), 5.

137 Congressional Record 75, p. 5969 (March 14, 1932) and p. 7122 (March 30, 1932).

138 Brown, A History, 189. Albright’s prophecy, as shall be seen, was only partly correct; a hotel 

was indeed built before the end of the decade, but “park policies” played little or no role in determining the hotel’s architecture.

139 SMR February 1932, 2; April 1932, 2; December 1932, 2.

140 SMR, March 1932, 2.

141 SMR, September 1932, 3; Anthony J. Dimond to Arno B. Cammerer, October 18, 1933, in File 

605 (“Stubbs/General Entries”), Box 1411 (MOMC), Entry 7, RG 79, NARA CP; 73rd Congress, 

2nd Session, Senate Report No. 1019, pp. 2, 5.

142 73rd Congress, 2nd Session, Senate Report No. 1019, pp. 1-2.

143 SMR, February 1933, 2; April 1933, 2.

144 Horace M. Albright to Supt. MOMC, May 5, 1933; Arno Cammerer to Commissioner GLO, 

June 1, 1933; Dimond to Cammerer, October 18, 1933; and Frederick W. Johnson (GLO) to Cammerer, January 27, 1934; all in File 605 (“Stubbs/General Entries”), Box 1411 (MOMC), Entry 7, 

RG 79, NARA CP; 73rd Congress, 2nd Session, Senate Report No. 1019, 3. According to Supt. 

Karstens (ltr. to Director NPS, January 10, 1925, in “Lands-General” folder, Box 110 [MOMC], 

Entry 6, RG 79, NARA CP), Stubbs had resided in the McKinley Park Station area since July 1924, 

when he was looking for a fox farm site, but according to GLO records, he had not applied for his 
Chapter Four: The Cabins-and-Snowshoes Era, 1925-1936 83

parcel until 1931.

145 73rd Congress, 2nd Session, Senate Report No. 1019, pp. 1-3; Nenana Daily News, January 29, 

1920, 3.

146 Congressional Record 78 (1934), pp. 409, 8982, 11821, 12537, 12447, 12450, and 12458; 

SMR, July 1934, 5.

147 Ickes to Ambrose J. Kennedy, February 15, 1935, in File 120-01 (House Bills), Box 1404 

(MOMC), Entry 7, RG 79, NARA CP.

148 “In the Court of Claims of the United States,” No. 43093, Decided Dec. 6, 1937; Oscar L. 

Chapman (Acting Interior Secretary) to “the Honorable Attorney General,” January 4, 1938; George 

S. Sweeney to Interior Secretary, July 22, 1935; Frank T. Been to Regional Director, May 1, 1941; 

all in File 605 (Stubbs), Box 1411 (MOMC), Entry 7, RG 79, NARA CP; Washington Times, December 6, 1937.

149 As an ironic footnote to the mid-1930s road construction, Harold Ickes was the Interior 

Secretary throughout this period. It was Ickes who stated in a public speech that “If I had my way 

about national parks, I would create one without a road in it. I would have it impenetrable forever 

to automobiles, a place where man would not try to improve upon God.” And a New York Times

article (May 14, 1933, p. 4) stated that “there is one park in the empire over which Mr. Ickes holds 

sway—Mount McKinley National Park in Alaska—where corduroy still rules over silk stockings 

and his dream is all but an actuality today. ... There is a gravel road that runs in forty miles or so 

... but what is a narrow ribbon like that in an area of 2,645 square miles? The territory all about is 

still set down on the official maps as ‘unexplored area’.”

150 Purists note that the view south from the Wonder Lake site almost completely obscures McKinley’s higher south peak, while the view from Mile 66 includes clear views of both the north and 

south peaks.

151 Morgan Sherwood, “Polly’s Denali,” Alaska History 8 (Fall 1993), 38-39; Pearson, My Life of 

High Adventure, 48-49, 67.

152 SMR, July 1931, 2; August 1931, 2; Brown, A History, 164; New York Times, January 4, 1933.

153 SMR, July 1932, 2, 3; December 1932, 2.

154 Albright to Liek, March 24, 1933, in File 900-05 (Misc. Correspondence, Alaska Railroad), 

Box 1420 (MOMC), Entry 7, RG 79, NARA CP; Fairbanks Daily News-Miner, May 3, 1934, 5.

155 SMR, June 1934, 5; August 1934, 5; October 1934, 4; June 1935, 4; June 1936, 5; June 1937, 

1.

156 SMR, August 1934, 5; October 1934, 5.

157 SMR, December 1934, 3; February 1935, 1, 4; March 1935, 1; July 1935, 2; August 1935, 2.

158 SMR, September 1935, 3, 4; December 1935, 3; June 1936, 1, 4; July 1936, 1; August 1936, 

2; Ernest A. Davidson, Report to the Chief Architect and to the Superintendent of Mount McKinley 

National Park, September 1935, in file D-18, DENA Archives.

159 NPS, Public Use of the National Parks; a Statistical Report, 1904-1940 (Washington, the author, 1963), 7; Stroud, History of the Concession, 7. Mount McKinley, in 1936, attracted less than 

one-fifteenth the number of tourists that visited Wind Cave in South Dakota, which was the secondleast-visited national park.

160 The “Clearwater Lakes” are approximately seven miles south of Wonder Lake and just north 

of the Carlson Creek-Clearwater Creek confluence. Mt. McKinley Tourist and Transportation Co., 

“Mt. McKinley, Alaska” (brochure), attached to SMR, December 1933; same author, “A Friendly 

Map of Mt. McKinley National Park, Alaska’s Crowning Glory,” 1937, in Mt. McKinley Tourist 

and Transportation Co. Collection, Alaska and Polar Regions Archives, UAF.

161 SMR, March 1923, 3; September 1932, 3; September 1933, 4; July 1934, 8; Fairbanks Daily 

News-Miner, May 7, 1934, 2; Civil Aeronautics Agency, “Information on Aircraft Landing Facility,” 

March 1940, in “McKinley Park 50470” folder, FAA Airports Division Collection.

162 Wiley Post and Will Rogers stopped at the airfield on August 14, 1935, just one day before their 

fatal crash near Barrow. SMR, August 1934, 2; August 1935, 1; June 1936, 5; Otto Ohlson (ARR) 

to Gruening, radiogram, July 15, 1936; Arthur Demaray to Supt. MOMC, telegram, July 15, 1936; 

both in File 900-05 (Misc. Correspondence), Box 1420 (MOMC), Entry 7, RG 79, NARA CP.

163 SMR, August 1933, 5; November 1933, 4; February 1936, 4.

164 G. O. Kempton to Earl Pilgrim, May 12, 1952, in “Stampede Airport” folder, FAA Airports Division historical files; Brown, A History, 207; Donald E. White, Antimony Deposits of the Stampede 

Creek Area, Kantishna District, Alaska, U.S. Geological Survey Bulletin 936-N (Washington, GPO, 

1942), 332-34.

165 SMR, January 1930, 3; January 1931, 2; February 1931, 2; February 1932, 3.

166 Calvin J. Lensink, “Predator Control with the Bounty System,” in Alaska Department of Fish 
84 Crown Jewel of the North: An Administrative History of Denali National Park and Preserve

and Game, Annual Report for 1958 (Juneau, the author), 94; SMR, March 1933, 3; December 1934, 

3; February 1935, 3.

167 SMR, February 1931, 2; December 1932, 2; February 1933, 3; September 1934, 5; February 

1935, 3; October 1935, 3.

168 SMR, July 1932, 3; August 1932, 2; September 1932, 3; October 1932, 2; January 1934, 2.

169 SMR, September 1933, 2; August 1934, 2; September 1934, 3; July 1936, 4; September 1936, 

2; Jane Bryant email, June 24, 2005 and July 5, 2006. The Moose Creek cabin, ironically, was 

located along the park’s old (1917) boundary rather than along the boundary that Congress moved 

in 1932.

170 “Field Notes, U.S. Survey 2177, MOMC” folder, AKRO Lands Collection; SMR, April 1933, 

2; Alaska Daily Press (Juneau), June 25, 1937, 3.

171 SMR, May 1933, 2; June 1933, 2; July 1933, 3; August 1933, 3; Antoinette Funk (BLM) to 

NPS Director, October 25, 1933, in File 602-1, Box 1410 (MOMC), Entry 7, RG 79, NARA CP.

172 SMR, March 1936, 1; May 1936, 4; Alaska Daily Press (Juneau), June 25, 1937, 3.

173 Superintendent Liek wrote to his superiors that “due to the limited number of employees in the 

park, long hours and arduous labor are performed by all personnel. ‘Jack of all trades’ applies to 

each employee of the park.” This note was written in early December 1933, but it applied equally 

to almost any time between the early 1920s and the late 1940s. SMR, November 1933, 1.

174 Liek, in April 1934 (SMR, 7), noted that “rangers are often compelled to work 10 or 12 hours a 

day while on patrol. All rangers are supposed to work Sundays and holidays if their work demands 

it.”

175 SMR, September 1933, 3; October 1933, 3; June 1934, 4; August 1934, 3-5; September 1934, 

4-7.

176 SMR, November 1934, 4; December 1934, 3; January 1935, 3.

177 SMR, June 1934, 4; July 1934, 5; August 1934, 3-5; September 1934, 4-7; December 1934, 3; March 

1935, 2.

178 The term is quoted from Timothy Rawson in his Changing Tracks; Predators and Politics in Mt. McKinley 

National Park (Fairbanks, Univ. of Alaska Press, 2001), 174. 
Chapter Four: The Cabins-and-Snowshoes Era, 1925-1936 85
86 Crown Jewel of the North: An Administrative History of Denali National Park and Preserve
Chapter Five: A Diversified Federal Presence, 1937-1945 87 

Chapter Five: A Diversified Federal Presence, 

1937-1945

During the first few months of 1937, the area surrounding McKinley Park Station was relatively 

quiet. Five years had passed since the area had 

been absorbed into Mount McKinley National 

Park, and as a result, few people remained who 

were unconnected with government service in 

one form or another. Nine of the 25 local residents were National Park Service employees or 

family members, and half of the remainder were 

part-time Alaska Road Commission employees. 

There were only three private property owners: 

Maurice Morino (120 acres), Duke Stubbs (35 

acres), and Dan Kennedy (5 acres). Morino ran 

a roadhouse, grocery, and post office; Stubbs had 

an abandoned fox farm; and Kennedy’s parcel 

housed the former headquarters of a guiding 

business.

This area had recently undergone a visual 

transformation. Prior to the 1932 expansion, 

the area (as noted in Chapter 4) had been the 

scene of several squatters’ residences, within 

which an undetermined number of residents 

“jungled in” each winter.1 But shortly after the 

area was absorbed into the park, Morino tore 

down several “unsightly” buildings on his property—including the school house that operated 

from 1922 through 1924—and moved others 

farther away from the entrance sign that the 

Alaska Railroad had installed back in the spring 

of 1926.2 Morino made other improvements as 

well; he got rid of the existing stumps, brush and 

debris on his property and replaced it with fields 

of oats and hay. The improvements, to be sure, 

were intended to allow him to obtain a patent to 

his property, and were thus temporary; for the 

time being, however, these fields caused “much 

comment among the travelers” to the McKinley 

Station area.3

The McKinley Park Hotel

The quiet that prevailed in and around McKinley 

Park Station in early 1937, however, was illusive, 

because events taking place among Washington 

bureaucrats portented dramatic, immediate 

changes to the area. Interior Secretary Harold 

Ickes, working together with Territorial Chief 

Ernest Gruening,4 recognized that tourism 

would need to be a major element of any Alaska 

economic development strategy. As noted in 

Chapter 4, Department plans dating back to the 

mid-1920s had consistently noted the need for 

a park hotel in the McKinley Station area, and 

during the winter of 1934-35 Ickes had shown 

an interest in the site. In 1936, Gruening visited 

the park and recognized that the provision of 

adequate tourist accommodations was the park’s 

most pressing need. He afterward worked with 

NPS personnel and was able to persuade Ickes 

to appropriate $350,000 in Works Progress 

Administration funds to build a hotel.5 (The 

Works Progress Administration, headed by Harry 

Hopkins, had been established in 1935 to provide 

relief to the unemployed; it was in its heyday 

during the late 1930s.) Because Secretary Ickes 

fervently believed that the public-sector should 

own and manage facilities in the national parks, 

he had decided early in the planning process 

that the Alaska Railroad would be given control 

of the hotel project (see Appendix D). On that 

basis, Ickes directed the railroad to use the WPA 

funds on hotel construction; the NPS would be 

the railroad’s agent for design and construction. 

Given those expectations, a site was surveyed in 

mid-May 1937 for the hotel and a power house, 

both of which would be located approximately 

300 yards from the McKinley Park train station.6 

Ickes and Gruening had expected that the hotel 

would be built according to a rustic design, following preliminary plans that had been drawn up 

by Thomas Vint. By the time construction began, 

however, budget cutbacks had forced the hotel to 

conform to a more functional, Spartan design.7

The Interior Department announced the hotel 

project on June 20, 1937, and on-the-ground 

activity commenced less than three weeks later. 

Under the de facto direction of Alston Gutterson, an architect from the NPS’s Washington 

office, ground was broken on July 12; hotel plans, 

however, did not arrive until July 31.8 By the 

end of August, 78 were on hand to help with the 

project; they began by constructing a bunkhouse, 

powerhouse, underground reservoir, and septic 

tank, but in September crews began on the hotel 

building itself. Aided by good fall weather, work 

continued on the project until November 28, by 

which time “all framing, roofing, siding, sash, 

entrance doors and exterior trim [had been] accomplished.” Project leaders were hopeful that 

the hotel would be completed by July 15, 1938.9 

Some visionaries were predicting even more; an 

article in Collier’s, a top-selling periodical, noted 

that

Heretofore the park has closed officially for visitors every September. 

... Now the government is building 

a hotel at the gate beside the railroad 

[and] McKinley will be open for winter sports—with authentic facilities 

The McKinley Park Hotel offered the 

troops some luxury for their furloughs. Candy Waugaman Collection
88 Crown Jewel of the North: An Administrative History of Denali National Park and Preserve

unsurpassed elsewhere in the world.10

A 25-person crew under Gutterson’s direction 

returned to the site on April 4, 1938, and continued for the next several months with a crew 

that numbered between 64 and 75. The hopedfor completion date announced earlier proved 

overly optimistic, however.11 On July 19, Ernest 

Gruening stopped by to inspect the project, and 

less than a month later, Secretary Ickes visited 

the site. Ickes, who was accompanied by both 

Gruening and Thomas Vint, the NPS architect, 

did not like what he saw. His wife Jane, who kept 

a diary during the trip, noted that as the train was

rolling into the park siding, an atrocious sight greeted us – an elongated 

pile of bastard-modern, dun-colored 

boards, pierced by niggardly slits of 

windows.... Without exception, it is 

an appalling monstrosity. Tiny cells 

of rooms; no view; no sitting space; a 

power plant blocking the approach.... 

A typical example of criminal inefficiency on the part of bureaucrats. 

Harold was simply frantic.12 

Judging the original hotel as being too small and 

the architects too parsimonious, he demanded 

the construction of an enlarged dining room 

along with a new, 46-room wing that would be 

funded from the Alaska Railroad account. Ickes 

was so disappointed with Gutterson’s project 

management that he replaced him with Vint, effective immediately; Vint, however, would remain 

on the job only until a railroad representative 

could succeed him.13

By late October, construction had been pushed 

to the point where the hotel was fully enclosed. 

Work could therefore continue throughout the 

following winter, with crews numbering between 

30 and 45. On December 8, Vint was replaced by 

the first of a series of Alaska Railroad foremen. 

By the end of February 1939, Superintendent 

Liek reported that “work on the new McKinley Park Hotel is rapidly nearing completion,” 

and two months later he noted that the job was 

“practically completed.”14 The hotel, which cost 

between $300,000 and $450,000,15 opened with 

a maximum capacity for 200 guests on June 1, 

1939; it contained “98 rooms, 54 with private 

baths, dining rooms, lounges, game rooms, and 

other facilities and accommodations for guests.” 

A cocktail lounge in the hotel served liquor by 

the drink and also did business as a package 

store. Reviews of the hotel were mixed; while 

both visitors and development advocates were 

This photograph documents what 

Interior Secretary Harold Ickes saw 

when he visited Mt. McKinley National Park in August, 1938. The hotel 

powerhouse and dormitory are to 

the right of the hotel. Secretary Ickes 

ordered the addition of an enlarged 

dining room and a new wing of 

rooms. Ickes Collection, B75-175-287, 

Anchorage Museum of History & Art

This aerial view shows the McKinley 

Park Hotel under construction, as well 

as the depot area and the railroad 

wye which allowed delivery of materials and supplies right to the hotel 

site. In the lower center of the photo, 

the park’s gateway arch and its long 

shadow are visible on the park road. 

Bradford Washburn Collection, #2393, 

Denali National Park and Preserve 

Museum Collection
Chapter Five: A Diversified Federal Presence, 1937-1945 89 

glad to see and use the new facility, a number of 

park visitors told the park superintendent “that 

the new hotel should be within view of Mount 

McKinley and that a luxury hotel is questionably 

appropriate.”16 Some government planners felt, 

during the hotel’s construction phase, that the 

railroad would move its overnight stop on the 

Anchorage-Fairbanks run from Curry to McKinley Park. No such move was made, however; the 

hotel at Curry (which had been built in 1923) 

continued to be used for years after the new hotel 

opened, and the railroad’s summertime schedule 

continued to include one daily midday stop in 

each direction at McKinley Park Station.17

Secretary Ickes’s belief that the public sector—and more specifically the Alaska Railroad—

should operate the McKinley Park Hotel rankled 

the railroad’s general manager, Col. Otto Ohlson. 

Ohlson had spent his ten years on the job trying 

to stanch the annual flow of red ink, primarily by paring expenses, and he—along with the 

NPS and park’s longtime concessioner—were all 

aware that the hotel would likely be a money-losing operation, at least in the foreseeable future. 

Ohlson, a pragmatist, knew that the park’s short 

season and light visitation would most assuredly 

result in financial losses to the railroad, and he 

further explained that “whatever satisfactions 

or benefits derived thereof would not justify the 

deficit the railroad would incur through hotel 

operation.” As a result, both the NPS and the 

park’s longtime concessioner were relieved that 

the hotel was not theirs. But the Colonel had 

little choice in the matter. Conceding defeat, 

he assigned M. J. McDonald to be the hotel’s 

first manager, a position he retained for the next 

several years.18

Impacts of Hotel Construction on the Park Concessioner

The government’s decision to build a hotel at 

McKinley Park Station upset the park’s longstanding relationship to its concessioner, the 

Mount McKinley Tourist and Transportation 

Company. This Fairbanks-based company, in 

1937, had been taking care of the park’s tourists 

for thirteen years; it had a successful operation at 

Savage River Camp, where they had built a new 

social hall and four new tent cabins the previous 

year, and it also had a two-tent complex (called 

Camp Denali at the time) at Mile 66 along with 

even smaller camps at other park destinations. 

(See Appendix D.) Camp officials recognized 

that the presence of the new hotel might ruin the 

company. Despite the obvious handwriting on 

the wall, however, the concessioner continued to 

run its camps as it always had, and company officials gleefully declared that both 1937 and 1938 

were the most successful years in its history.19 

During the early months of construction, when 

government officials were predicting a hotel completion date during the summer of 1938, concessions officials probably thought—given that their 

ten-year concessions contract was due to expire 

in January 1939—that their contract would not 

be renewed. Given the ongoing delays, however, NPS officials recognized the obvious and 

renewed the concessioner’s contract for another 

year.20

The completed McKinley Park Hotel, 

with its additional 46-room wing, 

was opened for business on June 1, 

1939. DENA 12-19, Denali National 

Park and Preserve Museum Collection
90 Crown Jewel of the North: An Administrative History of Denali National Park and Preserve

NPS officials reacted to the anticipated June 

1939 hotel opening by telling the concessioner to 

not run its Savage Camp operation; instead, the 

agency ordered the company to move its main 

camp out to Mile 66. That spring, company officials moved some of its Savage Camp buildings 

to the new site, now called Camp Eielson. They 

were justifiably worried that few park visitors 

would want to spend the night so far out the park 

road. In actuality, the results were mixed. When 

visitors learned that they would be charged to 

stay at Camp Eielson as well as to ride the bus, 

some opted to cancel their bus trip west and 

instead remained in the vicinity of the new hotel. 

These cancellations were more likely if the day 

was cloudy. Others, however, preferred Camp 

Eielson’s less elaborate accommodations.21 For 

awhile in June, concessions officials were uncertain as to how their bus and camp services would 

be marketed. Soon, however, Alaska Railroad 

representatives provided the company with desk 

space in the new hotel’s lobby. At the end of 

July, the park superintendent reported that the 

concessioner was holding its own; he noted that 

“receipts from the long bus trip compensates 

for diminished hotel demands of this operation. Although the McKinley Park Hotel has the 

first appeal for visitors, enough people prefer ... 

Camp Eielson [that] a measure of competition is 

felt by the hotel.” But by the end of the summer, 

it was clear that although the summer’s visitation (2,262) was exceedingly high by historical 

standards, it was still clearly insufficient to profitably sustain two tourist operations.22 The hotel, 

bleeding red ink, closed for lack of business on 

August 31, two weeks before the park’s season 

officially ended. And the concessioner—despite 

staying open for the full season, and re-opening 

Savage Camp to accommodate late-season visitors—reaped just $25,000 in gross revenues (a 

30 percent drop-off compared with 1938) and 

incurred higher-than-usual expenses associated 

with moving its camp buildings out to Camp 

Eielson.23

The Mount McKinley Tourist and Transportation 

Company, which had full control over tourist 

movements into and within the park prior to 

1939, was understandably upset that they were 

forced into a marginal position due to the new 

hotel’s presence. In light of Secretary Ickes’s 

opposition to the NPS’s concession system, and 

in recognition of the fact that a hotel at McKinley 

Park Station was an important part of a territorial development strategy, even if operated 

at a loss, Rep. Warren Magnuson (D-Wash.) 

submitted a bill (H.R. 4868) on March 8, 1939 

that amended the Alaska Railroad Act of March 

12, 1914 by authorizing the U.S. government, at 

Mount McKinley National Park, “to construct, 

reconstruct, maintain, and operate hotels, lodges, 

and other structures and appurtenances,” and 

also “to purchase ... the personal property, 

structures, and buildings of the Mount McKinley 

Tourist and Transportation Company” along with 

“motor-propelled passenger-carrying vehicles 

and all necessary fixtures and equipment.” Senator Homer Bone (D-Wash.) submitted an identical bill (S. 1785) less than a week later.24 Both 

bills were referred to their respective territorial 

committees, and in April, Interior Secretary Ickes 

wrote to the two committee chairs, explaining 

the bills and recommending that each be passed. 

Ickes noted that 

Virtually all park visitors arrived by 

train and could get to the McKinley

Park Hotel by a short walk. This view 

of the hotel shows the west side.

The hotel dormitory and powerhouse 

are to the left. Candy Waugaman 

Collection
Chapter Five: A Diversified Federal Presence, 1937-1945 91 

It has not been possible, after years 

of experimenting, to secure under 

present conditions that close cooperation in transportation facilities which 

is essential in encouraging travel to 

the park. Furthermore, it has been 

impossible for the National Park 

Service to interest sufficient capital in 

the development of satisfactory hotel 

and lodge facilities.... The enactment 

of this proposed legislation will, it is 

believed, result in additional revenues 

to the Government-owned Alaska 

Railroad, as well as the park, and will 

go far toward making Mount McKinley National Park one of increased 

travel by tourists...25

In early May, both committees passed the measures on to the full House and Senate, respectively. The only variation between the two measures, 

at this point, was a two-word amendment added 

to the House bill. Later that month, the full Senate considered S. 1785; when it got to the Senate 

floor, Senator Carl Hayden (D-Ariz.) stated 

that “The Alaska Railroad Co. [does] not have 

authority to take care of buildings off the rightof-way. This permits that to be done.” Given that 

explanation, the full Senate passed the bill and 

referred it back to the House.26 Later that year, 

however, dissident voices began to emerge. On 

July 6, Rep. Jesse Wolcott (R-Mich.) stated on 

the House floor that H.R. 4868 was “designed 

primarily to bail out the Mount McKinley Tourist 

and Transportation Company, which has made a 

failure of operating these services,” and he also 

noted that the bill offered no estimate of what it 

might cost to purchase the concessioner’s assets. 

Less than two weeks later, Rep. Robert Jones 

(R-Ohio) also debunked the notion that the bill 

(as suggested by Ickes’ letter) was “an effort to 

correlate train schedules with bus schedules;” instead, it was “for the obvious purpose of buying 

out the concessionaire’s equipment and goodwill 

after the United States has fulfilled its obligations 

under the terms of the contract.”27

The House refused to consider H.R. 4868 again 

until March 6, 1940. Recognizing that the bill 

was potentially contentious, the House leadership allowed several hours to discuss it. The 

leading advocate for the bill was Rep. Robert 

Green (D-Fla), while Rep. Robert Jones (R-Ohio) 

marshaled those who were militating against it. It 

was soon generally recognized that certain parts 

of the bill were vaguely worded or perhaps poorly written; in addition, the few House members 

who were familiar with the park area, and with 

Alaska more generally, quickly recognized that 

most Congressmen had wildly inaccurate notions 

about the territory and its problems.28 Those 

who advocated for the bill—most of whom, like 

Territorial Delegate Tony Dimond, were New 

Deal Democrats—recognized that the operation 

of a hotel, even if run at a deficit, was an important element in Alaska’s economic development. 

The purchase of the concession, moreover, was 

necessary in order to ensure a seamless, lowcost way to promote visitation to and through 

the park. But those who fought the bill—most 

of whom were Republicans—made it clear that 

the government should not be in the hotel business, and they further demanded that both the 

Alaska Railroad and the newly-opened hotel 

should either be run profitably or they should be 

discarded. Schuyler Bland (D-Va.) stated that “it 

Camp Eielson, at Mile 66 of the 

park road, offered overnight 

accommodations. Candy Waugaman 

Collection
92 Crown Jewel of the North: An Administrative History of Denali National Park and Preserve

is our duty to the people in that Territory to help 

build up and maintain and make that Territory 

which we have taken over,” and on a more specific level, Delegate Dimond noted that “it seems 

absurd that the Government should not operate 

the park facilities, particularly when it can do so 

at a profit.” But on the opposite side, Frederick 

Smith (R-Ohio) said, “For the life of me, I cannot 

understand, when our national finances today are 

threatening the well-being of our whole Nation, 

how men can stand in this House and defend an 

appropriation of this kind. I think it is a crime.” 

And Robert Rich (R-Pa.) stated that “I do not 

know of a hotel that the Government operates 

that is not going in the red and going in the red 

fast.”29

As to specific objections with the bill, it was 

generally recognized that there were two prime 

reasons for the proposed concessions purchase. 

One was that “the hotel and transportation 

should be under one management,” and because 

both the railroad and the hotel were operated 

by the Alaska Railroad, therefore the transportation and west-end lodging operations should be 

run by the government, too. Congressmen were 

particularly perturbed about the high cost of the 

existing bus trip: $25 to Camp Eielson and $35 

to Wonder Lake.30 Several representatives also 

expressed a general worry—given the opening of the McKinley Park Hotel less than a year 

earlier—that the government was in no position 

to support the construction of another hotel. 

(The original House bill, introduced in March 

1939, effectively sought permission for the Federal government to build a hotel in the park, but 

by March 1940 this argument was moot.) Rep. 

Warren Magnuson (D-Wash.), the bill’s sponsor, 

parried that the government had no interest in a 

second park hotel, only a “lodge” or “shelter” to 

upgrade the existing tents. His response, however, led various fiscally-conservative Congressmen 

to question whether there was an easily-defined 

difference between a hotel, lodge, and shelter.31 

In addition, Delegate Dimond and Rep. Magnuson noted that the concessioner’s assets totaled 

approximately $30,000 to $40,000. However, the 

bill provided no limit regarding the level of funds 

the government might pay to purchase those assets, and various bill opponents worried that this 

provision would provide a back-door avenue for 

a sky-is-the-limit government bailout of a marginally successful operation which was operating 

on a temporary basis after the expiration of its 

concessions contract.32

Given the nature of the debate and certain 

representatives’ obvious misgivings, Rep. Green 

offered an amendment that replaced the original 

bill with a one that omitted the term “hotels” and 

also omitted any reference to specific funds being 

obligated for the government’s purchase of the 

park concession. Rep. Jones then offered a new 

amendment that eliminated any reference to the 

construction and maintenance of “lodges and 

other structures.” That amendment was defeated, 70 to 59. Rep. Frank Keene (R-Wis.) then 

proposed an amendment that prevented the U.S. 

Treasury from spending more than $30,000 to 

purchase the park concession. That amendment 

passed, 81 to 54. The House next voted 95 to 43 

to use Rep. Green’s amended bill—not the original bill—as the primary vehicle to advance this 

legislation. Finally, on the overall House vote on 

whether to pass the overall legislation, an initial 

vote showed that the bill passed, 106 to 81. The 

closeness of the vote, however, prompted Rep. 

Henry Dworshak (R-Idaho) to “object to the vote 

on the ground there is not a quorum present.” A 

few minutes later, therefore, a roll call vote was 

The Mt. McKinley Tourist & 

Transportation Company owned a 

fleet of buses which provided visitor 

transportation into the park. DENA 

12-13, Denali National Park and 

Preserve Museum Collection
Chapter Five: A Diversified Federal Presence, 1937-1945 93 

taken, and Rep. Green’s bill passed, 173 to 170. 

This razor-thin margin was all the more remarkable considering that the Democratic party, at 

that time, held a commanding 262 to 169 majority 

in the House of Representatives.33

Eight days after the House passed H.R. 4868 

in its revised form, the Senate considered the 

matter. Millard Tydings (D-Md.), the head of 

the Committee of Territories and Insular Affairs, noted that the bill was “a very mild local 

measure for Alaska,” and he further stated that 

there was “practically no difference” between the 

recently-passed House bill and the S. 1785, which 

had passed the Senate in May 1939. Because 

“we have been urged to pass the bill at an early 

date ... I ask unanimous consent that the House 

bill be taken up and passed at this time.” The 

Senate complied.34 The bill was then sent on to 

President Roosevelt, who signed it on March 29, 

1940.35

The passage of H.R. 4868 paved the way for the 

Interior Department to purchase the concessioner’s assets and thus take over all concessions 

activities in Mount McKinley National Park. To 

effect the purchase, however, the government 

needed to appropriate the necessary $30,000, and 

the Interior Department appropriations bill for 

1941—which was approved in May 1940—failed 

to include funds for this purpose. A year later, 

the Department was similarly negligent. Lacking 

any other recourse, agency officials reacted by 

providing the concessioner with two more oneyear contract extensions.36

Park officials were clearly pleased with the “spirit 

of service” maintained by the longtime park 

concessioner and were hopeful that it would 

continue until such time as Congress appropriated the necessary buyout funds. The public, to 

even a greater extent than it had in 1939, showed 

a preference to board buses toward the western 

end of the park and to stay at Camp Eielson, and 

on “several occasions the accommodations at 

that camp were taxed to the limit, and not all visitors could secure accommodations there for the 

periods desired.” The railroad, as in 1939, closed 

the hotel in late August. As a result, the concessioner re-opened its dormant Savage Camp facility for a short-term period. Camp Eielson closed 

in early September, and Savage Camp a few days 

later.37

Operations in 1941 played out much as they had 

the previous year, with one exception. The park 

concessioner, sensing that there was an untapped 

market for Anchorage and Fairbanks residents 

“who would like to remain in the park but are 

unable to pay hotel rates,” offered “housekeeping 

accommodations” at Savage Camp throughout 

the summer. That June, however, the concessioner was informed that Congress had finally 

decided to purchase the company’s assets. During the season that followed, there were “overflow crowds” at Camp Eielson, as in previous 

years. But company officials, knowing that it was 

their last year, were in no mood to spend more 

than was absolutely necessary at the camp; as 

they noted in a letter to Supt. Been that April, 

they “agreed to operate this year ... on a cautious 

basis.” They would, moreover, “keep expenses 

down and ... be prepared to reduce operating expense whenever the outlook for business 

warrants.” So they skimped on many services; 

horses, for example, were not available to explore 

the more distant parts of the park. Although the 

Robert E. (Bobbie) Sheldon built the 

first automobile in Alaska in 1905, 

at Skagway. He drove the first auto 

over the Richardson Highway in 1913 

and operated a transportation line 

over that route. From 1925 to 1941 

he was a key figure as the manager 

of the Mt. McKinley Tourist & Transportation Company, accomplished at 

everything from entertaining park 

visitors to mending canvas tents. 

DENA 14-49, Denali National Park and 

Preserve Museum Collection
94 Crown Jewel of the North: An Administrative History of Denali National Park and Preserve

concessioner’s contract extension continued 

until January 31, 1942, its presence was effectively 

terminated on December 31, 1941, when the 

Alaska Railroad bought nearly all of the concessioner’s personal property for $22,044.99. (See 

Appendix D.) All that remained was for the 

purchase of the company’s Camp Eielson property; the government bought these items in the 

summer of 1942 for $2000.38

A key point of discussion during the Congressional debate over the government’s purchase of the 

park concession was the role of the Federal government in building and operating hotels, both 

within national parks in general and at Mount 

McKinley more specifically. As the March 1940 

Congressional debate made clear, the Federal 

government had built and operated hotels in 

West Virginia, Florida, Virgin Islands, and Panama, but its only other NPS hotel property was 

the Longmire Springs property in Mount Rainier 

National Park.39 Many in the Congress, primarily Republicans, were decidedly uncomfortable 

with the government being in the hotel business 

at Mount McKinley, and several noted that the 

bill held the door open for the construction of a 

second government-run hotel. As noted above, 

however, the House voted down an amendment 

that would have prevented any future hotelbuilding at the park.40 

During this period, Ernest Davidson of the NPS 

went ahead and developed detailed plans for a 

Wonder Lake hotel.41 The government’s decision to build the hotel at McKinley Park put any 

serious consideration of a west-end hotel on 

the back burner for several years, and the June 

1939 arrival of a new park superintendent, Frank 

Been, further slowed momentum. (In 1940, 

Been noted that the park’s greatest need was for 

“moderate accommodations and camp grounds,” 

not a “high priced hostelry ... planned for imminent construction with government funds.”42) 

That same year, however, the hotel gained a new 

champion, Governor Ernest Gruening, a frequent visitor who was clearly enthusiastic about 

the park’s economic potential.43 Working in 

In 1936, the Alaska Road Commission 

established a spur road from the main 

park road to a knoll south of Wonder 

Lake to access the site selected for 

hotel construction. Today that road 

provides access to the Wonder Lake 

Campground. Illustration by the 

author
Chapter Five: A Diversified Federal Presence, 1937-1945 95 

concert with Alaska Railroad officials, who were 

on the verge of taking over the park concession, 

Gruening worked to obtain Congressional funding for a hotel, and during the summer and fall 

of 1941, park officials were led to believe that the 

agency would build a lodge near Wonder Lake 

the following summer.44

The idea of a Wonder Lake hotel during this 

period was spotlighted, in part, because the park 

road had recently brought easy access to the 

west end of the park. As noted in Chapter 4, the 

Alaska Road Commission in 1936 had reacted 

to the NPS’s decision to build its west-end hotel 

on the knoll south of Wonder Lake by blading 

out a two-mile spur road to the proposed hotel 

site. Meanwhile, the ARC pushed forward with 

its overall road construction program. In 1937, 

crews opened up three more miles, to the park’s 

northern boundary, and by June 1938 a four-mile 

extension to the park road had been bladed out 

and graded as far as the old Eureka site, now 

known as Kantishna. (This last road segment 

was located on General Land Office land and 

thus not paid for by the NPS.) Finally, sixteen 

years after officials from the ARC and NPS had 

first proposed it, the road between McKinley 

Park Station and the Kantishna mining district 

was a reality. Building the road had cost the NPS 

some $1.1 million (see Appendix F), but everyone concerned felt that the money had been 

well spent. It had made major parts of the park 

accessible to the visiting public, and it also revivified the Kantishna mining district by making the 

area accessible to motor vehicles. Spurred on 

by impending road access, area miners roughed 

out a small airstrip on the right bank of Moose 

Creek just north of its confluence with Friday 

Creek. By the summer of 1939, park officials 

noted that there were ongoing improvements to 

“the Kantishna landing field and the construction 

of a spur road to it,” and the following year, ARC 

crews graded and widened the road terminus 

at the so-called “Moose Creek landing field.”45 

This 1,750-foot airfield was later known as the 

Quigley Airstrip because longtime miners Joe 

and Fannie Quigley owned the nearby Banjo gold 

mine, the Kantishna District’s largest producers 

during this period.46

Recognizing that road construction was over, 

ARC and NPS officials worked together to clean 

up the old ARC camps and cabins, to get rid 

of upturned tree stumps and similar roadside 

debris, and to smooth over various abandoned 

borrow pits. The completion of the road also 

meant that Road Commission officials were free 

to spend their annual allotments (funded by the 

NPS, as noted in Chapter 4) on post-construction work (widening and small realignments), 

regular maintenance (grading, clearing ditches, 

bridge and culvert work), and minor improvements (resurfacing and guard rail installation).47 

One of the Road Commission’s biggest jobs was 

opening the road each spring. Because the park 

did not officially open until June 10 from the 

1920s through the early 1940s, ARC crews were 

not under great pressure to clear off the road as 

early as possible each spring. This was especially 

true during the early years, when the park’s road 

mileage was small and the road did not cross the 

high passes. Even so, problems were often unavoidable. In 1924, when the road was built from 

Rock Creek up to the Hines Creek-Jenny Creek 

divide, road crews bladed out a section of road 

four miles west of McKinley Park Station only to 

discover that it was “too low and that the glaciering of the stream in winter will cover the road 

with ice.” In May 1927, the problem—caused by 

a series of small, all-weather springs—reasserted 

itself; as reported in the Seward Gateway, “some 

aggressive measures have been taken against the 

few glaciers which were blocking auto traffic on 

the park highway. At mile posts 3, 5 1⁄2 and 6 the 

Road Commission have had a gang of men with 

steam-points and dynamite for the last week...”. 

Karstens, in a report that month, further noted 

that “it is unanimously agreed that the only solution to this problem [of glacial mud and schist 

slides in this area] is to construct a log cribbing 

on the hillside and thereby retard the slow but 

By spring major snow drifts in certain 

places along the park road needed 

clearing, in order to provide access 

early in the summer. This was a top 

priority for the Alaska Road Commission crews. Hosler Collection, Denali 

National Park and Preserve Museum 

Collection
96 Crown Jewel of the North: An Administrative History of Denali National Park and Preserve

steady movement of that soft material in rainy 

weather and in the spring.”48 Beginning in 1930, 

Superintendent Liek’s monthly reports suggest 

that springtime glacier removal—which was 

at its worst just west of park headquarters but 

was also a problem elsewhere—was a concern 

almost every year until World War II. To contain 

the problem, ARC officials once suggested (but 

later rejected) “running the road up and around 

the glaciers at mile 3.” They later dug ditches 

on the north side of the road, tried to divert the 

water elsewhere, blasted away at the glaciers, 

and removed accumulating snow with a “snogo” 

or bulldozer. Despite these measures, none of 

which were entirely satisfactory, park officials 

were often skeptical in January or February that 

the glaciers would disappear before the tourists arrived. In almost all cases, however, their 

skepticism proved unfounded, and virtually no 

early-season tourists during this period—except 

perhaps in 1931 and 1933—were prevented from 

traveling the full length of the park road.49

The Civilian Conservation Corps and its 

Contributions

In the spring of 1937, even before the official 

announcement that the government would build 

a hotel at McKinley Park Station, park Superintendent Harry Liek received a visit from Robert 

Fechner, the head of the Civilian Conservation 

Corps.50 This organization—which was officially 

known for its first few years as the Emergency 

Conservation Work Organization (ECW), though 

popularly called the CCC—was one of President 

Roosevelt’s most popular New Deal relief-work 

programs, and at the time of Fechner’s visit, the 

four-year-old organization was a seemingly ubiquitous part of American life. It was also a boon 

to the National Park Service, which employed 

a broad range of technical experts that planned 

and helped execute various projects. Each year 

between 1933 and 1937, the CCC had operated 

several hundred camps in scattered locations 

across the country; many of these were based 

in NPS units, while others were located in state 

parks and other reserved areas. Under that arrangement, the program had been extended to 

the territories as well; by 1934 there were two 

ECW camps in Hawaii, and by 1936 there were 

two additional camps in the Virgin Islands.51 

Alaska, however, was out of step because CCC 

camps were normally operated by the War 

Department, and Alaska during the 1930s had a 

painfully small military contingent. To overcome 

that obstacle, the U.S. Forest Service’s Regional 

Forester for Alaska, Charles Flory, convinced 

President Roosevelt, in May 1933, to have the 

Forest Service take charge of all CCC activity 

in the territory including enrolling, clothing, 

housing, transportation, and project supervision. 

Under those conditions, Flory asked forester 

Charles F. Burdick to head the CCC program in 

Alaska, and by the end of 1934 the Forest Service 

had several camps in operation, with 325 men 

enrolled. Most of the camps were in Southeast 

Alaska, but small camps were also located in the 

Prince William Sound and Kenai Peninsula areas. 

Most of the Alaska projects, during this period, 

appear to have taken place on either the Tongass or Chugach national forests. As the decade 

wore on, the CCC got involved in work projects 

outside of the forest boundaries, and later in the 

decade the Corps got involved in projects in such 

diverse locations as Kotzebue, Nunivak Island, 

Galena, and Fairbanks.52

NPS Assistant Director Conrad Wirth, who had 

For two summers, 1938 and 1939, 

the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) 

camp at Mt. McKinley National Park 

housed a contingent of 200 enrollees 

and 12 supervisors. Ickes Collection, 

B75-175-294, Anchorage Museum of 

History & Art 
Chapter Five: A Diversified Federal Presence, 1937-1945 97 

headed the agency’s CCC work since early 1936, 

contacted regional officials and park authorities 

in early 1937 about the possibility of establishing 

a camp at McKinley Park that summer. Supt. 

Liek, in response, prepared a list of proposed 

projects, and it was initially hoped that there 

would be a camp established by May 15. That 

deadline, however, proved unrealistic. When 

Fechner, accompanied by Burdick, visited the 

park that June, an attempt was made to lay out 

a proposed program. The Corps, however, was 

unable to establish a camp that year because they 

were unable to secure enough Alaskans to staff 

the facility. Alaska, during this period, suffered 

an acute unemployment problem along with the 

rest of the country; the problem in Alaska, however, was a seasonal one, and few young Alaskan 

men were idle during the summertime.53

NPS officials redoubled their efforts and hoped 

that a CCC camp could be established the following spring. Those efforts proved successful. On 

April 24, 1938, the NPS’s Washington office announced that a 200-man CCC contingent would 

be arriving at the park in slightly over a month. 

The men were being recruited from Washington 

and Oregon, and their proposed tasks included 

“building two employee residences, moving 

dog kennels, telephone maintenance, trails and 

roads in the headquarters area, roadside cleanup, 

and cleanup and planting at the hotel project.” 

In response, Liek asked his chief ranger, Lou 

Corbley, to “supervise the clearing of a camp site 

for the CCC camp and building tent platforms.” 

Meanwhile, the contingent of men, which was 

headed by Project Manager Franklin G. Fox and 

11 other supervisors, assembled near Seattle and 

boarded the North Star, which was chartered for 

the occasion. It left Seattle on May 21. When 

the ship arrived in Seward five days later it was 

met by a special train, which brought the men 

to the park on May 29. They wasted no time in 

getting to work; Liek noted that “a tent camp was 

established immediately and the work of erecting 

knock-down buildings and establishing a permanent CCC camp was well under way within 48 

hours after arrival of the company at the Park.” 

Owing to its location in the park, the camp was 

dubbed Company NP-1.54

During June camp construction continued, and 

by the end of the month a number of prefabricated “knock down buildings” were completed, 

including headquarters buildings, infirmary, 

mess hall, enrollees’ bath house and recreation 

hall. Throughout the process, Supt. Liek gave the 

contingent “very fine cooperation and extended 

the use of all the facilities at this disposal in getting the camp organized.” The ARC was similarly 

helpful. Given the short lag time for the planning 

and construction process, inevitable problems surfaced: initial paychecks were delayed, 

and many construction materials and supplies 

arrived so late that camp leaders had to borrow them from the NPS or ARC until the CCC 

could replenish their stocks.55 But the camp ran 

smoothly; the Project Manager reported that it 

“had no accidents involving automotive equipment, exceptionally few lost time accidents to 

enrollees, ... the general health of the company 

has been good, camp discipline was maintained 

without company punishment [and] the majority 

of enrollees in key positions gave excellent work 

performances.”56 Toward the end of summer, 

camp activities began to wind down. Almost half 

of the camp headed south in September, and 

most of the remaining personnel left on October 

9. The last contingent, 30 enrollees and 5 supervisors, vacated the park on November 3.57 

During their extended summer in the park, the 

men had accomplished a great deal. Major projects included the construction of two employee 

The CCC arrived at McKinley Park 

with their own camp, including 

several hard-sided buildings, tents for 

sleeping quarters, and materials for 

utility systems. DENA 4685, Denali 

National Park and Preserve Museum 
98 Crown Jewel of the North: An Administrative History of Denali National Park and Preserve

residential buildings, now known as buildings 12 

and 13. In addition, CCC crews moved the site 

of the dog kennels from the camp’s eastern edge 

to its present-day location; as part of that project, 

it moved the various buildings comprising the 

park’s dog kennels. The men also did minor road 

work in the headquarters area, constructed water 

and sewer lines, did landscaping work around 

the park hotel (which was under construction 

at the time), and wrote an educational guide for 

the park. Because “there is need of development 

work here which will keep a 200-man CCC Company busy for several years,” both NPS and CCC 

officials agreed that the camp should operate 

again the following summer, and “to expedite the 

completion to needed development,” the CCC 

camp chief hopefully noted that “arrangements 

should be made for an additional company” [i.e., 

a second CCC facility in the park] as soon as 

feasible.” Supt. Liek admitted that the CCC was 

an excellent way to underwrite park development projects, inasmuch as “we have found it 

difficult to secure appropriations for construction 

through the regular appropriations.” The goal 

of the CCC’s park development program, Liek 

averred, was to “provide facilities here at Mount 

McKinley that will compare favorably with the 

standards of the Service as represented in our 

parks in the States.”58

Liek, hopeful that the camp would return the 

following year, visited the agency’s regional office 

in December to discuss plans for the continuing 

construction program. On February 15, 1939, 

agency officials in Washington announced that 

Company NP-1 would again operate “on the 

same general basis as last summer,” and in order 

to avoid the supply problems encountered in 

1938, regional and park officials were advised to 

act quickly. Plans called for the CCC contingent 

to leave Seattle on the North Star in early April—

two months earlier than the previous year.59 Liek 

spent most of March “completing plans for the 

CCC summer program” in conjunction with 

regional-office staff. A month later, knowing 

that Franklin Fox would not be part of the group 

that left Seattle, Liek accompanied the men on 

the way north to the park. The contingent—193 

men and 12 supervisors—arrived at McKinley 

Park Station on April 14. Initial work centered 

on camp repairs and gearing up for the summer’s 

operation.60

Fox arrived in mid-May, and the CCC program, 

according to park officials, was “well under way 

by the end of the month.” Major projects that 

summer included the construction of a garage 

for the superintendent’s residence, a reinforcedconcrete machine shop and garage in the 

headquarters area, and a ranger station near the 

park boundary at the west end of the park road. 

Crews also erected 41 miles of new “metallic telephone line” between the railroad and Sable Pass, 

on single vertical poles, to replace the tripodbased line built nine years earlier. Minor projects 

included work on a hotel-area road, landscaping 

at the hotel, and work on drainage ditches, sewer 

and water lines, and underground utility lines.61 

The camp that year was enlivened by at least one 

dance, and several editions of a camp newspaper, called The Gold Pan, were published in June 

and July. But the camp that summer had its dark 

side, too; several supervisors complained that 

the personal appearance of the enrollees was not 

satisfactory, the camp was unclean, and the tents 

were in poor condition. Camp management 

also came in for its share of criticism; in August, 

park superintendent Been investigated “certain 

alleged irregularities in the operation of the CCC 

camp.”62 Been was also alarmed to hear, in midIn the park headquarters area, the 

CCC constructed two single-family 

employee dwellings, now duplex 

apartments known as buildings 12 

and 13. Beatrice Herning Collection, 

Denali National Park and Preserve 

Museum Collection
Chapter Five: A Diversified Federal Presence, 1937-1945 99 

summer, of the “abandonment of the camp earlier than planned due to possible lack of funds.” 

The camp, in fact, closed earlier than in 1938; the 

last enrollees left the park on September 29.63

During the summer of 1939, NPS personnel 

bravely began the process of preparing justification statements for CCC work to take place 

in 1940. It was hoped that “we shall make the 

NPS appear in material aspect entitled to be the 

guardian of the grandest mountain spectacle in 

North America;” more specifically, their efforts 

would “be used to improve facilities for visitors 

and provide civilized living and working conditions for Park Service employees.” (This was 

consistent with the park’s six-year plan, approved 

in 1938, that called for $568,000 to be spent on “a 

museum, hospital, shops, employees’ residences, 

ranger stations, trails, and highway improvement.”)64 That November, Superintendent Been 

applied to his superiors to fund the camp for a 

third consecutive year. The following March, 

however, his application was rejected due to “the 

high cost of sending a camp to McKinley.”65 In 

September 1940, Franklin Fox arrived at the park 

and shipped most of the CCC’s equipment off to 

Fairbanks and Anchorage; all that remained were 

“two trucks, a pick-up and an unusable tractor” 

along with an abandoned camp area. Governor Gruening, who visited the park a month 

later, urged NPS staff to try again for a CCC 

contingent. Authorities, however, responded 

that “operation costs in Alaska are too high,” a 

factor that was aggravated by the need to bring in 

Outside labor.66 By January 1942, it was obvious that the CCC era at the park had come to a 

close, and given that state of affairs, all remaining equipment that had once belonged to the 

CCC was given to the park. That July, Congress 

announced the CCC’s liquidation, and in the 

months to follow, the NPS closed up its books 

related to the McKinley park operation. All that 

remained of the once-bustling CCC camp was 

just five widely-spaced wooden buildings: a mess 

hall along with a garage, storage building, bath 

house and photography lab.67

Inholding Consolidations

As noted in Chapter 4, the 1932 extension of the 

park boundaries brought with it a large number 

of parcels for which the federal government did 

not have a clear title. Some acreage had already 

been deeded to private individuals, while in 

other cases, claimants were only part of the way 

through the land acquisition process or had little 

more than squatters’ rights. In order to clear up 

the confusion, particularly as it applied to the 

McKinley Park Station area, the General Land 

Office brought in a special agent to investigate the 

veracity of the various questionable or unresolved claims. The agent quickly eliminated the 

legal basis for several of these claims, and only 

one of the twelve claims investigated—that of fox 

farmer Duke E. Stubbs—resulted in a land patent. 

(Stubbs received his patent in April 1933, before 

the GLO investigator completed his report.) 

One other claimant—John Stephens, who had a 

133.76-acre parcel that surrounded the Windy 

railroad station—was also awarded a land patent 

during the same period, on February 9, 1933.68 

When the park took an inventory of its property 

The CCC crews relocated the park’s 

dog kennels and associated feed and 

equipment storage building. Ickes 

Collection, B75-175-295, Anchorage 

Museum of History & Art
100 Crown Jewel of the North: An Administrative History of Denali National Park and Preserve

in the fall of 1938, there were 

still eight parcels in the park 

that were either owned by private parties or were still in the 

adjudication process. Three of 

those parcels—Edward Shannon’s 160-acre tract, Logan 

Varnell’s 15-acre tract, and W. 

A. Baker’s 5-acre tract—were 

never patented.69 But private 

citizens owned the other five. 

Three of those parcels—Maurice Morino’s 120-acre tract, 

Duke Stubbs’s 35-acre tract, 

and Dan Kennedy’s 5-acre tract—were in the 

McKinley Park Station area. John Stephens, as 

noted above, owned a large parcel at the southeastern corner of the park, and Paula Anderson 

owned a 160-acre tract just north of Wonder 

Lake. The NPS’s regional director, as part of 

his request for the property inventory, admitted 

that “I do not know that there is any possibility of obtaining funds for the acquiring of these 

holdings.” Agency policy, however, had long 

called for the acquisition of private lands in the 

parks, so officials did what they could to induce 

landowners to either donate or sell their parcels 

to the Park Service.70

As a result, NPS officials carried on intermittent 

correspondence with each of the five landowners or their designees.71 The correspondence 

files show that most of the inholders threw 

roadblocks into the appraisal process by claiming 

that the park had impinged on either current or 

potential commercial activities. As a result, the 

owners claimed that the government owed them 

money, and several petitioned to Delegate Tony 

Dimond for Congressional bills that authorized 

compensation.72 To complicate matters, at least 

one of those owners refused to sell at any price. 

As a result, some of these cases dragged on for 

more than 20 years.

The first to be resolved involved Paula Anderson’s Wonder Lake property, which had been 

patented on August 1, 1930. In early 1938, Mrs. 

Anderson asked the government to buy her out, 

noting that the “new addition to Mt. McKinley 

National Park ... deprived us of our livelihood 

[as fox farmers] and trap line, and we were compelled to move from there.” She further noted 

that “our home is destroyed” and there had been 

“the annihilation of all my personal property 

under the mismanagement of Mr. Leak [sic].”73 

Anderson hoped to reap a windfall similar to that 

which had been awarded to the Stubbs in the 

recent Court of Claims ruling, and in April 1940, 

The CCC Mess Hall was one of those 

wooden buildings which became park 

property after the CCC camp closed. 

It remains in use today as a recreation 

facility in the NPS seasonal housing 

area. DENA 4-24, Denali National 

Park and Preserve Museum Collection

Paula Anderson received a patent to 

her Wonder Lake-area land claim in 

1930. Ten year after her homestead 

was included in the 1932 park boundary extension, her land claims were 

finally settled. B00-7-39, Anchorage 

Museum of History & Art
Chapter Five: A Diversified Federal Presence, 1937-1945 101 

Delegate Dimond submitted a bill (H.R. 9353) 

to advance her case to that court. The Interior 

Department, however, opposed Dimond’s 

bill. During this period, it was revealed that the 

Andersons had moved from the park well in 

advance of any activity related to the 1932 park 

extension, and that they had also broken territorial game laws by feeding wild game to their 

foxes. Mrs. Anderson then signed an option to 

sell the property for $3120. That option expired, 

however. 

Not long afterward, the Public Works Administration proposed an unidentified project in the 

vicinity of Anderson’s property; $10,000 was 

allotted for this project, and the property was 

considered sufficiently important to institute 

condemnation proceedings (a “declaration of 

taking”) against the property. By April of 1941 

that declaration had been completed and a U.S. 

Attorney in Fairbanks petitioned to condemn the 

tract. Meanwhile, Dimond—based on guidance 

provided by Interior Department officials—submitted a new bill asking that the government provide Anderson a direct $3000 payment. That bill 

(H.R. 327) was introduced in January 1941, and 

on April 1 the House passed it. A month later, a 

Senate committee reduced the award to $2,500. 

The full Senate passed the bill on May 15, the 

House quickly agreed to the Senate’s changes, 

and President Roosevelt signed the bill on May 

28.74 Nine months later, in February 1942, a 

Fairbanks federal court jury awarded $1600 in 

conjunction with the taking. Two months after 

that, on April 9, the court in Fairbanks completed 

its condemnation proceeding; it awarded Anderson $800 for her parcel, and title transferred to 

the U.S. government.75

Other Park Operations, 1937-1941

Although construction related to the hotel, the 

park road, and CCC activities were major park 

activities during the late 1930s and early 1940s, 

park officials also did their best to carry out a 

broad range of more traditional duties: protecting the park’s wildlife, building and maintaining cabins and ancillary structures, purchasing 

relevant inholding properties, 

and improving visitor services. 

As shall be seen, life at the park 

during this period proved topsy-turvy for virtually everyone, 

and in the midst of this change, 

the traditional “cabins and 

snowshoes” atmosphere was 

largely subsumed by lifeways 

considered more modern and 

experimental.

First, the completion of the 

park road meant that officials needed to maintain a presence just inside the park boundary in 

the Wonder Lake area. Back in the fall of 1933, 

they had chosen a site for a ranger station at the 

“north or Kantishna entrance,” but recognizing 

that road construction was several years off, NPS 

officials (as noted in Chapter 4) erected a cabin 

along Moose Creek in either 1935 or 1936.76 In 

June 1939, shortly after the road was completed, 

agency staff revisited the area and concluded, 

regretfully, that the optimum site for the ranger 

station was on land still owned by Paula Anderson.77 Soon afterward, they picked out a site on 

high ground east of Wonder Lake, and in midJuly, a CCC crew established a “stub camp” and 

started excavating a basement. After a whirlwind summer of construction, Been reported in 

September that “this fine, thoroughly insulated 

house” was complete except for exterior painting. Been later reported that “the house stood 

up well” that winter, but “as soon as the surface 

thawed and allowed the building to settle, defects 

and weaknesses” such as leaning, sagging, and 

curling became apparent. The first ranger lived 

there in the winters of 1939-40 and 1940-41, but 

no one used it as a summertime residence during 

this period.78

Meanwhile, previously-established cabins toward 

the western end of the park were utilized during 

this period to combat game violators. Trapping 

in this area, in all probability, had been going on 

for quite some time, but the NPS’s new awareness of the problem was due to the rangers’ 

easier access to the area, and also because Alaska 

Game Commission agents, who occasionally flew along the park boundary and spotted 

questionable activities, cooperated with NPS 

authorities.79 Trapping in the area may also have 

increased because more people now lived in the 

newly-accessible Kantishna area. Evidence of 

trapping was discovered in early 1938 when rangers located a series of traplines inside the park 

boundary as they trekked west from Wonder 

Lake to Slippery Creek. These traplines, which 

harvested marten, were laid out, in all probability, by longtime Slippery Creek resident Hjalmar 

The Civilian Conservation Corps built 

the five-room, frame construction 

Wonder Lake Ranger Station during 

the summer of 1939. Beginning the 

next season, there were many structural problems with the building and 

it was difficult to heat in the winter, 

but the view, looking out over Wonder Lake to Mt. McKinley, was superb. 

DENA 6-6.5, Denali National Park and 

Preserve Museum Collection
102 Crown Jewel of the North: An Administrative History of Denali National Park and Preserve

“Slim” Carlson. In response, NPS rangers fixed 

up an old cabin on Birch Creek and used it as an 

ad hoc base camp for patrols; this action caused 

Carlson to move his traplines north to areas 

outside of the park.80 In both 1938 and 1939, 

rangers patrolled the boundary between Wonder 

Lake and Moose Creek in response to the Game 

Commission’s decision to have an open season 

on beaver in the Kantishna area.81 At Horseshoe Lake, near McKinley Park Station, rangers 

nabbed Carl Rozansky of Ferry in the midst of a 

beaver-harvesting operation. NPS officials were 

pleased to note that when the case was tried by 

C. C. Heid, the U.S. Commissioner in Nenana, 

Rozansky was assessed both a $100 fine and a 30-

day jail sentence. This was an obvious indication 

that territorial authorities were willing to clamp 

down on wildlife violators.82

Symptomatic of the park’s changing conditions 

was the introduction of new communications 

technologies. As noted above, park personnel had built a telephone line along the park 

road starting in the mid-1920s, and the line 

was extended west along with the road to allow 

communications between NPS, concessions, 

and ARC personnel. By the early 1930s the line 

reached all the way to the Mount Eielson area, 

and in 1939, CCC crews built a new, vertical-pole 

line between McKinley Park Station and Sable 

Pass. Due to the lack of a CCC camp in 1940, the 

line west of Sable Pass remained a tripod-based 

affair.83 Meanwhile, however, the NPS opted to 

use radio telephones as well. In early 1938 the 

park received two 50-watt sets and installed one 

in the superintendent’s office. It was originally 

intended to have the other hauled out to the 

Moose Creek Ranger Station, but given the flurry 

of CCC construction, the second 50-watt set was 

instead installed at the new Wonder Lake Ranger 

Station in the fall of 1939. A third, portable set, 

also in place in 1939, was for use on dog-sled 

ranger patrols. Park officials hoped, of course, 

that the three sets would considerably ease 

communications between headquarters and the 

field.84 Reality, however, proved problematic; 

the superintendent often complained about the 

“almost total uselessness of the park radios,” and 

in the spring of 1941 the park saw fit to augment 

its radio-system capabilities by purchasing a new 

receiver.85

A more obvious and visible change at the park 

centered on its dog teams. Throughout the 

1930s, dog teams had been virtually the only 

way in which rangers, in wintertime, reached the 

more distant parts of the park; they were a proven lifeline in emergency situations and were consistently popular with park visitors. Elsewhere in 

Alaska, however, dog teams were quickly being 

replaced by airplanes and motor vehicles, and by 

1936, Superintendent Liek admitted that because 

“the mail delivery by dogteam in most sections 

have been discontinued, ... dogs have become 

scarce and difficult to purchase.” Superintendent Been, shortly after his arrival in June 1939, 

noted that “dog sleds typify McKinley winter 

travel. The method is exhilarating, interesting 

and romantic but practically obsolete in Alaska” 

and further noted that snowshoes—not dog 

teams—were the “conventional mode for winter 

patrol in most national parks.”86 Late in 1940, 

Been stated that “consideration is being given 

to the elimination of dog team patrols except 

to the most remote places of the park. Perhaps 

there airplane [travel] will be more economical, 

certainly more effective, than dog team travel. 

... The money and time given to dog care may 

thereby be devoted to foot patrolling.” As the 

winter wore on, Been’s position became more 

District Ranger John Rumohr, seen 

here using his portable radio telephone, was stationed at the newly 

completed Wonder Lake Ranger 

Station for 2 winters beginning in 

1939-40. Beatrice Herning Collection, 

Denali National Park and Preserve 
Chapter Five: A Diversified Federal Presence, 1937-1945 103 

entrenched; he noted that “dog teams are not 

necessary for patrols where cabins are reasonably close” and “that the sled dogs may be more 

liability than asset for patrol work except on extended trips.” He recommended foot patrols in 

most cases. By April of 1941, Been remarked that 

“reduction of kennels is being made by culling 

the dark dogs, leaving about 2 teams of the light 

colored animals which are beautiful dogs weighing 100 pounds or more.” A follow-up letter that 

July noted that the park had “kept those of light 

colors, rounded heads, erect ears, masked, and 

plume tails.” Been decided to keep only sufficient dogs for longer patrols and for interpretive 

demonstration purposes.87 Within the next year 

or two, the remaining park dogs were taken away; 

longtime employee Bill Nancarrow noted that 

the military used them as part of various troop 

deployments.88

The change of superintendents, from Harry Liek 

to Frank Been, had significant impacts on the 

other park staff. As was suggested earlier, Liek 

had a fairly laissez faire management style; he 

gave considerable independence to his rangers, 

and there was by all accounts an easygoing camaraderie among the park staff. Liek, however, was 

ousted in the spring of 1939 following reports—

dating from the previous August—of gambling, 

drinking, and a lack of discipline among park 

supervisors.89 He was transferred to Wind Cave 

National Park in South Dakota. Been, by contrast, was totally different. Although his last posting was in San Francisco, where he had served as 

an assistant to Regional Director Frank Kittredge, 

he had previously worked at Sequoia National 

Park, where he was a disciple of Col. John White, 

the longtime superintendent and former Army 

officer.90 But unlike his predecessors, who came 

from the traditional ranger ranks, Been was a naturalist and a forestry-school graduate. The park, 

by this time, had hired several short-term or seasonal ranger-naturalists, and interpretation was 

considered part of a jack-of-all-trades ranger’s 

duties. Been’s style, however, set him apart from 

the other park staff—he issued frequent memos 

to his staff as “a guide to the Superintendent’s 

practices and methods of administration”—and 

several tragic gaffes during the early part of his 

superintendency did little to endear him to his 

subordinates.91 Moreover, Been—who was the 

NPS’s primary Alaska representative92—was gone 

from the park for much of the summer in 1939, 

1940 and 1941 on inspection trips related to 

proposed or existing parks. These long absences 

were necessary because Washington officials 

demanded them; even so, they rankled park employees because it resulted in an increased workload for the remaining park staff.93 Longtime 

park employee Grant Pearson, who briefly served 

as his chief ranger, found him authoritarian, 

exacting, humorless, and rigid; after months of 

trying, he concluded that “I guess there are some 

people you just can’t seem to get along with.” 

Been, in turn, thought that Pearson was a “good 

man” but “requires a helluvalot of development 

for administrative work,” and he fought against 

promoting him.94 Soon after arriving, Been 

recognized that low morale was a problem. He 

felt that the problem, in part, was due to difficult 

employees (“the transfer of families or individuals that do not fit into the community may be 

necessary”), but he also felt that families fit into 

the isolated environment better than bachelors. 

He was hampered, however, because there were 

no available quarters for married employees.95

The problem of low morale was aggravated by a 

Frank Been, fourth from left, arrived at Mt. McKinley National Park 

as Superintendent in 1939. Chief 

Ranger Lou Corbley, fifth from left, 

and Ranger John Rumohr, second 

from right, had been rangers for at 

least a decade. DENA 27-11.2, Denali 

National Park and Preserve Museum 
104 Crown Jewel of the North: An Administrative History of Denali National Park and Preserve

fire that destroyed Superintendent Been’s house 

on the morning of October 23, 1939. An investigation showed that the fire began in the nineyear-old house because of a faulty chimney flue; 

it spread quickly because the house was “tinder 

dry” from constant heating, and it consumed 

the entire house because the nearest fire-fighting 

equipment was two miles away at McKinley Park 

Station. The adjacent garage, which had been 

completed just a month earlier, was also damaged, though not seriously. Frank and Lorraine 

Been, who lost most of their possessions, moved 

into the rangers’ dormitory for the time being; 

soon afterward, Mrs. Been moved to Anchorage. 

Meanwhile, Delegate Dimond agreed to petition 

Congress for about $6,000 in loss-related compensation, but the claim was unsuccessful.96

During the following months, the remaining 

women living in the headquarters area sought 

to bolster morale by forming the nucleus of the 

park’s first-ever women’s club; the five-member 

club socialized on a weekly basis.97 But Lacie 

Janes, the wife of the park clerk Gerald Janes, 

broke the peace when she accused the Beens of 

a variety of charges including arson, insurance 

fraud, and narcotics possession. The following 

March, two Interior Department special agents, 

Robert O’Brien and John Mealy, visited the park 

and investigated these charges. In mid-April the 

two men concluded that friction between Lacie 

Janes and Lorraine Been, and between Gerald 

Janes and the Superintendent, had probably led 

to the Janes’ allegations, and that the Beens “in 

no way acted improperly.” Both the fire and 

the subsequent investigation, however, took a 

heavy toll at the park, both on park staff and their 

families.98

In response to the fire, Been requested funds 

for the construction of a new superintendent’s 

house. That request was disapproved. Sufficient 

funds existed, however, to 

erect an employee’s residence 

and to repair the damage to 

the superintendent’s garage. 

Despite the lack of a CCC 

contingent (which had built two 

other headquarters residences 

in 1938) and the difficulty of 

procuring other labor due to 

military construction projects 

elsewhere in Alaska, work on 

the structure—located well 

away from the former superintendent’s residence—was 

“proceeding satisfactorily” 

during the summer of 1940. The exterior of 

the structure was completed in June 1941. That 

summer, Been decided that he and his family 

commented that “Indications point to a nearly 

denuded organization.” Indeed, during June and 

July of that year, Superintendent Been and ranger 

John Rumohr constituted the entire park staff.103 

Anticipating the loss of men, Been stated in 

March 1942 that “an innovation at McKinley appears destined to occur as women will probably 

have to be employed.” His hunch soon became 

reality, because that July the first woman began 

working at the park: clerk-stenographer Raye 

Ann Ayers. Ms. Ayers later rose to the principal 

clerk’s position and remained at the park, off and 

on, for most of the decade.104

The war’s most dramatic impact on the park was 

in visitation; the number of recreational visitors 

dropped from 1,688 in 1941 to virtually nothing. Because of Alaska’s strategic location (and 

because of its defense vulnerabilities), General 

John L. DeWitt of the War Department’s Western 

Defense Command declared Alaska off-limits 

to tourist travel in mid-December 1941, and all 

travel to and from the territory was placed under 

military control for the duration of the war. During this period, Alaska residents were welcome to 

visit Mount McKinley National Park, but all park 

facilities were either closed or were open on a 

do-it-yourself basis. Given those conditions, and 

the strict rationing that prevailed on the residents 

of Alaska (as well as elsewhere), fewer than forty 

recorded non-military visitors entered the park 

between 1942 and 1945, inclusive.105

At Mount McKinley, the staff reacted to Pearl 

Harbor much as others did throughout the 

country; it instituted a blackout at the park headquarters and posted round-the-clock guards on 

various railroad bridges. Those measures lasted 

only until January 1942. That same month, park 

staff made perhaps an obvious decision, “not to 

open the ... hotel nor to operate the bus service 

and other visitors’ accommodations.” Given that 

choice, the park was cast adrift from many of its 

usual roles and duties.106

Due to a faulty chimney flue, the superintendent’s house was destroyed 

by fire on October 23, 1939. To the 

left of the burning house can be seen 

the superintendent’s garage, which 

had been completed by the CCC just 

a month before. DENA 8-27, Denali 

National Park and Preserve Museum 

Collection 
Chapter Five: A Diversified Federal Presence, 1937-1945 105 

would occupy the new structure; due to staff and 

budgetary cutbacks, however, Been’s family did 

not move in until late March 1943.99 Superintendents and their families continued to live there 

on a year-round basis for another fifty years.100

Also under construction during this period were 

the first park trails. In the summer of 1940, just a 

year after the hotel threw open its doors, an ARC 

crew carved out a 1.5-mile trail from the hotel to 

Horseshoe Lake. The following summer, rangers 

commenced work on a 6-mile trail leading from 

the hotel to “Yanert Lakes” (later known as Triple 

Lakes). By the close of the 1941 season, however, 

the trail was only about half done, and not until 

1944 was it reported to be completed and in good 

condition.101

World War II: the Army Gets Involved

The Japanese attack at Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941 had a jarring effect on the national 

parks, as it did on virtually all aspects of national 

life. Virtually overnight, funds from domestic 

agencies were funneled into the 

war effort, and employees from 

throughout the civil service 

joined the armed forces. At the 

National Park Service, the overall budget dropped from $14.6 

million in fiscal year 1942 down 

to just $5.5 million a year later, 

and the parks, in the words 

of Director Newton Drury, 

operated on a “protection and 

maintenance basis.” The fall in 

the agency’s human capital was 

just as precipitous; the number 

of permanent full-time employees dropped more 

than two-thirds in just 19 months, from 5,963 just 

before Pearl Harbor to just 1,974 in June 1943. 

The number of visitors fell, too; overall visitation to NPS units plummeted from 21.2 million 

in 1941 to 6.8 million two years later. As part of 

the overall war effort, the Washington offices of 

the NPS, along with those of other non-defense 

agencies, moved to Chicago’s Merchandise 

Mart.102

These national trends had varying degrees of 

impact on Mount McKinley National Park. The 

park budget, for example, was reduced by only 

about one-third, from $29,970 in fiscal year 1940 

to $20,450. (See Appendices B and C.) The lack 

of a greater cut was primarily because the park 

served several valuable wartime functions, as 

will be seen below. As was true in many parks, 

Mount McKinley lost a number of employees 

to military service; the overall permanent staff 

dropped from eight to five. Staff reductions were 

felt most keenly in the spring of 1942, when Been 

The military, meanwhile, recognized that the 

park could provide two major ways to aid the 

country’s overall war effort: as a site to test equipment for winter use, particularly in mountainous 

areas, and as a recreation site for soldiers, sailors, 

and airmen. Both ideas had been broached 

well before the U.S. entered the war. In January 1941, U.S. Air Corps Lt. Jack Marks was the 

first to use the park to test winter clothing for 

soldiers. Marks, a former Yosemite ranger who 

was stationed at newly-established Ladd Field, 

took dog teams into the park as part of his testing 

regimen.107

Just a month later, in February 1941, military 

officials first broached the idea of the park as a 

recreation site. Brigadier General Simon Bolivar 

Buckner, Jr., who headed the Alaska Defense 

Force (and was thus in charge of Alaska’s entire 

military effort), arrived at park headquarters 

with Colonel John Hood, who commanded the 

newly-established Fort Richardson in Anchorage, and Lt. Col. William Bray. The three officers 

discussed with Been various locations for 

soldiers’ recreation camps, noting that “lack of 

recreation for soldiers in Alaska contributes to 

the seriousness of the morale problem.” The officers showed an obvious interest in establishing 

a camp at the park, but because the camps were 

intended to be permanent, Been suggested other 

locations, and more specifically Iliamna Lake.108 

That June, Bray and Hood showed a specific 

interest in having the Alaska Defense Command 

use the recently-abandoned Savage River Camp 

concessions facility for the summer. A lack of appropriations nixed that idea for the time being.109 

That fall, Buckner spent three days in the park 

with Been, and together they worked out a massive recreation-camp scheme which proposed 

sufficient recreation facilities to care for a large 

contingent of soldiers. The two men’s plans, 

however, differed significantly. Been envisioned 

200 men in the park each ten days, and to accommodate them he recommended the construction 

of a large, year-round central camp at Savage 

No federal funds were available to 

reconstruct the superintendent’s 

house in its former location, but an 

employee residence in another location had been funded. The funded 

building has been the home of park 

superintendents ever since. DENA 

7-40, Denali National Park and Preserve Museum Collection 
106 Crown Jewel of the North: An Administrative History of Denali National Park and Preserve

River; 30 well-stocked cabins, to be built along 

the park road; 50 Adirondack-style log shelters, 

to be scattered in the backcountry; a 15-mile 

road between Wonder Lake and the Clearwater 

Creek-McGonagall Pass area; 55 miles of new 

telephone line; a new landing field at McKinley Park Station; plus horses, busses, and camp 

equipment. Developing the scheme would cost 

$531,500, to be paid through the Defense Public 

Works office.110 Buckner, however, wanted a 

camp for 500 men, most of whom would stay in 

a large camp located “in the valley south of the 

McKinley River and commanding a view of the 

foothills of Mt. McKinley.”111 Been, apparently 

uncomfortable with Buckner’s idea, “inspected 

the south side of Mount McKinley to the extent 

that was accessible by automobile from Talkeetna” in search of military recreational sites. 

Buckner, along with Alaska Governor Ernest 

Gruening, held fast to having a camp within the 

park boundaries; agency officials in Washington, 

however, turned that request down.112 The Pearl 

Harbor bombing, not surprisingly, caused Been 

to look more favorably toward hosting a military 

presence; in February 1942, for instance, he 

said that “there must be an opportunity for the 

NPS to freshen peoples’ lives and offer a relief 

from the satiation of war.” But in an ironic role 

reversal, Buckner lost interest; that April, he 

notified Been that the park would not be used for 

soldier recreation during the war because it was 

too distant from the various military bases. For 

the time being, Bucker indicated that the military 

would concentrate its recreational development 

within and near existing bases. NPS officials in 

Washington also were cool to the idea; they had 

no problem with development at McKinley Park 

Station, Savage Camp, and Wonder Lake, but 

they advised against extending “our existing road 

westward or beyond Wonder Lake.”113

No sooner had the recreation-center idea been 

discarded, however, than the Army announced 

that it would be conducting an extended expedition in the park. The U.S. Army Alaskan Testing 

Expedition, organized at Ladd Field, arrived at 

the park on June 12; though organized by the 

Army’s Quartermaster’s Corps, supporters and 

coordinators included the Army Air Forces, the 

Medical Corps and Signal Corps, the Canadian 

Army and the Royal Canadian Air Force. Included in the group was Bradford Washburn, a Bostonian who, six years earlier, had become familiar 

with the high Alaska Range during an extended 

aerial reconnaissance; he was now a civilian consultant assigned to Office of the Quartermaster 

General as an expert on cold-weather clothing 

and survival.114 NPS staff drove the 17-member 

contingent, led by Lt. Col. Frank Marchman and 

ment “donation” by salvaging what the Army left 

behind at its base camp.115

Late in 1942, the Army reconsidered its earlier 

decision regarding the usability of park land as 

a recreation site. In November, Been reported 

“indications that the army will utilize the McKinley Park Hotel,” although soldiers would not 

be arriving before spring. A month later, representatives of the Army, Navy, NPS, and various 

concessions groups attended a meeting, in which 

“the matter of national park concession facilities 

[throughout the country] being made available 

as rest camps” was discussed. Shortly afterward, 

the Army followed the Navy’s lead and assumed 

control over concessions facilities in seven park 

units; Mount McKinley, however, was the only 

park nationwide in which the concessions facilities were used for recreational purposes. Major 

General Simon Buckner, U.S.A. worked together 

with Major General William O. Butler of the Air 

Force to lease the facility from Col. Otto Ohlson 

of the Alaska Railroad.116

On-the-ground activity began in late December 

1942, when Capt. George Hall of the Army’s 

Special Services Division arrived in the park “to 

study the situation and to formulate plans.” He 

stated that between 150 and 200 men would “be 

in constant attendance” and would be at the park 

on seven-day furloughs. Initial predictions called 

for the first men to arrive in February. Inevitable 

delays ensued, however; the 30-man opening crew did not arrive until March 27, and the 

Mount McKinley U.S. Army Recreation Camp 

did not officially open until April 10.117 Thirtythree staff officers from Fort Richardson, along 

with Governor Gruening, attended an opening 

dinner that night, after which Acting Superintendent Pearson read a welcoming speech from 

NPS Director Drury and rangers showed motion 

pictures of the park’s wildlife. The following day 

the officers toured the park headquarters. Pearson later wrote that the military brass were “well 

pleased with the park in general and thought it an 

ideal place for the boys to spend their vacations 

after duty in the Aleutians and other Alaskan 

outposts.”118

The soldiers who opened the camp prepared a 

“Special Service Bulletin” that extolled the virtues of a McKinley furlough. In one article, for 

example, an enlisted man wrote that the 87-room 

hotel was 

made to order for soldier vacations. 

... The glass enclosed lobby is strictly 

Fifth Avenue. It is beautifully designed, with modern furniture, big, 
Chapter Five: A Diversified Federal Presence, 1937-1945 107 

guided by Washburn, out to Camp Eielson. The 

group then headed south, ascended Muldrow 

Glacier, and eventually encamped on the edge of 

the glacier, at the 5,600-foot level near McGonagall Pass. From there they conducted lengthy 

testing of cold-weather food, tents, and clothing: 

anything “from tents and parachutes to food rations, stoves, boots and socks.” As noted in a Life 

Magazine pictorial, “the purpose of the expedition was not to determine what equipment is best 

for expert mountain and ski troops, but what is 

best for ordinary American soldiers forced to 

fight in cold weather.”

Aided and supplied by Grant Pearson and other 

rangers—sometimes on foot, sometimes via 

horseback—the expedition remained at its camp 

for some six weeks, finally returning to the park 

headquarters on August 5. A highlight of their 

stay was a Mount McKinley climb; on July 23 and 

24, a seven-man group, which 

included Washburn and future 

University of Alaska President 

Terris Moore, successfully 

reached the summit. As a result 

of the expedition, which was 

completed in early August, the 

military predictably approved 

some of the items it tested, it 

rejected others, and demanded 

severe modifications to still 

others. The NPS benefited, 

too; it received a major equipthick rugs, comfortable easy chairs, 

oil paintings,, shining chrome, and a 

hotel desk of Ritz Carlton caliber. ... 

The game room is a knockout. It is 

one of the most completely equipped 

you ever saw. And the bedrooms will 

really slay you. Each has brand new 

twin beds and inner spring mattresses.

He also noted that the hotel also offered a tap 

room (which was a soda fountain; guests were 

asked not to bring whiskey, which was prohibited), a barber shop, a recreation room, movie hall, 

library, lounge, and dining room. Other parts of 

the bulletin noted that soldiers were hurriedly 

preparing facilities for winter sports (ski runs, 

toboggan slides, and ice skating rinks), and come 

summer time, courts would be laid out for softball, volleyball, and tennis. A Park Service dog 

team would be available for both “mushing” and 

Bradford Washburn, left, came to 

the park in 1942 with the U.S. Army 

Alaskan Testing Expedition to conduct 

extended high-altitude testing of 

cold-weather equipment. NPS ranger 

Grant Pearson, right, assisted with 

the expedition. DENA 28-20, Denali 

National Park and Preserve Museum 

Collection

In April 1943, soldiers began arriving 

to make use of the Mount McKinley 

U.S. Army Recreation Camp. The railroad station, at left, opened in 1940. 

DENA 30-26, Denali National Park and 

Preserve Museum Collection 
108 Crown Jewel of the North: An Administrative History of Denali National Park and Preserve

picture-taking; both Camp Savage and Camp Eielson would be open for camping opportunities, 

and there were chances galore for hiking, swimming (“if you’re really tough”), and fishing.119

Despite the bulletin’s promotionally-induced optimism, the Army did in fact offer most of these 

activities (though not all were opened as soon 

as the bulletin had predicted), and the following 

year new pastimes were added: archery, miniature golf, horseback riding from Savage River 

Camp, bicycling, horseshoe throwing, golfing 

from a short-range tee, ping pong, billiards, and 

dancing.120 Skating was offered at such far-flung 

venues as Horseshoe Lake and the Teklanika 

area, and during the winter of 1943-44, Army 

personnel rigged up a ski tow and warming hut at 

Mile 6 of the park road and offered skiing from 

December through April.121 Entertainers from 

the U.S.O. performed, and by 1944 there were 

weekly stage shows at the McKinley Little Theatre. The park’s first-ever religious services were 

held on Easter Sunday in 1943, and there were 

even wedding bells to ring, in February 1945, 

when an Army Corporal and a Recreation Camp 

hostess (one of “five capable women hostesses” 

on duty) tied the knot.122

Large numbers of soldiers began arriving soon 

after the opening festivities, and by the end of 

April 1943 the camp was an obvious success. As 

Acting Superintendent Pearson noted in a letter 

to Interior Secretary Ickes, 

you will be pleased to learn that [the 

hotel] is being used for a splendid 

purpose. If you could see the soldiers 

as they enjoy the comforts of the 

hotel after a day’s jaunt in the Park 

you would realize that your efforts [in 

1938 to improve the hotel] have not 

been in vain. They have only words of 

praise for those who made it possible 

for them to enjoy a respite from the 

fogs of the Aleutians, the damp cold 

of the Pacific and the chilling winds of 

reasons. Not only did the visitors’ experiences 

provide “praise and good will” to the agency 

(according to Pearson), but the military helped 

in more tangible ways as well. Recognizing that 

the existing ranger staff was overtaxed trying to 

keep up their patrols and public contact work, 

the military approached the agency and asked 

what might be accomplished if four soldiers 

were assigned to assist with park duties. Pearson 

quickly replied and noted that they be assigned 

to do various critical construction jobs: repairing 

the telephone line from headquarters to Camp 

Eielson, constructing a first-ever telephone line 

from the headquarters to the hotel, improving 

the “ranger cabin at Savage,”127

overhauling the headquarters 

utility system, tearing down 

two abandoned log cabins at 

headquarters (which were in a 

“sad state of repair”), moving 

a small garage at headquarters, 

and various miscellaneous 

tasks. The Alaska Defense 

Command granted the request 

“in a decidedly satisfactory 

manner” (in Pearson’s words), 

and during the summer of 1943 

it assigned Company F of the 

176th Engineers to the task. The 

company, commanded by Captain Childress and 

Lieutenant Schaid, spent the next several months 

on the job; they did the work “promptly and efficiently, in fact more was accomplished than was 

originally contemplated.”128 Army officials also 

offered to have soldiers take part in public contact work. Experienced proved, however, that 

the rigid hierarchy between officers and enlisted 

men prevented the NPS from allowing the military men to assume broader park management 

responsibilities.129

The Army also helped access to the McKinley 

Station area by improving the old Morino airstrip 

at McKinley Park Station. As noted in Chapter 

4, local landowner Maurice Morino had cleared 

out a 700-foot airstrip in the summer of 1932, 

and it was used for emergency purposes for the 

remainder of the decade. In 1939, new superSoldiers in the ‘Tap Room’ at the 

McKinley Park Hotel Recreation Camp. 

Candy Waugaman Collection

A ski tow was set up at Mile 6 of 

the park road for downhill skiing. 

Soldiers were transported by bus to 

the site, pictured here in March, 1944. 

DENA 30-1, Denali National Park and 

Preserve Museum Collection 
Chapter Five: A Diversified Federal Presence, 1937-1945 109 

interior Alaska.123

The hotel, indeed, proved its worth to thousands of furloughed men. At first, it was open 

only to white uniformed personnel, but in July 

1943 it opened its doors to the first civilian War 

Department workers, and in February 1944 the 

first black troops visited the park.124 During the 

Recreation Camp’s two-year existence, the park 

played host to 11,324 visitors: 90 percent were 

members of the armed services, the remaining 10 

percent civilian defense workers.125 Park Service 

rangers, who had had years of experience speaking primarily to “teachers and people over 60 

years old” (as noted in a Jessen’s Weekly editorial), 

did their best to ensure a memorable stay for the 

young men by giving illustrated talks and dog 

sled demonstrations, showing motion pictures, 

conducting guided walks, and answering thousands of questions; and beginning in June 1943, 

they even had a “little log cabin museum” at 

headquarters that proved highly popular. Those 

who stayed at the hotel during the winter months 

spent most if not all of their time within a mile 

or two of the hotel, but virtually all summertime 

visitors took trips out into the park in soldierdriven truck convoys. In 1943 a popular destination was Wonder Lake, where the Army set up a 

tent camp; those shelters deteriorated over the 

winter, however, so in 1944 military authorities 

repaired the “old tourist camp at Mount Eielson” 

(at Mile 66) for the soldiers’ use that summer.126

From the NPS’s point of view, hosting the 

thousands of soldiers was successful for several 

intendent Frank Been recognized the value of 

aviation by offering a contract to various Anchorage and Fairbanks aviation firms interested 

in assisting the agency with “park patrols and 

administration.” Pollock Flying Service won 

that contract, and in February 1940, Been and 

Chief Ranger Lou Corbley took a 31⁄2-hour flight 

over “the entire length of the park north of the 

Alaska Range.”130 That summer, however, there 

were two airplane accidents at the airstrip, and 

after that it was deemed so inadequate that many 

pilots—including an Alaska Game Commission pilot—refused to use it, and by early 1941 

the airfield was no longer on the “Civil Airways 

landing field list.” The Alaska Road Commission, 

in response, examined the site and made a cost 

estimate to improve the airstrip.131 Nothing was 

done, however, until the Army occupied the hotel 

in early 1943. By July of that year, Acting Superintendent Pearson noted that “the enlargement 

and improvement of the landing field ... can 

be expected at any time.” On August 26, Army 

engineers arrived, moved into the old CCC camp, 

and improved the old Morino field by blading 

out a 3400-foot strip, deemed “large enough to 

permit the land of any type commercial land 

plane.”132 For the next 18 months, the airfield 

was used frequently; in August 1944, a record 

105 passengers landed there, and beginning in 

January 1945, Alaska Airlines used the airstrip as 

a flag stop on its regular run between Anchorage 

and Fairbanks.133

The military assumed other roles at the park 

On the soldiers’ trips into the park 

they could use the inactive Camp 

Eielson facilities for overnight accommodations. Allan J. deLay Collection, 

Denali National Park and Preserve 

Museum Collection
110 Crown Jewel of the North: An Administrative History of Denali National Park and Preserve

during the war years as well. As noted above, 

the park had conducted a cold-weather testing 

expedition in the summer of 1942, and during 

the winter of 1943-44 three new expeditions 

were outfitted. Beginning on December 15, 

1943, 310 Army officers and men participated in 

a month-long exercise “in the Talkeetna-Mount 

McKinley area” called the Alaskan Department 

Winter Maneuver. The exercise, which was tactical in nature, was also to determine the adequacy 

and limitations of certain standard Arctic clothing and equipment. An officer in that exercise 

reluctantly concluded that the Department was 

not in a position to conduct satisfactory Arctic or 

sub-Arctic operations.134 On January 20, various 

soldiers from the medical corps headed out into 

the park to test “heating and lighting equipment 

suitable for field use during extreme cold weather 

conditions.” They remained in the park until 

March 2. A month later more than 500 soldiers, 

led by Lt. Col. Walthers, arrived in the park on 

winter maneuvers, some on dog teams. Entering 

the park from the Cantwell area, it remained for 

several weeks before leaving on March 1. Acting 

Supt. Pearson, who mushed out to the second 

group, found the men “a rugged bunch capable 

of taking care of themselves most any place in the 

mountains.”135

That August, Army officials prepared for a new 

round of equipment field testing. Plans called for 

a party of six men, based at Wright Field in Ohio, 

to spend six weeks in “the terrain near Wonder 

Lake” beginning on September 10 testing food 

and clothing for the Air Force. The party—which 

included Bradford Washington, now Assistant to 

the Chief of the Army’s Flying Clothes Branch, 

along with several military officers—did not arrive at Wonder Lake (in a pontoon plane) until 

approximately October 15.136

But by this time, the Army had far larger concerns. On September 18, an Army Transport 

Command C-47 with 19 aboard had crashed on 

the southern slopes of Mount Deception,137 16 

miles east of Mt. McKinley. An aerial reconnaissance taken a few days later confirmed that all 

aboard had immediately perished. The Army Air 

Corps’ Col. Ivan Palmer, however, demanded to 

know more details about the crash, so he asked 

Supt. Pearson to fly over the area. After that 

October 2 reconnaissance, the Army asked Pearson if he could head a rescue party to the crash 

site. Pearson demurred, stating that it would 

be too risky to descend a 50-degree, icy slope 

for a body-recovery operation. Palmer and his 

higher-ups, however, explained that the son of a 

Congressman had died in the crash, making a trip 

to the site virtually mandatory; and furthermore, 

the military could draft Pearson for the purpose 

if he chose not to volunteer. 

Under those circumstances, Pearson dropped 

everything and organized a 44-man rescue expedition. On October 10, he and others boarded 

two military “snow tractors” and drove through 

a blizzard to Wonder Lake; they then headed 

south to McGonagall Pass and on to the upper 

Muldrow Glacier. Recognizing that most of his 

expedition members had little winter expedition 

experience, Pearson asked Bradford Washburn, 

camped at nearby Wonder Lake, to lend a hand, 

and on November 1 the snow tractor brought 

Washburn up to Pearson’s camp. Nine days later 

the two men led a party of twelve over the Alaska 

Range and, clinging onto ropes, down to the 

crash site. The men found undisputable evidence 

from the crash—blood on the fuselage, a canvas 

suitcase, a whiskey bottle, and other items—but 

a recent ten-foot snowfall frustrated all attempts 

to locate any of the victims’ bodies. The men 

then retraced their steps to Muldrow Glacier, 

where the remainder of the test expedition crew 

was camped. They then continued on to Wonder 

Lake. After that, Pearson and his team were 

flown back to Elmendorf Field. The last of the 

expedition arrived there on November 24, almost 

two months after the rescue effort began.138

Washburn and his party, meanwhile, continued 

their cold weather gear testing, largely unfazed 

by the two-week detour. For several days they 

moved down Muldrow Glacier, after which they 

ascended Anderson Pass. They then descended 

West Fork Glacier and the Chulitna River’s West 

Fork. On December 6 they reached Colorado 

Station along the Alaska Railroad, almost two 

months after arriving at Wonder Lake.139

The Army’s Cold Weather Test Section, based 

at Wright Field, soon let it be known that they 

were interested in yet another testing expedition, 

and in March 1945 a five-man party flew into the 

park on a ski-equipped airplane and camped on 

a glacier140 at the 6,100-foot level. Decked out in 

“the latest type mountain equipment,” the men 

spent the next two months testing cold weather 

equipment and food; they also did some surveying and mapping in the area and made a first-ever 

climb of a 13,220-foot peak that they named Mt. 

Silverthrone because of its “stately appearance at 

the head of Brooks Glacier.”141

By the time the Army’s springtime cold weather 

expedition was underway, conditions in the 

McKinley Park Station area had undergone 

severe changes. On February 2, military authorities told local officials that the Army Recreation 

Camp had to cease operations on March 1. This 

was “in accordance with general orders that 

all unnecessary activities of the army be dis-
Chapter Five: A Diversified Federal Presence, 1937-1945 111 

continued at once.” This should have come as 

no surprise to those who were in charge of the 

camp; by this time, it had been almost 18 months 

since Alaska military forces had seen combat, and 

as a result, troop strength in Alaska had fallen 

from more than 150,000 in 1943 to just 60,000 

in 1945. Authorities decided to close the camp 

because too many soldiers had been shipped out 

of Alaska to warrant its continued operation. 

On March 1, all members of the camp staff and 

part of its detachment departed for Anchorage. Twenty members of the detachment stayed 

behind to close the hotel, but they too were soon 

gone.142

Although the hotel was no longer operating as a 

military recreation camp, World War II was still 

raging in both the Pacific and European theatres. 

As a result, access to and from Alaska was still 

closely monitored, and recreational tourism to 

the park—except by civilians residing in the 

territory—was still prohibited. Those conditions would not change until well after V-J Day 

in August 1945. As a result, visitation to Mount 

McKinley National Park during the summer 

of 1945 was largely a repeat of what the park 

had experienced in 1942. Summertime visitors 

in 1945, therefore, included groups of military 

officers, Anchorage business men, and scattered 

Alaska-based tourists. That number was augmented by two groups of Congressmen who visited in August and made trips out the park road. 

(They overnighted either at park headquarters 

or at the Wonder Lake Ranger Station and were 

served meals prepared by the superintendent and 

his staff.) In addition, railroad and steamshipcompany officials made periodic visits to the park 

“to study tourist travel to McKinley Park after the 

war.”143

Otto Ohlson, the Alaska Railroad’s general 

manager, released an optimistic statement to 

the newspapers regarding the carrier’s postwar 

plans, which included “one-day train service 

between the coast and Fairbanks ... an addition 

to the McKinley Park Hotel and the erection of a 

lodge and cabins at Wonder Lake to care for the 

inevitable tourist traffic; and most important of 

all, a reduction in rail rates.” Both he and others, 

however, knew that all of those plans depended 

on a strong upsurge in visitation and, just as important, on a Congress willing to loosen its purse 

strings for Alaska projects.144 In the meantime, all 

they could do was wait.

The Army Air Corps and Ranger 

Grant Pearson organized a 44-man 

rescue expedition to locate the Army 

Transport Command C-47 that had 

crashed on September 18, 1944. The 

expedition left park headquarters 

on October 10, 1944 for the trip to 

Wonder Lake Ranger Station, the 

operations base. DENA 1550, Denali 

National Park and Preserve Museum 

Collection
112 Crown Jewel of the North: An Administrative History of Denali National Park and Preserve

Just how tourism would look during the postwar years, and how the NPS managers would 

respond to these and other challenges, are discussed in Chapter 6.

Notes - Chapter 5

1 The quoted term hearkens back to the SMR 

for October 1939, 1.

2 SMR, September 1932, 3; May 1933, 3. In 

the spring of 1936, NPS employees repainted 

the entrance sign “with a white background and 

green letters, regular Park Service standard.” 

SMR, May 1936, 5.

3 SMR, July 1932, 2; May 1933, 3. Morino obtained a patent to his 120-acre parcel on August 

1, 1934.

 4 Gruening’s official title was Director of the

Division of Territories and Island Possessions,

an Interior Department post created in May

1934; Gruening was its first occupant. Evangeline Atwood and Robert N. DeArmond,

comp., Who’s Who in Alaskan Politics (Portland, 

Binford & Mort, 1977), 37-38; Sherwood Ross, 

Gruening of Alaska (New York, Best Books, 

1968), 90-92.

5 Stroud, History of the Concession, 8.

6 Stroud, History of the Concession, 9.

7 Brown, A History, 200-01. Don Hummel, who wrote about the event fifty years

later, said that “There was no time to design a 

proper structure for Alaskan conditions, so Vint 

rummaged around and found some old hotel 

blueprints that looked adequate for overnight 

accommodations and took them to McKinley 

Park. The hotel was hurriedly built according to 

these plans along with a more or less standard 

powerhouse.” Hummel, Stealing the National 

Parks, 174.

8 New York Times, June 21, 1937, 7; SMR, July 

1937, 1, 3, 4; Stroud, History of the Concession, 9. Inasmuch as the NPS was in charge 

of design and construction, Supt. Liek was the 

nominal chief of construction, but because of his 

inexperience with large-building construction, 

Gutterson was in charge of day-to-day project 

management.

9 SMR, August 1937, 1, 4; September 

1937, 4-5; October 1937, 1; November 

1937, 3.

10 W. B. Courtney, “Christmas Zoo,” Collier’s

100 (December 25, 1937), 13. This level of

optimism has been found in no other source; 

by contrast, the federal government’s National 

Resources Committee, in a December 1937

DENA 1586, Denali National Park and 

Preserve Museum Collection

The crash site was located on a steep 

slope, shown here on November 11, 

1944, with the rescuers’ camp below. 

This mountain was later named Mt. 

Deception.
Chapter Five: A Diversified Federal Presence, 1937-1945 113 

report (Regional Planning, Part VII, Alaska—Its 

Resources and Development (Washington, GPO, 

1938), p. 135) stated that “Winter sports demand 

both accessibility and population. These conditions make the development of winter sports 

within the park unimportant at the present time.”

11 SMR, April 1938, 1, 3; May 1938, 

3; June 1938, 4.

 12 T.H. Watkins, Righteous Pilgrim: the Life 
114 Crown Jewel of the North: An Administrative History of Denali National Park and Preserve

and Times of Harold L. Ickes, 1874-1952 (New York, Henry Holt, 1990), 610-16.

13 SMR, July 1938, 3-4; August 1938, 4-5; Brown, A History, 201; Stroud, History of the Concession, 9. The agency announced the hotel expansion in a September 15, 1938 press release. The 

original hotel would have had 52 bedrooms, 8 with private baths; Ickes’ expansion, however, added 

38 bedrooms, all with private baths. File 501-03 (“Newspaper Articles”), Box 1408 (MOMC), 

Entry 7, RG 79, NARA CP.

 14 SMR, October 1938, 3; December 1938, 2, 3; February 1939, 3; March 1939, 3; April 1939, 2.

15 Congressional Record 86 (March 6, 1940), 2449; New York Times, November 20, 1938, X3. 

William H. Hackett (in Alaska’s Vanishing Frontier; a Progress Report, prepared for the Committee on Interior and Insular Affairs, U.S. House of Representatives [Washington, GPO], 1951, p.

46) notes that the hotel “was built with Public Works Funds allocated to the Alaska Railroad ... an 

additional sum of $450,000 was later provided for a warehouse, employee quarters, a powerhouse, a 

100,000 gallon reservoir, and a sewer system.”

16 SMR, May 1939, 2; June 1939, 2; Brown, A History, 201-02; Albert H. Good (Acting Chief of

Planning, NPS) to H.A. Bauer, Alaska Planning Council, June 14, 1939, in Jane Bryant Collection,

DENA; Been to RD/R4, November 4, 1947, in File 208-08 (“Liquor Traffic”), Box 1407, CCF/

MOMC, RG 79, NARA CP.

17 National Resources Committee, Regional Planning, Part VII, 134.

18 Stroud (History of the Concession, 9-10) noted that the NPS “was not eager to operate the hotel 

but agreed to undertake the task if it was assigned to them,” while the park concessioner believed 

that the hotel “would not prove profitable” and “wanted a guarantee against losses.” Brown, A History, 201-02; SMR, April 1939, 2; August 1942, 3; William H. Wilson, Railroad in the Clouds; the 

Alaska Railroad in the Age of Steam, 1914-1945 (Boulder, Colo., Pruett Publishing, 1977), 195-96, 

203.

19 SMR, May 1936, 5; June 1936, 4-5; September 1937, 5; September 1938, 3.

 20 Tony Dimond testimony in Congressional Record 86 (76th Congress, 3rd Session), March 6, 

1940, 2443.

21 Stroud, History of the Concession, 10.

22 SMR, June 1939, 3; July 1939, 3.

23 Stroud, History of the Concession, 10; SMR, August 1939, 2; September 1939, 4; May 1940, 

1. In a 1940 hearing, Rep. John Taber (R-N.Y.) suggested that “hotel revenues last year amounted 

to something like $56,000, and the expenses, as near as I can figure them from the hearings on the

Interior Department bill, amounted to $146,000.” Congressional Record 86 (March 6, 1940), 2447.

24 76th Congress, 1st Session, House Report No. 567, May 8, 1939; 76th Congress, 1st 

Session, Senate Report No. 448, May 18, 1939; Stroud, History of the Concession, 12.

 25 See, for example, Ickes to Hon. Millard E. Tydings, in 76th Congress, 1st Session, Senate Report 

No. 448, May 18, 1939.

26 Congressional Record 84 (76th Congress, 1st Session), May 19, 1939, p. 5796.

27 Congressional Record 84 (76th Congress, 1st Session), July 6, 1939, 8708; July 17, 1939, 9283.

28 Congressional Record 86 (76th Congress, 3rd Session), March 6, 1940, 2443, 2447-49. Mistaken ideas about Alaska that were brought up in debate, all by the bill’s opponents, included John 

Schafer’s (R-WI) statement that the “several hundred strawberry growers” that had moved to the 

Matanuska Valley “had all graduated to the relief rolls,” the assertion of John Rankin (D-MS) that

“there is nothing in McKinley Park except Mount McKinley,” and a statement from John Taber (RNY) that there were “six visitors to this park who might be available as customers at [the McKinley

Park] hotel.”

29 Ibid., 2443-2460.

30 Ibid., 2449, 2454. The price for the two bus trips, equated to 2005 dollars, was $360 and $500, 

respectively.

31 Ibid., 2445, 2447, 2452, 2454-55, 2458.

32 Ibid., 2443, 2445, 2447, 2455-56.

33 Ibid., 2457-60; New York Times, March 11, 1940, 9; World Almanac and Book of Facts, 2002 

edition, 92.

34 Congressional Record, March 6, 1940, 2851-52.

35 Ibid., 3883. The bill became Public Law No. 445 of the 76th Congress.

36 SMR, May 1940, 1, 4; April 1941, 3.

37 SMR, June 1940, 4; July 1940, 3; August 1940, 3; September 1940, 3.

38 SMR, November 1940, 3; January 1941, 3; May 1941, 2; June 1941, 3; July 1941, 2-3; August 

1941, 2; Stroud, History of the Concession, 12; R. E. Sheldon to Been, April 29, 1941, in File 910,
Chapter Five: A Diversified Federal Presence, 1937-1945 115 

Collection 5969, DENAArchives.

39 Congressional Record, March 6, 1940, 2447, 2451; Theodore Catton, Wonderland; An Administrative History of Mount Rainier National Park (Seattle, NPS, May 1996), 322-26.

40 Congressional Record, March 6, 1940, 2444, 2449, 2459.

41 SMR, September 1938, 2; January 1939, 3; August 1939, 2; NPS, “Wonder Lake Lodge Area, 

Part of the Master Plan for MOMC” (drawing 2004a, sheet 11), January 1942.

42 Brown, A History, 201; Supt. To the Director, March 11, 1930, in “620-037” file, Box 1412

(MOMC), Entry 7, RG 79, NARA CP; Been to the Director, June 25, 1941, in File 501-3, Part 1,

“Newspaper Articles,” Box 1408 (MOMC), Entry 7, RG 79, NARA CP.

 43 SMR, May 1936, 1; July 1938, 1; August 1938, 1, 7; December 1939, 1; October 1940, 1.

44 SMR, March 1941, photo; June 1941, 3; July 1941, 2; September 1941, 1, 2; October 1941, 3.

45 SMR, February 1936, 4; July 1939, 3; August 1940, 3.

46 Brown, A History, 112; “Kantishna 50399” file, Airports Division historical files, FAA Collection, Anchorage.

47 Although the ARC was given broad approval to install “guard rails,” none were knowingly 

installed. Instead, guard posts were installed east of Polychrome Pass, along the bluffs west of 

Thorofare Pass, and perhaps elsewhere along the park road. Frank T. Been to Director NPS, October 6, 1939; Been to Ike Taylor, October 7, 1939; both in File 630, Box 1413 (MOMC), Entry 7, RG

79, NARA CP.

48 SMR, June 1924, 4; May 1927, 2-3; Seward Daily Gateway, May 26, 1927, 4.

49 SMR, May 1931, 2; September 1931, 3; January 1933, 3; May 1933, 2; May 1936, 1-2; June 

1937, 4.

50 SMR, June 1937, 1.

 51 Harlan D. Unrau and G. Frank Williss, Administrative History: Expansion of the National Park 

Service in the 1930s (Denver, NPS, September 1983), 76-86. The CCC’s establishment is chronicled in John C. Paige’s The Civilian Conservation Corps and the National Park Service, 1933-1942; 

An Administrative History (Washington, NPS, 1985), 8-10.

52 Lawrence W. Rakestraw, A History of the United States Forest Service in Alaska (Anchorage, Alaska Historical Commission, 1981), 95-98; Daily Alaska Empire, May 8, 1933; W. Conner 

Sorensen, “The Civilian Conservation Corps in Alaska (1933-1942) and Military Preparedness,” 

in Fern Chandonnet, ed., Alaska at War, 1941-1945, the Forgotten War Remembered (Anchorage, 

Alaska at War Committee, 1995), 235-36.

 53 Wirth to Regional Officer, Region Four, April 26, 1937, in File 600, “Jobs, Part 1 (4/16/37-

12/11/37),” Box 78, CCF/MOMC, RG 79, NARA SB; Unrau and Williss, Administrative History, 

86; Rakestraw, A History, 96; SMR, June 1937, 1; August 1937, 1; September 1937, 1-2.

 54 SMR, April 1938, 1; May 1938, 1, 4; Paul Gallagher to NPS Director, August 10, 1938, in File

204, Part 1, “Inspection and Investigation,” Box 1404 (MOMC), Entry 7, RG 79, NARA CP; Daily 

Alaska Empire, April 26, 1938.

 55 Grant D. Ross to Regional Director, Region Four, August 8, 1938, in File 600, Part 2, “Jobs,

Part 2 (1/19/38-12/20/39),” Box 78, CCF/MOMC, RG 79, NARA SB; Gallagher to NPS Director,

August 10, 1938, in File 204, Part 1, noted above.

 56 Franklin G. Fox to Harry J. Liek, November 1, 1938; Liek to the Director, November 18, 1938;

both in File 600, Part 2, noted above. Fox’s statement about good “camp discipline” was apparently 

overoptimistic; Liek noted that “due to the fact that enrollees could not be conveniently discharged 

as an extreme disciplinary measure, it was difficult to maintain the proper discipline among the

enrollees.” And Fox himself admitted that alcohol was a problem; he proudly noted that “no drinking or gambling was permitted after the camp was well organized,” but conceded that two of his 

supervisors “were unwilling to set an example of sobriety.”

57 SMR, September 1938, 3; October 1938, 1; November 1938, 1.

 58 Franklin G. Fox to Regional Director, Region IV, July 3, 1938; Fox to Liek, November 1, 1938;

Liek to the Director, November 18, 1938; all in File 600, Part 2, noted above; SMR, October 1938,

2. The educational guide (Job #14), although completed, was apparently not adopted by park personnel, inasmuch as there are no references to such a guide being used or reproduced.

 59 Fred T. Johnston to Regional Director, Region IV, February 24, 1939, in File 600, Part 2, noted

above; SMR, December 1938, 1; February 1939, 1.

60 SMR, March 1939, 1; April 1939, 1, 2.

61 SMR, May 1939, 1-2; June 1939, 2; September 1939, 1, 3. Crews who built the telephone 

line lived in a “side camp” at Mile 29 of the park road, near present-day Teklanika Campground. 

Edward E. Ogston to Supt. Been, July 17, 1939, in uncatalogued “CCC History” file folder, DENA

Archives.
116 Crown Jewel of the North: An Administrative History of Denali National Park and Preserve

62 John C. Bunce, “Minutes of Supervisory Personnel Meeting, Camp NP-1, July 3, 1939,” in File 

600, Part 2, noted above; Marlys Rudeen, comp., The Civilian Conservation Corps Camp Papers: a 

Guide (Chicago, Center for Research Libraries, 1991), 193.

63 SMR, July 1939, 3; September 1939, 1.

64 SMR, July 1939, 3; September 1939, 1-3; National Resources Committee, Regional Planning, 

Part VII, Alaska – Its Resources and Development (Washington, GPO, 1938), 135.

 65 SMR, November 1939, 3; March 1940, 1-3; Assistant Regional Director to Supt. Been, January

2, “1939” [1940], in File 600, Part 2, noted above.

 66 SMR, August 1940, 3; September 1940, 2-3; October 1940, 1, 4; December 1940, 3; January

1941, 3; B.F. Manbey to Supt. Been, February 28, 1941, in File 600, Part 3 (1/1/40-12/31/41), CCF/

MOMC, RG 79, NARA SB.

67 SMR, January 1942, 2; Unrau and Williss, Administrative History, 92; Herbert Maier to Director NPS, August 20, 1942, in File 600, Part 4, “Development” (1/1/42-1/1/51), in Box 78, CCF/

MOMC, RG 79, NARA SB; NPS, Drawing MOMC-5317 (January 1947), TIC Aperture Card Collection.

 68 Horace M. Albright to Supt. MOMC, May 5, 1933, in “General Entries, 605, Stubbs” file, Box

1411 (MOMC), Entry 7, RG 79, NARA CP.

69 F. A. Kittredge to Supt. Liek, October 18, 1938, in File 610 (“Mt. McKinley NP Private Lands”), 

Box 79, CCF/MOMC, RG 79, NARA SB. Grant Pearson, asked to follow up on the three claimants

six years later, caustically noted that “these properties ... have been abandoned, Varnell and Baker 

have departed for parts unknown, and Shannon long ago discovered that homesteading was too arduous for anyone so devoid of ambition and so gave up his idea and his homestead entry.” Pearson 

to RD/R4, March 18, 1944, in “File 610: John Stephens: 1941-May 19, 1953,” Box 79, noted above.

70 Kittredge to Liek, October 18, 1938, noted above; Sellars, Preserving Nature in the National 

Parks, 65-66; Ise, Our National Park Policy, 318, 338, 482-84.

71 Stubbs, Kennedy, and Anderson were still living landowners at this time. But Maurice Morino, 

as noted in Chapter 4, had died in 1937 and was buried on high ground at the western end of his 

parcel; the administrator of his estate was Mary Liek, wife of the former superintendent. John Stephens, owner of the Windy parcel, had died in 1934, and H. Stephen Simpson was designated as the

administrator of his estate.

 72 Dimond submitted bills on behalf of the Stephens estate in 1937 and 1941; Anderson in 1940

and 1941; and Kennedy in 1941. As shall be seen, only Anderson was successful in this process.

73 It was later shown that government surveyors—ostensibly the 1936 boundary-survey crew—had 

burned down the Andersons’ cabin, and a year later, ARC crews had bladed the park road across her 

property without permission. Regional Director to Director, November 2, 1939, in File 610, “Paula

Liebau Anderson, 1938-5/19/53”, Box 79, CCF/MOMC, RG 79, NARA SB.

74 Congressional Record 87 (1941), pp. 2800, 4120; 77th Congress, 1st Session, House Report No. 

189 (March 10, 1941), 1-2; 77th Congress, 1st Session, Senate Report No. 265 (May 8, 1941), 1-2; 

Albert L. Johnson to Mrs. Paula Liebau Anderson, April 14, 1941, in File 610, “Mt. McKinley N.P. 

Private Lands” file, Box 79, CCF/MOMC, RG 79, NARA SB.

 75 Mrs. Paula Anderson to SOI, January 28, 1938; Anderson to Joseph E. Taylor, November 2,

1939; Been to RD/R4, November 21, 1939; Herman Maier to Director NPS, January 24, 1941;

Arthur E. Demaray to Supt. MOMC, February 27, 1941; Hillory A. Tolson to RD/R4, May 1, 1942,

all in File 610, “Paula Liebau Anderson,” noted above; U.S. District Court, 4th Judicial Division

of Alaska, USA v. Paula Liebau Anderson, No. 4681, “Petition for Condemnation,” April 8, 1941, 

and “Final Judgement of Condemnation,” June 5, 1942; both in “DENA Deeds to USA” file, AKRO

Lands Division.

76 SMR, September 1933, 2; August 1934, 2; September 1934, 3; July 1936, 4; September 1936, 2; 

Jane Bryant email, June 24, 2005.

77 SMR, June 1939, 2. As noted in Chapter 4, John and Paula Anderson had abandoned this 160-

acre parcel in 1929, but Paula had obtained title to it in August 1930 and it remained in her name 

throughout the 1930s.

78 SMR, July 1939, 2; September 1939, 1, 3; September 1940, 2; June 1943, 2.

 79 These flights apparently began in 1940. See SMR, November 1940, 5; December 1940, 4; December 1941, 3.

80 SMR, February 1938, 4; August 1938, 5; September 1938, 3; Brown, A History, 122-25.

81 SMR, April 1938, 4; May 1938, 4; April 1939, 3.

82 SMR, May 1939, 3.

 83 Document 5 (1933-52), dated December 20, 1939, in File #40-10 (National Park Service #1),

RG 101, ASA.
Chapter Five: A Diversified Federal Presence, 1937-1945 117 

84 SMR, March 1938, 2; April 1938, 4; October 1939, 4.

 85 SMR, November 1939, 3; December 1939, 3; April 1940, 3; November 1940, 2-3; March 1941,

3. The new equipment was a Skyrider Marine receiver, Model S28R.

 86 SMR, December 1935, 2; November 1936, 5; April 1940, 8.

87 SMR, November 1940, 5; January 1941, 4; April 1941, photo; June 1941, photo; Pearson, My 

Life of High Adventure, 187; Been to Eva Seeley, July 9, 1941, in “Outgoing Park Correspondence”

file, Box 2, Catalog No. 9169, DENAArchives.

88 William J. Nancarrow, interview by Jane Bryant, October 8, 2002; Jane Bryant email, May 12, 

2006.

89 Rawson, Changing Tracks, 152. Alcohol consumption had been legal in Alaska since April 

1934, but it remained illegal within NPS units. (See SMR, April 1934, 6.) The change in superintendents was announced to the press on April 28, 1939.

90 Rawson, Changing Tracks, 152; Sellars, Preserving Nature in the National Parks, 55-56.

91 Rawson, Changing Tracks, 152; Supt. to Park Personnel, November 28, 1939, in Jane Bryant 

Collection, DENA. See Appendix C for a list of the early park naturalists. Been badly damaged

the park sedan within days of arriving at the park, and in December 1939, while out on a practice

run with one of the park’s dog teams, Been shot at a wolf but hit and wounded one of the park dogs 

instead. SMR, June 1939, 5; December 1939, 4.

92 The adoption of a centralized function suggested the need for an off-site work location. This had 

first been manifested in 1934, when the NPS was given space in the new Federal Building in Fairbanks. That arrangement apparently lasted just a few months. Then, in 1940, Been was provided 

a small office in Anchorage shortly after its Federal Building was completed. That office remained

until early 1942, when it was turned over to the Army. In late 1941, an NPS official had recommended that park headquarters be moved to “a city such as Anchorage for the winter months.” NPS 

Director Newton Drury approved the request, but the onset of World War II prevented the move

from taking place. SMR, April 1934, 5; May 1934, 2; June 1940, 3; January 1942, 1-2; R. O. Jennings to Supt. MOMC, November 27, 1941, in Collection 000-099, DENAArchives.

93 SMR, July 1939, 1; September 1939, 1-2; July 1940, 1; August 1940, 2; September 1940, 2; July 

1941, 2.

94 Pearson, My Life of High Adventure, 186-89; Been to Tomlinson, February 2, 1943; Been to 

Director NPS, February 2, 1943, in File 201 (National Defense, Part 1), Box 91, CCF/MOMC, RG

79, NARA SB.

95 SMR, October 1939, 1, 4.

 96 SMR, October 1939, 1; 76th Congress, 2nd Session, H.R. 8336 was introduced on February 6,

1940.

97 Fairbanks Daily News-Miner, January 22, 1940. The women’s club consisted of “every woman 

now living in McKinley Park” and included the postmaster (Mrs. Elmer Hosler) and the wives of

Fred Shumaker (Alaska R.R.), Chief Ranger Louis Corbley, and Senior Clerk Gerald Janes.

 98 SMR, March 1940, 1; File #40-10 (National Park Service #1), Documents #84-92 (1933-52),

RG 101, ASA. Supt. Been fired his clerk shortly after the investigators completed their work.

99 Been left for military service in January 1943, so he did not occupy the house until his return 

to the park in early 1947. SMR, May 1940, 3, 4; June 1940, 3; July 1940, 1-2; August 1940, 1-2; 

September 1940, 1, 3; April 1941, 2-3; June 1941, 3; July 1941, 3; March 1943, 1.

100 Beginning with Steve Martin, who became superintendent in October 1994, the building has 

alternated between housing the superintendent and hosting less-than-full-time personnel.

101 SMR, June 1940, 2, 4; July 1940, 2; July 1941, 2; August 1941, 1; October 1941, 3; July 1943, 

2; June 1944, 2. A. E. Demaray to Ike P. Taylor, April 17, 1940; Supt. MOMC to Director NPS,

June 5, 1941; both in File 640 (Trails), CCF/MOMC, RG 79, NARA SB.

 102 USDI, Budget Estimates/NPS, Fiscal Year 1966, NPS Budget/Files Room, WASO; Sellars,

Preserving Nature in the National Parks, 150-51; NPS, Public Use of the National Parks; a Statistical Report, 1941-1953 (the author, ca. 1954), 1.

103 SMR, March 1942, 1; April 1942, 1; May 1942, 1; July 1942, 4.

104 SMR, March 1942, 1; July 1942, 4.

105 Norris, Gawking at the Midnight Sun, 73; Brown, A History, 203; Jessen’s Weekly, February 

20, 1942; NPS, Public Use of the National Parks, 1941-1953, 2; S. B. Buckner, Jr., Headquarters

Alaska Defense Command, Public Proclamation No. 1, April 7, 1942, in Bill Brown files, DENA

Archives; Lyman L. Woodman, Duty Station Northwest; The U.S. Army in Alaska and Western 

Canada, 1867-1987; Volume Two, 1918-1945 (Anchorage, Alaska Historical Society, 1997), 122-

23; Fairbanks Daily News-Miner, December 8, 1941, 1.

106 SMR, January 1942, 2; Nome Nugget, March 20, 1942, 4.
118 Crown Jewel of the North: An Administrative History of Denali National Park and Preserve

107 SMR, January 1941, 1-2.

 108 SMR, February 1941, 1, 4. Been’s response was consistent with a memo from NPS Director Drury which asked military authorities to consider “alternative plans” before using NPS areas

for defense purposes. Drury to “Washington Office and all Field Offices,” November 27, 1940, in

Catalog No. 9169, DENAArchives.

 109 SMR, June 1941, 1; July 1941, 1. Been recalled that Col. Hood took a dim view of the military

utilizing the existing Savage Camp facility, believing “there should be log or frame buildings in a 

camp adequate for 200 men. He considers tents unsatisfactory, particularly for winter use.... Because a soldier is ‘roughing it’ as part of his business, he is not likely to find relaxation by roughing

it for a vacation. He should therefore be made comfortable so that he can loaf if he wants to.” Been

diary entry, August 27, 1941, in RG 09, 1936-48, DENAArchives.

 110 Been to RD/R4, September 18, 1941, in File 201 (National Defense, Part 1), Box 91, CCF/

MOMC, RG 79, NARA SB.

111 Buckner to Been, September 28, 1941, in File 201, noted above. This “valley,” in all likelihood, was that of Clearwater Creek or one of its feeder streams.

112 SMR, September 1941, 1; October 1941, 1; November 1941, 1. When Been visited “the foothill country south of Mt. McKinley ... the region impressed [him] favorably for recreation. ... In

addition to recreation from hiking, swimming, fishing, etc., the country is well mineralized so that

soldiers could become quite excited about placer mining.” Been to Gruening, November 15, 1941, 

in “World War II/Army Rec Camp” files, Bill Brown Collection, DENAArchives.

 113 SMR, December 1941, 3; February 1942, 1; April 1942, 2; Newton Drury to Ernest Gruening,

April 2, 1942, and Buckner to Been, April 22, 1942; both in “World War II” file, Box 3, Catalog No.

9169, DENAArchives.

114 SMR, May-July 1942, 1; Barbara Washburn with Lew Freedman, The Accidental Adventurer

(Fairbanks, Epicenter Press, 2001), 77. As noted in one contemporary article (“The Army’s Expedition to Mount McKinley,” Quartermaster Review 22 (January-February 1943), p. 29), Washburn—a 

veteran of ten previous Alaska expeditions—was often referred to as “knowing the mountains of 

Alaska perhaps better than any other person.”

 115 “Mt. McKinley Quartermaster Corps Expedition Tests Winter Equipment Here,” Life 14 

(March 22, 1943), 69-73; SMR, August 1942, 1-2; Pearson, My Life of High Adventure, 186-88, 

226-27; Brown, A History, 191-92; Lyman Woodman, Duty Station Northwest; Vol. Two, 240.

116 SMR, November 1942, 2; Charles W. Porter III, ed., National Park Service War Work, December 7, 1941 to June 30, 1944, May 27, 1946, pp. 22-23, in “Miscellaneous Files,” Box 3009H,

non-central classified files, RG 79, NARA SB; Alaska Defense Command, Special Service Bulletin

1 (April 1943), 1, in File 504 (“Army Rec Camp”), Box 77, CCF/MOMC, RG 79, NARA SB; NPS

Press Release, July 4, 1943, in File 501-03 (“Newspaper Articles”), Box 1408 (MOMC), Entry 7,

RG 79, NARA CP.

 117 SMR, December 1942, 2; January 1943, 2; February 1943, 1; March 1943, 2; Jessen’s Weekly, 

March 12, 1943, 11.

118 SMR, April 1943, 1; Jessen’s Weekly, April 23, 1943, 15; Drury to Supt. MOMC, February 2,

1943, in File 201 (National Defense, Part 1), Box 91, CCF/MOMC, RG 79, NARA SB.

 119 Alaska Defense Command, Special Service Bulletin, vol. I:1 (April 1943), 1-2, in File 504,

noted above.

 120 Alaska Defense Command, Special Service Bulletin, vol. II:8 (April 1944), in File 504, noted

above; Grant H. Pearson, A History of Mt. McKinley National Park (n.p., NPS, 1953), 53.

 121 SMR, October 1943, 2; November 1943, 1-2; December 1943, 1; March 1944, 1; April 1944, 1.

122 Pearson, A History, 55; SMR, February 1944, 1; Alaskan Department, Special Service 

Bulletin II (April 1944), 1; Anchorage Daily Times, June 2, 1971, 3.

123 Pearson to Ickes, April 30, 1943, in File 504, “Publications, General,” Box 1409 (MOMC), 

Entry 7, RG 79, NARA CP.

124 SMR, June 1943, 1; July 1943, 1; February 1944, 1.

125 Pearson, A History, 53. A total of 11,519 people visited the park for recreational purposes during World War II, including 63 in 1942; 3,674 in 1943; 5,770 in 1944; and 2,012 in 1945. The huge 

disparity between the total number of park visitors and the number reported in the NPS visitor use 

statistics—that is, the difference between all visitors and unaffiliated civilian visitors—can perhaps 

be explained by 1943 correspondence between Pearson and his Washington superiors, which is 

located in File 501-03 (“Newspaper Articles”), Box 1408 (MOMC), Entry 7, RG 79, NARA CP. 

Acting Director Hillory Tolson, in an August 7 memo, noted “We would like very much to use this

figure” (i.e., total park visitation) “since military use of the national parks is one of the strongest justification for personnel funds, etc.” But Pearson, prodded by an Alaska Defense Command censor,
Chapter Five: A Diversified Federal Presence, 1937-1945 119 

had to remind his boss on July 28 that “we are in a war zone and that information as to the number 

of men in our armed forces within any definite area is not proper publicity material.” The underscoring is from Pearson’s memo. By the spring of 1944, the military no longer felt the need to keep 

park visitation a secret (see the Alaskan Department, Special Service Bulletin II (April 1944), 1, 

which announced that “over 5,000 soldiers on furlough had checked into the palatial vacation resort 

...”), but the NPS never included military visitation in its official visitor use figures.

 126 SMR, May 1943, 1; June 1943, 2; July 1943, 3; December 1943, 1; July 1944, 1; March 1945,

1. Grant Pearson to RD/R4, June 30, 1943, and Pearson to RD/R4, January 21, 1944, both in File

201, noted above; Jessen’s Weekly, July 14, 1944, 2. In addition to Capt. Hall, recreation camp leaders included Lt. Richard Dunn and Captain Peck.

127 The “dogtrot style” two-building Upper Savage Ranger Station, which soldiers improved during this period, had been moved in 1940 from the river’s east bank to a new location, two miles to 

the southeast and closer to the Savage River Campground. As noted in Chapter 7, one of the two 

cabins is still standing at that site; the other was torn down in the mid-1960s. Jane Bryant email, 

July 14, 2006.

 128 Pearson to Ickes, April 30, 1943, noted above; Pearson to RD/R4, June 30, 1943; Pearson to

Commanding General, Alaskan Department, U.S. Army, January 17, 1944; both in File 201 (National Defense, Part 1), Box 91, CCF/MOMC, RG 79, NARA SB.

 129 Pearson to RD/R4, January 21, 1944 in File 201, noted above.

 130 SMR, December 1939, 3; January 1940, 2; February 1940, 1, 3; April 1940, 9. Been finally

made a summertime flight over the park in June 1941 (SMR, June 1941, 1), but otherwise, the

agency apparently used its Pollock Flying Service contract very infrequently.

 131 SMR, November 1940, 2; March 1941, 2, 5; April 1941, 2; December 1941, 3; April 1942, 2;

Been to Director NPS, March 26, 1941, in “General Entries” file, Box 1411 (MOMC), Entry 7, RG

79, NARA CP.

132 SMR, July 1943, 1; August 1943, 2; September 1943, 1; October 1943, 1.

133 SMR, November 1943, 2; April 1944, 2; August 1944, 3; January 1945, 1; February 1945, 1.

134 Woodman, Duty Station Northwest; Vol. Three (1945-87), 20-21.

135 SMR, January 1944, 1; February 1944, 1; March 1944, 1; Pearson, A History, 53.

 136 L. S. Hall to Director NPS, August 26, 1944, in File 201, Part 1, noted above; Pearson, My Life 

of High Adventure, 195; Pearson, A History, 54; SMR, October 1944, 2; Michael Sfraga, Bradford 

Washburn: A Life of Exploration (Corvallis, Oregon State University, 2004), 126-44.

137 Contemporary news reports noted that the crash took place on an unknown mountain between 

Mount Brooks and Mount Mather. Pearson, in a February 12, 1945 crash report (in File 201, Part 2, 

noted above), stated that “Washburn suggested the name Mt. Deception.” See Orth, Dictionary of 

Alaska Place Names, 262.

138 Pearson, My Life of High Adventure, 190-99; SMR, November 1944, 1; Pearson, A History, 50-

52; Sfraga, Bradford Washburn, 130-38; Brown, A History, 205-06; various memoranda, File 201 

(“National Defense,” Part 1 and Part 2), Box 91, noted above. In January 1945, the Army memorialized the crash victims with a Ladd Field service, after which it flew a plane over the crash site

and dropped three floral wreaths onto the snowbound landscape. Pearson was later lauded for his

exemplary efforts in leading the dangerous expedition; the NPS gave him an “especially meritorious promotion” in mid-March 1945, and in April 1947, the Army awarded him a Medal of Freedom. 

NPS Press Release, March 15, 1945; Inside Interior 5 (April 1947), 3.

 139 SMR, December 1944, 1; January 1945, 1; Sfraga, Bradford Washburn, 143.
120 Crown Jewel of the North: An Administrative History of Denali National Park and Preserve
Chapter Six: Postwar McKinley, 1946-1956 121

Chapter Six: Postwar McKinley, 1946-1956

The decade that followed World War II brought 

numerous changes to Mount McKinley National 

Park. Visitation moved from virtually nothing 

during the last wartime year to a new high of 

6,672 just five years later. The Korean War then 

intervened, bringing with it major changes to the 

operation of the McKinley Park Hotel. The end 

of that war brought on a crisis at the park hotel, 

the impacts of which had a marked effect on park 

visitation. During this decade, almost all visitors 

accessed the park via the Alaska Railroad; at the 

same time, however, a park access road (the Denali Highway) was planned and built. NPS officials, in response to road construction, prepared 

for a sharp increase in automobile-based tourists.

A Challenging Transition to Peacetime

To some extent, Alaska began to de-emphasize 

its strong military role soon after Allied troops 

drove Japanese forces from the Aleutian Islands 

in the spring and summer of 1943. Not long 

thereafter, total U.S. troop strength began to fall 

as part of transfers to other theaters of war, and 

by 1945 the number of active-duty troops in 

Alaska had fallen from 152,000 to about 60,000.1 

Beginning in 1944, various civilian government 

agencies—the Alaska Railroad and the National 

Park Service included—reacted to the increasingly optimistic war news by making postwar plans.

Americans throughout the country rejoiced on 

August 15, 1945 (V-J Day) when the U.S. government accepted Japan’s surrender terms, and on 

September 2 Japanese officials officially ended 

the war with the signing of a treaty on the U.S.S. 

Missouri in Tokyo Bay.2 On October 4, officials 

with the U.S. Army’s Alaskan Department declared that emergency wartime travel restrictions 

were being relaxed.3

Given those developments, the NPS and various 

development interests looked forward to seeing 

a full resumption of tourism in the summer of 

1946. But major structural problems remained. 

The 16-ship fleet of the Alaska Steamship Company, for example, had been requisitioned during 

the war by the U.S. Maritime Commission, and by 

August 1945 two-thirds of those vessels had been 

sold or lost. Many of those vessels remained in 

government hands after the war ended, and it 

was not until late 1948 that the company regained 

full control of its fleet.4 Compounding these difficulties was a series of maritime strikes—either 

in Alaska ports or on the Seattle waterfront—that 

crippled commerce for portions of the 1946, 

1947, and 1948 tourist seasons.5 

The volume of Alaska’s maritime business during this period was so limited that the number 

of Alaskan steamship companies decreased 

from four in 1947 to just one (the Alaska Steamship Company) in 1950; this reduction, in turn, 

brought higher maritime passenger rates.6 This 

period, to be sure, offered new, alternative ways 

to get to and from Alaska; commercial air transportation between Alaska and the U.S. had begun 

in June 1940, and the Alcan (Alaska) Highway 

had been open between Fairbanks and the main 

North American road network since November 

1942.7 Both of these newfangled travel methods, 

however, had yet to prove themselves; although 

three different airlines during the late 1940s connected Alaska to the U.S., few tourists used these 

services, and the long, challenging Alcan route 

was closed to civilian traffic until 1948.8

Despite those impediments, officials with the 

Alaska Railroad (which had operated the hotel 

since it opened in June 1939 and had held the 

park’s concession since December 1941) did 

what they could to attract tourists to Mount 

McKinley National Park. (See Appendix D.) 

Anticipating a substantial increase in tourist 

volume, the railroad in May 1945 announced 

plans for a 72-room addition—each room with 

a separate bath—that would provide for a total 

of 320 guests. NPS landscape architect Alfred 

Kuehl, from the agency’s regional office in San 

Francisco, assisted by providing preliminary 

drawings and lay-out plans. The following 

March, the railroad issued bid proposals for the 

expansion project. Perhaps due to the bevy of 

other territorial construction projects, however, 

all of the submitted bids were rejected as “way 

over budget,” and shortly afterward, funds for 

the project were deleted because of a Presidential 

directive to reduce non-essential expenditures.9

Railroad officials, meanwhile, showed mixed 

feelings about the upcoming visitor season. In 

early 1946 the line’s general manager, Col. John 

P. Johnson, “indicated a strong possibility” that 

the tourist facilities would not open that summer 

due to a rate squabble with the Alaska Steamship 

Company. Soon afterward, however, the railroad 

reversed its position and stated that the hotel 

would open after all. When a maintenance crew 

arrived at the hotel on May 1, it was dismayed 

to discover $8,000 in damages caused by frozen 

pipes.10 Despite that setback, the hotel opened as 

scheduled on June 10 and continued to operate 

After the McKinley Park Hotel 

reopened to the public in 1946, it 

provided year-round accommodations 

and recreational activities. One of 

the ski runs is seen here overlooking 

the hotel complex. Charles Ott Photo, 

DENA 3548, Denali National Park and 

Preserve Museum Collection 
122 Crown Jewel of the North: An Administrative History of Denali National Park and Preserve

until September 30; during that time, the park 

received 1,145 visitors. Beginning in August, 

railroad officials discussed with Fort Richardson’s commander the possibility of keeping the 

hotel open that winter for both military and 

civilian use. The idea of a ski area development 

was broached during those discussions. The skiarea idea, however, was abandoned as being too 

costly, and the hotel closed down that winter.11

By the time the hotel opened the following 

spring, Johnson was well aware that the hotel 

was a financial albatross; Supt. Been recalls that 

Johnson was “frank in expressing desirability 

for the railroad to get out of the hotel business” 

and hoped that the hotel could be taken over by 

a private concessioner. Ickes’s decisions of a decade earlier were now irreversible, however, so the railroad 

soldiered on.12 During the 

summer of 1947, the rail carrier 

raised hotel rates by 20 percent 

and found “local and college 

people” to staff the facility. To 

further improve the bottom 

line, it pushed for a year-round 

hotel operation, hoping to 

gain enough Army patronage to cover winter operating 

expenses. Officials also hoped 

that the introduction of a new, 

streamlined train—the Aurora, 

which connected Anchorage 

with Fairbanks in one day instead of the previous 

two—would boost visitation. To dedicate the 

new train, they held a highly popular 1898-style 

costume ball at the hotel on Alaska Day, October 

18.13 For the remainder of the winter, Alaska 

residents descended on the hotel for holiday 

weekends, and both newlyweds and conventioneers flocked there as well. Otherwise, however, 

crowds were sparse, primarily because the 

military chose not to be involved. By the following May, railroad officials gamely declared that 

wintertime operations had been “satisfactory.” 

Hotel operations, however, remained a losing 

proposition; they resulted in about $150,000 of 

red ink to be spilled each year.14 Railroad officials, trying to be optimistic, planned to keep the 

hotel open during coming winters as well, stating 

that it was “reasonable to expect an uptrend of 

winter patronage from the States, particularly 

if winter sports are provided.” No such sport 

facilities were provided, however, until the winter 

of 1948-49, when the hotel management installed 

a ski tow and a “fine little ice rink” nearby. The 

skating rink was resurrected the following year 

as well. But despite those amenities, and despite 

reduced room rates and discount “excursion 

fares” on railroad travel—the hotel continued to 

lose money throughout this period.15 Spurred on 

by year-round visitation, the number of annual 

The McKinley Park Hotel lobby in the 

1940s. Candy Waugaman Collection

The McKinley Park Hotel Dining 

Room. Candy Waugaman Collection
Chapter Six: Postwar McKinley, 1946-1956 123

park visitors reached unprecedented heights 

during this period; the 1947 total of 3,466 was far 

higher than in any previous year, and during the 

next three years the number of visitors almost 

doubled, to 6,672. The high cost of staffing 

and heating the hotel, however, plus the lack of 

wintertime visitation accounted for its negative 

cash flow.16

Korean War Impacts

In 1950, events half a world away reverberated 

across Alaska and, in time, brought changes to 

Mount McKinley National Park. On June 25, 

North Koreans troops made a surprise attack 

across the 38th parallel, and three days later U.S. 

President Harry Truman ordered American 

troops to assist South Korean Army troops. The 

Korean War was on.17

Alaskan troops, whose primary purpose was to 

guard against a Soviet threat to North America, 

played a marginal role during the three-year war. 

Nevertheless, troops throughout the U.S.—Alaska included—were placed on a state of high alert 

and were constantly ready for battle.18 Given the 

country’s commitment to its military obligations, 

the Army showed a renewed interest in using the 

park hotel during the off-season, and in the early 

fall of 1950 it formally decided—in a report to 

the NPS’s regional office—to take over the hotel 

on December 1 for use as a rest camp. “High 

ranking military personnel” briefed NPS staff 

about the plan in late October—and visitation to 

the hotel—described as “negligible” during most 

of October—increased significantly as Army officials prepared for wintertime management.19

On December 1, as scheduled, the Army inaugurated the McKinley Park Recreational Rest 

Camp under a joint operation agreement with 

the Alaska Railroad, and for the remainder of 

the winter the hotel was filled—often to capacity—with armed services personnel. Just who 

filled the hotel, however, changed abruptly in 

January, when the Air Force replaced the Army; 

and perhaps because of that change, the military’s last occupancy date was moved back from 

April 1 to May 1.20 Upon leaving, the Air Force 

brass declared their intention to return again 

that fall. They kept that promise, and from 1951 

to 1953 the hotel was typically booked nearly all 

year round with either civilian tourists from early 

June through late September, or Alaska Air Command (i.e., Air Force) personnel from November 

1 through April 30. May and October were the 

only slack months except during the winter of 

1951-52, when the military operated the hotel all 

the way from early October through late May.21

By all accounts, the hotel was a lively place, summer and winter, during the three-year Korean 

War period. Year-round activities included the 

NPS’s interpretive films, shown at the hotel, and 

visits to the dog kennels and the agency’s small 

museum, both located at headquarters. Summertime activities included sightseeing out the 

park road, hiking, and camping.22 Wintertime 

guests, on the other hand, were able to take advantage of the skating rink that was laid out near 

the hotel and, beginning in the winter of 1950-51, 

the military offered a ski run and toboggan slide 

on the slope just west of the hotel. The skating 

rink apparently remained for several years, but 

the military’s “skiing activities,” in the spring of 

During the years the McKinley Park 

Hotel operated year-round, ice skating was one of the recreational activities available to visitors. DENA 30-13, 

Denali National Park and Preserve 

Museum Collection
124 Crown Jewel of the North: An Administrative History of Denali National Park and Preserve

1951, temporarily shifted to Mile 6 on the park 

road due to the lack of snow at McKinley Park 

Station.23 Folk and square dancing, conducted by 

the NPS staff and their wives, was also a wintertime staple during this period.24 The hotel was 

enlivened by several major conventions; of particular interest was the Alaska Science Conference, which was held there for the second time in 

September 1951 and the third time a year later.25

Despite the relatively high, year-round tourist 

levels at the hotel during this period (in 1950, in 

fact, the hotel was booked “almost to capacity 

for the summer”), the railroad continued to lose 

money. According to a contemporary report, the 

reasons for the red ink were simple: 

The hotel season is very brief ... there 

have been days during the [summer] 

season when the number of guests 

registered at the hotel dropped to as 

low as one person. Nevertheless it is 

necessary to maintain the full staff day 

in and day out during the season as it 

is not possible to estimate the number 

of guests.26

As a consequence, the railroad raised its hotel 

prices but skimped on maintenance. In 1950, 

therefore, visitors intending to go out into the 

park could “not do so in a satisfactory manner 

because transportation means and other accommodations out in the park are practically 

non-existent.” In 1951, in a similar fashion, the 

railroad ran bus and passenger-car trips out into 

the park “on a demand basis only.” Camp Eielson, which had not operated since the summer 

of 1948, continued in its mothballed state.27 The 

following year matters got considerably worse 

when Congress slashed its annual railroad appropriation from $16 million to $4 million, and as a 

complement to that action, it recommended that 

the hotel, for the first time ever, be placed under 

a concession contract. As a result, the railroad 

on June 12 issued an Invitation for Bid Proposals, 

asking for bid submittals to be completed by September 10. Meanwhile, the railroad continued 

to run the hotel, but it asked the Matanuska Bus 

Lines to provide a bus for service out the park 

road; that bus seldom went past Camp Eielson.28

That August, E.W. Lauesen, who represented 

certain “interested parties in Anchorage,” visited 

the park with an eye to its economic possibilities; 

later that year, he incorporated McKinley Park 

Services, Inc. for the purpose of submitting a bid 

for the concession contract.29 Lauesen’s outfit 

and three other companies submitted bids by the 

September 10 deadline, but by December, Lauesen had emerged as the only serious bidder. Park 

staff, in response, met repeatedly with the group 

and learned what it could about its finances. The 

investigation revealed that Lauesen’s group was 

severely undercapitalized, and it also discovered 

that the bidders had precious little hotel management experience. On the basis of those findings, the NPS’s regional director recommended 

against awarding Lauesen’s group the hotel 

contract; if granted, he asked that the bidders 

secure $200,000 in additional financing. But the 

Interior Department, fully aware of the railroad’s 

ardent interest in divesting its burden, softpedaled those suggestions, and 

on June 13, 1953, the agency 

awarded McKinley Park 

Services a 20-year contract to 

operate the hotel and ancillary services (see Appendix 

D). The contract, significantly, 

went into effect even though an 

important signatory, Interior 

Secretary Douglas McKay, did 

not approve it.30

Concessioner Difficulties

During the summer of 1953, 

military officials approached 

the new concessioner and 

discussed the idea of operating 

the hotel during the upcoming 

winter. Perhaps due to the end of the Korean 

War, however, they decided not to exercise that 

option. The railroad, hoping not to repeat the 

money-losing winters experienced during the 

late 1940s, orchestrated a “vigorous advertising campaign, via radio and news papers” in 

Fairbanks and Anchorage “in hope of stimulating winter travel.” And as an added inducement to attract visitors to the hotel, the railroad 

offered a room free to any person staying over 

between December 1 and December 22; guests 

merely needed to pay for their meals and any 

other services obtained. Despite that incentive, 

however, business at the hotel during the winter 

of 1953-54 was fairly quiet; monthly visitation 

ranged from just 117 to 423, or between four and 

fourteen guests per night. Given such a sparse 

This rope tow pulled skiers up the 

slope just west of the McKinley Park 

Hotel, seen in the background. DENA 

30-8, Denali National Park and Preserve Museum Collection
Chapter Six: Postwar McKinley, 1946-1956 125

visitor count, financial losses were again heavy 

that winter.31

During the fall of 1953, the National Park Service—which up to this point had been just an 

interested observer in hotel operations—became 

the owner of the hotel and more than 200 acres 

of surrounding land. (See below.) Based on that 

reality, and given the fact that the contract signed 

in June had never been consummated, the NPS 

and the new concessioner worked out a new 

contract regarding the operation of the hotel 

facilities. But as the fall wore on, the financial 

difficulties of the concessioner became increasingly obvious, and the contract that the House 

Interior Committee chair approved on February 

2, 1954 had just a five-year time frame. And as 

the contract wound again through the administrative channels within the Interior Department, 

a stipulation was inserted giving the Secretary the 

ability to terminate the contract in 90 days “if the 

company became involved in financial difficulties to the extent that it would be in the public 

interest to do so.” The Department finalized the 

new contract on July 6, 1954, but by this time, 

the concessioner’s plight was so desperate—and 

complaints about that summer’s hotel operation were so numerous—that Secretary McKay 

decided to not sign the contract.32 

Instead, he vowed that the facility should be 

transferred to its (new) owner, the National Park 

Service. Acting on those orders, NPS Director 

Conrad Wirth requested that a company called 

National Park Concessions, Inc. (NPCI) begin 

managing the hotel. (According to Don Hummel, a longtime concessioner at several national 

parks, NPCI was “a non-profit-distributing 

membership corporation,” founded in 1941, 

whose purpose it was “to furnish adequate 

accommodations for the public at reasonable 

rates and to develop these facilities solely in the 

interest of the public welfare.” According to 

NPCI’s president, the company served “at the 

request of the National Park Service” and “was 

asked to go” into various parks after the NPS 

had been “unsuccessful in interesting others to 

provide the concessioner services.”)33 On August 

4, just a week after Wirth’s request, NPCI official 

Garner Hansen arrived at the hotel along with 

NPS officials, Justice Department representatives 

and U.S. District Attorneys. Park Superintendent Grant Pearson then gave E. W. Lauesen a 

letter stating that McKinley Park Services was no 

longer managing the hotel and other concessions 

operations. Lauesen responded by bringing his 

attorney into the discussion, and a legal wrangle 

then ensued. Finally, on August 25, Lauesen’s 

company ceded its control over the concessions 

operation (see Appendix D.) NPCI, operating 

on a contract effective July 28, managed the hotel 

until the end of the season. That season was 

soon coming to a close. Hansen, in his brief time 

at the hotel, quickly recognized the economic 

limitations of operating the hotel in the wintertime, so he closed it on September 12 and left the 

area after placing it in a “caretaker status under 

the direction of the NPS.” By October, the hotel 

was “closed and locked to prevent unauthorized 

use,” but the hotel continued to be heated and 

otherwise maintained.34 

Because NPCI was the designated entity to 

rescue fiscally-challenged concessions operaOn November 7, 1953, ownership of 

the McKinley Park Hotel was transferred from the Alaska Railroad to 

the National Park Service. Signatories 

were, from the left, E.W. Lauesen of 

McKinley Park Services, Inc., Acting 

Park Superintendent Oscar Dick, and 

Elroy F. Hinman of the Alaska Railroad. DENA 12-28, Denali National 

Park and Preserve Museum Collection
126 Crown Jewel of the North: An Administrative History of Denali National Park and Preserve

tions, its role was to cut costs, 

increase operations efficiency, 

and prepare a transition to a 

new, private concessioner. In 

order to speed that transition, 

however, it had a special relationship with both the NPS and 

with Congress. That relationship enabled the company to 

tap into government funding if 

continued losses were incurred 

(although it likewise had to 

reimburse the government if 

profits were incurred), and it 

also meant that the government 

lent a kind ear to the company’s 

request for any infrastructural improvements that 

were necessary to ensure concessioner profitability.35

Given that relationship, the NPS added $20,000 

to the park’s budget for hotel maintenance (see 

Appendices B and C); this figure allowed the 

superintendent to hire a power plant engineer, 

maintenance men, and firemen as needed to 

minimize winter hotel maintenance costs. At 

first, this maintenance was provided by existing 

NPS staff, along with much-needed help from 

Alaska Railroad personnel; in time, however, the 

NPS hired a full-time power plant operator (or 

“operating engineer”) named Claude Sanders, 

along with a maintenance man, Charles Ott.36 

A maintenance crew remained until early May 

1955; meanwhile, the agency called in regionaloffice personnel to assess the hotel’s infrastructure needs.37

The hotel’s financial viability during this period 

was clearly tenuous, and reports surfaced in the 

spring of 1955 that the hotel might not open 

that summer. The hotel, in fact, opened later 

than usual (on June 15), and perhaps because 

its reputation was “still smarting from the 1954 

operation,” visitation was low through the summer of 1955. Nevertheless, Hansen did what he 

could. Recognizing that the park’s busses were 

in deplorable shape, he tried to either rent busses 

or obtain surplus military busses. Rebuffed in 

these attempts, he received a chorus of visitor 

complaints because the “wornout busses were 

continuously breaking down and on most occasions had to be towed into the hotel area to be 

repaired.” Finally, in August, he was able to rent 

a bus in Fairbanks that served until Labor Day, 

when bus tours stopped for the year. The combination of bad publicity, poor bus service, bad 

weather, and washouts (which stopped railroad 

service during August) meant for a poor visitor season; just 3,400 people visited the park in 

1955, the fewest number since 1946, and despite 

its cost-cutting measures, NPCI lost money that 

year.38 Given the hotel’s rocky finances, reports 

again surfaced that the hotel would close down 

for good. Matters were brought to a head in 

mid-September 1955, when several members 

of the U.S. House Subcommittee on Territorial 

and Insular Affairs, headed by Rep. Leo O’Brien 

(D-NY), visited McKinley Park Station as part 

of an Alaska-wide tour; the subcommittee held 

an impromptu hearing in the hotel lobby “on 

the merits of continued operation and needs of 

accommodations for the visiting public.” Those 

who spoke at the hearing included Assistant 

Superintendent Duane D. Jacobs, Park Naturalist 

Richard G. Prasil, and Garner Hansen of NPCI. 

Sufficient financial progress had been made by 

this date that the hotel would remain open the 

following year, if only on a seasonal basis.39

During the winter of 1955-56, as it had the 

previous winter, the Interior Department made 

a pro forma exercise of advertising for bidders 

to operate the hotel.40 (Given the hotel’s poor 

financial track record, apparently no qualified 

bidders stepped forward.) After 1955, however, 

prospects for the hotel began to improve. A 

post-season report on the hotel’s management 

recommended a rehabilitation and restoration 

program, and in response, the federal government authorized $147,000 to modernize the 

hotel’s power and heating systems. In November 

1955, a Fairbanks firm contracted for the job, and 

by the end of the following February, Superintendent Pearson proudly noted that “ample heat 

is now evident throughout the building under a 

full hot water hookup.”41 That spring, the hotel’s 

grounds were regraded and drained, and the old 

hotel garbage dump was cleaned up; as a result, 

Pearson proudly noted in June 1956 that the hotel area was “gradually beginning to take on an air 

of respectability.”42 Visitors, fortunately, began 

to return to the park. More than 5,200 arrived 

in 1956; that total was the most since 1953, when 

Fuel for the hotel’s power plant, 

shown here, was delivered by the 

Alaska Railroad on a wye from the 

depot. DENA 12-52, Denali National 

Park and Preserve Museum Collection 
Chapter Six: Postwar McKinley, 1946-1956 127

the hotel had been open all year long.43

During the midst of the 1956 season, further 

improvements to the hotel began when the NPS 

let a contract for a “general rehabilitation of the 

hotel” to an Anchorage construction company. 

That contract began in July and was completed 

in mid-October. The following year, the agency 

tendered a bid for a hotel fire alarm system, 

which was completed just two months later. 

And to replace the old worn-out buses that had 

caused so much grief to both concessioners and 

visitors, two new 12-passenger buses were finally 

acquired during the winter of 1956-57.44

NPCI, during this period, continued to manage 

the park concession, and thanks to an improved 

visitor count, the company made its first profit—

about $3,200—in 1956. The company, however, 

had no long-term interest in the concession, so 

the agency began casting about for a new concessioner. The first to show an interest were Charles 

“Chuck” West of Arctic Alaska Travel Service 

in Fairbanks, and Stanley Chinn, who currently 

operated the Healy Hotel under an Alaska Railroad contract. And in the summer of 1956, two 

new parties showed an interest in the contract 

and visited the park to learn more details about 

its operations. None of these consummated a 

contract, however, so in February 1957, NPCI 

signed a contract to operate the hotel and the 

park transportation system for the upcoming 

summer.45 

Congress, recognizing the difficulties under 

which NPCI was forced to operate at the Mount 

McKinley facility, provided some fiscal relief to 

the company during this period. In previous 

years, there had been no guarantee that revenues 

gained through the hotel’s operation could be 

kept and used to offset operating expenses. That 

changed, however, in June 1956, when Congress 

included a provision in the 1957 Interior Department appropriations bill stating that “all receipts 

for the fiscal year 1957” for the hotel “may be 

applied to, or offset against, costs of managing, 

operating, and maintaining the hotel and related 

facilities...”. This provision was renewed for the 

following two years; as shall be seen, the hotel’s 

return to profitability in later years made a continuation of this clause unnecessary.46

Constructing the Denali Highway

A major factor that affected the decisions of both 

park personnel and concessioners during the 

postwar decade was the Denali Highway. This 

road, which was intended to connect Mount 

McKinley National Park to the larger road system, held great promise because of its potential 

to boost park visitation. Ever since the idea 

had first been suggested during the 1930s, the 

Territory of Alaska had showed great interest in 

the highway’s potential to boost Alaska tourism. 

Despite efforts to the contrary, little more than 

planning and surveying took place during the 

1940s. Thereafter, however, the road benefited 

from a consistent funding stream that provided 

for new road construction each year until the 

project was completed.

So far as is known, the idea of this highway 

was first broached in the early 1930s. In 1929, 

boosters in both Fairbanks, Alaska, and Dawson, Yukon Territory had formed twin chapters 

The two new buses for the hotel 

concession arrived on Alaska Railroad 

flatcars in February, 1957, at -40 degrees. DENA 12-41, Denali National 

Park and Preserve Museum Collection
128 Crown Jewel of the North: An Administrative History of Denali National Park and Preserve

of the International Highway Association, with 

a mutual goal of connecting interior Alaska 

to Prince George, B.C. via a 1,350-mile gravel 

road. Development groups continued to hawk 

the idea for the next several years, and in 1933, 

Superintendent Harry Liek noted that the park 

“would surely come into its own in the event that 

the highway is constructed, although it would 

require a feeder running from the Richardson 

Highway to McKinley Park Station in order to 

make connections...”.47 Four years later, the 

need for such a highway was reiterated as part of 

a congressional report related to Alaska resource 

planning. That report was written while the park 

hotel was still being constructed, before the park 

road was completed all the way to Kantishna, and 

just before a rough route between Cantwell and 

the Valdez Creek (Denali) mining district was 

laid out. The report noted that

at some future date a connecting 

highway may be built between the 

park road system and the Richardson 

Highway. The construction of such 

a connecting link will undoubtedly 

stimulate traffic to the park. A recommendation that this approach highway 

be constructed is made in this report. 

These future demands can be met by 

an increase in the size and variety of 

the tourist facilities at McKinley Park 

Station and at Wonder Lake.48

Between 1938 and 1941, the gathering war clouds 

forced both the U.S. and Canada to talk more 

seriously about an international highway, and 

talk about a connecting road to McKinley Park 

Station was often a byproduct of those discussions. The appointment of Ernest Gruening, an 

avowed McKinley booster, as Alaska’s governor 

in December 1939 kept the idea alive, and during the following year the first maps, plans, and 

field inspections of possible routes took place. 

Those who surveyed the route between Paxsons 

Roadhouse49 (on the Richardson Highway) and 

the Cantwell area noted that there was already 

a “well known trail” used by Valdez Creek-area 

gold miners for much of this route, and that the 

Alaska Road Commission, in 1938, had improved 

the route between Cantwell and Valdez Creek 

from a trail to a tractor road. Between Cantwell 

and the park hotel, however, there were “two 

reasonable entrances into the park;” one paralleled the Nenana River and the railroad right-ofway, while the other ascended Windy Creek and 

reached the park hotel via the Riley Creek watershed.50 Frank Been, the park superintendent 

at the time, clamored for the road because road 

access would guarantee freedom from the “high 

railroad fares and hotel rates” then in force. The 

looming war, however, meant that scant attention 

was paid to a park connecting road between 1941 

and 1945, inclusive; during that period, however, 

both the Alcan (Alaska) Highway was built as well 

as a road connecting Palmer (and thus Anchorage) with the Richardson Highway.51

Once the war was over, however, interest in the 

road returned. In its annual report for fiscal 

This photo shows a portion of the 

new Cantwell to McKinley Park road 

and the Nenana #2 Bridge, in August 

1952 (near the present Crabbie’s 

Crossing). The Nenana River is the 

park boundary, making all lands to 

the left of the river within the park. 

Harpers Ferry Center, #1348, National 
Chapter Six: Postwar McKinley, 1946-1956 129

year 1945, which was prepared before V-J Day, 

the Alaska Road Commission recommended 

three new road construction projects “should 

the war terminate before the beginning of fiscal 

year 1947.” One of those three projects was the 

155-mile-long, $3,875,000 Paxsons-McKinley 

Park road. The ARC recommended that $1 million be spent on that project during fiscal year 

1947.52 Road construction was not funded that 

year, so it was again recommended the following year, with similar results. When the ARC 

wrote its 1947 annual report, the road’s projected 

cost had risen to $4,650,000, and it requested 

$1,800,000 for the 1949 fiscal year.53 The NPS 

was fully supportive of this project; as it noted in 

the park’s November 1946 Development Outline

(master plan), “By constructing an approach road 

connecting [the park] with the Alaska road system, it will become accessible to many Alaskans 

and also help solve transportation difficulties of 

visiting tourists from the States.” The agency, 

at that time, anticipated that the road would be 

built through the Windy Creek and Riley Creek 

watersheds, so it planned for “suitable quarters” 

for a ranger “at the Cantwell entrance of the 

proposed approach road.”54

The ARC finally began survey work on the 155-

mile road in September 1947. About 45 miles 

of survey work was completed, including the 

segment between Cantwell and the park hotel via 

Windy and Riley creeks. The following September, an inspection was made of the alternate 

route between Cantwell and the park hotel. Also 

in 1948, the ARC authorized the construction 

of a road between Paxsons and Cantwell. After 

Commission personnel conducted additional 

survey work at the eastern end of the proposed 

road, the Anchorage firm of Smith, Brown and 

Root, Inc.—under contract to the commission for 

construction of the road project—was ready to 

proceed as soon as funds could be allotted.55

The year 1949 began with high hopes; in March, 

park staff heard that an ARC survey crew “will 

work out from Cantwell toward Valdez Creek” 

and the Commission “will probably begin 

construction work later in the summer from 

Cantwell. ... Construction work would start this 

spring from the Richardson Highway toward 

Valdez Creek.” But the Commission ran into 

problems, and “in June a decision was reached 

to suspend work on the east end of the ... Road 

until further surveys could be made. ... Construction had not been planned for the west end 

of this project during 1949 because of [its] inaccessibility [by road] and the lack of base camp 

facilities on that end.” The ARC, meanwhile, 

continued to mull over the best route for an approach road between Cantwell and the park hotel, but no decision was reached that year.56 Part 

of the reason for the lack of progress in 1949 was 

that the ARC considered an alternate route at the 

proposed route’s eastern end; that route would 

have headed west from the Richardson Highway at Meiers’ Roadhouse (16 miles southeast 

of Paxsons) until it angled north at the Susitna 

River. In the fall of 1948, the Commission had 

briefly flirted with another alternate route—of 

accessing the national park via a route south from 

Fairbanks that paralleled the Alaska Railroad. 

That idea was quickly discarded in favor of an 

east-west route, although it was revived less than 

a decade later (see Chapter 7).57

By early 1950, the ARC had made a final decision on the Paxsons-Cantwell portion of the 

route, and construction that year began at each 

end. In Cantwell, the Commission constructed 

an equipment depot, and from that base it built 

20 miles of road toward Valdez Creek; at Paxson, 

it worked westbound and opened 14 miles of 

road to traffic. Between Cantwell and the park 

hotel, the ARC continued to dither over the best 

route, and early in the year it surveyed two routes 

between Carlo and the park hotel: one via “Carlo 

Pass” (three miles north of Carlo) and Riley 

Creek, the other paralleling the Alaska Railroad 

right-of-way. A final route decision, which (according to the ARC) was “coordinated with plans 

of the National Park Service,” was made in the 

late summer of 1950, and in October, a six-mile 

segment of this “alternate approach road” was 

constructed between Cantwell and the Nenana 

River crossing near Windy.58

In 1951, construction crews concentrated 

their efforts at the road’s western end. East of 

Cantwell, crews pushed east and graded 131⁄2 

miles of new road, four of which were opened to 

traffic. North of Cantwell, ARC officials hoped to 

complete the approach road that summer. Work 

began in April. By the end of May a wooden 

bridge had been completed over the Nenana 

River near Windy, and work was “progressing 

rapidly” between Cantwell and the park boundary (at the so-called Yanert Crossing). By August, 

construction had proceeded to the point that the 

ARC started moving equipment to the Yanert 

Crossing bridge site. Work also progressed in 

the McKinley Park Station area, although more 

slowly. The ARC worked with an architect from 

the NPS’s regional office on where to locate the 

park road, and in June, that office approved the 

route and construction commenced. As the summer wore on, both agencies were hopeful that 

the Yanert Crossing bridge would be completed 

that year and that trucks would be able to travel 

between Cantwell and McKinley Park Station. 

High water on the Nenana River and ARC budget 

cutbacks, however, forced all bridge work to be 
130 Crown Jewel of the North: An Administrative History of Denali National Park and Preserve

postponed until the following year.59

In 1952, the 29-mile road segment between 

Cantwell and McKinley Park Station was completed and opened to traffic. The work, however, 

proved challenging. In March, the ARC began 

work on the pile bridge at Yanert Crossing; a 

month later, it completed the bridge and began 

work on the smaller bridge across Riley Creek. 

The latter bridge was completed in late May. Disaster, however, struck on May 21, when the icechoked Nenana River washed away both of the 

newly-constructed Nenana River bridges during 

breakup. The ARC, forced to improvise, installed 

a 180-foot-long Bailey Bridge at Yanert Crossing 

beginning in July and made similarly improvised 

repairs on the bridge near Cantwell. The road 

was finally completed in September and was 

kept open most if not all of the following winter. 

Also in 1952, the road—previously known as the 

Paxsons-Cantwell-McKinley Park Road—was 

renamed the Denali Highway.60

In 1953, work picked up again at the Paxson end 

of the road after two years of relative quiet; at the 

western end, sufficient new road was constructed 

that the road terminus, at the end of season, 

was 34 miles east of Cantwell. The Commission 

that spring completed another road project—a 

nine-mile segment from Cantwell southwest to 

Summit Airfield—that was important to park 

residents. This airfield, located in the Broad Pass 

area, had been built before World War II, and 

ever since, it had served as a flight service station 

and had been staffed on a 24-hour basis by Civil 

Aeronautics Authority (CAA) personnel. The 

airfield, which had a runway almost 5,000 feet 

long—some 2,000 feet longer than the McKinley Park Station airstrip—was midway between 

Anchorage and Fairbanks and had long served 

a valuable emergency function. Given its road 

access to the park, Summit Airfield offered many 

advantages that both park staff and park visitors 

utilized in the years to come.61

Beginning in the winter of 1953-54, the ARC 

crews in Cantwell decided to stop plowing the 

road north of town each fall; they kept it closed 

until the following spring. (This closure affected 

relatively few drivers, inasmuch as the road was 

accessible to fewer than 200 area residents during 

this period.)62 The road between Cantwell and 

the park gradually improved; in late 1954, the 

ARC replaced its original Nenana River bridge 

near Cantwell with an improved structure, and in 

early 1955, the Bailey Bridge at Yanert Crossing 

was removed in favor of a new, 

more permanent span.63

Meanwhile, construction 

proceeded on the remaining 

mileage needed to complete the 

Denali Highway. Peter Bagoy, 

the government foreman on the 

project, noted that construction 

in one area west of the Susitna 

River slowed because of one 

particularly obstinate hill that 

held out for three years despite 

the continual thawing and 

scraping process. At one time, 

the mud was so bad that six of 

the crew’s eighteen large D-8 

“cats” were put out of commission, buried above 

their tracks.64

The major remaining obstacles were four bridges. 

They included the Rock Creek Bridge, 25 miles 

west of Paxson; the Maclaren River Bridge, 42 

miles west of Paxson; the Canyon Creek Bridge, 

411⁄2 miles east of Cantwell, and the Susitna River 

Bridge, 58 miles east of Cantwell. Of these, a 

1000-foot bridge over the Susitna River promised 

to be most challenging, so test drilling for the 

bridge pilings began during the winter of 1953-

54. During the summer of 1954, road construction had been completed as far as the Rock Creek 

Bridge (from Paxson) and the Canyon Creek 

Bridge (from Cantwell), halting further work 

until these bridges could be completed. Operating under two different contracts—a $156,000 

contract for the two Paxson-area bridges and 

a $524,000 contract for the two Cantwell-area 

bridges—work began on all four structures in the 

spring of 1955.65 By the end of June of that year, 

the Canyon Creek Bridge was sufficiently complete that the road was “under construction but 

passable” all the way from Cantwell to the Susitna 

River Bridge. Work then focused on the Susitna 

River Bridge, which was finished in May 1956; 

and by the end of June, the two bridges closest 

to Paxson were also complete.66 Anticipating the 

The Nenana River #2 bridge at Yanert 

Crossing has been replaced several 

times. This photo shows serious damage by ice during spring breakup in 

May, 1954. DENA 2-9, Denali National 

Park and Preserve Museum Collection
Chapter Six: Postwar McKinley, 1946-1956 131

completion of these bridges, the Commission in 

late 1955 prepared a contract for the construction 

of the last 371⁄2 road miles between the Susitna 

and Maclaren rivers.67 That contract, totaling 

$1.86 million, was awarded in mid-May 1956. 

All signs now pointed toward a speedy completion of the Denali Highway; in March 1956, the 

ARC predicted that the road would be “open for 

public use” on June 1, 1957.68

The Park Plans for New Visitors

As noted above, the Alaska Road Commission 

had kept NPS officials abreast of all developments during the Denali Highway construction 

period, and the ARC and NPS had worked together on all phases of road construction within 

the park boundaries. Because of those information exchanges, NPS staff had ten years or more 

to prepare for the increased visitation that the 

highway would bring.

The agency made a series of responses during 

the postwar decade on how they would exercise 

their development options. Its November 1946 

Development Outline stated that no new roads 

should be built except for the proposed park 

approach road. It did, however, recommend that 

“development should ultimately include designated camp or picnic grounds at Savage River, 

Igloo Creek and Toklat River and possibly one 

near the approach road entrance.” In addition, 

“adequate rest room facilities should be built at 

the approximate half-way point on the highway 

[between] McKinley Station and Wonder Lake.” 

A Project Construction Program (PCP) request 

to fund the rest room project, in fact, had already 

been submitted to the agency’s regional office.69

So far as is known, the 1946 Development Outline

was the first NPS document that specifically 

planned for a series of automobile camps along 

the park road. Camps, of course, had been 

a staple in the park since its earliest days; the 

major camps had been Savage Camp and Camp 

Eielson, but the pre-war concessioner had also 

established other, smaller camps, both along the 

park road and up the Savage River valley. During 

World War II, the military had also provided for 

camping at selected points along the park road. 

None of these, however, had been planned with 

the individual traveler in mind. The reason, of 

course, was that automobile traffic within the 

park had always been miniscule in comparison to 

those who traveled by the concessioner’s guidedriven “passenger car” or bus. Before World War 

II, only the wealthiest tourists brought their automobiles to Alaska, and those who wanted to drive 

on the McKinley park road had to load their auto 

onto a railroad flat car at either Anchorage or 

Fairbanks.

Despite those hurdles, a few intrepid souls came 

by car. As noted in Chapter 3, Supt. Karstens 

had driven the first tourists by auto into the park 

in August 1924, and in July 1935, Mr. C.E. Long 

of Mariposa, California earned the distinction 

of “being the first tourist to drive a car bearing a 

license from the United States” within the park. 

Few others were seen prior to World War II, but 

by 1947 the park superintendent was noting that 

“private cars [were] becoming more common” 

on the park road, and the following summer, 30 

private cars—a new record—were offloaded at 

McKinley Park Station. (Particularly notable 

The damaged Nenana River #2 bridge 

was replaced by fall of 1954. The 

present bridge is slightly upstream 

of the earlier bridges, and is the fifth 

bridge built at this general location. 

DENA 2-10, Denali National Park and 

Preserve Museum Collection 
132 Crown Jewel of the North: An Administrative History of Denali National Park and Preserve

was a July day that year in which six private cars 

were in the park at the same time.) Given the 

increasing number of these cars, and recognizing 

that large numbers of autos would be arriving 

with the Denali Highway’s completion, NPS staff 

began to plan accordingly. As early as 1951, a 

visiting consultant noted that “the Alaska traveler 

does not expect the same high type tourist facilities in Alaska as in the States, especially if the trip 

to Alaska has been made over the route of the 

Alaska Highway.” He therefore hoped that “tourist accommodations in McKinley Park could be 

developed on a more modest scale” than was 

currently available at the McKinley Park Hotel.70

To accommodate the new demand, the NPS 

moved in early 1948 to have “its first public 

campground” in place by summer. That June, 

rangers tidied up an area along the Teklanika 

River, repaired an existing “frame hut,”71 and 

opened Teklanika Camp to the public. Amenities were few; fire places and tables were noticeable by their absence, and the water supply was 

a small, nearby brook. Some visitors, however, 

camped at ranger stations, at abandoned ARC 

construction camps, or wherever else they chose 

to pitch a tent.72 During 1950 and 1951, regional 

office personnel inspected future campground 

sites. Those inspections bore fruit in early 1952, 

when a “temporary” site was chosen for a Wonder Lake campground. (This is not surprising, 

inasmuch as most early automobile tourists liked 

to camp where—given good weather—the best 

views of Mount McKinley could be found.)73 

NPS personnel spent much of that summer 

improving that site; that summer also saw the 

first, small improvements at Igloo Campground 

and Morino campgrounds.74 A number of these 

improvements were salvaged from Camp Eielson, 

which was finally being disassembled after years 

of neglect.75 In 1954, the agency decided to 

establish improved park campgrounds at Savage 

River and Wonder Lake; those improvements, 

which included tables, fireplaces, water lines, and 

septic tanks, were completed in the late summer 

of 1955. Given these developments, the NPS was 

able to boast two major campgrounds plus three 

smaller ones by the time the Denali Highway 

neared completion.76 Because there were never 

more than 200 cars per year in the park during 

this period, automobile campers in the early- to 

mid-1950s had no worries about traffic along the 

park road, and the various park campgrounds 

were seldom crowded.77

The Alaska Road Commission did its part during 

this period to prepare for the increased traffic by 

maintaining the park road and the accompanying 

bridges. The park road, which was completed 

to Kantishna in the late 1930s, demanded a high 

degree of maintenance, and most years brought 

washouts that closed portions of the road for 

several days; to quickly respond to those emergencies, and to carry on all of their other tasks, 

the ARC stationed a crew at Toklat (Mile 54) 

beginning in 1944.78 The commission’s major 

springtime challenge remained the huge snowremoval operation in order to clear the road in 

time for the park’s June 10 opening; in some 

years conditions were cooperative, and traffic 

could move to Wonder Lake as early as April 28, 

but in other years the road opening was delayed 

until late June.79 An ice layer covering the road at 

Mile 3 remained a periodic springtime headache; 

in 1949, 1950, and 1954, for example, crews scattered a thin layer of cinders, ashes or coal dust 

on the ice, which “hastened the melting of this 

glacier.”80 But in other years, ice on the roadway 

was not a problem. By the spring of 1956, the 

ash-and-cinder treatment had been abandoned 

in favor of earlier ice-removal methods.81

Beyond the day-to-day problems caused by 

weather and the seasons, however, engineers 

recognized that the roadway needed help. This 

problem first came to light in the spring of 1948, 

when Supt. Been noted that the park’s road and 

bridges were in “critical condition” because they 

had been “inadequately maintained for several 

years.” Later that year, Been helped prepare a 

proposal to modernize the road infrastructure.82 

Perhaps in response to that proposal, most of 

the park’s bridges were replaced between 1950 

and 1957. Some of these bridges, over small 

unnamed creeks, were timber-stringer replacements of the originals, but a few old bridges were 

replaced by corrugated metal culverts. Major 

projects during this period (see Appendix G) 

included steel bridges over Savage River (1950-

51), East Fork (1952-54), Toklat River (1953-56), 

Teklanika River (1955), Sanctuary River (1956), 

Upper Igloo Creek (1956), and Stony Creek 

(1956-57).83 There were no road paving projects 

during this period, but the highway was widened 

and straightened between Mile 53 and Mile 

69 during the summer of 1946; it was widened 

between Mile 66 and Mile 69 during the summer 

of 1951; and also in 1951, a new right-of-way was 

In September, 1955, fourteen concrete 

fireplaces were installed in the Savage River campground, along with 

this comfort station, which was still 

under construction. DENA 41-49, 

Denali National Park and Preserve 

Museum Collection
Chapter Six: Postwar McKinley, 1946-1956 133

bladed out for a short distance at Mile 6.84

Wonder Lake Lodge: Further Considerations

While some observers, as noted above, recognized the need to develop tourist accommodations at the park on a “modest scale,” many 

development advocates clearly remained enthusiastic about a hotel or lodge at the western end 

of the park road. As noted in Chapter 5, several 

sites had been considered for hostelries in that 

area during the early to mid-1930s, but an August 

1938 trip out the park road by Interior Secretary 

Harold Ickes and Territorial Chief Ernest Gruening had resulted in a firm decision to back a site 

on a knoll just south of Wonder Lake, and other 

sites were discarded after that time. Funding 

of the hotel seemed increasingly certain during 

1940 and 1941, but the Pearl Harbor bombing 

put the project on hold for the duration of the 

war.

In early 1945, as the war was winding down, the 

Alaska Railroad—now the park’s concessioner—

and the NPS dusted off their prewar plans for a 

“lodge and cabins” at Wonder Lake. Col. Otto 

Ohlson, the railroad’s general manager, stated 

his intention “to construct a comfortable lodge 

camp” where “we’ll build several log cabins, 

capable of housing from two to eight persons 

apiece, located in a semi-circle around the main 

lodge.”85 Survey parties were sent out, Congressional parties visited the site, NPS architects 

collaborated with railroad engineers on design 

elements, and hotel advocates pressed their 

case within the Interior Department.86 Revised 

plans called for a much larger lodge complex, 

with over a hundred rooms within various-sized 

buildings.87 Alaska newspapers soon got wind of 

the project. Even Alaska Airlines—which, at the 

time, flew only in Alaska except for charter business—did its part to publicize the area; it erected 

a display showing the proposed lodge at the National Aviation Show in New York City.88 Funding stalled, however, because funds were scarce 

for many Interior Department agencies during 

the postwar years. In September 1946, acting 

Superintendent Grant Pearson glumly noted that 

Wonder Lake lodge construction had been “deleted from the Railroad program for [the] 1948 

fiscal year in compliance with the President’s 

directive to reduce non-essential expenditures.” 

The following year, railroad officials held out 

some hope for a construction allocation in the 

1949 budget, but no such funding came forth.89

Bradford Washburn then entered the fray by 

suggesting a new development idea. By this time, 

Washburn was well-known for his mountaineering expertise; he had climbed Mount McKinley 

several times, his most recent summit effort (in 

the spring of 1947) being a well-publicized expedition in which his wife Barbara had climbed to 

the top. Washburn, in 1942, had been part of the 

Army Test Expedition, whose leaders had been so 

enthralled with the “Clearwater River country” 

that they had convinced Superintendent Been 

that the area “should be accessible by a branch 

road from the park highway.” The beauty of this 

area, located south and west of Wonder Lake, 

had first been publicized by Charles Sheldon, 

and in 1927 Harry Karstens—who had tramped 

through the area with Sheldon—had recommended a site in this area for a hotel.90 Given 

the agency’s extensive postwar planning for a 

The original East Fork bridge, built by 

the Alaska Road Commission in 1929-

30. DENA 2-73, Denali National Park 

and Preserve Museum Collection 
134 Crown Jewel of the North: An Administrative History of Denali National Park and Preserve

Wonder Lake hotel, therefore, it should have 

come as no surprise that Washburn would again 

advocate access to the Clearwater country south 

of Wonder Lake; he did so in a meeting with NPS 

Associate Director Demaray in June 1944 (Washburn, according to Demaray, stated that “visitors 

to the park should be entitled to get close to the 

mountain”) and again, to Superintendent Been, 

before his 1947 climb. After he returned, he 

expressed a similar sentiment to Interior Department officials in Washington, noting that “the 

building of a road over to the bottom of McKinley should be considered as an integral part of 

the recreational development program necessary 

to the construction of a Lodge at Wonder Lake.” 

Agency officials, however, threw cold water on 

the idea; they had little interest in new roadbuilding in the park, they were concerned about the 

high cost of a bridge across the McKinley River, 

and there were “several hundred projects which 

we feel are more urgent and will benefit greater 

numbers of park visitors.” Ernest Gruening, who 

was a friend of Washburn, initially backed the 

climber’s stand. Later, however, Gruening went 

along with the NPS’s explanation that it “was not 

opposed to the road as a project but public use 

pressure in other parks compelled preference to 

those areas so long as funds had to spread out to 

do the most good.”91

Between 1947 and 1950, the idea of a Wonder 

Lake lodge remained high on the priority list 

of railroad and Park Service officials, and these 

officials did what they could to court potential 

developers.92 But Congressional authorizing 

committees had little interest in the project.93 

Given that change of heart, other ideas were 

considered. Alaska Airlines briefly proposed 

Wonder Lake as a site for a tourist camp, and 

Superintendent Pearson unsuccessfully urged 

NPS officials to reconsider the construction of a 

lodge on the western flank of Mt. Eielson, much 

as Major Gillette of the ARC had suggested back 

in 1927.94

In December 1951, Conrad Wirth became the 

new NPS Director. His appointment signaled a 

major new direction for the agency; inasmuch as 

the man who had directed the agency throughout 

the 1940s, Newton Drury, “came nearest to the 

purist attitude” of all the park directors,” Wirth 

by contrast was a landscape architect who had 

long been involved in the construction of roads, 

visitor centers, and other park development projects.95 Perhaps in response to that appointment, 

the agency made new attempts to promote the 

idea of funding a lodge on park land near Wonder Lake. In 1952, for example, both Superintendent Pearson and San Francisco-based agency 

officials hoped that an impending change in the 

park’s concessioner (from the Alaska Railroad to 

the privately-financed McKinley Park Services) 

might result in a lodge that would be jointly 

financed by the concessioner and the NPS; in 

response to the Congressional report issued the 

previous year, however (for tourist accommodations to “be developed on a more modest scale”), 

a small, eight-cabin lodge was proposed.96 Two 

years later, the NPS repackaged the lodge idea 

and presented plans for a Wonder Lake Roadhouse Development. Unfortunately, however, 

development funds during the Korean War era 

and its aftermath were no easier to obtain than 

they had been during the late 1940s, and concesThe original East Fork bridge was 

replaced by this concrete and steel 

structure, shown under construction in July 1954. DENA 2-81, Denali 

National Park and Preserve Museum 
Chapter Six: Postwar McKinley, 1946-1956 135

sioners during this period were similarly in no 

position to finance anything beyond their own 

bare-bones operations. The lodge idea, therefore, never got beyond the planning stage during 

this period.97

Camp Denali Opens for Business

That is not to say, however, that no accommodations were built in the Wonder Lake area. 

Just north of Wonder Lake, and less than two 

miles north of the park boundary, three Alaskans decided to homestead a bench, partway 

up a ridge, that had a commanding view of the 

central Alaska Range. As Ginny Hill Wood, one 

of the trio noted, “it all started in ... 1951 when 

Celia Hunter came down from Fairbanks to visit 

Woody [Morton Wood, an NPS ranger] and me 

at McKinley Park.” Hunter and the Woods flew 

out to the Kantishna Airstrip and soon hiked up 

to a ridge just north of Moose Creek. The three 

were well aware that “on the drawing boards was 

a ... hotel to be constructed near Wonder Lake 

which ... would specialize in attractions designed 

to isolate guests from the genuine delights of 

nature and its wildlife...”. But recognizing that 

“many people came to McKinley Park to see its 

glaciers, mountains, and wildlife,” they decided 

to “build our own resort,” based on the notion 

that “there are those who seek experiences genuinely Alaskan ... and catch the spirit of the bush 

country – even if it means living without running 

water and electric lights, and taking the mosquitoes with the scenery.”98

Based on those ideas, the trio went to work. By 

early July 1951, Ms. Hunter had decided to stake 

the site with the Bureau of Land Management, 

and on October 29 she applied for a trade and 

manufacturing site.99 Before the snow closed 

the road that fall, they had “a miner bulldoze a 

road within 400 yards of our campsite.” They 

also cut and hauled timbers for two tent foundations and built a cache to store their tools and 

a tent. Their eventual goal was to offer “both 

sleeping and housekeeping tents with wooden 

floors and walls, and a mess-hall tent of similar 

construction where family-style meals will be 

served...”.100 Early in 1952, Hunter asked the 

NPS for permission to transport guests along 

the park road; hoping that the Alaska Railroad 

would haul visitors as far west as Camp Eielson 

or Wonder Lake, Hunter’s initial request was 

only for permission to conduct “excursions from 

my camp ... for hiking, camping, game photography, etc.” The railroad, however, stated that 

it would not be handling transportation in the 

park during the upcoming season; therefore, 

Hunter had to amend her earlier request and ask 

for permission to carry guests to her camp all the 

way from McKinley Park Station. Inasmuch as 

the park superintendent was “certain that Miss 

Hunter’s place of business will be a decided asset 

to the park,” NPS officials looked favorably on 

her request. Superintendent Pearson initiated 

the request for a special use permit to transport 

passengers and freight on the park road. That 

permit was not approved until after the summer 

season was over; meanwhile, however, Pearson 

allowed the three to use the park road on an 

informal basis that year.101

The following spring, Morton Wood resigned 

This 1947 architectural drawing of 

the proposed Wonder Lake hotel 

development was one of several 

plans for the site on a knoll south 

and west of Wonder Lake. NPS, 

Drawing McK-2018, TIC Aperture Card 
136 Crown Jewel of the North: An Administrative History of Denali National Park and Preserve

from the NPS to devote his efforts to the new 

business venture, and the trio redoubled their 

efforts to open their rustic tent assemblage—to 

be called Camp Denali—as soon as possible. All 

three were at the site and hard at work on June 

13, just one day after the road opened. Less than 

a week later, the camp received its first customers. That summer they built “four 10 x 12 housekeeping tent-cabins and a 14 by 16 lodge-tent,” 

along with various “plain white wall tents on the 

ground.” Just prior to the end of that first (1952) 

season, they completed an aluminum warehouse 

for equipment storage. Looking back on their 

shared experience, Hunter noted that “we had 

over 150 visitors to our camp;” they included 

climbers, University of Alaska students, scientists, 

Sierra Club members, and other lovers of the 

outdoors. Hunter candidly noted that “we didn’t 

make much money – didn’t expect to, because we 

realize that this is going to be a long-range proposition.” Wood noted, “We can’t tell now what 

coming seasons will bring,” but proudly stated 

that “we had demonstrated to our own satisfaction that Camp Denali filled a need,” and she was 

happy to say “that we are helping appreciative 

visitors to enjoy the park.”102 The camp, indeed, 

proved increasingly popular in future years, and 

it has remained a fixture along the western end of 

the park road.

Consolidating Park Ownership

By the time World War II was over, the vast 

majority of Mount McKinley National Park was 

in public lands; the NPS, in fact, had clear and 

undisputed ownership of more than 99.9 percent 

of the 2,193,765 acres within the park boundaries. Since the boundaries had been expanded 

in March of 1932, the agency had made some 

progress in clearing up title difficulties in the 

McKinley Park Station area, and it had also purchased a key inholding toward the western end 

of the park road. The only parcels that remained 

in non-NPS were four private claims, which 

totaled almost 295 acres, along with various 

Alaska Railroad properties (away from the rightof-way corridor) which totaled slightly over 205 

acres. Most, although not all, of both private and 

railroad lands were located in the McKinley Park 

Station area. During the next decade, actions by 

both the NPS and the various landowners would 

result in more than two-thirds of that acreage 

being transferred to NPS jurisdiction.

The largest private claim at McKinley Park Station was that of Maurice Morino, who had been 

in the area prior to the establishment of the park 

and prior to railroad construction. Morino, who 

had run a rustic roadhouse along with a trading 

post and post office, had gained title to his land 

on August 1, 1934. Three years later, on March 

6, 1937, he had died in Everett, Washington. 

After that date, his estate was left to his nephew, 

also named Maurice Morino; perhaps because 

the younger Morino was a minor, the estate was 

administered by Mary Liek, wife of the park superintendent, Harry Liek.103 Soon after the elder 

Ginny Wood, Morton “Woody” 

Wood, and Celia Hunter began building Camp Denali by hand in 1951. In 

this September 1953 photograph, the 

large canvas tent frame at center is 

where the lodge building currently 

stands. The cache beside Nugget 

Pond, left, is a feature of Camp 

Denali today. National Park Service, 

#2307, Harpers Ferry Center
Chapter Six: Postwar McKinley, 1946-1956 137

Morino’s death, the NPS canvassed his 120-acre 

tract and identified “1 large log building used as 

roadhouse and trading post, 1 log building used 

as bunkhouse and store room,” and 7 log cabins. 

Supt. Liek, at that time, estimated that the land 

and improvements were worth $5,000.104

A year later Liek’s replacement, Frank Been, 

wrote to Director Arno Cammerer urging the 

agency to purchase the Morino property and 

describing the many virtues of completing that 

purchase. The following March, Been again 

urged action, and during the next year he made 

two additional pleas to have the agency purchase 

the property. The financially-strapped agency, 

however, could offer little encouragement; its 

leadership could only promise that his correspondence would “be held for consideration in 

the event an opportunity to obtain additional ... 

funds is presented.”105 A further complication 

was that the younger Morino, who was living 

in Canada, “wanted to comply with his uncle’s 

wishes as stated in the will that he carry on the 

road house under the name of Morino.”106

Shortly after World War II, Been’s fusillade of 

memos finally brought action, and by the spring 

of 1946, the Morino property was considered 

“one of the highest in priority in our proposed 

land acquisition program.” Based on actions 

begun in the fall of 1944, an opportunity arose in 

1946 to purchase this property. On May 24 the 

NPS, “through unusually favorable circumstances,” secured a 90-day option from the Morino 

estate to sell the property to the NPS for just 

$3,800.107 NPS Director Newton Drury, who also 

served as the secretary of the National Park Trust 

Fund Board, recommended that the Trust Fund 

Board authorize that expenditure. (The National Park Trust Fund Board, which was signed 

into law by President Roosevelt in July 1935, 

was “authorized to accept gifts and bequests 

for the Park Service.” It was thus a small-scale 

predecessor to today’s National Park Foundation, which Congress established in December 

1967.)108 By July—midway through the option 

period—the need to purchase 

the property became even 

more apparent when Superintendent Pearson wrote that “a 

private interest with substantial 

backing ($200,000) is going 

to try to purchase the Morino 

Homestead and develop tourist 

facilities. Plans call for building 

utilities, a store and cabins, and 

lots would be advertised for 

sale.” Perhaps because of that 

extra incentive, the Trust Fund 

Board, “by a majority vote of its 

membership,” authorized the expenditure of up 

to $3,800 for this purpose. Given the availability 

of those funds, Acting NPS Director Hillory Tolson approved the option and sent it on to Interior 

Secretary Oscar Chapman for final approval. 

Chapman approved the action on August 14, just 

eight days before the option was set to expire.109

Securing the option, however, did not complete 

the sale because of title complications. Most 

of these complications were procedural rather 

than substantive, and by May 1947 the Acting 

NPS Director wrote that “all requirements ... 

concerning the title to this land, have been met 

except the furnishing of the customary department report on possessory rights.” In order to 

clear up this issue, NPS staff conducted a brief 

field investigation and obtained statements from 

the tract’s tenants and informal residents that 

they had no possessory interest in the land or its 

improvements. The agency still had a few small 

items to clear up—related to graves and the legal 

rights to cabins on the property—and by August 

1947 was well on the way toward resolving those 

issues.110 But by this time, Mary Liek (the estate’s 

administratrix) was clearly losing patience, and in 

early September she curtly informed the NPS Director that she had sold the property to someone 

else because Maurice Morino was “pressed for 

money.” Tolson, in a response the very next day, 

stated that the attempted resale was invalid (because it was in violation of the option contract) 

and “should not be consummated.” Meanwhile 

the last problems related to property title were 

finally resolved, and on October 24, 1947 the 

Interior Secretary accepted title to the Morino 

tract.111 (See Map 5.)

Once the transaction took place, the NPS recognized that it needed to deal with the scattered 

collection of improvements on the Morino property. The large, ramshackle roadhouse was the 

major feature; it was more than 25 years old (and 

had once been featured in Cap Lathrop’s 1924 

motion picture The Cheechakos) but had been 

abandoned since Morino’s death in 1937. But 

Mary Liek and Maurice Morino appear 

here in front of the McKinley Park 

Post Office, a log cabin attached to 

the back of the Morino Roadhouse. 

DENA 3947, Denali National Park and 

Preserve Museum Collection
138 Crown Jewel of the North: An Administrative History of Denali National Park and Preserve

the post office, trading post and an assemblage of 

cabins also stood, most of which were in woeful 

shape. During the late 1930s, at least one visiting official, Rep. James M. Fitzpatrick (D-N.Y.) 

hoped that the NPS could buy the parcel so that 

the buildings could “be preserved as an exhibit 

of Alaskan settlement ... an excellent exhibit 

... of early Alaskan development and building 

construction.”112 Most, however, regarded the 

buildings as a potential nuisance. Indeed, drifters continued to live in them, and in August 1940, 

one such passer-by lit a lamp that exploded and 

burned a cabin down.113 Shortly after the NPS 

acquired the property in 1947, rangers sealed the 

buildings and installed signs warning the public 

to stay clear. Those measures, however, did not 

prevent further incursions. On the evening of 

May 30, 1950, a transient named Jessie Shelton 

dropped a lit cigarette on the Morino Roadhouse 

floor, which set off a blaze that turned the old 

landmark to a charred ruin. The following May, 

another cabin on the property also caught fire.114 

In the years that followed, the NPS completed 

the job that chance and circumstance had begun; 

rangers tore down two Morino cabins in 1952, 

they burned down two more in early 1953, and 

in the fall of 1953 they dismantled most of the 

remaining improvements on the Morino property.115 By this time, the newly-cleared area—

located as it was in a scenic clearing near the 

hotel and train station—had become an informal 

campground and picnic ground. The area was 

subject to an additional cleanup and improvement in 1957, just prior to the Denali Highway’s 

completion, but it was not until February 1959 

that the parcel’s last cabin—which had once 

belonged to Maud Hosler, the former McKinley 

Park Station postmaster—was finally burned and 

cleared away.116

The other major landowner to work out an 

agreement with the NPS during this period was 

the Alaska Railroad. As noted above, the railroad 

had been active to some extent in park affairs 

ever since the 1920s, but in June 1939 the line 

assumed management over the McKinley Park 

Hotel, and in December 1941 the agency became 

even more prominent in park affairs when it 

became the park’s sole concessioner. Since January 1924, when President Coolidge had signed 

Executive Order 3946, the railroad had also been 

a substantial landowner in the McKinley Park 

Station area; it owned more than 220 acres in 

the area which included most of the land north 

of the Morino, Kennedy, and Stubbs tracts. For 

the next quarter-century, the railroad showed no 

interest in letting go of those properties. In 1946 

the Alaska Railroad, as noted in an NPS report, 

was seen as “very cooperative regarding park 

administration and there appears no reason why 

they should not so continue.” But for the next 

several years a minor source of irritation complicated matters between the two agencies; NPS 

staff, hoping to enforce agency rules and regulations on railroad properties, repeatedly tried to 

work out a cooperative interbureau agreement 

with railroad officials. That effort failed. The extensive correspondence on the subject, however, 

doubtless forced railroad officials to reconsider 

their need to own and manage properties that 

were located well away from their rights-ofway.117

The Civil Aeronautics Administration, ironiThe Morino Roadhouse and the 

McKinley Park Hotel are both visible 

in this photograph taken during the 

1940s. DeArmond Collection, B98.7, 

Anchorage Museum of History & Art 
Chapter Six: Postwar McKinley, 1946-1956 139

cally, started the process that resulted in these 

property transfers. During the summer of 1950, 

an Anchorage-based CAA employee visited the 

airport at McKinley Park Station and spoke 

about its operations with Col. John P. Johnson, 

the Alaska Railroad’s general manager. The two 

men recognized that the airport was then under 

a split jurisdiction; the north end was railroad 

land, while the south end was NPS land (which 

had, until recently, been owned by the Morino 

estate). Johnson then averred that “he did not 

consider the airport particularly important to the 

functions of the Railroad and would be pleased 

to dispose of it for any reason whatsoever.” The 

CAA official then wrote the NPS’s Washington 

office and asked the agency “to take the necessary 

action to have the ownership 

of the entire facility transferred to the Park Service.”118 

Six months later, that office 

announced that “the Alaska 

Railroad, at the McKinley Park 

Station, was ready to transfer 

to this Service the adjacent 

airstrip consisting of 16.40 

acres.” That recommendation 

was sent on to the office of 

Interior Secretary Oscar Chapman, who on April 14, 1952 

issued Public Land Order 816, 

which partially revoked E.O. 

3946 by transferring the 16.40 

acres at the airstrip from the railroad to the Park 

Service.119 Throughout this period, the airstrip 

remained the same length (about 3000 feet); inasmuch as the Alaska Flight Information Manual 

(the basic pilot’s guide at the time) designated the 

field for “emergency” use, operations at the field 

were limited to necessary NPS, concessioner, 

and military use. NPS Architect Thomas Vint, in 

a May 1956 memo, advocated discontinuing the 

airstrip, inasmuch as Summit Airfield (southwest 

of Cantwell) was now accessible by road. But 

Supt. Pearson curtly replied that “we do not favor 

the removal of the airstrip,” and the NPS continued to use and manage it, at least until such time 

as a better-quality airstrip could be built close to 

McKinley Park Station.120

Map 5. Major Land Actions, 

McKinley Park Station Area, 

1947-1961

By the morning of May 31, 1950, the 

aging Morino Roadhouse had burned 

to the ground. DENA 8-8, Denali 

National Park and Preserve Museum 
140 Crown Jewel of the North: An Administrative History of Denali National Park and Preserve

By the time Chapman had signed that public 

land order, others were beginning to pressure the 

railroad to divest the remainder of the holdings 

that the railroad had received via the 1924 executive order. As noted above, the hotel operation 

had been bleeding considerable red ink during 

the late 1940s and early 1950s, and the economics of that operation had been a particular 

embarrassment during annual hearings before 

Congressional appropriations committees.121 

Given those losses, discussions began in the fall 

of 1951 to have the NPS assume ownership over 

the hotel property as part of the same process 

in which a private concessioner (and not the 

Alaska Railroad) would operate the hotel and the 

park transportation system. As noted above, the 

government moved to establish a private concessioner when it began soliciting bid proposals in 

mid-June 1952; it took a full year, however, before 

that concessioner (McKinley Park Services, Inc.) 

became the park concessioner. But it was not 

until late 1952—shortly after the Alaska Railroad 

announced that it had lost almost $800,000 in the 

recently-completed fiscal year, compared with a 

small profit a year earlier—that the government’s 

General Accounting Office moved to recommend an immediate land transfer. The GAO’s 

report, completed in early 1953, soon found its 

way to the office of the Interior Secretary, and on 

October 12 of that year, Assistant Secretary Orme 

Lewis issued Public Land Order 919, which 

transferred some 205.20 acres of land within the 

1924 withdrawal from the railroad to the Park 

Service. The order included the transfer of “all 

improvements thereon” (including the hotel, 

other buildings, equipment, and vehicles); it was 

redundant, moreover, because the above acreage 

included the 16.40 acres that had already been 

part of Public Land Order 816. All that was not 

included was a narrow right-of-way strip (18 

acres) along with an additional 0.4 acres for the 

railroad wye and the side track leading to the 

hotel’s power plant. Less than a month later, railroad official Elroy F. Hinman arrived at McKinley Park Station and turned over the hotel, along 

with all railroad-owned equipment and vehicles, 

to Chief Ranger Oscar Dick. The railroad’s 29-

year ownership of McKinley Park Station land, 

and its 14-year management of the hotel, had 

come to a close.122

By the end of 1953, therefore, the NPS had made 

major strides in consolidating the ownership 

of the property within its boundaries. At this 

time, there were only three remaining non-NPS 

parcels in the park, all privately-owned; these 

were tracts owned by Duke Stubbs (35 acres), 

Dan Kennedy (5 acres), and the estate of John 

Stephens (133.76 acres). Agency officials, by 

they were modern frame homes—and thus a 

distinct departure from the usual log structures 

that had dominated headquarters for the past 

25 years—they drew a mixed reaction from park 

staff. As Superintendent Pearson noted, “The 

new quarters are very comfortable, roomy and 

light. Unfortunately from the outside they look 

very much like tool sheds on a construction job. 

They are squat, ugly and look as foreign in the 

scenery of Mount McKinley as would the Empire State Building.”126 Like it or not, however, 

more were on the way; two additional residences, 

which looked much like the first two, were begun 

in the 1950 and 1951, respectively, and each were 

completed a year later.127 

These buildings were completed none too soon 

because on November 3, 1950, the residence 

occupied by Chief Clerk Marvin Nelson and his 

family burned to the ground, perhaps because of 

defective wiring.128 The fire, similar to the one 

that engulfed Supt. Been’s residence in November 1939, forced park personnel to institute a fire 

protection program; they obtained a fire truck 

from the Alaska Railroad, they purchased new 

fire extinguishers for all headquarters-area buildings, and they instituted a program of fire drills, 

fire planning meetings, and annual fire hazard 

inspections.129

Recognizing that the new Denali Highway 

would bring even more growth to the park, a 

new “Residential Loop Road” was bladed out at 

headquarters during the fall of 1953; this road 

angled away from the existing road between 

the two new residences completed in 1950 and 

rejoined the existing road near the old plumbing shop. Shortly afterward, they converted the 

old rangers’ dormitory into an office building.130 

Given the shortage of seasonal housing space, the 

Alaska Road Commission offered—and the park 

gladly accepted—six small house trailers that had 

previously been used at various local road camps. 

These trailers were installed at headquarters and 

were used beginning in 1954. Trailers remained 

a fixture at headquarters up to the mid-1960s, 

and at “C-Camp” (the former CCC camp) several 

trailers—of a more modern vintage—can still be 

seen.131

The park also made necessary upgrades to its 

infrastructure. As noted in Chapter 5, the Civilian Conservation Corps had installed water and 

sewer lines around the headquarters area in 

1938 and 1939; then, in the summer of 1943, a 

company of military engineers had overhauled 

the utility system. When it worked properly, the 

system relied on a pump at Rock Creek which 

connected to the park’s 20,000-gallon reservoir 

via a 2-inch steel pipe; between the reservoir and 
Chapter Six: Postwar McKinley, 1946-1956 141

this time, had made numerous entreaties to 

the various landowners, but land transfers had 

not yet taken place. Actions taken by both the 

government and landowners that resulted in the 

properties being acquired by the government are 

described in Chapter 7.

Changes at Headquarters

During the closing months of World War II, 

just six people worked at Mount McKinley 

National Park; they included Superintendent 

Grant Pearson (who doubled as the chief ranger); 

rangers John Rumohr, Harold Rapp, and Harold 

Booth; Principal Clerk Louis Maupin; and ClerkStenographer Faith Cushman. Under that setup, 

housing was not a problem. But during the next 

two years, the park added four new positions.123 

To create room for the new staff, empty cabins 

were occupied and a storage shed was converted 

into a residential cabin, but by late 1947, the superintendent noted that “hopes [were] high that 

a residence at headquarters might be built.”124 

Such hopes were dashed, however, so the agency 

did what it could; it spent $2000 to convert an 

old CCC building at headquarters into a “family dwelling,” although it was soon afterward 

designated for use by “single men and seasonals.” 

(This is the present-day Administration Building office.) In the summer of 1949, space was so 

tight that four tent frames were brought in from 

the old Savage River concessions camp; after a 

quick repair, two were made available to visiting 

government employees. Another six tent frames 

were brought down to headquarters the following spring.125 

Finally, in the fall of 1949, Congress appropriated funds for two new residences. Excavation 

on basements for the houses began immediately. 

Contractors began work the following May, and 

that November they completed them. Because 

the various headquarters buildings ran a series of 

utilidors—i.e., wooden tunnels dug several feet 

underground—which contained the water and 

sewer lines. The sewer lines, in turn, led down to 

a large septic tank located several hundred yards 

southeast of the headquarters buildings.132 In 

order to keep the lines from freezing the utilidors 

also contained steam lines that were warmed by 

a steam boiler, which typically ran from October 

to April. But the severity of McKinley’s winters, 

plus the increasing age of the system’s components, meant that keeping the system in operation was a seemingly constant struggle, and park 

reports dating from the postwar years include a 

long series of complaints about breakdowns in 

the system—usually during an unusually severe 

cold snap—and of frustration at being forced 

to resuscitate the system with poorly-trained 

staff and an inadequate funding base.133 Typical 

problems included the freezing of the water line 

between the creek and the reservoir, which soon 

depleted the reservoir; frozen water and sewer 

lines; leaks or ruptures in the water and sewer 

lines; and a frozen septic-tank intake.134 Under 

such conditions, which seemed to manifest themselves for several days or weeks each winter, park 

staff was forced to melt snow for household use, 

Superintendent Grant Pearson, left, 

started as a ranger in the park in 

1926. Harold Booth, right, was a 

wildlife ranger from 1944 to 1947. 

DENA 4844, Denali National Park and 

Preserve Museum Collection

This new employee residence was 

the first of two modern frame homes 

at park headquarters, completed in 

late fall of 1950. DENA 7-21, Denali 

National Park and Preserve Museum 

Collection
142 Crown Jewel of the North: An Administrative History of Denali National Park and Preserve

carry drinking water in from Rock Creek, and 

use outdoor toilets.135

To keep the system functioning, park staff repaired and replaced critical items from time to 

time. In January 1946, Pearson lamented that “all 

utilities and motor driven equipment are in need 

of repair,” and he particularly noted the woeful 

condition of the 39-year-old steam boiler. Eight 

months later, Lou Corbley—the now-retired 

chief ranger—returned to the park staff and 

installed a new one.136 Some utilidor rehabilitation took place in 1948, and a new 50,000-gallon reservoir and septic tank were built in 1950 

and 1951.137 In 1952, the 2-inch pipe from Rock 

Creek to the reservoir was replaced by a 3-inch 

pipe, and a year later, the Rock Creek pump 

house was replaced.138 In late 1954 “electric 

immersion and space heaters” were installed 

to keep the septic tanks from freezing, and in 

1955 the main 16-year-old wood-stave water 

line running down from the reservoir was finally 

replaced with insulated steel pipe.139 Despite 

those improvements, there were just two winters 

during this period—of 1950-51 and 1954-55—in 

which no major freezeups were noted in the 

water and sewer system.140

Regarding electricity, military renovations during World War II had left the headquarters area 

with both DC and AC-powered systems. But in 

1948, the park was advised that the headquarters 

distribution system “should be completely overhauled and converted to AC throughout,” so the 

in persuading park visitors to view bears along 

the park highway.”147 Bears, however, continued to return from time to time; in April 1953, 

for example, grizzlies were seen there “quite 

frequently.” In 1956, the agency bulldozed over 

its old dump, cleaned up the area, and opened up 

a new dump immediately adjacent to the old one. 

That “temporary” dump would remain until the 

fall of 1964, when the agency would open a new 

site, located just east of the Denali Highway (now 

the Parks Highway) and two miles south of Riley 

Creek.148

The decade following World War II was singular at Mount McKinley National Park because 

it marked major changes to its staff. Two of the 

best-known, iconic figures associated with the 

park’s pioneer days—John Rumohr, who had 

served as a ranger since 1930, and Grant Pearson, 

who had served as a ranger since 1926 and as the 

superintendent or acting superintendent since 

1943—stepped down during this period; Rumohr 

retired in July 1951 and opened a trading business in Cantwell, and Pearson retired in November 1956 and moved to his home in Los Altos, 

California. And on a sad note, the park’s guiding 

light—its first superintendent, Harry Karstens—

passed away in Fairbanks in November 1955. 

Other important figures, however, were just 

beginning their careers during this period; Oscar 

Dick, who served at the park off and on from 

1942 to 1967, served two of his four job stints 

during this period, and in June 1948 William 

Nancarrow began a career at the park that would 

continue, off and on, until his retirement in April 

Frozen water and sewer lines were 

a constant problem at park headquarters. Here the ground is being 

thawed in order to dig up and repair 

a leaking water line, March 1955. 

DENA 41-41, Denali National Park and 

Preserve Museum Collection
Chapter Six: Postwar McKinley, 1946-1956 143

following spring, AC motors were shipped in and 

soon all utility machines operated on AC current. 

Throughout this period, electricity had been 

available at headquarters on a less than full-time 

basis, but beginning in August 1950, it was available around the clock; as Pearson proudly noted, 

“this is the first time we have had power available 

on a 24-hour basis.”141

At the close of World War II the primary heating 

source for the headquarters buildings remained 

coal; the Alaska Railroad periodically left gondola cars with coal on the McKinley Park Station 

wye, and rangers then shoveled coal onto a pickup and hauled it up to headquarters. Wood was 

also used at headquarters, primarily for the steam 

boiler, and each fall rangers were asked to cut 

and stack enough wood for the upcoming winter. 

This arrangement remained until September 

1950, when the headquarters building switched 

over from coal to oil heat, and a year later—perhaps in reaction to the recent fire that destroyed 

the Nelson residence—the park announced its 

intention “to install oil burning equipment in all 

our residences as soon as funds are available.”142 

The use of firewood was drastically curtailed 

after the early 1950s, and so far as is known, coal 

was last used at the headquarters residences during the winter of 1953-54.143

Garbage, during the postwar period, was initially 

hauled to an isolated area east of the park hotel; 

this dump was adjacent to the hotel’s cesspool 

and septic tank, and just north of the 5-acre 

Kennedy tract.144 This area was accessed by an 

east-west cul-de-sac that, in the early 1940s, was 

just north of the old airstrip; but after the Army 

lengthened the strip in 1943, the road remained, 

much to the annoyance of pilots and park officials.145 Inasmuch as the dump remained small 

during this period, the only downside related 

to dump operation was an occasional grizzly or 

coyote attracted by food odors. Most of these 

sightings had no impact, either on visitor safety 

or bear behavior.146 But in August 1952, a “black 

bear was observed fighting with a mother grizzly” 

at the dump, and perhaps in response, rangers—

hoping to capture a wolf—placed snares there. 

The following spring, two adult 

grizzlies and a yearling appeared at the dump and “fed 

for several nights until a weekly 

program of burning the dump 

was inaugurated.” A “burning 

cage” for papers and light boxes 

was also put into use. The NPS, 

worried about visitor safety, 

closed the dump to the public; 

park officials “hoped that this 

[action] may have some effect 

1981. Many others remained at McKinley for 

shorter periods. During the postwar decade the 

size of the permanent staff roughly doubled, and 

beginning in 1950, the park began a sustained 

seasonal employment program which, by 1956, 

included two rangers, a ranger-naturalist, and a 

maintenance man.149

The superintendency during this period was 

relatively stable; from 1939 to 1956, in fact, just 

two men held that position, Frank Been for six 

years and Grant Pearson for eleven. In the spring 

of 1948, higher-ups decided to transfer Been to 

Crater Lake National Park in light of his paucity 

of skills “in all phases of administrative work, 

including fiscal and administrative procedure.” 

Been, feeling slighted and fearing a loss of rank 

and pay, fought the transfer in a series of actions 

that involved the Civil Service Commission and 

the General Accounting Office as well as the 

NPS’s Washington office. Recognizing that he 

was on the verge of insubordination, Been agreed 

to the transfer in early 1949 after a meeting with 

Director Drury. The matter was not settled, 

however, for several months after his move to 

Oregon.150

Boundary Revision Proposals

During the years that followed World War II, 

NPS officials were thoroughly occupied with 

managing the 2.2 million acre expanse that Congress had entrusted to their care via legislation 

that had passed in 1917, 1922, and 1932. So far 

as they could tell, park employees were unaware 

of any particular ecological threats outside the 

park that brought forth the need for new acreage, 

and few if any outside advocacy groups clamored 

to have the park’s boundaries either expanded or 

reduced.

That is not to say, however, that no boundarychange proposals were ever seriously considered. 

A number of proposals came to the fore, perhaps 

the most worrisome being related to a longrunning proposal to develop a limestone mine 

in the Windy Creek drainage in the southeastern 

corner of the park. As is noted in greater detail 

in Chapter 14, advocates of this mineral developCoal, which arrived on the railroad 

from Healy, was the main source of 

heat in the park headquarters area 

until after 1950. Shoveling coal 

was one of the park rangers’ duties. 

DENA 15-5, Denali National Park and 

Preserve Museum Collection 
144 Crown Jewel of the North: An Administrative History of Denali National Park and Preserve

ment pressed their case primarily between 1947 

and 1952, although it resurfaced from time to 

time in later years. In the midst of the process 

by which the NPS weighed the mine’s prospects, 

Interior Secretary Oscar L. Chapman issued two 

different public land orders—dated December 

16, 1948 and February 2, 1951—withdrawing 

thousands of acres in and around Mount McKinley National Park. At one time or another during 

this five-year period, NPS officials recognized 

that, if the mineral development was to proceed, 

they should seriously consider the idea of removing from the park one or both of the areas that 

Secretary Chapman had withdrawn. As shall be 

seen, however, the Interior Department never 

gave the go-ahead to develop the Windy Creek 

limestone deposits, so the park boundary in this 

area remained unchanged.151

The other area that received some discussion 

during this period was a possible expansion of 

the park to the south. NPS officials, both at the 

park and elsewhere, recognized that the park’s 

southern boundary—located as it was near the 

crest of the Alaska Range—made little ecological 

sense. As a result, the idea of a boundary shift 

surfaced from time to time. As far back as July 

1931, for example, landscape architect Thomas 

Vint wrote the director, 

It appears that the boundary should 

be moved to the south to include 

some of the land beyond the terminals 

of the Glaciers. This would put the 

south side on a similar basis as the 

north side, so far as park lands are 

acres. Pearson’s proposal—which also would 

have deleted appropriate areas for the pending 

limestone-mine project—was broadly considered 

by NPS officials, but it was not forwarded either 

to DOI officials or to Congress.154

Three other boundary-change proposals—two 

deletions and one expansion—emerged between 

1952 and 1954. The expansion proposal, which 

was brought up during Wirth’s visit in 1952, 

would have added a small triangle of parkland 

adjacent to the Kantishna Hills; specifically, it 

would include within the park all land southeast 

of the Clearwater Fork, Myrtle Creek, Willow 

Creek, and Moose Creek. Adding the area would 

allow park rangers to follow a more easily-definable boundary during their patrols between the 

Toklat River-Stampede Creek area and Wonder 

Lake, it would provide additional protection for 

the area’s caribou population, and it would also 

“prevent the possible construction of an undesirable resort immediately adjacent to the park 

entrance.” NPS officials, who had just witnessed 

the beginnings of Camp Denali, had only words 

of praise for “this camp [which] is entirely in 

keeping with park ideals.” They cautioned, 

however, that “the ‘average’ resort, as operated in 

Alaska, falls considerably short of this standard.” 

Expanding the boundaries north to Moose Creek 

would prevent the establishment of any such 

resort.155

By the summer of 1953 another boundary-deletion proposal had come to light, that of eliminating most of the park’s acreage east of 149degrees 

of longitude. That area included much of the 

Little Windy Creek and Riley Creek drainages; 

In March 1952, Superintendent Grant 

Pearson (right) presented former 

Chief Ranger John C. Rumohr with a 

citation for Commendable Service. 

Mr. Rumohr retired on July 13, 1951, 

after serving in Mt. McKinley National 

Park for over twenty-one years. Mrs. 

Luella Rumohr is seated on the left. 

DENA 27-23, Denali National Park and 

Preserve Museum Collection
Chapter Six: Postwar McKinley, 1946-1956 145

concerned. ... I recommend that a 

field study of it be made. If such an 

extension is found advisable McKinley Park would ultimately have two 

systems of tourist facilities, one north 

of the range the other south.152

Others arrived at much the same conclusion as 

Vint. Governor Ernest Gruening, for example, 

expressed his support for the idea in October 

1940, and a year later, Supt. Frank Been had 

similar thoughts after reconnoitering the area in 

search of a soldier-recreation area. Been noted 

that “the impressiveness of Mount McKinley and 

the Alaska Range rivals the view in the park and 

aroused the desire to consider the practicability 

for extending the south park boundary to the 

south base of the mountains rather than having 

the crests as the south limit.” He further noted, 

somewhat ironically, that “several years ago ... 

the Alaska Railroad [had] planned a publicity 

campaign for the south side of McKinley but was 

instructed by the then Secretary of the Interior to 

abandon the scheme.”153

Gruening’s interest in a southern extension 

remained active, and because he remained as 

Alaska’s governor until the early 1950s, NPS Director Conrad Wirth knew of Gruening’s viewpoints when he visited the park in late June 1952. 

During that visit, Wirth asked Supt. Pearson 

to “show on a map a line which would include 

more of the glacial area south of Mt. McKinley.” 

That line, which was slightly modified by others, 

would have increased the park by some 574,000 

as may be recalled, these drainages, along with 

adjacent acreage, had been added to the park in 

March 1932. Some critics, in the wake of that 

earlier expansion, had been dissatisfied that the 

park’s eastern boundary had been extended to 

the Nenana River and not to the Alaska Railroad 

right-of-way. It may have been unsurprising, 

therefore, that those who advocated an acreage 

deletion during the 1950s did so in the belief 

that “it would solve troublesome administrative problems as well as eliminate a prominent 

intrusion—the railroad—from the park.” (The 

“troublesome administrative problems” were not 

identified; it may have been related to either the 

battle over the Stubbs and Kennedy inholdings 

at McKinley Park Station or the long-running 

wolf-sheep controversy, as is described in greater 

detail in Chapter 12.) Plans called for this acreage to change from parkland to wildlife refuge.156

A far larger boundary proposal emerged on January 21, 1954, during Senate Interior Committee 

deliberations of an Alaska statehood bill. A series 

of hearings were held that quizzed the directors 

of various land management agencies on what 

lands might be available for selection by the new 

state government. Sen. Clinton P. Anderson 

(D-N.M.), therefore, asked NPS Director Conrad 

Wirth to separate, if he could, genuine parklands 

from “ordinary western country.” Initially, Wirth 

stated that “I think all of it is park, sir.” But when 

asked if “there was any section of park that might 

be eliminated for Mount McKinley,” Wirth 

pointed on a map to the park’s northwestern 

corner and said that “there might be some up 

On June 29, 1951, Park Ranger William Nancarrow, second from left, 

was promoted to park naturalist, the 

first permanent naturalist appointed 

in Mt. McKinley National Park. In this 

1952 photograph, Bill is posed with a 

Mexican Red Cross Mountain Climbing Expedition at park headquarters. 

DENA 4687, Denali National Park and 

Preserve Museum Collection
146 Crown Jewel of the North: An Administrative History of Denali National Park and Preserve

in here.” (Wirth may have made this statement 

because both park staff and park visitors had 

seldom visited the area and because the area had 

few known resource values.) In response, Anderson upped the ante and stated that “I know of no 

reason why you cannot start just beyond Wonder 

Lake and take all that triangle” of lowlands away 

from the park. Wirth, thereafter, fought back; he 

openly worried about “what effect that [action 

would have] on the last stands of the Dall sheep,” 

but he also argued that officials of the future state 

would have little interest in the area because it 

had no agricultural potential and poor timber 

resources, and because hard-rock mining had 

never been prohibited in the park. Given that 

information, committee members showed no 

further interest in the area because it had little 

taxable potential.157

In mid-August 1954, NPS Acting Director Ronald 

Lee responded to Congress’s interest in the proposed deletion of the park’s northwestern corner 

by asking agency biologist Victor Cahalane (who 

had made a similar boundary-proposal foray at 

Katmai National Monument a year earlier) to examine whether a large triangle of land—bounded 

by Wonder Lake, the northern base of the Alaska 

Range, and the corner of the park near Wolf 

Creek158—had “important scenic, wildlife, or 

other qualities.” But Cahalane, also recognizing 

that other boundary-change proposals were being considered, decided to also visit and critique 

two other proposal areas. (He made no attempt 

to report on a fourth proposal area, a large swath 

south of the Alaska Range crest, because that area 

was not perceived to have strong wildlife values.) 

The biologist, in response, arrived at the park on 

September 10 and spent a week there, operating 

primarily from a Wonder Lake base camp.159

After flying over all three of the proposed sites 

and walking the ground several times at the 

western end of the park, Cahalane came away 

singularly impressed with the both the scenery 

and wildlife at the park’s western extremities. 

“The views of Mt. McKinley from Mile 66 on 

the park highway and from Wonder Lake are 

justly famed,” he noted. “One is hardly prepared, however, for the magnificence of the 

spectacle from many points in the western area 

of the park.” He called it a “magnificent region 

for wilderness trips” and “essential as a foreground for the culminating feature of the Alaska 

Range, Mt. McKinley.” He further stated that 

the proposal area “has significant wildlife assets 

which are well worth preserving in conjunction 

with the natural environment.” He saw these 

assets to be of increasing value, because with the 

Denali Highway’s construction, the “slaughter of 

caribou, moose and the other game has increased 

to considerable proportions.” Regarding the 

proposed deletion at the park’s eastern end, he 

saw little purpose in it; because of its shift in 

status from park to wildlife refuge, park rangers would still be patrolling the area, except as 

deputy game wardens. “What would be gained?” 

he asked rhetorically. Cahalane was more agreeable, however, to the proposal to expand the park 

near the Kantishna Hills; he felt that all of the 

reasons that had been advanced for the boundary 

Park Staff on October 15, 1956 included, left to right, back row: Thomas 

Adams, William Funk, John Galvond, 

Superintendent Grant Pearson, and 

Duane Jacobs; front row: Charles 

Ott, Warren Steenbergh, Richard 

Prasil, James Corson, Rosalie Friesen, 

Arthur Hehr, and Robert Branges. The 

Administration Offices were moved 

into the former ‘Ranger Club’ in 1954. 

DENA 27-40, Denali National Park and 

Preserve Museum Collection 
Chapter Six: Postwar McKinley, 1946-1956 147

change appeared “logical” and that the proposed 

expansion helped protect park values.160

Despite all this activity, and perhaps because 

of the lack of strong, consistent pressure either 

inside or outside the agency, there was little 

sustained momentum to either expand or constrict the park boundaries. As a result, none of 

the above proposals were ever formalized into 

a Congressional bill during this period, and no 

boundary lines were changed. As shall be seen, 

however, the data gathered during this period 

proved helpful in future years, when boundarychange efforts were again considered.

Notes - Chapter 6

1 Naske and Slotnick, Alaska, a History, 123.

2 James A. Henretta, et al., America’s History, 

third edition (New York, Worth Publishers, 

1997), 854-55; Harry A. Butowsky, Warships 

Associated with World War II in the Pacific, National Historic Landmark Theme Study (Washington, NPS, May 1985), Chapter 6, Section 8.

3 Lyman L. Woodman, Duty Station Northwest; 

the U.S. Army in Alaska and Western Canada, 

1867-1987; Vol. Three, 1945-1987 (Anchorage, 

Alaska Historical Society, 1997), 25.

4 Lucile McDonald, “Alaska Steam; a Pictorial 

History of the Alaska Steamship Company,” 

Alaska Geographic 11:4 (1984), 92, 94, 97, 103.

5 McDonald, “Alaska Steam,” 102-03; SMR, 

April-December 1946; September 1947, 2; 

October 1948, 1.

6 McDonald, “Alaska Steam,” 105-06.

7 Borneman, Alaska, Saga of a Bold Land, 340; 

SMR, June 1940, 2.

8 Clarence C. Hulley, Alaska, Past and Present (Portland, Binfords and Mort, 1953), 344, 

352-53.

9 SMR, May 1945, 2; September 1945, 2; October 1945, 2; November 1945, 2; March 1946, 2; 

April 1946, 2; September 1946, 3.

10 SMR, January 1946, 2; February 1946, 1-2; 

May 1946, 2.

11 SMR, June 1946, 1; August 1946, 1; September 1946, 1-2; NPS, Public Use of the National Parks; a Statistical Report, 1941-1953, 2.

12 SMR, September 1946, 1-3; April 1947, 2.

13 SMR, April 1947, 2; May 1947, 2; October 

1947, 1. Alaska Day celebrations were held 

at the hotel until October 1950, when a “grand 

masquerade ball” attended by 200 people 

(including “many notables”) was held there. 

SMR, October 1950, 2, 4. The Army’s initial 

plans called for soldiers to stay at the hotel “on 

a tourist basis,” presumably in the winter, and 

the rehabilitation of the “remnants” of Savage 

Camp in the summertime. Been to RD/R4, May 

9, 1947, in File 201 (“National Defense, Part 

II”), Box 91, CCF/MOMC, RG 79, NARA SB.

14 SMR, October 1947, 2; November 1947, 1; 

December 1947, 1, 3; February 1948, 1; May 

1948, 4; August 1948, 3.

15 SMR, February 1948, 2, 4; September 1948, 

4-5; October 1948, 3; November 1948, 3; February 1949, 3; March 1949, 3; February 1950, 3.

16 NPS, Public Use of the National Parks; a 

Statistical Report, 1941-1953, 2.

17 Henretta, et al., America’s History, 871.

18 Woodman, Duty Station Northwest, Vol. 

Three, 65-66.

19 SMR, October 1950, 2, 4; November 1950, 

The park entrance sign near the 

depot is shown here in January 1956. 

DENA 39-7, Denali National Park and 

Preserve Museum Collection
148 Crown Jewel of the North: An Administrative History of Denali National Park and Preserve

rior and Insular Affairs, Alaska, 1955, Part 2; 

Hearings Before the Subcommittee on Territorial and Insular Affairs Pursuant to H. Res. 30..., 

conducted September 20 to September 23, 1955 

(Washington, GPO, 1956), 1-15.

40 NPS Press Release, “Proposals Invited for 

Operation of Visitor Facilities in Mount McKinley National Park, Alaska,” December 29, 1954, 

in John Wise Collection, Box 1, HFC; Anchorage Times, April 2, 1956, 14. Don Hummel, 

in his book Stealing the National Parks, p. 

170, notes that in 1954, George Collins wrote 

to him and “tried to entice me up to Alaska to 

run the McKinley concession.” Thinking that 

“Alaska was sled dogs and year-around snow,” 

he declined, but three years later, he changed his 

mind (see below).

41 SMR, November 1955, 3-4; December 

1955, 3; January 1956, 3-5; February 1956, 3-4; 

March 1956, 1-2. When the job was done, the 

contractor’s plumber-foreman noted, “I have 

worked on Alaska plumbing jobs for 15 years 

now, and this was the hardest, meanest job I 
Chapter Six: Postwar McKinley, 1946-1956 149

2.

20 SMR, December 1950, 2; January 1951, 3; April 1951, 2; August 1951, 3.

21 SMR, May 1951, 1, 2; June 1951, 1; August 1951, 3; November 1951, 2; May 1952, 2; November 1952, 3; April 1953, 2-3; May 1953, 2; Frank L. Yates, Report on Survey and Review of 

the Operations of the Alaska Railroad for the Fiscal Year Ended June 30, 1952, 83rd Congress, 1st 

Session, House Document No. 95 (Washington, GPO, 1953), 19.

 22 As noted elsewhere, ranger-accompanied bus trips and ranger-conducted films had been a staple

since the 1930s, and the park had had a museum since 1943, but the dog-sled demonstrations—

which had been abandoned after World War II—were reinstituted during the winter of 1950-51.

23 SMR, February 1950, 3; December 1950, 1; April 1951, 3.

24 SMR, November 1951, 2; January 1952, 2; March 1952, 2; November 1952, 4.

25 SMR, Sept 1951, 1; September 1952, 1; Kirk H. Stone, “Geographical Record,” Geographical Review 42 (January 1952), 151. The first Alaska Science Conference had been

in Washington, D.C. in November 1950. These annual conferences continued until the 

mid-1980s, when they were gradually superseded by the Arctic Science Conference and 

other, more specialized scientific meetings.

26 SMR, April 1950, 4; William H. Hackett, Alaska’s Vanishing Frontier, A Progress Report (Washington, GPO, 1951), 46.

27 SMR, February 1949, 3; July 1949, 4; January 1951, 3, 4; March 1951, 4; April 1951, 2; May 

1951, 3; June 1951, 3; George L. Collins, “Memorandum for the Files,” June 19, 1950, in File 600 

(“Alaska Development, Part IV”), Box 237, CCF, RG 79, NARA SB.

28 Alaska Railroad, “Invitation for Bid Proposals,” June 12, 1952, in File 900 (Concessions, Part 

IV), CCF/MOMC, RG 79, NARA SB; Celia M. Hunter to Regional Office NPS, December 10,

1952, in File 900 (Celia M. Hunter), CCF/MOMC, RG 79, NARA SB.

29 Stroud, History of the Concession, 16; SMR, August 1952, 1.

30 Stroud, History of the Concession, 16; January 1953, 2; March 1953, 1; April 1953, 1; June 

1953, 4; RD/R4 to Director NPS, December 11, 1952, in File 900 (Celia M. Hunter), CCF/MOMC, 

RG 79, NARA SB.

31 SMR, July 1953, 3; September 1953, 4; November 1953, 3; December 1953, 3; January 1954, 3; 

March 1954, 4.

32 SMR, October 1953, 3-4; November 1953, 3; June 1955, 1; Stroud, History of the Concession, 

17-18; Congressional Record 100 (February 3, 1954), 1290. An audit of McKinley Park Services’ 

operations, completed after the company was no longer active at the park, showed numerous 

instances of slipshod accounting and poor if not shady management practices. But the audit also 

showed that these practices served only to exacerbate an already difficult situation, because given

the worn-out facilities at the park, the concessioner could not have operated at a profit even if it had

been able to operate with 100% occupancy during the tourist season.

33 Stroud, History of the Concessions, 17; Don Hummel, Stealing the National Parks; the Destruction of Concessions and Park Access (Bellevue, Wash., Free Enterprise Press, 1987), 117-18; 96th 

Congress, 1st Session, Senate Committee on Energy and Natural Resources, National Park Service 

Concessions Policy; Hearings on Oversight – Concessions Policy Act of 1965, conducted March 29 

to April 27, 1979, Senate Publication 96-33 (Washington, GPO, 1979), 382-83.

34 Stroud, History of the Concessions, 17; SMR, August 1954, 1, 4; September 1954, 1, 3; October 

1954, 4; November 1954, 4. In August, Supt. Pearson visited Anchorage and asked military officials about using the hotel, once again, as a rest and recreation center that winter; the military, however, was not interested. The hotel’s seizure made front-page headlines in the August 25 Anchorage 

Times; other Times articles detailing the change in operation were on August 24 (p. 9), August 27 (p. 

9), September 9 (p. 5), September 10 (p. 1), and September 13 (p. 5).

35 Stroud, History of the Concessions, 19.

36 SMR, September 1954, 5; November 1954, 4. Both of these employees remained with the NPS 

for extended periods; Sanders worked at the park until his untimely death in the summer of 1961, 

and Ott—hired first on a “temporary intermittent” basis and later as a permanent employee—remained until he retired in 1974. Ott, who loved the park’s wildlife, was a well-known photographer 

and local “character;” he remained in the area until his death in October 1999. Kent Brandley, 

“Charles J. Ott, McKinley’s Personal Cameraman,” Alaska Sportsman 30 (August 1964), 30-31, 45; 

Tom Walker, “Affair of the Heart,” Alaska Magazine 70 (July 2004), 31-35.

37 SMR, January 1955, 2; May 1955, 1, 3.

38 SMR, June 1955, 1; July 1955, 2; August 1955, 4; September 1955, 3; Stroud, History of the 

Concessions, 19.

39 SMR, July 1955, 2; September 1955, 2; 84th Congress, 1st Session, House Committee on Inte-
150 Crown Jewel of the North: An Administrative History of Denali National Park and Preserve

66 SMR, June 1955, 4; May 1956, 4; ARC, Annual Report, 1956, 21.

67 ARC, Annual Report, 1955, 25, 32, 34.

68 SMR, March 1956, 1; ARC, Annual Report, 1956, 20-21.

69 Peterson, Mount McKinley National Park Development Outline (1946), 8-9.

70 SMR, July 1935, 1; July 1939, 5; September 1947, 2; July 1948, 1, 5; September 1948, 6; Hackett, Alaska’s Vanishing Frontier, 45-47.

71 Longtime park employee Jane Bryant (email to the author, August 29, 2005) postulates that 

this hut was either part of a short-lived ARC camp that dated from the late 1920s, or part of a CCC 

“spike camp” or “side camp” dating from 1939.

72 SMR, February 1948, 3; June 1948, 4; July 1948, 2.

73 SMR, September 1950, 2; August 1951, 2; March 1952, 4. All evidence suggests that this “temporary” site grew into the present-day Wonder Lake campground.

74 SMR, July 1952, 6, 7. The Morino “campground” during this period was apparently very 

informal; as noted below, the NPS burned or tore down several buildings in this area during 1952 

and 1953, and as late as 1956, amenities at the “Marino picnic area” were limited to two tables, a 

fireplace or two, and a pit toilet. Further improvements were made in June 1957, just before the

Denali Highway was completed. SMR, June 1957, 4.

75 SMR, July 1952, 7; August 1954, photo. NPS made an additional cleanup at Camp Eielson in 

1954, and by the end of August, the recreation hall was the only building still standing. That building was disassembled soon afterward.

76 SMR, April 1954, 2; May 1954, 2; August 1954, 2; May 1955, 3; June 1955, 3; August 1955, 3; 

September 1955, 3.

77 SMR, June 1955, 5; July 1956, 3.

78 SMR, June 1944, 2; September 1945, 2; June 1949, 2.

79 SMR, May 1948, 4; April 1953, 2, 4; June 1955, 3.

80 SMR, April 1949, 3; April 1950, 3; March 1954, photo.

81 SMR, April 1951, 4; March 1953, 4; April 1956, 4.

82 SMR, September 1947, 2; May 1948, 3; September 1948, 2.

83 As noted in Appendix G, the last bridges in this replacement program were Rock Creek (1959), 

Ghiglione Creek (1959-60), and Igloo Creek (1966).

84 SMR, August 1946, 3; September 1946, 3; May 1951, 4; June 1951, 4.

85 Jessen’s Weekly, February 9, 1945, 27.

86 SMR, March 1945, 2; August 1945, 1, 3; September 1945, 3; October 1945, 2; November 1945, 

2; June 1946, 4; September 1946, 1.

87 NPS, “Concessioner’s Initial Development Program” (drawing #2018), 1946-47, NPS Aperture 

Card Collection.

88 SMR, September 1945, 2; May 1946, 3; August 1946, 2.

89 SMR, September 1946, 3.

90 SMR, July 1942, 3; Brown, A History, 179, 181.

91 A. E. Demaray to Director NPS, June 6, 1944, in File 503 (“Pictures, General”), Box 1409 

(MOMC), Entry 7, RG 79, NARA CP; SMR, April 1947, 5; February 1948, 2; Washburn to J.A. 

Krug, September 23, 1947, in File 600-03 (“Development Outline”), Box 1410 (MOMC), Entry 7, 

RG 79, NARA CP.

92 SMR, September 1947, 3; July 1950, 1; September 1950, 3; August 1952, 1.

93 SMR, January 1951, 2.

94 SMR, February 1948, 2, 4; March 1950, 4.

95 Ise, Our National Park Policy, 3; Dwight F. Rettie, Our National Park System (Urbana, Univ. of 

Illinois Press, 1995), 7, 116.

96 [Sanford] Hill to Lawrence Merriam (RD/R4), June 18, 1952, File 600-02, Box 1410 (MOMC), 

Entry 7, RG 79, NARA CP; SMR, August 1952, 1; Hackett, Alaska’s Vanishing Frontier, 47.

97 SMR, July 1953, 1; July 1954, 2; July 1955, 1; NPS, “The Wonder Lake Roadhouse Development – A Preliminary Study” (drawings 2103, 2018A, and 3101), 1954-55, NPS Aperture Card 

Collection.

98 Ginny Hill Wood, “Wilderness Camp,” Alaska Sportsman 19 (November 1953), 20-24. Wood 

wrote a revised article, “The Building of Camp Denali,” for the Sierra Club Bulletin 39 (June 1954), 

39-44.

99 Pearson to Sanford Hill, July 7, 1951, in File 900 (Celia M. Hunter), CCF/MOMC, RG 79, 

NARA SB. More than twelve years after she applied for the land, on January 31, 1964, Ms. Hunter 

received a patent to 67.306 acres surrounding her camp. BLM, “Case Abstract for AKF 009215” 

for U.S. Survey 4003, from BLM Alaska State Office, Anchorage.
Chapter Six: Postwar McKinley, 1946-1956 151

have ever tackled.”

42 SMR, May 1956, 4; June 1956, 5.

43 NPS, Public Use of the National Parks; a Statistical Report, 1941-1953, 2.

44 SMR, July 1956, 6; October 1956, 5; July 1957, 5; August 1957, photo; September 1957, 7; 

Stroud, History of the Concession, 19.

45 SMR, July 1955, 1; January 1956, 1; May 1956, 1; August 1956, 1; February 1957, 5.

46 Alaska Planning Group, Final Environmental Statement, Proposed Mount McKinley National 

Park Additions (Washington, U.S. Interior Department, October 1974), 564-65.

47 Borneman, Alaska, Saga of a Bold Land, 333; SMR, July 1933, 3; September 1933, 

6. The distance to the park from Fairbanks is approximately 120 miles, which is about 35 

miles shorter than the distance between the park and the Richardson Highway. During the 

Territorial period, however, both the Alaska Road Commission and the Alaska Railroad 

were Interior Department agencies, and the railroad’s tenuous finances mandated that all

new roads be built perpendicular to the railroad, to serve as feeder roads. Interior Department officials refused to fund roads that paralleled the railroad. See Alaska Road Commission, Report to the Board of Road Commissioners, Part II, 1925, 86.

48 National Resources Committee, Regional Planning, Part VII, Alaska—Its Resources and Development (Washington, GPO, 1938), pp. 134-35, 139, at ARLIS; 75th Congress, 3rd Session, House 

Document 485, Alaska, Its Resources and Development, January 20, 1938; ARC, Annual Report, 

1938, 9.

49 According to Donald Orth’s Dictionary of Alaska Place Names, p. 744, an individual named 

Paxson, by 1906, had established a roadhouse several miles south of the present roadhouse. Paxson’s Roadhouse, by 1940, had become known as Paxsons Roadhouse or simply Paxsons, but by the 

early 1950s the “s” had been eliminated and the site was known simply as Paxson.

50 Borneman, Alaska, Saga of a Bold Land, 333-36; Sherwood Ross, Gruening of Alaska (New 

York, Best Books), 112-14; SMR, December 1939, 1; January 1940, 2; June 1940, 2-3; ARC, Annual Report, 1936, 9; ARC, Annual Report, 1938, 9.

51 Been to Director NPS, June 25, 1941, in File 501-3 (“Newspaper Articles”), Box 1408 

(MOMC), Entry 7, RG 79, NARA CP; Borneman, Alaska, Saga of a Bold Land, 337-40; William 

R. Hunt, Mountain Wilderness; Historic Resource Study for Wrangell-St. Elias National Park and 

Preserve (Anchorage, NPS, 1991), 148.

52 Alaska Road Commission, Annual Report, 1945, 9. In early 1946, park staff heard that the ARC 

was “organizing two construction camps for work on the approach road from the Richardson Highway to Cantwell,” and soon afterward, it was told that a road survey would commence that spring. 

Neither rumor was true, however. SMR, January 1946, 2; March 1946, 1, 3.

53 Alaska Road Commission, Annual Report, 1946, 10; 1947, 10.

54 Charles L. Peterson, Mount McKinley National Park Development Outline, November 15, 1946, 

8-9, in Box 3, Bill Brown Collection, DENA.

55 SMR, September 1947, 2; September 1948, 3-4; ARC, Annual Report, 1948, 8; ARC, Report 

of Operations for the Fiscal Years 1949, 1950, and 1951, 10. The contractor’s role is noted in Bill 

Prochnau, “The Home of the Sun,” Americas 11 (February 1959), 20.

56 SMR, March 1949, 1; July 1949, 3-4; August 1949, 2; ARC, Report of Operations, 1949-1951, 

11.

57 ARC, Report of Operations, 1949-1951, 14; SMR, October 1948, 3.

58 ARC, Report of Operations, 1949-1951, 20, 24-25; SMR, March 1950, 3; May 1950, 2; June 

1950, 1, 3; July 1950, 5; October 1950, 3.

59 ARC, Annual Report, 1952, “Construction in Progress by Government Forces” section; SMR, 

February 1951, 4; April 1951, 3; May 1951, 3; June 1951, 3; July 1951, 3; August 1951, 3; September 1951, 3; Anchorage Daily Times, July 31, 1951, 4.

60 ARC, Annual Report, 1952, “Preparation of Plans” section; ARC, Annual Report, 1953, 14, 

22-23; SMR, March 1952, 4; April 1952, 5; May 1952, 5; July 1952, photo; September 1952, 1; 

October 1952, 3; December 1952, 2; January 1953, 3; Prochnau, “Home of the Sun,” 20.

61 ARC, Annual Report, 1953, 16, 23; SMR, August 1953, 2; September 1953, 4; “Summit FAA 

50725” folder, historical files, FAAAirports Division, Anchorage.

62 SMR, March 1954, 3; January 1955, 3; April 1956, 2; U.S. Census, Census of Population, 1950, 

Number of Inhabitants – Alaska (Washington, GPO, 1952), Table 4, as noted in Alden M. Rollins, 

Census Alaska; Number of Inhabitants, 1792-1970 (Anchorage, UAA Library, 1978), p. 1950-8.

63 SMR, October 1954, 3; March 1955, 4.

64 Prochnau, “Home of the Sun,” 20.

65 ARC, Annual Report, 1954, 16, 24; ARC, Annual Report, 1955, 22.
152 Crown Jewel of the North: An Administrative History of Denali National Park and Preserve

125 SMR, March 1948, 3; May 1948, 4; August 1948, 3; March 1949, 2; May 1950, 3.

126 SMR, October 1949, 3; May 1950, 3; November 1950, 2.

127 SMR, July 1950, photo; September 1951, photo; October 1952, 3.

128 SMR, November 1950, 2-3.

129 SMR, December 1950, 2; March 1951, 3; April 1951, 3; May 1952, 4.

 130 SMR, September 1953, 2; June 1954, 2. The old rangers’ dormitory has served as an office

since 1954. It now serves as a workplace for the superintendent and other park managers.

131 SMR, July 1953, 3; May 1954, 2; June 1954, 2; May 1965, 4. The present C-Camp trailers 

were brought to the site from Toklat Camp in 1982. Steve Carwile interview, January 12, 2006.

132 NPS, “Headquarters Area Fluid Systems,” chart MOMC-5316A, January 1951, in NPS Aperture Card Collection; SMR, November 1948, 2.

133 Ranger William Clemons, called on to thaw a frozen water pipe in November 1948, caustically 

noted, “Welcome will be the day to the skeleton force of field men here when the higher echelons

see fit to furnish this park with a maintenance crew as is customary in other national parks. The

maintenance problem must be more severe here per unit than in any other park due to the long and 

cold winters.” SMR, November 1948, 2.

134 SMR, February 1947, 2; March 1948, 2; February 1949, 2; February 1950, 2.

135 SMR, January 1947, 1; February 1947, 2; February 1948, 3.

136 SMR, January 1946, 1; September 1946, 2; October 1946, 2.

137 SMR, May 1948, 3; August 1948, 3; July 1950, 2; October 1950, 2; May 1951, 4; August 1951, 

3.

138 SMR, August 1952, 2; August 1953, 2; September 1953, 2.

139 SMR, February 1955, 2; September 1955, 2; January 1956, 2.

140 SMR, January 1951, 4; April 1955, 3.

141 SMR, December 1945, 1; February 1946, 2; September 1948, 3; April 1949, 3; August 1950, 3.

142 SMR, September 1950, 2; September 1951, 4.

143 SMR, September 1951, 4; December 1953, 2; March 1954, 2. After 1954, coal was used to 

heat the headquarters garage; that practice continued until the winter of 1956-57. SMR, December 

1956, photo.

144 Before World War II, the CCC and NPS had also dumped garbage near the park headquarters, 

but in May 1940, Supt. Been decided to eliminate the dump; he burned what he could and “buried 

... or hauled away” the remainder. SMR, May 1940, 3.

145 SMR, April 1948, 2; Joseph W. Johnson to Conrad Wirth, February 16, 1951, in “McKinley 

Park 50470” folder, FAAAirports Division historical files.

146 SMR, June 1941, 3; October 1946, 4.

147 SMR, August 1951, 2; January 1952, 5; February 1952, 3, 5; May 1952, 3, 5, 6.

148 SMR, April 1953, 3; June 1956, 5; August 1959, 7; September 1964, 5; October 1964, 5; Jane 

Bryant email, August 29, 2005. The new (1964) dump site was located just south of the road-railroad crossing near Milepost 345 of the Alaska Railroad.

149 SMR, June 1948, 5; May 1951, 5; January 1953, 4; December 1955, 1; October 1956, 1; Jane 

Bryant to author, August 29, 2005.

150 File 206.06 (Been), Box 1404 (MOMC), Entry 7, RG 79, NARA CP.

151 Kauffmann, Mount McKinley National Park, 35-41; SMR, August 1953, 2.

152 Kauffmann, Mt. McKinley National Park, 33.

153 SMR, October 1940, 3; October 1941, 1.

154 Kauffmann, Mt. McKinley National Park, 41-42.

155 Kauffmann, Mt. McKinley National Park, 42; Victor H. Cahalane, A Boundary Study of Mount 

McKinley National Park, unpublished manuscript, December 30, 1954, pp. 7, 23-24; NPS-TIC 

Fiche Collection #184/D155.

156 SMR, August 1953, 2; Cahalane, A Boundary Study, 6, 22.

157 Kauffmann, Mt. McKinley National Park, 43; Cahalane, A Boundary Study, 7, 12; 83rd Congress, 2nd Session, Senate Committee on Interior and Insular Affairs, Alaska Statehood: Hearings 

... on S. 50, a Bill to Provide for the Admission of Alaska into the Union, conducted January 20 to 

February 24, 1954 (Washington, GPO, 1954), 37, 42-46.

158 As noted on page 7 of Cahalane’s study, the proposed deletion would have totaled nearly 430 

square miles, which was almost one-sixth of the park’s acreage at that time. Cahalane’s 1953 work 

at Katmai is detailed in Frank Norris, Isolated Paradise: An Administrative History of the Katmai 

and Aniakchak National Park Units (Anchorage, NPS, 1996), 92-94.

159 Cahalane, A Boundary Study, 1-5; SMR, September 1954, 4. 160 Cahalane, A Boundary Study, 7-26.
Chapter Six: Postwar McKinley, 1946-1956 153

100 Wood, “Wilderness Camp,” 21-22; Wood, “The Building of Camp Denali,” 40-41; Hunter to 

Grant H. Pearson, January 8, 1952, in File 900, noted above. Hunter had originally hoped to build 

her camp by moving the abandoned buildings at Camp Eielson to her homesteading site. That plan 

fell through, however. Pearson to Hill, July 7, 1951; Pearson to Hunter, November 24, 1952; both 

in File 900, noted above.

101 Hunter to Pearson, January 8, 1952; Pearson to RD/R4, January 11, 1952; Hunter to Pearson, 

February 1, 1952; Herbert Maier to Director NPS, May 20, 1952; Lawrence C. Merriam to Director 

NPS, November 4, 1952; all in File 900, noted above.

102 Wood, “The Building of Camp Denali,” 23-24; Hunter to Pearson, November 7, 1952; Hunter 

to Regional Office, NPS, December 10, 1952; both in File 900, noted above.

103 Fairbanks Daily News-Miner, March 12, 1937. In May 1939, Mary Liek (along with her 

husband) moved to Wind Cave National Park near Hot Springs, South Dakota (see Chapter 5), so all 

correspondence regarding the estate went to and from that location.

104 Harry J. Liek to F.A. Kittredge, November 16, 1938, in File 610 (“Mt. McKinley Public 

Lands”), Box 79, CCF/MOMC, RG 79, NARA SB.

105 Been to Director, October 17, 1939; A.E. Demaray to Been, June 12, 1940; Been to Director, 

January 22, 1941; Been to Director, March 26, 1941; Demaray to Been, April 23, 1941, all in File 

610 (“Mt. McKinley, Morino Tract, 1939-1953”), Box 79, CCF/MOMC, RG 79, NARA SB; SMR, 

March 1940, 2; December 1940, photos.

 106 Harry J. Liek to Director NPS, July 22, 1940, in “Entries, General” file, Box 1411 (MOMC),

Entry 7, RG 79, NARA CP.

107 Drury to the [Interior] Secretary, June 24, 1946, in File 610, above; Conrad L. Wirth to Supt. 

WICA, October 10, 1944, in “Entries, General” file, Box 1411 (MOMC), Entry 7, RG 79, NARA

CP. The $3,800 offer was a bargain inasmuch as the property was valued at $4,800 in January 1944 

and $6,000 in November 1946. Hillary Tolson to [Interior] Secretary, August 14, 1946, in File 610, 

above; Peterson, Mount McKinley National Park Development Outline (1946), 6.

108 Drury to the [Interior] Secretary, June 24, 1946, in File 610, above; Ise, Our National Park 

Policy, 268-69; Frank Norris, Legacy of the Gold Rush; An Administrative History of Klondike Gold 

Rush National Historical Park (Anchorage, NPS, 1996), 93.

109 Pearson to Director NPS, radiogram, July 29, 1946; Pearson to RD/R4, August 13, 1946; Hillary Tolson to [Interior] Secretary, August 14, 1946; Theodore Spector to Director NPS, November 

20, 1946; all in File 610, above.

110 Theodore Spector to Director NPS, November 20, 1946; Hugh M. Miller to Mary Wahl Liek, 

May 15, 1947; Elmer Hosler to Frank Been, June 9 and September 12, 1947; Tolson to Supt. 

MOMC, August 5, 1947; all in File 610, above.

111 Mary Wahl Liek to Director NPS, August 18, 1947; Liek to Director, telegram, September 2, 

1947; Tolson to Liek, September 3, 1947; Conrad L. Wirth to RD/R4, November 3, 1947; all in File 

610, above; SMR, September 1947, 3; October 1947, 1.

112 SMR, July 1939, 2, photo; September 1939, 4; March 1940, 2.

113 SMR, August 1940, 5.

114 SMR, December 1947, 2; May 1950, 3; May 1951, 3; Brown, A History, 190-91.

115 SMR, May 1952, 4; November 1952, 4; March 1953, 2; October 1953, 4; November 1953, 5; 

December 1953, 2.

116 SMR, July 1939, photo; June 1957, 4; February 1959, 4.

117 Peterson, Mount McKinley National Park Development Outline (1946), 6; Grant Pearson to 

RD/R4, May 23, 1952, in File 857.08 (“Railroads”), Box 84, CCF/MOMC, RG 79, NARA SB.

118 Joseph W. Johnson (CAA) to Conrad Wirth, February 16, 1951, in “McKinley Park 50470” 

folder, FAAAirports Division historical files.

119 Lawrence C. Merriam (RD/R4) to Director NPS, July 14, 1952, in File 610, CCF/MOMC, RG 

79, NARA SB; Federal Register 17 (April 19, 1952), p. 3495.

 120 “McKinley Park 50470” folder, FAAAirports Division historical files; Vint to Chief WODC,

May 18, 1956; Pearson to Chief WODC, July 5, 1956; Sanford Hill to Supt. MOMC; all in File D18 

(“Master Plans”), Box 2, CCF/MOMC, RG 79, NARA SB.

121 Hackett, Alaska’s Vanishing Frontier, 1951, 46-47; Yates, Report on Survey and Review ... of 

the Alaska Railroad, 18-20.

122 Federal Register 18 (October 16, 1953), 6592; Stroud, History of the Concession, 17; SMR, 

October 1953, 4; November 1953, 3.

123 These included an additional ranger position, an equipment operator, and an auto mechanic; in 

addition, the superintendent and chief ranger’s positions were separated.

124 SMR, September 1946, 3; December 1946, 2; May 1947, 2; December 1947, 2.
154 Crown Jewel of the North: An Administrative History of Denali National Park and Preserve
Chapter Six: Postwar McKinley, 1946-1956 155
156 Crown Jewel of the North: An Administrative History of Denali National Park and Preserve
Chapter Seven: Rubber-Tired Tourism, 1957-1971 157

Chapter Seven: Rubber-Tired Tourism, 

1957-1971

The Denali Highway Opens

As noted in Chapter 6, the staff at Mount 

McKinley National Park was well aware during 

the postwar years of a planned road that would 

connect the McKinley Park road with the continental road network. The road between Paxsons 

Roadhouse (on the Richardson Highway) and 

McKinley Park Station, which came to be called 

the Denali Highway, was begun in 1950, and 

each year thereafter new construction took place 

that brought the two ends of the highway ever 

closer. In May 1956, the completion of the road 

was assured when the Alaska Road Commission 

awarded contracts for the construction of four 

bridges over the intervening distance. Predictions at that time called for the road to be opened 

on June 1, 1957.

Bridge work continued throughout the summer and fall of 1956. Contractors, however, fell 

behind schedule, and by the spring of 1957 the 

highway’s opening date had been pushed back 

to August. A number of motorists, however, had 

apparently not been apprised of the delay; they 

headed down the Richardson Highway toward 

the park and did not hear the disappointing news 

until they arrived at Paxson. Park superintendent 

Duane Jacobs, curious about the ongoing construction, headed out the still-unfinished road in 

July and noted that the Susitna River bridge was 

the last remaining obstacle; he gazed east from 

the bridge’s western approach and observed 

“road equipment ... working on two or three cuts 

about two miles from the east end of the bridge.”1

The two ends of the road were finally linked 

in early August 1957. The bridge was officially 

opened on August 5. The first motorists drove 

the length of the highway, however, on August 2, 

and the first auto arrived at the park on August 

4; it was a 1957 Ford sedan owned by Mr. and 

Mrs. P. B. Johem of Los Angeles. The opening of 

the road brought forth a minor flood of automobile traffic; 438 people—most of them Alaska 

residents—drove into the park in August alone. 

Hundreds of others, however, continued to arrive 

by railroad; and despite the highway being open, 

scores of others continued to bring their cars to 

the park on railroad flat cars from either Anchorage or Fairbanks.2

The road opening brought forth a strong, positive 

press response. Reporter John Lenferink of the 

Anchorage Daily Times offered the following puff 

piece in early August:

For the tourist who loves his scenes 

as yet unspoiled, for the multitudes of 

camera fans in search of lures to woo 

their lens, for the hunting and fishing 

fraternity in everlasting search of virgin soil, and for the motoring public in 

general, a new and vast area of interest 

will be opened soon with the completion of the new Denali Highway. ...

With this newest addition to Alaska’s 

fast growing network of roads, 

another region of the territory’s vast 

hinterlands, both rich in wildlife and 

scenic beauties, has been thrown open 

to public gaze. Through this wild and 

rugged land new horizons of scenic 

grandeur and breathtaking beauty 

greet the visitor on every side.

Beginning at Paxson, on the Richardson Highway, the new road extends 

for more than 250 miles to Wonder 

Lake in the Mt. McKinley National 

Park area, and slightly beyond to 

Katisna [sic], an old ghost town. Running east [sic] from Paxson, the road 

travels through a landscape interspersed with towering mountains, 

rolling hills, sleepy dales, wandering 

rivers, and shimmering lakes.3

Shortly afterward, Jack DeYonge of the Fairbanks Daily News-Miner wrote a similar story. 

He noted that the new highway had “opened 

the heart of Alaska’s mountain highlands to 

hunter, fishermen, tourists and to ma, pa, and 

the kids off on a weekend trip.” He noted that 

most of the highway was “in good condition and 

motorists can average about 30 miles an hour 

on the gravel.” He warned, however, that for a 

25-mile stretch between the Maclaren River and 

the Susitna River, “the road rumbles with heavy 

construction equipment in two or three short 

stretches. But this stretch is passable to all types 

of vehicles, including passenger cars, if it is taken 

slowly.” DeYonge cautioned readers to carry 

five gallons of extra gas; in addition, “a spare tire 

or two, a tire patching kit and an air pump are 

almost necessary for the rest of the road.” He 

further noted that the cost of gas for the round 

trip from Fairbanks would cost between $30 and 

After the Denali Highway opened, 

motorists could drive their private 

cars to McKinley Park. Flat tires were 

a common occurrence on the gravel 

roads. Bob & Ira Spring Photo, Courtesy of Wallace A. Cole Collection, 

Camp Denali 
158 Crown Jewel of the North: An Administrative History of Denali National Park and Preserve

$50.4

Finally, Sunset Magazine spread the word about 

the new highway to its large, western-U.S. readership. Its verbiage was more pragmatic, with 

details on accommodation options, viewpoints, 

and fishing possibilities. It noted that visitors 

were likely to be surprised by the park’s hotel 

“which, although it looks like a barracks from 

the outside, offers unusual conveniences for a 

place so remote.” It also mentioned that “many 

people spend at least a night at Camp Denali,” 

where rates were $7 for one person or $15 for 

four in the housekeeping cabins and $1 per day 

per person in a “bedrock tent.” Visitors to the 

west end of the park road were also encouraged 

to “visit the ghost town of Kantishna or pull 

yourself across rushing Moose Creek in a hand 

cable car to visit the only remaining prospector,” 

Johnny Busia.5

Predictably, the completion of the Denali Highway caused a significant spike in park visitation. In 1956, the last year before the road’s 

completion, about 5,200 people had visited 

the park, but a year later—with the new road 

open for only about a month before the season 

closed—visitation more than doubled, to about 

10,700. In 1958, the first full year after the road 

was completed, visitation again doubled, to more 

than 25,900; it remained at that same high level 

the following year, the first summer following 

the declaration of Alaska’s statehood. Visitation dipped somewhat thereafter; never again, 

however, would visitation return to the numbers 

that had been tallied in the pre-road days.6 (See 

Appendix B.)

The Mission 66 Program 

Concurrent with the completion of the final 

legs of the Denali Highway was the unveiling 

and initial implementation of the Mission 66 

program at Mount McKinley National Park. 

Mission 66 was a long-range development effort 

for parks throughout the country; its name was 

derived from 1966, the NPS’s 50th anniversary, 

when most of these efforts were scheduled to be 

completed. NPS Director Conrad Wirth created 

the program in 1955. The following January, he 

garnered the enthusiastic approval of both President Dwight Eisenhower and Interior Secretary 

Douglas McKay. Wirth announced the program 

to the public on February 8, 1956.7 The program, 

patterned on the success of similar programs in 

the Army Corps of Engineers, Bureau of Public Roads, and Bureau of Reclamation, was the 

agency’s response to the huge increase in postwar 

tourism; visitation to the parks had more than tripled between 1940 and 1954. Most of the money 

spent on Mission 66 projects, which eventually 

totaled over $1 billion, went to park construction 

projects, but staffing, maintenance, and protection work was also included. Projects were to be 

funded through the usual Interior Department 

appropriations process.8

The announcement of this program was no 

surprise to Mount McKinley staff. They had 

Nunatak tent cabin was one of the 

housekeeping units at Camp Denali, 

1958. Bob & Ira Spring Photo, Courtesy of Wallace A. Cole, Camp Denali
Chapter Seven: Rubber-Tired Tourism, 1957-1971 159

attended a special meeting on the subject in July 

1955, and once the tourist season began to wind 

down, staff threw themselves into a concerted 

effort to compile an initial development plan. 

Several versions of the park’s program prospectus were prepared; they were then revised after 

review and input from park staff. The final park 

prospectus, more than 50 pages long, was completed on April 20, 1956.9

Just one day later, Interior Department official 

Carl Junge traveled from Washington, D.C. to 

an Alaska Chamber of Commerce meeting, in 

Ketchikan, and announced details of the Mission 

66 program in Alaska. The initial budget, which 

had been developed by staff at Alaska’s two 

independently-managed units (Mount McKinley 

and Sitka), called for $9.25 million to be spent 

on Alaskan projects. The majority of this funding—$6.9 million—was intended for Mount 

McKinley, the only national park in the territory.10 Most of the Mount McKinley funds—$4.3 

million—would go toward park road improvements, while the remaining $2.6 million would go 

toward buildings and utilities. 

Duane Jacobs, who served as Mount McKinley’s 

Assistant Superintendent in 1955 and 1956 and 

as Superintendent from late 1956 through late 

1959, explained that the park, in 1956, was still 

“adapted to the package-type train and bus tour, 

which [is] characterized by 

large hotels close to the railhead 

and heavy reliance placed upon 

hotel operators for furnishing 

accommodations and transportation within the area. The 

opening of the roads,” however, “will bring a mobile visitor 

who will require campgrounds, 

lunchrooms and installations 

for active enjoyment of the 

area.” To “alleviate crowded 

road conditions expected with 

the opening of the approach 

road ... visitor centers with 

exhibit rooms and turnouts and 

wayside exhibits will provide 

means for such dispersal.” In 

addition, both short and long hiking trails would 

lure visitors away from the road. Regarding accommodations, “the hotel will remain the main 

point of concentration for the visitor who enters 

by means of commercial transportation and to a 

lesser extent by those entering in [a] private automobile. Later proposed developments would be 

of the motel type with central lodge or gathering place, lunch counter and housekeeping type 

cabins.” As initially announced, “the principal 

development” in the park’s Mission 66 program 

would be in “the Savage River area, where a large 

new public use building will be erected. New 

campground facilities will be constructed in 

[this] area and existing campsites will be expanded.” No overnight accommodations were 

planned in the Wonder Lake area.11

The Savage River area seemed, at first, to be an 

illogical location for the park’s primary development site. It needs to be recalled, however, that 

this area—which offers an excellent if distant 

view of Mount McKinley on clear days—was the 

primary park visitor node for the 15-year period 

between 1924 and 1938, inclusive. More to the 

point, however, the NPS made its initial Mission 

66 plans based on plans being formulated by 

the Alaska Road Commission. As early as 1948, 

when a host of routes were being considered to 

access the park, one alternative route would have 

connected Fairbanks with the park along a path 

that would have roughly paralleled the Alaska 

Railroad.12 That route was soon discarded in 

favor of the Paxson-to-Cantwell route, but two 

years later the road was still in the discussion 

stage, and in September 1953, the announcement 

that the ARC would build a road that winter from 

Fairbanks to Nenana reignited the idea of a possible extension of that road to the park.13 

Road construction between Fairbanks and 

Nenana, as it turned out, did not take place until 

the 1955-56 period.14 But as early as the spring 

of 1953, ARC staff had submitted budget requests 

for a preliminary survey of a route between 

Nenana and the park, and during the summer 

of 1954, two ARC engineers conducted a survey 

along the proposed route. Later that year, they 

told park superintendent Grant Pearson that the 

Commission’s favored route paralleled the Alaska 

Railroad from Nenana to Lignite; this route 

was chosen, in part, to provide a road access to 

the Healy River coal fields. South of Lignite, 

On July 29, 1958, Mrs. Henry P. 

Karstens placed a wreath by the 

Harry Karstens Memorial Plaque 

at the Toklat River bridge. She is 

assisted by Grant Pearson, Robert E. 

(Bob) Sheldon, and Superintendent 

Duane Jacobs, on the right. DENA 28-

97, Denali National Park and Preserve 

Museum Collection 
160 Crown Jewel of the North: An Administrative History of Denali National Park and Preserve

however, the commission favored angling the 

road southwest to the Savage River drainage and 

then south through Savage River Canyon to its 

intersection with the park road. (They decided 

on the Savage River route because “the terrain 

through the Nenana River Canyon is not stable 

and is continually moving. The Alaska Railroad 

has experienced much difficulty to hold the 

railroad track in that section.”) This decision, 

plus an ARC assertion that “funds may be made 

available in the 1955 [fiscal year] to start work 

on that portion of the road,” brought forth a 

concerned note from Pearson to regional NPS 

officials.15 The NPS, for the moment, could do 

little but monitor the situation. An apparent lack 

of funds prevented the promised road construction project from taking place; even so, road 

authorities in the spring of 1956 still favored the 

Savage River route.16

The prospectus, issued in April 1956, gave 

additional details about proposed Mission 66 

developments. At Savage River, the “proposed 

supplementary development” would consist of a 

“lodge, dining room, lunch counter and facilities for the preparation and handling of food. In 

close proximity to the lodge a number of cabins 

of housekeeping type and otherwise would be 

constructed.” The NPS also planned to construct 

a Main Visitor Center adjacent to the lodge, 

which would include an exhibit room, a 300- to 

400-person auditorium, a library, information 

office, and office space, and the agency also 

planned to double the 20-space campground. 

“It is from this point,” the prospectus read, “that 

the bus trips of the concessioner will originate, 

and here visitors will be oriented and prepared to 

enjoy the park to the utmost.”

Developments, however, would not be limited 

to the Savage River area. Near the east entrance 

to the park, “a small orientation-comfort station 

with a five-unit picnic ground close by” was 

planned. In the vicinity of Ewe Creek (Lower 

Savage) Ranger Station, near where the proposed 

highway would enter the park, another five-unit 

picnic ground was envisioned. Plans also called 

for two new campgrounds: a 100-unit development at “the present Teklanika campsite” and a 

20-unit campground, in due time, in the Toklat 

area. Self-guiding nature trails were planned at 

Savage River and Polychrome Pass, and staff also 

decided that a series of interpretive panels should 

be installed at various points along the park road. 

At headquarters, the agency planned to build 

a new administrative facility near the present 

structure; the existing administration building, 

which was “by no means fireproof,” would “be 

converted into a much-needed multi-purpose 

structure and will be used as a school house for 

employees children, recreation hall for employees and as a general meeting place for community 

functions.”17

At Wonder Lake, several improvements were in 

the offing. A five-unit picnic area was planned 

at the lake’s northern end, and toward the later 

stages of the program a significant expansion 

of the Wonder Lake campground (to 50 spaces, 

with space for “house trailers”) was envisioned. 

The agency also made tentative plans for a larger 

development. “When travel increases,” the 

document noted, “it may be deemed necessary 

to construct a small day-use lunch counter-lodge 

building in the vicinity of the Wonder Lake visitor center.” This center would contain a 100-seat 

auditorium, an exhibit room, and an information 

office. “In addition, a small service station would 

be desirable. The structure would be utilized 

by campers in that area, and, with the advent 

of paved roads, this visitor center will probably 

become the half-way point on the concessioner’s 

bus tours.”18

Roads and trails were the other major planned 

developments. Agency officials frankly stated 

that the current park road was 

an 88.3 mile sub-standard gravel road 

of a type that is not desirable as the 

main park road. Realignment and 

improvements which will bring it 

up to modern standards, including 

paving, has been scheduled for the 

ensuing ten year program and work 

will progress in ten mile sections, or 

greater lengths if funds permit more 

rapid construction.

Improvements on the park road, moreover, were 

scheduled to begin immediately; $500,000 would 

be spent during the current fiscal year, and an 

additional $400,000 the following year. Park staff 

recognized that “glaciering or road icing” was a 

major seasonal problem. In the Sanctuary River 

area, the agency planned to add “extensive road 

fill to place the road above ice level,” and at Igloo 

Creek it planned a road realignment to “place the 

road beyond the level of ice formation.” Officials 

recognized, however, that the glaciering problem 

could not be circumvented everywhere along the 

park road, so glacier removal would continue to 

incur high maintenance costs.19 

As to trails, park officials were quick to admit 

that “the average visitor to the park is an elderly 

person who is content to view the park in relative comfort via bus tours and automobile, and 

usually shows but little interest or desire, or has 

the capability of walking any distance.” They felt, 
Chapter Seven: Rubber-Tired Tourism, 1957-1971 161

however, that the new, auto-borne visitor population would be “younger and more able,” so the 

agency planned to construct and mark five new 

trails: 1) an eight-mile trail from the new Savage 

River development to the river’s headwaters, 2) 

the twenty-mile Double Mountain Trail, between 

the Teklanika and Sanctuary drainages, 3) a 

“ten-mile trail to the source of the left fork of the 

Toklat River, terminating at the Toklat Glacier,” 

4) a four-mile trail down the Toklat River to the 

site of the Sheldon Cabin, and 5) a 24-mile trail 

from the proposed Wonder Lake lodge site to 

McGonagall Pass and the upper Muldrow Glacier, with a side trail from the Clearwater CreekCache Creek area east to the Mile 66-Camp 

Eielson area. Along most of these trails, one or 

more “three-quarter shelters” were planned. In 

addition, the agency planned to stabilize and 

reconstruct the Sheldon Cabin, which was then 

in ruinous condition.20

Once the park’s prospectus became public, 

regional and Washington officials looked it 

over, and in late July a regional Mission 66 team 

traveled out the park road to Wonder Lake.21 

Apparently as a result of that visit, a decision was 

made to augment the two previously-proposed 

visitor centers (at Savage River and Wonder 

Lake) with two new ones. One such center (at 

Polychrome Pass) proved of transient interest, 

perhaps because it lacked a dependable water 

source, and plans there were downsized in favor 

of a small visitor node with rest rooms and a few 

exhibits. But a second visitor center, at the site 

of former Camp Eielson, quickly became “first in 

priority because of its urgent need.” The location 

offered a host of advantages; as a revised edition of the prospectus noted, “The superlative 

view of Mount McKinley and other features of 

the area merit orientational and interpretational 

exhibits, and as the location is the midpoint of 

the concessioner bus tours, the area and building 

will be utilized heavily.” The agency apparently 

recognized that many bus-tour patrons as well as 

automobile travelers would not 

venture all the way to Wonder 

Lake, so in early 1957 it quickly 

cobbled together architectural 

and interpretive plans for the 

new visitor center. By July, the 

agency was getting ready to 

issue a bid for the building’s 

construction.22

Another major change that 

took place during the 12-month 

period following the issuance 

of the park prospectus was that 

road authorities—who now 

worked for the Bureau of Public 

Roads (BPR) rather than the 

Alaska Road Commission—began to reconsider their earlier 

decision to route the Fairbanks-McKinley Park 

road through Savage River Canyon. A BPR official, quoted in the spring of 1957, was careful to 

note that “no recommendations will be forthcoming on either of the approach roads from 

the north until a reconnaissance survey has been 

completed on the Nenana River route.”23 In 

response to that change of direction, the Mission 

66 prospectus backpedaled. “Due to the present 

uncertainty of where the northern approach 

road will enter the park, a fixed location for [the 

main visitor center and lodge complex] cannot 

be determined at this time. If this road enters via 

Savage River Canyon, then Savage River appears 

as the logical location, but if on the other hand 

the road enters via the Nenana River Canyon the 

present hotel area would lend itself to further 

development of cabin type accommodations.”24

As noted in the final Mission 66 prospectus, 

which was issued in late May 1957, the NPS 

planned to spend more than $9.7 million on 

specific Mount McKinley development projects 

by 1966. Almost three-fourths of that money—

some $7.2 million—was to be allotted for the 

improvement of the park road and the conThe former Camp Eielson site became 

the focus for Eielson Visitor Center, 

a Mission 66 project. This site was 

located at the midpoint of the park 

bus tours and provided a world-class 

view, making it a logical site for visitors to take a long, interesting pause. 

DENA 39-8, Denali National Park and 

Preserve Museum Collection

Constructed during the summers of 

1958 and 1959, Eielson Visitor Center 

opened to the public in July, 1960.

DENA 5-17, Denali National Park and 

Preserve Museum Collection
162 Crown Jewel of the North: An Administrative History of Denali National Park and Preserve

struction of new trails. Most of the remaining 

funds—some $2.5 million—was to be spent 

on the McKinley Park Hotel and on visitors 

centers, administrative structures, utilities, 

and so forth. (No funds, however, had been 

allotted for housekeeping cabins, lunch rooms, 

and similar facilities; these investments, it was 

assumed, would be borne by concessioners.) 

Less than $100,000 was to be spent on exhibits, 

signs, picnic areas, and campgrounds.25 Now, 

more than ever before, the park had forged a 

bold, specific blueprint on how future development should take place. 

The Fate of Mission 66: Successes and Failures

Given the bold plans that were put forth during 

the early years of the Mission 66 program and 

the broad Congressional support for funding 

these projects during the program’s ten-year 

lifecycle, it is perhaps surprising that only a 

smattering of the plans for Mount McKinley 

National Park that were sketched out during 

this period were ever realized. Most, by contrast, never got beyond the proposal stage. In 

general, it appears that the plans most likely to 

be acted upon were those with the highest priority, the lowest level of controversy, and those 

which were actively backed by a broad range of 

agency officials. Regarding road improvements, 

for example, contracts for the first several segments were easily approved, but by the mid1960s, as shall be seen later in this chapter, the 

issuance of contracts for the central and western portions of the park road got mired in controversy, forcing funds to be redirected to other 

projects. The construction of trails, as shall be 

seen, was predicated on the notion that such 

trails were both necessary and environmentally 

sound. But a heightened consciousness toward 

wilderness values militated against the building 

and marking of trails, and these plans remained 

uncompleted. Regarding building-construction 

projects, the various concessions developments 

(such as motels, day lodges, lunch counters, etc.) 

never got off the ground, apparently because of a 

lack of interest on the part of both the NPS and 

the park concessioner; campgrounds, however, 

were built largely as planned (see below). The 

Eielson Visitor Center—which was not part of 

the original Mission 66 plans but came to life 

during the winter of 1956-57—was perhaps the 

most visible element to remember the Mission 66 

planning period; a construction contract was let 

in March 1958 (to J. B. Warrack, an Anchorage 

construction firm), it was opened to the public in 

July 1960, and it was formally dedicated on July 

15, 1961.26 

As noted above, the planned Savage River developments—a key part of the Mission 66 prospectus—were predicated on the assumption that the 

road from Nenana would enter the park via the 

Savage River Canyon. Just a few months after the 

Mission 66 plans were released, however, those 

plans were upended when a BPR reconnaissance survey concluded that a north-south route 

through Nenana Canyon was more practical and 

cost effective than the Savage River Canyon alignment. (The choice was made “due to factors of 

geology and terrain, plus permafrost, which led 

people conducting surveys to judge the route as 

being impracticable if not entirely impossible.”)27 

On the basis of that decision, the need for visitor 

services shifted from Savage River to the area 

surrounding the McKinley Park Hotel, where 

both the NPS and the concessioner already had 

support facilities. As the Mission 66 prospectus 

had correctly noted, park staff found it difficult 

to conduct a long-range plan for a park where 

visitor numbers and visitor characteristics would 

soon dramatically change. But as various parts of 

this chapter have suggested, changes in the NPS 

and in society as a whole forced the adoption of 

other changes that park staff during the 1955-56 

Eielson Visitor Center was formally 

dedicated during the month of July. 

During the month of July, Eielson 

Visitor Center hosted 4142 visitors. 

DENA 5-29, Denali National Park and 

Preserve Museum Collection
Chapter Seven: Rubber-Tired Tourism, 1957-1971 163

planning period could never have anticipated.

The Park Hotel: Success at Last

During most of the 1950s, the park hotel had 

been a perennial source of red ink and a continuing headache to its operator. During the early 

part of the decade, Alaska Railroad officials were 

able to lessen their losses by opening the hotel 

each winter to soldiers and airmen on leave. 

After 1953, however, they cast about for a private 

concessioner. That firm, based in Anchorage, 

was unable to survive for long, and in August 

1954 a company called National Park Concessions, Inc. took over. NPCI, which had government connections and was specifically arranged 

to revive foundering concessions operations, ran 

the hotel in 1955 (incurring a small loss) and in 

1956 (gaining a small profit). Throughout this 

period, the government continued to invite bids 

from independent concessioners. Finding none, 

however, they prepared to operate the hotel 

during the summer of 1957. NPCI personnel 

opened the hotel on June 2—just prior to the 

three-day Alaska Bankers’ Convention. By the 

time it closed that year, on September 8, it proudly noted that 1957 had been the company’s best 

year to date; because (or in spite of) the mid-season completion of the Denali Highway), the hotel 

enjoyed a record number of guests and meals and 

its highest profit yet. NPS staff agreeably noted 

that there had been “very few complaints on the 

part of visitors relative to the operation of the 

hotel and the transportation system.”28

In September 1957, just a month after the new 

road opened, two visitors from California arrived 

at the park to evaluate the park concession. Don 

Hummel and his nephew Al Donau, the respective owner and manager of the Lassen Volcanic 

National Park concession, had been invited there 

by Supt. Jacobs, who encouraged them to assume 

control over the park’s concessions. After touring the hotel and ancillary buildings, park staff 

concluded that the two “appeared quite interested in the possibility of operating the hotel and 

allied concession facilities.” Within weeks, Hummel—operating as the proposed Mount McKinThe formal dedication of Eielson 

Visitor Center, July 15, 1961, was 

attended by about sixty people. NPS 

Associate Director Eivind Scoyen gave 

the principal address. W.V. Watson 

Collection, Denali National Park and 

Preserve Museum Collection
164 Crown Jewel of the North: An Administrative History of Denali National Park and Preserve

ley National Park Company—submitted an offer 

to assume control over the concession operation. 

This offer, which was based on frank discussions 

between Hummel and Regional Director Lawrence C. Merriam in San Francisco, included a 

three-year waiver of winter hotel heating costs.29 

His offer was discussed by a variety of NPS officials, and in January 1958 it was submitted to 

Congress for the 60-day waiting period required 

by law. On February 6, Hummel and NPS officials officially agreed to a 10-year contract to run 

the McKinley Park concession (see Appendix 

D). Before long, Hummel chose Arthur Hansen 

as his on-site manager. The new concessioner 

agreed to keep the hotel officially open from June 

14 to September 7, with the understanding that 

informal accommodations would be available 

both a week before the opening date and a week 

after the closing date.30

Under the new concession contract, the NPS 

stipulated the need for a general store and gasoline station to serve the anticipated automobile 

traffic. Plans for a service station had first been 

aired in July 1956 when Standard Oil of California officials inspected the proposed site. At the 

time, NPS officials had not yet decided whether 

there should be an on-site railroad crossing near 

the hotel or an overpass bridge, and discussions 

about the proper road alignment in that area 

occupied much of the summer of 1957. It was 

not until February 1958—the same month that 

Hummel signed the concessions contract—that 

the NPS finally decided where the service station would go. Hummel, using the Standard Oil 

connections he had gained during his years at 

Lassen, decided to arrange for the construction 

of a new building that would offer a small grocery 

store as well as a service station; Standard Oil 

agreed to build the service station in exchange for 

the exclusive right to sell its products there. The 

concessioner opened the store in what would 

have been the grease rack; it was the only grocery 

for miles around. The new building opened just 

before September 1, the deadline stated in the 

recently-completed concessions contract.31

All known evidence indicates that Hummel, 

Don Hummel and Al Donau visited 

the park and met with Superintendent Jacobs regarding their proposed 

Mount McKinley National Park 

Company assuming operation of the 

park’s concession facilities. They are 

pictured here in front of the McKinley 

Park railroad depot. DENA 28-51, 

Denali National Park and Preserve 

Museum Collection
Chapter Seven: Rubber-Tired Tourism, 1957-1971 165

perhaps because of his 20-plus years of experience at Lassen Volcanic National Park, ran a 

successful, profitable operation of the Mount 

McKinley concession. The hotel’s 1958 receipts, 

for example, exceeded those for the previous 

year, and its July 1959 revenue was a “substantial increase over the corresponding period for 

1958.”32 Thereafter, Hummel’s Mount McKinley 

operation remained profitable.33 Of enormous 

help to the concessioner, of course, were the 

large expenditures that the NPS had made during 

the mid-1950s to improve the hotel’s decaying 

infrastructure; also helpful was that during the 

wintertime, staff from the NPS—the agency that 

owned the hotel—were assigned (at government expense) to maintain and repair the hotel 

and power plant.34 Also of enormous help was 

Hummel’s ability, by installing high/low temperature recorders and rerouting the hot water 

pipes through the coldest part of the hotel first, 

to decrease the hotel’s heating bill, during both 

summer and winter.35 During this period, the 

concessioner and the NPS worked well together—NPS staff, for example, 

held an annual orientation for 

concession employees—and 

the concessioner periodically 

modernized and improved its 

facilities and rolling stock.36 

Throughout this period, the 

concession was controlled 

by Hummel and Donau, who 

made occasional summit 

visits; on-site managers such 

as Harold Franklin (1959-60), 

Robert Vaughan (1961-64), 

Dave O’Hara (1965), and Wallace Cole (1966-70) supervised 

day-to-day operations.37

Because of the renewed success of the park hotel, 

entrepreneurs hoped that the construction of 

new airstrips would attract additional visitors to 

the park. As noted in Chapter 6, an airstrip had 

existed at the Summit railroad stop since prewar 

days. And by the spring of 1953, when a road was 

extended to the Broad Pass area that allowed a 

road connection to McKinley Park Station, the 

strip offered an expanded runway and a fullystaffed Civil Aeronautics Authority station. The 

site, however, was 34 miles away from the park 

hotel. To further ease park access, the territory’s Director of Aviation, along with various 

airline representatives, visited the area in March 

1954 and inspected a potential landing strip 

site located just east of the Denali Highway and 

just south of the bridge demarcating the park’s 

eastern boundary. Later that spring, a territorial engineer surveyed a 5,000-foot runway and 

declared that “they expect this strip to be built 

this summer.”38 Little took place at the site, however, until the summer of 1957, when Anchorage 

resident George Lingo—whose roots at Mount 

McKinley extended all the way back to 1933-35, 

when he was the assistant general manager of 

the Mount McKinley Tourist and Transportation 

Company—informed Civil Aeronautics Administration officials that he and Jack Farley planned to 

develop a private airport at this site.39

By the spring of 1961, all was ready at the socalled Lingo Airstrip. Alaska Airlines showed 

an interest in using the strip, and on June 18, the 

carrier made its inaugural flights to the strip from 

both Anchorage and Fairbanks. Approximately 

a hundred people that day “arrived at the park 

via this facility and were afforded bus trips as far 

as Savage River by the park concessioner.” Supt. 

King, moreover, predicted that “a good percentage of tour groups may arrive at [the park] via the 

Alaska Airlines in the future.”40 Daily service—

one flight in each direction—finally began on 

August 16 and continued until September 9; 

during that time, shuttle service was available to 

the McKinley Park Hotel, and a Hertz rental-car 

facility was also available. Traffic, however, was 

“not substantial”; only 69 people utilized the service during the 31⁄2-week trial run. Based on that 

traffic volume, Lingo pulled out, and thereafter 

the field was seldom used commercially.41

Other airports were developed and proposed 

during this period, in support of either mining, exploration, and hunting-guide activities. 

By 1953, an 1,800-foot airstrip had been built 

on a flat ridge above Crooked Creek (in the 

Kantishna Hills) near the Hunter and Burkett 

Mine.42 A 2,200-foot airstrip was constructed in 

Cantwell, and five miles east of town an airstrip 

variously known as the Drashner Airport and 

Golden North Airfield was built during the late 

1960s.43 Finally, the summer of 1966 witnessed 

the construction of a 1,300-foot airstrip along 

Glen Creek as well as a widening and lengthening 

The park concessioner, Mount McKinley National Park Company, operated 

a gas station and small store, near the 

park hotel, for the new class of independent auto travelers. NPS Interp. 

Collection, #500, Denali National Park 

and Preserve 
166 Crown Jewel of the North: An Administrative History of Denali National Park and Preserve

of the nearby Kantishna Airstrip.44 All of these 

improvements were outside of the park boundaries. Within the park, the U.S. Coast and Geodetic 

Survey proposed a “temporary landing strip for 

small planes” in 1953 near the Teklanika River. 

This airstrip, however, never got beyond the 

planning stage.45

At Wonder Lake, the Dream Fades Away

While the fortunes of the existing park hotel, at 

the park’s eastern edge, shined bright, prospects 

remained murky for those who hoped for some 

sort of overnight accommodation off to the west 

in the Wonder Lake area. As noted in Chapter 

6, Alaska Railroad management had strongly 

supported the idea of a lodge or hotel at Wonder 

Lake during the immediate postwar period. But 

Congress’s tightening of the railroad’s purse 

strings—along with a concomitant reduction of 

support for a host of Alaska-related programs—

put the hotel on the back burner for the time 

being. Then, in the early 1950s, the transfer 

of the park concession from the governmentfunded railroad to a group of poorly-capitalized 

independent investors made any hopes of hotel 

construction ever more distant. Another issue 

that clouded development prospects was the 

preference, stated boldly by Interior Secretary 

Ickes during his tenure, to prevent new concessions developments in the parks if alternatives 

could be developed outside of park boundaries.46

As noted above, park staff in the initial (April 

1956) Mission 66 prospectus recommended that 

Wonder Lake—which until that time had only a 

small campground—become a significant visitor node; a picnic area would be laid out along 

the north shore, and just south of the lake there 

would be a “small day-use lunch counter-lodge 

building,” a visitor center, a small service station, 

and an expanded campground. No overnight 

accommodations were planned, however. This 

reticence was apparently driven by economics; 

there was little if any support during this period 

for governmentally-funded accommodations in 

the national parks, and the McKinley Park Hotel, 

at the time, was limping along only because of 

agency-provided financial support.

The notion of a Wonder Lake lodge, however, 

refused to die. The advent of Alaska statehood, 

in 1959, brought with it an increased interest in 

tourism as a development vehicle. In addition, 

the high visitor volume at the park in 1958 and 

1959, and the increasing profits being gained at 

the independently-operated park hotel during 

the same period, offered a further rationale for 

future development. Perhaps in light of that interest, NPS officials from both the San Francisco 

and Washington offices toured the park road in 

June 1960 and discussed, among other topics, a 

“campground, visitor center and concessioner 

facilities at Wonder Lake.”47 These plans may 

have initially been a mere revival of what had first 

been offered in the Mission 66 prospectus. But 

based on the energy (and money) which was then 

being poured into Eielson Visitor Center, which 

was a day-use facility, the planned Wonder Lake 

“concessioner facilities” were soon morphed into 

Laurence Rockefeller and his family arrived on Alaska Airlines at the 

McKinley Park airport where they 

were met by Superintendent Samuel 

A. King, right. The group enjoyed a 

tour on the park road and an inspection of the proposed Wonder Lake 

Visitor Center site. DENA 28-66, 

Denali National Park and Preserve 

Museum Collection 
Chapter Seven: Rubber-Tired Tourism, 1957-1971 167

a reincarnated plan for a Wonder Lake Lodge. 

This lodge would be sited on the same location 

that had been considered, off and on, since the 

mid-1930s.48

In 1962, NPS officials began to consider a new 

lodging site in the Wonder Lake area. Traffic 

along the park road east of the lake, predictably, 

had substantially increased since the opening 

of the Denali Highway, and concerns arose that 

the long-planned hotel site, on a knoll south of 

the lake, would mar the view of Mt. McKinley 

for travelers along the north and east sides of 

the lake.49 In response, park planners proposed 

a new site on a ridgeline east of Wonder Lake. 

This new proposal, finalized in August 1963, had 

a commanding view of Mt. McKinley, Wonder Lake, the Moose Creek drainage, and the 

Kantishna Hills.50 Planners envisioned a $3.3 

million development that included a lodge building, ten cabins, a service station, and a campground, along with supporting NPS facilities for 

park personnel and maintenance functions.51

Prior to the 1960s, virtually the only factor 

preventing the Park Service from constructing 

a hotel at the west end of the park road was the 

lack of money. The various early hotel plans in 

this area were generally uncontroversial, because 

almost no one opposed them.52 During the early 

1960s, agency officials such as park superintendent Samuel A. King continued to support the 

hotel idea, and the agency’s principal Alaska 

planner, Al Kuehl, was also a strong hotel backer.53 The agency was aware, however, that such 

support was not unanimous. The region’s construction chief, for example, cautioned that hotel 

construction would “create a black storm with 

the conservation people, since they are opposed 

to development at Wonder Lake.”54 The agency’s 

regional director, Lawrence Merriam, knew that 

the area was “a fragile biological complex which 

can easily be damaged by concentrated use.” For 

that reason, Merriam steered a cautious middle 

course; he urged further study before a decision 

could be made. NPS Director Wirth, meanwhile, assured Howard Zahniser, the Wilderness 

Society’s executive director, that “we have no 

funds programmed” at Wonder Lake aside from 

improvements to the existing campground.55

In late 1964 a new park superintendent, Oscar 

T. Dick, recommended that the NPS, at Wonder 

Lake, should scale back the plans that had been 

propounded just a year earlier. He advocated 

“some sort of motel type unit with food and other service facilities. A more pretentious development is not needed...”.56 But when that proposal 

reached Washington, newly-appointed Director 

George Hartzog recommended that new accommodations be located outside of the park.57 

Some people in the agency, however, still hoped 

to see a hotel built at Wonder Lake, and in 1966 

an NPS master plan team concluded that “a fine 

hotel is ... needed in the Wonder Lake area near 

the terminus of the present road with a capacity of 200 guests supplemented by an adequate 

campground complex nearby.” The team chose 

a site “on a high plateau east of Wonder Lake.”58 

The master plan stated that facilities were programmed for construction by the NPS in 1970. 

Momentum for a new lodge remained the following year, when the agency issued a prospectus for 

a 20-year concessions contract. That contract 

demanded that the concessioner expend the necessary funds to equip the proposed NPS facilities 

and place them in operation.59 But elsewhere, 

new voices of opposition were being heard. During the summer of 1967, Sierra Club President 

Edgar Wayburn visited the park, and when he 

and park superintendent George Hall headed out 

the road, they went to Wonder Lake and viewed 

the proposed hotel site. Wayburn, who was visiting Alaska for the first time, was alarmed by the 

idea. Before long he related his concerns about 

the site to NPS Director Hartzog, who knew the 

Sierra Club chief from previous legislative work 

related to a proposed Redwood National Park. 

Hartzog assured Wayburn that the Park Service 

had no intention of building any new hotels 

within Mount McKinley National Park.60

Alaskan development interests, meanwhile, did 

everything they could to prod the government 

into building a Wonder Lake hotel. The Anchorage Times, in particular, orchestrated a campaign 

during the summer of 1967, calling the Park Service “woefully remiss in its duty” and unwilling 

to make “the wonders of Mt. McKinley National 

Park ... accessible.”61 In September of that year, 

Times reporters sensed a change in the wind and 

announced, in a banner front-page headline, that 

the Park Service would construct a “lodge-type 

structure” at Wonder Lake in 1970 that “will 

accommodate 200 persons and include facilities 

for food service and relaxation.” (A follow-up 

editorial exulted in the decision and stated that 

“a third [park] hotel should be planned immediately.”) A few days later, however, NPS 

Regional Director John Rutter threw cold water 

on the newspaper’s optimism. He announced in 

Anchorage that the hotel project, which was extracted from the 1966 park master plan, would be 

built “as the need exists and the money is available.” And because the high costs of the Vietnam 

War were forcing cuts to the NPS budget, a 1970 

construction date was just “somebody’s wishful 

thinking.”62

The Times, undaunted, continued to tout a 
168 Crown Jewel of the North: An Administrative History of Denali National Park and Preserve

Wonder Lake hotel for more than a year afterward.63 In 1968, park superintendent George 

Hall supported “a hostel type instead of a hotel. 

Meals to be served family style, dress casual and 

interpretation on a high level of orientation to 

ecology should be featured.”64 NPS planners, 

in fact, spent “several weeks” that summer “in 

an attempt to find a site for a second hotel.” But 

in their 1968 master plan study, they concluded, 

for several reasons, that a “Wonder Lake Lodge 

is not now recommended.” The agency further 

noted that a Wonder Lake hotel “would have 

had a beautiful view but [it had] a short season because of weather conditions.”65 Alaska 

Governor Walter Hickel, who became the U.S. 

Interior Secretary in 1969, continued to push 

for the idea, and many years later he noted that 

“I got approval for a hotel that would cost $8 

million at Wonder Lake ... George Hartzog, 

who was chief of the park service, saw the need 

for it.” But the project died when Hickel left office.66 By late 1970 the idea was effectively dead, 

inasmuch as agency plans issued that year, and 

thereafter, omitted any mention of it. That same 

year, Interior Department officials notified the 

concessioner that it was no longer required to 

abide by the Wonder Lake provisions in the 1967 

contract renewal.67 Those hoping to construct 

a hotel with a McKinley view soon shifted their 

enthusiasm to a new location, south of the Alaska 

Range.68 That was the first of a series of southside hotel proposals that have been bandied 

about ever since (see chapters 8, 9, and 10).

Park Road Improvements: Controversy and 

Resolution

As noted above, a strong undercurrent in the 

controversy over a Wonder Lake hotel was a 

larger debate over whether development should 

be encouraged at the western end of the park 

road. Prior to the opening of the Denali Highway, virtually all parties supported the idea of 

a major development at either Mile 66 (Camp 

Eielson) or at Wonder Lake; and to encourage 

travel along the park road, a major plank of the 

Mission 66 program had been a plan to widen 

it, add safety features (such as guard rails), and 

pave it. The completion of the Denali Highway 

promised that a large and increasing number of 

motorists would use the road and, at long last, 

the park would develop according to models that 

had proven so successful in other large Western 

U.S. national parks. But not all people welcomed 

the prospect of new road development, and the 

growing opposition to new road construction 

resulted in the first major battle between conservation and development in an Alaska park unit.

As noted in previous chapters, the Alaska Road 

Commission had been in charge of constructing 

and improving the park road during the 1920s 

and 1930s,69 and its personnel were still maintaining the road during the spring of 1956, when 

the park’s Mission 66 program was completed by 

park staff. Shortly afterward, on June 29, 1956, 

President Eisenhower signed the Federal Aid 

Highway Act (H.R. 10660), which discontinued 

the ARC and transferred its functions to the 

Bureau of Public Roads, which was part of the 

Commerce Department. Given the dictates of 

This 1965 NPS master planning team 

visited the Wonder Lake area and 

supported the construction of facilities east of the lake. Gathered on a 

knoll near the Wonder Lake Ranger 

Station, the planning team members 

are, left to right, Park Superintendent Oscar Dick, head of the master 

planning team Paul Thomas, Linn 

Spaulding, Mr. Caballero, Park Engineer Donald McLane, Wallace McCaw, 

and Charles Stoddard. DENA 28-81, 

Denali National Park and Preserve 

Museum Collection
Chapter Seven: Rubber-Tired Tourism, 1957-1971 169

that act, the ARC ceased to exist on September 

16, 1956. The BPR managed road maintenance 

in the park for only a short time, because on July 

1, 1960, the NPS took over park road maintenance operations. The BPR, however, continued 

to be involved in planning and designing park 

road improvements.70

Because the improvement of the park road was 

a top Mission 66 priority, and because there 

was near-unanimity that improvements were 

needed, work on the road began shortly after the 

prospectus was approved. BPR officials divided 

the proposed road program into a series of 

short segments, beginning in the hotel area and 

heading west. In 1958 and 1959, for instance, the 

Miller Brothers Construction Co. reconstructed 

a 14-mile road segment between McKinley Park 

Station and Savage River.71 In late 1959, Peter 

Kiewit Sons Construction Co. of Seattle won 

the contract to improve an eight-mile stretch of 

road from Savage River to Sanctuary River with 

a $425,000 bid. Work began in May 1960 and 

the job was completed in August 1961.72 The 

reconstruction of the third park road segment, 

west of Sanctuary River, was awarded to Green 

Construction Co. of Des Moines, Iowa in late 

1960. But because of complications in the 

second-phase job, Green workers—who arrived 

at the park in early 1961—had to work east of 

Sanctuary River until August. And by August 

1962, when NPS officials declared that the contractor’s work had been satisfactorily completed, 

sections of newly-improved road extended only 

to Mile 26, slightly more than three miles west of 

Sanctuary River.73

During the improvement program’s first year, 

conservationists were generally nonplussed at the 

new developments. But after the 1959 season, 

conservationists became alarmed as construction 

progressed on the new Eielson Visitor Center 

(critics called it a “monstrosity” and a “Dairy 

Queen”).74 During the same period, an increasing chorus of dissent—voiced primarily through 

the pages of National Parks Magazine—rose 

about the engineering standards associated with 

the park road; these protests were sounded, in 

large part, because BPR roads had higher technical standards than ARC roads had demanded. 

The first volley in what turned out to be a sixyear war was launched in December 1959, when 

Olaus Murie (a National Parks Association board 

member) noted that the park’s main road “is to 

be ‘modernized’ with curves taken out, apparently another hurry-up speedway.” Murie spoke 

warmly of the relaxed pace of the old park road 

and noted that “the national park will not serve 

its purpose if we encourage the visitor to hurry 

as fast as possible for a mere glimpse of scenery 

from a car, and a few snapshots. Rather there is 

an obligation inherent in a national park, to help 

the visitor get some understanding, the esthetic 

meaning of what is in the place.”75 NPS officials 

reacted with grace to the criticism, but their policy did not change; Regional Director Lawrence 

Merriam noted in a “frank” letter to Murie that 

“making a smooth speedway out of the park road 

would certainly be incompatible with the park, 

and you may be sure it is not the intention of 

the Service to create such a condition,” but “we 

have concluded that the road must be widened 

This October 1962 photograph of a 

section of park road between Savage 

River and Sanctuary River, approximately 19 miles from headquarters, 

shows the Mission 66 road upgrade 

and a large parking pullout delineated by posts. DENA 39-36, Denali 

National Park and Preserve Museum 
170 Crown Jewel of the North: An Administrative History of Denali National Park and Preserve

to minimum safety standards ... out as far as 

Camp Eielson [sic]” because concessioner buses 

turned around at that point. Washington official 

A. Clark Stratton agreed; he stated that “a highspeed highway would be detrimental to the best 

uses of the Park’s wilderness, and we have no 

intention of constructing such a road in Mount 

McKinley. We have been forced, however, by 

increased use to improve the substandard existing Park road to make it safe for today’s travel 

needs. The cross section consists of two 10-foot 

lanes with 3-foot shoulders which is a minimum 

for safety.”76

Conservationists, however, watched further 

road improvements with an increasing sense of 

alarm, and in the early spring of 1963—by which 

time road improvements had been extended to 

Mile 26—National Parks Magazine issued several 

articles about Mt. McKinley National Park, two 

of which criticized the “speedway” that encouraged visitors to “get in fast and get out fast” rather 

than “savor their park and get full enjoyment and 

inspiration” as called for in the park’s planning 

guidelines.77 These articles featured three photos 

showing the broad gravel swath created by the 

newly-filled road sections, and an accompanying editorial comment pointedly noted that “this 

kind of road building violates the National Parks 

Act; it ought to be stopped.”78 These articles 

evidently brought a strong message to Washington officials, because by mid-June 1963 the NPS’s 

top Design and Construction official, A. Clark 

Stratton, apparently reconsidered his position. 

In a letter to Director Wirth, Stratton noted that 

“recently there has been considerable criticism” 

of the agency’s road reconstruction efforts at 

the park, suggesting “that unnecessary destruction of wilderness values is being perpetrated by 

the Service.” To counter that criticism, he felt 

it necessary to “reiterate the basic design and 

construction criteria” being applied to the road; 

specifically that the agency would “continue to 

follow the practice of using what can be described as telescoping standards” for the road. 

As part of that “telescoping,” the first 30 miles 

would have “a 20-foot driving surface with threefoot shoulders. The next 40 miles, from Mile 26 

to Camp Eielson, would have “a 20-foot driving 

surface with minimum shoulders varying from 

no shoulders to a maximum of three feet where 

available within the existing roadbed.” And the 

final 18 road miles would not be widened except 

for passing and parking pullouts. Stratton’s 

letter, despite its reference to “reiteration” and 

continuation of standards, appears to have been 

the first agency recognition of a three-part telescoping process, with standards for the middle 

section that were slighter (if only in a minor way) 

than the eastern section.79

Despite this minor concession, the NPS and 

BPR had no interest in abandoning the Mission 

66 goal of upgrading the park road, at least that 

portion between McKinley Park Station and the 

Eielson Visitor Center. In June 1964, the NPS 

awarded a $263,000 contract to Ghemm Construction Co. of Fairbanks. This contract did 

not involve the improvement of additional road 

mileage; instead, it primarily involved drainage 

work in various areas east of Sanctuary River in 

preparation for paving. Crews for this project 

The newly completed Mission 66 park 

road improvements were evident 

here on Teklanika Flat, September 

1962. DENA 34-23, Denali National 

Park and Preserve Museum Collection
Chapter Seven: Rubber-Tired Tourism, 1957-1971 171

began their work in July 1964 and finished up 

in August 1965.80 No sooner had this project 

been completed, however, than a contractor—A 

& G Construction of Fairbanks—was chosen to 

reconstruct five miles of park road, from Mile 26 

to the Teklanika River bridge. This contract was 

awarded in October 1965, and the work was carried out between May and August 1966.81

In the meantime, Bureau of Public Roads officials 

geared up for future park road construction 

projects. In January 1964, for example, a BPR 

official told park superintendent Oscar Dick that 

“At present, that portion from Teklanika to the 

North Boundary [near Wonder Lake] is unsafe 

for general public use,” so he proposed a $1.2 

million reconstruction project between Teklanika 

and East Fork, to be constructed in Fiscal Year 

1968. The NPS, in March 1965, fully agreed with 

the BPR; on its Project Construction Program 

priority list for the park, a $720,000 contract for 

reconstructing the park road west of Teklanika 

was a Priority 1 request. And during the summer 

of 1965, the BPR recommended two new road 

alignments in a “hazardous” part of the Stony 

Hill area.82

In the midst of this construction and planning 

work, conservationists lashed out yet again in 

the pages of National Parks Magazine. In July 

1965, Adolph Murie (Olaus’s brother) penned an 

acidic article that restated earlier arguments. But in addition, 

Murie recounted his comfort 

with the old park road during 

his earlier years at the park, 

plus his growing alarm at the 

havoc caused by road contractors since 1958. He averred 

that most park visitors liked 

the “charm” of the old road, 

that only minor improvements 

to it had been necessary, and 

that a wide range of observers—even including a few BPR 

officials—felt that overzealous 

engineering standards had been 

applied. The NPS, he averred, 

had been less than honest 

with conservationists regarding financial and engineering data related to 

upcoming projects; and he also stated—despite 

its “telescoping” comments to the contrary, that 

“the National Park Service wishes to continue 

using the highest-standard road construction all 

the way to “Wonder Lake.”83

Murie’s article, as had previous National Parks 

Magazine entries, caused higher-echelon NPS 

officials to pay attention. In response to readers 

who complained to agency brass about roadconstruction methods in the park, Washington 

and regional Design and Construction officials 

carried on a spirited dialogue during September 

1965.84 By the end of the month, the agency had 

agreed to significantly lower the road-construction standard west of Teklanika. Assistant Director Johannes (Joe) Jensen’s reply to the complainants defended the agency’s earlier moves, stating 

that “it is our goal to [provide access] with as little 

impact on the natural scene as possible”, and 

“the stretches of wider road construction built 

recently [in 1961-62] were dictated by the condition of permafrost” which made significant road 

elevation necessary. But in an abrupt about-face, 

Jensen noted that “this type of construction is 

being held to a minimum, and it is our intention 

to use progressively lower standards the farther 

the road penetrates into the wilderness. Beyond 

the present [1965-66] reconstruction, the remainder of the road is to receive only minor repairs.”85

Within weeks of its change of heart on the 

overall road improvement program, the NPS 

also backpedaled on another BPR initiative. In 

mid-September, Park Service official Charles 

Krueger candidly remarked that “public pressure 

compels us to re-evaluate our scheduled crosssection for [the Stony Hill] area to determine if 

a reduction in scope is necessary.”86 As for the 

agency’s overall road stance, Krueger noted in 

February 1966 that the NPS planned to “expend 

the bulk of funds upon the completion of the 

new construction from McKinley Park Station 

toward the Teklanika River.” (As noted above, a 

construction project had just been let to improve 

five miles of road surface east of the Teklanika 

River Bridge.) “The work beyond Teklanika [will 

be] limited to grading only the worst curves on 

Stony Hill and the narrowest spot sections of 

road that are difficult for the bus operations out 

As part of the Mission 66 plan for the 

park, a series of interpretive signs 

such as this one were installed along 

the park road. DENA 39-23, Denali 

National Park and Preserve Museum 

Collection
172 Crown Jewel of the North: An Administrative History of Denali National Park and Preserve

of Eielson.”87 Plans for improving the central 

and western portions of the road were not cast 

aside; they were, however, ostensibly put on hold 

until future traffic increases—anticipated when 

the Anchorage-Fairbanks Highway was completed—would demand higher standards.88

During the late 1960s, construction work on the 

Anchorage-Fairbanks Highway was well underway (see below), and it was generally recognized 

that the highway—due to be completed in 1971—

would greatly ease park access. By this time, 

however, the agency’s new stance was clear: there 

would be no major road improvements west 

of the Teklanika River bridge. It did, however, 

proceed to add new improvements at the road’s 

eastern end. In July 1966, plans were forwarded 

to pave approximately seven miles west of the 

Another of the numerous Mission 66 

interpretive signs was placed at the 

scenic overlook on the west side of 

Stony Hill. Wallace A. Cole Collection
Chapter Seven: Rubber-Tired Tourism, 1957-1971 173

railroad crossing near the park hotel. Bids were 

issued that winter, and in May 1967, Rogers 

Construction Co. and Babler Brothers, both from 

Anchorage, were awarded the paving contract 

with a $494,000 bid. The firms completed the job 

later that summer.89 Even this project, however, 

was not without its controversy; BPR personnel 

recommended either a 22-foot or 24-foot road 

width for the entire project, but NPS officials, 

noting that “we are criticised [sic] quite severely 

for permitting as high a standard for this road 

as we do,” approved a 22-foot road east of the 

park headquarters (due to “quite heavy traffic of 

a mixed kind”) but a 20-foot width west of park 

headquarters.90 NPS officials also quibbled with 

the BPR over whether centerline striping and 

highway signs belonged in “one of Alaska’s most 

remarkable natural areas.”91

Shortly after this paving job was completed, plans 

were formulated to continue this work to the 

west, and in May 1968, Braund Inc. of Anchorage was awarded a $466,000 contract to pave the 

remaining 61⁄2 miles to the Savage River Bridge, 

plus additional segments near the headquarters 

and railroad station. The project was completed 

later that summer.92 Additional paving contracts, 

however, were put on hold. A September 5, 1968 

letter from a BPR official stated that “because of 

the present Government budget situation, in a 

program meeting yesterday the Park Service had 

eliminated the subject project [paving a segment 

west of Savage River] from the program in connection with a nation-wide reduction in fiscal 

year 1969 funding.” And by the following spring, 

this temporary halt had been made permanent; 

due to a cancellation of NPS program funds, the 

BPR announced that “no further paving projects 

on the road are anticipated in the near future.”93

The Growing Value of Wilderness

The battle over the park road, of course, was 

just one manifestation of a larger battle that was 

being fought over wilderness, both in the park 

and nationally. It was perhaps ironic that Mount 

McKinley should be one of the first Alaska 

places in which wilderness issues were openly 

discussed and debated, because Alaska—at least 

in the popular imagination—contained hundreds 

of millions of acres of wilderness, and because 

the park was largely defined by the 90-mile-long 

road that threaded its way between a large hotel 

and an old mining camp. But the road was also 

the avenue that provided tens of thousands of 

visitors the opportunity to see one of the prime 

byproducts of wilderness: large, relatively untouched herds of sheep, caribou, moose, bears, 

and wolves. And the mountain, too, was to many 

visitors Alaska’s major wilderness symbol.

Wilderness preservation was an old idea; it had 

been championed since the nineteenth century 

(Henry David Thoreau had stated “In wildness 

is the preservation of the world” in 1862), and 

between the two world wars two major steps 

toward a broader recognition of wilderness had 

been taken: the U.S. Forest Service, in 1924, established the first wilderness area, the Gila Primitive Area in New Mexico’s Gila National Forest, 

and in 1935 a small band of outdoor advocates 

founded the Wilderness Society.94 During the 

1930s several high-profile conservationists, including Interior Secretary Harold Ickes and wilderness advocate Robert Marshall, made the first 

calls for a nationwide, Congressionally-protected 

wilderness system. But the National Park Service 

during this period, guided by its early leaders 

Stephen Mather and Horace Albright, were firm 

believers in “recreational tourism management” 

that allowed both the agency and its concessioners a wide variety of development opportunities. 

This philosophy deviated at times for specific 

parks—Kings Canyon National Park, for example, was established in 1940 in full recognition 

of its role as a wilderness reserve—but otherwise, the NPS held little regard for wilderness. It 

instead concentrated on increased visitation and 

facilities built in response to those visitors.95

In 1955, as noted above, the NPS began planning Mission 66, a program that emphasized new 

visitor centers, roads and interpretive projects 

and gave scant attention to wilderness values and 

wilderness management. Both Congress and the 

traveling public backed the basic tenets of that 

program, and by the time of its 1966 conclusion, 

more than $1 billion had been spent on Mission 

66 projects.96 The planning phase for Mission 66, 

however, coincided with strong debate over one 

of the most bitterly-fought western development 

projects. Echo Park Dam, a proposed hydroelectric site near the confluence of the Green and 

Yampa rivers in Dinosaur National Monument, 

pitted wilderness conservationists against the 

Bureau of Reclamation and its developmentoriented allies. That battle, which had raged in 

Congress since the 1940s, was finally resolved on 

April 11, 1956 when the Colorado River Storage 

Project bill passed Congress with the proviso 

that “no dam or reservoir constructed under 

the authorization of the Act shall be within any 

National Park or Monument.”97

Wilderness advocates were jubilant over the 

Echo Park decision, and within days of the 

bill’s passage Howard Zahniser, the Wilderness 

Society’s executive secretary, “dashed off” a new 

plan for a national system of wilderness preservation. This plan was no doubt similar to those 

that had been promulgated for the last twenty 
174 Crown Jewel of the North: An Administrative History of Denali National Park and Preserve

years; preservationists, however, were able to 

convince two conservation-leaning legislators—

Sen. Hubert Humphrey (D-Minn.) and Rep. John 

P. Saylor (R-Pa.)—to introduce bills that were 

largely the product of Zahniser’s handiwork.98 

These bills, admittedly, were flawed and were 

submitted perhaps too soon after the Echo Park 

controversy to be seriously considered. And for 

strictly political reasons, they stood little chance 

of passage because Wayne Aspinall (D-Colo.), the 

powerful chair of the House Interior and Insular 

Affairs Committee, saw land as a source of capital 

and hence did not understand the nation’s growing need to preserve areas as wilderness.99 They 

were, however, an opening volley in what would 

be a long, drawn-out battle.

The Humphrey-Saylor bills went so far as to itemize more than 160 areas within national forests, 

national parks and monuments, national wildlife 

refuges and ranges, and Indian reservations that 

would constitute the founding units of the wilderness system.100 Those units, moreover, included 

eight wilderness areas in Alaska (five U.S. Fish and 

Wildlife Service areas and three NPS areas), including one at Mount McKinley National Park.101 

Up until that time, wilderness—and the need to 

preserve wilderness character—had been rarely 

mentioned by NPS officials; indeed, even wilderness advocates were generally comfortable with 

park management so long as west-end hotels were 

not built, no new roads were constructed, and the 

existing park road retained its traditional appearance and engineering standards.102

When the Mount McKinley park staff issued 

its initial Mission 66 prospectus in April 1956, it 

clearly noted the priority it placed on wilderness 

values. The document [clarified for spelling] 

noted that

Highest ranking among the intangible values of the park is its distinct 

wilderness feel. To gaze across a vast 

expanse of tundra towards nameless 

rugged mountains, or upon the fastness of ever-imposing Denali, and to 

have one’s meditations interrupted by 

a migrating band of caribou is an experience which cannot be duplicated 

elsewhere. The maintenance of the 

integrity of this wilderness is the key 

to the development theme of the park. 

Second to wilderness maintenance is 

the provision of accommodations for 

visitor needs, and third, is furnishing 

the means for fullest appreciation and 

enjoyment of park values.103

Despite the nobility of that statement, and the 

statement that the visitor accommodations and 

interpretive improvements would be subservient to wilderness values, several critics protested 

that the various proposed improvements would 

impinge upon the park’s wilderness values. 

Foremost among those critics was well-known 

biologist Adolph Murie, who had been working 

at the park fairly consistently since 1939. Noting 

that the park and the surrounding region were 

“in many respects virgin,” Murie worried that the 

park’s new plans had the potential to “mar, and 

for some, even destroy the spirit of the region.” 

Noting that “there is a wilderness spirit that 

Back country camping in Mt. McKinley 

National Park was a trail-less experience in 1967. DENA 42-33, Denali 

National Park and Preserve Museum 

Collection
Chapter Seven: Rubber-Tired Tourism, 1957-1971 175

concerns us,” he drew a line in the sand when he 

stated,

Some will seek ends that are destructive to the wilderness feeling, believing 

that their ends justify the additional 

intrusion. Some will think that the 

highway should be intensively labeled 

like a museum, even though each 

label will detract from the wilderness. 

Some will want to bring accommodations into the midst of the scenery, 

instead of a simple and delicate 

approach from the edge of things. 

Some will want to have structures on a 

prominence, rather than tucked away 

unobtrusively.

By contrast, Murie stated that “my point of 

view will stress intruding and injuring the 

spirit of wilderness as little as possible,” and he 

further added that “the wilderness standards 

in McKinley must be maintained on a higher 

level than anything we have attempted in the 

States.” “Since wilderness is recognized as one 

of the foremost values in the Park,” he noted, “it 

must be given special consideration in order to 

maintain its purity. ... I would urge all planners 

to strive for quality in this Alaska wilderness. The 

people expect it.” He further “hasten[ed] to add 

that I am not alone in this point of view.”104

Superintendent Duane Jacobs, to whom the letter was directed, responded to Murie’s missive, 

noted that “I can sympathize with your over-all 

view point concerning the future development of 

Mount McKinley from the biologist viewpoint” 

and that the agency was “vitally concerned in 

preserving and keeping the park in all its natural 

charm in so far as possible.” Jacobs, however, 

disagreed with the biologist, noting that McKinley was “a great national park set aside for the use 

and enjoyment of the people,” and because the 

Denali Highway was nearly completed, the park 

was “soon to receive this intended use and enjoyment.” Park officials, he noted, had to “make [the 

park] available to future visitors with reasonable 

assurance of their comfort and safety.”105

The park’s final Mission 66 plan, issued in May 

1957, continued to provide lofty wilderness 

rhetoric. It noted, for example, that “It is the 

combination of superlative mountain scenery 

and wildlife along with the palpable wilderness 

aspect of McKinley Park that make it deserving 

of preservation for this and future generations of 

Americans,” and it further noted that “McKinley 

Park [is] a wilderness on the perimeter of the last 

remaining frontier of the Nation. By virtue of 

National Park Service preservation and remote 

location of the park it remains the epitome of 

wilderness areas. Thus it is of greatest value 

to those who seek the solitude and inspiration 

offered only by an area such as McKinley.” The 

revised plan discarded the three-tiered priority 

system noted in the earlier prospectus; it did, 

however, note that all Mission 66 developments 

“must be accomplished in such a fashion as 

well provide assurance of the maintenance of 

wilderness integrity of the park and still provide 

ways and means for the visitors’ inspirational and 

physical enjoyment.” Several long-distance trails 

were planned to remote points, as noted above; 

however, the plan noted that “trails shall be 

installed to not only insure enjoyment of the area 

but to divert traffic from fragile areas where entry 

would disrupt natural functions, and all development required within the wilderness shall be 

appropriate to the wilderness environment.”106

Once the Mission 66 plans were distributed, 

however, the hubbub over park wilderness issues 

(both at Mount McKinley and the remainder 

of Alaska’s park units) died down. And, in fact, 

park officials had to contend with a new, potentially ominous threat to the park’s wilderness: 

dam construction. In February 1958, the U.S. 

Geological Survey filed for a power-site withdrawal, to encompass 21,500 acres, along the 

Teklanika River. A proposed dam, projected to 

be 300 feet high, would be located more than 

ten miles north of the park boundary, but the 

proposed reservoir behind the dam had the potential to back up all the way into the park in both 

the Teklanika and Sanctuary river drainages.107 

The Teklanika project, moreover, was only one 

aspect of a much larger hydroelectric scheme. 

Beginning in 1948, the Bureau of Reclamation 

had eyed the Nenana River’s power generating 

potential, and its initial plans included two major 

dams along the river (near Windy and near Ferry), four power plants within the river corridor 

(these included the above two sites plus additional plants near Carlo and McKinley Park Station), 

many miles of tunnels along the Nenana River, 

a proposed tunnel from the Teklanika and East 

Fork systems to the Nenana River basin, along 

with many miles of new roads and transmission 

lines.108 In 1960, officials with Fairbanks’ Golden 

Valley Electric Association trumpeted the advantages of a large dam near the Nenana River-Jack 

River confluence to U.S. Senate Interior Committee members; this dam, they stated, was needed 

to supply Interior Alaska’s energy needs until 

either the Susitna Dam or Rampart Dam projects 

were completed. NPS officials were apparently 

not involved in any of these discussions. Talk 

about these projects eventually faded away, and 

by 1972 the federal Alaska Power Administration 

had given up on both the Teklanika and Nenana 
176 Crown Jewel of the North: An Administrative History of Denali National Park and Preserve

River proposals.109

The process to establish a nationwide wilderness system turned out to be an eight-year effort, 

one that was primarily played out in the halls of 

Congress and among various conservation and 

development groups. That effort, however, virtually never involved NPS officials in Alaska nor 

did it affect park operations, because it was the 

Park Service’s stance throughout this period that 

the agency—acting through the master planning 

process—could more effectively determine roadless areas than Congress.110 Only occasionally, 

moreover, did Alaska residents weigh in on wilderness issues. One such instance took place in 

1960, when a diverse band of Alaskans gathered 

together and established the Alaska Conservation 

Society. The group formed, in part, to work toward preserving a huge expanse of wildlife-rich 

habitat in northeastern Alaska; this effort paid off 

on December 6, 1960, when President Eisenhower, at Interior Secretary Fred Seaton’s urging, 

established the 8.9 million-acre Arctic National 

Wildlife Range. And in July 1963, the Wilderness 

Society’s governing council met at Camp Denali, 

just north of Wonder Lake.111 Otherwise, publicity on wilderness issues in Alaska was limited 

to occasional discussions about the ongoing 

Congressional process; these were sometimes 

accompanied by a conservationist’s letter and a 

contrasting, often caustic editorial voice. During 

this period, some of the wilderness bills debated 

in Congress listed specific wilderness areas; other 

bills, however, did not.112

On September 3, 1964, President Lyndon Johnson signed a bill—which had passed both houses 

of Congress on a lopsided vote—that established 

a National Wilderness Preservation System. 

Within the bill, the only areas included as “instant 

wilderness” were some nine million acres in various Forest Service-designated wilderness areas, 

wild areas, and canoe areas. The bill’s conference report, however, also spelled out an orderly 

ten-year timetable for review of roadless areas, 

national parks and wildlife refuges—totaling as 

many as 50 million additional acres—for possible 

inclusion in the Wilderness system.113 Given that 

Congressional mandate, Park Service officials—

who had been reluctant to support wilderness 

legislation—launched into a process evaluating 

all roadless areas of at least 5,000 acres for their 

wilderness potential. Wilderness potential was 

investigated in 49 park areas. In Alaska, studies 

were made at Mount McKinley, Glacier Bay, and 

Katmai, plus at seven Fish and Wildlife Service 

units.114 Various Alaska interests worried out 

loud that these reviews would slow proposed development projects; Congressional staff, however, 

let it be known that the ten-year process, and the 

need to hold hearings and notify a broad range of 

stakeholders, would give everyone the chance to 

weigh in on the process.115

The Wilderness Act required that reviews of 

one-third of identified roadless areas had to 

During the late 1950s, the Corps of 

Engineers considered the idea of 

damming the Teklanika River near 

the park’s northern boundary. DENA 

Herkenham Photo, Denali National 

Park and Preserve Museum Collection
Chapter Seven: Rubber-Tired Tourism, 1957-1971 177

be completed within three years, and the first 

to be reviewed would be those areas for which 

the most information was available.116 Because 

more was known about Mount McKinley than 

roadless areas elsewhere, the NPS decided to 

investigate the park’s wilderness potential during 

its 1965 master planning process. After a Master 

Plan Team Field Study visited the park in late 

August and early September 1965, the team’s 

report stated that almost 90 percent of the park 

would be recommended as wilderness. Two 

wilderness areas were proposed: a 334,000-acre 

Toklat Wilderness Area north of the park road 

and a 1,396,000-acre Denali Wilderness Area 

south of the road. Regional and Washington 

officials concurred with these recommendations. 

Congress made no immediate move to designate 

either of these areas. The NPS, however, began 

to show an increased pride in the park’s de facto 

wilderness; as a nationally-syndicated newspaper 

article noted in 1966, “Alaska’s Mount McKinley 

National Park is virtually free of man-made facilities, and that’s the way the park service wants to 

keep it.”117

Park Expansion Proposals

Another idea of interest to conservationists during this period was whether the park boundaries 

should be expanded. As noted in the previous 

chapter, the question of the park’s boundaries 

had surfaced in early 1954; this was because of a 

growing Congressional interest in Alaska statehood, and a concomitant concern that the new 

state would need viable lands to establish a viable 

revenue stream. During this same period, park 

biologist Adolph Murie (in response to a request 

from Washington officials) began to recommend 

“a local extension of park boundaries” in the 

Wonder Lake-Moose Creek area. Duane Jacobs, 

the park’s new superintendent, responded that 

“much thought and study has been given this 

particular item by various Service people and I 

can assure you that it has not been cast lightly 

aside.” But no boundary-change proposals were 

forwarded to Congress. 118 Nothing in the final 

(July 1958) statehood act, moreover, had any 

direct effects on park land. The bill did, however, 

contain a provision (Section 11a) that gave the 

federal government exclusive jurisdiction of all 

park land, either as presently constituted or as 

modified by subsequent federal actions:

Nothing in this Act shall affect the 

establishment, or the right, ownership, 

and authority of the United States 

in Mount McKinley National Park, 

as now or hereafter constituted; but 

exclusive jurisdiction, in all cases, shall 

be exercised by the United States for 

the national park, as now or hereafter 

constituted ....119

The status quo regarding the appropriate size of 

the park continued after statehood; for example, 

when the NPS prepared a boundary status report 

in February 1961, it recommended no changes 

to the boundaries that the park had had since 

1932.120

The 1960s, however, witnessed an explosion of 

nationwide interest in conservation matters, and 

perhaps for that reason, a number of proposals 

were advanced to expand the park’s acreage. 

The first such proposals were put forth internally, 

in January 1963. Adolph Murie, the longtime 

park biologist (and brother of Wilderness Society 

president Olaus Murie), recommended that, 

in order to protect more wolves and the caribou’s winter range, the northern park boundary 

should be moved “about 15 miles north.” In 

addition, Wonder Lake District Ranger Richard 

Stenmark broached the idea of an extension 

west to the “McKinley Fork” (Swift Fork) of the 

Kuskokwim River; a boundary alteration in the 

Wonder Lake area north to Moose Creek; and a 

southern boundary expansion that “should go 

to the lowlands along the Chulitna River.” In 

his memo to the superintendent, he noted that 

“while this is a sizeable area for consideration, it 

is not supporting any commercial enterprises to 

my knowledge” except for “a few bush pilots.” 

Furthermore, “these are all public lands,” and 

“most of this country is just plainly unsuited” for 

non-park uses.121 So far as is known, no specific 

action resulted from Stenmark’s proposals.

In 1962, Interior Secretary Stewart Udall hired 

Sigurd F. Olson as a consultant. Olson, the 

well-known Minnesota conservationist, served 

as the Wilderness Society’s vice president and 

also sat on the highly-respected Advisory Board 

on National Parks, Historic Sites, Buildings, and 

Monuments. The following summer, Udall dispatched Olson to Alaska, where he visited Mount 

McKinley and several other park areas. As part 

of his duties, Olson compiled a report stating that 

the present park was 

a rather elongated rectangle whose 

boundaries cut across normal game 

habitats irrespective of migration 

patterns or breeding requirements. 

Ecologically, therefore, the park is 

too small and should be enlarged 

substantially if native species are to be 

adequately protected. If no additions 

are possible, a cooperative agreement 

should be sought with the Bureau of 

Land Management as well as the State 

of Alaska to assure protection on the 

basis of the ecological needs of spe-
178 Crown Jewel of the North: An Administrative History of Denali National Park and Preserve

cies involved.

No specific new boundaries were suggested, 

although he did repeat Adolph Murie’s longheld concern about the “area north of Wonder 

Lake, known as the Camp Denali region.” The 

report’s general conclusions were soon passed 

on to Bureau of Land Management officials, and 

before long state officials also learned about the 

“mysterious” report. They were clearly alarmed 

at its implications but could do little for the time 

being.122

Just a year later, Mount McKinley was included 

in a statewide study of proposed parklands. 

George Hartzog, who succeeded Conrad Wirth 

as NPS director in January 1964, decided that 

protecting the “surviving landmarks of our 

national heritage” would be a primary goal of his 

administration, and he further recognized that 

Alaska would be a key part of any future growth 

in the National Park System. To further that goal, 

Hartzog brought together a series of experienced 

Alaska hands in November 1964 and asked them 

to prepare an analysis of the “best remaining possibilities for the Service in Alaska.” The result of 

their analysis was a January 1965 report entitled 

Operation Great Land. That report was critical 

of what the agency had thus far accomplished in 

Alaska, and among its recommendations was a 

comprehensive evaluation of areas that had high 

natural, recreational, or historic values. One 

of the 39 recommended “zones and sites” was 

the Mount McKinley National Park boundary 

study zone. This area, like the others included 

in the report, had deliberately vague geographical boundaries. Instead, it was a general zone, 

“some 125 miles long and 50 miles wide,” located 

north and northwest of the park. The proposed 

expansion apparently reflected additional concerns that Adolph Murie had expressed, because 

the study zone’s purpose was to “include all of 

the range used by the Park herd of caribou. The 

herd migrates westward and northward outside 

the Park in a clockwise manner and the caribou, 

wolves and associated species are, therefore, 

not protected during a portion of their migration.” Hartzog, after receiving the final report, 

chose to not publicize it or distribute it outside 

of the agency; the report’s conclusions, however, 

served as a basis for future Park Service planning 

efforts.123

During the same period in which Operation 

Great Land was being prepared, efforts at the 

park level brought forth an attempt to plan for 

facilities construction that was broadly perceived 

as a park expansion attempt. In November 1964, 

park superintendent Oscar Dick, asked to weigh 

in on the long-running Wonder Lake lodge question (see above), decided not to push for a large, 

privately-financed facility; instead, he hoped to 

see “some sort of motel type unit with food and 

other service facilities.”124 But NPS Director 

Hartzog saw things differently; because he was a 

staunch supporter of the recently-released Leopold Report—an agencywide blueprint that called 

for a “potent infusion of science into national 

In 1966, when this photograph was 

taken, Camp Denali and vicinity was 

the focus of the Kantishna withdrawal issue. Seen here, left to right, are 

Upper and Lower Camp Denali. DENA 

Herkenham #35, Denali National Park 

and Preserve Museum Collection
Chapter Seven: Rubber-Tired Tourism, 1957-1971 179

park management”—he recommended that no 

new accommodations be located in the park. 

Given the preponderance of Bureau of Land 

Management land north of the park boundary, 

and upon hearing that the “Government lands 

administered by the BLM may be opened to the 

public soon for small tract purposes,” Hartzog 

contacted BLM Chief Charles H. Stoddard and 

asked him to withdraw lands that might be utilized “for the development of overnight accommodations.”125 At the time, several people had 

already staked small tracts just north of the park 

boundary, so Hartzog requested the withdrawal 

from his fellow agency chief due to worries of 

what was characterized as “an urban sprawl type 

of development” with “unsightly shacks just outside of the park.” (As a BLM official later noted, 

the agency was “asked by the NPS to make a 

protective withdrawal in the area to protect land 

values until a study is completed to determine 

whether the land will be added to the park.”)126 

The BLM, in response, delineated a proposed 

9,118-acre withdrawal area which centered along 

the northern extension of the park road; it began 

at the park boundary and continued north to 

(and slightly beyond) the “Quigley Airstrip.” The 

BLM filed for the proposed withdrawal on April 

30, 1965; it issued a press release on May 7, and a 

Federal Register announcement appeared on May 

13 (see Map 6).127

Soon after the proposed withdrawal was made 

public, it was widely denounced for reasons that 

were largely unrelated to Hartzog’s original intention. Kantishna mining interests, for example, 

protested the action because it prevented the filing of new claims in the area; some state officials 

saw it as a back-door Park Service land grab; and 

there was a widespread insinuation that the government was favoring the conservation-oriented 

Camp Denali management at the expense of 

miners and homesite owners. Alaska Governor 

William A. Egan, speaking on the behalf of both 

miners and departmental officials, filed a protest 

on May 18 and again on May 26, and the entire 

Congressional delegation vigorously decried the 

proposed action.128

The BLM had announced, early in the process, 

that a public hearing would be held on the matter 

“if circumstances warrant it,” so on December 3, 

agency held a public meeting in Fairbanks. More 

than 30 “miners and other interested parties” 

attended. Park superintendent Oscar Dick told 

the crowd, somewhat apologetically, that he had 

originally proposed a withdrawal that was “about 

half” the final size, but “as it went through various hands it just got bigger.” Dick further noted 

that his smaller-sized withdrawal was needed as 

a buffer to protect that side of the park because 

“the park service plans a future investment [in 

the Wonder Lake area] of several million dollars,” 

and “these plans cannot be carried out unless we 

are assured of adequate development sites and 

protection or zoning from adverse outside uses.” 

Because the proposal as issued in the Federal 

Register included portions of Eldorado Creek, a 

“large hunk” of Red Top Mine’s holdings, and 

the airstrip—and because Dick’s revised proposal 

avoided all of those areas—the assembled group 

“indicated there would be no serious opposition” 

to Dick’s amended withdrawal.129 

By this time, Park Service officials were hard at 

work on a larger, more comprehensive boundary-expansion effort (see below), the results of 

which would accomplish some of the same goals 

as the BLM’s proposed withdrawal. So neither 

the BLM nor the NPS took further action on 

the matter until June 6, 1966, when NPS Director Hartzog informed Senator E. L. Bartlett that 

“no further action should be taken to effect a 

formal withdrawal of these or any lands at Mount 

McKinley until more extensive field studies are 

completed this summer in the Wonder Lake 

area and on the public lands adjacent to the park 

in this vicinity.”130 The proposed withdrawal, 

therefore, was dead. But as shall be discussed 

further in Chapter 14, a significant by-product 

of the withdrawal proposal was that the 9,118 

acres within the proposal’s boundaries remained 

“segregated ... from settlement location, sale, 

selection, entry, lease and other forms of disposal 

under the public land laws, including the mining 

laws.” The NPS, at various times, apparently indicated to BLM officials that it “would eliminate 

certain mining areas from the withdrawal.” But 

it never did, and this failure proved a continuing point of contention to BLM officials and 

Kantishna-area mining interests.131

The question of an expanded boundary was a 

key topic when Director Hartzog, along with the 

Advisory Board on National Parks, Buildings, 

Historic Sites and Monuments, visited the park 

in early August 1965. Stanley Cain, an Assistant 

Secretary who accompanied the party, noted that 

the group’s bus trip to Wonder Lake 

naturally led to speculations about the 

boundary of the park and ideas for 

development within it. ... The problem lies to the north and the lowerlying lands that form winter range for 

caribou and their wildlife managers, 

the wolves. [Adolph] Murie suggested 

the inclusion of the hills of the Outer 

Range behind Denali and the flats 

to the west and north up to perhaps 

fifteen miles beyond the present 
180 Crown Jewel of the North: An Administrative History of Denali National Park and Preserve

boundary as being necessary to give 

adequate room for caribou and wolves 

without including their entire migratory range....

To return to the matter of the inadequate size of the Park, it was not 

thought necessary that land to the 

north be added to the Park. It would 

perhaps be desirable (there is little 

mining to interfere), but the need 

would be adequately served by the 

Bureau of Land Management’s classification of the needed habitat for 

wildlife and wilderness purposes.132

The NPS’s next consideration of expanded 

boundaries came during the park’s master planning process, which unfolded in 1965 as a direct 

response to the agency’s need “to determine just 

what facilities are needed,” particularly in the 

Wonder Lake-Kantishna withdrawal area, “and 

what they would cost.”133 A master planning 

team visited the park just a week later than the 

advisory group, and the master plan process 

brought forth a plethora of suggestions on what 

the park’s boundaries might be (see Map 7).

· Biologist Adolph Murie’s plan, an outgrowth 

of his 1956 suggestions, was to expand the 

park’s northern boundary by approximately 

15 miles, primarily to protect the winter 

range of the caribou and to protect moose 

and wolf habitat.

· Victor Cahalane, an NPS employee who had 

been working at the Alaska parks off and 

on for more than 20 years, had suggested in 

1964 a more modest proposal: the addition 

of all lands south of a rough line between 

Wonder Lake and the park’s northern 

boundary just west of the Toklat River. The 

Map 6. Kantishna Withdrawal, 
Chapter Seven: Rubber-Tired Tourism, 1957-1971 181

new boundary would follow the Clearwater 

Fork along with Myrtle, Willow and Moose 

creeks. Cahalane made the proposal “to facilitate patrol,” “protection of wildlife,” and 

“to prevent construction of [an] undesirable 

resort” just north of the park boundary.

· Former superintendent Grant Pearson, in 

1964, suggested a plan similar to Cahalane. 

But Pearson, who had filed on a small parcel 

just north of the park boundary, made it 

clear that his plan would not prevent further 

development along the road between Wonder Lake and Moose Creek.134

· Under current consideration in August 1965 

was the 9,118 acres included in the Kantishna protective withdrawal (see Map 6). The 

land, at that time, was merely being withheld 

for study purposes, but as a BLM official 

noted, adding this area to the park would 

have been one possible outcome of an area 

study.

· The Fairbanks Igloo of the Pioneers of 

Alaska, however, weighed in with a September 1965 proposal that would have 

added several hundred thousand acres in 

a U-shaped wedge north, west, and south 

of the park. They did so to protect both 

wildlife and scenic values, and stated that “if 

this enlargement is not made very shortly, 

the commercial development of the state will 

preclude any alterations of the boundaries in 

the future.”135

· The Camp Denali management, upon 

hearing the other proposals put forth, 

denounced the Kantishna withdrawal and 

showed little enthusiasm for the two large 

expansion plans. Instead, they hoped that 

the area immediately north of the park 

boundary at Wonder Lake would “not be 

cluttered up either with commercial developments or campgrounds,” so they recommended that the park boundary be extended 

north only to Moose Creek (see Map 6).136

Given such a diversity of expansion plans, the 

Park Service’s master plan team responded with 

a recommendation that, while tentative, showed 

Murie’s influence:

The National Park Service should 

develop an agreement with BLM and 

the State Fish and Game to provide 

additional protection to the caribou, 

wolf, and other forms of wildlife 

which leave the park during seasonal 

migration; particularly in the area 

north of the Kantishna entrance.

If an agreement cannot be reached, 

steps should be taken to adjust the 

boundary northward 15 to 20 miles 

to provide proper range so vital to the 

welfare of the caribou and the wolf.137

By mid-June 1966, the agency had decided not 

to press ahead with any further studies related to 

the Kantishna withdrawal, and the master planning process that had begun a year earlier had 

also come to a close. Recognizing that the summer season was upon them, and also recognizing 

the agency’s continuing interest in areas outside 

of the existing park boundaries, Assistant NPS 

Director Theodor Swem asked the newly-established San Francisco Service Center to dispatch 

a three-person team to the park. That trio, along 

with Superintendent Dick and three others, spent 

two weeks during July on the master plan assignment. Swem felt that most of the park plan completed in early 1966 “appears to be acceptable.” 

The team needed to study, however, “the entire 

boundary of the park,” with particular emphasis 

on “planning in the Wonder Lake-Kantishna area 

and the unresolved situation at Windy Creek.” In 

addition, as a follow-up to both the Pioneers of 

Alaska proposal and to others proffered over the 

previous 30 years, the team took the first agencywide look at areas south of the park, and they 

went so far as to conduct “an aerial search for the 

ideal location for a new development site.”138

On July 30, the team completed and signed a report of its investigations. It called for the acquisition of the rough triangle of land that Cahalane 

and Pearson had recommended for inclusion 

in 1964; that area, however, should also include 

“the Kantishna including Wickersham Mountain [Wickersham Dome] and the bowl of the 

proposed mining interpretation area.” As a logical follow-up to the master plan work, the team 

recommended an agreement between the NPS, 

the BLM, and the Alaska Department of Natural 

Resources “to provide protection scenically and 

ecologically for a minimal fifteen mile strip north 

of the present border, until such time as further 

studies indicate exact boundary descriptions for 

acquisition.” Regarding its work south of the 

park, the team urged “that serious consideration 

also be given to similar agreements relative to the 

protection of the southern boundary,” because 

“an extension of the southern boundary of 

perhaps ten to fifteen miles ... is necessary to 

give this part of the park the area it needs and to 

fulfill the protective and interpretive role of the 

Service in administering the area.” South of that 

strip, their search for a development site “led the 
182 Crown Jewel of the North: An Administrative History of Denali National Park and Preserve

team to the 30-mile ridge (Curry Lookout Ridge) 

... between the Chulitna and Susitna Rivers.” 

But because the state had recently applied for 

selection rights in that area, they were loath to 

include that area in the park expansion proposal 

(see Map 7).139

The recommendations of this study were never 

approved by Washington officials, but even so, 

it “represented our thinking” for the next two 

years.140 By the spring of 1967, its recommendations had become a two-part proposal; as noted 

in a contemporary press release, they included 

1) “the addition of certain lands along the north 

boundary to provide an opportunity to interpret 

the mining story of Alaska and to protect the 

scenic and natural values in this area,” and 2) “an 

extension of the park to the south to include the 

contorted lesser peaks and glaciers of the southern foreground to Mount McKinley without 

which the national park cannot be considered 

geologically complete.” In mid-April 1967, this 

proposal was considered by the Advisory Board 

on National Parks, Historic Sites, Buildings and 

Monuments at its Washington, D.C. meeting. 

The Advisory Board recommended the NPS’s 

proposal and suggested “that action be initiated 

soon to accomplish this desired objective.” In 

addition, the Board also recommended “that 

an agreement be formulated with the Bureau of 

Land Management and the Alaska Department 

Map 7. Boundary Expansion Proposals, 1965-1970
Chapter Seven: Rubber-Tired Tourism, 1957-1971 183

of Natural Resources to provide protection to 

scenery and wildlife, including caribou and wolf, 

in a minimal 15-mile strip along the entire northern boundary of the park.”141

The NPS, by this time, had been studying other 

areas in Alaska, either for establishing new parks 

or expanding existing units. But because, at 

the time, there was no broad national basis of 

support for new Alaska parks, it was critical that 

the NPS obtain State of Alaska support before it 

present any proposals in the legislative arena. In 

order to obtain that support, both NPS Director 

George Hartzog and Assistant Director Theodor 

Swem flew to Juneau and met with Alaska Governor Walter Hickel on October 10, 1967. 

At that meeting, Hartzog discussed a wide 

variety of NPS proposals, including new park 

proposals in the Alatna-Kobuk, Wood-Tikchik, 

and Skagway areas and proposed expansions of 

Mount McKinley National Park as well as Katmai 

National Monument.142 The Mount McKinley 

expansion under discussion was of the same two 

areas that the Advisory Board had approved six 

months earlier. The “briefing book” that the NPS 

prepared for Hickel stated the following:

Addition of some 63,000 acres beyond 

the Wonder Lake area would complete the scenic bowl-like setting of 

the area, provide the opportunity for 

interpreting the story of mining in 

Alaska, and establish a more easily 

administered boundary. Addition of 

some 385,000 acres along the south 

boundary would incorporate in the 

park, portions of Mt. McKinley that 

are now excluded.143 

Hickel gave an enthusiastic response to the Park 

Service’s interest in the Skagway area, and within 

months, the NPS was hard at work on an alternatives study regarding the agency’s options in 

that area. But as Swem noted years later, Hickel 

“made no further commitments to help us out” 

regarding the other park proposals, perhaps 

because they involved relatively large amounts 

of acreage.144 The McKinley park expansion 

proposal, for the moment, was dead.

The agency, however, apparently wanted to keep 

momentum going toward a boundary expansion, 

so in June 1968 the Washington office selected 

a new eight-man master plan team, headed by 

Merrill Mattes, to “study some new proposals 

and to conclude studies on a few proposals only 

partially completed in prior years.” (Mattes 

further noted that “the thinking of the 1964 and 

1966 Master Plan teams has not been ignored. 

... In those instances where we part company, 

it is because in 1968 we worked with a more 

expansive set of premises.”) Recognizing that a 

road connecting Anchorage and Fairbanks would 

be completed within a few years, the team tried 

to compile a master plan that would “reflect 

Members of the 1966 NPS master 

planning team, shown here at the 

McKinley Park airstrip, prepare to 

fly over the park with pilot Don 

Sheldon. From left to right, they are 

Richard Prasil, Adolph Murie, Sigurd 

Olson, and park superintendent Oscar 

Dick. DENA Herkenham #198, Denali 

National Park and Preserve Museum 

Collection
184 Crown Jewel of the North: An Administrative History of Denali National Park and Preserve

the relationship of the park to the surrounding 

region and provide for the continuing enjoyment 

of the park by the visiting public, yet preserve 

the basic values of the park.” And as part of that 

plan, the team promised to investigate the possibility of a “hotel or lodge development site on 

the south side of the park, relatively near to the 

railroad and the proposed highway location and 

also close to Mount McKinley.” State officials 

had first expressed an interest in such a development in the fall of 1967; conservationists had as 

well, because developing the site “would be far 

cheaper” than alternative sites within the park, 

such as Wonder Lake.145

Planning for the possibility of a new south-side 

unit was apparently high in the team’s plans, 

because of its three field weeks (from late June 

through mid-July), one-third was spent working 

out of Talkeetna. Mattes, who compiled an informal report of the team’s findings, noted that “we 

are just now waking up to the realization” that 

those who established the park “failed to include 

the south half of the main mountain mass, thus 

omitting some of the most spectacular scenery 

in the world. The time to remedy this oversight 

is now.” The team recommended a three-phase 

plan of development, of which Phase I included 

the need to “seek legislation to extend south 

boundaries, giving a new dimension to Mount 

McKinley National Park.” Mattes estimated that 

approximately 2,928 square miles (almost 1.9 

million acres) needed to be added south of the 

park; this area was more than five times the size 

recommended in the 1966 master plan study, and 

within this vast acreage park planners included 

several hundred thousand acres that the State 

of Alaska had already obtained via tentative 

approval (see Map 7). The plan also called for 

“minor adjustments to the north boundary.”146 

(By the time the new master plan was complete, it called for a two-part park expansion: a 

newly-drawn 132,000-acre North Unit, located 

north and northeast of Wonder Lake, and a 

2,070,000-acre South Unit.147) And in response 

to the interest shown by state officials in a south 

side development node, the study called for the 

construction—7 to 15 years in the future—of 

a “first-class lodge or hotel-type facility ... big 

enough to anticipate travel for a decade or more,” 

to be located along the ridgeline just west of the 

Curry railroad stop.148

The Udall Expansion Proposal

In the midst of the 1968 Master Plan team’s 

work, a process began within the Lyndon Johnson administration that held the potential to 

legally establish new acreage at Mount McKinley 

National Park and to either establish new units 

or add to existing units elsewhere in the National 

Park System. In July 1968, Interior Secretary 

Stewart Udall met with Philip S. Hughes of the 

Bureau of the Budget and asked him whether he 

had the authority to set aside lands under the Antiquities Act. Hughes approved Udall’s request. 

Udall then passed the idea along to NPS Director 

George Hartzog, who in turn met with Assistant 

Members of the 1966 NPS Master 

Planning team are shown here near 

Don Sheldon’s Mountain House, located south of the Alaska Range crest. 

Team members, top to bottom, are 

Adolph Murie, Sigurd Olson, Frank 

Collins, and Norm Herkenham. DENA 

Herkenham #210, Denali National 

Park and Preserve Museum Collection
Chapter Seven: Rubber-Tired Tourism, 1957-1971 185

Director Theodor Swem. Recognizing that less 

than six months remained in Johnson’s presidency, the two men hoped to have appropriate 

additional areas added, as national monuments, 

to the National Park System.149

The idea was then passed on to other NPS 

personnel and other agency heads, and by 

mid-September 1968 an initial list had been 

assembled of 15 potential national monuments. 

Thanks to Edgar Wayburn of the Sierra Club, 

who had already lobbied Udall on the subject, an 

enlargement of Mount McKinley National Park 

was included on the list. In addition, there were 

five other Alaska areas: Wrangell Mountains, 

Saint Elias Range, Lake Clark Pass, Gates of the 

Arctic, and St. Lawrence Island. Each of these 

had been a subject of a previous NPS study. The 

only proposals to have been discussed outside of 

the agency had been for Mount McKinley and 

Gates of the Arctic, inasmuch as these proposals 

had been presented to Alaska Governor Hickel 

the previous October; these earlier proposals, 

however, had been more modest in their acreage 

than they were in their current incarnation.150

Shortly after this list was compiled, Hartzog 

asked for the assistance of Merrill Mattes, who 

had been the Team Captain on the various Alaska 

master plan studies during the summer of 1968. 

By early October, therefore, Katmai National 

Monument (both a 94,500-acre western unit and 

a 447,400-acre northern unit) had been added to 

the list. In addition, the NPS had prioritized its 

interest in the various Alaska areas. The two-unit 

Mount McKinley addition topped that list. But 

as noted in a justification sheet for the boundary expansion, “both North and South Units 

[covering 132,000 acres and 2,070,000 acres, 

respectively] should be included in one overall 

proclamation, if possible. However, if there is a 

question of priorities, then first priority should 

be given to the larger South Unit because it will 

provide opportunity for earlier development to 

benefit the maximum number of visitors.”151

By late October, another Alaska unit—the 

Wood-Tikchik Lakes area—had been added to 

the Alaska list, which Hartzog and other NPS 

officials presented to Secretary Udall in a slide 

talk. Udall, in response, stated that only three 

or four Alaska areas should be included on the 

proposed proclamation list, and Udall himself 

selected four areas—Mount McKinley, Katmai, 

Gates of the Arctic, and St. Lawrence Island—

for further consideration. By mid-November, 

further areas had been dropped from consideration, and the resulting list continued to include 

all four Alaska proposals; both McKinley units 

were still included, but of the two Katmai units, 

only the smaller western unit was retained. Later 

that month, the St. Lawrence Island proposal 

was dropped. A large amount of staff work then 

ensued: background material, graphics presentation, the preparation of proclamation language, 

and so forth.152

Pilot Don Sheldon opened his “Mountain House,” near the Ruth Glacier, in 

May 1966. This was one of the few 

structures ever built in the Alaska 

Range high country. DENA Herkenham #84, Denali National Park and 

Preserve Museum Collection
186 Crown Jewel of the North: An Administrative History of Denali National Park and Preserve

On December 10, Secretary Udall, Director 

Hartzog, and other Interior Department officials 

presented the Department’s plans to President 

Johnson and several top advisors regarding seven 

presidential proclamations for new or expanded 

park units: three in Alaska and two each in 

Arizona and Utah. The President, in response, 

commended the Secretary on his presentation, although several advisors objected to the 

proposed action. Johnson, as he had earlier, 

asked Udall to “touch all bases on the Hill,” and 

specifically asked him to contact Rep. Wayne 

Aspinall, the powerful Chairman of the House 

Committee on Interior and Insular Affairs. Udall 

responded by contacting—and gaining approval 

from—the head of the Senate Interior Committee and from the ranking minority member of the 

House Interior Committee. Aspinall, however, 

was out of town. Udall was fairly certain that 

Aspinall would probably not be happy about 

the proposals; however, he did not contact him 

directly about them, and Aspinall did not hear 

about them until Johnson made a fleeting reference to them in his State of the Union speech 

on January 14, 1969. Within 24 hours, Aspinall 

learned about the proclamations (though not 

from Udall or other Department staff), and he 

quickly telephoned his vigorous opposition to the 

Department. Two days later, Udall finally contacted Aspinall personally, and he also informed 

the Alaska congressional delegation about the 

impending proclamations.153 

On Saturday, January 18, Udall told NPS officials that he had received word from the White 

House that the President would sign all seven 

proclamations. Given that perceived approval, 

the Interior Department issued a news release 

entitled “Mount McKinley National Monument 

Established in Alaska,” and later that day, Alaska 

newspapers reported that the new, 2.2-millionacre monument “would serve as a companion 

piece to McKinley National Park.... Part of the 

monument land is north of the park and protects 

the migration route of the park’s caribou. The 

southern part includes a string of impressive 

glaciers and the area around Chalatna [Chelatna] 

Lake.”154 But when Johnson, while working in 

his office, saw the wire-service ticker announcing the story, he called Udall and asked him to 

call back the news releases. Based on Johnson’s 

deference to Rep. Aspinall in his role as Interior 

Committee chair, and in apparent anger over 

Udall’s decision to unilaterally issue the news 

releases, the president decided—at the very last 

moment—to not sign all of the proclamations 

that had been prepared on his behalf. On the 

morning of January 20, 1969, just two hours 

before President Nixon’s inauguration, Johnson 

decided to sign the proclamations for the four 

smallest areas, one of which was the 94,547-acre 

Katmai National Monument addition. But he 

refused to sign the three other proclamations, 

which included the 2,202,328-acre Mount 

McKinley National Park addition.155

In a press release issued after he took his action, 

Johnson explained his motives for not signing 

the proclamations for the three large parks. He 

stated that 

Seen here is the view toward Mount 

McKinley from the south end of Curry 

Ridge, where the State of Alaska 

offered various hotel development 

proposals beginning in the late 

1960s. DENA Herkenham #73, Denali 

National Park and Preserve Museum 
Chapter Seven: Rubber-Tired Tourism, 1957-1971 187

After a careful review of these proposals, I have concluded that it would 

not be desirable to take Executive 

action.... The proposals include 

over 7 million acres—an enormous 

increase in our total park holdings. I 

believe the taking of this land—without any opportunity for congressional 

study—would strain the Antiquities 

Act far beyond its intent and would be 

poor public policy. Understandably, 

such action, I am informed, would 

be opposed by leading Members of 

Congress having authority in this field 

who have not had the opportunity to 

review or pass judgment on the desirability of the taking.

Under these circumstances, I have 

directed the Secretary of the Interior 

to submit these additional proposals 

to the Interior Committees of the Senate and the House of Representatives 

for their consideration as new national 

parks. I hope the committees will see 

fit to give the proposed areas careful 

study at the earliest possible time.156

Aspinall, who was widely considered to have 

applied the pressure that scuttled the deal, “was 

said” (according to one news report) “to have argued vehemently that Congress must have a voice 

in a federal land-taking of such tremendous proportions.” But in full agreement with Johnson, 

Aspinall promised that his committee would hold 

early hearings on the Mount McKinley boundary 

expansion plan.157

Given that promise of cooperation, Rep. John 

Saylor (R-Pa.)—who served as the ranking 

minority member on the House Interior and 

Insular Affairs Committee—introduced a bill 

(H.R. 11424) on May 19, 1969 “to provide for the 

addition of certain lands to the Mount McKinley National Park.” Saylor’s bill, following on 

the work of the 1968 master plan team, called 

for a 132,000-acre North Unit addition and a 

2,070,000-acre South Unit addition. The NPS, 

throughout the 1969 and 1970 Congressional 

sessions, also continued to support these acreage 

additions. But given the change of administrations and the tenor of the new Interior Secretary 

(see below), Saylor’s bill was never reported out 

of committee.158

The Alaska Legislature Establishes Denali State 

Park

Within the new Nixon administration, a key 

to any McKinley bill was the position of former Alaska Governor Walter Hickel, who now 

headed the Interior Department. Hickel, who 

contended that the State of Alaska had first claim 

on all unreserved public lands in Alaska, asked 

the NPS to negotiate any future park-addition 

proposals with the Alaska Department of Natural 

Resources. The two entities worked on a plan for 

almost two years.

In the midst of that planning effort, the State of 

Alaska moved to establish its own protected reIn 1968, NPS planners considered 

building a tramway near this site 

in the Tokosha Mountains. DENA 

Herkenham #89, Denali National Park 

and Preserve Museum Collection
188 Crown Jewel of the North: An Administrative History of Denali National Park and Preserve

serve south of the Alaska Range. It did so in part 

to provide a recreational outlet to those traveling 

along the Anchorage-Fairbanks highway (which 

was not yet completed; see section below) and in 

part to fend off federal attempts to incorporate 

state-selected lands within an expanded Mount 

McKinley National Park. The first inkling that 

a park might be necessary took place in September 1968, shortly after the NPS had made its 

master-plan study that would have established a 

2,070,000-acre expansion south of the existing 

park (see section above). Ken Sheppard, a Republican running for a State House seat, publicly 

warned of a Park Service “land grab” in the area. 

“It would be preferable,” he noted, “for the state 

to take this valuable land of rugged mountains, 

glaciers, and spectacular valleys to prevent the 

park service from putting it into the deep freeze.” 

He noted that the NPS’s plan to extend its 

southern boundary would be sound if the action 

were coupled with a development program. But 

he was apparently skeptical that the NPS would 

produce such a program. He added, 

the park service has proven efficient 

in Alaska only in its ability to put the 

best real estate in a deep freeze—inaccessible and useless except to the elite 

few. ... The people of Anchorage and 

the Matanuska Valley have a direct interest in seeing that the park is opened 

up for more people to enjoy. We can’t 

develop the tourist industry if we 

don’t have places for visitors to go and 

stay overnight.159

Sheppard lost his House race, but many shared 

his ideas about the need to develop overnight 

accommodations south of the Alaska Range. To 

forward that concept, the Economic Development Administration (part of the U.S. Department of Commerce) sponsored a report on ways 

to develop the state’s tourism economy. That 

report, completed in December 1968, noted that 

the national park was the state’s most important 

tourist attraction and that “if visitor travel is to 

continue to increase in proportion to Alaska’s 

potential, a major hotel must be built in the 

vicinity of Mount McKinley.” It also averred that 

“this hotel must have a significant commanding 

view of the mountain,” so it recommended the 

construction of a 300-room, $17.5 million lodge, 

located near the new highway right-of-way in 

the vicinity of Chulitna Pass.160 It proposed that 

the federal government would build and operate 

the lodge; this recommendation was made even 

though the lodge site, although technically on 

federal land, had been tentatively approved for 

transfer to the State of Alaska in July 1967. The 

report cautiously noted that the lodge property 

should “be acquired as a part of Mt. McKinley 

National Park,” but it would a noncontiguous 

satellite unit.161 The study’s results, which were 

widely reported in the Alaska press, were a shot 

in the arm to tourism development advocates.162 

But not everyone agreed with the report’s 

conclusions—explorer Bradford Washburn, 

for instance—and before long Washburn was 

advocating a hotel near Tokositna Glacier, which 

was only about half the distance from Mount 

McKinley compared to the Chulitna Pass site.163 

The Interior Department, moreover, had other 

ideas. As noted above, Department officials—unbeknownst to most Alaskans—were then in the 

midst of preparing a proclamation to establish 

a 2.2-million-acre Mount McKinley National 

Monument; if President Johnson had approved 

the proclamation in the waning days of his administration, the proposed lodge site would have 

been included in the new monument.

Given the federal government’s threats—real or 

perceived—to the state’s interests on land south 

of the national park, state officials seized on the 

idea of establishing a state park. The state, at that 

time, had no other state parks, so on January 15, 

1970, Governor Keith Miller requested the State 

Senate’s Rules Committee to introduce a bill (SB 

375) that “relates to state parks and establishes 

the Denali State Park.” He told the Senate that 

This legislation sets aside approximately 300,000 acres of accessible 

State lands to complement Mount 

McKinley [National] Park. The 

location offers the most exceptional 

vantage point of North America’s 

highest mountain. Enactment of this 

legislation will facilitate development 

of facilities demanded by Alaska’s 

outdoor-loving public and the increasing number of visitors attracted 

to our state.164

The Rules Committee’s bill moved quickly 

through the Alaska legislature. It passed the Senate Resources Committee on February 9, and on 

April 13 it passed the full Senate on an 18-1 vote. 

It then passed the House Resources and House 

Finance committees, and on June 6 it passed the 

full House, 28-9. The bill was then sent on to 

Governor Miller, who signed the measure into 

law on June 23.165 The bill gave few specifics 

regarding how the park should be managed. It 

did, however, establish “rules and regulations 

governing the use and designating incompatible uses within the boundaries of [all Alaska] 

state park and recreational areas to protect the 
Chapter Seven: Rubber-Tired Tourism, 1957-1971 189

property and preserve the peace,” and that the 

lands within the 282,000-acre Denali State Park 

were “reserved from all uses incompatible with 

the primary function as park area.”166

As noted above, Interior Secretary Hickel, in early 1969, had asked NPS and the state Department 

of Natural Resources to work together toward 

a mutually-supportable park addition. Midway 

through this process Denali State Park had been 

established, and by the fall of 1970 the two sides 

had worked out (and Hickel himself had approved) a 1,560,000-acre McKinley addition, all 

of which was south of the national park and west 

of the state park (see Map 7). A key aspect of the 

agreement was that the state would not oppose 

the addition if the federal government would 

agree not to withdraw several thousand acres 

the state wanted because of its mineral potential. 

But in November 1970, two events took place 

that had the potential to unravel the progress 

made thus far. On November 25, Nixon fired 

Hickel over remarks he had made months earlier 

pertaining to the Vietnam War, and on November 3, Republican Governor Keith Miller—who 

backed Hickel’s plan because it “more accurately 

reflect[ed] the geologic unit for which the park is 

noted”—was defeated in the general election by 

William A. Egan.167

A month later, the Interior Department moved to 

assert its interests over a large swath of acreage 

south of the existing park. Recognizing that a 

long-imposed Public Land Order withdrawing 

all unreserved lands in Alaska was scheduled to 

expire on June 30, 1971, and also recognizing 

that any Congressional action related to a Mount 

McKinley park expansion could probably not 

be completed by that time, the Department announced its intention to withdraw most of the 

acreage south of the park that had not already 

been selected by the State of Alaska. Interior 

Department official Fred Russell knew that the 

order “would preclude entry or appropriation of 

any of the lands for any uses, including mineral, 

homestead, or State selection after June 30, 

1971,” but the action was necessary to prevent 

“an accretion of problems” while Congress 

considered the park-expansion proposal.168 

Alaskans, upon hearing of the plans, cried foul, 

claiming that the federal government had backed 

out of the “park land deal” made in late 1970 and 

that the “park pact” had been violated because 

the land proposed for withdrawal contained 

potentially valuable mineral land.169 Governor 

Egan, upon hearing of the Interior Department 

action, called Russell and explained the pact; 

Russell, in response, backed down and agreed to 

honor the previously-made agreement.170

Just two weeks later, on January 22, 1971, Rep. 

John Saylor again submitted a bill (H.R. 1128) to 

expand the park’s boundaries. That bill called 

for the acreage included in the fall 1970 state-federal agreement, plus additional areas to the east 

and south as well as the 132,000-acre North Unit 

proposal of 1968-69. Perhaps because of the 

state’s vociferous objections to the added lands, 

Saylor’s bill never made it out of committee.171 

During the fall of 1971, NPS staff—perhaps recognizing that the expansion issue was due to flare 

up again in early 1972—began to dicker among 

themselves over the optimal locations of future 

This view toward Mount McKinley 

from the Chulitna Pass area shows 

where the Department of Commerce, 

in 1968, recommended a hotel development site. DENA Herkenham #68, 

Denali National Park and Preserve 

Museum Collection
190 Crown Jewel of the North: An Administrative History of Denali National Park and Preserve

park boundary lines. None of this discussion 

rose above the regional-office level, however.172

Completing the Land-Consolidation Process

As noted in previous chapters, the expansion 

of the park boundaries in 1932 had incorporated the lands of several local residents and 

business people. The Interior Department had 

responded to these local interests by dispatching a General Land Office investigator to the 

McKinley Park Station area in early 1933; his 

primary purpose was to distinguish those who 

were legitimate land claimants from those 

whose ties to the land were either informal 

or transitory. By 1935, five separate parcels 

in the newly-expanded area had been patented. The first two of those parcels had been 

purchased from the landowner in 1941 and 

1947, respectively, and during early 1950s, the 

Alaska Railroad had also agreed to turn over 

most of its McKinley Park Station land to the 

NPS. That left three remaining holdouts: Duke 

Stubbs, who owned a 35-acre parcel just east of 

the McKinley Park Hotel; Dan Kennedy, who 

owned a 5-acre parcel just north of the Stubbs 

parcel, and the 133.76-acre parcel owned by the 

John Stephens estate, which surrounded the old 

Windy railroad station at the park’s southeastern corner.

As thick files in government offices show, none 

of these three landowners lived on their parcels 

after the mid-1930s, but all three argued that 

the government, via the 1932 park expansion, 

had ruined actual or potential business opportunities. As a result, all three felt that their lands 

should be valued for their economic potential. 

The government, by contrast, saw these properties as isolated, abandoned properties with 

dilapidated, decaying improvements. Given 

these varying perceptions, it is unsurprising that 

these landowners held on to their properties as 

long as they did.

The Kennedy and Stubbs Tracts

As Chapter 4 notes, Stubbs and his wife spent 

most of the mid-1930s trying to extract payment 

from the government, on the basis that the park’s 

expansion had ruined their fox farm and trading post business. In 1937 the Court of Claims 

agreed with them, and the Stubbs collected 

$50,000 in damages the following year. Perhaps 

because of the court’s award, Dan Kennedy—

then living in Everett, Washington—made similar 

moves for compensation because the park, due 

to its boundary extension, interfered with his 

business. (He later modified that claim by stating 

that he “was preparing to establish myself in the 

business of taking out hunting parties from my 

headquarters,” which was a single log cabin, “and 

was about ready to proceed when ... the territory surrounding my five acres of land was taken 

within the Park area.”) Delegate Dimond urged 

the NPS to help. Director Arno Cammerer, however, told Kennedy that there was “no authority 

of law” for claims adjudication and settlement 

and, furthermore, there were no funds available 

to purchase his parcel; he later confided to DiMount McKinley viewed from the 

site of the proposed Tokositna hotel 

development. DENA Herkenham #28, 

Denali National Park and Preserve 

Museum Collection
Chapter Seven: Rubber-Tired Tourism, 1957-1971 191

mond that if Kennedy had been paid under such 

circumstances, “this Service would be flooded 

with similar demands in connection with other 

parks and monuments.”173 Kennedy next made it 

known that he wanted to run a guiding business 

from his property, but NPS regulations prevented 

him from doing so. He therefore asked Cammerer to be relieved of the “intolerable burdens” 

of his situation by having several square miles 

in the McKinley Park Station area excised from 

the park. That August, however, the Washington 

office stated that the 1932 boundary-extension 

act “adequately protected all valid existing 

claims” and that “this Service is not in a position 

to consider favorably any legislation authorizing 

the withdrawal ... as desired by Mr. Kennedy.”174 

The NPS, during this period, appraised the Kennedy parcel, with improvements, as being worth 

$200.175

Having been rebuffed by the NPS, Kennedy 

next turned to Congress, and in January 1941, 

Delegate Dimond submitted a bill (H.R. 321) to 

authorize the Court of Claims to consider his 

case and determine an appropriate level of damages. The House Committee on Claims, however, 

did not move Dimond’s bill. NPS Associate 

Director Arthur E. Demaray, however, met with 

Dimond and assured him that “arrangements 

could be made whereby Mr. Kennedy could 

satisfactorily carry out his plans without undue 

inconvenience.”176 What those “arrangements” 

were, however, is not known; in all probability, 

Kennedy made no attempt to start up his business, either in 1941 or in later years.

Also in 1941, park superintendent Frank Been 

learned that Duke Stubbs, the owner of the 

adjacent property, had died. Inasmuch as his 

widow, Elizabeth Stubbs, was “not living on 

her property” (she was a Seattle resident), Been 

suggested that she be contacted in hopes that 

“she may turn her land over to the government, 

or release it for a nominal amount.” Other NPS 

officials—who had no funds to offer for land 

purchase—were unenthusiastic about the idea, 

but suggested that an agency lands-acquisition 

coordinator speak with her.177 The property, at 

the time, was estimated to be worth either $1000 

or $1750, but when an NPS official finally spoke 

to her about the property, she indicated that “her 

husband had valued the property at $10,000, but 

she would very much like to have an offer for 

it.”178 Given that answer, the NPS was unable to 

move further.

Interest in the government’s purchase of both 

properties surfaced soon after World War 

II. Goaded by the Washington office, a park 

employee talked with Col. Johnson of the Alaska 

Railroad, who stated that the carrier could 

secure funds for purchasing both the Kennedy 

and Stubbs properties. The parcels, at this time, 

were appraised at $2500 and $1750, respectively. 

Despite that jump in price, other NPS employees felt that the quoted figures were too low.179 

Eventually a railroad employee was able to track 

down the two landowners, and the report was 

not encouraging; Mrs. Stubbs wanted $10,000 

for her property, while Kennedy made a personal visit to the railroad company “to reiterate 

his refusal to sell at any price.”180 Railroad and 

NPS employees responded by compiling a series 

of four independently-derived appraisals: they 

indicated that the Kennedy parcel was worth 

$2,000 to $2,500 (of which $1,000 was deemed to 

be “of nuisance value”), while the Stubbs parcel 

was valued at $5,000 to $6,500.181

Following upon those estimates, and well aware 

that the road being built to the park might drastically inflate the parcels’ property values, the Interior Department’s Solicitor, Mastin White, asked 

U.S. Attorney General J. Howard McGrath in 

June 1951 to begin condemnation proceedings in 

order to acquire the two parcels.182 On September 6, Justice Department attorneys responded 

by filing the necessary complaint that instituted 

the legal process. Regarding Mrs. Stubbs, the 

court tried to contact her, first via a notice in a 

Fairbanks newspaper, and later via a letter to her 

last known address, in New York City. But she 

never responded to the complaint.183 However, 

Kennedy and his partner, A. M. Glassberg184—

having been told that the parcel was worth 

$2,500—responded to the summons and fought 

back through their congressman, Henry M. 

Jackson. Based on the property’s $5000 assessed 

valuation, which was “less than the fair purchase 

price of the property,” they told NPS officials that 

the agency’s offer was “very inadequate.” But the 

NPS countered that the government’s appraisal 

was fair, inasmuch as the one cabin on the property was “very unsightly and in poor condition ... 

[it] afford[s] shelter to tramps and other undesirables.”185 The government, for the time being, 

postponed its condemnation case; meanwhile, 

it pressed Kennedy and Glassberg for an offer. 

Glassberg, in response, suggested $27,500 and 

further stated that Kennedy’s plans “call for the 

development as a base of operations for prospecting and as a tourist facility.” But the NPS 

considered the figure “wholly unacceptable” and 

urged that the partners reconsider their quoted 

figure.186 In response, Kennedy’s lawyer—in a 

letter to Rep. Jackson—accused park officials of 

acting maliciously toward his client, and he also 

tried to justify the $27,500 asking price. But NPS 

Director Conrad Wirth, who received a copy of 
192 Crown Jewel of the North: An Administrative History of Denali National Park and Preserve

that letter, shot back with a point-by-point defense. He cited the “unsightly, dilapidated” cabin 

on the property as adequate justification for the 

$2,500 appraisal figure. He further stated the 

agency’s rationale for the condemnation:

It was with extreme reluctance that 

negotiations with the aged pioneering explorer were terminated and 

condemnation proceedings instituted. However, for nearly three years 

we have attempted to purchase the 

property at a price consistent with 

appraisals made by reputable employees of the Alaska Railroad. ... This 

Service feels impelled to administer 

and develop the Park for the benefit 

and enjoyment of the people who visit 

it. To accomplish this objective, it is 

necessary to acquire private holdings 

such as the Kennedy property and to 

devote the lands to public purposes. 

It is unfortunate that the Kennedy and 

Stubbs tracts are plainly visible from 

the railroad, the Park highway, and the 

accommodations provided for the visiting public. ... You may rest assured 

that the Service, working as it does 

on a small budget must, of necessity, 

confine its purchases to lands vitally 

important to the development and 

maintenance of the various parks.

No known action took place regarding either 

of these tracts until early 1956. By this time, 

Elizabeth Stubbs had died, leaving Mary E. Weiss 

as the sole owner of the 35-acre Stubbs tract. 

Weiss apparently had little interest in holding 

onto the property, and although the parcel had 

responded positively, and on October 18, 1958, 

Justice lawyers decided to file an appeal with the 

Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals.190 The appeals 

court gave no immediate indication as to when it 

would consider this case; in the meantime, Kennedy declared his intention to build a “modern 

motel” which was “vitally needed in the Park.” 

Kennedy’s attorney offered to sell the parcel 

in question for $25,000, a figure that the NPS 

rejected.191

The appeals court heard the case beginning January 14, 1960. A. Donald Mileur, along with three 

other Justice Department attorneys, represented 

the federal government, while Kennedy’s attorneys remained the law firm of Davis, Hughes, 

and Thorsness. A three-judge panel—Frederick 

G. Hamley, Gilbert H. Jertberg, and Montgomery O. Koelsch—heard oral arguments in the 

case. The government argued that its ability to 

condemn the property rested on Chapter VII of 

the general appropriation act for Fiscal Year 1951 

which called for the expenditure of $19,667,000 

for, among other things, “the acquisition of 

lands, interests therein, improvements, and water 

rights.” And more specifically, that act authorized $275,000 for the NPS to acquire private 

properties within the various national parks. The 

defendant, however, argued that inasmuch as 

Mount McKinley was not mentioned in the appropriation bill, Congress did not authorize landpurchasing rights there. The defendant further 

argued that even if the $275,000 could be applied 

to Mount McKinley, then such funds could be 

used only on parcels with a willing seller. Three 

months later, Hamley issued the Court’s opinion. 

The Court held “that nothing in the legislative 

history of the 1951 appropriation act limits the 

broad language of the acquisition item in such a 

These were Duke Stubbs’ buildings 

at his fox farm. Stubbs’ fox pens can 

be seen beyond the two buildings. 

DENA 11-119, Denali National Park 

and Preserve Museum Collection
Chapter Seven: Rubber-Tired Tourism, 1957-1971 193

been appraised at $6,000 in 1951, she appeared 

in a Fairbanks court and agreed to $4,000 as 

“just compensation” in a judgment rendered on 

February 24, 1956.187

Kennedy, however, had no intention of being 

cooperative. In late December 1957, a trial on 

the condemnation was held in an Anchorage 

District Court. Assistant U.S. Attorney Donald 

Burr, unsurprisingly, asked for the legal right to 

condemn the property. But the Anchorage law 

firm of Davis, Hughes, and Thorsness, representing Kennedy, alleged that the government had 

“no authority for such a condemnation” because 

“there was no showing of any specific legislative sanction or authority for condemning the 

land in question.” The government’s amended 

complaint stated that its action stemmed from 

Mastin White’s June 1951 letter to the Attorney 

General, and that White was “duly authorized to 

institute the proceeding...”. But the defendant 

moved to dismiss the case because the amended 

complaint “does not state a claim upon which 

relief may be granted.” Judge Walter H. Hodge, 

asked to rule in the case, issued his decision on 

March 10, 1958. Hodge noted that neither the 

1917 act establishing the park nor “the amendments thereto contain any specific authorization 

... relating to the acquisition by condemnation or 

otherwise of private lands within the boundaries 

of the Park; and no such provision is found in the 

general statutes relative to the jurisdiction and 

powers of the National Park Service.” He further 

noted that there were several such authorizations 

that pertained to other NPS units, but none for 

Mount McKinley, and “if it was the intention of 

Congress to make similar provision as to Mount 

McKinley National Park, surely it would have 

done so. ... It must be concluded,” Hodge noted, 

“that the [plaintiff’s] amended complaint fails to 

state a claim upon which the relief sought may be 

had. The motion to dismiss is therefore granted.”188 Government attorneys, chagrined at the 

trial’s outcome, asked the judge to reconsider his 

opinion, and they soon submitted four additional 

previous court decisions that were intended to 

buttress their case. But in a case that was heard 

in Nome on June 13, 1958, Hodge reiterated his 

earlier opinion.189 Without the legal ability to 

condemn the property, the NPS was unable to 

obtain Kennedy’s parcel unless it could meet 

Kennedy’s $27,500 asking price.

After reading Judge Hodge’s opinion, the Justice 

Department felt that “the District Court was in 

error in holding that the ... authority for the taking would not support a condemnation action.” 

It therefore filed a protective notice of appeal, 

asking the Interior Department Solicitor’s Office 

“whether an appeal would be in the best interest 

of the United States.” Shortly afterward, DOI 

way that funds therefrom may not be expended 

in acquiring land within the exterior boundaries 

of Mount McKinley National Park.” And it further held that “if there was authority to acquire 

them by purchase, they could be condemned.” It 

therefore concluded that “the Secretary of the Interior, acting through the National Park Service, 

has authority under the 1951 appropriation act 

to acquire the Kennedy tract. He may therefore 

do so by condemnation....”192 The appeals 

court thus reversed the district court’s opinion. 

There is no evidence that Kennedy appealed 

the Court’s decision, so all that remained to be 

settled was the sale price.

On Friday, February 3, 1961, attorneys for Kennedy and the government gathered for a pre-trial 

conference in the Anchorage office of District 

Judge Walter Hodge. All parties agreed that 

“the sole issue of fact ... was the matter of just 

compensation to be paid to the defendant Dan T. 

Kennedy...”. The defendant claimed “the highest and best use of said property as a homestead 

and claim[ed] a value of between $30,000 and 

$50,000 and the government [claimed] an appraisal of only $1,625.00.”193 The trial, before a 

jury, began just three days later. After a two-day 

trial, the jury ruled on February 8 that $16,506.57 

was “just compensation” to settle the case; that 

figure was the sum of a $10,500 award, plus 

another $6,006.57 for the interest that had accrued (at six percent per annum) since September 6, 1951, when the government had filed for 

condemnation. NPS officials felt that the amount 

was excessive, but based on Justice Department 

advice that an appeal might result in an even 

larger award, the NPS decided that the jury’s 

award should stand. A month later, the NPS 

prepared a voucher, and by the end of March the 

NPS owned Kennedy’s 5-acre parcel.194 It had 

been a long, hard battle by both sides.

The Stephens Tract

During this period, the NPS also acquired a 

tract at the southeastern corner of the park that 

had belonged to John Stephens. Stephens had 

patented this 133.96-acre homestead, which surDan Kennedy’s log cabin was located 

east of the McKinley Park airstrip, on 

his privately-owned 5-acre site. The 

airstrip is the foreground of this picture. DENA 4-16, Denali National Park 

and Preserve Museum Collection
194 Crown Jewel of the North: An Administrative History of Denali National Park and Preserve

rounded the Windy railroad station, on February 

9, 1933; this was less than a year after the passage 

of the Congressional bill that expanded the park 

boundaries to include his land. After that date, 

Stephens continued to run a roadhouse, trading post, and the Windy City post office—all of 

which surrounded the rail stop—until his death 

in 1934. Windy City (and the parcel in question) 

was inhabited for a short period after Stephens’s 

death, but by the late 1930s the parcel was uninhabited. The parcel thereafter was administered 

by his grandson, H. Stephen Simpson of Peoria, 

Illinois.195

Soon after Stephens’ death, his heirs began to 

petition Congress “seeking a settlement ... for 

the lands of the deceased that were taken and 

made a part of a Federal Park.” On March 23, 

1936, less than a year after Congress passed a bill 

on behalf of McKinley Park Station residents 

Duke and Elizabeth Stubbs, Alaska Delegate Tony 

Dimond introduced H.R. 11955. This bill would 

have given authority for the Court of Claims to 

award damages to Stephens’s heirs, who at the 

time were Nettie Stephens, Minnie Simpson, and 

Luro M. Holmes. A few days later a similar bill 

(S. 4403) was introduced in the Senate by Alva B. 

Adams, the head of the Committee on Claims.196 

The latter bill brought forth an investigation and 

a report from the Senate Committee on Claims, 

dated May 14, 1936. Perhaps on the basis of 

that report, both bills died in committee.197 On 

the opening day of Congress in January 1937, 

Alaska Delegate Tony Dimond introduced a 

new bill in the House of Representatives (H.R. 

1746) “authorizing reimbursement to the estate 

of John Stephens ... for the loss of certain lands 

and improvements in Alaska.” The bill would 

have paid Stephens’s estate $26,000 to settle all 

ed “the present value of the property, including 

roadhouse, trading post and cabins which are 

mostly rotted away and not occupied, at $10.00 

per acre.”202 This correspondence was passed on 

to the Washington office, who noted the possibility of land acquisition funds being available; the 

quoted per-acre value, however, was “subject to 

change by an official appraisal by disinterested 

parties.” Tolson wrote Simpson and asked for 

a six-months’ option to purchase the property 

at that appraised value. Simpson, however, 

had little interest in such an option; instead, he 

responded by citing the large ($50,000) award 

that the Stubbs had received from the Court of 

Claims back in 1937, and he also threatened to 

reopen a business on the property.203

As noted in Chapter 6, early plans for building 

the road from Paxson Roadhouse to the existing 

park road called for it to be constructed from 

Cantwell up Windy Creek to the drainage divide, 

then a descent within the Riley Creek watershed 

to McKinley Park Station. This alternative was 

considered until late 1950. Because the construction of such a road would have made Simpson’s 

property relatively accessible, NPS planner 

George Collins worried that the agency needed 

to purchase the property in order to prevent it 

from being used for commercial purposes.204 

The decision to build the road within the Nenana 

River corridor, however, isolated the inholding 

from the new road corridor. As a result, NPS 

officials did not feel the need to condemn this 

property as they had the Stubbs and Kennedy 

tracts, as noted above.

No further action took place for more than a 

decade. During this period, the landowner had 

little interest in selling the land to the government 

This photograph of Dan Kennedy’s 

cabin was taken on February 1, 1961, 

just days before the final settlement 

of Kennedy’s property claims. DENA 

4-23, Denali National Park and Preserve Museum Collection 
Chapter Seven: Rubber-Tired Tourism, 1957-1971 195

outstanding claims. But the Interior Department 

was not requested to make a report on the issue, 

so Congress did not act on it.198

Stephens’s heirs again sought financial restitution 

from Congress in 1941, perhaps in response to 

news reports emanating from the government’s 

purchase of the Anderson tract near Wonder 

Lake. That spring, Delegate Dimond—perhaps 

in response to a request from the Stephens 

heirs—asked Interior Secretary Ickes if funds 

were available to purchase the Stephens tract. 

But no such money was available.199 The family 

then prevailed upon Dimond to submit a bill 

asking the Court of Claims to hear their case 

and render judgment. Dimond introduced that 

bill (H.R. 5585) on August 14, after which it was 

considered by the House Committee on Claims, 

chaired by Rep. Daniel McGehee (D-Miss.). 

E. K. Burlew, an Interior Department official 

tasked to review the case, concluded that “I am 

unable to discover any grounds which would 

justify a favorable report on the pending bill.” 

He therefore recommended against the enactment of H.R. 5585, and perhaps because of that 

opinion—which was largely based on his perusal 

of the Senate’s 1936 report—the bill did not get 

voted out of committee.200

After the war, Simpson tried yet again to press his 

case before Congress. In July 1946, perhaps in 

response to news reports about the possible purchase of the Morino tract, he wrote to the Alaska 

Delegate E. L. Bartlett; stating that “the heirs of 

this estate have been rather shabbily treated,” he 

sought a government settlement “for the lands 

of the deceased that were taken and made a part 

of a Federal Park.” NPS Director Drury, asked 

to comment on the matter, assured Bartlett “that 

this property has not been taken over as Federal 

property.” He further explained, however, that 

“there are no funds available for its purchase;” in 

fact, his request for $350,000 for purchase of privately-owned lands in the National Park System 

had recently been stricken from the 1947 Interior 

Department appropriation bill. The parcel, at 

this time, had an appraised value of $4,000.201

Simpson recognized—as did other park inholders during this period, both in Alaska and 

elsewhere—that he had few options regarding 

the sale of his property. So in the spring of 1947, 

he contacted park superintendent Grant Pearson 

and asked him to estimate the value of Stephens’ 

trading-post business and also asked him to 

estimate the “present value of the improvements” 

there. Pearson, at the time, was in the midst of 

a climbing expedition up Mount McKinley. By 

radio, however, Pearson relayed that he “was well 

acquainted” with John Stephens, and he estimatat its appraised value, and the NPS—because of 

the tract’s location, which was difficult to reach 

by road and well away from the McKinley Park 

Station area—was not particularly hard pressed 

to purchase it. In July 1961, the NPS—evidently 

interested in consolidating its remaining inholdings—gained authorization to have the tract 

appraised. Soon afterward, the appraiser visited 

the property and submitted his report, in which 

he ascertained the tract’s value at $6,700. In September, the agency forwarded option papers to 

H. S. Simpson.205 Soon a familiar litany emerged; 

according to contemporary agency reports, 

“Mr. Simpson seems to feel that this property 

would lend itself to commercial development,” 

while to the NPS, “such a development would be 

economically unfeasible since it would require 

construction of a costly bridge across the Nenana 

River to provide access.” Simpson, however, was 

willing to sell; he signed and returned the option 

papers in February 1962, and on March 15 the 

agency received a signed contract to purchase 

the tract for $6,700.206 Park staff then began 

the process to obtain a clear title. That process 

dragged on for months; during this period, Simpson apparently died. Finally, on November 6, a 

federal attorney in Fairbanks filed a complaint 

against Stephens’s heirs, hoping to complete the 

land transaction. Four months later, on March 

25, 1963, the government and the two identified 

property owners—Minnie J. Simpson and Loren 

G. Holmes—agreed to complete the land transaction. On April 18 the U.S. Attorney General, 

Robert F. Kennedy, issued a final judgment in the 

matter and reconfirmed the award amount. Soon 

afterward, the defendants received $3350 each.207

Operational Realities: Staff and Infrastructure

Until the fall of 1956, Mount McKinley National 

Park had enjoyed a long period of staff stability; 

as noted in Chapter 6, there had been just two 

superintendents during the previous seventeen 

years, and the number of permanent staff had 

risen from just eight to ten (see Appendix B). But 

in November 1956, that period of quietude ended when 30-year veteran Grant Pearson retired 

and moved to the San Francisco Bay area,208 and 

between then and 1971 the park had five superintendents: Duane Jacobs, Samuel King, Oscar 

Dick, George Hall, and Vernon Ruesch. Jacobs, 

who served from November 1956 to November 

1959, and King, who served another three-year 

stint immediately following Jacobs, each served 

apprentices as assistant superintendents. Dick, 

who transferred to the park after serving as Yellowstone’s chief ranger, had previously worked 

at McKinley during the 1940s and 1950s.209 

Hall, who moved to McKinley from a posting in 

Washington, D.C., had previously served at Sitka 
196 Crown Jewel of the North: An Administrative History of Denali National Park and Preserve

National Monument,210 and Ruesch, the son of 

legendary Zion superintendent Walter Ruesch, 

had long served as a Grand Canyon ranger (see 

Appendix C).211

During this period, Mount McKinley’s preeminence among Alaska units forced its superintendent to assume roles unrelated to the park, 

much as Supt. Been had had to do during the 

late 1930s and early 1940s (see Chapter 5). As 

noted above, one of the first tasks undertaken 

by new NPS Director George Hartzog, in 1964, 

was his establishment of the Alaska Task Force. 

This ad hoc group undertook an intensive effort 

to identify and evaluate areas that would be of 

particular interest as potential national parks 

and monuments. The task force’s January 1965 

report, called Operation Great Land, identified 39 zones and sites that had high natural, 

recreational, or historic values. By August 

1965 Hartzog, hoping to orchestrate a series of 

individual study proposals, had decided that an 

Alaska Field Office, in Anchorage, was necessary 

for central planning purposes.212 The office was 

established on November 8, 1965, and by May 

1967 the office boasted a park planner (Craig 

Breedlove), a biologist (Richard Prasil), and a 

secretary (Marguerite Bedour). The leader of 

this office, however, was Supt. Dick, and this 

additional role forced him to rent an apartment 

in Anchorage and remain there for extended 

periods during the wintertime.213 George Hall, 

who replaced Dick in early 1967, carried on the 

same hectic seasonal schedule as had his predecessor. But when Hall retired in 1969, higher-ups 

even more would be needed to “relieve the critical shortage of housing.”218 Aside from Eielson 

Visitor Center, no new construction took place 

west of the headquarters area during this period. 

One building was demolished, however; during 

the summer of 1964, half of the two-part Savage 

River Cabin was “cut up for firewood.” Both of 

the Savage River cabins, prior to the demolition, 

were located just northwest of today’s Savage 

River Campground; the remaining cabin still 

stands and presently serves as a spot for historical 

interpretation.219 

The park also moved to accommodate the needs 

of hundreds of inquisitive, curious motorists. When the new Denali Highway opened in 

August 1957, it established a Park Information 

Center in the combination naturalist’s office and 

ranger station, located north of the park road at 

headquarters.220 That arrangement sufficed for a 

short time, but in May 1959, road construction in 

that area blocked access to the center. The NPS 

reacted to the situation by installing a prefabricated entrance station on the park road just north 

of the McKinley Park Station airstrip. This small 

station, which was initially staffed 16 hours per 

day all summer long, was intended to be temporary pending the construction of a standalone 

visitor center in the area.221 As noted in Chapter 

11, however, the visitor-center idea never came to 

fruition, and the entrance station—supplemented 

in late 1962 with an adjacent exhibit building—

remained for years afterward.222

The park significantly upgraded its utilities durSuperintendent Oscar Dick, right, 

presented Park Ranger Wayne Merry, 

left, with an Incentive Award on August 25, 1966. Oscar Dick had served 

at the park in the 1940s and 1950s 

before returning as superintendent in 

December 1962. DENA 27-66, Denali 

National Park and Preserve Museum 

Collection
Chapter Seven: Rubber-Tired Tourism, 1957-1971 197

finally recognized the obvious logistical difficulties of one person running a central office as 

well as a major national park located more than 

six hours away by railroad. That October, when 

Ernest Borgman began work as the first Alaska 

Group Office leader, he was based year-round in 

Anchorage.214 As shall be noted in Chapter 8, this 

tension between park and central-office affairs 

did not end with Borgman’s appointment; during 

much of the 1970s, a number of park personnel 

were relocated to Anchorage to carry out studies 

for proposals unrelated to the Mount McKinley 

area.215

The agency’s budget increased dramatically 

between the mid-1950s and the early 1970s, and 

the park budget handsomely benefited as a result; 

it rose from approximately $85,500 in fiscal year 

1955 to $717,500 in 1970, more than a 700 percent increase (see Appendix B). Thanks to these 

additional funds, the park was able to double its 

permanent staff, primarily in the maintenance 

and administrative occupations. In addition, 

officials were able to establish a substantial—and 

growing—seasonal workforce. A park that had 

fewer than five seasonal positions in 1956 was, 

by the late 1960s, able to offer seasonal jobs to 

laborers, mechanics, carpenters, motor grader 

operators, truck drivers, clerk typists and fire 

control aids as well as rangers, naturalists, and 

maintenance personnel (see Appendix C).

Given that new budget, the headquarters area 

was able to accommodate the growing need for 

housing. In March 1958, as part of the same 

contract that funded Eielson Visitor Center (see 

above), the J. B. Warrack Construction Company 

of Anchorage agreed to build a six-unit apartment building—complete with a common recreation room—plus an adjacent six-unit garage. 

These buildings were “essentially completed and 

accepted” by NPS officials on December 10, and 

employees were able to move into the apartment 

building before Christmas. Because it provided 

both housing and a much-needed indoor recreation area, employees rejoiced at its completion, 

and before the end of the year the new facility 

had held its first religious services, had its first 

all-employees party, and witnessed the publication of a short-lived newspaper, the Wreck Room 

Ramble.

216 These units, however, did little to 

slake the need for seasonal housing. To fulfill 

that growing need, the park continued to utilize 

trailer units, and in 1960 it converted the old museum/exhibit building (near the main park road) 

into seasonal housing. Three years later, the park 

construction crew completed work on “ten tent 

houses, wash room and laundry facilities” at “the 

seasonal camp” [the old CCC camp] to satisfy 

the additional need for seasonal living space.217 

And by the spring of 1967, it was obvious that 

ing this period. As noted in Chapter 6, the park 

fully converted over to AC power generation in 

1948, when a 75 kilowatt generator was installed 

at headquarters. Given the agency’s acquisition 

of the hotel (in October 1953) and the growth at 

headquarters, the NPS decided to centralize and 

upgrade its power generating capabilities, and 

in June 1958 it awarded a contract to Northern 

Electric Co. of Anchorage to furnish two diesel 

electric generators at the hotel—with a combined 150 kilowatt generating capacity—as well 

as a transmission line connecting the hotel and 

headquarters areas. That work was “essentially 

complete” by September, and in June 1959 NPS 

officials approved the job.223

Also in 1958, planning work began for a utility 

system upgrade; this included a new utilidor, a 

new boiler house at headquarters, and the provision of steam heating in all headquarters-area 

buildings. In July 1959, the NPS awarded the 

job to a Seattle consortium of Promacs, Inc. and 

Western Equipment and Supply Co. for $433,000. 

Just a month later, however, the steam-heating 

provision was dropped from the contract and 

the bid award amount was shaved to $385,000.224 

Work on the project began during the summer of 

1960, but because of “lack of organization, men 

and equipment,” the pace of work fell behind 

because a sub-contractor failed to come through. 

Indeed, for several weeks in mid-summer, 

NPS officials openly worried that the tardiness would jeopardize the operation of all park 

utility systems during the coming winter. Work 

pressed on, however; workers remained on-site 

until mid-November, by which time the system, 

though still not completed, was operational. The 

new utilidor, in fact, never failed that winter, 

though technical adjustments were periodically 

required.225 Promacs personnel returned in the 

spring to complete the job. Problems continued 

to plague the project, however, and the crews 

left that fall with the job still unfinished. The job 

From 1967 to 1969 George Hall served 

as park superintendent and leader of 

the Alaska Field Office in Anchorage. 

DENA 27-99, Denali National Park and 

Preserve Museum Collection
198 Crown Jewel of the North: An Administrative History of Denali National Park and Preserve

was finally declared complete in September 1962, 

though NPS officials continued to complain 

about heat leakage problems.226

Meanwhile, in the fall of 1960, NPS officials prepared documents for the discarded portion of its 

July 1959 contract: the installation of steam heating in the headquarters buildings. By the time 

that job was put out for bid, in February 1961, the 

agency also included a provision for a headquarters-area sewage disposal system.227 That April, 

the agency awarded the contract to Gordon 

Johnson Plumbing and Heating Co. of Fairbanks. 

Work, which included the excavation of a septic 

tank, began in June. “Good progress” was made 

that summer, and the company essentially completed the job on October 23.228 Smaller projects 

completed during this period included a new, 

enlarged water pump at the park’s Rock Creek 

intake in the fall of 1965; a new, larger generator for the hotel in the summer of 1967; and a 

rehabilitation of the hotel’s water system, heating 

system, and power plant in 1968.229

Because the years between 1957 and 1971 were 

the only period in which motorists from the 

contiguous road system were able to drive to and 

through the park, this period was also the heyday 

of car camping at the park. As noted in the 

previous chapter, there were just two established 

campgrounds in 1957—Savage River and Wonder 

Lake—while Teklanika River, Igloo Creek, and 

the old Morino homestead area served as more 

informal camp locations. As noted above, the 

Mission 66 prospectus called for 100-space 

campground at Teklanika along with a 20-space 

campground at Toklat River. Given that directive, plus the increasing number of cars coursing 

development of campground roads, trails, utility 

system, comfort stations, and 75 campsites.233 In 

November 1967 the NPS issued a contract to 

Yukon Services, Inc. of Fairbanks to construct a 

new, 75-unit campground. The two-loop Riley 

Creek Campground was completed under the 

terms of that contract during the summer of 

1968; it opened the following spring as a 100-

site facility. Given the completion of the Riley 

Creek campground, the NPS closed the 15-space 

Morino campground, apparently after the 1969 

season.234

During the late 1960s, moreover, NPS officials 

deemed other park locations—not just Morino—

to be phased out as campgrounds. A January 

1967 master plan study, for example, noted that 

both the Igloo Creek and Toklat campgrounds 

were “small unsuitable facilit[ies] to be obliterated or converted to other use.” That study 

similarly recommended the phasing out of the 

Savage River campground. But the Teklanika and 

Wonder Lake campgrounds were both slated for 

a large-scale expansion. None of these actions 

ever came to pass, at least not in the short term; 

these recommendations did, however, offer a 

template for future agency actions.235

Park Patrols: the Invasion of the Snow Tractor

Rangers, during this period, continued to patrol 

the park as they had since the 1920s. The methods used for patrol, however, changed over the 

years to fit contemporary needs and technology. 

As noted in previous chapters, for example, dog 

teams (and foot reconnaissance for shorter trips) 

had been the primary patrol methods during the 

1920s and 1930s. But in November 1944, the 

Army had brought in seven late-model M-7 snow 

By 1959 the first entrance station in 

the park was established just north 

of the depot. DENA 34-22, Denali 

National Park and Preserve Museum 

Collection
Chapter Seven: Rubber-Tired Tourism, 1957-1971 199

up and down 

the park road, the agency worked quickly to expand campground facilities. During the summer 

of 1958, the NPS installed tables, fireplaces, and 

pit toilets at Teklanika and the newly-established 

Toklat Campground, and the following year 

upgrades were made to facilities at Wonder 

Lake, Teklanika and Igloo Creek.230 Sanctuary 

Campground appears to have been a recognized 

(if informal) campsite throughout the 1950s and 

1960s; beginning in 1963 NPS rangers made efforts to clean up and improve the area, but they 

installed no specific camp facilities. Until the late 

1960s, and perhaps later, the 20-space Teklanika 

Campground did not offer dedicated pull-in 

slots; even so, the campground attracted many 

motorists with trailers, inasmuch as the NPS 

discouraged the carriage of trailers west of that 

point.231

Meanwhile, the Morino area—which had vacillated during the 1950s between a picnic ground 

and an informal campground—was more fully 

established as a campground in the early 1960s. 

The agency made yet another attempt in 1961 to 

clean up “ancient debris” in the area, and it made 

plans to expand the area in 1962.232 But the space 

limitations at Morino were all too clear. By June 

1964, park officials were already complaining 

that the site “has been filled to capacity during a 

large part of the month and that future expansion in this area is necessary.” Just a month later, 

however, a quick site survey revealed that “any 

monies spent in expanding this area would offer 

only a temporary solution to the camping facilities in this area.” By March 1965, park officials 

had concluded that the campground had to be 

obliterated, and that July—at the height of the 

visitor season—Supt. Dick told Regional Director Edward Hummel that “we must again stress 

the need for including in the 1967 program the 

construction of the new Morino Campground” 

inasmuch as “the existing Morino Campground 

... is very primitive and totally inadequate.” Almost $240,000 was needed in this context for the 

tractors (also called snow jeeps, Snow Tracs, 

or “Sno-Cats”) to assist with the Air Transport 

Command C-47 crash rescue effort, and Grant 

Pearson—who drove one of the vehicles—was 

so convinced of its utility that, by 1945, he 

“believe[d] the dog team is a thing of the past, except for use in connection with winter sports.”236 

In September 1946, the park obtained two 

surplus snow tractors, and after a winter’s patrol 

experience, park staff declared that “used with 

discretion, the snow jeep should supplant the 

dog team and last for a number of years.”237 That 

prophecy proved correct, because the park used 

snow tractors for its long-distance winter patrols 

until 1960, then again for a number of additional 

years beginning in 1964.238 Starting in the fall 

of 1960, the rangers temporarily abandoned 

the snow tractor in favor of a new Bombardier 

snowmachine. But by early 1962, the machine 

was proving unequal to the tasks asked of it, and 

by early 1963 it was considered “not dependable 

nor designed for our needs.” Late that year the 

Bombardier was declared surplus, and the park 

reverted back to snow tractors.239

Other patrol methods, however, were not 

abandoned. Points as far away as the Lower 

Toklat Cabin were patrolled on foot during the 

summer and fall, and in midwinter such diverse 

points as Upper Riley Creek, Sable Pass, and the 

Moody Cabin were patrolled by foot or on snowshoe.240 In addition, rangers—primarily during 

the 1940s—conducted ski patrols to points as 

distant as the Teklanika River.241 As early as 1940, 

park staff envisioned that the airplane would 

make most other patrol methods obsolete. The 

high cost of airplane travel, however, prevented 

its widespread adoption until the mid- to late 

1960s.242

As noted both above and in Chapter 5, NPS staff 

between 1939 and 1946 predicted several times 

that the era of dog team patrols at the park was 

over, except perhaps for interpretive and exhibition purposes.243 Such predictions, however, 

Above left: Mount McKinley National 

Park entrance sign, located at the 

entrance station, 1959. Wallace A. 

Cole Collection

Above right: The opposite side of the 

park entrance sign, showing mileages 

to points outside the park, 1959. Wallace A. Cole Collection
200 Crown Jewel of the North: An Administrative History of Denali National Park and Preserve

proved premature. To be sure, dogs were apparently not used for park patrols between the early 

1940s and the early 1950s, and the park had no 

dog teams between 1945 and 1947 and between 

1948 and 1950.244 In April 1952, however, park 

naturalist William J. Nancarrow took a dog team 

on a 13-day patrol after the park’s snow tractor 

was immobilized.245 Annual dog patrols continued until 1960, when the Bombardier was 

introduced.246 Three years later, however, the 

snowmachine was discarded and dogs were reinstituted on park patrols.247

During this extended period, changes were noted 

in the nature and scope of park patrols. Consistent needs included stocking the patrol cabins 

and hauling firewood to them, and rangers also 

tried to patrol the park’s southeastern corner and 

the eastern end of the northern boundary during 

the big game hunting season, which typically 

began on August 20 and continued until October 

15.248 During a few years, there was also some 

concern at the beginning of the trapping season 

(on October 16).249 From time to time, rangers raised alarms when they heard about real or 

rumored poaching activity.250 Actual incidents 

of wildlife harvesting in the park, however, were 

rare.251 The relative ease of patrolling along the 

park road (due to a reliance on the snow tractor), 

and the relative lack of hunting pressure away 

from the park’s eastern margins, meant that rangers seldom visited the more remote patrol cabins, 

such as those at Copper Mountain, McKinley 

Bar, and McLeod Creek.

Because of a recurrent icing problem along 

short segments of the park road, the annual 

spring snow-removal process continued to cause 

headaches to maintenance crews. As noted 

in Chapter 6, Alaska Road Commission crews 

had tried, beginning in the late 1940s, to reduce 

glaciation by periodically sprinkling layers of 

cinders, ash, or coal dust on the ice. But by the 

mid-1950s, that experiment had been abandoned. In the fall of 1959, Bureau of Public 

Roads crews reacted to the 

aufeis problem252 by erecting a 

2500-foot-long fence, made of 

three-foot-high roofing felt, just 

west of the park headquarters. 

The mild weather that winter, 

however, was “conducive to 

an abnormal amount of aufeis 

build up,” and by the following 

March three additional layers—

some of which were made from 

rolls of sisal kraft paper—had 

been added to the original 

three-foot-wide strip. These 

measures, which required “a 

considerable amount of time 

[to be] expended by the Ranger Division,” kept 

the road open in this area all winter, although at 

one point park staff had to pour “a pickup load 

of slacked coal” on the ice layer. Difficulties 

along other portions of the park road, however, delayed the road opening until June 1, and 

substantial damage took place at the Mile 3 aufeis 

area because of high springtime runoff volume.253 

NPS crews, which took over the maintenance of 

the park road in July 1960, continued to use an 

aufeis barrier (or “ice fence”) through the winter 

of 1964-65.254 Thereafter, park crews used a D-8 

Caterpillar tractor in combination with a rotary 

snow plow (which was later replaced by a D-7 

bulldozer) to clear snow from the park roads, 

and ice cleats welded to the grousers of the “cats” 

allowed them to surmount the aufeis areas, both 

at Mile 3 and elsewhere in the park.255 During 

most of the years after the Denali Highway allowed increased road traffic into the park, crews 

had the road open (at least to Eielson) sometime 

between May 24 and June 4, but in 1960 the road 

was open by May 16. For several years during the 

mid-1960s, it was mid-June or later before visitors could drive to Eielson or beyond.256

Concessions: U.S. Natural Resources Comes and 

Goes

As noted earlier, Don Hummel and Al Donau, 

representing the Mount McKinley National Park 

Company, assumed control over the park concessions operation in February 1958. Hummel, at 

that time, already operated the Lassen Volcanic 

NP concession, and in late 1960, he also took 

over the Glacier NP concession.257

Hummel, by all accounts, oversaw an operation 

at McKinley that was profitable, satisfactory to 

park visitors, and satisfactory to NPS officials. In 

the spring of 1966, the company responded to 

signs of aging at the hotel by initiating a betterment program; this included new paint, furniture, and floor covering, along with dining room 

service for the main lobby, upper lounge, dining 

room and bar. No sooner had the project begun 

Teklanika Campground was, and still 

is, suitable for camping trailers and 

truck campers due to its location on 

flat terrain and could be reached 

without going over the narrower 

parts of the road. DENA Interpretation Coll. #492, Denali National Park 

and Preserve
Chapter Seven: Rubber-Tired Tourism, 1957-1971 201

than Hummel headed off to Washington to be an 

Assistant Secretary in the newly-created Department of Housing and Urban Development. He 

remained there until the closing days of the Johnson administration, in January 1969; throughout 

this period, the McKinley operation was ably 

operated by Wallace Cole.258 While Hummel 

was gone, in May 1967, the NPS decided to float 

a new park concessions contract, inasmuch as 

Hummel’s previous contract was due to expire at 

the end of December. Because it was apparently 

pleased with Mount McKinley National Park 

Company’s operation, and because there were no 

other bidders, the NPS provided the company a 

new 20-year contract on September 21, 1967.259

In late August 1969, Hummel—now back in 

the private sector—began to consider an offer 

from George Fleharty, an old friend. Fleharty, a 

northern California business executive, had long 

been involved with the Redding (Calif.) Chamber 

of Commerce. He had also chaired the California State Parks Commission. More recently, 

Fleharty had emerged as the head of the Recreation Resources Division of an up-and-coming 

company called U.S. Natural Resources, Inc., and 

in that role he suggested that Hummel merge his 

three-park operation into USNR’s recreation 

wing. Hummel seriously considered the offer for 

several reasons; he was enticed by the company’s 

prospects, he was anxious to obtain its stock for 

its long-term value, and he needed USNR’s assets 

to underwrite upcoming facility upgrades in the 

three parks.260 

While Hummel was considering the offer, USNR 

dropped its interest in the Glacier concession, 

although Hummel continued to manage that 

concession as he had for years. In December 

1969, however, the company landed a major new 

acquisition when it assumed control over Yosemite Park and Curry Company, Yosemite’s main 

The snow jeeps parked in front of the 

Administration Building at park headquarters are ready for the start of a 

six-day patrol to the Wonder Lake 

area and northern boundary. Left to 

right, Superintendent Grant Pearson, 

Chief Ranger Frank Hirst, and Park 

Naturalist Bill Nancarrow, March 

1952. DENA 29-13, Denali National 

Park and Preserve Museum Collection

During a six-day park patrol the 

snow jeeps encountered one of the 

hazards of winter travel. The ice 

failed to support the weight of the 

jeeps on a small, shallow pond near 

Wonder Lake, March 1952. DENA 29-

12, Denali National Park and Preserve 

Museum Collection 
202 Crown Jewel of the North: An Administrative History of Denali National Park and Preserve

concessioner. Given that shift in responsibilities, 

Hummel in early March 1970 formally agreed 

to Fleharty’s revised proposal—that the Mount 

McKinley National Park Company and the Lassen National Park Company be transferred to 

U.S. Natural Resources. Shortly afterward, the 

deal was consummated; USNR purchased all 

of the stock in the two smaller companies, and 

a newly-named Mt. McKinley-Lassen National Parks Company became a wholly owned 

subsidiary of USNR (see Appendix D). The deal 

called for Hummel to work for Fleharty under 

a five-year employment agreement; he would 

continue to manage the concessions operations 

at both McKinley and Lassen. Working under 

Hummel’s direction, Wallace Cole continued to 

provide on-site management at Mount McKinley 

National Park.261

Soon after the ink dried from the new management arrangement, the park concessioner 

announced plans to expand the existing McKinley Park Hotel. Interior Secretary Wally Hickel 

was aware that the new Anchorage-Fairbanks 

Highway would soon be bringing new throngs 

of people to the park and that mid-season room 

availability had been a serious concern since 

the mid-1960s.262 Knowing the problem was 

getting worse, he had approved the design for 

the new wing in December 1969. The 48-room 

west wing, unlike the remainder of the hotel, was 

financed by the concessioner; it was composed 

of 48 modular units, all built in Spokane and 

brought to the park via freight car and barge.263 

Construction on the $500,000 addition began in 

early April 1970, and the prefabricated sections 

shortly after mid-May. The new rooms, each of 

which had two double beds, were open to the 

public on June 30, 1970.264

During 1970 and 1971, U.S. Natural Resources 

continued to be a highly profitable company. In 

late 1971, in the midst of that prosperity, company vice-president George Fleharty—perhaps 

recognizing that the company’s fortunes were 

beginning to slide—decided to voluntarily retire 

from USNR. Using his company stock as an asset 

base, he purchased the Mt. McKinley concession (that is, half of the Mt. McKinley-Lassen 

National Parks Company) for $1.25 million and 

established a new company, called Outdoor 

World, Limited, and in so doing acquired the 

remainder of the 20-year concession contract 

that the Mount McKinley National Park Company had obtained in September 1967. Outdoor 

World, which was jointly owned by Fleharty and 

three others, began operating the Mt. McKinley 

National Park concession on January 1, 1972 

(see Appendix D). Fleharty, as it turned out, was 

fortunate indeed, because not long afterward, 

USNR’s fortunes (according to Don Hummel) 

“began a serious decline” and was soon “one of 

the more spectacular failures in American business annals.” This failure affected operations at 

USNR’s other concessions (Yosemite and Lassen), but not those at Mt. McKinley.265

Rangers Bogart and Coe traveled 

via dog sled to inspect cabins and 

boundaries on the west side of the 

park in March 1964. Their route 

here was on the river bar below 

Polychrome Pass. DENA 29-49, Denali 

National Park and Preserve Museum 

Collection
Chapter Seven: Rubber-Tired Tourism, 1957-1971 203

The Anchorage-Fairbanks Highway

The so-called “rubber-tired tourism” era at 

Mount McKinley National Park, though distinct, 

was relatively brief. This was because throughout 

this period there was a general recognition that a 

highway would be built between Anchorage and 

Fairbanks that would be far shorter than the circuitous 441-mile route (via Glennallen and Delta 

Junction) that was then in effect. Such a route 

promised to drastically shorten the distance to 

the park from Alaska’s major population centers; 

during this period, Anchorage residents were 423 

miles by (a primarily dirt) road from McKinley 

Park Station, while Fairbanks residents were 349 

miles away.

Inklings that such a route might be built were 

in evidence even during the territorial period; 

beginning in the late 1940s (see Chapter 6), some 

thought was given to building a highway from 

Fairbanks to the park on a route that paralleled 

the Alaska Railroad; and south of the park, a 

survey during the mid-1950s recommended road 

construction from Wasilla to Willow.266 Real 

progress on an interconnecting road, however, 

could not take place until statehood forced the 

abandonment of Interior Department rules favoring the Alaska Railroad at the expense of road 

development.

Recognizing the importance of the road connection for both tourism and other forms of 

economic development, state authorities announced soon after statehood that they intended 

to link Anchorage and Fairbanks via a new road 

that roughly paralleled the Alaska Railroad. 

Work began in 1959.267 By September 1962, the 

new Alaska Division of Highways had completed 

a road from Matanuska Valley as far north as 

Montana Creek, with an extension as far as the 

Sunshine area promised by year’s end; roadbuilding from Nenana had been completed as far as 

Rex, 20 miles to the south, with additional mileage under construction to Lignite, near Healy.268 

By 1963, road crews had pushed north all the way 

to the Susitna River, and crews that year began 

work on a half-mile-long bridge which promised 

to open up the Trapper Creek area and points to 

the north. But the Good Friday Earthquake in 

March 1964 forced a delay in new road construction; the $2 million Susitna River Bridge was 

completed later that year, but elsewhere, highway 

crews in 1964 and 1965 were totally consumed 

with bridge reconstructions and repairing existing roadway sections.269

For two years or more, the Anchorage-Fairbanks 

road stopped at the western end of the Susitna 

River bridge. But the completion of earthquakerelated repairs, plus publicity from local booster 

groups, brought about a resurgence of road construction. By the summer of 1968, the road had 

been extended north to the Chulitna River’s west 

bank, and in both 1968 and 1969 crews erected 

temporary bridges across the river, only to have 

them wash away. A permanent span across the 

Chulitna was finally completed in late 1970. 

Meanwhile, crews had already pushed north beThe aufeis, or overflow ice, problem 

just west of park headquarters was 

partly kept in check with the barrier 

fencing seen on the right in this 

March 28, 1969 photo. Also shown is 

the late spring technique of blasting 

aufeis prior to clearing the road for 

spring opening. DENA 15-32, Denali 

National Park and Preserve Museum 
204 Crown Jewel of the North: An Administrative History of Denali National Park and Preserve

yond the bridge, and by the fall of 1971, there was 

nothing left to be done except the completion of 

the high bridge over Hurricane Gulch.270

Meanwhile, highway construction crews were 

working their way south, and road planning 

in and near the park demanded cooperation 

between state highway officials and the Park 

Service. As early as the winter of 1960-61, the 

state had roughed out a proposed right-of-way 

through the park; that route would have roughly 

overlain the existing highway right-of-way 

between the second271 Nenana River crossing 

(located 7 miles south of the hotel) and Riley 

Creek. North of Riley Creek, the proposed and 

existing roads would remain collinear as far 

north as the railroad crossing near the hotel. The 

proposed road would then continue north, paralleling the railroad tracks for a mile or so; it would 

then proceed northeast to the Nenana River (in 

the vicinity of Hornet Creek) and cross it a third 

time, after which it would follow the right-of-way 

that was later adopted as the constructed highway route.272 During the spring of 1961, agency 

officials made a joint inspection of the proposed 

route and drafted an interagency Memorandum 

of Understanding that permitted the state to 

locate and design a highway link through the 

park.273 That August, however, highway engineers who visited the site concluded that a “possible change in road alignment” was in order. 

Engineers returned that November and mulled 

the matter over for a week, and by the following 

May, the state’s newly-released alignment study 

recommended that the proposed third Nenana 

River crossing be located southeast of Horseshoe 

Lake instead of near Hornet Creek. That route 

promised to be less noisy than the previous route; 

it obviated the need for a road interchange in the 

hotel vicinity; and it allowed the state to avoid the 

construction of a long retaining wall paralleling 

the railroad north of the hotel. That route was 

adopted.274 

A year later, in July 1963, a new dustup occurred 

in the route selection process, in the Moody area; 

NPS and state officials differed on where the 

so-called fourth crossing of the Nenana River 

should be located.275 By the summer of 1964, 

however, that problem had been surmounted 

and the right-of-way had been finalized. Due to 

earthquake-related reconstruction needs, work 

on this portion of the Anchorage-Fairbanks road 

was limited to surveys for several years. But 

in the fall of 1966, highway and park officials 

conducted a plans-in-hand review of project 

work along the park’s eastern boundary, and in 

the spring of 1967 the state geared up to let a contract for a five-mile stretch just east of McKinley 

Park Station. That contract, which was to include 

the construction of the 500-foot Third Crossing 

bridge, a smaller bridge over Riley Creek, and 

a railroad underpass, called for construction of 

that segment to be complete by the end of the 

1968 construction season.276

Throughout this period, local residents—both 

park staff and those living outside the park—were 

well aware that the new road, when completed, 

would result in significant new traffic levels; 

this traffic, in turn, would bring new business 

opportunities. For the moment, however, traffic 

levels remained low, and the lack of economic 

opportunity meant that only a rugged few chose 

to settle outside of the park boundaries. Before 

the Denali Highway opened between Cantwell 

and the park in August 1957, only six people had 

filed for land along this stretch of road,277 and the 

only area business that catered to travelers’ needs 

was the Cantwell store, located near the Alaska 

Railroad tracks (see Appendix 

E). But the highway brought 

with it a renewed interest in the 

road corridor; by 1965, there 

had been 24 additional filings 

along the road corridor north 

of Cantwell, and by the end of 

the decade four tourist-related 

businesses had opened: Carlo 

Creek Lodge (1961), followed 

by a short-lived drive-in (1962), 

the Jere-A-Tad Lodge (1966), 

and Toklat Village (1967).278

Because a good road already 

existed from the eastern park 

entrance (at the Nenana River’s 

second crossing bridge) south to Summit, in the 

Broad Pass area, highway crews working out of 

Cantwell had a relatively short distance—only 

about thirty miles—of roadless country to cross 

before completing the road as far as Hurricane 

Gulch. But there was also a short but difficult 

In 1970 the new west wing, with 48 

rooms, was added to the McKinley 

Park Hotel, visible here as the lightcolored building in the upper left. 

Wallace A. Cole Collection
Chapter Seven: Rubber-Tired Tourism, 1957-1971 205

stretch of road to complete between Lignite and 

the Nenana River’s third crossing bridge. By 

1969, the road had been extended from Lignite 

to a point four miles south of Healy. South of 

there, however, progress stalled due to construction work on the spectacular Moody Bridge, also 

known as the fourth crossing bridge, which when 

completed would soar 174 feet over the Nenana 

River. Crews spent more than a year completing 

this bridge, and the final roadway link between 

Healy and the third crossing bridge (and thus between Fairbanks and Cantwell) was not completed until late 1970 or early 1971.279 Meanwhile, 

in the area between the second crossing bridge 

and Summit, crews rebuilt bridges and widened 

the road surface. By 1971, crews from both 

ends of the road had reached Hurricane Gulch, 

located near the halfway point between Anchorage and Fairbanks. Crews working at that site 

finally completed the 550-foot-long, $1.2 million 

bridge late that year, and on October 14, 1971, 

dedication ceremonies were held at the bridge. 

The Anchorage-Fairbanks highway was officially 

open, and Anchorage-based buses that day carried dignitaries the full length of the new road. 

But because state highway crews did not plow the 

newly-completed portion of the road that winter, 

the coming snows soon closed the highway until 

springtime.280

NPS officials, who had been anticipating the 

road’s completion for years, knew that the spring 

of 1972 would bring major changes to the park. 

The following chapter highlights the nature and 

extent of those changes.

Notes - Chapter 7

1 SMR, June 1957, 4; July 1957, 1-3.

2 SMR, August 1957, 1-2; Anchorage 

Daily Times, August 7, 1957, 13.

3 Anchorage Daily Times, August 7, 1957, 13. 4 Fairbanks Daily News-Miner, August 19, 1957, 1, 9.

5 “A New Road to Mount McKinley,” Sunset

118 (June 1957), 52.

6 NPS, Public Use of the National Parks; a 

Statistical Report, 1954-1964 (Washington?, the 

author, February 1966), 9; NPS, Public Use of 

the National Parks; a Statistical Report, 1960-

1970 (Washington?, the author, January 1972), 

9.

7 Annual Report of the Secretary of Interior, 

Horseshoe Lake is pictured here, with 

the Nenana River and its north bank 

just beyond, in 1961. Ten years later 

the Parks Highway would be built 

through the area in the background. 

Wallace A. Cole Collection 
206 Crown Jewel of the North: An Administrative History of Denali National Park and Preserve

1955 (Washington, GPO?, 1955?), 334-36; Annual Report for 1956, p. 307; Carleton Knight 

III, “The Park Service as Client: II,” Architecture 73 (December 1984), 48.

8 G. Frank Williss, “Do Things Right the First 

Time:” The National Park Service and the 

Alaska National Interest Lands Conservation 

Act of 1980 (Denver, NPS, September 1985), 

31; Sellars, Preserving Nature, 182.

9 SMR, July 1955, 2; October 1955, 2; November 1955, 4; February 1956, 2; March 1956, 2; 

April 1956, 2.

10 USDI press release, April 21, 1956, in NPS/

Box 1, Bartlett Collection, UAF.

11 Jessen’s Weekly, March 28, 1957, 1, 8; Anchorage Daily Times, April 21, 1956, 3.

12 SMR, October 1948, 3.

13 George L. Collins to “the Files,” June 19, 

1950, in “File 600: Alaska Development, Part 

IV,” Box 237, CCF/MOMC, RG 79, NARA SB; 

SMR, September 1953, 4.

14 ARC, Annual Report, 1956, 31; NPS, Mission 66 Prospectus for Mount McKinley NP, 

April 1956, 15, in NPS-TIC Microfiche Collection #184/MPNAR.

15 ARC, Annual Report, 1953, 36, 40; 1954, 

45; Grant Pearson to RD/R4, December 8, 1954, 

in “D18 (Master Plans) 1953-57” file, CCF/

MOMC, RG 79, NARA SB.

16 SMR, April 1955, photo; Mission 66 Prospectus, April 1956, 9; ARC, Annual Report, 

1956, 12, 32.

17 Mission 66 Prospectus, April 1956, 9-12, 15, 

20.

18 Mission 66 Prospectus, April 1956, 9-10, 12.

19 Mission 66, April 1956 (with insert dated 

September 1956), 3a, 15; USDI press release, 

April 21, 1956, in NPS/Box 1, Bartlett Collection, UAF.

20 Mission 66 Prospectus, April 1956, 16; 

NPS, Drawing McK-2024-B, May 1954, in TIC 

Aperture Card Collection. No known maps 

show where “Toklat Glacier” is located, and 

Guy Adema, the park’s current glacier specialist, is unaware of it. Jane Bryant email, May 12, 

2006.

21 SMR, April 1956, 2; June 1956, 2; July 

1956, 2.

22 SMR, December 1956, 2, 4; June 1957, 3; 

July 1957, 3, 5; Mission 66 Prospectus, April 

1956, 12 (insert dated April 12, 1957).

23 SMR, May 1957, 6.

24 Mission 66 Prospectus, April 1956, 11 (insert 

dated April 12, 1957).

25 NPS, Mission 66 for Mount McKinley National Park, May 23, 1957.

26 SMR, February 1958, 5; March 1958, 5; 

April 1958, 4; July 1960, 5; July 1961, 2; 

Anchorage Daily News, April 11, 1958, 12; 

Anchorage Daily Times, April 12, 1958, 16.

27 See E. T. Scoyen to Tony Smith, August 12, 

1958, in File D30, “Mission 66 Road Issues” 

folder, DENA Archives; SMR, March 1961, 5.

28 SMR, May 1957, 5; June 1957, 6; September 

1957, 5-6.

29 SMR, September 1957, 2, 6; October 1957, 

5; Hummel, Stealing the National Parks, 172-

75.

30 SMR, October 1957, 2; December 1957, 3; 

January 1958, 4; February 1958, 4; June 1958, 

5; Anchorage Daily Times, January 18, 1958, 5.

31 Hummel, Stealing the National Parks, 175-

76; SMR, July 1956, 1; March 1957, 6; May 

1957, 2; July 1957, 2; September 1957, 2, 7; 

February 1958, 5; August 1958, 5.

32 SMR, September 1958, 5; July 1959, 6; 

February 1960, 5.

33 SMR, September 1960, 5; August 1964, 8; 

September 1966,4.

34 Stroud, History of the Concession, 19; SMR, 

January 1959, 4; March 1959, 3; April 1959, 4; 

August 1959, 7.

35 Hummel, Stealing the National Parks, 177-

78.

36 SMR, May 1959, 3; June 1965, 2; April 

1966, 4.

37 Hummel, Stealing the National Parks, 179; 

Stroud, History of the Concession, 20.

38 SMR, March 1954, 2; May 1954, 1.

39 SMR, May 1933, 1, 3; May 1934, 3; May 

1935, 2; May 1936, 1; August 1959, 3.

40 SMR, May 1961, 7; June 1961, 3.

41 SMR, September 1961, 2, 5; July 1963, 5; 

“Denali Airstrip” folder, FAA Airports Division 

historical files, Anchorage.

42 “Crooked Creek (Kantishna)” folder, FAA, 

see above.

43 “Golden North Airfield” folder, FAA, see 

above.

44 SMR, August 1966, 4. The “Kantishna” 

FAA file, paradoxically, makes no mention of 

Kantishna Airport improvements; by contrast, 

periodic reports during the 1964-68 period 

describe the runway as being either 476 feet or 

630 feet long and “not recommended for use.”

45 SMR, June 1953, 2; July 1953, 5.

46 Ise, Our National Park Policy, 547-49; 

Hummel, Stealing the National Parks, 117.

47 SMR, June 1960, 8.

48 SMR, February 1962, 5; March 1962, 6; 

NPS, “Lodge Development” (drawing 3139), 

March 1962, NPS Aperture Card Collection.

49 Harvey Benson to Supervisory Landscape 

Architect, WODC, July 9-15, 1957, in Misc. 

File., Box 1, Catalog No. 9169, DENA Archives.

50 NPS, “Proposed Wonder Lake Lodge, 

MOMC” (drawing 3145, August 1963, and 

drawing 3145A, February 1967), NPS Aperture 

Card Collection.

51 Supt. to RD, December 7, 1961; Chief, 
Chapter Seven: Rubber-Tired Tourism, 1957-1971 207

WODC to RD, December 11, 1961, both in Folder 5837, Bill Brown Collection, DENA. This location had first been suggested by NPS architect Harvey Benson in July 1957; see Benson to Supervisory Landscape Architect, WODC, July 9-15, 1957, noted above.

52 In a 1951 exchange of letters with NPS Director Conrad Wirth, even Wilderness Society President Olaus Murie supported the idea of a small hostelry in the Wonder Lake area, although the NPS 

had also “received several letters objecting to the building of any lodge at Wonder Lake.” Wirth to 

Murie, November 28, 1951, in File 715.02, “Bears, 1941-5/1953,” Box 82, CCF/MOMC, RG 79, 

NARA SB.

53 Chief, WODC to RD/R4, December 11, 1961, in “Wonder Lake Hotel Issue” folder, DENA 

Administrative History Collection; Stroud, History of the Concessions, 24.

54 See, for example, the Sierra Club Bulletin, June 1962, 16, which argued that the park’s unique 

“wilderness mood” would be shattered by developments at either “Camp Eielson” or Wonder Lake. 

The NPS official in the December 11 memo did not name the “conservation people” who were opposed to Wonder Lake development. In all likelihood, however, they included Camp Denali founders Ginny Hill Wood and Celia Hunter. These women helped establish the Alaska Conservation 

Society in 1960, and because Wonder Lake was squarely in the line of sight between Camp Denali 

and the central Alaska Range, it would have been surprising had they not fought against a competing, visually-intrusive hotel development.

55 RD to Director, December 20, 1961; Conrad Wirth to Howard Zahniser, April 3, 1962; all in 

“Wonder Lake Hotel Issue” folder, DENA Admin History Collection.

56 Supt. to RD/R4, November 24, 1964, in “Wonder Lake Hotel Issue” folder.

57 Henry S. Francis, Jr., “Some Views Concerning the Development of Mount McKinley National 

Park,” National Parks Magazine 37 (September 1963), 18; Director NPS to Director BLM (Charles 

H. Stoddard), December 31, 1964, in “Wonder Lake Hotel Issue” folder. Hartzog may have based 

his decision on the so-called Leopold Report, an agencywide blueprint issued in 1963, which had 

recommended an increased role for natural resource values in park management.

58 SMR, July 1966, 6; NPS, “Proposed Boundary and Development Sites, Wonder Lake and Vicinity, MOMC” (drawing 184/40098), August 1966, NPS-TIC Aperture Card Collection; San Francisco 

Service Center (NPS), “Conclusions and Recommendations, McKinley National Park Study,” in 

“MOMC Study, Alaska, August 1966” folder, MOMC Box 2, National Parks and Monuments Collection, HFC.

59 Stroud, History of the Concession, 22.

60 Edgar Wayburn, interview by the author, July 29, 2003, author’s collection; Edgar Wayburn, 

with Allison Alsup, Your Land and Mine; Evolution of a Conservationist (San Francisco, Sierra 

Club Books, 2004), 176, 185.

61 Anchorage Daily Times, July 28, 1967, 4; September 2, 1967, 4; September 6, 1967, 1.

62 Anchorage Daily Times, September 8, 1967, 1-2; September 12, 1967, 4; September 15, 1967, 1.

63 Anchorage Daily Times, May 13, 1968, 4; December 20, 1968, 4.

64 Supt. MOMC to Chief, Office of Resource Planning, SSC, August 26, 1968, in Catalog No. 

9169, DENA Archives.

65 Robert B. Weeden to George A. Hall, October 8, 1967, in File 882, 1967-68, Series 41, RG 01, 

ASA; Anchorage Daily Times, May 3, 1968, 1; July 24, 1968, 1; Merrill Mattes, “Field Notes by 

Mount McKinley Master Plan Team, 1968,” 17, in Catalog No. 9169, DENA Archives.

66 Anchorage Daily Times, June 16, 1981, A-3; Michael Frome, “Why Not ‘Denali National Wilderness’?” Defenders 61 (July/August 1986), 18.

67 NPS, “Schematic, Wonder Lake, MOMC” (drawing #40096), ca. July 1, 1970, NPS-TIC Aperture Card Collection; Thomas Flynn (NPS) to Don Hummel, January 10, 1970, in Stroud, History of 

the Concession, 24-25, endnote 63.

68 Anchorage Daily Times, December 18, 1968, 1.

69 As noted in Claus-M. Naske’s Paving Alaska’s Trails: The Work of the Alaska Road Commission, 

Alaska Historical Commission Studies in History No. 152 (Anchorage, AHC, ca. 1985, p. 320), the 

ARC was first administered by the War Department, and after July 1932 by the Interior Department.

70 Naske, Paving Alaska’s Trails, 550; SMR, September 1959, 6; January 1960, 3; July 1960, 5.

71 SMR, May 1958, 5; July 1958, 6; September 1958, 5-6, October 1958, 4; June 1959, 7; September 1959, 2; October 1959, 5.

72 SMR, September 1959, 7; May 1960, 7; September 1960, 6; May 1961, 7; August 1961, 8.

73 SMR, October 1960, 6; August 1961, 8; September 1961, 6; August 1962, 2.

74 Olaus J. Murie, “Mount McKinley: Wilderness Park of the North Country,” National Parks 

Magazine 37 (April 1963), 7; Adoph Murie, “Roadbuilding in Mount McKinley National Park,”

National Parks Magazine 39 (July 1965), 7.
208 Crown Jewel of the North: An Administrative History of Denali National Park and Preserve

75 Olaus J. Murie, “Our Farthest North National Park,” National Parks Magazine 33 (December 

1959), 8-10, 12.

76 Merriam to Murie, October 14, 1960, in File D18; A. Clark Stratton to Verne Samuelson, August 

21, 1962, in File D30; both in “Mission 66 Road Issues” folder, DENA Admin History Collection. 

Stratton was the NPS’s Assistant Director for Design and Construction.

77 Murie, “Mount McKinley; Wilderness Park,” 5; Paul M. Tilden and Nancy L. Machler, “The 

Development of Mount McKinley National Park,” National Parks Magazine 37 (May 1963), 13.

78 Tilden and Machler, “The Development of Mount McKinley National Park,” 14; Anthony 

Wayne Smith, “Implications of McKinley,” National Parks Magazine 37 (June 1963), 2.

79 A. Clark Stratton to Director NPS, June 17, 1963, in File D30, in “Mission 66 Road Issues” 

folder, DENA Admin History Collection. Compare this with Thomas E. Carpenter to Regional 

Chief of Operations, Region Four, July 6, 1961, in File D30, above.

80 SMR, June 1964, 8; July 1964, 9; May 1965, 6; August 1965, 5; Anchorage Daily Times, July 1, 

1964, 4; July 3, 1964, 5.

81 SMR, October 1965, 4; May 1966,5; July 1966, 8; August 1966, 7; Anchorage Daily News, 

August 14, 1965, 16.

82 William Niemi to Oscar Dick, January 10, 1964; Niemi to Dick, August 26, 1965; both in “D30 

Roads and Trails, 1950 to 1965” folder, DENA Archives; NPS, MOMC “Priority List, Project Construction Program, Fiscal Year 1969,” March 17, 1965, in Catalog No. 9169, DENA Archives.

83 Murie, “Roadbuilding in Mount McKinley National Park,” 4-8.

84 Acting Chief, Western Office of Design and Construction to Assistant Director, Design and 

Construction, September 17, 1965; Acting AD, D&C to Chief, WODC, September 27, 1965 and 

October 4, 1965; both in “D30 Roads and Trails, 1950 to 1965” folder, DENA Archives.

85 Jensen to Thomas Braden, October 11, 1965, and Jensen to Mr. and Mrs. Bob Knox, November 

3, 1965; both in “D30 Roads and Trails, 1950 to 1965” folder, DENA Archives.

86 Krueger to William Niemi, September 16, 1965, in “D30 Roads and Trails, 1950 to 1965” folder, 

DENA Archives.

87 Krueger to E. R. Walter, February 2, 1966, in“D30 Roads and Trails, 1950 to 1965” folder, 

DENA Archives.

88 Acting Chief, WODC to Assistant Director, Design and Construction, January 21, 1966; Supt. 

Dick to Peter Doyle III, September 1, 1966; Acting Supt. Robert T. Hafferman to RD/WR, August 

16, 1967; all in “D30 Roads and Trails, 1950 to 1965” folder, DENA Archives.

89 SMR, July 1966, 8; August 1966, 7; April 1967, 5; May 1967, 7; July 1967, 2; SAR, 1967, 1; 

Anchorage Daily Times, May 17, 1967, 2; May 29, 1967, 12; June 3, 1967, 7.

90 Charles E. Krueger to G. M. Williams, September 16, 1966; Williams to W. J. Niemi, September 22, 1966, in “S7217 Roads and Trails Project NP1A6-C” file, Box 1, Catalog No. 9169, DENA 

Archives.

91 George Hall to Ed Walters, August 22, 1968; H. G. Tipton to Hall, August 27, 1968; Hall to 

Tipton, September 9, 1968; Tipton to Hall, September 13, 1968; all in “D30 Roads and Trails, 1966 

to 1969” folder, DENA Archives.

92 Anchorage Daily Times, May 28, 1968.

93 Edward Walter to H. G. Tipton, September 5, 1968; BPR, “Notice to Prospective Bidders,” 

March 10, 1969; both in “D30 Roads and Trails, 1966 to 1969” folder, DENA Archives.

94 John Bartlett, Bartlett’s Familiar Quotations, fifteenth edition (Boston, Little Brown, 1980), 560; 

Roderick Nash, Wilderness and the American Mind, revised edition (1967), 187, 207.

95 Sellars, Preserving Nature in the National Parks, 56-58, 142-45; John C. Hendee, George H. 

Stankey, and Robert C. Lucas, Wilderness Management, second edition (Golden, Colo., North 

American Press, 1990), 32-33, 39, 102.

96 Sellars, Preserving Nature in the National Parks, 201-02; Hendee, et al., 39.

97 Nash, Wilderness and the American Mind, 209-19, 228. The victory was precedent-setting in 

that it was the first time in which conservationists had stopped a major dam project. But the bill’s 

passage was also a sober compromise, because the same legislation set the wheels in motion for the 

construction of the huge (and controversial) Glen Canyon Dam. Construction of the dam began on 

October 15, 1956; on January 21, 1963, the gates closed on the newly-completed dam closed and 

Lake Powell began to form.

98 On June 7, Humphrey and nine other senators introduced S. 4103, while four days later, Saylor 

introduced H.R. 11703. Congressional Record 102, pp. 9749, 9772-77, 10076.

99 Nash, Wilderness and the American Mind, 221; Steven C. Schulte, Wayne Aspinall and the Shaping of the American West (Boulder, Univ. Press of Colorado, 2002), 116-17; John P. Saylor, “Wilderness: The Outlook from Capitol Hill,” in David Brower, ed., Wilderness, America’s Living Heritage
Chapter Seven: Rubber-Tired Tourism, 1957-1971 209

(San Francisco, Sierra Club, 1961), 147-51.

100 Nash, Wilderness and the American Mind, 221.

101 Anchorage Daily Times, July 31, 1956, 9; Hubert H. Humphrey, “The Wilderness Bill,” Living 

Wilderness 21 (Winter 1956-Spring 1957), 22, 29-31. The bills introduced in 1956 and 1957 stated 

that the new wilderness preservation system “shall include” areas within Mount McKinley and the 

other delineated public land areas. The specific wilderness areas within these units, however, would 

be delineated during the 10-year period that followed the act’s passage.

102 Olaus J. Murie, “Return to Denali,” Sierra Club Bulletin 38 (October 1953), 29-34. 

The only known instance prior to 1956 when NPS officials weighed in on a wildernessrelated issue was in 1949, when Bradford Washburn urged Acting Superintendent Grant 

Pearson to approve the recommendation of naming a previously-unnamed Alaska Range 

peak after Joe Crosson, the pioneer pilot who had recently died. Pearson, in response, 

“object[ed] to naming any more mountains in this park unless there is an excellent reason. 

This is one of the few NPS areas that are really wilderness areas.” SMR, September 1949, 

3.

103 NPS, Mission 66 Prospectus, April 1956, 2.

104 Adolph Murie, “Comments on Mission 66 Plans, and on Policies Pertaining to Mount McKinley National Park,” November 8, 1956, in “H14 Historical Notes, 1964-70” folder, Box 7, ARCC00183, AKRO.

105 Supt. MOMC to Biologist Adolph Murie, November 15, 1956, in “H14 Historical Notes” 

folder, above.

106 NPS, Mission 66 for Mount McKinley National Park, May 13, 1957, 2-3.

107 USGS Power Site Classification 443, February 13, 1958, in Federal Register 23 (February 21, 

1958), 1124. This order was withdrawn many years later; see Public Land Order 7033, March 2, 

1994, as noted in Federal Register 59 (March 10, 1994), 11196.

108 U.S. Dept. of the Interior, Alaska; A Reconnaissance Report on the Potential Development of 

Water Resources in the Territory of Alaska for Irrigation, Power Production and Other Beneficial 

Uses, 82nd Congress, 1st Session, House Document 197 (January 1952), p. 18a, 171.

109 Fairbanks Daily News-Miner, November 19, 1953, 126; March 30, 1957, 1; August 27, 1960, 

4; September 13, 1960, 1, 9; U.S. Senate, Committee on Interior and Insular Affairs, Hydroelectric 

Requirements and Resources in Alaska (Washington, GPO, 1961), 51-53; APG, Mt. McKinley Park 

Additions FES, October 1974, 111-15.

110 Sellars, Preserving Nature in the National Parks, 192-93.

111 Williss, “Do Things Right the First Time,” 30, 70.

112 Schulte, Wayne Aspinall, 116-61; also see, for example, the following Anchorage Times articles; July 30, 1962, 4; July 31, 6; August 4, 1962, 8.

113 Schulte, Wayne Aspinall, 146, 158, 160-61.

114 Sellars, Preserving Nature in the National Parks, 194, 211-14; Anchorage Daily Times, November 21, 1964, 24.

115 Anchorage Daily Times, December 16, 1964, 1.

116 Ibid.

117 NPS, Wilderness Act Implementation, Report of Recommendations, Mount McKinley National 

Park (part of NPS, Master Plan Brief for Mount McKinley National Park), October 1965; Sigurd 

F. Olson to George Hartzog, January 24, 1966, in Catalog No. 9169, DENA Archives; Anchorage 

Daily News, July 13, 1966, 5.

118 Adolph Murie, “A McKinley Park Boundary Adjustment” (typescript), ca. 1966, pp. 

7-8; Jacobs to Olaus J. Murie, January 15, 1957; both in top drawer, informational file 

cabinet, DENA Archives.

119 United States Statutes at Large 72 (July 7, 1958), pp. 339, 347. The remainder of Section 

11(a) addressed the State of Alaska’s rights at the park regarding civil or criminal processes, taxation, and voting.

120 [Richard] Stenmark to Supt. MOMC, January 17, 1963, in File L1417 (Acquisition of Lands; 

Boundary Adjustments), Box 12, Alaska Task Force Collection, RG 79, NARA ANC.

121 Ibid.

122 Sigurd F. Olson to Secretary of the Interior and Director NPS, ca. March 2, 1964, in “Miscellaneous” file, Box 1, Catalog No. 9169, DENA Archives; William A. Egan to E. L. Bartlett, December 

4, 1963, in File 882 (1959-66), Series 41, RG 01, ASA.

123 Williss, “Do Things Right the First Time”, 35-41; NPS, Operation Great Land; Alaska Task 

Force Report (Washington, the author, January 1965), 37. The lead author was George L. Collins; 
210 Crown Jewel of the North: An Administrative History of Denali National Park and Preserve

other members of the task force included Sigurd F. Olson, Robert S. Luntey, Doris F. Leonard and 

John M. Kauffmann.

124 Supt. to RD, November 24, 1964, in “Wonder Lake Hotel Issue” folder, DENA Administrative History 

Collection.

125 Frances, “Some Views Concerning the Development of Mount McKinley National Park,” 

18; Edward A. Hummel to Director NPS, December 1, 1964, and Director NPS to Director BLM, 

December 31, 1964, both in Catalog No. 9169, DENA Archives; Sellars, Preserving Nature in the 

National Parks, 201.

126 Ross A. Youngblood to Gov. William A. Egan, May 21, 1965, in File 311.1 (1964-65), Series 

41, RG 01, ASA; James A. McWilliams to Rep. Ralph J. Rivers, September 13, 1965, in File 311.1 

(1965-68), Series 41, RG 01, ASA; Fairbanks Daily News-Miner, December 4, 1965, 7.

127 BLM Application, April 30, 1965, in File F-034575, BLM Alaska State Office, Anchorage; 

BLM, Fairbanks District and Land Office, “Notice of Proposed Withdrawal and Reservation of 

Lands,” May 7, 1965, in File 311.1 (1964-65), Series 41, RG 01, ASA; Federal Register 30 (May 

13, 1965), p. 6593.

128 See William A. Egan to Frank P. Bonnell, October 15, 1965, and other letters, all in File 311.1 

(1964-65 and 1965-68), Series 41, RG 01, ASA.

129 BLM, “Notice of Proposed Withdrawal,” May 7, 1965; Fairbanks Daily News-Miner, December 4, 1965, 7; SMR, December 1965, 2; March 1966, 2.

130 George Hartzog to E. L. Bartlett, June 6, 1966, in File F-034575, BLM Alaska State Office, Anchorage; Anchorage Daily Times, June 8, 1966, 1-2; Fairbanks Daily News-Miner, June 13, 1966, 4.

131 Ernest D. Black (BLM) to Wayne Merry (MOMC), May 21, 1969, in File F-034575 

(see above).

132 “Trip Report by Stanley A. Cain, Assistant Secretary for Fish and Wildlife and Parks, Accompanying the Advisory Board on National Parks, Buildings, Historic Sites and Monuments on its 

Annual Field Trip – July 30 to August 10, 1965, in Alaska,” pp. 6-8, in NPS Box 2 (1965-68), E. L. 

Bartlett Collection, UAF.

133 George B. Hartzog to RD/WR and Chief, WODC, March 22, 1965, in Catalog No. 

9169, DENA Archives.

134 A discussion of Pearson’s, Cahalane’s, and the other plans are included in a document that Headquarters district ranger Eldon Reyer compiled in July 1966; see 

Catalog No. 9169, DENA Archives. Also see Adolph Murie, “A McKinley 

Park Boundary Adjustment,” October 18, 1965, in top drawer, informational file 

cabinet, DENA Archives.

135 Pioneers of Alaska, Igloo #4 to Stewart L. Udall, September 20, 1965, in File 881 

(State Parks, 1964-68), Series 41, RG 01, ASA.

136 Celia M. Hunter and Ginny Hill Wood to BLM and NPS, September 27, 1965, in File 

311.1 (1964-65), Series 41, RG 01, ASA.

137 Western Office, Design and Construction, NPS, “Management Programs: Land, part of the 

Master Plan, Mount McKinley National Park” (Drawing NP-McK 3202), January 1966, in NPS 

Aperture Card Collection.

138 SMR, July 1966, 6; Theodor R. Swem to Chief, Resource Planning, SSC, June 24, 1966, in 

“Windy Creek Area” file, Box 3, Catalog No. 9169, DENA Archives; NPS, “Mount McKinley 

National Monument (South Unit-Development Plan),” 1968, in “Mt. McKinley – Briefing Book 

Proclamations, 1968-69” folder, DENA Archives.

139 San Francisco Service Center, “Mount McKinley National Park Study, Alaska, August 1966,” 

in MOMC Box 2, HFC; NPS, “Mount McKinley National Monument (South Unit-Development 

Plan),” 1968, see above; Alaska Department of Natural Resources, “Land Administration System” 

(website). These records show that the State of Alaska applied for most of the land within presentday Denali State Park in August 1965 and gained tentative approval (i.e., de facto ownership) for it 

in 1966 or 1967.

140 Supt. MOMC to Chief, Office of Resource Planning, SSC, August 26, 1968, File D18, DENA 

Archives.

141 Melville B. Grosvenor (Chairman, Advisory Board) to Secretary of the Interior, April 19, 1967, 

in MOMC Box 1, HFC. Anchorage newspapers carried only vaguely-worded summations of the 

Advisory Board’s recommendations; see Anchorage Daily News, May 8, 1967, 1, and Anchorage 

Daily Times, May 9, 1967, 16.

142 Anchorage Daily Times, October 9, 1967, 2; George B. Hartzog to Walter J. Hickel, 

December 7, 1967, in File 882.1 (1967-68), Series 41, RG 01, ASA
Chapter Seven: Rubber-Tired Tourism, 1957-1971 211

143 NPS, “The National Park Service Program in Alaska,” October 10, 1967, in “NPS Interest in 

Alaska – Pre-ANILCA,” Box B’, Frank Williss Collection, HFC.

144 Frank Norris, Legacy of the Gold Rush: An Administrative History of Klondike Gold National 

Historical Park (Anchorage, NPS, 1996), 84.

145 C. Gordon Fredine to Chief, Office of Resource Planning, SSC, June 17, 1968; Merrill Mattes, 

“Field Notes by Mount McKinley Master Plan Team, 1968,” ii; both in Catalog No. 9169, DENA 

Archives; George B. Hartzog to Walter J. Hickel, December 7, 1967, in File 882.1 (1967-68), Series 

41, RG 01, ASA; Robert B. Weeden (Alaska Conservation Society) to George A. Hall, October 8, 

1967, also in File 882.1, above.

146 Mattes, “Field Notes by Mount McKinley Master Plan Team, 1968,” ii, 1-2, 18, 21. Outside 

interests were also interested in a park expansion; see Kenneth A. Chambers, “Mount McKinley 

National Park,” National Parks Magazine 42 (September 1968), 9.

147 The first acreage figures attached to the planned expansions did not appear until December 

1968, when it appeared as part of a planned Antiquities Act expansion proposal (see following section). Inasmuch as these acreages are the direct result of the master planning process, it appears that 

the South Unit’s new acreage was a more fine-tuned calculation of the master plan acreage than any 

new acreage added after the completion of the master plan. “Mount McKinley National Monument, 

Alaska,” December 1968, in “Mt. McKinley – Briefing Book Proclamations, 1968-69” file, DENA

Archives.

148 Mattes, “Field Notes by Mount McKinley Master Plan Team, 1968,” 2, 23.

149 James H. Husted, History of the Johnson Proclamations, 1968-69, September 21, 1970, 1, in 

“Johnson Proclamations” file, Box B’, Williss Collection, HFC.

150 Husted, History of the Johnson Proclamations, 2.

151 “Priority of Alaska Areas,” October 2, 1968, in “NPS Interest in Alaska – Pre-ANILCA” folder, 

Box B’, Williss Collection, HFC; “Mount McKinley National Monument, Alaska, Special Considerations,” October 2, 1968, in “Mt. McKinley – Briefing Book Proclamations, 1968-69” file, DENA

Archives; Husted, History of the Johnson Proclamations, 3; Norris, Isolated Paradise, 121, 138-39.

152 Husted, History of the Johnson Proclamations, 4-10.

153 Ibid., 10-14.

154 Department of the Interior, “Mount McKinley National Monument Established in Alaska” 

(news release), January 18, 1969; Anchorage Daily Times, January 18, 1969, 1.

155 Husted, History of the Johnson Proclamations, 14-15; Anchorage Daily Times, January 20, 1969, 1.

156 “707 Statement by the President Upon Signing Five Proclamations Adding Lands to the National Park System, January 20, 1969,” in Public Papers of Lyndon B. Johnson, in American Reference Library, located in MasterFile Premier database, Ebsco Host.

157 Anchorage Daily Times, January 20, 1969, 1.

158 Congressional Record 115 (May 19, 1969), 12957; Anchorage Daily Times, June 5, 

1969, 26; Williss, “Do Things Right the First Time,” 44, footnote 114; “National Park 

Service Proposals in Alaska” [1970], in “NPS Interest in Alaska – Pre-ANILCA” folder, 

Box B’, Williss Collection, HFC. The Times article noted that there were 2,334,397 acres 

in the two proposed park units, which was approximately 130,000 acres greater than noted 

in the 1968 master plan.

159 Anchorage Daily Times, September 12, 1968, 7; September 14, 1967, 4.

160 Cresap, McCormick and Paget, A Program for Increasing the Contribution of Tourism to the 

Alaskan Economy, December 1968, “Planning Considerations” and “Contributions to the Alaskan 

Economy” sections.

161 Alaska Department of Natural Resources, “Land Administration System” (website) records for 

T33N, 2W, Seward Meridian; Cresap, McCormick and Paget, A Program, December 1968, “Planning Considerations” section.

162 Anchorage Daily Times, December 18, 1968, 1-2; December 20, 1968, 4; Leonard J. Hansen to 

Walter J. Hickel, December 20, 1968, in File NR 1-2, Series 88 (1969), RG 01, ASA.

163 Bradford Washburn to Leonard J. Hansen, July 18, 1968, in File NR 1-2 (1969), Series 

88, RG 01, ASA; Anchorage Daily News, April 19, 1980, A-1. According to a study written by HKS Associates (Tokositna, A Development Study for the State of Alaska, February 

1981, p. 1), Washburn had first conceived of the idea of a recreational and cultural facility 

at the site in 1951.

164 Legislative Reporting Service, Report for the Sixth Alaska Legislature, 2nd Session, 1970, p. 

161; Alaska Senate Journal, January 15, 1970, 26-27.
212 Crown Jewel of the North: An Administrative History of Denali National Park and Preserve

165 Legislative Reporting Service, Report for the Sixth Alaska Legislature, 1970, pp. 302, 468, 545, 

580, 593.

166 Session Laws of Alaska, 1970, Chapter No. 233.

167 Anchorage Daily Times, January 20, 1969, 2; Anchorage Daily News, December 2, 1970, 1; 

Anchorage Daily Times, December 2, 1970, 2; December 5, 1970, 42; Anchorage Daily News, January 7, 1971, 1; Director, Pacific Northwest Region [NPS] to State Director, BLM, November 17, 

1970 (Stenmark draft), in “McKinley Land Additions (South)” folder, Stenmark Collection, HFC.

168 Fred J. Russell to Governor Egan, December 31, 1970, in File NR 1-2 (1971), Series 88, RG 

01, ASA.

169 Anchorage Daily News, January 6, 1971, 1-2; Anchorage Daily Times, January 6, 1971, 13.

170 Anchorage Daily News, January 7, 1971, 1-2; Anchorage Daily Times, January 14, 1971, 16.

171 Congressional Record 117 (January 22, 1971), 197; William Egan to Rogers C. B. Morton, 

February 2, 1971; Charles F. Herbert to Rep. Nick Begich, March 18, 1971, both in File NR 1-2 

(1971), Series 88, RG 01, ASA.

172 Richard G. Prasil to Director, Pacific Northwest Region, October 7, 1971; Richard J. Stenmark 

to Gerald Patton, October 29, 1971, both in “McKinley Land Additions (South)” folder; “Mount 

McKinley National Park and Proposed Extension, Alaska” (map), in “Mount McKinley Maps” 

folder; all in Stenmark Collection, HFC.

173 Anthony Dimond to Arno Cammerer, March 14, 1938; Cammerer to Dan Kennedy, April 19, 

1938; Cammerer to Dimond, April 19, 1938; all in Folder 303-13 (“Claims-Kennedy”), Box 1408 

(MOMC), Entry 7, RG 79, NARA CP; “Affidavit of Dan T. Kennedy in Support of His Claim vs. 

U.S. Government, Mt. McKinley National Park,” April 1939, in File 06-113 (“DT-3, DENA, Dan 

Kennedy”), AKRO Lands Division.

174 Kennedy to Cammerer, March 9, 1939; Cammerer to Kennedy, March 21, 1939; Kennedy to 

Cammerer, April 3, 1939; Dimond to Cammerer, August 14, 1939; John R. White to Dimond, August 26, 1939; all in Folder 303-13, noted above.

175 Harry J. Liek to “Regional Director Kittredge,” November 16, 1938, in File 610 (“Mt. McKinley NP Private Lands”), Box 79, CCF/MOMC, RG 79, NARA SB.

176 Congressional Record 87 (January 3, 1941), 23; Frank Been to Director NPS, March 27, 1941; 

A. E. Demaray to Supt. MOMC, April 21, 1941; all in Folder 303-13, noted above.

177 Been to RD/R4, May 1, 1941; B. F. Manbey to Director NPS, June 2, 1941; Herbert Maier 

to Joseph E. Taylor, June 27, 1941; all in File 610 (“Stubbs and Kennedy, Part 1”), Box 79, CCF/

MOMC, RG 79, NARA SB.

178 Liek to Kittredge, November 16, 1938, in File 610 (“Mt. McKinley NP Private Lands”), noted 

above; Manbey to Director NPS, June 2, 1941, in File 610 (“Stubbs and Kennedy, Part 1”), noted 

above; Francis S. Ronalds to RD/R1, September 5, 1945, in Box 1, John Wise Alaska Collection, 

HFC.

179 Charles L. Peterson to Director NPS, September 30, 1946, in File 610 (“Stubbs and Kennedy, 

Part 1”), noted above; SMR, September 1946, 1.

180 SMR, May 1948, 3; July 1948, 2-3.

181 J. P. Johnson to O. A. Tomlinson, August 15, 1950, in File 610 (“Stubbs and Kennedy, Part 1”), 

noted above; Conrad Wirth to Rep. Henry M. Jackson, July 10, 1953, in File 06-113, noted above.

182 Mastin G. White to The Attorney General, June 26, 1951, in File 06-113, noted above.

183 A. Devitt Vanech to Mastin G. White, September 17, 1951, in File 610 (“Stubbs and Kennedy, Part 1”), noted above; Francis S. Ronalds to RD/R1, September 5, 1945, in Box 1, John Wise 

Alaska Collection, HFC; U.S. District Court, 4th Judicial Division, USA v. 40 Acres of Land ... (No. 

6885 Civil), “Judgment as to Tract ‘B’,” February 24, 1956, in File 06-113, noted above.

184 By late 1951, Kennedy and Glassberg—the latter the managing editor of the Everett Daily Herald—shared half-interests in the property; Kennedy, however, remained the owner of record.

185 Henry M. Jackson to Conrad Wirth, November 21, 1951; Wirth to Jackson, December 4, 1951; 

all in File 610 (“Stubbs and Kennedy, Part 1”), noted above. 

186 Wirth to Attorney General, March 7, 1952; Glassberg to Wirth, February 16, 1953; Wirth 

to Glassberg, February 27, 1953; all in File 610 (“Stubbs and Kennedy, Part II”), Box 79, CCF/

MOMC, RG 79, NARA SB; SMR, December 1952, 1; April 1953, 1.

187 “Judgment as to Tract ‘B’,” February 24, 1956; Wirth to Jackson, July 10, 1953; both in File 

06-113, noted above.

188 U.S. District Court, 3rd Judicial Division, USA v. 40 acres of Land... (No. A-12,883 Civil), 

“Opinion,” March 6, 1958, in File 06-113, noted above; SMR, January 1958, 2; February 1958, 3; 

Federal Supplement 160 (1958), pp. 30-34.
Chapter Seven: Rubber-Tired Tourism, 1957-1971 213

189 Federal Supplement 162 (1958), pp. 939-42.

190 Perry W. Morton to Elmer F. Bennett, September 18, 1958; Jackson E. Price to Assistant Solicitor, National Parks, October 2, 1958; Elmer T. Fritz, October 8, 1958; Morton to Fritz, October 14, 

1958; all in File 06-113, noted above.

191 Herbert Maier to Director NPS, February 19, 1960; Maier to Director, February 29, 1960; both 

in File 06-113, noted above; SMR, August 1959, 6.

192 U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit, USA v. Dan T. Kennedy (No. 16,179), April 13, 

1960, in File 06-113, noted above, and in Federal Reporter, 2nd Series, vol. 278, pp. 121-27.

193 U.S. District Court, District of Alaska, USA v. 40 Acres of Land... (No. 12,883 Civil), February 

3, 1961, in File 06-113, noted above.

194 Samuel A. King to RD/R4, February 9, 1961; Harry K. Sanders to Finance Officer, March 10, 

1961; both in File 06-113, noted above; SMR, January 1961, 4; February 1961, 2, 4; March 1961, 4.

195 H.S. Simpson to E.L. Bartlett, July 1, 1946; Newton Drury to Bartlett, July 13, 1946; both in 

File 610 (“John Stephens: 1941-5/19/53”), Box 79, CCF/MOMC, RG 79, NARA SB.

196 Congressional Record 79 (1936), pp. 4146, 4643.

197 E.K. Burlew to Dan R. McGehee, October 13, 1941; H.S. Simpson to E.L. Bartlett, July 1, 

1946; both in File 610 (Stephens), noted above.

198 Drury to Bartlett, July 13, 1946, in File 610 (Stephens), noted above; Congressional Record 81 

(January 5, 1937), 57.

199 Oscar L. Chapman to Anthony J. Dimond, May 27, 1941, in File 610 (Stephens), noted above.

200 Burlew to McGehee, October 13, 1941, in File 610 (Stephens), noted above.

201 Drury to Bartlett, July 13, 1946, in File 610 (Stephens), noted above; Peterson, Mount McKinley National Park Development Outline (1946), 7.

202 Simpson to Pearson, May 6, 1947; Charles L. Peterson to Simpson, June 3, 1947; both in File 

610 (Stephens), noted above.

203 Hillory Tolson to Simpson, July 25, 1947; Tolson to Simpson, August 11, 1947; both in File 

610 (Stephens), noted above.

204 George L. Collins to Files, June 19, 1950, in File 600 (“Alaska Development,” Part IV), Box 

237, CCF/MOMC, RG 79, NARA CP.

205 SMR, July 1961, 7; August 1961, 7; September 1961, 5.

206 SMR, November 1961, 4; February 1962, 3; March 1962, 4.

207 SMR, March 1962, 2; November 1962, 2; May 1963, 4. U.S.A. v. 133.76 Acres of Land... 

(Civil No. F-45-62), Stipulation, March 25, 1963; Attorney General to Stewart L. Udall, May 29, 

1963; both in File “01-101, DT-5, Minnie J. Simpson, et al.,” AKRO Lands Division files.

208 SMR, October 1956, 1; Pearson, My Life of High Adventure, 213-15.

209 Jan Dick, telephone interview with the author, October 27, 2004.

210 George Hall, interview with the author, Anchorage, December 13, 1996.

211 Scott Ruesch, telephone interview with the author, October 21, 2004; Horace M. Albright and 

Marian Albright Schenk, Creating the National Park Service; the Missing Years (Norman, Univ. of 

Oklahoma Press, 1999), 241-44.

212 Williss, “Do Things Right the First Time”, 42.

213 SMR, December 1965, 2; January 1966, 2; April 1966, 2, 4; July 1966, 2; October 1966, 2; January 1967, 1; Supt. MOMC to RD/WR, August 3, 1966, in Jane Bryant (DENA) files. Harry Smith 

preceded Breedlove as park planner; he served in Anchorage from February through June 1966.

214 George Hall, interview with the author, February 4, 1997; NPS, Historic Listing of National 

Park Service Officials (Washington, D.C., the author, May 1991), 56.

215 Scott Ruesch interview, October 21, 2004; Daniel Kuehn, interview with the author, October 

11, 2004.

216 SMR, March 1958, 5; June 1958, 6; December 1958, 5; January 1959, photo.

217 SMR, November 1959, 3; February 1960, 5; April 1960, 4; May 1963, 4; May 1964, 4.

218 SMR, May 1967, 7.

219 SMR, March 1965, 4.

220 SMR, August 1957, photo; October 1957, 4; January 1958, 1.

221 SMR, May 1959, 5; June 1959, 5; July 1959, 4, photo; June 1960, 3, 6; October 1960, 3; May 

1961, 6.

222 SMR, October 1962, 2; August 1965, 2.

223 SMR, June 1958, 6; September 1958, 6; June 1959, 7; City of Anchorage and Vicinity, Telephone Directory, March 1960, 43.

224 SMR, October 1958, 2; May 1959, 6; July 1959, 7; August 1959, 8; September 1959, 7.

225 SMR, May 1960, 2, 7; June 1960, 9; July 1960, 7; August 1960, 2, 8; September 1960, 6-7; 
214 Crown Jewel of the North: An Administrative History of Denali National Park and Preserve

October 1960, 6; November 1960, 4; December 1960, 5; January 1961, 6.

226 SMR, May 1961, 7; July 1961, 8; August 1961, 8; September 1961, 3; October 1961, 4; September 1962, 7.

227 SMR, November 1960, 4; December 1960, 2; February 1961, 5.

228 SMR, April 1961, 5; May 1961, 7; June 1961, 9; July 1961, 8; August 1961, 8; October 1961, 

4; November 1961, 6; December 1961, 4.

229 SMR, October 1965, 2-3; December 1965, 3; September 1966, 6; November 1966, 4; May 

1967, 7; Anchorage Daily Times, November 9, 1967, 12.

230 SMR, October 1957, 6; July 1958, 5; July 1959, 7; August 1959, 7.

231 SMR, July 1963, 5; June 1964, 6; NPS Map 2024-B (September 1953), Map 2024-D (December 1959), and Map 2013-B (January 1967), NPS Aperture Card Collection; Anchorage Daily 

Times, November 9, 1967, 12; May 20, 1971, 70.

232 SMR, June 1961, 5-6; August 1961, 6; September 1962, 7.

233 SMR, June 1964, 6; July 1964, 9; NPS, MOMC “Priority List, Project Construction Program, 

Fiscal Year 1969,” March 17, 1965; Dick to Regional Director, July 26, 1965; Raymond O. Mulvany to Superintendents, Western Region, January 12, 1966, all in Catalog No. 9169, DENA Archives;

Anchorage Daily Times, June 14, 1966, 16.

234 Anchorage Daily Times, November 9, 1967, 12; SAR, 1967, 1; NPS Drawing 41098, February 

1967; NPS Drawing 40002, July 1, 1970, both in NPS Aperture Card Collection; Milepost, issues 

of 1968 (p. 305), 1969 (p. 317), 1970 (p. 347), and 1971 (p. 407); Jane Bryant email, November 4, 

2005.

235 NPS, Drawing MOMC-2013-B, January 1967, in NPS Aperture Card Collection.

236 SMR, May 1945, 2; Grant Pearson, My Life of High Adventure, 192.

237 SMR, September 1946, 3; March 1947, 3.

238 See, for example, the following SMRs: November 1951, 4; March 1958, 3; March 1960, 3; 

October 1961, 2; December 1964, 3; December 1966, 2.

239 SMR, October 1960, 5; November 1960, 3; January 1962, 4; March 1963, 2; October 1963, 3.

240 SMR, December 1942, 2; December 1958, 3; August 1959, 6; October 1962, 3; January 1967, 

2.

241 SMR, April 1944, 2; December 1945, 2; January 1946, 2.

242 SMR, November 1940, 5; August 1956, 1; June 1961, 5; May 1966, 3; July 1966, 4; January 

1967, 1; May 1967, 3.

243 SMR, November 1940, 5; January 1941, 4.

244 Park staff kept several dogs at the park hotel during the years in which there were dog teams, 

but in September 1949 the last sled dog died, a 13-year-old named “Buck.” SMR, May 1945, 2; 

April 1947, 3; December 1947, 3; November 1948, 3; March 1949, 3; September 1949, 4; September 1950, 2; October 1950, 5.

245 SMR, April 1952, 2.

246 See the following SMRs: February 1953, 2, 4; April 1953, 2; December 1953, 3; March 1955, 

2; March 1956, 3; October 1956, 3; February 1958, 3; November 1958, 3; January 1960, 3.

247 See the following SMRs: December 1963, 3; January 1965, 3; October 1966, 2.

248 See the following SMRs: August 1949, 3; October 1949, 4; August 1950, 4; September 1950, 4.

249 SMR, October 1949, 3.

250 SMR, August 1950, 4; February 1952, 1; May 1966, 3.

251 SMR, January 1953, 3; September 1953, 5; August 1954, 4.

252 As noted previously in this chapter, the BPR had assumed all ARC functions, both in the park 

and elsewhere in Alaska, during the summer of 1956. In the fall of 1959, road crews began to use 

the term “aufeis” rather than “glaciers,” “overflow ice,” and “spring-fed ice masses” which were 

used earlier.

253 SMR, October 1959, 3-4; November 1959, 3; December 1959, 4; February 1960, 5; March 

1960, 4; April 1960, 4-5; May 1960, 6-7.

254 SMR, February 1961, 3; January 1962, 4; September 1963, 5; October 1964, 4.

255 SMR, February 1966, 3; April 1966, 3; May 1967, 4.

256 SMR, May 1960, 6; June 1964, 6; May 1966, 3; May 1967, 4.

257 Hummel, Stealing the National Parks, 185, 191-92.

258 Hummel, Stealing the National Parks, 245, 257-58; SMR, April 1966, 4; May 1966, 4; Stroud, 

History of the Concession, 21; Anchorage Daily Times, May 13, 1966, 17.

259 Stroud, History of the Concession, 22.

260 Hummel, Stealing the National Parks, 259-60; Anchorage Daily Times, January 4, 1972, 2.

261 Hummel, Stealing the National Parks, 260-61; Stroud, History of the Concession, 26; Anchor-
Chapter Seven: Rubber-Tired Tourism, 1957-1971 215

age Daily News, March 22, 1970, 9; Anchorage Daily Times, March 18, 1970, 21.

262 Ernest G. Scheuplein to Hickel, January 5, 1967; Hickel to Kenneth Wendel, June 1, 1967; H. 

J. Musiel to George Hartzog, April 2, 1968; all in File 882.1 (1967-68), Series 41, RG 01, ASA. 

Scheuplein, a hotel cook in 1966, noted that “there were times when the guests had to sleep in the 

lounge.”

263 Stroud, History of the Concession, 26; Anchorage Daily Times, December 3, 1969, 2; December 5, 1969, 13; December 6, 1969, 24.

264 Anchorage Daily Times, March 17, 1970, 13; May 15, 1970, 2; June 19, 1970, 4; July 9, 1970, 

3; September 3, 1970, 8.

265 Hummel, Stealing the National Parks, 272-73, 289; Stroud, History of the Concession, 27; 

Anchorage Daily Times, January 4, 1972, 1.

266 Alaska Road Commission, Annual Report, 1956, 12.

267 Alaska Northwest, The Milepost, 1972 edition, 355; Anchorage Daily News, October 15, 1971, 

2.

268 Anchorage Daily News, September 4, 1962, 7; Fairbanks News-Miner, September 13, 1960, 

9; SMR, May 1962, 6. In 1961, the U.S. Air Force had established Clear, a ballistic early warning 

site, just west of the newly-opened Nenana-Rex segment. Mary Carey, An Auto Trip to Alaska’s 

Shangri-La (n.p., Tex-Alaska Press, 1989), 172.

269 Carey, An Auto Trip to Alaska’s Shangri-La, 59, 111, 116, 118, 125. The road connection to 

Talkeetna, located 14 miles from the main highway, was completed in 1965.

270 Carey, An Auto Trip to Alaska’s Shangri-La, 125, 127, 132, 133, 141; Carol Sik, “The 

‘59’ers Prove Up!” Alaska Sportsman 33 (September 1967), 6-7; Alaska Northwest, The 

Milepost,(Anchorage, the author), 1970 edition, p. 338; 1971 edition, p. 416.

271 As used in this section and elsewhere, the first Nenana River crossing is near Mile 216 of the 

Parks Highway, 6 miles north of the Denali Highway junction; the second crossing is at Mile 231, 

six miles south of the present-day park road junction; the third crossing is at Mile 238, less than one 

mile north of the park road junction; and the fourth crossing is at Mile 243, near the northeast corner 

of the “old park.”

272 NPS Drawing NP-McK-2024-D, approved October 20, 1961, in NPS Aperture Card Collection.

273 SMR, February 1961, 5; March 1961, 2; May 1961, 7; July 1961, 8.

274 SMR, August 1961, 3, 8; November 1961, 6; June 1962, 10.

275 SMR, June 1963, 5; July 1963, 2, 5-7; November 1963, 4.

276 SMR, September 1964, 6; September 1966, 5; April 1967, 5; SAR, 1965, 2.

277 According to BLM land records, the six who filed were Morton Wood (July 1953), James 

Walper (August 1954), Willis Hardy (June 1955), William Nancarrow (April 1957), John Farleigh 

(July 1957), and Forest Hills, Inc. (July 1957). All but Wood and Walper later patented their claims; 

Wood, Hardy, and Nancarrow were NPS employees.

278 The Carlo Creek Lodge, at Mile 223.9, had been homesteaded in May 1961 by Otto A. and Billie Stoepler, Jr.; the drive-in, at Mile 231.1, was located on land homesteaded by Forest Hills, Inc. in 

1957; the Jere-A-Tad Lodge at Mile 224 had been homesteaded by Gerald L. Pollock in June 1963; 

and Toklat Village, also at Mile 231.1, was on land that Gary and Linda Crabb had homesteaded in 

June 1959. The drive-in apparently operated for a single season, and Toklat Village shut down for 

several years before being replaced by the Mount McKinley Village development, but the Carlo 

Creek and Jere-A-Tad lodges remained open and are still active businesses. Milepost, issues of 

1960 through 1969; BLM, Case Abstracts for AKF 023539, AKF 027673, and AKF 031373. 279 Alaska Northwest, The Milepost, editions of 1970 (p. 398) and 1971 (p. 356).

280 Carey, An Auto Trip to Alaska’s Shangri-La, 141-42; Anchorage Daily News, October 14, 1971, 2; October 

15, 1971, 2; Anchorage Daily Times, October 15, 1971, 2. Much of the Anchorage-Fairbanks road at this time 

was not paved; road crews finished paving all but 20 miles of the road in 1972; the remaining mileage, however, was not paved until several years later. Anchorage Daily Times, March 26, 1973, 21; APG, Final Environmental Statement, Mount McKinley National Park Additions, October 1974, 38.
216 Crown Jewel of the North: An Administrative History of Denali National Park and Preserve
Chapter Seven: Rubber-Tired Tourism, 1957-1971 217
218 Crown Jewel of the North: An Administrative History of Denali National Park and Preserve
Chapter Eight: New Highway Impacts and the Park Expansion Process, 1972-1980 219

Chapter Eight: New Highway Impacts and the 

Park Expansion Process, 1972-1980

As noted in Chapter 7, the long-awaited highway 

between Anchorage and Fairbanks was completed and dedicated in October 1971. One and 

all recognized that the opening of the highway 

would not only shorten the trip between the 

two cities by more than 120 miles, but it would 

drastically cut the mileage from either of these 

cities to Mount McKinley National Park. It was 

widely anticipated, both within the NPS ranks 

and among tourism officials, that the road opening would dramatically increase car traffic to the 

park. The NPS, however, did not make any immediate public statement on how it would handle 

the expected new crowds.

Improved Access and its Ramifications

It was not until mid-January 1972 that the agency 

announced how it would respond to the new 

tourist influx. In a U.S. News and World Report

interview, Director George Hartzog stated that 

because of “a great surge of automobile traffic” 

predicted for that summer, “we’re planning to 

stop the cars at Savage River. One of the great 

charms of Mount McKinley National Park,” he 

continued, “is its fantastic wildlife displays.” But, 

he added, “Our ecologists tell us that with heavy 

automobile traffic along the single road into 

Wonder Lake, wildlife will leave the road.” Closing most of the park road, Hartzog reasoned, was 

the only way to both preserve park values and to 

provide for public enjoyment; and as a practical 

matter, Hartzog chose this course because the 

road was in no position to support increased traffic volumes. On a note that applied to a number 

of NPS areas, he said that “We’re trying to avoid 

more cars. I think we have about reached the end 

of this cycle of more roads and more trails, more 

roads and more trails. And I think we have got 

to look to other means of access.” He suggested 

that a free shuttle service was being proposed 

to carry passengers to points of interest beyond 

Savage River.1

Hartzog’s announcement, though surprising 

to many, was a logical extension of problems 

that had been increasingly manifested since the 

mid-1960s. As noted in Chapter 7, for instance, 

growing numbers of campers had forced the 

construction of a “new Morino Campground” 

(i.e., Riley Creek Campground) in 1968. And that 

same year, park superintendent George Hall had 

told agency planners that because of projected 

new traffic levels—estimated at three times the 

present volume—the agency needed to 1) offer 

buses or some other common carrier to encourage motorists to leave their cars, and 2) restrict 

oversize vehicles beyond the Teklanika River 

bridge because of reduced road width.2 And 

a year or more before Hartzog announced his 

decision, he and Regional Director John Rutter 

had weighed the pros and cons of three parkroad traffic scenarios: restricting private automobiles west of park headquarters, west of Savage 

River (where the pavement ended), and west of 

Teklanika. Park staff, during the late 1960s and 

early 1970s, were increasingly aware that the 

increased traffic was having a visibly negative 

effect on the park wildlife.3 A broad recognition 

that Mount McKinley and other national park 

areas had “carrying capacity” problems, and the 

successful institution of a shuttle-bus system in 

Yosemite Valley beginning in July 1970, doubtless 

suggested to Hartzog that a similar system would 

work at Mount McKinley, too.4 And indeed, 

NPS officials soon established similar shuttle 

systems both at Everglades and Grand Canyon 

national parks.5

Alaskans, who had been free to drive all the way 

to Wonder Lake and Kantishna for the past 15 

years, were split in their opinions. The Anchorage Daily News editorialized that the plan “seems 

moderate and reasonable to us,” and the prodevelopment Anchorage Daily Times, surprisingly, 

did not protest the Park Service’s decision.6 But 

Alaska House member Leslie “Red” Swanson 

(D-Nenana), whose district included the park, 

called the action “undesirable and unnecessary” 

because visitors needed to explore the park “at 

their own pace” and because traffic problems 

were not “expected in the foreseeable future.” 

Recognizing “the resentment of the people of 

Alaska at the federal bureaucracy telling us what 

to do,” Swanson introduced House Joint Resolution 113 on February 14 that called on the U.S. 

government to immediately fund an upgrading 

of the park road; he did so because the NPS 

had announced the road-closure plan, in part, 

based on the road’s unimproved condition and 

its potential as a safety hazard. On March 1, the 

resolution passed the House on a 37-1 vote; two 

weeks later it passed the Senate on a 17-1 vote, 

and Governor William Egan signed it on March 

20.7 Some Alaskans—both inside and outside the 

halls of the Alaska legislature—were chagrined 

that the NPS’s decision had been made at the 

eleventh hour or that there had not been prior 

public discussion and comment.8

Other groups also protested the Park Service’s 

decision. The Alaska Visitor Association, worried 

about tourist-industry impacts, asked the NPS 

to delay the road closure for a year while further 

Tour buses were owned and operated 

by the concessioner. They specialized in a narrated tour and provided 

lunch for their paying passengers. 

DENA 11459, Denali National Park and 

Preserve Museum Collection
220 Crown Jewel of the North: An Administrative History of Denali National Park and Preserve

studies took place. A Fairbanks resident claimed 

that the action would “deprive low income families ... a visit to the park” and would deny access 

by the twelve active Kantishna-area miners to 

their claims. And a Palmer resident openly worried that the action would turn McKinley into a 

“rich man’s” park ... “Are [NPS officials] like the 

librarian who hates to see anyone check a book 

out of the library?”9

Sen. Ted Stevens responded to Alaskans’ complaints with a volley of his own; he stated that the 

proposed plan would deprive many Alaskans of 

“personal acquaintance with the park’s scenic 

wonders,” and he threatened to block a proposed 

2,000,000-acre boundary expansion proposal 

(which was then being considered in Congress) 

if the NPS persisted with its plan.10 Stevens then 

contacted Hartzog in hopes of a compromise. 

The two men worked out a mutually-acceptable 

alternative, which Hartzog announced in early 

March 1972 during a U.S. Senate hearing. Recognizing that his original plan would have closed 

most of the park’s campgrounds to all but tent 

campers, Hartzog provided for a “compromise 

plan” that allowed motorists, after obtaining 

permits, to access specifically-allotted spaces in 

the various campgrounds west of Savage River. 

The compromise, according to press reports, 

would also keep the road open on a permit basis 

for those requiring transportation to or from 

Kantishna (for miners, prospectors, and Camp 

Denali staff). It was intended to insure that 

visitors, in Hartzog’s words, would “never [be] 

disappointed in not seeing wildlife as caribou, 

wolves, bears and foxes frolic near the road.” 11 

The Fairbanks Daily News-Miner lauded the plan 

as a “good compromise,” but Sen. Ed Merdes 

(D-Fairbanks) lambasted the NPS’s “ridiculous” 

plan. “Why,” he asked, “can’t they improve 

the roads in the park instead of being so shortsighted as to discriminate against Alaskans who 

have been waiting for the new road?” “Serious 

amateur photographers” also fought the plan; 

as one noted, “must they share their hobby with 

a bus load of people that will surely ‘spook’ the 

wildlife more than a car quietly stopping?” NPS 

Regional Director John Rutter noted that the 

“letters the Park Service has been receiving are 

running about 50-50” regarding the road-closure 

plan.12

On March 30, Rutter announced details regarding the new system. Beginning June 1, the park 

road would be restricted beyond a “closure 

point” at Savage River. Free shuttle buses would 

be provided to all western points along the park 

road; most buses would go as far as Eielson 

Visitor Center, though “special transportation 

beyond Eielson to Wonder Lake will also be provided on a separate schedule.” The agency would 

establish a staging area in the vicinity of Riley 

Creek Campground; that area would include 

an information station, a parking area, a trailercamper sanitary dump station and rest rooms. 

Reservations to the various west-end campgrounds, available on a first-come, first-served 

basis, could be obtained by either writing to the 

A 1968 ‘bear jam’ on Sable Pass was 

indicative of the gradually increasing 

traffic on the park road. DENA 11607, 

Denali National Park and Preserve 

Museum Collection 
Chapter Eight: New Highway Impacts and the Park Expansion Process, 1972-1980 221

park superintendent or by telephoning the park. 

(Most of the available spaces would be allotted 

to Teklanika, Toklat, and Wonder Lake campgrounds. Sanctuary and Igloo campgrounds 

were “very small,” and Igloo was “designed for 

tent camping only.”) The agency, recognizing 

that its plan limited campground choices for 

those in “camper type vehicles,” also announced 

plans to upgrade Riley Creek and Savage River 

campgrounds to accommodate this type of 

campers. It did not, however, plan to build “a 

large amount of new facilities” 

in response to the anticipated 

new traffic levels. Rutter, in explaining the agency’s rationale, 

stated that at other parks, “the 

cars have always gotten ahead 

of us before and now we have 

the opportunity to get ahead of 

the cars for a change. ... It happens every place where there 

are people. When you start to 

hand feed animals it destroys 

them because they get on a false 

diet. ... There isn’t any way we 

can stop this domestication 

process.”13 The new system also allowed “professional wildlife photographers” to circumvent 

the road-closure rules by obtaining a use permit 

from park rangers. The new rules were potentially open for abuse because they did not specify 

who would qualify for a permit; the issuance of 

the permit was based on the ranger’s evaluation 

of the applicant’s qualifications. The agency, in 

these circumstances, doubtless issued a number of permits to those who did not narrowly 

qualify. The number of these permits, however, 

was sufficiently small that the agency, during this 

period, did not artificially cap how many would 

be issued.14

As predicted, the NPS began its new shuttle bus 

system when the park opened on June 1, and 

rangers began patrolling the park road to ensure 

compliance with the new permit system. The 

bus system was operated by the park concessioner, Outdoor World, Ltd., via a Memorandum 

of Agreement (MOA) to provide the exclusive 

right for a transportation service within the park 

through the 1987 season. Within the scope of 

that MOA, Outdoor World and the NPS worked 

out an annual contract whereby the contractor leased four cramped school buses and three 

vans—which came from Cantwell and the 

Anchorage area—and the NPS reimbursed all 

applicable costs plus a 10 percent profit.15 The 

system, as implemented, resembled the one described two months earlier except for three minor changes. First, officials decided to stop most 

(though not all) casual westbound traffic near the 

Savage River Campground. To help manage the 

new system, the agency erected a small kiosk just 

west of the campground turnoff that was staffed 

by uniformed NPS personnel on a round-theclock basis.16 Second, the agency decided that 

Sanctuary as well as Igloo Campground would be 

limited to tent campers. Finally, Toklat Campground (which had just six sites) would be closed 

in 1972 because, according to Chief Ranger Ivan 

Miller, “we had a lot of bear trouble there and 

we wanted to reduce the confrontations between 

man and bear.” There were typically 10 to 15 bus 

round trips each day.17

During the summer of 1972, park visitation 

doubled from 44,000 to 88,000,18 and given the 

new throngs, the new bus system underwent 

some unexpected growing pains. The primary 

problem was related to bus overcapacity; visitors 

at Riley Creek (where the bus routes began) had 

no problem finding bus seats, but by mid-season, 

many of these buses were filled to capacity, leaving no room for those who stayed at the variIn 1972 the park transportation 

system began with restricting private 

traffic at the Savage River Check 

Station located near the Savage River 

Campground entrance. DENA 10588, 

Denali National Park and Preserve 

Museum Collection

The Riley Creek Information Center, 

which opened in the late summer 

of 1972, was the starting point for 

the new shuttle bus trips. It also 

provided visitor use information and, 

beginning in 1974, staff here issued 

backcountry use permits. DENA 

10507, Denali National Park and Preserve Museum Collection
222 Crown Jewel of the North: An Administrative History of Denali National Park and Preserve

ous campgrounds along the way. Campground 

occupants, particularly those at Sanctuary and 

Teklanika, often spent hours trying to find a 

bus with an empty seat. Events reached an ugly 

climax over the July 4 weekend, when visitors so 

overwhelmed the system that rangers were forced 

to issue special permits that allowed motorists 

to freely access the park road. There were also 

difficulties with the campsite reservation system; 

because some people who reserved spaces never 

showed up, some motorists were denied the 

chance to access park campsites even though the 

campgrounds were not full.19

The NPS did what it could to respond to these 

difficulties. Its first solution—which it implemented shortly after the July 4 weekend—was 

to put additional buses and vans onto the park 

road. By early August, there were fourteen 

shuttle buses in service. As a result, the need to 

issue permits to garden-variety motorists did 

not recur, and waiting times along the park road 

were reduced or eliminated. Suggestions to other 

difficulties were also considered, but none were 

implemented until the following year.20 

Meanwhile, efforts were made to study the 

impacts of the new system. At the insistence of 

Sen. Stevens, the University of Alaska obtained 

an $18,200 Interior Department grant to study 

the public’s reaction to the system. That twopart study, released in June 1973, found that 

84 percent of an 1,100-person sample of park 

visitors (which included both bus riders and car 

drivers) approved of the park’s new shuttle bus 

policy, while slightly more than half of a 450-person sample of Alaska residents approved of the 

policy.21 In addition, the University of Alaska and 

the National Park Service—working through the 

newly-formed Cooperative Park Studies Unit—

began to study the effect of human activity on the 

park’s animals and vegetation. This turned out 

to be a three-year study, conducted by University 

of Alaska Fairbanks graduate assistant Diane M. 

Tracy, that focused on the dynamics of several 

animal species at a number of specific spots 

along the road corridor. As noted in Chapter 

12, Tracy’s efforts resulted in several temporary 

closures of areas for wildlife protection purposes. 

Less directly, it led toward the first parkwide 

backcountry management plan (see below) 

which resulted in administrative control over, 

and rationing of, camping in areas away from the 

road corridor.22

As noted in Chapter 7, the park had gained a 

new concessioner on January 1, 1972, when 

Outdoor World, Ltd. took over from U.S. Natural 

Resources. George Fleharty had first become 

interested in the Mount McKinley concession 

when Don Hummel—who also had the Lassen 

and Glacier concessions—expressed an interest in becoming part of the USNR’s Recreation 

Resources Division. Hummel eventually joined 

USNR, but not before the larger company took 

over the Yosemite concession and decided it was 

not interested in the Glacier concession. Given 

those moves, Fleharty (and USNR) began a 

controlling interest in the McKinley (and Lassen) concession in March 1970. By late 1971, 

however, Fleharty—apparently pleased with 

the McKinley operation, both financially and 

personally—decided to retire from USNR. He 

then formed Outdoor World, Ltd. along with 

three partners. The 47-year-old Fleharty, in an 

Anchorage Times interview, reportedly paid the 

NPS $1.25 million for the remaining 15 years of 

the park concession contract; as part of that deal, 

the “expatriate Californian” gave up his interests 

in the Oakland Seals hockey team and a traveling ice-follies show as well as his Yosemite and 

Lassen interests “to live a slower-paced life in 

Alaska.”23

As a practical matter, Outdoor World operated 

the park concession much as USNR had. At the 

NPS’s insistence, however, hotel upgrades were 

in order. Don Hummel, it may be recalled, had 

conducted substantial renovations in 1966, and 

under USNR management a new wing had been 

added in 1970. Three months after Outdoor 

World assumed control of the park concession, 

in March 1972, Regional Director John Rutter 

announced that numerous improvements were 

on tap in the near future, including a new kitchThe Toklat Campground, containing six sites, was established on the 

footprint of the Alaska Road Commission Toklat road construction camp. 

Ginger Burley Collection
Chapter Eight: New Highway Impacts and the Park Expansion Process, 1972-1980 223

en, expanded dining facilities, and a new lounge 

area. Continued modernization or replacement 

of the older north and south wings was planned 

for the next several years.24

That modernization program began immediately. 

The hotel opened on May 14, a week ahead of 

time, and by early September a new dining room 

had been completed and a new kitchen nearly 

so.25 Meanwhile, the concessioner had its hands 

full opening up the hotel and operating two 

transportation systems: the “wildlife tour,” which 

concessioners had operated since the 1940s, plus 

the new shuttle bus system which was operated 

under contract to the Park Service. The twice-aday wildlife tour was designed to meet the needs 

of park visitors who arrived by train; the newlyinstituted 3 p.m. tour worked well for southbound visitors who typically arrived at the park at 

about 1 p.m., while the 6 a.m. tour (moved back 

from 4 a.m.) fit more easily into the schedule of 

northbound tourists who had arrived at 4:30 

the previous afternoon. Although the two bus 

systems covered the same geography, they were 

operationally quite distinct; the wildlife tours, for 

which a fee was charged, featured relatively highquality buses, had the same passengers throughout the trip, and paid considerable attention to 

park interpretation, while the free shuttle buses 

supplied more basic transportation that catered 

to backpackers as well as more passive visitors.26

The NPS, as the season wound down, recognized 

that it would soon need to deal with a new problem: that of traffic management of the park road 

once the bus tours had ended. Given the lessening crowds, Outdoor World planned to stop its 

shuttle-bus tours on September 10. Given the 

need for access after that date, however, the NPS 

had little choice but to open up the road to auto 

traffic. Allowing late-season auto traffic, during 

this period, was not a controversial decision, for 

several reasons: the NPS planned to stop road 

maintenance on September 10, there were few 

late-season visitors interested in heading out the 

park road, ecological impacts did not appear 

to be significant, and the season’s first snowfall 

(usually by mid-October) closed the road west of 

the park headquarters.27

The Park Hotel: Tragedy and a Spirited Response

On the eve of the Labor Day weekend of 1972, 

The shuttle bus system, instituted 

in 1972, was designed as basic 

transportation along the park road. 

There was no fee, and riders brought 

their own lunches. DENA 11439, 

Denali National Park and Preserve 

Museum Collection
224 Crown Jewel of the North: An Administrative History of Denali National Park and Preserve

officials with both the NPS and the park concessioner had every reason to be proud that they 

had successfully weathered the first summer 

under the new road-management plan. Outdoor 

World, the new concessioner, was just days away 

from closing up shop for the season, and many 

among the Park Service’s seasonal crew were 

preparing to leave the park, either for school 

or other wintertime pursuits. In 1972, as in 

previous years, daily train service and park road 

maintenance were both scheduled to stop on 

September 10, and the hotel itself was scheduled 

to close on September 18, so the season’s end 

was just days away.

But during the early evening of Sunday, September 3, tragedy struck. At 7:00 p.m., employees 

of the McKinley Park Hotel rang the fire alarm 

when they discovered smoke and flames erupting from the hotel basement. Acting quickly, 

they were able to evacuate some 265 hotel guests, 

plus more than 200 others then inside, within 

10 minutes. NPS officials, called to the scene, 

brought down a fire truck from headquarters and 

dispatched other trucks from Healy and other 

nearby communities. It was no use, however; 

by the time the trucks arrived the hotel’s main 

building—which contained 80 of the hotel’s 130 

rooms—was totally consumed by flames. Surprisingly, there were no deaths or injuries in the 

fire, and thanks to the well-trained efforts of the 

hotel staff, the evacuation was orderly and almost 

no one panicked. To assist hotel guests, and anyone else who needed shelter away from the park, 

a special, 14-car railroad train soon arrived on 

scene and headed to Fairbanks, while buses took 

others to Healy and Anchorage.28

When officials surveyed the scene the following 

morning, the only remaining part of the main hotel building was two huge stone chimneys; all else 

was smoking rubble. The new (1970) west wing 

of the hotel—which was just 50 feet away from 

the main hotel’s south wing—still stood, though 

it had sustained extensive smoke and water damage. Likewise, the hotel’s power house (75 feet 

away), garage shed (100 feet away), and employee 

dormitory (150 feet away) also remained standing.29

Before the remains of the 34-year-old hotel were 

removed, officials immediately sought answers 

to what caused the disastrous fire. Early press 

reports stated that “the fire started, apparently, 

in old wiring in the commissary room in the 

basement of the hotel.”30 But to gain a more 

comprehensive idea, the Park Service hired a 

Seattle fire investigator, Robert Timlin, who 

arrived at the site on September 5. In addition 

to on-scene technical work, Timlin interviewed 

more than twenty witnesses, mostly hotel and 

NPS staff. Timlin’s report concluded that the fire 

had begun in a false ceiling above the “Bottom of 

the Barrel,” a basement tavern. At 4:30 p.m. on 

Sunday, an alarm had gone off in this area, but 

false alarms had previously been recorded there, 

and hotel personnel were unable to locate a fire 

that afternoon. Investigators concluded, however, that fire—begun by faulty wiring—slowly 

spread in the basement’s ceiling area until 7:00, 

The McKinley Park Hotel burned on 

the evening of September 3, 1972. 

There were no injuries to the more 

than 400 hotel guests. Wallace A. 

Cole Collection
Chapter Eight: New Highway Impacts and the Park Expansion Process, 1972-1980 225

when a female hotel guest noticed that a portion 

of the dining room floor, located just above the 

southeast corner of the bar, felt hot. Smoke was 

noticed soon afterward, and under George Fleharty’s direction, employees began to evacuate 

guests from the hotel.31

Concession officials and NPS staff, reflecting 

on the catastrophe, were saddened by the fire 

but not altogether surprised. Back in October 

1968, the park’s chief ranger had recommended 

a sprinkler system for the hotel. He noted that 

the system “is a controversial item ... there is no 

question that the building is not fire safe, and that 

something must be done immediately.” But other 

priorities intervened, and the system was never 

installed.32 And shortly after the fire, Fleharty 

philosophically noted that the hotel “was so 

old and so dry, it was going to burn sometime; I 

had that feeling.” And the speed of the fire—according to one guest, “there was a great cloud of 

smoke and then, whoosh, it went up in flames”—

seemed to reflect the wisdom of Fleharty’s 

remarks.33

The biggest question remaining after the fire, 

of course, was what should be done to provide 

overnight accommodations to park visitors. A 

newly-emergent environmentalist faction urged 

a go-slow approach.34 But NPS State Director 

Stanley Albright said that there “is not much 

question” that a new hotel was needed; “the need 

for the hotel has been demonstrated,” he noted, 

and regional officials echoed Albright’s sentiments.35 But there was little agreement—at least 

at first—regarding what should be built. It was 

initially estimated that “from $1.5 million upward” would be needed to replace the building. 

Fleharty was unsure, however, whether a similar 

hotel or “an entirely new hotel complex” would 

be built. Fleharty fully recognized that many 

“changes have taken place since the first hotel 

was built.” But the most pressing problem, however, was time. Albright recognized that “what 

we must do now is prepare something for people 

to use next summer,” and given the lateness of 

the season, there was little possibility of any new 

construction before the spring of 1973, which 

was just before the next tourist season began.36

In advance of any decisions regarding a rebuilding effort, Alaskans first took stock of the hotel’s 

most attractive qualities. One guest stated that “it 

sort of looked like an old plantation type home. 

It had a very homey atmosphere.” The Anchorage Times, in an editorial, called it “a comfortable 

structure of considerable charm. There was 

a touch of rustic, roadhouse atmosphere with 

enough modern attachments to make a stopover 

there an enjoyable and pleasant experience.” 

Others, however, found the hotel unattractive 

and outdated.37

Meanwhile, NPS officials wasted no time on 

organizing a rebuilding effort. On September 

7, while the fire investigator was still combing 

through the ashes, a phalanx of officials from Seattle and Anchorage converged on the scene and 

met with Fleharty.38 A week later, Albright flew 

south and met both with NPS Director George 

Hartzog and Denver Service Center officials. 

At the meeting, Albright assured the public that 

the agency would be able to rebuild to the point 

where “business as usual” would prevail in 1973. 

He cautioned, however, that the agency was seeking “an interim plan to provide facilities for next 

summer that wouldn’t interfere with any long 

range plans.”39

The decision on what to build, and where, forced 

Wallace A. Cole Collection

After the hotel fire the remaining 

buildings included the dormitory 

(center), the power house (right) and 

the new west wing (not in picture). 

Wallace A. Cole Collection
226 Crown Jewel of the North: An Administrative History of Denali National Park and Preserve

NPS officials to take a renewed look at a variety 

of potential hotel sites. The Wonder Lake area, 

because of the wondrous view it offered of 

Mount McKinley, was once again considered, 

and in a September 28 editorial, the Anchorage 

Times, once again, came out solidly in favor of 

a new hotel there; “Let’s just get building,” it 

urged. George Fleharty, in a newspaper interview, said that the on-again, off-again plans for 

a hotel there had been on the back burner for 

the past five years or so; there had been renewed 

talk of a “smaller overnight lodge near Wonder 

Lake ... but now everyone seems to feel that 

Wonder Lake is not the site.” Providing power 

to the facility, for example, would be a problem 

(“Would people like to see power lines strung 

along the road to reach it?”) and all garbage 

would also have to be trucked away. Also being 

considered was a site south of the park. As 

noted in Chapter 7, two sites with an outstanding McKinley view—a site atop 2,900-foot-high 

Curry Ridge and another near Chulitna Pass—

had been advanced in 1966 and 1968, respectively. And as noted later in this chapter, other 

alternatives had emerged in the flurry of planning activity that followed ANCSA’s passage. 

Fleharty was well aware, however, that the most 

important factor to be considered was access by 

road and railroad (which suggested a McKinley 

Park Station site), and he further noted that “the 

trend of national parks is to keep the facilities 

near the entrance.” He predicted (or perhaps 

hoped) that the agency would build a hotel 

and cabin complex at the park entrance, with 

buildings spaced far apart in order to avoid the 

appearance of a cityscape.40 Given the diversity 

of site options, both Senator Stevens and Alaska’s 

member of the House of Representatives, Nick 

Begich, called for Congressionally-sponsored 

studies to determine the best location for future 

park facilities.41

Fleharty’s intuition regarding the site for the new 

hotel proved accurate. On October 3, he met 

with both Rutter and a Washington NPS official 

to discuss hotel replacement options. At that 

meeting, there was a general agreement “that 

there was a need for a modest facility at the site of 

the old McKinley Hotel.” Ten days later, Fleharty 

announced (at an Alaska Visitors Association 

convention) that the new hotel would be ready in 

time for the 1973 season. As part of the agreement between the NPS, the Alaska Railroad, and 

the Outdoor World, Ltd., the new hotel would 

be composed primarily of railroad cars, in a style 

consistent with the then-popular Victoria Station 

restaurant chain. Rooms at the new hotel would 

consist of “five Pullman compartmented sleepers” and new modular units in addition to the 50-

room west wing which survived the fire. Ten adBecause of the lateness of the 

season, there was a pressing need to 

implement a plan to provide visitor 

accommodations for the 1973 tourist 

season. The hotel plans noted in 

this February 1973 drawing were 

designed as a temporary facility. 

Credit: McK 41009, NPS Aperture Card 
Chapter Eight: New Highway Impacts and the Park Expansion Process, 1972-1980 227

ditional rail cars would be used for dining space, 

a coffee shop, a two-car bar, and other facilities. 

The NPS also planned to build new dining facilities (away from the cars) and enclosed walkways 

that would link up the various rail cars with other 

parts of the hotel. Fleharty’s plan called for the 

concessioner to pay $400,000 for the non-rail facilities, while an additional $250,000 would come 

from federal funds which Sen. Stevens (and later 

Begich) had recently inserted into appropriations 

bills. Construction costs, not coincidentally, 

neatly matched the $650,000 for which Outdoor 

World had insured the hotel property.42 

One and all, at the time, felt that the new setup 

would be temporary. A letter reporting on the 

results of the October 3 meeting noted the need 

for an interim hotel at McKinley Park Station was 

immediate, “even though the ultimate developments may be located elsewhere.” Albright, 

interviewed in mid-October, averred that the 

facility would be used “for two or three years, 

anyway.” NPS officials were pleased that the 

agreement allowed the park to meet its 1973 

tourist commitments “without locking ourselves 

into something we’ll have to live with forever.” 

To guide future development, Senator Stevens 

was able to secure an additional $100,000 appropriation for long-range planning for a permanent facility at the park entrance.43 Stevens, in 

particular, wanted to ensure a public process; as 

far back as mid-September, he had stated that 

he would “earnestly welcome the suggestions of 

Alaskans for the expansion and improvement of 

our park’s visitor accommodations.” Given the 

extra funds, NPS officials held public meetings in 

late October and early November at Anchorage, 

Fairbanks, Juneau, and McKinley Park Station 

where they solicited suggestions regarding road 

and campground developments as well as permanent hotel facilities. At one of those meetings, 

held at Anchorage on October 31, NPS State Director Stanley Albright stated—despite previous 

publicity to the contrary—that no commitments 

had been made regarding where the new hotel 

would be located or what type of structure it 

would be. The NPS offered four sites for the new 

hotel: the concessioner-backed site at McKinley 

Park Station plus Wonder Lake, Curry Ridge, and 

near the east bank of Savage River.44

After the public hearings had run their course, 

comments from the public and agency officials 

were forwarded to Interior Secretary Rogers 

Morton, who on December 15 announced a 

decision regarding the future hotel site. Morton 

that day approved Fleharty’s “novel temporary solution” and approved a $600,000 plan 

to rebuild a new facility on almost the same 

footprint as the old hotel. Building the hotel, 

which would involve $200,000 in federal funds, 

was approved under the condition that the new 

facility would be “extremely temporary” and 

would be eventually replaced by a permanent 

structure. The architect for the new hotel would 

be the John Graham Company of Seattle, while 

hotel construction (including the construction 

of the lobby, kitchen and dining room) would 

be performed by Irvin and Company of Anchorage. The Interior Secretary’s office noted 

that the federal government was purchasing 50 

prefabricated housing modules from Olympic 

Prefab Inc. of Seattle (at $7,000 apiece), while 

the various railroad cars needed for the project 

were being purchased or leased from the Alaska 

Railroad and renovated in Anchorage by the 

Interior Design and Structures 

firm. Irvin construction workers, meanwhile, would renovate 

the hotel’s west wing, which 

had survived the fire, though 

with extensive smoke and water 

damage.45

As noted in a park concessions 

history, “the entire atmosphere 

of planning and negotiations 

[for the new hotel] was of expediency and economics. ... The 

primary considerations under 

which the National Park Service, Outdoor World Ltd. and 

Irvin and Company were guided were that the 

facility should be open by the start of the tourist 

season.” Because of the urgency to replace the 

hotel complex, Irvin and Company started working on the project well before March 7, 1973, 

when it signed a contract with the Park Service. 

The company, working in the midst of an Alaskan 

winter, encountered many difficulties with the 

frozen soil; once the ground thawed, many new 

problems cropped up. Many of these problems 

were glossed over, inasmuch as there was a general recognition that the hotel would be temporary. The company, in its zeal to complete the job 

on time, racked up thousands of dollars of exThe McKinley Park Station Hotel 

opened on May 25 for the 1973 season and advertised a railroad station 

theme. NPS Interp. Collection, #457, 

Denali National Park and Preserve
228 Crown Jewel of the North: An Administrative History of Denali National Park and Preserve

penses in excess of contract costs, and for awhile 

both Irwin and Company and its subcontractors 

were on the verge of insolvency. The contractor, 

however, was somehow able to complete the job 

on time, and the Alaska Railroad, using a series 

of temporary tracks, similarly fulfilled its part of 

the bargain by shunting 11 strategically-placed 

railroad cars46 onto the property. 

The new hotel, called the McKinley Park Station 

Hotel to reflect the train-station theme, opened 

on schedule on May 25. It had the same capacity as the former facility (250 to 300 people), but 

portions of the hotel remained under construction throughout the summer. On one weekend 

in early June, for instance, the lack of a working 

kitchen meant that “meals were cooked on a tiny, 

three-burner apartment range in the employees’ 

dormitory and carried by hand to the coffee 

shop.” The lobby and dining room were not 

finished until late June, while landscaping and 

parking-lot improvements were completed in 

July and August. The new hotel accommodated 

25,600 people that summer and averaged a 95 

percent occupancy rate.47

Meanwhile, Bureau of Outdoor Recreation 

officials acted to provide a wider range of accommodations to park visitors. In order to 

offer something midway between the hotel and 

the campgrounds, they worked with the Alaska 

Railroad to establish a youth hostel. The facility would be the first in central Alaska and just 

the third in the state. In mid-May, the Bureau 

purchased three railroad bunk cars and placed 

them on a side track at the McKinley Park Station 

depot. The hostel, operated by Outdoor World, 

opened on July 15 and took in 975 people during 

that abbreviated season; the charge was 50 cents 

per night.48 The hostel proved highly popular in 

later years; it typically remained open through 

Labor Day weekend and housed between 1,000 

and 1,800 people each year.49

 Meanwhile, the NPS again tried to grapple with 

the question of the hotel’s long-term viability. 

Since the fall 1972 hearings, it had broadcast 

mixed messages; in February 1973, regional 

officials had stated that the permanent location of the park hotel would be decided in the 

upcoming (December 1973) master plan, and 

just two months later, those same officials told 

NPS Director Ron Walker that no permanent 

hotel plans could be finalized until the seven 

year post-ANCSA planning process had run its 

course. The realities of the summer of 1973, 

however, brought an immediate, de facto answer 

to this question. Both the concessioner and NPS 

officials were surprised to see that guests were 

quite happy with the new facility; it was highly 

popular and also quite profitable. Given that 

positive news, Fleharty backed off on any plans 

he may have had to replace the hotel. Instead, 

he “decided to see if [the existing hotel] will 

work out permanently.”50 During the winter of 

1973-1974, the agency addressed the issue of the 

hotel’s long-term viability in a Denver Service 

Center planning directive. The report, authored 

by Team Leader Carl Stoddard, recognized 

that if a hotel in the park was indeed necessary, 

it should be located in one of three sites: the 

McKinley Park Station area, Wonder Lake, and 

along the Anchorage-Fairbanks road in “the so 

called Southern Addition.” It noted that during 

the various public meetings in the fall of 1972 

“there was not [a] predominance of opinion as 

to where the hotel should be located.” Weighing the pros and cons of the three sites, it noted 

that it was impossible to provide both easy access 

and a mountain view at any of them. After some 

discussion, the report recommended that “the 

present hotel remain in operation ... and maintain the present pillow count,” that the NPS commence both landscaping and facilities improvements at the site, that the agency “support the 

development of a major lodge ... in the southern 

area,” and that any effort to develop any new 

overnight facilities along the park road should 

be blocked. Given the report’s conclusions and 

Fleharty’s happiness with the new hotel’s operations, it appeared that the “temporary” McKinley 

Park Station hotel was well on the way toward 

becoming permanent.51

A key new element in the Stoddard study that 

had not been previously considered by the NPS 

was the presence of accommodations along the 

park’s eastern margin as an alternative to the park 

hotel. As noted in Chapter 7, three lodges had 

opened along the road north of Cantwell during 

the 1960s,52 and beginning in 1972, two larger 

businesses opened just south of the Nenana 

River bridge: Mount McKinley Village, owned by 

Gary Crabb, and the Grizzly Bear Camper Park, 

just across the road and owned by Jack Reisland 

(see Appendix E).53 Prior to the completion of 

the Parks Highway in 1971, the newly-opened 

The Youth Hostel consisted of these 

railroad cars and was located between the Alaska Railroad tracks and 

the McKinley airstrip. DENA 12-78, 

Denali National Park and Preserve 

Museum Collection 
Chapter Eight: New Highway Impacts and the Park Expansion Process, 1972-1980 229

stretch of roadway north of the third Nenana 

River crossing had been empty except for a few 

homesteaded parcels,54 but in 1972 the Tenada 

Campground opened; the short-lived business 

was the first along that stretch of highway.55 And 

the highway’s completion also made Healy easily 

accessible by road; at Otto Lake, just southwest of town, the Otto Lake Lodge had housed 

travelers in 1971 and 1972.56 Given that level of 

local tourism development, Stoddard wrote that, 

“private motel facilities exist outside the park that 

are within a reasonable distance from McKinley 

Station and the potential for other similar sites is 

very good. It is unlikely however that the private 

interests outside of the park near McKinley Station are capable of satisfying the total needs of 

the 

travelling public because of the tremendous cost 

involved in providing building and necessary 

utilities in interior Alaska.”

Stoddard, recognizing the value of these businesses in providing accommodations alternatives, 

recommended that the NPS 

fully support those private interests 

outside of the park ..., and if the 

private sector demonstrates their 

ability to provide those quality visitor 

facilities, service and opportunities to 

meet park standards that the present 

McKinley Park Hotel and appurtenant structure be phased out in such 

a way as to maintain a continuous 

visitor service area in the vicinity of 

McKinley Park Station.57

Planning Begins for an Expanded Park 

As noted in Chapter 7, the NPS had put forth 

a series of master plans during the mid-to-late 

1960s that each addressed a possible expansion of the park’s boundaries. In 1965, a master 

planning effort concluded, tentatively, that 

protection for various large mammal populations 

living north of the park boundary could best be 

effected by working out management agreements 

with the State of Alaska and with the Bureau of 

Land Management. This plan did not address 

areas south of the park. But a 1968 master plan 

called for a 132,000-acre expansion north of the 

park and a much larger 2,070,000-acre expansion 

south of the Alaska Range. The 1968 proposals 

very nearly became law in January 1969, during 

the closing days of the Johnson administration. 

Later that year, Rep. John Saylor submitted a 

House bill that would also have put into law the 

acreage recommendations put forth in the 1968 

master plan. Alaskans, however, worked to protect their own interests shortly afterward, and in 

the spring of 1970, the Alaska legislature established Denali State Park, which included some 

of the acreage in the park’s proposed southern 

expansion. Interior Secretary Hickel and other 

Department officials then worked out a more 

modest 1,560,000-acre expansion proposal; that 

idea died away, however, when Hickel stepped 

down from his post in November 1970. Rep. 

Saylor submitted a bill to that effect in early 1971, 

but the bill was never reported out of committee.

Beginning in early 1970, the question of the proposed Mount McKinley expansion began to be 

subsumed within a much larger issue – one that 

would dominate discussion among Alaskans for 

The McKinley Park Station Hotel 

incorporated modular units 

providing hotel rooms with baths in 

addition to the rail car units. Note 

the landscaping activities in the 

foreground. DENA 5747, Denali 

National Park and Preserve Museum 

Collection

““
230 Crown Jewel of the North: An Administrative History of Denali National Park and Preserve

the remainder of the decade. 

This issue, regarding the socalled “national interest lands,” 

had been considered off and on 

by government planners since 

the mid-1960s. But only recently, as efforts to reach a settlement of Alaska’s Native claims 

reached a serious stage, had it 

entered the legislative arena. In 

July 1970, the full Senate had 

passed a Native claims bill that 

contained a provision calling 

on the Interior Secretary “to 

review all public lands in Alaska 

and ... recommend to Congress 

areas appropriate for inclusion 

in the National Park System 

and National Wildlife Refuge 

System.” That bill, however, 

died at the conclusion of the 

91st Congress.58 The following 

summer, Sen. Alan Bible—after 

a trip to Mount McKinley and 

other Alaska scenic areas with 

NPS Director Hartzog and 

their wives—agreed to include 

a new national interest lands 

provision in the Native claims 

bill. This time the provision 

remained, and on December 

18, 1971, President Nixon 

signed the Alaska Native Claims 

Settlement Act, or ANCSA (P.L. 

92-203) into law. Included in 

the new legislation was Section 

17(d)(2), which authorized the Interior Secretary 

to withdraw up to 80 million acres of unreserved 

public lands for either national parks, national 

wildlife refuges, national forests, or wild and 

scenic rivers.59 

Given the fact that various Mount McKinley 

expansion proposals had been exhaustively 

considered at both the administrative and legislative levels, chances were high that any bill that 

addressed the national interest lands question 

would include new lands for Mount McKinley. 

But the new, Congressionally-imposed demand 

that new parkland questions be solved on a 

statewide level also deemed it highly unlikely 

that Mount McKinley’s boundaries would be 

expanded any time soon. Section 17(d)(2) of 

ANCSA had provided a seven-year timetable for 

decisions regarding Alaska’s unreserved public 

lands. Because of Mount McKinley’s relatively 

high profile among Alaska’s existing or proposed 

parklands, and more specifically because Rep. 

Saylor had submitted two previous park expansion bills, the Pennsylvania congressman filed a 

similar bill in January 1973 that addressed Mount 

McKinley to the exclusion of other parks. His 

bill, however, got no further than his previous 

efforts.60 Congress, it appeared, would decide 

Mount McKinley’s new boundaries only in 

concert with a host of other issues relating to 

Alaska’s federal lands.

The provisions in Section 17(d) demanded that 

the NPS and other land-management agencies 

act quickly. Specifically, these agencies had only 

90 days to provide to the Interior Secretary a 

list of those lands in which it had a continuing 

interest, and it had just nine months to withdraw 

specific lands for proposed parks, refuges, and 

the like. Given those deadlines—and in full 

recognition that Alaska offered a relatively short 

field season in which staff could gather pertinent 

data—agencies plunged into a wild scramble in 

which they resurrected any and all previouslygathered information about proposed areas of 

interest.61

NPS officials, operating under the guidance of 

Assistant Director Theodor (Ted) Swem, started 

The majestic Cathedral Spires were 

a key area of interest when park 

expansion proposals were considered 

during the late 1960s and 1970s. NPS, 

DENA #9169, Denali National Park and 

Preserve Museum Collection
Chapter Eight: New Highway Impacts and the Park Expansion Process, 1972-1980 231

working on national interest lands issues just two 

weeks after ANCSA’s passage, and by January 4, 

1972, Richard Stenmark—an Alaska Group Office employee now working in Washington—had 

identified a 4,000,000-acre addition to Mount 

McKinley as one of 21 areas (12 natural, 9 historical or archeological) in which the NPS had an 

interest.62 Between then and the 90-day deadline, the NPS did its best, within the 80-millionacre limitation imposed by ANCSA, to include a 

large acreage for national park areas.63

Given the seven-year track record of previous 

proposals, answers to many Mount McKinleyrelated questions were easier to unearth than 

those for newly-identified areas. What emerged 

from this process were preliminary proposals, 

announced on March 15, 1972, for 14 NPS areas 

comprising a total of 33.4 million acres. Perhaps 

because of the Mount McKinley area’s broad 

public recognition, these proposals included a 

generous 4,019,251-acre park addition (see Map 

8).64 Included in this proposal was a large swath 

of rich megafauna habitat—along the same lines 

that Adolph Murie had recommended, only 

larger—that extended from 12 to 40 miles north 

of the existing park boundary. A narrow corridor 

was included west of the park, and to the south 

of the park boundary, the proposal included 

much of the acreage in both the Udall-Johnson 

proposals of 1968-69 and the Hickel-Saylor proposals of 1970-71. The proposal, to some extent, 

was shaped by the availability of unreserved 

federal land (both “d-1” and “d-2” land). But 

not always: portions of the proposal contained 

state land selections, either pending or tentatively 

approved.65

Between March and September 1972, NPS and 

other agency staff needed to move from preliminary to final determinations regarding the acreage they wanted to withdraw as proposed conservation units. Swem appointed NPS Planner 

Albert Henson to head the newly-created Alaska 

Task Force, which consisted of 33 agency personnel brought to Alaska on short-term appointments. It was a time of brief field excursions 

and hurried report writing, all for the purpose of 

gaining a well-justified series of boundaries for 

proposed park units—either new parks or expansion of existing units. By July 1972 the task force 

gave an interim recommendation to Secretary 

Morton. These recommendations, for 48.9 million acres of new parklands within 11 proposal 

areas, included a 3,687,600-acre McKinley expansion, in areas both north and south of the existing park. The July proposal, more than 300,000 

acres less than the plan put forth in March, 

eliminated much of the low-elevation caribou 

habitat in the Lake Minchumina area (due to it 

“not being absolutely critical to the well-being of 

the major animal park populations”) and a long, 

6-mile-wide strip at the south end of the proposal 

area (due to it “not being necessary for retention 

or protection on primary park values”), but it 

added valuable acreage southwest of Broad Pass 

(because it had “potential access and interpretive 

areas ... and important caribou summer range”). 

It otherwise retained most of the March 1972 

proposal acreage.66

On September 13, 1972, Interior Secretary 

Morton announced the final withdrawal areas. 

As part of an overall 41.7-million-acre Alaskawide NPS package, the proposed park expansion 

had been pared down to just 2,996,640 acres 

(see Map 8). The major reason for the reduced 

proposal was the elimination of important access 

routes into the Chelatna Lakes and Sunflower 

Basin areas south of the park. (These areas were 

lost because of the ramifications of a September 

2, 1972 agreement over a federal-state lawsuit related to overlapping selection areas.) More than 

a million acres of the proposal area had been lost 

between March and September; as NPS planner 

John Reynolds tartly observed, “we got all the 

rock and ice we asked for.”67

The ANCSA-mandated federal planning effort, however, was still in its opening stages. 

Section 17(d)(2), paragraph C noted that the 

Interior Secretary would “continue to advise 

the Congress of the location, size and values” of 

proposed parklands until two years had elapsed 

after ANCSA’s passage. The Alaska Task Force, 

therefore, undertook the completion of a massive 

series of draft environmental statements (DES’s) 

and master plans for the proposed parklands, 

all of which had to be completed by December 

1973. Working in cooperation with the Alaska 

Planning Group—an ad hoc Interior Department 

group organized to resolve interest areas between 

the various agencies—the Alaska Task Force 

fleshed out its proposals for Mount McKinley 

and the other ten park proposals.

Recognizing that one of the major areas lost 

between March and September had been the 

large block of state-selected land in and around 

Chelatna Lake, and also recognizing a general 

concern about the lack of zoning along the newly-completed highway north of Denali State Park, 

planners for the NPS and the State of Alaska met 

in late September 1972 to discuss these and other 

issues. State planners, at first, pushed for a cooperative management system; this philosophy was 

consistent with the state’s efforts in other proposed park areas as well. As noted in Chapter 7, 

however, the 1958 Statehood Act’s statement that 

the NPS had exclusive jurisdiction over both the 
232 Crown Jewel of the North: An Administrative History of Denali National Park and Preserve

present park and any proposed expansions prevented the agency from developing this concept. 

Federal planners emerged from the meeting 

espousing the idea of a Denali Region National 

Recreational Complex that would include Denali 

State Park, the Chelatna Lake area, and lands 

along the road corridor between Chulitna Pass 

and McKinley Park Station.68

Central to the process that resulted in the DES’s 

for Mount McKinley and the other proposed 

park areas was a well-publicized series of public 

meetings that were held under the auspices 

of the Joint Federal-State Land Use Planning 

Commission. Between late April and early June 

1973, more than forty public meetings were held 

in Washington, in various Lower 48 cities, and 

in cities and villages throughout Alaska. Those 

most relevant to the Mount McKinley proposal 

were held in Anchorage and McGrath. NPS representatives attended many of these meetings.69

In July 1973, two proposals were released that 

reflected dramatically different visions of the 

area’s future. The Joint Federal-State Land 

Use Planning Commission—an advisory body 

established by ANCSA—released a plan for a 

3.05-million acre expansion. Though the ComMap 8. Boundary Proposals and 

Changes, 1972-1980
Chapter Eight: New Highway Impacts and the Park Expansion Process, 1972-1980 233

mission’s boundaries were largely similar to 

those in the September 1972 Morton agreement, 

the Commission’s plan called for virtually all of 

the southern addition to be open to both hunting and mining.70 That same month, the Alaska 

Planning Group presented an interim package 

for departmental review; more protective in its 

emphasis than the JFSLUPC proposal, it included 

a 3.6-million acre Mount McKinley expansion 

as part of an overall 49.1 million acre package. 

That fall, the Sierra Club chimed in with its own 

recommendations; that organization called for 62 

million acres of new national parklands, including a 4.2 million acre Mount McKinley expansion.71

Given those prior figures, the Interior 

Department’s final (December 1973) 

administrative recommendations were a sobering 

disappointment to park advocates, because 

the scope of NPS recommendations—both for 

Mount McKinley and elsewhere—had been 

considerably reduced. Of a 

total 83.5 million acre package 

forwarded to Congress, lands 

proposed for inclusion in 

National Park Service units 

totaled just 32.3 million acres, 

and the master plan and draft 

EIS for Mount McKinley 

recommended that just 

3,210,000 acres be added to 

the park.72 This acreage was 

in many ways similar to the 

September 1972 proposal recommendations. 

The new proposal, however, included much 

of the area that had been lost in the Lake 

Minchumina area between March and July 

1972, though it did not include much of the 

areas southwest of Broad Pass that had been 

added to the proposal area between March and 

July 1972. The proposal also called for a large 

Cooperative Planning and Management Zone 

south and east of the proposed park boundaries; 

this area would be jointly managed by the federal, 

state and private entities and would attempt to 

fulfill the goals that state and federal planners 

had recognized during their September 1972 

discussions.73

After Secretary Morton issued its recommendations for Mount McKinley and the other 

proposed park areas, the Interior Department 

still needed to finalize its environmental statements before its recommendations were ready to 

be considered by Congress. The Joint FederalDuring the 1960s and 1970s the NPS 

considered, then rejected, various 

proposals that would have placed 

Chelatna Lake within an expanded 

park unit. DENA Herkenham #14, 

Denali National Park and Preserve 

Museum Collection

Areas, such as this one, north of the 

park boundary, were considered for 

inclusion in park expansion proposals 

due to their excellent wildlife habitat.

NPS, DENA 9169, Denali National Park 

and Preserve Museum Collection
234 Crown Jewel of the North: An Administrative History of Denali National Park and Preserve

State Land Use Planning Commission, as it had a 

year earlier, held an extensive series of meetings 

to gauge public opinion regarding the adequacy 

and scope of the various DES’s. The deadline for 

comments was March 20, 1974, which was later 

extended to July 22. During the seven-month 

comment period, the public submitted more than 

6,000 comments. Of those, 230 specifically responded to the December 1973 Mount McKinley 

DES; one of these, the State of Alaska, weighed in 

with more than twenty pages of Mount McKinley-related comments.74

In late April 1974, in the midst of the public hearings process, a group of 30 Alaskans who were 

“honestly concerned and interested in protecting 

the unique values of McKinley Park and region 

surrounding it” met at Cantwell and organized 

themselves as the Denali Citizens Council. 

Directors, who were chosen at the meeting, 

included residents of Cantwell, Lake Minchumina, Deneki Lakes and Hurricane as well as the 

Anchorage and Fairbanks areas. Pete Martin, 

elected as acting chair, noted that because the 

area was “on the verge of major development,” 

a locally-based organization was needed that 

would “create a flow of information which will 

... help shape the destiny of this outstanding 

national park.”75 The Council did not make an 

organizational statement during the comment period noted above; it did, however, make contact 

with a variety of NPS and other Interior Department officials. The group, which quickly grew to 

a membership of 150, made numerous comments 

during the remainder of the “d-2” process. It 

remains an active organization today, more than 

thirty years after its founding.76

In October 1974, the Alaska Planning Group 

(APG) issued its final environmental statement for the proposed Mount McKinley park 

additions; that document recommended that 

3,210,000 acres be added to the park (see Map 

8). This area was just 30,000 acres larger than 

the December 1973 proposal; virtually the 

only changed boundaries were in the Heart 

Mountain-Little Mountain area, just west of 

Mount Russell at the southwestern end of the 

“old park,” and an area just north of the Cache 

Creek mining district. The Cooperative Planning 

and Management Zone, first propounded a year 

earlier, remained in place.77

One area of consideration that did not change 

during this period was the fourteen-mile-wide 

strip north of the park and west of Healy. An 

NPS map of potential parklands, dated November 1971, indicated that the entire strip should 

be included in an expanded Mount McKinley 

National Park.78 But once planners, during the 

post-ANCSA period, began to scrutinize the area 

more closely, they learned that 92,000 acres in 

six key townships, locally known as the “wolf 

townships,” had been selected by the State of 

Alaska back in July 1965. By the following May, 

the BLM had tentatively approved the transfer of 

most of those lands to the state, and small portions of the township closest to Healy had been 

subdivided beginning in October 1970.79 The 

land that was both north and west of these townships, however, remained in federal hands. As a 

result, the initial (March 1972) proposal included 

the federal lands—but not the state or private 

lands—in the proposed park area. The remaining plans released that year remained consistent 

with the March 1972 plan, and both the DEIS (in 

Lands important for caribou and 

moose populations north of the existing park boundary were proposed for 

inclusion in a newly-expanded park. 

NPS, DENA 9169, Denali National Park 

and Preserve Museum Collection
Chapter Eight: New Highway Impacts and the Park Expansion Process, 1972-1980 235

December 1973) and the FES (in October 1974) 

also retained the same proposal boundaries. The 

FES noted that “this area constitutes extremely 

critical range for the wolf packs” and was thus 

identified as an “area of environmental concern.” 

But because the state “recognized the wolf packs 

as an important resource,” because it had agreed 

on August 15, 1973 to close the area to further 

homesite entry, and because it “also excluded 

future transportation developments within this 

area,” Alaska Task Force planners excluded these 

townships from the expanded park area.80

During the summer of 1974, while the APG was 

still formulating its Mount McKinley FES, an 

ad hoc park planning group was formed under 

the aegis of the Federal-State Land Use Planning Commission. This group was called the Mt. 

McKinley Cooperative Planning and Management Zone Committee, later known as the Mt. 

McKinley Management Overview Committee. 

Primarily composed of state officials, its purpose 

was to investigate issues in the 100-square-mile 

cooperative zone located south and east of the 

proposed park-expansion area and to produce 

a land use plan for the area. It was intended 

that this committee would be a model for other 

cooperative efforts in other park areas. Given 

that direction, the committee met for the first 

time in late August 1974, and in February 1975, 

the committee held public hearings in Cantwell, 

Healy, Trapper Creek, and Anchorage. Committee members, at these meetings, hoped to get 

management direction, but most were disappointed; as one member noted, “many persons at 

the Anchorage meeting never heard of the management zone idea, and rural people who came 

intended to defend themselves from what we 

were supposedly going to do to them.” And there 

were organizational difficulties, too; member 

George Hall admitted that the various members 

“must develop a more explicit statement of what 

this group is trying to do.” To address those 

concerns, several subcommittee meetings were 

held in mid-March. But by the end of the month, 

neither the group’s goals nor purposes had yet 

been finalized. It was hoped that the committee would have completed a series of draft plans 

by July; then, following another round of public 

hearings, a final plan would emerge by September. The onset of summer, however, apparently 

slowed further work on the plans, and after late 

August 1975 the committee apparently stopped 

functioning.81

Southside Development Plans and Denali State 

Park Expansion

Key to the proposed park boundary changes 

south of the Alaska Range during the 1971-1974 

period was tourism development: where, what, 

how big, and by whom. As noted above, the NPS 

had broached the idea of a lodge on top of Curry 

Ridge as early as 1966, and the Department of 

Commerce had funded a 1968 study recommending a large hotel at Chulitna Pass. Both of 

those sites were located on land that had been 

selected by the State of Alaska, and in 1970 these 

sites were included in the newly-established 

Denali State Park. Another site, above the toe of 

Tokositna Glacier, had been favored by Bradford 

Washburn since 1969. Not everyone was happy 

with these sites, however, and they remained 

on the drawing boards until late 1971, when the 

Anchorage-Fairbanks road was completed. That 

fall a new proposal came to light, when Sen. Mike 

Gravel (D-Alaska) floated the idea of “a yearround lodge and indigenous sports center” on 

state land near Honolulu Creek, on the railroad 

just north of Hurricane Gulch. Few others, however, appeared interested in the idea.82

The following spring, state officials issued an 

internal report suggesting development at a new 

site: Byers Lake (see Map 9). Officials touted a 

plan, to be financed by the private sector, for a 

year-round hotel-resort complex just southeast 

of the lake that would offer skiing (with a 2,000-

foot drop), an enclosed aerial tramway or gondola to the top of Curry Ridge and an observation 

tower with food service, along with hiking trails, 

shops, and other amenities. Byers Lake, they 

argued, offered an “exceptional” view of Mount 

McKinley, and a timbered site protected from the 

wind. It also allowed access by floatplane as well 

as by road; rail patrons, according to the plan, 

would detrain at Chulitna Pass and take a shuttle 

bus to the resort.83 By September of 1972, state 

officials were preparing to “request bids very 

shortly for its proposed developments” at Byers 

Lake, and in late October the Alaska Division of 

Parks solicited proposals for the first phase of a 

three-phase hotel and ski-resort development.84

This proposed development, however, quickly 

receded into the background due to Alaska 

Senator Gravel’s efforts to erect a new tourist 

development. Gravel recognized that the NPS 

was actively searching for a hotel site due to the 

September 3 fire at McKinley Park Station and 

that Mt. McKinley could not be seen from the 

former hotel site. Gravel also felt that inasmuch 

as “we have the highest mountain in the world 

and we haven’t capitalized on it,” the state’s plans 

at Byers Lake were too modest. So in November 1972, a year after airing his Honolulu Creek 

proposal, Gravel—a former real estate developer—pitched the idea of a $50-$100 million 

“world recreation center,” a combined Alpinestyle village and ski area, which would be similar 

to Stowe, Vermont or Davos, Switzerland. 
236 Crown Jewel of the North: An Administrative History of Denali National Park and Preserve

During his speech, Gravel admitted that he was 

“really only at the conceptual point on this thing 

right now.” Perhaps for that reason, he was unspecific about where the development would be 

located. He was certain that it would be “outside 

the [national] Park or any extensions which may 

come to pass”; even without that caveat, however, 

a news report stated that “neither federal or state 

park officials are quite certain whether there is an 

area south of Mt. McKinley which would be feasible or available for such a plan.” Gravel hoped 

to finance the project “through federal funds and 

grants.” But to gain funds for a feasibility study, 

he hoped to obtain funds from the state and 

federal governments as well as from MatanuskaSusitna Borough. The following January, he 

asked the Joint Federal-State Land Use Planning 

Commission to conceptually endorse his project. 

Commission staff said “they might be able to 

assist in site-survey studies and planning,” but no 

general endorsement was forthcoming.85

Gravel, however, did not give up. In January 

1973, he spoke to Interior Secretary Rogers Morton about “Mt. McKinley City ... a top resort 

attraction that would catch the imagination of 

the entire world.” Morton’s decision to fund 

a replacement hotel at McKinley Park Station 

undercut part of Gravel’s rationale for his resort 

idea, but rising park visitation and the proposed 

resort’s year-round aspect provided independent 

impetus for justifying its construction, despite a 

muted public response. In late August that year, 

Gravel obtained promises from the NPS to fund a 

$1 million feasibility study for the “recreation city 

of 10,000 to 40,000 persons near the south base 

of Mt. McKinley.” Agency officials, at the time, 

expressed their support for Gravel’s ideas; they 

stated that “places on the south side should be 

Map 9. Proposed Southside Development Sites, 1968-1980
Chapter Eight: New Highway Impacts and the Park Expansion Process, 1972-1980 237

developed for recreation” and that such a resort 

community would not conflict with other land 

uses in the area proposed for the expanded park. 

Gravel, at this point, was still reticent regarding 

where to locate the resort; the study, ostensibly, 

would investigate optimal sites. But so far as is 

known, the NPS conducted no such study, and it 

made no allowances for such a resort in any of its 

post-ANCSA planning documents.86

Gravel’s ideas, however, were soon challenged 

by those of Bradford Washburn, the “foremost 

expert on Mt. McKinley” who touted a tourist 

development site just west of the Tokositna Glacier and less than 25 miles south of Mt. McKinley (see Map 9). As he had first noted in 1969, 

he liked the area—which Sydney Laurence had 

used for several of his well-known canvases—

because the Tokositna was a “white glacier” and 

thus more attractive to tourists than dirt-covered 

glaciers; in addition, the glacier’s lower end was 

“perfectly safe” because it was free of crevasses. 

Washburn hoped to see a lodge with “simple 

accommodations” built on the top of a glacial 

moraine beside the glacier; from that point, trails 

could access not only Tokositna Glacier but also 

Ruth Glacier, which he described as being “like 

the Grand Canyon with a glacier in it.” He envisioned the lodge as a year-round facility which 

would offer “breathtaking” winter views and 

unlimited cross-country skiing opportunities. 

The site, winter and summer, would be accessed 

by a 35-mile road which would leave the main 

highway near the Chulitna River Bridge and, 

for the most part, parallel the ridge south of the 

Tokositna River.87 But NPS officials quashed his 

idea; the agency’s December 1973 and October 1974 planning documents concluded that 

Washburn’s proposed lodge site would be well 

within the expanded Mount McKinley National 

Park. Within the proposed park areas south of 

the Alaska Range, moreover, the NPS envisioned 

interpretation and tent camping, not roads or 

large-scale visitor services.88

Meanwhile, in the midst of the Gravel and 

Washburn proposals, the state continued to 

solicit bids for hotel development at Byers Lake. 

Apparently only one firm responded to the bid 

requests that had been announced in October 

1972.89 That firm, moreover, was apparently unable to successfully meet the state’s development 

expectations, because more than a year later (in 

June 1974), the state’s Department of Natural Resources was “currently reviewing bids for funding of more elaborate future development plans” 

in the park such as the Byers Lake lodge and the 

land-based air strip. In August 1974, DNR officials awarded a 55-year contract for the construction of park tourist facilities to an Anchorage 

firm, Denali Development Corporation. Now 

that a private-sector partner was in place, the 

park’s 1975 master plan continued to promote a 

major development site at Byers Lake.90

Meanwhile, the post-ANCSA land selection 

process—which was taking place at a meteoric 

pace throughout the state—was creating new 

opportunities for tourism development in areas 

south of the Alaska Range. The various decisions 

made by Interior Department officials in the nine 

months after ANCSA’s passage had the net effect 

of settling considerable overlapping land claims 

between the state and federal governments, and 

state officials—hoping “to prevent any hodgepodge development that often mars the boundaries of our national parks”—hoped to add some of 

these newly-awarded lands to Denali State Park. 

Between the mid-1970s and the early 

1980s, the state and federal governments showed considerable interest 

in a hotel near the Tokositna Glacier 

terminus. This 1977 photo, from the 

proposed hotel site, looks north to 

Mount McKinley. NPS, DENA 9169, 

Denali National Park and Preserve 

Museum Collection
238 Crown Jewel of the North: An Administrative History of Denali National Park and Preserve

In October 1972, for example, Governor William 

Egan noted that the state “will” add to the park 

four townships in the Chelatna Lake area “together with approximately 13,000 acres directly 

west of Denali State Park.”91

This proposal, however, was not acted upon, and 

no further action regarding state park expansion 

took place until early 1975, shortly after the election of Jay Hammond as governor. In early 1975, 

the Division of Parks completed a park master 

plan which, among other provisions, “identified a 66 square mile area [with] outstanding 

recreational values ... near the terminus of the 

Tokositna Glacier” as a proposed park addition. 

The plan noted that “the major attribute of this 

proposed addition,” which had been recommended by the Joint Federal-State Land Use 

Planning Commission, “is its commanding view 

of 20,320 foot Mt. McKinley, particularly from 

Point Long [sic], which faces the gorge of the Tokositna Glacier.” Near the Long Creek-Canyon 

Creek confluence, which was just 12 miles south 

of the site that Brad Washburn had touted in 

September 1973, the state hoped to construct a 

“rustic and comfortable lodge” along with a visitor center, trails, picnic areas and campgrounds. 

The plan noted that “certain portions of this 

development, including the lodge structure, 

[would] be accomplished with private capital on 

a concession basis.” But other costs would be 

borne by the state, including the construction of 

an improved ten-mile road from Petersville to the 

site.92

The plan was admittedly in its early conceptual 

stage, but given the plan’s impetus, Rep. Theodore G. Smith—who had until recently been the 

State Parks Division director—introduced a bill 

(HB 185) to add 66 square miles (42,240 acres) to 

Denali State Park.93 The bill was referred to the 

House Resources Committee, which held two 

hearings on the bill (in Palmer and in Anchorage) 

on April 5. A meeting participant noted that 

testimony on this proposal was light 

and about equally divided between 

pro and con. Those in favor pointed 

out the value and suitability of the area 

for development of public facilities 

and an excellent view. Opposition 

favored no expansion; that private 

enterprise be allowed to provide the 

public facilities.94

Given the results of the meeting, legislators 

slowly moved ahead with expansion plans. The 

Resources Committee passed the park expansion bill in late April, but further action awaited 

the beginning of the 1976 legislative season. The 

House bill passed the Finance Committee on 

March 24 and the entire House (with a 32-3 vote) 

on March 29. It then went to the Senate, where 

the Resources Committee passed the bill on May 

7. HB 185 passed the full Senate on May 11, and 

Beginning in 1972, the Alaska Department of Natural Resources trumpeted 

the idea of a hotel development in 

the Byers Lake vicinity. DENA Herkenham #72, Denali National Park and 

Preserve Museum Collection
Chapter Eight: New Highway Impacts and the Park Expansion Process, 1972-1980 239

again on a May 19 reconsideration vote. It was 

then sent on to Governor Hammond, who signed 

it into law on July 2, 1976. The bill became effective on September 6.95

The Backcountry Use Plan

In the midst of ongoing plans for both an expanded national park and an enlarged Denali 

State Park, plans were also being formulated and 

carried out within the existing Mount McKinley 

National Park. The completion of the Anchorage-Fairbanks highway, as noted above, brought 

thousands of additional visitors to the park each 

year, and the nation’s growing penchant for rugged outdoor education meant that many of those 

visitors sought challenging adventure away from 

the park road corridor.

To some extent, the park had long been a haven 

for hikers. Since early days, the Outer Range 

hills and the broad valleys south of the park road 

had beckoned visitors. As far back as the 1920s, 

rangers had proposed trails that would take 

visitors as well as park staff to Anderson Pass, 

Clearwater Creek, McGonagall Pass, Foggy Pass, 

and the head of Savage River.96 None of those 

trails were built, however. As noted in Chapter 

5, several short trails were begun during the CCC 

days of the late 1930s, mostly in the McKinley 

Park Station area; a new trail, from the hotel area 

to the park headquarters, was added in 1952.97 A 

few visitors during this period decried the lack of 

suitable trails, but the advanced age of most park 

visitors put off serious trail planning for the time 

being.98 But park personnel recognized that the 

new Denali Highway would attract “younger and 

more able individuals ... and to prepare for this 

type, hiking trails ... are proposed for construction in the very near future.” Beginning in 1954, 

plans were made for trails “to the snout of the 

Toklat River Glacier” and for a bridge across 

the McKinley Bar that would have allowed trail 

access to the Clearwater Creek country. Then, 

in 1956, the Mission 66 Prospectus recommended 

several new trails: up the Savage River valley and to Double 

Mountain, the old Sheldon 

Cabin, and McGonagall Pass.99 

The park’s final Mission 66 

plan, approved in 1957, called 

for four short self-guiding 

nature trails (to be located near 

stopping points along the park 

road) along with “five backcountry hiking trails,” each 

with “shelters constructed in 

needed locations.”100 During 

the Mission 66 period, several 

of the short nature trails were 

constructed—at Eielson Visitor 

Center and Polychrome Pass, for example—but 

the park’s long-distance trails never got off 

the drawing board. As late as the mid-1960s, 

trails-related funding continued to lag, perhaps 

because few visitors demanded either new trails 

or maintenance on existing trails.101

By the early 1970s, an interest in long-distance 

hiking finally began to make itself known. Beginning in 1971, the NPS required that all overnight 

backcountry users obtain a campfire permit, and 

later that summer, the park concessioner began 

to make a special provision for hikers (both day 

hikers and backpackers) traveling to various “trail 

points” on the tour buses. The 1972 completion of the Anchorage-Fairbanks highway, plus 

the implementation of a bus system that, for the 

first time, allowed backpackers to travel for free 

to distant points along the park road, brought a 

dramatic increase in backcountry activity. The 

number of visitor-days by hikers and backpackers, for example, ballooned from 5,419 in 1971 

to 10,437 in 1973, a 92 percent increase.102 This 

mushrooming of activity was immediately felt, 

and after the 1972 season, park officials recognized that “there is a need for direct onsite 

management” in the backcountry.103 

Beginning in 1973, park officials—searching for a 

long-term solution—sought “to determine how 

many backpackers the park can take without 

damaging these natural scenic areas.” Both 

rangers and backpackers began to recognize, 

for instance, that open campfires degraded the 

tundra environment; these fire-blackened sites 

also attracted future campers to stay at the same 

spot. To avoid these concentrated impacts, 

rangers asked that backpackers bring their own 

camp stoves, and they also recommended that 

backcountry users hike and camp in generally 

undisturbed areas, thus distributing their individual impacts over a broad area rather than at a 

few concentrated locations.104 That same year, 

park officials—at the behest of biologist Gordon 

Backcountry hiking and camping in 

the park nearly doubled between 

1971 and 1973. NPS Interp. Collection #763, Denali National Park and 
240 Crown Jewel of the North: An Administrative History of Denali National Park and Preserve

Haber—announced that three backcountry 

areas would be closed to hiking and camping in 

order to protect wolf dens and denning areas. 

From June 15 to the first of September, 28,672 

acres were closed along the Sanctuary River, 

12,544 acres along the Toklat River, and 1,240 

acres along Moose Creek.105 Haber’s suggestion proved to be of long-lasting value, and in the 

years to come, park officials continued to close 

key areas on an as-needed basis, either to protect 

wildlife denning areas or to protect visitors from 

kill sites or other potentially dangerous locations.106

During the winter of 1973-74, the NPS began 

to investigate new ways of managing the park’s 

backcountry. Dan Kuehn, who had recently been 

hired as Mount McKinley’s superintendent, 

hired ranger Steve Buskirk as the park’s first 

resource management specialist, and Buskirk 

spent most of that winter cobbling together a 

park Backcountry Use Plan. By the following 

March Buskirk had largely completed the plan, 

and the park issued a press release announcing 

that it would implement the plan that summer. It 

was one of a large number of similar plans that 

the agency was writing for national park areas 

throughout the country.107 The press release 

stated, “Faced with this [usage] increase and 

consequent overcrowding of some backcountry 

areas, the National Park Service will moderate 

the pressure on the backcountry resource and 

maintain the quality of experience for backcountry visitors.” Because campers had consistently 

noted that isolation was an important part of 

a park backcountry experience, the plan laid 

out a mechanism—through the issuance of its 

backcountry use permits—whereby the park 

was divided into 31 backcountry use zones (25 

of which were adjacent to the park road), and 

not more than two backpacking parties would 

be allowed in each zone. Additional elements 

of the backcountry plan, unrelated to hiking 

activity, included a laissez faire attitude toward 

fire management, a refusal to stock fish within the 

park’s lakes, transplant game, control predators, 

or enhance vegetation. Many of these practices, 

which reflected “a change in the thinking of wildlife management personnel across the country,” 

had long been practiced at the park, but it was 

the first time that they had been codified in a 

planning document.108

In order to implement these policies, Chief 

Ranger Gary Brown hired the first-ever backcountry rangers in the spring of 1974: Jack and 

Beth Hebert. The husband-and-wife team was 

stationed at headquarters that summer but spent 

most of its time in the backcountry. As Beth 

recently noted, 

We wrote reports on backcountry 

conditions, ... we replaced the floors 

of several of the backcountry cabins, we ... hauled to the road wire 

from the old telegraph line that ran 

to Eielson. ... We also cleaned up 

campfire rings, hauled out trash, 

checked permits, and informed hikers 

about the backcountry management 

plan. We were occasionally involved 

in search-and-rescue operations and 

bear management issues.109

The 1977 Backcountry Unit Map 

shows how the park was divided into 

areas for the purpose of regulating 

backcountry use, thereby protecting 

the hikers’ wilderness experience. 

Backcountry Management Plan Unit 

Map, 1977, Resource Library, Denali 

National Park and Preserve
Chapter Eight: New Highway Impacts and the Park Expansion Process, 1972-1980 241

The park released its final Backcountry Use 

and Operations Plan, along with the park’s first 

hiking brochure, in June 1975. Before it did so, 

however, Buskirk and other park staff addressed 

several issues that had arisen the previous summer. First, staff recognized that the 1974 use 

limitations were too strict, so significant increases 

in visitation per unit were approved. Second, 

staff took a new look at the park’s backcountry 

use zones and decided to bisect four of them 

into smaller units, thus creating a new total of 

35 zones.110 Finally, backcountry campfire use 

remained a problem. In 1973 and 1974, the 

agency had encouraged backpackers to bring 

portable stoves in hopes of reducing the ecological damage brought on by campfires—both from 

firewood gathering as well as fire-caused tundra 

damage. Perhaps as a result of those suggestions, 

only 23 percent of all 1974 backpacking parties 

built open fires. Buskirk, recognizing that Mount 

McKinley, with its rain and mosquitoes, was 

less than ideally suited for campfires, and also 

recognizing the ecological factors cited above, 

recommended in a January 1975 memo that 

“permission to build fires no longer be issued [to 

backpackers] and that the use of fire, except in 

cases of emergencies, be terminated.” Buskirk’s 

superiors—Chief Ranger Gary Brown and Superintendent Dan Kuehn—were understandably 

wary about the public’s reaction to the proposed 

policy. Both men approved Buskirk’s recommendation, however, and beginning in the summer of 

1976, open fires were prohibited in all backcountry units.111 Meanwhile, the park had expanded 

its backcountry ranger force from two to four: 

Jack and Beth Hebert continued to serve during 

the 1975 to 1977 seasons, while the other ranger 

pair was Melinda Frison and Donna Pritchett in 

1975 followed by Pete and Gretchen Pederson in 

1976-77.112

During the summers of 1977 and 1978, staff under the guidance of the Regional Chief Scientist 

(in Seattle) conducted an extensive survey of 

the park’s backcountry users. More than 4,000 

backcountry visitors were asked 

about the park’s backcountry 

management policies and, in 

particular, whether overcrowding was a concern.113 (The 

number of overnight hikers, by 

1978, had risen to 5,187, from 

just 2,469 four years earlier.) 

The survey showed that users, 

by and large, were “overwhelmingly supportive of the Park 

Service’s regulations governing use of the backcountry.”114 

NPS officials, however, made 

minor changes to the zoning 

system. They decided to broaden a restriction on 

public off-road access in the Sable Pass area that 

had been established in 1956 (see Chapter 12) by 

implementing a five-mile-long “closed to hiking” 

zone for one-half mile on either side of the park 

road. In addition, they designated fairly extensive areas surrounding the park headquarters, the 

park hotel, East Fork just north of the park road, 

and the Wonder Lake area where camping would 

be permitted only in designated areas.115 The 

expansion of the park boundaries, and later management actions, would bring new refinements to 

the system (see Chapter 9), but the basic system 

would remain largely unchanged.

The park’s attitude toward its backcountry, as evidenced by the Backcountry Use and Operations 

Plan, was a recognition that wilderness, as the 

public perceived it, was well worth keeping. But 

wilderness, as a legal concept, remained elusive, 

at least for the time being. As noted in Chapter 

7, a 1965 master planning study had noted that 

the park contained two de facto wilderness areas: 

a 334,000-acre Toklat Wilderness Area north 

of the park road, and a 1,396,000-acre Denali 

Wilderness Area south of the road. Regional 

and Washington officials concurred with these 

master-plan recommendations. Within months 

of the issuance of that master plan, however, the 

first of a series of new planning efforts brought 

dynamism—if not total unpredictability—to a determination of what the park’s future boundaries 

should be. Because of that dynamism, the agency 

deferred its Mount McKinley wilderness study 

for the time being, even though it had authorized 

such studies for its other large Alaska units, Katmai and Glacier Bay. After ANCSA was signed 

into law in late 1971, the commencement of the 

17(d)(2) process added yet another element of 

unpredictability to the equation. Congress, as 

part of the 1964 Wilderness Act, had mandated 

that all NPS units with major roadless areas had 

to be inventoried and evaluated within a ten-year 

time frame. But because both Congress and the 

NPS knew that the post-ANCSA process would 

not be decided until well after the 1974 deadline, 

Backcountry rangers Beth and Jack 

Hebert, left, contact hikers in the 

park, 1975. Buskirk Photo, DENA 

R&RP files, Denali National Park and 

Preserve
242 Crown Jewel of the North: An Administrative History of Denali National Park and Preserve

all wilderness planning efforts were deferred until Congress had settled the 17(d)(2) question.116

The 1976 Development Concept Plan

While Steve Buskirk and his co-workers were in 

the midst of writing the park’s first backcountry 

plan, other park staff recognized that the crush 

of new park visitors since 1972 demanded that 

a new plan be developed regarding operations 

and facilities in the hotel area, the headquarters 

area, and along the park road. As noted above, 

recreational visitation to the park had more 

than tripled in just two years; in 1971 there had 

been 44,500 visitors, while in 1973 visitation 

had ballooned to 137,300. Visitation continued 

to skyrocket in 1974, when 161,400 visits were 

recorded. (See Appendix B.) Because most 

visitors spent their time in the headquarters and 

hotel-railroad station areas, facilities designed 

for more modest visitation were clearly being 

overwhelmed. Specific problem areas included a 

lack of parking in the hotel-Riley Creek area, an 

absence of shower and laundry facilities for the 

increasing number of campers and backpackers, and the poor quality of seasonal housing for 

both NPS and concessions staff. Park officials, 

recognizing that the heightened crowds were 

having a negative impact on many visitors’ park 

experience, expressed these concerns to regional 

officials in Seattle; they, in turn, requested the 

assistance of the agency’s Denver Service Center 

(DSC) in the matter. DSC officials decided to 

address these problems by compiling a development concept plan (DCP) to address a broad 

spectrum of development-related issues.117

Doug Cornell directed the DCP effort; his 

involvement began on August 27-29, 1975, 

when public workshops on the plan were held 

in Anchorage, in Fairbanks, and at the park. 

Workshop attendees, who numbered between 40 

and 50, first broached questions with long-term 

impacts (“Should the existing hotel be removed?” 

Or, conversely, “Should additional hotels be built 

in the park – and if so, where?”). Both participants and staff recognized that the state and 

NPS, at that time, were in the midst of a separate 

planning effort for the Cooperative Planning 

and Management Zone (see above), and they also 

recognized that the park’s master plan, which 

had been put forth in December 1973 as part 

of the larger 17(d)(2) issue, had not yet been 

adopted. Given those larger issues, there was a 

broad awareness that a full DCP was premature; 

instead, the planning document would be called 

an Interim DCP, the goal of which would be 

limited to specific problems in the hotel, Riley 

Creek, and headquarters areas. As the planning team itself noted, “the team will consider 

only those [planning alternatives] which could 

be implemented within the present developed 

area, at minimum expense, and with minimum 

environmental impact.”118

Given the public input at the three meetings, 

DSC personnel completed an Analysis of Alternatives in December 1975, which provided five contrasting development scenarios. The document 

was then let out for public comment; planners, 

however, received only twelve responses. Based 

on comments generated both during the August 1975 workshops and during the early-1976 

public comment period, DSC staff compiled the 

Interim Development Concept Plan and released it 

in early March 1976. The plan called for the NPS 

to make a large number of changes to interpretive facilities, residential areas, and parking lots; 

none of these changes, however, were particularly costly. Specific recommendations included 

a small addition to the park hotel, enlarging area 

parking lots, adding a shower-restroom building 

near the youth hostel, adding interpretive space 

at the hotel, improving signage and lighting, rehabilitating concessioner employee quarters, and 

the additional of new housing units at the former 

CCC camp. Alaska officials broadly approved 

many of the plan’s recommendations but urged 

modifications in others, but perhaps because of 

other funding priorities, few of the recommended changes were ever implemented.119

The Resurgence of Dog Patrols

As noted in Chapters 5 through 7, Supt. Frank 

Been removed most of the park’s working sled 

dogs from the park in the early 1940s and kept 

In 1975 this Backcountry Information 

desk was located in the Riley Creek 

Information Center and was the main 

contact point for implementation of 

the park’s Backcountry Management 

Plan. Buskirk Photo, DENA R&RP files, 

Denali National Park and Preserve
Chapter Eight: New Highway Impacts and the Park Expansion Process, 1972-1980 243

only enough dogs for longer patrols and for demonstration purposes. During most of the midto-late 1940s, the park had no dogs whatsoever, 

and annual dog patrols since 1950 had been a hitor-miss affair; they took place between 1952 and 

1960, and again beginning in 1963. Throughout 

this period, however, the dogs’ primary and most 

visible purpose was for summertime interpretive 

demonstrations. Until the late 1960s, the park 

continued to keep sled dogs; 

their care was typically entrusted to a headquarters-based 

ranger as a collateral duty.120

Shortly after Ivan Miller became the park’s chief ranger in 

1969, however, the park began 

to adopt a different attitude 

toward its sled dogs. He and 

others realized that “dog sledding was a cultural, historic, 

and prehistoric resource worth 

preserving and it provided 

a means of transportation 

compatible with the Alaskan 

wilderness that the park was set 

aside to protect.”121 (Alaska, during this period, 

was experiencing a revival in dog mushing; in 

early 1967, Dorothy Page of Wasilla had organized a 50-mile race—the first long-distance race 

held in decades—and soon afterward, she and 

Joe Redington were raising statewide interest in 

even longer races. This interest, in 1973, would 

be manifested in the first Anchorage-to-Nome 

Iditarod Sled Dog Race.122) Recognizing that the 

park’s early operations were largely dependent 

upon working dogs, but well aware that the few 

remaining park dogs were sparsely used during 

the long winter months, an unnamed staffer suggested in an internal memo that November,

How about employing a park “Dog 

musher” to work with and develop 

... [the park dogs?]. The perpetuation of actually working dog teams 

should have an intrinsic value well 

worth the investment and would add 

a lot in authenticity for demonstration 

purposes.

A key remaining question, however, was who 

would train the ranger corps? As the November 

1969 memo noted, “I realize it may be difficult to 

find an experienced hand in this all but extinct 

profession.”123 But as a follow-up source noted, 

“experienced people were found, old timers 

passed on what they knew, and Denali Park Kennels became a vital part of park operations, summer and winter.”124 More specifically, the park 

kennels were entrusted to ranger Roy Sanborn, 

who later in the winter of 1969-70 added several 

malamutes. The revamped dog assemblage was 

first exhibited to the public the following summer, and by 1971 Sanborn had written an informational pamphlet about the park’s dog teams, 

entitled Malamutes of Mount McKinley National 

Park. Sanborn remained in charge of the kennels 

until he left the park in 1972; during that period, 

he took increasingly long patrols with the team 

and continued to add more malamutes.125

Park staff gradually came to recognize, however, 

that malamutes—as attractive and iconic as they 

were to tourists—fared relatively poorly during 

wintertime patrols, and they also came to realize what Alaskans during an earlier period had 

long known: that the dogs most appropriate for 

long-distance hauling (or racing) were relatively 

small, they were not purebreds, and in the eyes of 

many visitors they were not particularly handsome. In 1973, the arrival of Superintendent Dan 

Kuehn and Chief Ranger Gary Brown signaled 

changes at the kennel, because soon afterward 

the park began to obtain strong, adaptable sled 

dogs—“whatever their breed or mixed breed,” as 

Superintendent Kuehn has noted.126 

The change in attitude toward the kennels—as 

reflected by the dogs’ appearance and breed—

soon had new impacts. First, the park hired staff 

with specific expertise in dog-handling capabilities: in early 1973 it asked Ford Reeves, a member 

of the park’s maintenance staff, to become the 

park’s first “animal caretaker” in more than 30 

years, and in November 1974 the park hired Sandra L. Kogl—who was already experienced with 

dog teams—to take over the park kennels. Kogl 

kept the job for more than a decade, and in 1981 

she wrote a book about the park dogs, entitled 

Sled Dogs of Denali. An increasing number of 

volunteers, over the years, ably assisted Reeves 

and Kogl.127 Also in 1974, park staff tried to 

restore the kennels area to its historical appearance; as noted in the park’s annual report, “The 

kennel building floor was covered with 2” spruce 

During the summer season park 

interpretive staff provided dog sled 

demonstrations at the park kennels 

for the visiting public. NPS Interp. 

Collection #704, Denali National Park 

and Preserve
244 Crown Jewel of the North: An Administrative History of Denali National Park and Preserve

planks and dowelled. The ceiling was paneled. 

A new ‘old’ stove was acquired [and] construction began on 15 new, three sided log dog houses 

to replace old plywood houses.”128 Finally, and 

perhaps of greatest importance, the park began 

to use dogs for regular winter patrols for the first 

time since the late 1930s or early 1940s. As late as 

the winter of 1972-73, rangers had recorded only 

210 miles of dog sled patrol. But by 1974, this 

mileage had increased to 1,700, and in 1978 there 

were some 4,000 miles of dog sled patrols.129 The 

dog teams were used to check winter recreation 

use, trail conditions, to haul backcountry trash 

(including trash left by mountaineers), and to 

protect park wildlife. During this period, rangers did not rely solely on dog teams for their 

wintertime patrols; they also used snowmachines 

to patrol just beyond the northern border and 

conducted occasional ski patrols as well.130 

Airplanes were also occasionally used to patrol 

the park during this period, but because park officials did not have regular access to government 

aircraft, the only air patrols took place during the 

late 1970s, inasmuch as Supt. Betts, a pilot, had 

his own plane and parked it at the McKinley Park 

airstrip.131

During Sandra Kogl’s years as the 

park’s dog handler and kennels manager, she revamped the kennels’ sled 

dog breeding program resulting in far 

superior working sled dog bloodlines. 

DENA 11-155, Denali National Park 

and Preserve Museum Collection 
Chapter Eight: New Highway Impacts and the Park Expansion Process, 1972-1980 245

Dog teams also entered into the commercial 

sphere during this period. In 1973, veteran dog 

musher Dennis Kogl requested, and received, a 

Special Use Permit to take the public on sled dog 

trips into the park.132 Kogl operated his tours until 1976 but then encountered problems insuring 

his patrons. Thereafter, he retooled his operation and ran a dog-sled freight-service operation, 

both to supply skiers on long-distance trips in the 

park and for mountaineers attempting to climb 

Alaska Range peaks from the north side. The 

operation, originally called Denali Dog Tours, 

became known as Denali Dog Tours and Wilderness Freighters beginning in the winter of 1977-

78. Kogl remained active until 1984, operating 

with either a special use permit, a concessions 

permit, or a commercial use license; he then sold 

the business to Will Forsburg and Linda Johnson, 

who kept it going into the 1990s. Two operators 

currently operate dog sled services: one handles 

passenger tours, while the other conducts commercial freight hauling.133

Concessions and Business Development

As noted earlier in this chapter, Outdoor World, 

Ltd. had become the park’s sole concessioner beginning in January 1972. Beginning that summer 

George Fleharty, the company’s major stockholder, was the on-site manager of the park’s 

concessions operation. Fleharty and Outdoor 

World remained in those positions for the next 

five years. In mid-1977, however, change was in 

the offing. Outdoor World, apparently in search 

of capital for new construction projects, prepared a prospectus to sell the company’s assets 

to a larger company. ARA Services, Inc.—a New 

Jersey-based corporation which also ran concessions operations at Mesa Verde and Shenandoah 

national parks—responded to the prospectus, 

and on June 1, 1978 the deal was finalized; Outdoor World became a division of ARA Services 

(see Appendix D). Based on the company’s satisfactory operations elsewhere, the NPS quickly 

approved the contract; the agency was unwilling, 

however, to include a 20-year contract extension 

(which would have extended 

the final year of the contract 

from 1987 to 1998).134 Despite 

the corporate-level changes, 

on-site operations continued 

much as they had before, with 

George Fleharty still managing 

the park concession from his 

offices in the McKinley Park 

community.135

A key clause in a June 1972 

Memorandum of Agreement 

between Outdoor World and 

the NPS—which continued 

under the 1978 ARA contract—was that the 

concessioner was given the exclusive right to 

operate the park’s transportation services. This 

meant that the concessioner controlled not 

only the park’s tour busses (which had been a 

concessioner function ever since the 1920s) but 

the new shuttle bus system as well.136 Given that 

authority, the concessioner was responsible for 

procuring the necessary buses for both systems. 

In response, the concessioner purchased a small 

fleet of “Bluebird” blue-colored tour buses. But 

to obtain shuttle buses, it typically negotiated annual agreements with various Alaska school districts. As noted above, the large number of park 

visitors in 1972 overtaxed the initial shuttle bus 

fleet to such an extent that officials were forced to 

add new buses in midsummer. 

In order to avoid repeating the mistakes of 1972, 

NPS officials vowed to add more buses to the 

shuttle fleet; in March 1973, Alaska State Office Director Stan Albright announced that “we 

will have 22 buses that will run throughout the 

park.”137 Despite those promises, only 17 were 

placed into service – a number that again proved 

insufficient for the record number of park visitors. Once again, those who fared worst were 

mid-season day hikers, plus campers at Savage, 

Teklanika, and other campgrounds. All too many 

times, these visitors were unable to venture farther west along the park road because the passing 

buses were full to capacity. As a result, they complained long and loud to both concessions and 

NPS officials, and in one particularly memorable 

incident, an obviously distraught camper waited 

so long for a bus that he flagged one down, took 

the driver’s keys and was cited for disorderly conduct. The park superintendent, frustrated that 

his agency could not afford to fund more shuttle 

buses, decided to open up the park road to all 

motorists who had reservations for campgrounds 

west of Savage River. Regional officials quickly 

got the message; they quickly provided the park 

with additional funds, and within a week, 14 

more shuttle buses had been added to the fleet.138

Given two years of inadequate bus service, and 

In the 1970s park dog teams were 

used to remove old bridge timbers 

that had washed downstream on 

the Toklat River. The dog teams also 

hauled cabin repair materials to cabins along the park’s northern boundary. NPS Interp. Collection #2763, 

Denali National Park and Preserve
246 Crown Jewel of the North: An Administrative History of Denali National Park and Preserve

an expectation for even higher visitor totals in the 

future, NPS and concessions officials prepared 

for upcoming seasons by supplying even more 

buses. That strategy ultimately worked, and for 

the remainder of the decade visitors voiced few 

complaints about the number of park shuttle 

buses. The U.S. government had to pay all costs 

related to procuring and operating the additional 

buses. This “cost-plus” system took an increasing bite out of the park budget, inasmuch as the 

concessioner had little incentive to trim costs.139

Another bus-related worry—one borne entirely 

by the concessioner—was passenger safety. Over 

the years there had been few vehicle accidents 

along the park road, primarily because both 

buses and private automobiles were rarely seen 

in the park prior to the war and were still an 

uncommon sight until the mid-1950s.140 After 

the Denali Highway opened in 1957, however, 

an increasing number of rollovers and other 

accidents were recorded.141 The first of these 

involved privately-owned automobiles, but two 

accidents involving a concessions bus—one of 

which injured a park visitor—took place during 

the summer of 1962.142 More significant was 

a July 30, 1969 rollover involving a westbound 

tour bus, just west of Igloo Campground, which 

resulted in a total loss to the bus and injuries to 

most of the forty passengers, nine of whom required hospitalization.143 Although the agency’s 

actions during the winter of 1971-72 resulted in 

the removal of most private vehicle traffic from 

the park road, accidents continued. In July 1974 

a wildlife tour bus rolled down an embankment 

just east of Eielson Visitor Center, killing one passenger (Katherine McFadden) and injuring most 

of the remaining 39 passengers, and in August 

1978 an Omaha woman “suffered a slight head 

injury” when an eastbound shuttle bus rolled 

over midway between Wonder Lake and Eielson. 

Drivers, in all three cases, were deemed negligent 

for venturing too close to the road edge.144

As noted above, the primary reason that Outdoor 

World became an ARA Services subsidiary was 

to obtain capital for new hotel construction. 

The boom in park visitation during the 1970s 

meant that the McKinley Park Hotel often had 

a season-long 99 percent occupancy rate, and 

many visitors who hoped to stay for two days 

or more had to leave after just a single night’s 

stay. Based on these factors, on projections of a 

long-term boom in Alaska tourism, and the fact 

that a much larger-sized park (which was then 

being debated in Congress) would make the area 

even more attractive to visitors, Fleharty and 

other concessions-company officials recognized 

that a new hotel was needed. But he may have 

also recognized that NPS officials would fight 

any attempt to build a new hotel within the park 

boundary or substantially expand the existing 

hotel. As a result, neither Fleharty nor any other 

tourist developer tried to build additional hotel 

space within the existing or proposed park.145

Instead, Fleharty looked east, to an area just 

outside the park boundary which was then called 

Windy Pass. That mile-long sliver of land, which 

was sandwiched between the Nenana River 

and an adjacent cliff face, had been claimed by 

three men (Chalon Harris, Stephen E. Jones, and 

Charles M. Travers) since 1965 and had been in 

their ownership since 1974. Near the north end 

of that sliver, concession company officials decided (for $3 million) to purchase 

46 acres of Harris’s 70-acre 

parcel. The deal was apparently finalized in 1977. Within 

months, the concessioner 

began two major construction 

projects on its newly-acquired 

parcel. Looking for a way to 

supply much-needed seasonal 

employee housing, it began 

constructing four-plex housing units that fall on the former 

site of Tenada Campground. 

Then, in the early spring of 

1978, construction began on the first “hotel unit” 

at the newly-christened McKinley Chalets. By 

the spring of 1980 three of these hotel units were 

open for tourist accommodations, and before the 

end of that year the construction of a gift shop, 

lobby, restaurant, and lounge had begun on the 

same property.146 These improvements, in the 

coming years, would be followed by many others 

in the mile-long Windy Pass area. The developments above, plus many others which followed in 

later years, were collectively called “the canyon” 

during the 1980s; today the area is known as Glitter Gulch.147

Changes in the commercial scene were also taking place at the west end of the park road. The 

primary commercial destination in that area, as it 

had been since the early 1950s, was Camp Denali. 

This 1974 bus maintenance facility 

served vehicles in the park visitor 

transportation system. DENA 5753, 

Denali National Park and Preserve 

Museum Collection
Chapter Eight: New Highway Impacts and the Park Expansion Process, 1972-1980 247

Begun as a rustic getaway, the 

camp reflected the environmental sentiments of its longtime owners, Celia Hunter and 

Ginny Hill Wood, and much of 

its early clientele was affiliated 

with conservation groups such 

as the Wilderness Society, the 

National Parks Association, 

and the Sierra Club. (Hunter, 

in fact, was a member of the 

Wilderness Society’s governing board, and the Society had 

held its 1963 annual meeting at 

the camp.) By the mid-1970s 

the small, informal cabin camp 

had gained a loyal following under Hunter and 

Wood’s long-term guidance.148 But in 1975, the 

two women came to the realization “that we 

could not forever put out the physical energy that 

operating Camp Denali demands,” and Hunter’s 

role as the Alaska Conservation Society president 

and as a member of the Joint Federal-State Land 

Use Planning Commission forced her to spend 

an increasing number of summer days away from 

camp. Casting about for “someone special” to 

operate the camp in their stead, they agreed to 

sell the camp to Wallace Cole and his wife Jerryne. The new owners were thoroughly familiar 

with the camp and its operations, having worked 

together on the camp staff, and they had both 

spent several summers working for the park concessioner. Wally, for example, had first worked 

at the hotel in 1959 and had spent six years there, 

including several years as its on-site manager, 

while Jerri also worked in a variety of positions, 

both at the hotel and as a tour bus driver. The 

Coles were concerned, year-round residents who 

lived just outside of the park’s eastern boundary.149

Less than a mile from Camp Denali, and just 

south of Moose Creek, a new hostelry called the 

North Face Lodge opened in the spring of 1973. 

Gary Crabb, who owned the Mt. McKinley Village development just south of the park entrance 

along the Anchorage-Fairbanks highway, bought 

a five-acre small-tract site from former park superintendent Grant Pearson, who had staked out 

the parcel in September 1955 and secured title to 

it in March 1963.150 Crabb, the new owner, installed several ATCO trailer units on the property—sufficient for six or seven tourist rooms—and 

sold tour packages to park visitors; these packages included one-night stays at both of Crabb’s 

lodges. The new tour arrangement rankled NPS 

officials (who wanted to keep any new traffic off 

the park road) as well as the park concessioner 

(who felt that the tours violated contract terms 

that gave the company an exclusive commercial 

use of the road). Crabb, however, explained that 

he needed to operate over the road in order to 

access his business, and under that stipulation he 

obtained a new Special Use Permit that allowed 

him to run one daily bus each way between the 

McKinley Park railroad station and North Face 

Lodge. At first, Crabb used the permit only occasionally; in 1973, in fact, he brought tourists 

out to the lodge just twice. His use of the lodge, 

however, gradually increased, and he continued 

to run the operation out of his trailer units for 

more than a decade.151

Staff, Campgrounds, and Facilities

During the 1970s there were three superintendents at Mount McKinley National Park: 

Vernon Ruesch, Daniel Kuehn, and Frank Betts. 

Vernon Ruesch, as noted in Chapter 7, was the 

first park superintendent who had not also been 

in charge of other Alaska NPS units. Ruesch, a 

former ranger, served from July 1969 until June 

1973, when he was transferred to Sitka National 

Historical Park. Ruesch was replaced by Sitka 

Superintendent Daniel Kuehn, a historian who 

had previously served at Salem Maritime National Historical Park (in Massachusetts), Manassas National Battlefield Park (in Virginia), and 

Chickamauga and Chattanooga National Military 

Park (in Georgia and Tennessee). Kuehn served 

until September 1978, when he transferred to the 

Pacific Northwest Regional Office in Seattle; he 

was replaced by Frank Betts, a former ranger who 

had previously served at Rocky Mountain, Yosemite, Grand Canyon, Grand Teton and Crater 

Lake national parks. (He had been an eight-year 

chief ranger at Grand Teton and a three-year 

Crater Lake superintendent.) Betts served in 

his job for just eighteen months when he retired 

from the agency. He, in turn, was replaced on an 

interim basis by Charles A. Budge, a ranger who 

had served on the ad hoc “ranger task force” 

that had been deployed the previous summer to 

protect the millions of acres of newly-designated 

national monuments. Budge served as the park 

During the Parks Highway road construction, material from the Nenana 

canyon was deposited on Chalon 

Harris’s trade & manufacturing site 

to form a large pad visible in this 

photo, above Horseshoe Lake. The 

first lodging establishment in Nenana 

Canyon, the McKinley Chalets, was 

constructed on this pad. NPS Interp. 

Collection #5537, Denali National Park 

and Preserve
248 Crown Jewel of the North: An Administrative History of Denali National Park and Preserve

and monument superintendent from early March 

until late August 1980, when Robert C. Cunningham assumed the superintendent’s position 

(and Budge became the first superintendent at 

Wrangell-St. Elias National Park and Preserve). 

As noted in Chapter 9, Cunningham would fill 

the superintendent’s shoes for most of the ensuing decade.152

During the 1970s the park’s budget dramatically increased; it tripled from $543,000 in 1971, 

the year that the post-ANCSA planning process 

began, to $1.6 million in 1979, the year following 

Carter’s proclamations, and it increased another 

$1 million (to $2.61 million) during the next fiscal 

year (see Appendix B).153 Given those consistent, 

ample budget increases, the park was able to 

considerably bolster its staff: to some extent with 

permanent staff, but to an even greater degree 

with seasonal workers. As noted in Chapter 7, 

the role of seasonals at the park had been decidedly modest during the 1950s and was still fairly 

minor through most of the 1960s, but by the 

mid-1970s the park was hiring 75 seasonals each 

year. Supt. Kuehn, moreover, recalls that these 

men and women were “the cream of the crop.” 

The park would “get something like 3,000 applications” each year, and those that were hired 

“were wonderful ... I mean, we had people with 

master’s degrees.”154

Because seasonals were becoming such a major 

part of the park’s work force, the role of the 

park’s chief ranger became increasingly important, and perhaps because interpretive seasonals 

were a major component of the swelling seasonal 

work force, the park established a new, full-time 

position to oversee their activities (see Appendix C). The chief rangers during this period 

included Ivan Miller (1969-73) and Gary Brown 

(1973-81), while the interpretive program was 

managed by Henry Warren (on a half-time basis 

in 1973), William Garry (who, as park naturalist, directed interpretation activities in 1974 and 

part of the 1975 season), and William Truesdell 

(who served as Chief Naturalist from July 1975 

through 1980).155 Another new element in the 

overall staffing picture—and a very welcome 

one—was the role of volunteers. During the 

early 1970s, the number of volunteers was fairly 

modest; in 1972 there were two, for example, and 

the following year they numbered four. But by 

the summer of 1980, 25 so-called VIPs (“volunteers in parks” had contributed more than 1,000 

hours of time to assist with living history—the 

park kennels were consistently popular with 

volunteers—interpretation, resource management, and mountaineering operations. The park 

also benefited from the occasional involvement 

of a Youth Conservation Corps work crew; in 

1980, for example, YCC enrollees completed 30 

work projects, including road and trail brushing, 

water line installation and the backcountry cabin 

rehabilitation.156

One aspect that complicated staff matters during 

this period—particularly during the early to mid1970s—was that the line between park employAfter more than twenty years of 

developing and operating Camp 

Denali, Celia Hunter and Ginny Wood 

(right) entrusted the wilderness lodge 

to Wallace and Jerryne Cole, pictured 

here with their two children, Land 

(left) and Jenna (right). Wallace A. 

Cole Collection, Courtesy of Camp 

Denali
Chapter Eight: New Highway Impacts and the Park Expansion Process, 1972-1980 249

ees and the NPS’s Anchorage office was often 

fuzzy. As noted in Chapter 7, there had been 

an NPS central office in Anchorage since 1965, 

and ever since that time, employees working for 

the park—because it had the only major NPS 

presence in the state—were often “borrowed” 

by the central office to perform statewide planning functions. The confusion over the superintendent’s role, begun in 1965, finally ended 

in the summer of 1969, but during the early to 

mid-1970s, that confusion was repeated at the 

interpretive, planning, and resource management 

levels. The demand for immediate information 

about Alaska resources—often imposed upon 

Alaska by the Washington office—sometimes 

resulted in a park employee begin temporarily 

deployed in Anchorage for a week or two, but in 

several instances, agency officials found it necessary to have employees relocate to Anchorage for 

the winter. It was an exciting, if nerve-wracking, 

period.157

As noted above, the agency’s decision to restrict 

traffic on the park road beginning in the summer 

of 1972 brought changes to several of the park’s 

campgrounds. Prior to that year, park visitors 

could freely drive to any one of eight designated 

campgrounds: Riley Creek, Morino, Savage River, 

Sanctuary, Teklanika, Igloo, Toklat, and Wonder 

Lake. The NPS’s first road management decision recommended that all campgrounds west of 

Savage River would be open only to tent campers. But Sen. Ted Stevens, who was firmly against 

the plan, spoke to NPS Director George Hartzog 

and was able to hammer out a revised plan that 

allowed motorists, after obtaining permits, to 

access specifically-allotted spaces in the various 

campgrounds west of Savage River. Given that 

compromise, most of the park’s campgrounds 

remained open to vehicle camping. Igloo Camp, 

however, was designated for tent camping only, 

and Toklat Campground—for 1972 at least—was 

closed to all campers because of heavy bear 

activity. As the decade wore on, further changes 

were made; Toklat Campground remained closed 

after the 1972 season, and by the mid-1970s the 

old Morino Campground—which had apparently been closed after the 1969 season—was 

reopened as a walk-in campground, limited to 

tent campers.158 Throughout this period, tourists 

in vehicles were free to stay at Riley Creek and 

Savage River campgrounds, and those with a 

permit continued to use the Sanctuary, Teklanika, 

and Wonder Lake campgrounds. (Wonder Lake, 

though accessible by motorists, was open only 

to tent campers.) Because the demand for park 

campground space consistently exceeded the 

available supply, the five campgrounds west of 

the hotel area (Savage River, Sanctuary, Teklanika, 

Igloo, and Wonder Lake) were typically filled to 

capacity all summer long.159

During this period, a new aspect of campground 

operation—fee collection—first became significant. Fees were first collected at the various park 

campgrounds beginning about 1970.160 In 1971, 

park staff collected only $5,038 in campground 

fees. The boom in visitation brought on by the 

new Anchorage-Fairbanks highway, however, 

resulted in a tripling of campground fees (to 

$16,788) in 1972, and by 1980 fee revenues had 

tripled again, to $49,800.161 These revenues, 

modest in comparison to the total park budget, 

did not remain at the park but instead were sent 

on to Washington. Inasmuch as there were no 

park entrance fees or shuttle-bus fees during this 

period, many visitors enjoyed the park without 

paying any fees to either the federal government 

or to the park concessioner.

During the 1970s, NPS crews or contractors constructed a number of new or expanded facilities 

and planned for others. Toward the western end 

of the park road, the 1972 establishment of the 

bus-based transportation system and the huge 

increase in overall park visitation placed enormous demands on the decade-old Eielson Visitor 

Center. By 1973, planning and design staffers 

were already at work on a redesign of the center; 

the project would provide additional restroom 

facilities, a new entryway, covered walkways, and 

a large, open picnic shelter that offered incomparable views (on clear days) of Mt. Eielson, 

the Thorofare River plain, Mt. McKinley and 

adjacent Alaska Range peaks. Bids were let in 

April 1974 and project construction began later 

that year. The work was completed in 1976, and 

a related exhibit package was installed the same 

Vernon Ruesch served as park superintendent from July 1969 until June 

1973. DENA 27-109, Denali National 

Park and Preserve Museum Collection
250 Crown Jewel of the North: An Administrative History of Denali National Park and Preserve

year.162 No dedication ceremony was held for the 

overall expansion project; in July 1978, however, 

National Park Foundation and NPS officials gathered at the spot and dedicated the main interpretation room in honor of the late Joe Hankins, 

a self-appointed park guide and Igloo Campground host who loved to photograph the park 

sheep and entertain tour-bus passengers during 

the 1950s, 1960s, and early 1970s. A plaque summarizing key points about Joe’s life and his warm 

personal qualities was displayed at Eielson Visitor 

Center for many years thereafter.163

At the eastern end of the park road, several 

new facilities were built, including a temporary 

entrance-station replacement, an auto shop, and 

a sewage lagoon. As noted in Chapter 7, park 

staff in 1959 had erected a prefabricated entrance 

station just north of the McKinley Park Station 

airstrip, and in 1962 an adjacent exhibit building 

had been added. But by 1967 the exhibit building 

had been removed. Plans called for the entrance 

station to be replaced by a kiosk 

in the middle of the new park 

entrance road, but this kiosk 

was never built.164 Instead, 

the entrance station remained 

until the early 1970s. Then, in 

the late summer of 1972, it was 

replaced by a new visitor orientation center—a 20’ x 50’ trailer 

popularly called the Riley 

Creek Information Center—at 

the Riley Creek Campground 

entrance. It was here that many 

park visitors gathered to board 

the park shuttle buses.165 The completion of the 

Anchorage-Fairbanks highway meant that the 

park’s entrance station was now on a side road. 

In order to overcome this obstacle, the park’s 

Interim DCP recommended that the Riley Creek 

Information Center be relocated to the new road 

alignment. But the planned move never took 

place, and the double-wide trailer at the campground entrance continued to serve as the park’s 

entrance station until, many years later, a larger 

and more appropriate facility was built.166

For a full 50 years after Harry Karstens moved 

the park headquarters away from its former 

site at the Riley Creek-Hines Creek confluence, virtually all east-end work-related activities had been centered at the site just west of 

Rock Creek. But since the mid-1960s there had 

been a dramatic growth in visitation, staff, and 

budgets (see Appendix B). One of the most 

visible areas of growth was in the park’s vehicle 

fleet; it had been tiny through the 1950s, but 

Superintendent Dan Kuehn’s staff 

turned out for this group photo on 

October 30, 1975, at -8 degrees F. 

Back row, left to right: Joe Donchak, 

Bill Garry, Bruce Wadlington, Dan 

Kuehn, Bill Nancarrow, and Steve 

Buskirk. Front row, left to right: 

Bill Truesdell, Rusty Stevens, June 

McLane, Sandra Kogl, Cheryl Ann 

Cannon, Billy Walker, Jean Rogers, Jim 

Rogers, Gary Brown, and Tom Adams. 

DENA 27-112, Denali National Park 

and Preserve Museum Collection

Throughout the 1970s, campers with a 

campground permit could drive their 

private vehicles to the Wonder Lake 

Campground. Buskirk Photo, DENA 

R&RP files, Denali National Park and 

Preserve
Chapter Eight: New Highway Impacts and the Park Expansion Process, 1972-1980 251

the assumption of road maintenance in 1960 

and a proliferation of new duties had resulted 

in many new vehicles. Superintendent Kuehn, 

who was trained as a historian, recognized that 

the primary business buildings in the headquarters area formed a cohesive historical unit. New 

buildings, as a result, would be a visible intrusion 

on the prevailing rustic architecture. Given those 

realities, Kuehn moved to have a new auto shop 

constructed away from the headquarters area. 

The shop was located on the hill slope just above 

the old CCC camp. Park maintenance staff began 

using the facility in 1975, and the old garage was 

soon converted to other uses. Since that time, 

vehicle maintenance and storage functions have 

remained at “C-Camp,” and as noted in Chapter 

10, additional maintenance functions moved to 

the site in the mid-1990s.

The need for a new, improved sewage lagoon was 

also apparent. During the 1950s, a septic tank 

and cesspool had been located just north of the 

park’s garbage dump, which was just east of the 

McKinley Park airstrip.167 But the plans for the 

new Riley Creek Campground, laid out in late 

1966, included provisions for the construction 

of a new sewage lagoon, and a site was chosen 

just north and west of the future intersection 

of the park road and the Anchorage-Fairbanks 

highway. Then, in the spring of 1970, NPS design 

personnel—perhaps recognizing that the existing sewage lagoon east of the airstrip needed to 

be improved—sketched out plans to connect 

the hotel’s sewage system to an enlarged Riley 

Creek Campground sewage lagoon.168 Most of 

this system, built on contract, was constructed in 

1974; it became operational the following year.169 

Changes were also made to the dump itself during this period. In 1964, as noted in Chapter 6, 

the dump had been relocated to the east side of 

the Denali Highway (today’s Parks Highway), 

two miles south of Riley Creek. It began as an 

open dump, but in the late 1970s—possibly as 

late as 1981—the pit was cleaned up and replaced 

by a large holding container. Ever since that 

time, park garbage has been deposited here, but 

only temporarily until hauled off to the Healy 

landfill.170

Action also took place during this period to 

This 1979 view of Eielson Visitor 

Center shows its mid-1970s expansion, including restrooms and a viewing deck. DENA R&RP files, Denali 

National Park and Preserve

Joe Hankins spent more than 20 summers as a self-appointed naturalist. 

Based at Igloo Campground, he often 

rode along on tour buses, enhancing visitors’ experiences with his 

information and stories of the park. 

Joe enjoyed observing Dall sheep and 

was a keen wildlife photographer. 

DENA 28-102, Denali National Park 

and Preserve Museum Collection
252 Crown Jewel of the North: An Administrative History of Denali National Park and Preserve

eliminate the park’s traditional dependence on 

locally-generated power and, instead, tie into a 

larger electrical grid. As early as January 1972, 

NPS Regional Director John Rutter had announced that the park, in September, planned to 

switch over to power that would be delivered by 

Golden Valley Electric Association (GVEA) of 

Fairbanks.171 Such an announcement, however, proved premature, and in late 1974 it was 

announced that GVEA, at NPS’s request, was 

“developing plans to extend electric service from 

Healy to Mount McKinley Village and the park 

headquarters. A further extension to serve the 

village of Cantwell also appears feasible.”172 In 

early 1976, personnel in the agency’s regional 

office prepared a draft environmental statement 

(DES) for a proposed electric distribution line 

that would extend from Healy Roadhouse south 

to the park. That document was completed 

and distributed that May.173 Soon afterward, a 

meeting held on the subject at McKinley Park 

was considerably enlivened when Charlie Ott, a 

longtime resident and occasional park employee, 

suggested a right-of-way for the proposed line—

above the railroad tracks as it wound through the 

Nenana River Canyon—that was widely agreed 

to be superior to any of the alternatives that had 

been laid out in the draft document.174 The final 

ES on the proposed line was completed in December 1976, and the following year negotiations 

began with GVEA to bring power to the park. 

Construction of the line was begun in 1980 and 

completed in 1981. The line extended south only 

to the depot; it did not continue on to Cantwell 

or other points south.175

As suggested above, a number of additional facilities were planned during this period as part of 

the park’s Interim Development Concept Plan 

for the headquarters and hotel areas, which was 

formulated in 1975 and 1976. But much of what 

the plan recommended was not built, at least in 

the short term.

One of the major challenges for the park’s 

maintenance personnel was the annual spring 

road opening. During the 1960s, as noted in 

Chapter 7, crews had relied on a bulldozer and 

Caterpillar tractor to clear the snow off the park 

road. As late as 1972, however, the park admitted that it had a “lack of proper snow removal 

equipment,” and ice buildup at Mile 4 and 

elsewhere remained a problem. The following 

winter William Broadaway, head of the park’s 

Roads and Trails crew, tried a new strategy: laying 

thousands of feet of Primacord (a long tube filled 

with Pentaerythritol Tetranitrate, also known as 

Penthrite) that blasted the ice away. This method 

was used the following year as well; in 1975, however, ice buildup was not a major problem, and 

Jim Rogers, Doug’s successor, concluded that 

Primacord’s effectiveness was limited. By 1977 

park officials wrote that “Primacord is no longer 

used for ice removal. Ice is cut from [the] road 

surface during the winter, and culverts are kept 

open using a barrel heater. This system seems 

to work. It is much easier on the equipment...”. 

This new method was continued for the remainder of the decade.176

A Newly-Expanded Park and Preserve

In October 1974, as noted above, the Alaska 

Planning Group issued its final environmental 

statement for the proposed Mount McKinley 

park additions; that document recommended 

that 3,210,000 acres be added to the park, which 

was a slight (30,000-acre) increase over what had 

been recommended in the Draft Environmental 

Statement and Master Plan. The way was now 

clear to have Congress consider the Alaska lands 

issue. But officials in Gerald Ford’s administration showed no inclination to work for passage 

of an appropriate bill. In the face of their apathy, 

the Mount McKinley and other park proposals 

that Interior Secretary Rogers Morton had put 

forth were shelved for the time being.177

Federal and state legislators, during this period, 

were also fairly quiet, although not entirely so. 

In May 1975, for example, Sen. Henry “Scoop” 

Jackson (D-Wash), who chaired the Senate 

Interior and Insular Affairs Committee, and Paul 

Fannin (R-Ariz.) introduced an Alaska-wide 

lands bill, and four months later, Rep. Lester 

Wolff (D-N.Y.) introduced a House bill that, 

among its other provisions, would have expanded the boundaries for both Mount McKinley 

National Park and Katmai National Monument. 

Both bills went nowhere.178 Meanwhile, in the 

Alaska legislature, Rep. Leslie “Red” Swanson of 

Nenana drafted a bill calling for a Kantishna State 

Recreation Area that would have covered several 

hundred thousand acres north of Wonder Lake 

and allowed the various Kantishna-area mine 

owners to continue their exploration and extraction activities. This bill quickly passed the House 

Resources Committee. Legislators soon learned, 

however, that virtually all of the land within the 

proposed recreation area was owned by the federal government. Perhaps as a result, no further 

action took place on Swanson’s bill.179

The ennui that had characterized Congressional 

activity related to Alaska land issues came to 

an abrupt halt in November 1976, when Jimmy 

Carter defeated Gerald Ford in the presidential election. Carter, during the campaign, had 

pledged to include conservationists in his administration and, more specifically, had promised to 

support an Alaska lands bill; one of the criteria 

for which he chose his Interior Secretary, in fact, 
Chapter Eight: New Highway Impacts and the Park Expansion Process, 1972-1980 253

was a pledge to fight for a strong Alaska lands 

bill. In addition, conservationists were buoyed to 

learn that Rep. Morris Udall had been chosen as 

the new Interior and Insular Affairs Committee 

chair; Udall, in turn, picked Rep. John Seiberling 

to chair the newly-organized Subcommittee on 

General Oversight and Alaska Lands.180 Udall, 

working with the conservation community, hurriedly concocted an initial cut of an Alaska lands 

bill; that bill, H.R. 39, was submitted on the first 

day of the 95th Congress in January 1977. Among 

the bill’s provisions, it called for a 4.7-million 

acre addition to Mount McKinley National 

Park. The bill further called for the entire addition, plus 1.9 million acres in the existing park, 

to become “instant wilderness” in the National 

Wilderness Preservation System; it was thus a 

marked departure from previous Interior Department efforts, which called for a study period 

prior to wilderness being designated.181

Other legislators, however, did not share Udall’s 

view, and during the next several months a 

variety of other bills offered contrasting visions 

for how the “d-2” lands should be treated. Senator Ted Stevens (R-Alaska), for instance, introduced a “consensus bill” (S. 1787) on June 30 

that proposed a 1,130,000-acre McKinley park 

addition, plus an additional 1,960,000 acres of 

NPS-managed federal cooperative lands.182 The 

proposals of former Secretary Morton, which 

called for a 3,210,000-acre park expansion, were 

submitted by Sen. Henry Jackson, (D-Wash., as S. 

499) and Rep. John M. Murphy (D-N.Y., as H.R. 

6564) in January and April 1977, respectively. 

And the Joint Federal-State Land Use Planning 

Commission still had its three-year-old proposal 

for a 3,050,000-acre park expansion, plus approximately 400,000 acres of federally-controlled 

“Alaska National Lands” in the Cathedral 

Spires area. None of these alternative measures 

recommended “instant wilderness” as had been 

included in the Udall bill; the Stevens bill and the 

Commission proposal were silent on the matter, 

and the Jackson-Murphy bills—similar to Secretary Morton’s 1973 recommendations—called 

for wilderness study, to be undertaken within 

three years of the bill’s passage. Other Alaska 

land bills submitted to Congress that year were 

either more narrowly conceived than those above 

or had a slim chance of passage.183

During the spring and summer of 1977, each of 

the major land-management bureaus had been 

able to make their views known to Interior Secretary Cecil Andrus, and Reps. Udall and Seiberling had conducted an extensive series of public 

hearings in a wide variety of Alaska settings as 

well as in selected “Lower 48” locations.184 That 

September, Andrus attended a Congressional 

hearing and presented recommendations that, 

among other measures, called for the renaming 

of Mount McKinley to Denali National Park 

and a 4,089,000-acre park expansion. He also 

recommended a total of 5,499,000 acres of park 

wilderness: 1,848,000 acres in the existing park 

and 3,651,000 acres in the proposed park.185 

On into the fall, Interior Committee members 

spent extensive time working on modifications 

to Udall’s bill; on October 12, for example, it 

produced Committee Print No. 1, and on October 28, Committee Print No. 2 was released. 

Both prints recommended the establishment of 

a 3,890,000-acre national park expansion and 

During the spring road opening 

process, park road crews had to steam 

culverts to remove the ice buildup 

in them and keep drainage channels 

open so that the melting snows could 

be kept away from the road surface. 

This process continues today. DENA 

1-45.7, Denali National Park and 

Preserve Museum Collection
254 Crown Jewel of the North: An Administrative History of Denali National Park and Preserve

approximately 5.5 million acres of wilderness.186 

The following January, two weeks of mark-up 

sessions began in John Seiberling’s Subcommittee on General Oversight and Alaska Lands, and 

it was not until February 7 that the marked-up 

bill was forwarded on to the full committee. 

During the mark-up sesssions, Rep. Lloyd Meeds 

(D-Wash.) had tried (and failed) to substitute a 

“fifth system,” multiple-use proposal, but the bill 

that emerged in the full Interior Committee on 

February 15 provided more modest protections: 

2,650,000 of expanded park, a 1.1-million-acre 

Denali National Preserve, and a continuation of 

the previously-recommended 5.5 million acres 

of wilderness. (The newly-designated preserve, 

located at the margins of the park expansion 

proposal, would sanction sport hunting as well 

as subsistence hunting.)187 When the Interior 

Committee concluded its work on March 21, it 

recommended a somewhat strengthened Denali 

proposal: it called for a 3,350,000 Denali National 

Park, a 400,000-acre Denali National Preserve, 

and a 5,410,000-acre wilderness. The bill then 

went on to the Merchant Marine and Fisheries 

Committee, where it was subject to further revisions, and on May 17, debate about the bill began 

in the full House. During the three-day debate, 

Rep. Meeds and Rep. Don Young (R-Alaska) 

tried to reduce the total acreage allotted to the 

four conservation systems. Those efforts, failed, 

however, and on May 19, the House passed H.R. 

39, with Denali-related acreage identical to what 

the Interior Committee had approved on March 

21: 3,350,000 acres of new park, 400,000 acres of 

preserve, and 5,410,000 acres of wilderness.188

Action then moved to the Senate, which received 

H.R. 39 on June 8, and on June 22 the Energy and 

Natural Resources Committee began debating 

the issue. Traditionally, the Senate has been very 

reluctant to pass any bill affecting a state if both 

senators were opposed to it. Senators Ted Stevens and Mike Gravel had publicly announced 

their opposition to H.R. 39. The Senate therefore 

opted not to use H.R. 39 as its mark-up vehicle. 

By this time; both Stevens and Gravel had submitted their own bills pertaining to the d-2 issue. 

S. 1787, introduced by Ted Stevens on June 30, 

1977 (as noted above), had called for a 1,130,000-

acre park expansion along with 1,960,000 acres 

in federal cooperative lands, while Mike Gravel’s 

S. 2944, introduced on April 19, 1978, had called 

for only a 2,620,000-acre expansion to Denali 

National Park. Stevens’s bill was silent on the 

wilderness question, while Gravel’s bill called for 

the Joint Federal-State Land Use Planning Commission to provide a wilderness report within 

two years of passage.189 But Sen. Henry “Scoop” 

Jackson, the committee’s chairman, recognized 

that eight other bills had been submitted to admanaged by the National Park Service. One of 

these proclamations called for the establishment 

of a 3,890,000-acre192 Denali National Monument (see Map 8). For the foreseeable future, 

therefore, the NPS would be managing Mount 

McKinley National Park, as it had for more than 

seventy years, but it would also be caring for a 

much larger Denali National Monument which 

now surrounded the existing park to the north, 

west, and south (see Appendix A).193

Many Alaskans denounced President Carter’s 

action, some more vociferously than others. In 

Fairbanks, some of the more militant protesters burned Carter in effigy, and in Eagle, the 

city council passed a resolution “to offer no aid 

or assistance to the National Park Service or its 

employees while your current regulations are in 

effect.” The broadest, best-publicized protest 

was orchestrated by the Real Alaska Coalition, 

a hastily-organized, statewide assemblage of 

sportsmen’s and recreation groups. Recognizing 

that Denali was the most accessible of the newlyestablished monuments and that monument land 

was located just outside Cantwell, the Coalition made plans to hold a mass rally there over 

the weekend of January 13-14, 1979. Just days 

before that weekend, Coalition organizers stated 

that they expected “several thousand persons” 

to attend the “mass trespass” at the new monument, where they “planned several activities 

that violate federal regulations governing use of 

Alaska’s national monuments.”194 (On December 

26, just two weeks earlier, the federal government 

had issued new regulations that were specifically applicable to the new monuments, although 

most of these rules provided for more “relaxed 

subsistence and access provisions” than would 

otherwise be allowed on National Park Service 

lands.195) In response to the planned actions, the 

NPS—hoping for the best but fearing the worst—

organized a large (if low-key) operation involving 

13 rangers (most from Oregon and Washington) 

and 13 other personnel (mostly from Mount 

McKinley or other Alaska parks).196 Park superintendent Frank Betts met with the protestors in 

Cantwell on the evening before the protest began. 

The leaders of the protest announced that they 

planned to camp within the monument, start 

fires, and hold dog races, snowmachining, hunting, archery contests, and pistol shoots. Betts, 

in turn, told them that NPS rangers “were not 

gonna arrest anybody ... we’re not gonna make a 

fuss over this,” and other NPS officials stated that 

most of the planned activities were not illegal.197

Protesters assembled, as promised, at Cantwell 

on Saturday, January 13. But the crowd at the 

“Great Denali Trespass” was smaller than expected; estimates ranged from “less than 1,000” 
Chapter Eight: New Highway Impacts and the Park Expansion Process, 1972-1980 255

dress d-2 issues; Jackson, in 

fact, had introduced two of 

them (S. 499 and S. 500).190 To 

address the diversity of opinion 

on the subject, the committee 

on June 28 voted to consolidate 

the various Senate bills into a 

single bill; that bill, rather than 

the House-passed version, was 

subject to a wearying series 

of 42 mark-up sessions. The 

bill that finally emerged from 

the Senate Energy and Natural 

Resources Committee on October 5, 1978 called for Mount 

McKinley National Park to be 

expanded by 2,587,000 acres 

and for the establishment of a 

1,169,000-acre Mount McKinley National Preserve. The bill 

offered no “instant wilderness;” 

instead, new parklands would 

be studied for their wilderness 

potential within four years of 

passage. This bill, more so 

than its House counterpart, 

was favored by the State of 

Alaska, sport-hunting groups 

and development advocates. 

With just eight days left in the 

96th Congress, House and Senate leaders tried to bridge the 

gap between the two bills, but 

the two bodies were unable to 

hammer out a mutually-acceptable bill, and Congress adjourned on October 15 

without passing an Alaska lands package before 

its self-imposed December 18 deadline.191

The Carter administration, however, was unwilling to abandon the tremendous efforts that Congress and the Executive Branch had made over 

the previous seven years. Interior Department 

officials, recognizing that Congress might not be 

able to resolve the matter, had spent much of the 

summer analyzing what impacts the expiration of 

the 17(d)(2) provision would have on the affected 

lands, and also on how interim protection might 

be obtained for the land in case Congress was 

unable to act. What emerged from that analysis 

was a massive supplement to the 28 final environmental statements that had been prepared 

back in 1974. That analysis noted that one way 

of protecting the lands in question would be via 

presidential proclamations establishing national 

monuments. President Carter, on December 1, 

responded to the FES supplement by proclaiming 

the establishment of seventeen national monuments which protected a total of some 56,000,000 

acres. Of these monuments, thirteen were to be 

to “more than 2,000” people.198 And although 

several NPS rangers mingled among the crowd, it 

was (in the words of one NPS employee) “simply 

a park visitors operation” emphasizing information distribution, first aid, and search and rescue 

aid. “Law enforcement,” he noted, “is way down 

on our list,” because NPS officials were mainly 

concerned “with the safety and enjoyment of the 

public.”199 “About one hundred” people “apparently illegally camped in the new monument, 

huddled around dozens of bonfires built to ward 

off the chill temperatures.” But, as expected, no 

one was arrested, and the only unfortunate incident was the death of a 23-year-old snowmobiler 

(Robert Blessing) when he collided with a wing 

strut of a taxiing airplane. Protesters left the area 

on Sunday. As they left, their leaders—Clark 

Engle and Ken Fanning among them—called the 

event “successful,” and both NPS officials and 

local residents were generally pleased at how the 

event was conducted.200

No sooner had the “Great Denali Trespass” run 

its course than Congress was hard at work on 

a renewed attempt to pass Alaska lands legislation. Rep. Udall, who had helped steer H.R. 39 

Superintendent Dan Kuehn, left, 

meets with members of Rep. John 

Seiberling’s subcommittee at the 

McKinley Park airstrip in this late 

1970s photo. Jim Shives photo, 

Denali National Park and Preserve 

Museum Collection
256 Crown Jewel of the North: An Administrative History of Denali National Park and Preserve

through the House in 1977 and 

1978, introduced a new version 

of H.R. 39 on January 15, 1979, 

at the beginning of the 96th

Congress. Udall’s bill, which 

was consistent with President 

Carter’s recent action, called 

for a 3,890,000-acre national 

park boundary expansion, 

along with a 5,510,000-acre 

wilderness. Unlike the bill that 

had passed the previous May, 

no mention was made of a Denali National Preserve.201 On 

February 26, the House Interior 

Committee began its mark-up. 

Here, however, Udall and other conservationminded Congressmen ran into a wall of opposition, and in a key vote, the Committee approved 

a substitute bill offered by Rep. Jerry Huckaby 

(D-La.). A measure similar to Huckaby’s, offered 

by Reps. John B. Breaux (D-La.) and John Dingell 

(D.-Mich.), was approved in the Merchant Marine and Fisheries Committee. One of these bills 

called for the same level of Denali expansion as 

had the Senate Committee bill in October 1978: 

in other words, an additional 2,587,000 acres in 

Denali National Park along with a new 1,169,000-

acre Denali National Preserve, and a four-year 

wilderness study effort. The other bill, however, 

called for a 3,350,000-acre park, a 400,000-acre 

preserve, and a 5,410,000-acre wilderness, which 

was consistent with the bill that the full House 

had passed in May 1978.202 Conservationists, 

hoping to recoup their losses in the full House, 

cobbled together a new substitute bill, which 

was jointly sponsored by Udall and Rep. John 

Anderson (R-Ill.). That bill, initially called H.R. 

3636, called for an expansion of Denali National 

Park by 3,410,000 acres, a new 480,000-acre 

Denali National Preserve, and a 2.8-million-acre 

wilderness. The House discussed the Alaska 

lands issue beginning on May 15, and a day later, 

the Udall-Anderson bill—now renumbered as 

H.R. 39—prevailed in a key vote against a weaker 

substitute. Soon afterward, the same bill passed 

the full House on a 360-65 vote.203

The Senate, however, was no more likely to go 

along with the House than it had the year before, 

and the prevailing Senate vehicle for Alaska lands 

legislation when the 96th Congress opened was S. 

9, sponsored by Sen. Jackson, which was largely 

if not identically the same bill that had emerged 

from Jackson’s Energy and Natural Resources 

Committee the previous October. That bill had 

called for a 2,587,000-acre expansion of Denali 

National Park plus a 1,169,000-acre Denali National Preserve. The new bill, however, abandoned its wilderness-study language and substifutility of further attempts to compromise, and 

on November 12 they voted to accept the Senate 

bill. President Carter signed the Alaska National 

Interest Lands Conservation Act (ANILCA) on 

December 2, 1980.206

Among its many provisions, ANILCA called for a 

name change of the park (from Mount McKinley 

to Denali), a 2,547,147-acre park expansion, the 

establishment of a new 1,334,118-acre Denali 

National Preserve, and a 1,900,000-acre wilderness, all of which was within the boundaries of 

the former Mount McKinley National Park (see 

Map 8 and Appendix A). Inasmuch as Section 

1322(a) of ANILCA rescinded the December 

1, 1978 proclamations that established Denali 

and the other national monuments, one effect 

of ANILCA’s passage was to shrink the area 

managed by the local park superintendent from 

approximately 6,372,000 acres to 6,075,000 acres 

– a net loss of almost 300,000 acres. Most of 

this acreage was transferred from NPS jurisdiction back to the Bureau of Land Management, 

which had controlled this land prior to President 

Carter’s December 1978 proclamation. Most of 

the acreage loss was in three major parcels: the 

“wolf townships” west of Healy, a three-township block along the lower Toklat and Sushana 

rivers, and an irregularly-shaped area southwest 

of Cantwell between Lookout Mountain and the 

lower reaches of Eldridge Glacier.207

International Recognition: Mixed Results

During the process that brought about the 

transformation that changed a two-million-acre 

Mount McKinley National Park to a six-millionacre Denali National Park and Preserve, two 

major movements began to recognize some of 

the world’s most important natural and cultural 

properties. Recognizing the superlative scenic 

and wildlife qualities offered at the park, U.S. 

representatives to the United Nations began to 

work toward obtaining international recognition 

for the park.

Attendees of the “Great Denali 

Trespass” arrived in Cantwell by 

cars which lined the main road into 

Cantwell, January 13, 1979. DENA 

5669, Denali National Park and Preserve Museum Collection
Chapter Eight: New Highway Impacts and the Park Expansion Process, 1972-1980 257

tuted a 1.9 million acre “instant wilderness.”204 

As in 1978, the Senate chose not to adopt the 

House-passed H.R. 39 as its mark-up vehicle; 

instead, it delayed work on the Alaska lands 

issue until October 9 and then began revising S. 

9. Three weeks later, the committee reported 

out a bill similar to the one that it had agreed to 

the previous October; this bill included the same 

Denali acreage figures as in its January 1979 incarnation. Conservationists, hoping to improve 

the bill when it came to the full Senate, worked 

with senators Paul Tsongas (D-Mass.) and William Roth (R-Del.) to carve out a substitute bill. 

The Senate did not take up the Alaska lands issue 

until mid-July 1980. Initial Senate votes showed a 

strong tendency to support a more conservationoriented stance. Sen. Stevens, however, refused 

to capitulate; instead, he prevailed upon the 

Senate leadership to pull S. 9 from the floor, and 

instead he set up a series of closed-door meetings 

with a small coterie of senators. What emerged 

from those meetings was Amendment No. 1961, 

which was a rough compromise between S. 9 and 

the House-passed H.R. 39. That amendment 

passed the Senate, 78-14, on August 19.205

Thereafter, the House and Senate were at loggerheads. Leading senators—both committee 

chairman “Scoop” Jackson and Alaska’s Ted Stevens—vowed that they would accept no changes 

to the Senate bill. But Reps. Udall, Seiberling, 

Philip Burton (D-Calif.) and others kept working toward a compromise bill. The November 

election, however, swept Ronald Reagan—an 

avowed opponent of a strong Alaska lands bill—

into the presidency, and gave the Republican 

party control over the U.S. Senate. Given those 

developments, House members recognized the 

The first such move was made in September 

1974, when a U.S. State Department official 

moved to designate Mount McKinley National 

Park and 19 other areas in the country as “biosphere reserves.”208 According to the U.N.’s Man 

and the Biosphere program, biosphere reserves 

are “areas of terrestrial and coastal ecosystems 

promoting solutions to reconcile the conservation of biodiversity with its sustainable use.” The 

idea was first promoted at the UNESCO’s Biosphere Conference, held in Paris in September 

1968, where delegates hoped to establish “areas 

representing the main ecosystems of the planet in 

which genetic resources would be protected, and 

where research on ecosystems as well as monitoring and training work could be carried out. To 

carry out the goals of that conference, UNESCO 

established the Man and the Biosphere Program in 1970. The program’s early proponents 

stressed that 

its primary emphasis was essentially scientific, and that all areas designated as biosphere 

reserves would “remain under the sovereign jurisdiction of the states where they were located.” 

More specific international planning for these 

reserves took place at 1973 and 1974 conferences 

in Morges, Switzerland, and Paris.209

The action taken in September 1974, as it turned 

out, was not a final designation of Mount McKinley’s eligibility. Instead, the twenty areas chosen 

that month were only the U.S. candidates. They 

were then forwarded to UNESCO, and it was not 

until 1976 that these areas were duly selected as 

the world’s first international biosphere reserves. 

The U.N. designated 53 such reserves that year. 

Twenty-three of these were located in the United 

Protesters rallied with snowmachines, 

dog teams, and campfires. DENA 

5680, Denali National Park and Preserve Museum Collection 
258 Crown Jewel of the North: An Administrative History of Denali National Park and Preserve

States, and three were located in Alaska: Denali, 

the Aleutian Islands, and Noatak. Their current 

extent of these three reserves is 6,032,440 acres, 

2,720,430 acres, and 7,500,000 acres, respectively. 

(Denali was chosen, among other attributes, 

because it was considered to be an excellent 

representative of the “temperate needle-leaf forest” ecosystem.) In the years since those initial 

selections, one other Alaska area has become a 

biosphere reserve: Glacier Bay-Admiralty Island 

(3,743,600 acres), selected in 1986.210

Not long after the park became a biosphere 

reserve, the park was being considered for a new 

international designation: that of a World Heritage Site. As early as the late 1950s, UNESCO 

had been involved with campaigns to save worldfamous cultural heritage sites, and as a logical 

extension of that concern, UNESCO and ICOMOS (the International Council on Monuments 

and Sites) pooled their efforts and organized the 

Convention Concerning the Protection of the 

World Cultural and Natural Heritage, held in 

Paris between mid-October and mid-November 

1972. That convention brought forth the need 

to establish “an effective system of collective 

protection of the cultural and natural heritage 

of outstanding universal value, organized on a 

permanent basis and in accordance with modern 

scientific methods.” That convention named 

ICOMOS and two other international bodies 

to a World Heritage Committee, and out of that 

committee emerged the World Heritage Site idea. 

The first World Heritage Sites were selected in 

1978; among the initial choices were two U.S. 

national parks: Mesa Verde and Yellowstone.211

the following five to ten years.” But government 

officials have made no moves since the early 

1980s to place either Denali or any other Alaska 

NPS areas on the World Heritage List, and in 

recent years the NPS has been working to trim 

the size of the U.S.’s Tentative List to more accurately reflect properties that have a broad basis 

of support.213

Tokositna Development Planning and the “Dome 

City” Concept

As noted above, various proposals to develop 

major tourist facilities south of the Alaska Range 

had surfaced during 1972 and 1973. State of 

Alaska officials favored a tourist complex at 

Byers Lake, U.S. Senator Mike Gravel floated 

the idea of a year-round resort called “Mt. 

McKinley City” at a yet-to-be-decided location, 

and Bradford Washburn touted a resort beside 

Tokositna Glacier, less than 25 miles south of 

Mt. McKinley. As late as early 1975, Division of 

Parks officials still backed development at Byers 

Lake. They also, however, asked the legislature 

to approve a 66-square-mile extension to Denali 

State Park, the primary purpose of which was 

to include a potential tourist development site 

just west of the Tokositna River. The legislature 

passed, and Governor Hammond signed, a bill 

to expand the park in mid-1976. In February 

1976—several months before the park expansion 

bill passed—the state signed a 55-year contract 

with an Anchorage firm to construct tourist facilities in the state park. That firm, however, was 

unable to raise the needed $6 million to develop 

those facilities, and in March 1977 Russell Cahill, 

the Division of Parks director, cancelled the 

firm’s contract.214

New park signs were necessary after 

the 1980 name change from Mount 

McKinley National Park to Denali 

National Park and Preserve. DENA 

R&RP files, Denali National Park and 

Preserve
Chapter Eight: New Highway Impacts and the Park Expansion Process, 1972-1980 259

Each year after 1978 new sites were added to the 

World Heritage List, and in 1979 a huge binational site was added to the list: Kluane/Wrangell-St. 

Elias/Glacier Bay/Tatshenshini-Alsek, which encompassed areas in British Columbia (Canada), 

Yukon Territory (Canada), and Alaska. The following year, the U.S. Interior Department selected 14 additional properties for potential nomination to that list. Among those properties were 

two Alaska NPS units: Mount McKinley and Katmai national parks. And a year later, the Interior 

Department moved to place Denali and seven 

other Alaska parks and refuges on the World 

Heritage list. Plans called for a public comment 

period and for the government to “submit its final 

inventory of potential World Heritage nominations to the World Heritage Committee later this 

year.”212 Although the World Heritage Convention clearly stated that national governments 

remained in sovereign control of nominated sites, 

strong objections were apparently raised to these 

nominations, and as a result, none of these eight 

areas has been nominated to the World Heritage 

List. Thus the U.S.’s reserve list (officially known 

as the Indicative Inventory of Potential Future 

U.S. World Heritage Nominations), in 1982, was 

renamed the U.S. World Heritage Tentative List. 

The Tentative List was intended to list properties 

that U.S. officials proposed to nominate “during 

That November, Senator Gravel reignited interest 

in southside development when he proposed a 

domed “Denali City” development, to be located 

on state park land near the foot of Tokositna 

Glacier (see Map 9). To a wide-eyed Anchorage 

Chamber of Commerce audience, Gravel noted 

that his “recreation city” idea, which would have 

lodging and facilities for 5,000 to 10,000 people, 

sounded “far-fetched and visionary,” but he 

predicted that it would be “one of the physical 

wonders of the world” and “of benefit to Alaska.” 

The city would offer “shops, restaurants ... 

skating rinks, swimming pools, and even a golf 

course,” while “a major ski area” would be located “on the slopes behind the complex” along 

with a tramway leading to an observation station. To ease access to the site from Anchorage, 

he proposed a $100 million mag-lev (magnetic 

levitation) system that could take visitors there 

in 30 to 40 minutes. The transportation system, 

he proposed, would be funded by the federal 

government; the state would finance the dome, 

and private enterprise would fund the development of the city itself. Power for the city would 

come from the Watana Dam (part of the Susitna 

hydroelectric project), which he noted “could be 

on stream by 1986.” Just a day after his speech, 

he brought various architects and both state and 

national parks officials to the proposed developThe land designations that resulted 

from the 1980 Alaska National Interest Lands Conservation Act are shown 

on this map. NPS file, Denali National 

Park and Preserve
260 Crown Jewel of the North: An Administrative History of Denali National Park and Preserve

ment site and later held a press conference to 

further explain his plan. Gravel also stated his 

intent to submit Congressional legislation in early 

1978 for a $500,000 study that would provide 

additional details about the proposed development.215

One of those who accompanied Gravel to the 

Tokositna development site was freshman state 

senator Patrick Rodey (D-Anchorage), who 

stated that he planned to introduce legislation in 

1978 that would provide state funding for initial 

surveys. He admitted, however, that his own 

visions for the site were “a little more modest” 

and didn’t include an artificial dome cover.216 A 

month later, Rodey elaborated on his concept; he 

hoped to see a $25.7 million 150-bed lodge and 

visitor center complex, complete with downhill 

skiing and tramways, much as Brad Washburn 

had envisioned. The hotel, he noted, could be 

built with or without state financing; the entire project, he felt, was non-controversial and 

non-partisan, and because it was “ecologically 

sound,” it “has the support of the environmental 

community.” His plan admittedly bore “little 

relationship” to Gravel’s domed city; instead, it 

came about because he “decided to realistically 

take a conservative look and provide a facility to 

take care of the tourists.”217

On January 13, 1978, Senator Rodey, as expected, 

introduced two bills and a resolution related to 

the Tokositna development. SB 408 called for 

an $85,000 appropriation to the Department of 

Transportation and Public Facilities for planning 

and engineering studies on the Petersville Road; 

SB 409 asked for $260,000 for the Department 

of Natural Resources to do a feasibility study 

for the proposed lodge-visitor center project; 

and SCR 69 asked the legislature to approve the 

project and requested Governor Hammond to 

discuss the project with NPS officials. Rodey’s 

three legislative vehicles cleared the State Affairs 

and Finance committees without opposition, and 

on March 21 the full Senate passed them all with 

unanimous 17-0 votes.218

Mount McKinley National Park gained 

fame as a wildlife preserve, and while 

most visitors sought out the larger 

mammal species, many have also 

been pleased by their encounters 

with parka squirrels (shown here) and 

other small animal species. Murie 

Photo, Denali National Park and Preserve Museum Collection
Chapter Eight: New Highway Impacts and the Park Expansion Process, 1972-1980 261

They then moved on to the House. HB 408 

proved non-controversial; it passed the House 

with no dissenting votes and was signed by Governor Hammond on June 3. HB 409, however, 

was quickly modified to increase the budget 

amount from $260,000 to $360,000. On June 3, 

the full House debated three floor amendments, 

and one of those amendments—which shuttled 

project funds from Natural Resources to Transportation and Public Facilities—passed on a narrow 17-16 vote. The full House then passed the 

bill, 30-1. House and Senate conferees kept the 

$360,000 price tag, but demanded that the funds 

be channeled through the Department of Natural 

Resources. The final bill then sailed through 

both the House and Senate. On July 13 Governor 

Hammond signed the measure; citing “a consolidation of preliminary engineering studies,” 

however, he reduced the allotted funding from 

$360,000 to $310,000. Rodey’s resolution (SCR 

69) also encountered rough going; it passed the 

House State Affairs Committee on May 17, but it 

was never taken up by the House Rules Committee. But Hammond, by this time, was already 

fulfilling at least part of the resolution’s intent by 

engaging in project talks with NPS officials.219

In the midst of these legislative efforts, Senator 

Gravel—whose plans for southside development were more grandiose than Rodey’s but not 

really in conflict with them—appeared before 

the Alaska legislature and pitched his admittedly 

“very Buck Rogerish” notions for what one 

newspaper termed a “ski resort-golf courseworld trade center.” By this time, Gravel’s 

financing costs were substantially higher than 

before; the cost of the follow-up study had ballooned from $500,000 to $2 million, the mag-lev 

system now cost $500 million rather than $100 

million, and the cost of the city itself had gone 

from being merely “expensive” to an estimated 

$1 billion. After hearing his proposal, legislators 

dismissed his “Teflon tent” idea as being either 

“unbelievable” or “laughable,” and it quickly 

became the butt of jokes. Gravel, however, said 

that he would include federal financing for both 

the mag-lev system and the follow-up study in 

the “d-2” bill he planned to introduce in the U.S. 

Senate in April.220 As predicted, Gravel introduced a d-2 bill (S. 2944) on April 19, and Sec. 

1201 of that bill called for “the eventual development of a tightly controlled recreational city 

under the shadow of Mount McKinley” which 

would be “a visitor attraction of world scale.” 

The bill, however, made little headway; it was 

briefly debated on the Senate floor but never got 

beyond the committee stage.221

Based on Rodey’s various bills, serious discussions soon ensued between state and federal 

officials, and in September 1978 personnel from 

the National Park Service, the State Division of 

Parks, and Matanuska-Susitna Borough began 

working on a Memorandum of Agreement for 

a joint planning effort at the Tokositna site.222 

That was followed by an October 17 meeting to 

discuss policies influencing the project. That effort resulted in a November 17 Memorandum of 

Understanding signed by the Interior Secretary, 

the Governor of Alaska, and the Mayor of the 

Matanuska-Susitna Borough. Before long, NPS 

planners began preparing for what they thought 

would be an environmental assessment and 

development concept plan for the site.223 

Meanwhile, the Alaska Division of Parks set up 

a planning effort with the $310,000 that it had 

received from the legislature. It began the effort 

in January 1979 when three public hearings 

were held to solicit input on whether a tourism 

development was needed; and if so, what its size 

and scope should be. Officials at those meetings heard a wide range of opinions; those who 

attended the Anchorage meeting (more than 70 

people, described as “miners and explorers” by 

one planner) “had mixed feelings, but were generally opposed” to recreation development, while 

the 60 or so attendees at the Talkeetna meeting 

and the much smaller number in Fairbanks were 

“cautiously in favor” of a development. Virtually everyone at the meetings was opposed to 

new road construction, and Senator Gravel’s “all 

weather city” idea was universally criticized as 

being too grandiose and expensive.224

The Division of Parks then appointed planner 

Vicky Sung as project manager, and by early 

February it had approved two project-related 

contracts: $93,000 to Sno-engineering, Inc. of 

Aspen, Colorado for a study of recreational 

potential in the Tokositna area, and $100,000 to 

Economic Research Associates of San Francisco 

to study the site’s economic potential.225 Snoengineering personnel, who periodically updated 

state officials on the progress of their work, were 

universally positive about the area’s potential; 

they claimed that the nearby slopes offered “the 

best view of any ski area in the world” and that 

the area had the potential to be “one of the ten 

best ski areas in all of North America.” The ERA 

study recognized that such a proposed development would have a broad basis of potential 

support, both from Alaska residents and out-ofstate tourists. The resort, however, would not be 

economically feasible unless a “major resort community” was constructed along with it. That plan 

called for a proposed resort of 2,000 rooms (for 

at least 4,000 guests), plus facilities for additional 

2,000 service personnel.226 The legislature, in its 

1979 session, showed little interest in providing 

funding for Denali State Park tourism development.227 Following Senator Gravel’s March 12 
262 Crown Jewel of the North: An Administrative History of Denali National Park and Preserve

speech before the Alaska Legislature, however, 

Senate and House members moved quickly to 

pass a resolution—slightly modified from one 

that Senator Rodey had proposed a month 

earlier—that would establish a three-member 

“Tokositna Committee” to study potential recreational development in Denali State Park and 

adjacent national park land. The membership of 

that committee, moreover, would be composed 

of appointees from the Governor, the Alaska 

House of Representatives, and the Alaska Senate. 

Given that criteria, Rodey’s resolution passed 

the Senate, 20-0, on April 2; it passed the House, 

25-10, on April 23; and it was read by Governor 

Hammond on April 30.228 In an unusual move, 

Sen. Gravel—who had played a key role in both 

drafting the bill and in requesting its consideration by the Alaska Legislature—was appointed 

as the House of Representative’s choice. The 

other two members were State Senator Pat Rodey 

and Natural Resources Commissioner Robert 

LeResche.229

Perhaps in response to the various consultants’ 

recommendations, Alaska tour operator Robert 

Giersdorf contacted Bradford and Barbara Washburn in the late spring of 1979 and asked them 

to take several government and tourism industry 

officials to Switzerland “for the purpose of giving them an on-the-spot feel of how the Swiss 

mountain tourist industry ticks.” Recognizing 

that the long-term cost of the planned Tokositna 

development “will be in the neighborhood of $50 

million” (according to one of those officials), the 

trip’s purpose was “to investigate how resorts 

have combined public and private resources” 

and also “to learn how Swiss resorts maintain 

successful year-round operations.”230 The group 

spent eight days (from July 11 to July 19) visiting 

“six or seven” area resorts. The trip, which cost 

$11,000 in state funds, answered a multitude of 

questions; these funds, moreover, did not pay 

the expenses for several members of the entourage. Even so, charges that the group was “on an 

out and out junket, wining and dining their way 

through resorts” resulted in an announcement by 

Governor Hammond that he would personally 

approve all state-financed foreign travel.231

Many of those who visited Switzerland returned 

with a new vision of how the Tokositna area 

might be developed. State Parks Director Terry 

McWilliams, for example, said the trip “exploded the concept of what can be done with the 

Tokositna project. ... Now we’re considering a 

much larger area.” Her boss, Natural Resources 

Commissioner Robert LeResche, came away 

converted to the idea of building the proposed 

recreation center; “We saw resorts for 20,000 to 

30,000 people in a town with no road access,” 

he said.232 Senator Gravel, who did not take part 

in the trip but still had strong, visionary notions 

regarding the site’s development,233 was highly 

encouraged to see that the group was considering 

a world class tourist resort, so he hastily arranged 

a meeting for the group in Stuttgart, Germany 

with several of the world’s top resort designers 

including The Architects Collaborative, or TAC 

(based in Cambridge, Massachusetts) and Ove 

Arup and Partners (based in London).234

The various consultants’ recommendations, the 

attitude of various State of Alaska employees, 

and U.S. Sen. Mike Gravel’s hyperbolic rhetoric 

In late 1977, Senator Gravel proposed 

a domed recreational complex south 

of the Alaska Range. This drawing 

shows the “dome city” as Gravel 

envisioned it.
Chapter Eight: New Highway Impacts and the Park Expansion Process, 1972-1980 263

clearly seemed to be shifting momentum toward 

planning for a world-class resort in the Tokositna 

area—something that might cost between $200 

million and $1 billion. The State Legislature, 

however, had provided funding a year earlier for 

just a 150-bed lodge and visitor center project 

that would cost the state between $25 million and 

$38 million, and such longtime project backers 

as Brad Washburn were now protesting because 

he wanted “something that would blend into the 

scene. Something that would almost disappear 

into the landscape.”235 And some local residents—specifically property owners along the 

Petersville Road corridor—organized in opposition to the project. They voiced concern, one 

reporter noted, that “the building and operation 

of visitor facilities ... could be an unfair competition to the ‘little guy’ who owns his own lodge or 

facility in the general area.”236

To help resolve the conflict between these starkly 

contrasting visions, state leaders began a process 

to decide what company would be its primary 

project consultant. Sen. Gravel, by this time, had 

made his choice abundantly clear: TAC, because Gravel and Alex Cvijanovic of TAC “were 

very close philosophically.” TAC consultants, 

at Gravel’s direction, had visited Anchorage at 

least four times in 1978 and 1979, all at no cost 

to the state or federal governments, and in July 

1979, Gravel had expressed his unhappiness with 

ERA’s “unimaginative” feasibility planning; the 

U.S. Senator had been disappointed that ERA’s 

studies had recommended only a 2,000-room 

For the remainder of the 1970s, 

Alaskans alternately backed – and derided – Senator Gravel’s plans for an 

enclosed city. Detractors made light 

of the idea as shown in this cartoon. 

National Parks and Conservation Association
264 Crown Jewel of the North: An Administrative History of Denali National Park and Preserve

development. Gravel, according to an NPS 

planner, wanted “a far larger development,” so in 

early August, he began to give TAC “verbal assurances” that it would be the state’s choice for the 

upcoming management job, and later that month 

NPS officials were led to believe that “project 

direction and coordination have passed from the 

staff level of the Division of Parks, to the consulting firm of The Architects Collaborative.” And 

inasmuch as the Tokositna Committee had agreed 

to eventually award its management contract on a 

“sole source” basis—something that was deemed 

“perfectly legal”—it appeared that TAC was on 

the inside track to assume control over how the 

final plans would be developed.237

Throughout this period, the NPS had been 

keeping abreast of project developments. In 

December 1978 it hired Vincent Radosevich as 

a research analyst. In early 1979 the agency (primarily Paul Kalkwarf from the Denver Service 

Center, with assistance from park and Alaska 

Area Office personnel) teamed up with the Alaska 

Division of Parks to complete an environmental 

analysis. By the end of August 1979, much of the 

agency’s work had been completed.238 And given 

the completion of the various state-sponsored 

contracts, only $80,000 in Tokositna Project planning funds remained at year’s end.239

In order to stimulate new interest in the project, 

a consulting company now needed to prepare 

a feasibility report for the Alaska Legislature 

that would be sufficiently convincing to unlock 

$1,000,000 from state coffers for final site planning. And based on the events of August 1979, 

TAC appeared to have the upper hand toward 

obtaining that contract. That fall, however, the 

Hammond administration suffered public embarrassment over the awarding of an unrelated contract, so in response, DNR chief Robert LeResche stated that the Tokositna contract would be 

awarded only through the “request for proposals” process.240 Six firms responded prior to the 

January 18, 1980 deadline, and when a six-person 

review team ranked the various proposals, a West 

Coast firm named ERA/FMC241 was chosen by 

everyone on the review team. TAC, on the other 

hand, was ranked last by almost all of the panel 

members. Sen. Gravel, given his position on the 

Tokositna Committee, nevertheless chose TAC 

for the management contract. In early February 

LeResche, following the advice of the review 

board, chose ERA/FMC. Gravel then, highhandedly, told LeResche that “Senator Rodey agrees 

with me.” The contract was thus awarded to 

TAC. LeResche, however, insisted that Rodey 

provide him a written vote. Rodey, allegedly 

because of the press of legislative business and 

the need to review all six proposals, did not make 

his opinion known until almost a month after the 

advertised March 18 deadline. He cast his vote 

for ERA/FMC, which was awarded the contract. 

The delay, however, forced the firm to postpone 

its presentation to the legislature, perhaps until 

after it had adjourned for the year.242

The future of the Tokositna development, 

meanwhile, was being fought over within the 

halls of the Alaska legislature. Sen. George 

Hohman (D-Bethel), on February 18, introduced 

a bill “establishing the Denali Recreational Area 

Commission.” That bill (SB 481), which was 

co-sponsored by Pat Rodey and written to some 

extent by Mike Gravel, called for a five-member 

commission that would oversee the future of the 

Tokositna project and prepare its development 

plan. That commission, however, would not 

include members of either the State Division of 

Parks or the National Park Service. Hohman’s 

bill also, not surprisingly, called for a large-scale 

“recreational community and convention center” 

rather than a mere “visitors’ center.” A companion bill (SB 482) called for the allocation of 

$1 million to fund the Tokositna Development 

Plan.243

Neither of these bills, however, became law. In 

late April, both seemed well on their way toward 

being passed; the Senate approved the bill 

establishing the Commission on a 15-1 vote, and 

it passed the companion funding bill on an 11-5 

vote. When it reached the House, however, the 

funding bill never made it through the committee 

stage. Although the bill establishing the Commission eventually passed the House, 22-16, it was 

not forwarded to the Governor because Hammond, concerned about the lack of state parks 

representation, promised to veto it.244

Despite the defeat of the two bills in the state legislature, Division of Parks personnel continued to 

work on project plans. In mid-September 1980, 

they held hearings in Anchorage and Talkeetna 

“to share ideas with other planners who would 

build the visitor center at an edge of Denali State 

Park.” What was presented at the meeting was a 

preliminary plan, prepared by the HKS Associates consulting firm of San Francisco,245 for a 

$100 million recreation complex at Tokositna 

which would include “an environmental center 

and village center with lodging, restaurant facilities, shopping, cultural and educational facilities, 

a convention center and a nightclub.” A downhill 

ski course and tramway would come later, the 

report noted. HKS representatives noted that 

“if interest is high, ... an active resort could be 

operating by the summer of 1986.” But attendees were warned that Division of State Parks 

involvement would soon “hibernate” without 

another legislative appropriation. Area residents, 
Chapter Eight: New Highway Impacts and the Park Expansion Process, 1972-1980 265

however, reacted negatively to the consultant’s 

proposal, as they had a year earlier. Participants 

protested that the project was developing too 

quickly, that the project “would destroy the 

wilderness concept of Tokositna Valley,” and 

that Curry Ridge was a more favorable development site.246 The comments of Talkeetna-area 

residents, moreover, matched the apparent mood 

of Alaska’s voters, because several weeks earlier, 

Mike Gravel—with his farsighted, futuristic 

development visions for the site—had been 

defeated by former state representative Clark 

Gruening of Anchorage in the Democratic U.S. 

Senate primary.247

Recognizing that another round of hearings was 

looming in early 1981, area residents became 

more vocal in their opposition to the Tokositna 

facility. An informal assemblage of Trapper 

Creek residents called the Tokosha group, along 

with the Denali Citizens Council, declared that 

project planners were too narrow minded; noting 

that adopting the Tokositna site would disrupt 

their lifestyle, they urged the adoption of a site 

atop Curry Ridge.248 Prospects dimmed further 

in January 1981, when Tokositna-area miners 

let it be known that 1,000 acres in the Tokositna 

River valley were overlain by mining claims, some 

of which were worth a purported $13 per cubic 

yard. In addition, state officials admitted that 

ownership of the proposed development site 

was still unclear; the state had filed on the land in 

January 1972, but they had not yet gained “tentative approval” for it.249

Matters came to head at a public hearing in 

Talkeetna on March 4. A consensus of those who 

attended the meeting stated that they backed 

the idea of a major tourism and visitor center. 

However, sites such as Curry Ridge and Mount 

Baldy (the latter site ten miles east of Talkeetna) 

were far preferable to the Tokositna site. (One 

local resident railed against Tokositna because 

people “won’t see the peak much in the summer,” another claimed that the winter cold there 

was “more intense” than had been described, and 

a third averred that a center there would drive 

wildlife away.) But regardless of the public’s 

response, the fact that planners and consultants 

had depleted their 1979 funding allotment meant 

that all project activity would stop unless the 

legislature provided additional funding.250 

Despite the growing antagonism toward the 

project from area residents, Sen. Rodey continued to support continued development planning, 

and on March 18, he submitted two bills, both of 

which called for a supplemental appropriation to 

DNR, to be devoted to “planning for Tokositna 

park.” Two months later, both bills unanimously 

passed the Senate Resources Committee. The 

Resources Committee, however, sent a letter of 

intent asking that future efforts focus on “several 

small recreation centers, and not necessarily one 

large complex,” and it further suggested that 

DNR, in its future planning, “consider the feasibility of recreational facilities at such alternative 

sites as Curry Ridge, Larson Lake [east of Talkeetna], Byers Lake and the Chulitna River.” The 

Senate Finance Committee refused to consider 

either bill. As a result, the long-running effort 

to build either a large or small resort in Mount 

Between the mid-1970s and the early 

1980s, development interests supported the construction of a hotel at 

this site, near the Tokositna Glacier 

terminus. DENA Herkenham #88, 

Denali National Park and Preserve 

Museum Collection
266 Crown Jewel of the North: An Administrative History of Denali National Park and Preserve

McKinley’s southern shadow appeared to be 

dead.251

Mount McKinley or Denali? The Fight Over 

Naming Rights252

In late 1974, the proper name for North America’s highest peak, and of the park, became a 

public issue. Jay Hammond, who was elected 

Alaska’s governor in the fall election, enthusiastically supported the idea of changing “Mt. 

McKinley” to “Denali,” and a month later, the 

Denali Citizens Council publicized its interest in 

having the name changed.253 Action then moved 

to the Alaska legislature. On February 2, Sen. 

John Sackett (R-Fairbanks) and the Resources 

Committee submitted a resolution suggesting a 

name change from Mount McKinley to Mount 

Denali. It moved quickly through the legislature,254 and on March 12, 1975 Governor Hammond read the resolution, which stated that “the 

Secretary of the Interior is respectfully requested 

to direct the United States Board on Geographic 

Names to officially designate Mt. McKinley as 

Mt. Denali,” and it “further resolved that Mt. 

McKinley National Park be renamed Denali 

National Park.”255

The legislature’s action highlighted a dispute that 

had first erupted more than sixty years earlier 

(see Chapter 2). Although Natives, Russians, and 

early American visitors had supplied a number 

of names to the Alaska Range’s highest peak over 

the years, it was in November 1896 that William 

Dickey called it Mount McKinley after returning from a prospecting trip in the upper Susitna 

drainage. That name was enshrined because of 

his “discovery” account in the January 24, 1897 

New York Sun. By decade’s end, Mount McKinley was part of the standard geographical lexicon. 

But such luminaries as Charles Sheldon and 

Hudson Stuck, more sensitive to Native Alaska 

concerns, consistently used the name Denali.256 

Despite their influence, however, each of the 

Congressional bills to establish the park bore the 

name Mount McKinley, and both the park and 

the mountain peak kept that name during the 

years that followed. From the 1920s to the early 

1970s, few questioned the name, and although 

President Johnson in October 1965 announced 

that the peak’s two summits would be called the 

Churchill Peaks, that designation was honorific 

and generally ignored.257 State officials, however, 

apparently preferred the name Denali, because in 

1970 they bestowed that name on the state park 

they established north of Talkeetna (see above).

On March 7, 1975, the State of Alaska sent the 

resolution—which called for the peak to be 

called Mt. Denali rather than Denali, as Sheldon 

and Stuck had hoped—to the Alaska Geographic 

Names Board and also to the U.S. Board on Geographic Names. The U.S. Board, and more specifically its Domestic Names Committee (DNC), 

recognized that the Secretary of the Interior had 

the power to change the mountain’s name, but 

changing the name of the national park would require Congressional approval.258 Because actions 

regarding the mountain name and the park name 

needed to be treated separately, and because 

Mount McKinley was such a well-known, longstanding name, the Domestic Names Committee saw a long, tough fight on the horizon; in 

February 1975—even before the state legislature 

finalized its resolution—the Committee’s meeting 

minutes noted that if the resolution passed, both 

the Board on Geographic Names and the Federal 

Government “would have a problem that may 

not be resolved easily.”259

Those minutes turned out to be prophetic. In 

March 1975, Donald Orth of the Board on 

Geographic Names met with Secretary of the 

Interior Rogers C.B. Morton, but the Secretary 

“expressed the view that he is not in favor of 

changing the name of Mount McKinley at this 

time.” The Domestic Names Committee, in response, voted to defer action on the name change 

proposal for six months, and a month later it 

asked the Department to issue a press release on 

the subject and invited the public to comment on 

the state’s proposal.260 By the end of the year, the 

public had sent the Committee several thousands 

comments. The initial response (in August 1975) 

generally opposed the change, but by the late fall, 

a majority of all letter-writers were favoring the 

change, and by January 1976, Committee minutes 

noted that “recent letters are about 4 to 1 in favor 

of the change.” People from President William 

McKinley’s home state of Ohio comprised the 

main opposition to the change, while Alaskans, 

former Alaskans, the National Park Service, and 

people who had traveled in Alaska favored the 

name change.261

By the spring of 1976, 4,000 letters and petitions 

had been received on the subject, of which about 

three-fifths favored Denali. But Rep. Ralph 

Regula, a second-term Republican from President McKinley’s home town of Canton, Ohio, 

drew a line in the sand when he announced that 

he was beginning a campaign in Ohio to fight the 

name change. Rallying around Regula, everyone 

in the Ohio congressional delegation stated their 

opposition to the proposed name change. In 

the face of that opposition, the Domestic Names 

Committee chose to defer the matter for the time 

being.262 For the remainder of 1976, neither 

Interior Secretary Thomas Kleppe nor any of 

his immediate lieutenants took a public position 
Chapter Eight: New Highway Impacts and the Park Expansion Process, 1972-1980 267

in the matter, and given the results of the fall 

elections, the matter was delayed until the new 

Interior Secretary, Cecil Andrus, was apprised of 

the situation. The Chairman of the Geographic 

Names Board, Ray Hulick, implored his fellow 

board members to set a public hearing on the 

subject; others on the board, however, delayed 

that action for several months.263

In April 1977 the Board finally met with Assistant Secretary of the Interior Joan Davenport 

to discuss the matter, and during that meeting 

it was mutually agreed that two hearings would 

be held on the name-change proposal that fall, 

one of which would be in Alaska.264 By this time, 

however, events were taking place in Congress 

that would strongly influence the outcome of 

those hearings. On January 4, 1977, Rep. Morris 

Udall, Chair of the House Interior and Insular 

Affairs Committee, submitted the first of a number of bills intended to resolve the long-debated 

Alaska national interest lands question, and each 

of those bills proposed to expand the existing 

boundaries of Mount McKinley National Park. 

But what would be the name of the newly-expanded park? Udall’s original bill (HR 39) called 

for a newly-expanded Mount McKinley National 

Park, and a revised version issued in July kept the 

same name. But when Interior Secretary Cecil 

Andrus, on September 15, issued the Interior Department’s recommendations on how the Alaska 

lands issue might be resolve, that document 

called for the establishment of a newly-expanded 

Denali National Park.265

The Domestic Names Committee, as scheduled, 

held public hearings on the subject on October 

25, in Washington, D.C., and November 10, in 

Anchorage. Those that attended both meetings 

clearly favored the name change to Mt. Denali. 

To countermand the tilt in public opinion, the 

Ohio congressional delegation introduced a joint 

resolution in Congress on December 7, 1977.266 

That resolution stated in part:

... that the mountain ... in the State of 

Alaska in the United States of America 

known as Mount McKinley, shall 

retain the name Mount McKinley in 

perpetuity as an appropriate and lasting tribute to the service of William 

McKinley to his country.

The Domestic Names Committee, in response, 

voted to defer action on the Alaska Legislature’s 

proposal until Congress resolved the joint resolution introduced by the Ohio delegation.267 The 

resolution was not considered further. Secretary 

Andrus, clearly in favor of the name change, 

reacted to the stalled resolution by urging the 

Board to reconsider its action of deferral. Before 

they could act, however, Rep. Regula introduced 

an amendment to Udall’s H.R. 39 that changed 

the name of the national park to “Denali National Park” but would “retain the name Mount 

McKinley in perpetuity.”268 That bill, with 

Regula’s amendment, passed the House, but 

Congress adjourned in October without resolving the Alaska lands question. The failure of that 

bill meant that the Board on Geographic Names 

could once again act on the case. Rep. Regula, 

however, informed the Board that he planned 

to introduce new legislature in the new (96th) 

Congress as soon as it convened. The DNC, 

in response, voted to defer action on the Mt. 

McKinley case until the following year, when “we 

see what Congress does with the matter.”269

Before the new Congress met, however, the Carter administration (as noted above) took steps 

to secure a measure of protection for much of 

Alaska’s national interest (“d-2”) lands. Shortly 

after Congress adjourned in mid-October, the 

Interior Department began to enact plans, which 

had been put in motion earlier that year, to have 

national monuments designated for the various 

proposed national parks, along with selected 

areas of interest to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and the U.S. Forest Service. These plans culminated in a series of presidential proclamations 

that President Jimmy Carter issued on December 

1, 1978. One of those proclamations called for 

the establishment of Denali National Monument, a 3,890,000-acre expanse that surrounded 

Mount McKinley National Park on three sides. 

This new designation, which was consistent with 

recent usage by both administration officials 

and the Congress, meant that for the time being, 

the park complex surrounding the continent’s 

highest peak would have two names: both Mount 

McKinley and Denali.270

When the 96th Congress opened in January 1979, 

Congressman Udall submitted a new H.R. 39, 

and one part of that bill called for the establishment of a newly-expanded Denali National Park. 

Missing from that bill was any language mandating a name for the mountain.271 Three months 

later, the Domestic Names Committee met. In 

response to that omission, at least two committee members demanded that the Committee take 

action in the matter. What they said, however, 

was equivocal; member Charles Harrington, for 

example, told one reporter that “As long at it’s 

before Congress, we won’t touch it.” Later in the 

same interview, however, he said that because the 

current trend to restore original Native names 

favored “Denali,” that name “is likely to emerge 

as the mountain’s proper name.”272
268 Crown Jewel of the North: An Administrative History of Denali National Park and Preserve

In May 1979, the House passed an Alaska lands 

bill. Among its other provisions, it called for the 

existing park to be renamed Denali National 

Park, and it also called for a newly-expanded 

Denali National Park (covering 3,410,000 acres) 

along with a 480,000-acre Denali National Preserve. But Rep. Regula, once again, successfully 

worked to resist any change in the mountain’s 

name. As a result, language in the House-passed 

bill stated that the continent’s highest peak “shall 

retain the name Mount McKinley.”273

Action on an Alaska lands bill then moved to the 

Senate. As the bill was being considered by the 

Energy and Natural Resources Committee, senators held the opinion that the name change decision should be left to the Board on Geographic 

Names.274 Given that go-ahead, Assistant Interior 

Secretary Joan Davenport encouraged the Board 

of Geographic Names to proceed “promptly” 

with the decision as soon as it had assurance 

that Congress would not reconsider the name 

issue. The DNC, in response, initially planned 

to render a decision by late summer or early fall, 

unless Congress enacted an Alaska lands bill. 

But given the two-year lapse, the DNC also felt it 

needed to schedule two more public hearings on 

the matter.275 

Congress did, in fact, move to enact an Alaska 

lands bill, and in mid-August the Senate passed 

its version of an Alaska lands bill, which (like 

the House bill) also called for an expanded 

Denali National Park and a new Denali National 

Preserve. The Senate bill, unlike the House bill, 

made no statement regarding a suggested peak 

name. As noted in the November 1979 Energy 

and Natural Resources Committee report,

By these actions the Committee in no 

way intended to indicate its approval 

or disapproval of the proposal to 

change the name of the mountain to 

Denali, which has been pending before the Board on Geographic Names. 

The Committee believes that this 

Board is the entity, which should make 

such a decision and strongly encourages the Board to continue its examination of this proposal and to reach 

a decision based on the merits of the 

case at the earliest possible time.276 

The House and Senate, for the time being, were 

unable to agree on differences between the two 

bills. The Board of Geographic Names, meanwhile, announced that public meetings on the 

proposed name change would be held in Salt 

Lake City and Washington, D.C. on November 5 

and 14, respectively.277 These meetings were held 

as scheduled. Just before these meetings took 

place, however, Ronald Reagan defeated Jimmy 

Carter in the 1980 presidential election, and as 

noted above, House leaders agreed to accept 

the Senate-passed version of the Alaska lands 

bill. On December 2, President Carter signed 

into law the Alaska National Interest Lands 

Conservation Act, which expanded the national 

“Mount McKinley” continues to be 

the proper name for the highest 

mountain on the continent, while 

the name of the park was changed 

in 1980 to Denali National Park and 

Preserve. DENA 32-2, Denali National 

Park and Preserve Museum Collection
Chapter Eight: New Highway Impacts and the Park Expansion Process, 1972-1980 269

park by 2,426,000 acres, added 1,330,000 acres 

of preserve, and changed the name of the park 

to Denali National Park and Preserve. It did not 

change the name of Mt. McKinley.278

So by the time the Domestic Names Committee 

met in mid-December 1980, there were no further legislative actions that had the potential to 

intercede with its name change proposal. Despite 

widespread support for changing the name, tensions over the issue were still running high, and 

staff member Donald Orth “questioned whether 

the Board should get involved with the issue at 

a time when ‘outside’ emotional and political 

pressures tend to make an empirical judgment 

difficult.” In addition, the Board remained apprehensive of political repercussions. The meeting minutes of the Board noted that Congress 

“could always override” a decision of the Board. 

As a result, the DNC voted to defer the Alaska 

Legislature’s name change proposal, for another 

six months, until its June 1981 meeting.279

The Domestic Names Committee’s inability 

to decide the issue left the gap wide open for 

a legislative solution, a gap which was quickly 

filled by Rep. Ralph Regula of Ohio. On January 

6, 1981, the second day of the 97th Congress, 

Regula introduced a bill “which would establish 

as a matter of law that the highest peak in North 

America shall continue to bear the name ‘Mount 

McKinley.’” That bill was reported out of the 

House Interior and Insular Affairs Committee on 

July 29 and it passed the full House on August 4. 

But the Senate never acted on the measure, and it 

thus never became law.280 

Rep. Regula, however, was not unduly disappointed with the Senate’s failure to act, because 

Board of Geographic Names policy has long 

demanded that its members steer clear of any 

name change proposals that Congress is currently considering.281 Based on that policy, Rep. 

Regula—who is still at this writing an Ohio representative—has submitted in every Congress a 

bill (or a clause in a larger bill) that addresses the 

Mt. McKinley naming issue. Sometimes, as in 

1981, he has introduced a bill to “provide for the 

retention of the name Mt. McKinley,” while in 

other years, he has added a clause in an Interior 

Department spending bill that “prohibits the use 

of funds to change the name of Mount McKinley.”282

Notes - Chapter 8

1 “Changing the National Parks to Cope With 

People – and Cars,” U.S. News and World 

Report 72 (January 24, 1972), 52-55; Anchorage Daily Times, January 19, 1972, 3; Anchorage Daily News, January 20, 1972, 4; George 

Hartzog, telephone interview by the author, 

December 21, 2005.

2 Oscar Dick to Peter Doyle III, September 

1, 1966, in “D30 Roads and Trails, 1966 thru 

1969” folder, DENA Archives; Hall to Chief, 

Office of Resource Planning, SSC, August 26, 

1968, in “D18 Planning Program and Master 

Plan 1970-71” folder, DENA Archives.

3 Director PNRO to Director NPS, n.d., in “D30 

Roads and Trails 1970-1971” folder, DENA Archives; Scott Ruesch, interview with the author, 

October 21, 2004.

4 Anchorage Daily News, January 20, 1972, 4; 

Hummel, Stealing the National Parks, 265, 268; 

Edward A. Hummel to “All Regional Directors,” October 12, 1967; Peter G. Sanchez to 

Supt. MOMC, December 6, 1967; both in Catalog No. 9169, DENA Archives. The “carrying 

capacity” concept, widely perceived in a qualitative sense, provided a basis for judging when a 

park area was overcrowded and thus visitation 

needed to be rationalized.

5 Anchorage Daily News, January 20, 1972, 

4; Michael F. Anderson, Polishing the Jewel; 

an Administrative History of Grand Canyon 

National Park, Monograph #11 (Grand Canyon, 

Ariz., Grand Canyon Association, 2000), 77.

6 Anchorage Daily News, February 27, 1972, 

22; Anchorage Daily Times, January 20, 1972, 

4.

7 Anchorage Daily Times, January 21, 1972, 9; 

January 24, 1972, 4; February 9, 1972, 6; Alaska 

House Journal, 1972, 273, 422, 534; Alaska 

Senate Journal, 1972, 424, 439. The passage of 

this resolution brought forth a predictable chain 

of correspondence from Governor Egan to U.S. 

Senate Interior Committee Chairman Henry M. 

Jackson, to the NPS Director and back again. 

Jackson asked for the NPS Director to “render a 

report on the feasibility of the points outlined in 

the Resolution.” That request was answered by 

a memo to Jackson from NPS Deputy Associate 

Director Joseph C. Rumburg, Jr., explaining the 

NPS’s rationale for its action and an additional 

assurance that the agency was developing a 

“continuing maintenance program for the road 

based on these new requirements for its use.” 

Various letters in File NR 1-2, Series 88 (1972), 

RG 01, ASA.

8 As NPS Regional Director John Rutter noted 

to Sen. Ted Stevens in an April 5, 1972 letter 

(in “Miscellaneous” file, Box 1, Catalog No. 

9169, DENA Archives), “while we were able 

to consult in advance with a number of officials 

and interested persons [about the plan], we were 

not able to consult with as many as we had intended.” The Alaska Congressional delegation 

was apparently kept informed, but Anchorage 

NPS officials, ironically, had little inkling of the 

plan (see Anchorage Daily Times, March 15, 
270 Crown Jewel of the North: An Administrative History of Denali National Park and Preserve

1972, 13).

9 Jim Fuksa to Leslie Swanson, February 1, 

1972; F. A. Seymour to John Rutter, February 

11, 1972, both in File NR 1-2 (1972), Series 88, 

RG 01, ASA; Anchorage Daily Times, January 

26, 1972, 5.

10 A. Stephen Johnson, “McKinley, New 

Freedom to Enjoy,” National Parks and Conservation Magazine 46 (December 1972), 22; 

Anchorage Daily News, February 20, 1972, 16.

11 Anchorage Daily Times, March 3, 1972, 1; 

Anchorage Daily News, March 5, 1972, 22; 

March 30, 1972, 1.

12 Fairbanks Daily News-Miner, March 8, 

1972, 4; Anchorage Daily Times, March 31, 

1972, 8; May 6, 1972, 7; Anchorage Daily 

News, March 31, 1972, 17.

13 Anchorage Daily Times, March 29, 1972, 

2; March 30, 1972, 30; Anchorage Daily News, 

March 30, 1972, 1; March 31, 1972, 17; April 

18, 1972, 15.

14 Daniel Kuehn interview, October 11, 2004; 

Russell Dickenson to Max Baucus, January 

25, 1977, in “Park Complaints” folder, DENA 

Administrative History Collection, AKRO.

15 Stroud, History of the Concession, 28; 

Anchorage Daily Times, September 15, 1972, 

5; Daniel Kuehn interview, October 11, 2004. 

Camp Denali co-owner Ginny Hill Wood, in 

her article “In the Alaska Wilderness, the Park 

Service Confronts and Turns Back Motorized 

Tourism” (Audubon 75 [July 1973], pp. 108-09), 

noted that the buses used in 1972 were “aging 

school vehicles with three-quarter-size seats.”

16 Steve Carwile, interview by the author, December 29, 2005; June 8, 2006. Under the new 

system, ten cars at a time were allowed to obtain 

a permit at the check station and drive another 

two miles west to Savage River; additional cars 

had to wait until one of the ten cars had returned 

to the check station.

17 Anchorage Daily Times, May 22, 1972, 15; 

Johnson, “McKinley, New Freedom to Enjoy,” 

20. Various Toklat Ranger Logs from the 1960s 

report problems obtaining water at the campground, but bears were never a problem in the 

immediate camp vicinity. Jane Bryant, email to 

author, February 22, 2006.

18 Several mid-season news reports stated that 

the park had already received 180,000 or more 

visitors; this total, however, apparently included 

non-recreational traffic on the new AnchorageFairbanks road. Anchorage Daily News, August 

8, 1972, 2A; August 29, 1972, 2.

19 Anchorage Daily News, August 8, 1972, 2A; 

Johnson, “McKinley, New Freedom to Enjoy,” 

22.

20 Anchorage Daily Times, August 2, 1972, 4; 

Anchorage Daily News, August 8, 1972, 2A; 

Johnson, “McKinley, New Freedom to Enjoy,” 

22.

43 Anchorage Daily Times, October 13, 1972, 

1, 4; Hadley to Begich, November 3, 1972, see 

above.

44 Anchorage Daily Times, September 18, 
Chapter Eight: New Highway Impacts and the Park Expansion Process, 1972-1980 271

21 Anchorage Daily Times, August 30, 1972, 8; Gordon S. Harrison to Garrett Smathers, November 

9, 1972, in “Plan to Restrict” file, DENA Administrative History Collection; Gordon S. Harrison, 

Research Study of the Public Reaction to the Mount McKinley National Park Public Transportation 

System, Institute of Social, Economic, and Government Research, Univ. of Alaska, June 25, 1973, 

1-2; Study 184/D50, TIC Collection. A synopsis of this study later appeared as “The People and 

the Park: Reactions to a System of Public Transportation in Mt. McKinley National Park, Alaska,” 

Journal of Leisure Research 7:1 (1975), 6-15.

22 Anchorage Daily Times, August 24, 1972, 12; Diane Tracy, “Human-Wildlife Interactions Along 

Mt. McKinley Road,” in Alaska Cooperative Park Studies Unit, Final Report: Fiscal Year 1975

(Fairbanks, UAF, ca. 1975), 1, 4, 6, T-1 through T-85.

23 Anchorage Daily Times, January 4, 1972, 1-2; September 15, 1972, 5. As noted in a December 

14, 1972 Times article (p. 2), Fleharty still lived in California during the winter (he kept an office in 

San Francisco) but stayed at the park during the summer.

24 Anchorage Daily Times, January 11, 1972, 2; January 12, 1972, 6; March 29, 1972, 2; Anchorage Daily News, March 30, 1972, 1; NPS, Drawing MOMC-70005, September 3, 1971, in NPS 

Aperture Card Collection.

25 SAR, 1972, 2; Anchorage Daily Times, June 27, 1972, 4.

26 Stroud, History of the Concession, 28; Anchorage Daily Times, July 17, 1972, 20; Anchorage 

Daily News, July 30, 1972, 17; “Mount McKinley Again Will Get Record Visitors,” Sunset (Central 

Edition), May 1973, 58.

27 Anchorage Daily News, August 28, 1972, 2; August 29, 1972, 2.

28 Anchorage Daily Times, September 5, 1972, 1, 4; Anchorage Daily News, September 5, 1972, 

1-2.

29 Anchorage Daily Times, September 5, 1972, 1; NPS, Drawing MOMC-41004 (“Utilities for 50-

Room Wing Addition”), April 23, 1970; NPS Drawing MOMC-41009 and -41009A, February 1973, 

both in NPS Aperture Card Collection.

30 Anchorage Daily Times, September 5, 1972, 4.

31 Robert T. Timlin, Mt. McKinley Hotel, Mount McKinley, Alaska, Fire Investigation Report, ca. 

1972, in Box 6, File 6-24, Bill Brown Collection (#6857), DENA Archives; Stroud, History of the 

Concession, 29.

32 Chief Ranger, MOMC to Supt. MOMC, October 25, 1968, in File D22 (Construction Project 

Priority), in Catalog No. 9169, DENA Archives.

33 Anchorage Daily Times, September 5, 1972, 1.

34 At a McKinley Park Station hearing on November 10, Deborah Vogt of the Fairbanks Environmental Center urged “placement of the hotel outside of the park ... it is time to take all commercial 

operations out of the park [and] we do believe that concessionaire operated facilities in this park 

constitute a business monopoly which stifles private enterprise outside the park.” “Statement of the 

Fairbanks Environmental Center,” November 10, 1972, in Folder 4-16, Box 4, Collection 6857 (Bill 

Brown Files), DENA Archives.

35 Anchorage Daily Times, September 5, 1972, 4. Regional officials John Rutter and Rod Pegues 

“pointed out that anything built in a park is controlled and regulated by the National Park Service, 

whereas those built by private capital outside a park are not. ... Some facilities outside the park may 

in fact be more harmful to the park than well-designed and regulated facilities in the park.” “Minutes of the Meeting of the Pacific Northwest Regional Advisory Committee,” February 3, 1973, p. 7, 

in Bill Brown Collection, DENA Archives.

36 Anchorage Daily Times, September 5, 1972, 4.

37 Anchorage Daily News, September 5, 1972, 2; Anchorage Daily Times, September 5, 1972, 8; 

Wood, “In the Alaska Wilderness,” 109.

38 Anchorage Daily Times, September 6, 1972, 1.

39 Anchorage Daily Times, September 15, 1972, 5.

40 Anchorage Daily Times, September 11, 1972, 14; September 15, 1972, 5; September 28, 1972, 

12.

41 Anchorage Daily Times, September 18, 1972, 14; September 28, 1972, 12.

42 Anchorage Daily News, September 22, 1972, 7; Anchorage Daily Times, October 13, 1972, 1, 

4; October 14, 1972, 6; Lawrence C. Hadley to Nick Begich, November 3, 1972, in File NR 1-2 

(1972), Series 88, RG 01, ASA; Stroud, History of the Concession, 29; Southeast Alaska Empire, 

October 16, 1972, 8. Stevens’s appropriation—which included funds for both hotel construction 

and future planning—was approved by Congress and signed into law (as part of P.L. 92-607) on October 31, 1972. Hotel construction, as it turned out, demanded $295,000 of the $350,000 appropriation; the remaining $55,000 went to hotel planning efforts.
272 Crown Jewel of the North: An Administrative History of Denali National Park and Preserve

1972, 14; October 23, 1972, 3; October 26, 1972, 2; October 28, 1972, 2; October 31, 1972, 2; Anchorage Daily News, October 24, 1972, 2.

45 Anchorage Daily Times, December 14, 1972, 2; December 15, 1972, 3; January 2, 1973, 16; 

Anchorage Daily News, January 4, 1973, 5. 

46 Press reports differed on the number of railroad cars needed. The December 15, 1972 Times article (p. 3) stated that the concessioner would “buy or lease at least four railroad compartment sleeper 

cars and 40 to 45 other railroad cars to provide additional space for dining and bar facilities,” while 

the January 2, 1973 Times article (p. 16) stated that “12 rail cars [would] be used for sleeping 

quarters, storage and office space, a bar, gift shop and coffee shop.” Drawings released in February 

1973 (NPS, Drawings MOMC 41009 and 41009A, NPS Aperture Card Collection) showed that 13 

railroad cars would be employed in the new design, but only 11 cars—7 purchased and 4 leased—

were included in the hotel as actually constructed (Stroud, History of the Concession, 31). Two 

railroad cars came from the Union Pacific in Seattle, while the rest were “Alaska Railroad cars that 

had been sitting out at Elmendorf Air Force Base.” Anchorage Daily News, June 17, 1973, D6.

47 Stroud, History of the Concession, 30-31; SAR, 1973, 2, 3; Anchorage Daily News, June 17, 

1973, D6.

48 SAR for 1973, 3; Anchorage Daily Times, May 15, 1973, 8; July 16, 1973, 2; August 29, 1973, 

15; September 7, 1973, 18. The hostel idea had originally been that of Ann Morton whose husband, 

Interior Secretary Rogers Morton, promoted youth hostels throughout the country.

49 SARs for 1974, 2; 1975, 2; 1977, 2; 1978, 7; Stroud, History of the Concession, 31; Daniel 

Kuehn interview, October 11, 2004.

50 “Minutes of the Meeting of the Pacific Northwest Regional Advisory Committee,” February 

3, 1973, pp. 6-7, in Bill Brown Collection, DENA Archives; Glenn D. Gallison to “All Areas and 

Offices, Pacific Northwest Region,” April 6, 1973, in Miscellaneous File, Box 1, Catalog No. 9169, 

DENA Archives; Anchorage Daily Times, September 6, 1973, 8. An October 23, 1973 letter from 

Stanley Albright to Edward O. Logan (in Folder 4-16, Box 4, Bill Brown files [Collection 6857], 

DENA Archives) noted that all master plans had been deferred until the ANCSA-mandated planning 

process had been completed.

51 NPS, Planning Directive, Hotel Site Selection, Mount McKinley National Park, McKinley Park, 

Alaska, January 24, 1974, pp. 10-15; unaccessioned file in DENA Archives, also in “Hotel Fire” file, 

DENA Administrative History Collection.

52 These included the Carlo Creek Lodge at Mile 223.9 (opened in 1961), the adjacent Jere-A-Tad 

Lodge at Mile 224 (opened in 1966), and Toklat Village, at the second Nenana River crossing (Mile 

231.1), opened in 1967.

53 Alaska Northwest Publishing, The Milepost, editions of 1971 and 1972. Reisland had homesteaded his parcel in July 1965, six years after Crabb had filed across the road. BLM, Case Abstracts for AKF 023539 and AKF 034647. Steve Carwile, who lived in the area during the mid1970s, notes that Reisland also occasionally operated a liquor store on his property.

54 In October 1965, three friends—recognizing the area’s potential value once the road was 

complete—had floated down the Nenana River to the area and homesteaded a mile-long stretch of 

relatively flat ground just east of the Nenana River. From south to north, these claims included an 

80-acre parcel staked by Stephen E. Jones, another 80-acre parcel by Charles M. Travers, Jr., and a 

70 acre parcel filed by Chalon Harris. All three men obtained patents for their land in 1974. BLM, 

Case Abstracts AKF 034867, AKF 034868, and AKF 034881.

55 Alaska Northwest, The Milepost, editions of 1971 and 1972. 

56 Alaska Northwest, The Milepost, editions of 1971 and 1972.

57 NPS, Planning Directive, January 24, 1974, pp. 8, 15. In his report, Stoddard included an ominous, eerily prescient prediction: “it should be remembered that no statewide land use plan exists 

and uncontrolled strip development along Highway 3 is inevitable without such control measures.” 

Two years earlier—shortly after the road had opened—Deborah Vogt of the Fairbanks Environmental Center had urged “regional planning and zoning for all lands in the McKinley and Highway 3 region. To allow gaudy or shabby eyesores such as West Yellowstone and Gatlinburg to develop here 

would seriously degrade the natural, scenic, and recreational qualities of the region.” “Statement of 

the Fairbanks Environmental Center, Hearings, McKinley National Park, November 10, 1972,” in 

Folder 4-16, Box 4, Bill Brown files (Collection 6857), DENA Archives.

58 Williss, “Do Things Right the First Time,” revised edition, 35.

59 Williss, “Do Things Right the First Time,” revised edition, 36-42. Details of the Bibles and 

Hartzogs’ visit to Mount McKinley are detailed in the Fairbanks Daily News-Miner, August 10, 

1971, 1, and in Edgar Wayburn’s book, Your Land and Mine: Evolution of a Conservationist, pp. 

228-31.
Chapter Eight: New Highway Impacts and the Park Expansion Process, 1972-1980 273

60 H.R. 1888, in Congressional Record 119 (January 11, 1973), 865.

61 Williss, “Do Things Right the First Time,” revised edition, 42-43, 50.

62 Williss, “Do Things Right the First Time,” revised edition, 50-51.

63 The agency’s plans, however, were shielded from the public; on February 20, 1972, for example, 

the Anchorage Daily News (p. 16) “learned” that the NPS “plans to recommend a two million acre 

expansion ... almost all” of which would be “north of the park’s present boundaries with much of 

it in what is known as the Kantishna area.” Both NPS and DOI officials refused to confirm or deny 

that report; see Anchorage Daily News, February 25, 1972, 8.

64 Williss, “Do Things Right the First Time,” revised edition, 52-53.

65 APG, Mt. McKinley National Park Additions, Final Environmental Statement, October 1974, 21.

66 Williss, “Do Things Right the First Time,” revised edition, 54, 57, 59; NPS, Recommendations 

Regarding Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act 17(d)(2) Withdrawals (Anchorage?, the author, July 

1972), 85-100.

67 Williss, “Do Things Right the First Time,” revised edition, 54-59, 61.

68 Albert G. Henson to Assistant Director, Cooperative Activities, October 2, 1972, in Bill Brown 

Collection, DENA Archives.

69 Joint Federal-State Land Use Planning Commission for Alaska, People Planning Today for a 

Better Alaska Tomorrow (newsletter), vol. 1 (March-April 1973), 2.

70 Joint Federal-State Land Use Planning Commission for Alaska, Land Planning and Policy in 

Alaska, “Preliminary Land Use Recommendations” (typescript), July 1973. This document was 

finalized in the 93rd Congress, 2nd Session Committee Print, June 1974 (Washington, GPO, 1974), 

77-79. The commission’s philosophy was reflected in a October 30, 1973 Anchorage Daily Times

editorial (p. 6) calling for wildlife protection on a 1.2-million-acre northern addition but allowing 

“people-oriented recreational facilities” to the south. The commission’s proposal called for a mining prohibition on only 601,000 acres of the northern proposal area, and none south of the Alaska 

Range.

71 Williss, “Do Things Right the First Time,” revised edition, 59-60, 63-64, 68-71

72 Williss, “Do Things Right the First Time,” revised edition, 65-71.

73 The Alaska Planning Group’s Draft Environmental Statement, Proposed Mt. McKinley National 

Park Additions (Washington?, the author?, December 1973), pp. 6-7, which discusses the proposed 

cooperative zone, did not specify an acreage, but according to later efforts (see below), the zone’s 

area was approximately 100 square miles.

74 Division of Planning and Research, State of Alaska, “The State’s Response to the Draft Environmental Impact Statements for Lands Withdrawn Under Section 17(d)(2) of the Alaska Native 

Claims Settlement Act,” ca. April 1974, at ARLIS; Williss, “Do Things Right the First Time,”

revised edition, 85; APG, Mt. McKinley Additions FES, October 1974, 194-95.

75 “Citizens Organized to Protect McKinley National Park and Surrounding Area” (press release), 

April 29, 1974, in Folder 12, Box 72, Fairbanks Environmental Center Collection, UAF; Anchorage 

Daily News, May 11, 1974, 6; May 14, 1974, 11.

76 Everett Drashner to Nathaniel Reed, July 1, 1974, in Bill Brown Collection, DENAArchives; 

Anchorage Daily Times, December 22, 1974, A-7.

77 Alaska Planning Group, FES, Proposed Mt. McKinley National Park Additions (October 1974), 

1, 5-7.

78 Williss, “Do Things Right the First Time,” revised edition, 36-39.

79 ALIS Record System for T12-13S, R9-10-11W, FB&M; ADNR Cases GS 1488, GS 1489, and 

GS 1490. As noted in Chapter 7, the U.S. Geological Survey in February 1958 had reserved some 

25,600 acres in the Teklanika and Savage River drainages for a proposed dam and reservoir site; 

that dam, if built, would have been built approximately 5 miles north of the rivers’ confluence and 

may have flooded a small part of the park. But the dam idea was eventually abandoned, and in 

September 1994 the state received tentative approval for this acreage.

80 Alaska Planning Group, FES, Proposed Mt. McKinley National Park Additions, October 1974, 

37, 155; BLM, Historical Index for T12S, R9W, FB&M.

81 Anchorage Daily Times, November 13, 1974, 11; December 11, 1974, 6; January 9, 1975, 18; 

February 8, 1975, 14; February 16, 1975, C-7; February 25, 1975, 5; March 19, 1975, 2; March 27, 

1975, 3; “Mt. McKinley CPMZ” file, Box 3, Catalog No. 9169, DENA Archives.

82 Leonard J. Hansen to Walter J. Hickel, December 20, 1968, in File NR 1-2 (1969), Series 88, 

RG 01, ASA; Anchorage Daily News, April 19, 1980, A-1; Sierra Club, Alaska Chapter, “A Resolution,” October 1971, UAF Archives, in “Gravel’s Dome City” folder, DENA Administrative History 

Collection.

83 Irene E. Ryan to William A. Egan, Alaska Investment Opportunities, May 1972, in File NR 1-2 
274 Crown Jewel of the North: An Administrative History of Denali National Park and Preserve

(1972), Series 88, RG 01, ASA.

84 First-phase proposals were for a commercial lodge, restaurant, general store and service station; 

a hotel and ski lodge was in the second phase, and an airport constituted the third phase. Ryan to 

Egan, September 8, 1972, in File NR 1-2 (1972), Series 88, RG 01, ASA; Anchorage Daily Times, 

October 25, 1972, 1, 4; Anchorage Daily News, October 26, 1972, 2.

85 Ryan to Egan, September 8, 1972; Gravel to Egan, November 8, 1972, in File NR 1-2 (1972), 

Series 88, RG 01, ASA; Anchorage Daily Times, November 10, 1972, 1, 4; December 22, 1972, 6; 

Anchorage Daily News, November 11, 1972, 2; Southeast Alaska Empire, February 1, 1973, 1, 8.

86 Gravel to Egan, January 23, 1973, in File NR 1-4 (1973), Series 88, RG 01, ASA; Anchorage 

Daily Times, August 30, 1973, 4; Anchorage Daily News, August 30, 1973, 2; August 31, 1973, 2.

87 Washburn to Leonard J. Hansen, July 18, 1968, in File NR 1-2 (1969), Series 88, RG 01, ASA; 

Anchorage Daily Times, September 7, 1973, 1, 4; September 8, 1973, 1, 3; Anchorage Daily News, 

April 19, 1980, A-1.

88 APG, FES, Proposed Mt. McKinley National Park Additions, 9, 35, 126-29.

89 Gravel to Egan, January 23, 1973, in File NR 1-4 (1973), Series 88, RG 01, ASA.

90 Anchorage Daily News, June 25, 1974, 7; March 16, 1977, 2; Alaska Department of Natural 

Resources, Division of Parks, Denali State Park, a Master Plan, 1975, 27, 33-35.

91 Egan to Bradford Washburn, October 9, 1972, in File NR 1-2 (1972), Series 88, RG 01, ASA.

92 Alaska DNR, Denali State Park, a Master Plan, 1975, 36-38; “Testimony of James J. Hurley,” 

April 5, 1975, in “Denali State Park” file, Richard Stenmark Collection, HFC. Given an agreement 

with the NPS, the state also hoped to extend its road north past the proposed lodge onto federal land, 

to a terminus just east of Mt. Goldie.

93 Anchorage Daily Times, March 30, 1972, 7; November 2, 1973, 15; Alaska State Legislature, House Bill History, 1976, 10.

94 Richard Stenmark (JFSLUPC) to Commissioners and Staff, April 8, 1975, in “Denali State Park” 

file, Stenmark Collection, HFC; Anchorage Daily Times, April 10, 1975, 4.

95 Alaska State Legislature, House Bill History, 1976, 10.

96 SMR, May 1924, 3; July 1924, 5; September 1924, 7; March 1927, 1; February 1928, 4-5; June 

1928, 1-3; September 1928, 4.

97 SMR, August 1952, 3.

98 SMR, September 1950, 3. As the April 1956 Mission 66 Prospectus noted (p. 16), “the average 

visitor to the park is an elderly person who is content to view the park in relative comfort via bus 

tours and automobile, and usually shows but little interest or desire, or has the capability of walking 

any distance.”

99 SMR, September 1954, 1; August 1955, 1-2; NPS, Mission 66 Prospectus, Mount McKinley 

National Park, April 1956, 16.

100 NPS, Mission 66 for Mount McKinley National Park, May 13, 1957, 8.

101 SMR, June 1957, 3; August 1961, 6; June 1962, 5; August 1966, 5.

102 Anchorage Daily Times, August 6, 1971, 27; NPS, MOMC Press Release, March 22, 1974, in 

“K3417 Press Releases – by MOMC, 1974-75” file, Box 2, Catalog No. 9169, DENAArchives.

103 SAR, 1972, 4.

104 Anchorage Daily Times, June 5, 1973, 21. In the early 1970s, it was a new idea to encourage visitors to hike over virgin ground and avoid existing pathways. Tom Ritter, with the NPS in 

Anchorage, noted that there were no established backcountry trails “as most of the paths would 

only turn into water canals.” A year later, park employee Steve Buskirk would echo that sentiment, 

noting that “Trails would only get muddy ... If you’re not an experienced hiker, the back country 

of Mt. McKinley Park is not the place for you. Besides, we have to think of damage to the tundra.” 

Anchorage Daily Times, June 29, 1974, 20.

105 SAR, 1973, 5-6.

106 SAR, 1974, 4; 1975, 4; NPS, Backcountry Use and Operations Plan, Mount McKinley National 

Park, June 1975, 6, 11, in Catalog No. 9169, DENA Archives.

107 NPS, MOMC Press Release, March 22, 1974, in “K3417 MOMC Press Releases, 1974-75” file, 

Box 2, Catalog No. 9169, DENA Archives; Steve Buskirk to author, email, October 26, 2004; Dan 

Kuehn, interview with the author, October 11, 2004; Anchorage Daily Times, June 27, 1975, 14. 

The park did not release its final Backcountry Use and Operations Plan until June 1975, but several 

sources noted its implementation a year earlier. A 1976 Anchorage Times article (May 11, 1976, 20) 

noted that “backcountry camping in the national park system has more than doubled in the last five 

years.” By that time, use permits had been implemented in 39 NPS areas, five more than in 1975.

108 NPS, MOMC Press Release, March 22, 1974; Anchorage Daily Times, June 29, 1974, 

20; SAR, 1974, 2.
Chapter Eight: New Highway Impacts and the Park Expansion Process, 1972-1980 275

109 Beth Buskirk to author, email, January 12, 2006.

110 NPS, Backcountry Use and Operations Plan, Mount McKinley National Park, June 1975, 13. 

Appendix C of that plan is the NPS brochure, “Hiking in Mount McKinley National Park, Alaska.”

111 Chief of Interpretation and Resource Management to Supt. MOMC, January 29, 1975, in Catalog No. 9169, DENA Archives; Daniel Kuehn to State Director, Alaska, June 2, 1975; Steve Buskirk 

to author, email, October 26, 2004.

112 Beth Buskirk email, January 12, 2006. Joe Van Horn, in a January 17, 2006 email, notes that 

Craig Partridge also served as a backcountry ranger in 1976, and possibly 1977 as well.

113 Robert L. Peterson to Ted Stevens, December 5, 1978, in “N4615 Questionnaire, 1970s Recreation Surveys” file, Resource Management Operations Papers, Box 3, Catalog No. 9169, DENA

Archives; SAR, 1977, 5; 1978, 6.

114 Peter Womble, Survey of Backcountry Users in Mount McKinley National Park, Alaska; a 

Report for Management (Seattle, Univ. of Washington Cooperative Park Studies Unit, December 

1979), p. 11 and ‘Summary of Findings” section, p. 1.

115 NPS, “Hiking in Mount McKinley National Park, Alaska” (brochure), January 1979, in “Trail 

Guides” folder, Mt. McKinley-Denali Archive, Box 1, HFC.

116 SAR, 1973, 10.

117 Kenneth H. Goslin (Team Manager, Pacific Northwest Team, Denver Service Center) to John 

Rutter (Regional Director, Pacific Northwest Region), July 11, 1975, in Catalog No. 9169, DENA 

Archives.

118 NPS, Mount McKinley Headquarters/Hotel Area, Interim Development Concept, Analysis of 

Alternatives (Denver, the author, December 1975), 1, 3, 5, 11-12.

119 NPS, Interim Development Concept Plan, Riley Creek/Headquarters/Hotel Area, Mount 

McKinley National Park, Alaska (Denver, the author, March 1976), 6-14; G. Bryan Harry (Area 

Director, Alaska) to Associate Regional Director, Administration, PNR, March 12, 1976, in Catalog 

No. 9169, DENA Archives.

120 Scott Ruesch, interview with the author, October 21, 2004.

121 Gary Koy, “Denali Kennels History,” unpub. mss., November 1992, in DENA kennel records.

122 Walter R. Borneman, Alaska, Saga of a Bold Land, 276-77.

123 Gary Koy, “The History of Dog Mushing in Denali Through Quotations,” unpub. mss., ca. 

November 1992, in DENA kennel records.

124 Gary Koy, “Denali Kennels History,” unpub. mss., November 1992, in DENA kennel records. 

A key part of this transformation may well have been the efforts of an unnamed “dog musher/kennel 

consultant,” who served as a 1972 park volunteer. SAR, 1972, 8.

125 Roy Sanborn, Malamutes of Mount McKinley National Park (Anchorage, Alaska National 

Parks and Monuments Association), 1971; SAR, 1972, 6; Scott Ruesch interview, October 21, 2004.

126 Daniel Kuehn, interview by the author, October 11, 2004.

127 SAR, 1973, 9; 1974, 1; 1975, 1; 1987, 1; Anchorage Daily News, August 14, 1980, B1-B4; 

Sandy Kogl, Sled Dogs of Denali (Anchorage, Alaska Natural History Association), 1981.

128 SAR, 1974, 4.

129 SAR, 1973, 5; 1974, 4; 1978, 1.

130 SAR, 1974, 4; 1980, 3; Daniel Kuehn interview.

131 Frank Betts, interview with the author, October 15, 2004.

132 SAR, 1973, 6.

133 Daniel Kuehn interview; Laura Larsen with Sandy Kogl, “Dog Teams on Mount McKinley,” 

Alaska Magazine 41 (March 1975), 33; SAR, 1977, 2; SAR, 1984, 1; NPS, Commercial Service 

Directory, Alaska Region, 1990 and 1991 editions; Jane Bryant email, May 5, 2006.

134 Stroud, History of the Concession, 32-33; Anchorage Times, August 16, 1978, 25; SAR, 1978, 

6. The Times article noted that the effective transaction date was August 1, not June 1. According 

to the ARAMARK website (www.aramark.com), the company that later became ARA Services was 

founded in the 1930s in California, and during the 1950s the vending-machine company became 

known as Automatic Retailers of America. The “Services” name was added in 1969.

135 Fleharty’s office during the early to mid-1970s was located in the hotel’s employee dormitory. 

When the McKinley Chalets were opened in 1978 (see below), Fleharty moved his office there.

136 Stroud, History of the Concession, 28.

137 Anchorage Daily Times, March 21, 1973, 1.

138 Daniel Kuehn, interview by the author, October 11, 2004; Anchorage Daily Times, July 16, 

1973, 2; SAR, 1973, 3.

139 Daniel Kuehn interview, October 11, 2004; Ralph Tingey interview, May 17, 2006.
276 Crown Jewel of the North: An Administrative History of Denali National Park and Preserve

140 The first known vehicle accident in the park took place in the late evening of June 25, 1950, 

caused when a hotel employee drove too fast and rolled his new Ford coupe. Another, in September 1951, took place during the Alaska Science Conference and prevented attendees from taking a 

scheduled field trip out the park road. SMR, June 1950, 3; Kirk H. Stone, “Geographical Record,” 

Geographical Review 42 (January 1952), 151-52. 

141 The various park Superintendent’s Monthly Reports note 16 vehicle accidents between 1959 

and 1964, inclusive; ranger reports doubtless recorded several others during this period.

142 SMR, June 1962, 4; September 1962, 3.

143 NPS, Denali Park Road Handbook (bus drivers’ manual), 2001 revision, p. 6; Brad Ebel, email 

to author, January 30, 2006.

144 Russ Wilson to Steve Cooper, “Memorandum of Points and Authorities,” July 26, 1993, in “Denali Park Road – Lands Division File, 27 Oct. 93,” in Denali Park Road Issue, Bill Brown Research 

Collection box, AKRO; Anchorage Daily Times, July 9, 1974, 1; July 10, 1974, 1; August 6, 1974, 

20; August 15, 1978, 16; August 16, 1978, 10; SAR, 1974, 3.

145 Daniel Kuehn interview.

146 SAR, 1977, 2; SAR, 1980, 2; Stroud, History of the Concession, 32; Steve Carwile, interview 

by the author, January 25, 2006; Anchorage Times, August 16, 1978, 25.

147 Jones and Travers, the other two area landowners, had cabins on their property that they rented 

out to seasonal workers during this period, but neither landowner catered directly to the tourist 

trade.

148 Williss, “Do Things Right the First Time,” revised edition, 35; National Parks Magazine 33 

(April 1959), 16; Anchorage Daily Times, June 29, 1965, 2.

149 Tundra Telegram I:24 (December 1975), 1-2, in “K4223 Publications - DCC Newsletter” file, 

Box 1, Catalog No. 9169, DENA Archives; Anchorage Daily Times, January 7, 1976, 23.

150 Pearson, My Life of High Adventure, 214, 222; Anchorage Daily Times, May 22, 1973, 5; 

SAR, 1973, 3, 6; Grant Pearson, “Small Tract Petition for Classification” (F 012691), in “Old Serial 

Fiches” drawer; Pearson, BLM Patent No. 1231148 for U.S. Survey 4015, March 6, 1963; both in 

Public Room Records, BLM Office, Anchorage.

151 Anchorage Daily Times, May 22, 1973, 5; Lawrence Hadley (Asst. Dir. NPS) to Director, 

PNRO, June 25, 1973, in Bill Brown Collection, DENA Archives; Steve Carwile interview, January 25, 2006. As noted in a June 1987 article (“Caribou, Tundra, Whitewater, Mount McKinley ... 

Alaska Adventures,” Sunset Magazine 178, p. 74), the lodge at that time was “a fifteen-unit motel.”

152 Daniel Kuehn interview, October 11, 2004; Frank Betts interview, October 15, 2004; NPS, 

Historic Listing of National Park Service Officials, May 1991.

153 U.S. Department of the Interior, Budget Justifications, NPS, various years, 1971 to 1980.

154 Daniel Kuehn interview, October 11, 2004.

155 SARs, various years.

156 SAR, 1972, 8; 1973, 9; 1980, 5-6.

157 Daniel Kuehn interview, October 11, 2004; Williss, “Do Things Right the First Time,” revised 

edition, 53, 60, 63, 130-33; SAR, 1973, 1.

158 Alaska Northwest, Milepost, 1972 through 1975 editions. Morino’s new limitations were 

established so that hikers arriving on the mid-afternoon train from Anchorage would have a place to 

camp before heading out the park road. Steve Carwile interview, June 7, 2006.

159 SAR, 1974, 3; SAR, 1975, 3.

160 Although no information specifically notes the park’s commencement of campground fees in 

1970, an agency-wide history of the fee issue (Barry Mackintosh, Visitor Fees in the National Park 

System, a Legislative and Administrative History [Washington, NPS], 1983) notes on p. 84, “Fees 

for Government-operated campgrounds ... were not systematically instituted until 1970.” They 

were definitely in place at Mount McKinley by 1971, as noted here.

161 SAR, 1972, 4.

162 SAR, 1972, 2; 1973, 2; 1974, 8; 1975, 6; NPS, Drawing MOMC 3112 (November 23, 1956) 

and 41008/1B (January 1973), both in NPS Aperture Card Collection; GSA, “Invitation for Bids, 

NPS Project No. 9170-2801,” April 26, 1974, in Early Administrative Files, Box D, Catalog No. 

9169, DENA Archives.

163 SAR, 1978, 1; Seattle Post-Intelligencer, July 23, 1978, A-7; John Kauffmann, “A Very Special 

Legacy...”, in Jane Bryant historical files, DENA. Hankins had willed a substantial sum to the 

National Park Foundation.

164 NPS, Drawings MOMC 3211 (January 1967) and MOMC 41005 (June 1970), in NPS Aperture 

Card Collection.
Chapter Eight: New Highway Impacts and the Park Expansion Process, 1972-1980 277

165 SAR, 1972, 2, 6.

166 NPS, Interim Development Concept Plan, Riley Creek/Headquarters/Hotel Area, Mount 

McKinley National Park, Alaska, March 1976, 6-7.

167 NPS, Drawings MOMC 5303A (January 1951) and MOMC 3102A (January 6, 1958), NPS 

Aperture Card Collection.

168 NPS, Drawings MOMC 3211 (January 1967) and MOMC 41005 (June 1970), in NPS Aperture 

Card Collection.

169 NPS, Drawing MOMC 41007 (May 1, 1972), in NPS Aperture Card Collection; SAR, 1974, 8.

170 Jane Bryant email, August 29, 2005.

171 Anchorage Daily Times, January 12, 1972, 6.

172 Alaska Planning Group, FES, Proposed Mount McKinley National Park Additions, Alaska, 

October 1974, 111.

173 Russell E. Dickenson to Associate Director, Park System Management, NPS, April 19, 1976, in 

“Misc.” file; “Draft Environmental Statement for Proposed Electric Distribution Line to McKinley 

Park” (NPS Press Release), May 17, 1976, in “K3416 Press Releases – Departmental, 1976-77” file; 

both in Box 1, Catalog No. 9169, DENA Archives; Federal Register 41 (May 10, 1976), 19146.

174 Daniel Kuehn interview, October 11, 2004.

175 NPS, Final Environmental Statement, Proposed Electrical Distribution Line Extension to 

McKinley Park, Mount McKinley National Park, December 1976; SAR, 1977, 10; SAR, 1980, 7.

176 SAR, 1972, 7; 1973, 8; 1974, 6; 1975, 7; 1977, 9-10; 1978, 5; 1980, 6; Brad Ebel, email to 

author, Feb. 10, 2006.

177 Williss, “Do Things Right the First Time,” revised edition, 84.

178 S. 1688 was introduced on May 8, and H.R. 9346 was introduced on September 3. Neither 

of these bills got beyond the committee stage. Congressional Record 121 (1975), pp. 13503 and 

27259.

179 Swanson’s bill, H.B. 489, was introduced on May 7, 1975. Alaska House Bill History, 1975, 

227.

180 Williss, “Do Things Right the First Time,” revised edition, 87-88; Cecil Andrus comments, 

in ANILCA Roundtable with Former President Jimmy Carter, August 24, 2000 (VHS Recording), 

Action Video Productions, Anchorage, in John Quinley files, AKRO; Donald W. Carson and James 

W. Johnson, Mo; the Life and Times of Morris K. Udall (Tucson, Univ. of Arizona Press, 2001), 

182-83.

181 Sen. Henry Jackson, who chaired the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee, agreed 

to submit Udall’s bill as S. 500 later that month. Williss, “Do Things Right the First Time,” revised 

edition, 88; Public Law 96-487, Alaska National Interest Lands Conservation Act, Legislative History (Anchorage, Alaska Department of Fish and Game, Fall 1981), Vol. I, 216-17; Vol. II, 708, 

715-16.

182 ANILCA Legislative History, Vol. III, pp. 11, 36-37.

183 Williss, “Do Things Right the First Time,” 89, 118n; JFSLUPC, The D-2 Book; Lands of National Interest in Alaska (Anchorage, the author, May 1977), 182-83; ANILCA Legislative History, 

Vol. II, 677-78.

184 Williss, “Do Things Right the First Time,” 97. Andrus, as Interior Secretary, served as the 

administrative head of the Alaska lands effort, even though the U.S. Forest Service—one of the four 

major land management agencies in the Alaska lands effort—was in the Agriculture Department.

185 Of the proposed acreage expansion, 3,853,000 acres was on federal land; as a result, most 

documents stated that the park would be expanded by 3.85 million acres. Williss, “Do Things Right 

the First Time,” 94; 95th Congress, 1st Session, House Committee on Interior and Insular Affairs, 

“Inclusion of Alaska Lands in National Park, Forest, Wildlife Refuge and Wild and Scenic River 

Systems,” September 15, 1977, Part XVI of Hearings Before the Subcommittee on General Oversight and Alaska Lands, Serial No. 95-16 (Washington, GPO, 1977), 127-28, 130-31, 140-41. See 

ANILCA Legislative History, Vol. XIX.

186 Williss, “Do Things Right the First Time,” 97; ANILCA Legislative History, Vol. I, pp. 341, 

393, 565, and 600.

187 ANILCA Legislative History, Vol. II, pp. 23, 55.

188 Williss, “Do Things Right the First Time,” 97-99; ANILCA Legislative History, Vol. I, 745; Vol. 

II, 443, 498. Many of the ideas that Rep. Meeds espoused were in H.R. 10888, which he introduced 

on February 9, 1978. That bill, however, gave no Denali-related acreage figure, and it did not get 

beyond the committee stage.
278 Crown Jewel of the North: An Administrative History of Denali National Park and Preserve

189 Williss, “Do Things Right the First Time,” 100; ANILCA Legislative History, Vol. III, p. 101, 

132-34.

190 Williss, “Do Things Right the First Time,” 100; ANILCA Legislative History, Vol. III, pp. 252, 

408-09.

191 Williss, “Do Things Right the First Time,” 100-02; Congressional Record 124 (1978), D 918; 

ANILCA Legislative History, Vol. III, 445-46.

192 Although the proclamation noted that “the area reserved consists of approximately 3,890,000 

acres,” a 1979 source stated that this acreage comprised only federal lands. In addition, 103,000 

acres of non-federal lands were protected, for a total monument area of 3,993,000 acres. More 

recent acreage compilations suggest that the total amount added in Carter’s proclamation approximated 4,178,600 acres. See NPS, Index, National Park Service and Related Areas as of June 30, 

1979, 15; NPS Index, 2005-2007, 17; Land Ownership Maps, AKRO Lands Division files.

193 Williss, “Do Things Right the First Time,” 102-03, 105; Proclamation 4616, in Federal Register 43 (December 5, 1978), 57035-41.

194 Williss, “Do Things Right the First Time,” 104, 139; Anchorage Times, January 10, 1979, 4.

195 Norris, Alaska Subsistence, 88.

196 NPS, Operations Plan – The Great Denali/McKinley Trespass, ca. January 5, 1979, in Bill 

Brown Collection, DENA Archives.

197 Frank Betts interview, October 15, 2004; Anchorage Times, January 12, 1979, 6.

198 Anchorage Times, January 14, 1979, 1.

199 Anchorage Times, January 9, 1979, 2; January 12, 1979, 6.

200 Anchorage Times, January 14, 1979, A1-A2; January 15, 1979, 1, 3; January 17, 1979, 11; 

Bob Gerhard, email to author, April 11, 2003. Engle was a hunting guide who owned a lodge at the 

Purkeypile Airstrip, just west of the newly-established Denali National Monument, while Fanning 

was a Fairbanks guide and trapper.

201 H.R. 39, Sec. 201(b)(1), in ANILCA Legislative History, vol. III, p. 678, 680.

202 The Breaux-Dingell Substitute had originally been introduced as H.R. 2219, by Reps. Breaux 

and John M. Murphy (D.-N.Y.). Williss, “Do Things Right the First Time,” 104, 107; ANILCA Legislative History, Vol. IV (pp. 25, 80, 234, and 273-74) and Vol. V (pp. 22, 88-89, 303, and 369-70).

203 Williss, “Do Things Right the First Time,” 107; ANILCA Legislative History, Vol. V, pp. 581, 

632; Vol. VII, 19.

204 ANILCA Legislative History, Vol. VII, p. 466, 503.

205 Williss, “Do Things Right the First Time,” 108, 111.

206 Williss, “Do Things Right the First Time,” 111-12.

207 At the time, the announced acreages included a 2,426,000-acre park expansion and a 

1,330,000-acre preserve. Since then, however, more exact measurements have modified those figures; see NPS, The National Parks: Index 2005-2007 (Washington, GPO, ca. 2005), 17, along with 

recently-updated land ownership maps on file in the AKRO Lands Division.

208 Anchorage Daily Times, September 18, 1974, 14.

209 United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization, “The MAB Programme” 

website (http://www.unesco.org/mab/index.shtml); Curtis Bohlen to Frederick Dean, November 27, 

1974, in “K34 Press Releases – News Clippings, 1974-75” file, Box 1, Catalog No. 9169, DENA

Archives.

210 Ibid.

211 World Heritage List website (http://whc/unesco.org/heritage.htm) and ICOMOS website (www.

international.icomos.org/world_heritage/icomoswh_eng.htm). 

212 Anchorage Daily Times, June 5, 1980, G-3; September 3, 1981, E-9. The seven other Alaska 

units were Cape Krusenstern, Pribilof Islands, Gates of the Arctic, Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, 

the Aleutian National Wildlife Refuge, Glacier Bay, and Katmai.

213 James Charleton, email to author, January 3, 2006.

214 Anchorage Daily News, March 16, 1977, 2; March 18, 1977, 2.

215 Anchorage Daily Times, November 15, 1977, 2; Anchorage Daily News, November 16, 1977, 

1, 36; December 17, 1989, H-13, H-16; July 24, 1994, C-3; “Senator Mike Gravel, A Proposal for 

a Recreational City, Mt. McKinley, Alaska,” in “Denali State Park” folder, Stenmark Collection, 

HFC. The “glassed-in” dome, he noted, would actually be either a geodesic dome or a “Teflon 

tent.”

216 Anchorage Daily News, November 16, 1977, 36.

217 Anchorage Daily Times, December 14, 1977, 2; December 16, 1977, 12; December 18, 1977, 

A-4.

218 Anchorage Daily Times, January 14, 1978, 3; March 22, 1978, 44; Anchorage Daily News, 
Chapter Eight: New Highway Impacts and the Park Expansion Process, 1972-1980 279

March 23, 1978, 1; Alaska Senate Bill History, 1978, 562, 665. By late March, the cost of both the 

lodge complex and the road improvements had risen from $25.7 million to $38 million. The cost 

would be split by the federal and state governments. But one factor easing its passage may have 

been how the costs would be apportioned because Rodey, in one article, said that the “feds may well 

pay for all of it.”

219 Alaska Senate Bill History, 1978, 562, 665; Alaska Senate Journal, 1979, FJ 27; Session Laws 

of Alaska, 1978, Chapter 146.

220 Anchorage Daily News, March 29, 1978, 2; Anchorage Daily Times, March 29, 1978, 12, 48.

221 Williss, “Do Things Right the First Time,” 100; Congressional Record 124, p. 10712 (April 19, 

1978) and pp. 20819 and 20834-35 (July 13, 1978).

222 The NPS was involved in this process because the agency’s October 1974 Final Environmental 

Statement had recommended a Federal-State-Borough Cooperative Planning and Management Zone 

for the proposed development site. The agency’s role was heightened on December 1, 1978, when 

President Jimmy Carter signed a presidential proclamation establishing Denali National Monument, 

which included land just two miles north of the proposed development site. And it was further 

increased in the spring of 1979, when the Alaska legislature passed a resolution (SCR 14) calling for 

joint federal-state planning in areas where state and national parks shared common borders.

223 Donald L. Bressler to RD/PNRO, October 3, 1978, in “D 18 – Planning Programs and Master 

Plans, 1978” file, Box 1, Catalog No. 9169, DENA Archives; John E. Cook to Robert LeResche, 

October 1, 1979, in File 600 (Tokositna), Series 888 (1975-79), RG 242, ASA; HKS Associates, 

Tokositna, A Development Study for the State of Alaska, February 1981, p. 1.

224 Anchorage Daily Times, January 7, 1979, A-4; January 13, 1979, 3; Terry A. McWilliams to 

Robert Ward, March 28, 1979, in File 600 (Contract), Series 888, RG 242, ASA.

225 Anchorage Daily Times, March 11, 1979, A-3; April 23, 1979, 1-2; McWilliams to Ward, 

March 28, 1979, see above.

226 Anchorage Daily Times, April 23, 1979, 2; Anchorage Daily News, July 2, 1979, A-1; Michael 

Frome, “Disneyland North,” National Parks and Conservation Magazine 54 (February 1980), 6. 

These two studies were summarized in the February 1981 HKS Associates study, Tokositna, A Development Study for the State of Alaska.

227 Sen. Pat Rodey (D-Anch.) introduced a resolution (SCR 4) “relating to construction of a 

lodge and visitor center in Denali State Park” on February 5, 1979, but it never moved beyond the 

committee stage. On February 13, Rodey also introduced a resolution (SCR 14) “relating to the development of Denali State Park,” but during the next several weeks it never got beyond the Senate 

Resources Committee.

228 Anchorage Daily News, April 24, 1979, A-3; Anchorage Daily Times, April 24, 1979, 12; Senate Bill History, 1979-80, 345; Alaska Senate Journal, 1979, p. 231.

229 Anchorage Daily Times, July 6, 1979, 2.

230 Anchorage Daily Times, July 6, 1979, 1-2; Bradford Washburn, “State of Alaska, Tour to 

Switzerland, July 9-21, 1979,” in File 600 (Tokositna), Series 888 (1975-79), RG 242, ASA. The 

participants included state tourism director Richard Montague, Natural Resources Commissioner 

Robert LeResche, Parks Division Director Terry McWilliams, Tokositna Project Manager Vicky 

Sung, and Bob Henning of the Alaska Visitors Association. NPS Area Director John Cook, and 

hotel men Bill Sheffield and Al Parrish, were slated to go but did not take part.

231 Anchorage Daily Times, July 14, 1979, 1-2; July 18, 1979, 8; July 21, 1979, 1.

232 Anchorage Daily News, July 24, 1979, 1; Anchorage Daily Times, July 26, 1979, 64.

233 As noted in the Anchorage Daily News, July 24, 1979, 1, Gravel “still proposes dirigibles as 

transportation although he has abandoned the domed-city idea.” He also advocated building a dam 

on the Tokositna River that would create a ten-mile-long lake, and in locating a trade center and 

cultural institute in his proposed “Denali City.” Anchorage Daily News, July 2, 1979, A-1; Frome, 

“Disneyland North,” 6.

234 Anchorage Daily Times, July 26, 1979, 64.

235 Anchorage Daily News, April 17, 1980, A-1.

236 Anchorage Daily Times, September 9, 1979, L-7.

237 Anchorage Daily News, April 17, 1980, C-10; Cook to LaResche, October 1, 1979, in File 600 

(Tokositna), Series 888, RG 242, ASA.

238 McWilliams to Ward, March 28, 1979, see above; Cook to LaResche, October 1, 1979, see 

above. The state-federal report was published the following July; see Alaska Department of Natural 

Resources, Division of State Parks and U.S. Dept. of the Interior, National Park Service, Environmental Investigation and Site Analysis, Tokositna Study Area, Denali State Park, Alaska, July 1980, 
280 Crown Jewel of the North: An Administrative History of Denali National Park and Preserve

at ARLIS.

239 Anchorage Daily News, April 18, 1980, A-1.

240 Anchorage Daily News, April 17, 1980, C-10.

241 As noted in the February 1981 HKS Associates study (see above), ERA/FMC was a consortium 

of Economics Research Associates and Fawcett, McDermott, Cavanagh, Inc.

242 Anchorage Daily News, April 18, 1980, A-1, A-8.

243 Anchorage Daily News, April 19, 1980, A-12.

244 Anchorage Daily News, April 25, 1980, A-3; Alaska Senate Bill History, 1979-80, 278-79.

245 The HKS Associates study (Tokositna, A Development Study for the State of Alaska, February 

1981) incorporated information gathered by ERA and FMC, along with Dowl Engineers, Edward D. 

Stone Jr. and Associates, TDA Inc., and Sno-engineering Resource Management Consultants.

246 Anchorage Daily Times, September 10, 1980, B-4; September 14, 1980, B-3; September 16, 

1980, C-1; Anchorage Daily News, September 16, 1980, A-12.

247 Juneau Empire, August 27, 1980, 1.

248 Anchorage Daily Times, December 29, 1980, A-1; Anchorage Daily News, December 30, 1980, 

A-3.

249 Anchorage Daily Times, January 20, 1981, B-1. The state gained tentative approval for the 

land in November 1981, ten months later.

250 Anchorage Daily Times, March 1, 1981, B-3; March 6, 1981, B-1; March 15, 1981, A-11; Anchorage Daily News, March 6, 1981, A-10.

251 SB 304 and SB 305, in Alaska Senate Bill History, 1981-82, 713-14; Alaska Senate Journal, 

1981, 1125, 1132-33.

252 Substantial help in researching this section—specifically, references of Board of Geographic 

Names actions—has come from Michele Curran, who discussed this controversy at length in her 

dissertation, United States Board on Geographic Names: The Impact of Controversy, 1890-Present, 

Arizona State University, 2005. 

253 Anchorage Daily Times, December 22, 1974, 1.

254 On February 18, SJR 6 passed the Senate, 13-4; on March 6, it passed the House, 24-9. Alaska 

Senate Bill History, 1975, 547.

255 Alaska Senate Bill History, 1975, 547; Alaska Senate Journal, 1975, 387.

256 Sheldon’s book on the area was entitled The Wilderness of Denali (New York, Scribner’s, 

1930), and Stuck’s chronicle of his mountain-climbing exploit was called The Ascent of Denali

(New York, Scribner’s, 1914). Shortly after his return from the peak, Stuck vowed that he would 

rename the peak if he was “able to prevail on the Board of Geographic Names to make the change” 

(New York Times, July 17, 1913, 1). The board, however, made no such change.

257 “583 Statement by the President Designating Two Peaks of Mount McKinley in Honor of Sir 

Winston Churchill, October 23, 1965,” Public Papers of Lyndon B. Johnson, MasterFile Premier 

Database, American Reference Library; Anchorage Daily Times, October 23, 1965, 1; New York 

Times, October 24, 1965, 46. Churchill, the former British Prime Minister, had died at age 90 on 

January 24, 1965. Johnson’s action appears to have been non-binding; it was not filed as a presidential proclamation, and it was never listed in the Federal Register.

258 The Secretary’s authority was underscored in March 1976; see U.S. Board on Geographic 

Names, Domestic Names Committee, 327th meeting minutes, 11 March 1976, RG 324.004, National Archives.

259 U.S. Board on Geographic Names, Domestic Names Committee, 314th meeting minutes, 11 

February 1975, RG 324.004, NARA CP.

260 U.S. Board on Geographic Names, Domestic Names Committee, 317th meeting minutes, 13 

May 1975, and 318th meeting minutes, 10 June 1975; both in RG 324.004, NARA CP.

261 U.S. Board on Geographic Names, Executive Committee, Domestic Names Committee, 122nd 

meeting minutes, August 1975, 123rd meeting minutes, November 1975, and 124th meeting minutes, January 1976; all in RG 324.003, NARA CP; New York Times, October 14, 1975, 14.

262 U.S. Board on Geographic Names, Special Meeting, Board on Geographic Names and Domestic Names Committee, 15 March 1976; 328th meeting minutes, 8 April 1976; and 329th meeting 

minutes, 13 May 1976; all in RG 324.004, NARA CP.

263 U.S. Board on Geographic Names, Domestic Names Committee, 327th meeting minutes, 8 July 

1976; 336th meeting minutes, 9 December 1976; and 337th meeting minutes, 13 January 1977; all 

in RG 324.004, NARA CP.

264 U.S. Board on Geographic Names, Domestic Names Committee, 340th, 343rd, 344th, and 

345th, meeting minutes, 14 April 1977, 14 July 1977, 14 August, 1977, 9 September 1977; all in RG 

324.004, NARA CP.
Chapter Eight: New Highway Impacts and the Park Expansion Process, 1972-1980 281

265 Williss, Do Things Right the First Time, revised edition, 88, 93-94; Anchorage Daily Times, 

August 25, 1977, 4.

266 HJR 672, in Congressional Record 123 (December 7, 1977), 38802, 

38821.

267 U.S. Board on Geographic Names, Domestic Names Committee, 348th 

meeting minutes, 8 December 1977, RG 324.004, NARA CP; Anchorage Daily 

Times, September 12, 1977, 31; New York Times, October 24, 1977, 16.

268 U.S. Board on Geographic Names, Domestic Names Committee, 354th 

meeting minutes, 8 June 1978, RG 324.004, NARA CP.

269 U.S. Board on Geographic Names, Domestic Names Committee, 359th 

meeting minutes, 9 November 1978, RG 324.004, NARA CP.

270 Williss, “Do Things Right the First Time,” revised edition, 103; Jimmy Carter, Presidential 

Proclamation 4616, in Federal Register 43 (December 5, 1980), 57035-41.

271 H.R. 39, Sec. 201(b)(1), in Public Law 96-487, ANILCA, Legislative History, vol. III, p. 678.

272 U.S. Board on Geographic Names, Domestic Names Committee, 364th, 

and 371st meeting minutes, 12 April 1979 and 25 October 1979, RG 

324.004, NARA CP.

273 H.R. 39, Sec. 201(b)(2), in ANILCA Legislative History, vol. VII, 19; New 

York Times, November 16, 1980, 62.

274 S. 9 (January 15, 1979), in ANILCA Legislative History, vol. VII, 466; U.S. 

Board on Geographic Names, Domestic Names Committee, 373rd meeting 

minutes, 12 December 1979, and 376th meeting minutes, 13 March 1980; 

both in RG 324.004, NARA CP.

275 U.S. Board on Geographic Names, Domestic Names Committee, 377th meeting minutes, 10 April 1980, RG 324.004, NARA CP.

276 96th Congress, 1st Session, Senate Committee on Energy and Natural Resources, Alaska National Interest Lands, Senate Report 96-413, November 14, 1979 (Washington, GPO, 1979), 166, as 

noted in U.S. Board on Geographic Names, Domestic Names Committee, 376th meeting minutes, 

13 March 1980, RG 324.004, NARA CP.

277 New York Times, November 16, 1980, 62; U.S. House of Representatives, 97th Congress, 1st 

Session, “Providing for the Retention of the Name of Mount McKinley” (Report 97-207), 3.
282 Crown Jewel of the North; An Administrative History of Denali National Park and Preserve

Appendix A. Park Boundary Changes, 1917-1980

Note: Acreage figures given are derived from present-day land ownership maps located in the AKRO Lands Division 

files. The acreages given in most published reports (such as those in the annual NPS Index) and the acreages quoted 

in Congressional legislation differ from the above figures, sometimes substantially.
Appendix B. Park Visitation, Budget, and Staff, 1917 to 1980 283

Appendix B. Park Visitation, Budget, and Staff, 1917 to 1980

Notes:

a

 Staff numbers are for full-time permanent personnel. As shown in Appendix 2, there were 

few less-than-permanent personnel at the park prior to 1950, when the first seasonal rangers 

were hired. By 1952 there were 13 seasonals; by 1966 there were 36 seasonals; and by the 

mid-1970s there were 80 seasonals.

b During World War II, military personnel comprised the vast majority of park visitors. The totals above include both military and civilian personnel, and have been excerpted from the NPS 

publication Mount McKinley National Park Development Outline, November 1946, 8. Official 

NPS visitation figures, which list only civilian visitors, provide the following visitor totals: 1942 

= 5, 1943 = 12, 1944 = none, and 1945 = 19.

c

 Beginning in 1971, tabulated data are for recreational visits only. Total visits are much higher because they include traffic along the Parks Highway, which follows the eastern margin of 

the park for 6.8 miles.

d Budgets are for operations (ONPS) accounts only. Beginning in 1974, and for several years 

thereafter, additional budgetary allotments were made to the park in other accounting classifications.
284 Crown Jewel of the North; An Administrative History of Denali National Park and Preserve

Appendix C. Selected List of Park Employees, 1921 to 1980

Management:

Superintendents, 1921-1969 (also administers Katmai National Monument):

Henry P. Karstens July 1, 1921-October 15, 1928

Harry J. Liek November 4, 1928-May 10, 1939

Frank T. Been June 4, 1939-February 1, 1943

Grant H. Pearson (acting) February 1, 1943-January 7, 1947

Frank T. Been January 6, 1947-February 7, 1949

Grant H. Pearson February 7, 1949-June 14, 1949

Grant H. Pearson (acting) June 15, 1949-August 13, 1949

Grant H. Pearson August 14, 1949-November 10, 1956

Duane D. Jacobs November 11, 1956-October 29, 1959

Samuel A. King January 29, 1960-September 29, 1962

Oscar T. Dick December 9, 1962-February 25, 1967 

George A. Hall March 12, 1967-June 30, 1969

Superintendents, 1969-1978: 

Vernon Ruesch July 1, 1969-June 2, 1973

Daniel R. Kuehn June 3, 1973-August 27, 1978

Frank J. Betts August 28, 1978-December 1, 1978

Superintendents, 1978-1980 (also administers Denali National Monument):

Frank J. Betts December 1, 1978-March 1, 1980

Charles A. Budge (acting) March 2, 1980-August 23, 1980

Robert C. Cunningham August 24, 1980-December 2, 1980

Assistant Superintendents:

Duane D. Jacobs, September 1955–November 1956

Samuel A. King, February 1957–January 1960

Rangers:

Chief Park Rangers:

Fritz A. Nyberg, July 1926-October 1930

Louis M. Corbley, January 1931-October 1941

Grant H. Pearson, July 1942-January 1943

John C. Rumohr, February 1943-January 1947

Grant H. Pearson, February 1947-May 1947

John C. Rumohr, May 1947-July 1951

Frank T. Hirst, October 1951-May 1953

Oscar T. Dick, June 1953-February 1955

Robert J. Branges, April 1955-February 1958

Elroy W. Bohlin, March 1958-June 1962

Leslie W. (Les) Cammack, August 1962-May 1965

Arthur J. Hayes, July 1965-1968

Wayne P. Merry, 1968-1969

Ivan D. Miller, 1969-April 1973

Gary N. Brown, April 1973-1981 (known as Chief, I&RM in 10/73)

Supervisory Park Rangers:

George Peters, 1953-February 1954

Richard M. Ward, May 1954-March 1956

Warren F. Steenbergh, April 1956-October 1957

Theodore S. Roeder, November 1957-November 1959

James W. Corson, July 1958-August 1958

District Rangers, West District (Wonder Lake District prior to 1973):

James W. Corson, 1957-July 1958

Richard J. Stenmark, May 1959-February 1963

Darrell L. Coe, March 1963-July 1967 

Wayne P. Merry, July 1967-1968

Ivan Miller, 1968-1969

Ray Sanborn, 1969-1972

Bruce Wadlington, 1973-1974

John Haller, 1974-1977

Michael Tollefson, 1977-1979

Craig Stowers, 1980

District Rangers, East District (Headquarters District prior to 1973):

James W. Larson, June 1960-February 1963

Carl Lamb, October 1963-September 1965

Eldon O. Reyer, November 1965-1969?

Earnest Scott, 1970-1971?

Vernon C. (Skip) Betts, January 1972-May 1974
Appendix C. Selected List of Park Employees, 1921 to 1980 285

Bruce Wadlington, 1974-1975

Bob Gerhard, January 1976->1980 (also south of Alaska Range after Dec. 1978)

Park Rangers:

Marcus V. Tyler, November-December 1921

Lewis A. Powless, January-October 1922

Robert S. Bragaw, Jr. [ranger/clerk], October 1922-April 1923

Gustavus S. Buhmann, April-July 1923

Ernest R. McFarland, August 1923-September 1924

John E. Way, July-August 1924

Fritz A. Nyberg, August 1924-July 1926

Robert H. Degen, October-December 1924

Bert Thorson, January-March 1925

Harold H. Dailey, March-June 1925

A. F. (Judge) Stowe, April-June 1925

Charles F. Armstrong, June 1925-January 1926

Ernest H. Sinclair, December 1925-January 1926

Albert L. Winn, January 1926-May 1926

Grant H. Pearson, February 1926-December 1928, August 1929-May 1939

Walter H. Belling, July 1926-November 1926

(Oliver) Lee Swisher, December 1926-April 1934 (also ranger naturalist)

William O. Johnson, July 1927-December 1927

Arthur D. Gardner, December 1927-1930?

William (Bill) Myers, August 1928-1930?

Dan Wilder, December 1928-1930?

Ben Cleary (temporary), 1929

S. H. Simonson (temporary), 1930

Louis M. Corbley, December 1930?-January 1932

Wallace Anderson, January 1931-October 1934

John C. Rumohr, September 1930?-January 1943

David Kaye, May-August 1932 (also ranger naturalist)

Aubrey F. Houston, August 1934-November 1938 (also ranger naturalist)

Walter F. Brown, September 1934?-January 1935

Edward E. (Ted) Ogston, June 1935-August 1939 (also ranger naturalist)

Raymond McIntyre, June 1939-June 1941 (also ranger naturalist, wildlife ranger)

Harold R. Herning, October 1939-October 1940 (wildlife ranger)

Mr. Fleutsch, June 1941-June 1942?

Oscar T. Dick, July 1942-February 1944, February 1946-April 1947

Dale Spalding, May 1944-January 1945

Harold Rapp, March 1945-February 1946?

Harold E. Booth, April 1, 1944 – May 1947 (wildlife ranger)

Charles P. English, Jr., 1945?-January 23, 1946

William H. Clemons, September 1947?-May 1950 (also interpreter, mtce.)

Edward Chatelain, February 4, 1948 – July 17, 1948

William Nancarrow, June 1948- June 29, 1950

George M. Peters, July 16, 1948-January 1954?

James Orr, June 1950-June 1951

Morton S. “Woody” Wood, July 1951?-May 1952

George B. Chaffee, June 1952-February 1953

Elton Thayer, Sept. 1953-May 1954

Warren L. Steenbergh, July 1952-April 1956

James W. Corson, August 1956-1957

Joseph W. Meeker, May 1957-May 1959

James W. Larson – June 1959-June 1960

Bruce Wadlington, April 1972-1973

Steve Buskirk, 1972-November 1973

John Haller, 1972-1974

John Kinney, 1976

Dale Luthy, 1977

Tony Sisto, 1977-1979?

Interpreters:

Park Naturalists: 

Ansel F. Hall (senior park naturalist at Berkeley), August-October 1931

[ranger naturalists, 1926-41 and 1947-48 – see ranger list]

William J. Nancarrow, June 1950-May 1954

Richard G. Prasil, August 1954-January 1957

Neil J. (Jim) Reid, May 1957-February 1961

W. Verde Watson (Supervisory Naturalist), June 1961-December 1965

Peter Sanchez (Supervisory Naturalist), May 13, 1966-1968?

William G. Truesdell (Chief Naturalist), July 1975-1980

District Naturalists (East District):

Craig Stowers, October 1977-March 1980?

Deanne L. Adams, 1980

District Naturalists (West District):
286 Crown Jewel of the North; An Administrative History of Denali National Park and Preserve

Deanne L. Adams, 1978-1979

Interpretive Specialists:

Henry Warren (half time), June 1, 1973-1974

William Garry (full-time), January 1974-1976

Kennels Manager (dog handler):

Ford Reeves, 1972-74

Sandra L. Kogl, 1975->1980

Resource Managers:

Research Biologist (Wildlife):

Joseph M. Dixon and George Wright, May-July 1926

Joseph M. Dixon, May-August 1932

Dr. Adolph M. Murie: U.S. Biological Survey = 1939; U.S. Fish and Wildlife 

 Service = 1940-41 and 1946; NPS = 1947-51, 1953, 1955-56, 1959-64; 

 NPS (retired) = 1965-70

[wildlife rangers, 1939-41 and 1944-47 – see ranger list]

Resource Management Specialist:

Steve Buskirk, Nov. 1, 1973-1977

John Dalle-Molle, August 28, 1978->1980

Maintenance, Engineering, and Construction:

A. General Positions:

Equipment Operators/Corralmen:

Harold R. Herning, corralman, November 1938?-October 1939

Mr. Dollar, corralman, December 1939

William H. Clemons, equipment operator, December 1940?-September 1941, 

 September 1946-November 1947 (also served as park ranger in June 1941)

Joseph J. Braun, equipment operator, July 1942-February 1944

Alfred Staples, equipment operator/corralman, March-December 1944

Jim Carson, September 1947-April 1949

Supervisors/Foremen, Construction and Maintenance:

Harold Herning, April 1949-February 1950 (originally carpenter-painter)

Herschel F. (Kenneth) Keathley, June 1950-April 1951

Thomas J. Adams, November 1951-June 1955

Park Engineers:

John Joslin, August 1957-May 1959

Jerrol G. Coates, December 1959-September 1963

Donald M. McLane, January 1964-September 1966

Robert T. Hafferman, May-September 1967

Maintenance Supervisors:

Noel J. Pachta, 1969-July 1973

Robert M. Keller, 1973-1977 (Chief of Maintenance, Facilities Manager)

Maintenance General Foremen:

James R. Hepburn, May 1978-1979

Dickie Stansberry, 1979->1980

B. Building and Utilities Employees:

Mixed Gang Foreman (Maintenance Foreman), Buildings and Utilities:

Thomas J. Adams, June 1955-November 1956 

Claude Sanders, March 1957-August 1961

Peter K. Markvardsen, September 1961-December 1964

Frank Jordan, April 1965-1968?

Allen L. “Rusty” Stevens (acting), 1972

Richard Day, 1972-75

James R. Hepburn, October 1975-May 1978

Powerhouse/Power Plant Operators and Mechanics:

Claude Sanders (Operating Engineer, Hotel), 1956?-March 1957

Peter K. Markvardsen, March-October 1957

Earl DeCamp, November 1957 (temporary)

Eugene Rogers, September-November 1959

William A. (Al) Loescher, January 1960-August 1962

Leroy J. Carruth, November 1962-1964?

Stanley D. Smith (boiler operator), 1969-73?

Joe Donchak, 1973-May 1978

Maintenancemen:
Appendix C. Selected List of Park Employees, 1921 to 1980 287

Charles J. Ott, April 1957-1959, February 1965?-1970?

George F. Robinson, October 1959-April 1962?

Allen L. “Rusty” Stevens, 1969-75?

Park Electrician:

June McLane [laborer], August 1973-1977

Larry Alice, 1977-1978?

Jack Matthews, 1979?->1980

Park Carpenter:

Tommy D. Adams, 1973->1980

William Nancarrow, August 1973->1980

Harold Eastwood, May 1978-1979?

Plumber:

Rusty Stevens, 1976-1979?

C. Roads and Trails Employees:

(Automotive) Mechanics:

John E. Williams, February 1947- January 1951

Merl J. “Bearpaw” Nugent, February-April 1951

Kenneth Brown, March-April 1951

George Bowers, December 1951?-February 1952

Elbert W. Maetche, April 1952-December 1952

Melvin L. Rogers, December 1952-March 1953

Mr. Powell, Summer 1953 (temporary)

Dale E. Joyner, Spring 1955 (temporary)

John C. Galvond, Fall 1957 (temporary)

Peter K. Markvardsen, October 1958-September 1961

Heavy Duty Mechanic (Roads and Trails Foreman):

Oliver Onkka, July 1960-1961?

Stewart Burglehaus, October 1961-March 1962

Alvin Heyne, April 1962-April 1966

Alonzo B. Guenther, May 1966-1969?

William B. Broadaway, 1969-1973

James K. Rogers, April 1973->1980

Heavy Equipment Mechanics:

Patrick T. O’Connor, 1970-1975, 1976?-May 1978

Billy J. Walker, Sept. 1975-1976

Jack Bertram, 1978

Motor Grader Operators:

Frank G. “Shorty” Swab, 12/30/62->Nov. 1965

Rusty Stevens, 1966-68

Bob King (operator – general), 1967

Equipment Engineering Operators:

Harry Hughes, 1970s

Jim Burrows, late 1970s

Administrative Staff:

Clerks:

Ralph P. Mackie, August 1925-October 1927

Eugene G. “Dinty” Moore, November 1927-May 1929

C. E. Richmond, August 1929-August 1933

Carl F. Lottsfeldt, October 1934-March 1938

Gerald Janes, April 1938-March 1939

Principal Clerks/Senior Clerks:

Gerald Janes, March 1939-May 1940

Charles L. Peterson, August 1940-March 1942

Louis B. Maupin, August 1942-July 1945

Charles L. Peterson, December 1945-May 1947

Dallas Radcliffe, June 1947?-September 1947

Raye Ann Ayers, November 1947-1949?

Margaret Peters, 1949?-January 1950

Chief Clerks:

Marvin L. Nelson, January 1950 – June 1951

Arthur Hehr, June 1951-June 1956

Administrative Assistants/Administrative Officers:
288 Crown Jewel of the North; An Administrative History of Denali National Park and Preserve

Arthur Hehr, June 1956-June 1957

William D. Funk, July 1958-November 1960

Rolla D. Everett, January 1961-July 1963

Charles C. Schmid, July 1963-December 1965

Thomas Atwood, March 1966-July 1967

Clerk-Stenographers:

Jesse B. Morrison, June 1940-September 1941

Raye Ann Ayers, July 1942-October 1944

Faith Cushman, 1944-October 1947

Lucille Chatelain, February-July 1948

Margaret Peters, July 1948–1949?

Rosalie J. Friesen, 1956-June 1958

Priscilla Lockwood, July 1958-September 1960

Glenda C. (Carol) Gass, November 1960-February 1961

Marta C. (Catherine) Tack (later Markvardsen), November 1961-June 1962

Pauline Bogart, June 1962-January 1963

Clerk-Typists: 

Edith Shishido, April 1958-April 1960

Glenda C. (Carol) Gass, January 1959-November 1960 

Pearl P. Rich, January-April 1961

Etta Harwood, April-October 1961

John H. Donnelly, June 1961-1962?

Mildred L. Clute, March 1963-April 1965

Peter Fetsurka, 1965?-September 1966

Marguerite Bedour (Anchorage), October 1966-1968?

Cheryl Ann Cannon, August 1973-June 1978?

Arleta O’Connor, 1974-1977

(Barbara) Jean Rogers, 1975-June 1978?

Project Clerks:

Mary Moore, January-March 1951

Dorothy Ann Tow, April-October 1951

Pearl Adams, April 1952-1953?

Berniece Thayer, May?-September 1954

Dorothy N. Howard, April-October 1955

Supply Clerks/Procurement Assistants:

Odie G. Boyd, October 1952-January 1953

Eino R. Salminen, March 1953-December 1954

William D. Funk, Jr., May 1955-August 1957

Robert Wildfong, August 1957 (temporary)

James Benolken, November 1957-July 1958

Milo Caza, August 1958-June 1961 

James J. Berens, November 1961-February 1964

Groo Beck, March 1964-September 1966

John E. Wisner, October 1966-1968?

Temporary or Seasonal Positions:

Park Rangers:

1926 = Walter H. Belling

1929 = Ben Cleary

1935 = Frank Glaser

1950 = Leslie A. Viereck, James King

1951 = Leslie A. Viereck

1952 = Elton S. Thayer

1953 = Elton S. Thayer

1954 = Delbert Wiens, Roy Christian

1955 = John J. Schuler II, Ralph Turman

1956 = Harry R. Merriam, John L. Sheldon

1957 = Harry R. Merriam, William Johnson

1958 = Harvey King 

1959 = Ken Laufer, Elbert Don Payne

1960 = Charles Travers, Val Furlong, Ken Laufer

1961 = Charles Travers, Larry W. Adcock, Robert D. Dewey, William T. Parks

1962 = Charles Travers, Richard Guilmette

1963 = Charles Travers, Richard Guilmette

1964 = James Anderson, Wade Arend, Richard Streb, Scott Sappington

1965 = Charles Travers, Larry Adcock

1966 = Allen Hacker, John Murray, Charles Travers, Don Cornelius

1967 = Richard M. Shields, James McGowan, Bob Worthington, Mark Harkon, 

 John P. Bryant

1968 = Richard M. Shields, Bob Worthington

Back Country Rangers:

1974 = Jack and Beth Hebert
Appendix C. Selected List of Park Employees, 1921 to 1980 289

1975 = Jack and Beth Hebert, Melinda Frison, Donna Pritchett

1976 = Jack and Beth Hebert, Pete and Gretchen Pederson, Craig Partridge?

1977 = Jack and Beth Hebert, Pete and Gretchen Pederson, Craig Partridge?

1978 = Pete and Gretchen Pederson

Ranger-Naturalists:

1941 = Herbert D. Brazil

1950 = Elton S. Thayer

1952 = James H. Castren

1954 = Richard Riegelhuth

1955 = Richard Riegelhuth

1956 = Robert J. Badaracco

1957 = Thomas Choate

1958 = Hugh Klett

1959 = Hugh Klett, George Petrides

1960 = Thomas Choate, Kenneth Walchek

1961 = James F. Kaye, Robert Richey, Kenneth Walchek

1962 = Robert Richey, Jack Reisland

1963 = Martin Dean, Paul Hilburn, Keith Olson, Robert Richey, Jack Reisland

1964 = Jack Reisland, Paul Hilburn

1966 = Gordon Haber, George Perkins

1967 = Gordon Haber, George G. Perkins, John N. Trent, Jane Bryant

1968 = John N. Trent, Paul Glaser

1975-80 = Steve Carwile

Biologists:

1973-75 = Gordon Haber

1978->80 = Joe Van Horn (technician)

Naturalists:

1978 = Jeff Bohman

Ranger-Pilots:

1979 = Hollis Twitchell

Laborers:

1926 = Charles E. Armour

1927 = Eugene G. Moore

1950 = Gene Christian, Richard Loe

1952 = Willis G. Hardy, James H. Castren

1953 = Gibert F. Soderberg, McGuire Henry, Charley Tuckfield, Willis G. Hardy

1954 = Willis G. Hardy

1961 = Carl Alto, Jesse Batres, Charles Hubbard, Russel Onkka, Henry Richards

1962 = Robert Gish

1963 = Mike Pedro

1966 = Frederick Fetterman

1975->1980 = Chuck Bale

Maintenancemen/Carpenters:

1951 = Claude J. Thomas

1951-52 = Clyde Rayburn

1954 = Coy A. Howard

1955-57 = Charles Ott

1957 = Robert Brannan, John Adams, Robert Auras

1958 = George F. Robinson

1959 = George F. Robinson, Bob Ray

1961 = Will Whittom

1962 = Harlin Harwood

1963 = Robert Murphy

1964 = Dennis Wik, Sidney Gibson, Bill Nancarrow, Walter Spurlin, Floyd 

 Stanilee, Darnell Went

1965 = Stan Poole

Mechanics:

1963 = David Yoder, Robert J. King

1964 = Robert J. King

1972-75 = Scott Ruesch

1980 = Tim Taylor

Plumber:

1946-47 (winter) = Louis M. Corbley

Painter:

1963 = John R. McCann
290 Crown Jewel of the North: An Administrative History of Denali National Park and Preserve

Motor Grader/Vehicle Operators:

Robert W. Cullers, 1963-64

Brad Ebel, 1975

Engineering Equipment Operators:

Joe Krier, 1964?->1980

Gary Aldrich, 1972-73

Brad Ebel, 1976->1980

Harold Battest, late 1970s

Rob Hammel, late 1970s->1980

Truck Drivers:

1952 = Harold Parsons

1961 = Ray Wiebe, Robert Sharples, Will Whittom

1962 = Lewis McDonald

Clerk Typists:

1961 = Carroll Susan Baer, Caroline Cox

Fire Control Aids:

1957 = Kenneth Howell

1966 = Bill Ruth
Appendix D. Park Concessioners, 1923-1980 291

Appendix D. Park Concessioners, 1923-1980

Beginning Date Concessioner

May 4, 1923 Dan Kennedy

June 17, 1925 Mount McKinley Tourist and Transportation Company (without 

 Kennedy) – until January 31, 1942

June 1, 1939 Alaska Railroad (operated park hotel only, 1939-1941 seasons)

 U.S. Army Recreation Camp, April 1943-March 1945

 Recreational Rest Camp (Army), Dec. 1950-Jan. 1951

 Recreational Rest Camp (Air Force), Jan. 1951-Apr. 1953 (winters)

June 13, 1953 McKinley Park Services, Inc.

August 25, 1954 National Park Service; operator = National Parks Concessions, Inc.

February 6, 1958 Mount McKinley National Park Company

March 1970 U.S. National Resources Inc. (park subsidiary = Mt. McKinley-

 Lassen National Parks Company)

January 1, 1972 Outdoor World, Ltd.

June 1, 1978 ARA Services (park subsidiary = Outdoor World, Ltd.)
292 Crown Jewel of the North; An Administrative History of Denali National Park and Preserve

Appendix E. Population of Gateway Communities, 1910-2000

a

 – Healy was known as Healey Fork in 1930 and Healy Fork in 1940.

b – The 1930 population for the Kantishna District, incl. Toklat village was 151; without 

Toklat village, therefore, the District’s population was 107. In 1940, the census

noted that the Kantishna District was “annexed to Fairbanks District since 

1929.” c

 – McKinley Park’s population, as shown in the 1980 census, was 32; the 1990 census

indicated that its 1980 population (perhaps based on redrawn lines) was 60. 

Source: U.S. Census Bureau, Census of Population, Number of Inhabitants, Alaska, various 

years.

a

b

c
Appendix. F. Growth of the Park Road, 1923-1938 293

Appendix. F. Growth of the Park Road, 1923-1938

a

 – The various Alaska Road Commission reports may include road construction progress as 

late as June of the given year. In most cases, however, construction progress is given for the 

end of the previous construction season. The report for fiscal year 1932, for example, may 

include construction information through June 1932, but in most cases it chronicles road 

building progress through the fall of 1931.

b – This figure includes $2,000 in federal (non-NPS) funds and $700 from private sources contributed prior to fiscal year 1924.

c

 – The total amount of NPS funds that were specifically allotted toward park-road construction and maintenance during fiscal years 1925 through 1938, inclusive, was $1,396,500. This 

comprised most of the funds used for park road construction, although funds also came from 

the Alaska Road Commission, the Territory of Alaska, and private sources. The total federal 

budget outlay for construction (only) on the park road during fiscal years 1924 through 1938, 

inclusive, was $1,082,571. 

Source: Alaska Bureau of Road Commissioners, Annual Report of the Alaska Road Commission, various years.

a

b

c
294 Crown Jewel of the North; An Administrative History of Denali National Park and Preserve

Appendix G. Bridges on the Park Road, 1923-Present

1 2

Date Built/ Length 

Name Mileage Designer (in feet) Materials 

"First Creek " 3.3 1923/ARC 126 "native timber" 

(Rock Creek) 1959/BPR 129 steel 

[unnamed creek] 3.5 1924/ARC trestle span? 

1950/ARC trestle span? 

by 1976- replaced by a pipe culvert 

(Unnamed creek) 5.7 1924?/ARC trestle span? 

1951-52/ARC 65 timber stringer 

between 1982 and 1985 - replaced by a pipe culvert 

[unnamed creek] 9.5 19247/ARC trestle span? 

1953/ARC 23 treated timber 

between 1982 and 1985 - replaced by a pipe cUlvert 

[unnamed creek] 10 1 1924?/ARC trestle span? 

1953/ARC 23 treated timber? 

between 1982 and 1985- replaced by a pipe culvert 

[unnamed creek] 11 .8 1925?/A.RC trestle span 

1954/ARC 23 treated timber? 

1982 - replaced by a pipe culvert 

[unnamed creek] 12.4 1925?/ARC trestle span 

1955/ARC 16 t reated timber? 

1982 - replaced by a p(pe culvert 

[unnamed creek] 12 6 1925?/ARC trestle span 

1956?/ARC 20 treated timber? 

1982?- repiaced by a box c(Jivert 

Savage River 14.8 1925/ARC 60 pony truss, trestle span 

1950-SliARC 284 treated timbers? 

1975/FHWA lrepaired) 

1983/FHWA 318· steel 

Hogan Creek 21.2 1925?/ARC trestle span? 

1950/ARC treated timber, pile bent 

1982-83- replaced by a culvert 

Sanctuary River 22.8 1925/ARC 60 pony truss + trestle span 

1956/ARC 198 steel girder, concrete 

Teklanlka River 31.3 1927/ARC [lengthened in 1930] 

1955/ARC 333 steel girder 

Igloo Creek 34.1 1928/ARC framed trestle 

1966/FHWA 70 steel girder on pile bent 

(2 unnamed creeks] 36,37 1928/ARC trestle span? 

1960- replaced by corrugated metal culverts 

Upper Igloo. Cree.k 37,1 1928/ARC framed trestle 

1956/ARC 43 steel on pile bent 

Ghigllone Creek 42.0 1929/ARC trestle span? 

1959-60/FHWA 137 steel multibeam 

(unnamed creek] 43 1929/ARC ''wooden bridge'' 

1961 - replaced by a culvert 

East Fork Toklat R. 43.4 1929-30/ARC 

1952-54iARC 283 steel girder 
Appendix G. Bridges on the Park Road, 1923-Present 295

1

 – mileage figures indicate number of miles west of the Parks Highway junction.

2

 – bridge designers include: ARC=Alaska Road Commission, BPR=Bureau of Public Roads, 

FHWA= Federal Highways Administration.
296 Crown Jewel of the North; An Administrative History of Denali National Park and Preserve

During the preparation of this volume, the author 

attempted to locate and use a broad range of 

source materials that would provide a serviceable park management history within the time 

and budgetary constraints provided. He soon 

recognized, however, that the volume of parkrelated materials was too great to allow full access 

to them all. Many materials, therefore, were 

skipped. Inasmuch as many of these records are 

located in the Headquarters-“C Camp” area of 

Denali National Park and Preserve—in its library, 

its museum (which contains the park archives), in 

the superintendent’s office and in numerous division offices—it was quickly recognized that gaining access to the lion’s share of these materials 

would be a tall order indeed. Given the fact that 

repositories in other locations have also provided 

an abundance of park-related data, combined 

with the park headquarters’ location, 240 road 

miles north of Anchorage, the researcher who 

chooses to delve into the park’s historical records 

will soon recognize that sources at the park have 

been accessed less than those located in Anchorage and elsewhere.

Several source-related problems arose during the 

research for this project. First, it was the author’s 

good fortune that historian Kristen Griffin, as 

part of an earlier effort, was able to assemble 

scores of park historical folders and make them 

accessible for this study. Ms. Griffin plumbed 

records at the park, at the National Archives, and 

elsewhere; she methodically, and properly, provided exact documentation for the overwhelming majority of source materials. Other agency 

records, however, appeared that could not be 

attributed to a specific bibliographic source. The 

author, in this case, decided to categorize each of 

these records by folder (when known) and then 

to give its bibliographic repository as the “Denali 

Administrative History Collection.” All of the 

materials gathered for this study, in fact, are being 

deposited in the Denali Administrative History 

Collection, which will be located in the agency’s 

Alaska Regional Curatorial Center (ARCC).

A similar problem appeared when the author began investigating of park records. It was quickly 

recognized that some historical records at the 

park were poorly curated and in a state of relative 

disarray. Many boxes of records dating from 

the 1950s through the 1990s, for example, were 

found among heating equipment in the basement 

of the headquarters building (where the superintendent’s office is located), and some loose, 

uncatalogued historical records were found in 

the park museum (located in the basement of the 

resources building). So far as is known, these 

records still remain at these locations, although 

they may soon be moved and curated. Records 

found in these locations, specifically those 

pertaining to park planning and infrastructure 

projects, are not referred to by collection name; 

those records photocopied for this project will 

also be found in the Denali Administrative History Collection.

One major collection encountered in the park 

museum was Catalog Number 9169. This massive data set, containing more than 30 boxes of 

park administrative records, includes materials 

as early as 1917 and as late as 2001; more than 

three-quarters of this material, however, dates 

from the 1960s and 1970s. When research began 

for this study, the records comprising this collection were in poor shape. In order to properly 

classify and curate these records, each of these 

boxes, plus other boxes that included similar 

materials, were brought to the Alaska Regional 

Office’s curatorial unit in Anchorage during the 

summer of 2004. Soon afterward, curator Nicole 

Jackelen began processing them in order to guarantee their physical permanence and their future 

availability to researchers. The much-needed 

curation of this newly-expanded collection is 

now complete. Because of Ms. Jackelen’s work, 

only scattered materials were used from the “old” 

Catalog 9169 for this study. The collection’s 

reorganization, moreover, means that most if not 

all references in the present study to box numbers in Catalog 9169 are no longer valid. The 

fruit of her labor, however, is obvious; any future 

researchers interested in the history of park 

administration and management will have a large 

trove of relatively untouched records to peruse. 

In addition to the records from Catalog 9169, 

tomorrow’s historians will have access to many 

other avenues of not-yet-analyzed archival 

material. For example, the park has several 

substantial archives—such as the Grant Pearson, 

Earl Pilgrim, and Harry Liek collections, plus 

a large assemblage of ranger and interpretive 

reports, research files, and an impressive array 

of historical photographs—which were largely 

bypassed for this study. Researchers for this 

study combed a broad range of records in three 

National Archives branches, but many other 

records—both National Park Service records 

(RG 79) and those in other record groups—have 

not been perused. The excellent Bill Brown 

A Note About Sources
A Note About Sources 297

Collection (Catalog 6857) has been perused, but 

by no means exhaustively. Future researchers 

will quickly recognize that many Denali articles, 

both in general-interest magazines and technical 

journals, were not consulted during the preparation of this report. And the oral history field has 

been barely scratched; while researchers for this 

study interviewed various park superintendents 

and a few additional agency personnel, future 

historians would greatly benefit by conducting 

interviews of a broad range of other park and 

regional-office employees, concession employees, state and borough officials, incidental business permit holders, leaders of park advocacy 

groups, and others who have played a role over 

the years in either carrying out or challenging the 

agency’s mission.
298 Crown Jewel of the North: An Administrative History of Denali National Park and Preserve

I. Archival Collections

Alaska State Archives (ASA), Juneau:

Records of the Alaska Territorial Governor, 1909-1959 (Record Group 101)

Records of the Alaska Governor, 1959 to present (RG 01)

Records of the Commissioner of Natural Resources (RG 242)

Bureau of Land Management, Alaska State Office, Anchorage:

Land Status Files.

Denali National Park and Preserve, Archives and Museum:

Bill Brown Collection

Denali Archival Collection (DENA Archives).

Jane Bryant historical files.

Steve Carwile historical files.

Federal Aviation Administration, Anchorage:

Airports Division Historical Collection.

National Archives and Records Administration, Alaska Region, Anchorage (NARA ANC):

NPS (RG 79), Alaska Task Force Collection.

National Archives and Records Administration, College Park, Md. (NARA CP): 

NPS (RG 79), Central Files, 1907-1939 (Entry 6). 

Mount McKinley NP files included in Boxes 109-112.

NPS (RG 79), General Files, 1907-1949 (Entry 7). 

Mount McKinley NP files included in Boxes 1403-1421.

U.S. Board on Geographic Names (RG 324), Domestic Names Committee files.

National Archives and Records Adminstration, San Bruno, Calif. (NARA SB):

NPS (RG 79), Central Classified Files, Specific NPS Units. 

Mount McKinley NP files included in Boxes 74-92.

National Park Service, Alaska Regional Office, Anchorage: 

Curatorial Center (ARCC), Collection 00183

DENA Administrative History Collection, in ARCC

John Quinley (external affairs) files

Lands Division: Property Files and Land Ownership Maps

National Park Service, Technical Information Center (NPS-TIC), Denver:

Aperture Card Collection (microfiche)

Park Documents Collection (microfiche)

National Park Service Library, Harpers Ferry Center (HFC), Harpers Ferry, WV:

Frank Williss Collection

John Wise Alaska Collection

National Parks and Monuments Collection

Richard Stenmark Collection

University of Alaska Fairbanks, Alaska and Polar Regions Archives:

Edward L. “Bob” Bartlett Collection

Fairbanks Environmental Center Collection

Mt. McKinley Tourist and Transportation Co. Collection

Candy Waugaman Photographic Archives, Fairbanks.

Selected Bibliography
Selected Bibliography 299

IIa. Government Reports (Federal)

Alaska Planning Group, Draft Environmental Statement, Proposed Mt. McKinley National Park Additions (Washington?, the author?), December 1973.

Alaska Planning Group, Final Environmental Statement, Proposed Mt. McKinley National Park Additions (Washington?, U.S. Interior Department), October 1974.

Annual Report of the Secretary of the Interior, various years, 1917 to 1963.

Antonson, Joan M. and William S. Hanable, Administrative History of Sitka National Historical Park 

(Anchorage, NPS), December 1987.

Brooks, Alfred H., The Mount McKinley Region, Alaska, USGS Professional Paper 70 (Washington, 

GPO), 1911.

Brown, William E., A History of the Denali-Mount McKinley Region, Alaska (Santa Fe, NPS), 1991. 

Later published as Denali: Symbol of the Alaskan Wild (Denali National Park, Alaska Natural History 

Association), 1993.

Bureau of the Budget, Budget of the United States (Washington, D.C., Government Printing Office), 

1925 and 1930 editions.

Butowsky, Harry A., Warships Associated with World War II in the Pacific, National Historic Landmark 

Theme Study (Washington, NPS), May 1985.

Cahalane, Victor H., A Boundary Study of Mount McKinley National Park, December 30, 1954; NPSTIC Fiche Collection #184/D155.

Catton, Theodore, Wonderland; An Administrative History of Mount Rainier National Park (Seattle, 

NPS), May 1996.

Davidson, Ernest A., Report to the Chief Architect and to the Superintendent of Mount McKinley National Park, September 1935, in file D-18, DENA Archives.

Evans, Gail, “Patrol Cabins, Mount McKinley National Park,” National Register of Historic Places 

nomination, December 1985, in park NRHP files, ARO-RCR.

Evans, H. David, and Gail E. H. Evans, Historic Structure Report, Upper Windy Creek Patrol Cabin

(Anchorage, NPS), February 1992.

Griffin, Kristen, An Overview and Assessment of Archeological Resources, Denali National Park and 

Preserve (Anchorage, NPS), September 1990.

Hackett, William H., Alaska’s Vanishing Frontier; a Progress Report, prepared for the Committee on 

Interior and Insular Affairs, U.S. House of Representatives (Washington, GPO), 1951.

Hunt, William R., Mountain Wilderness; Historic Resource Study for Wrangell-St. Elias National Park 

and Preserve (Anchorage, NPS), 1991.

Kauffmann, John M., Mount McKinley National Park, Alaska; A History of its Establishment and Revision of its Boundaries (Washington, D.C., NPS), July 1954.

Koue, A. Lewis, and Robert V. Simmonds, Historic Structure Report, Part I, Toklat Patrol Cabin Complex, Building Number 4 and Supporting Structures, Class CC (San Francisco, NPS), June 1970.

LaFleur, Harold A., “Building Inventory for Mt. McKinley National Park,” September 12, 1975, in 

“HQ Building Development” file, DENA archives.
300 Crown Jewel of the North: An Administrative History of Denali National Park and Preserve

LaFleur, Harold A., Classified Structure Field Inventory Reports for five park structures, December 29, 

1975, in List of Classified Structures files, AKRO-RCR.

Mackintosh, Barry, Visitor Fees in the National Park System, a Legislative and Administrative History

(Washington, NPS), 1983.

NPS, Backcountry Use and Operations Plan, Mount McKinley National Park, June 1975.

NPS, Commercial Service Directory, Alaska Region, various annual editions, 1981 to present.

NPS, Denali Park Road Handbook (bus drivers’ manual), 2001 revision.

NPS, Final Environmental Statement, Proposed Electrical Distribution Line Extension to McKinley Park, 

Mount McKinley National Park, December 1976.

NPS, General Management Plan, Land Protection Plan [and] Wilderness Suitability Review [for] Denali 

National Park and Preserve, Alaska (Denver, the author), November 1986.

NPS, “Hiking in Mount McKinley National Park, Alaska” (brochure), 1975, in Collection 00495, 

DENA Archives; revised (January 1979) edition in “Trail Guides” folder, Mt. McKinley-Denali Archive, Box 1, HFC.

NPS, Historic Listing of National Park Service Officials (Washington, D.C., the author), May 1991.

NPS, Index, National Park System and Related Areas (Washington, the author), various years, 1975 to 

present.

NPS, Interim Development Concept Plan, Riley Creek/Headquarters/Hotel Area, Mount McKinley National Park, Alaska (Denver, the author), March 1976.

NPS, Master Plan Brief for Mount McKinley National Park (San Francisco?, the author), October 1965.

NPS, Mission 66 for Mount McKinley National Park, May 13, 1957, in NPS-TIC Microfiche Collection 

#184/MPNAR.

NPS, Mission 66 Prospectus for Mount McKinley National Park, April 1956, in NPS-TIC Microfiche 

Collection #184/MPNAR.

NPS, Mount McKinley Headquarters/Hotel Area, Interim Development Concept, Analysis of Alternatives

(Denver, the author), December 1975.

NPS, Operation Great Land: Alaska Task Force Report (Washington, the author), January 1965.

NPS, Public Use of the National Parks; a Statistical Report, 1904-1940 (Washington, the author), 1963. 

Later editions of this report were published in 1954 (for the years 1941-1953), in February 1966 (for 

the years 1954-1964), and in September 1971 (for the years 1960-1970).

NPS, Recommendations Regarding Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act 17(d)(2) Withdrawals, (Anchorage?, the author), July 1972.

NPS, Superintendent’s Annual Reports, Mount McKinley National Park, 1967 to 1980.

NPS, Superintendent’s Monthly Reports, Mount McKinley National Park, May 1921 to May 1967.

National Resources Committee, Regional Planning, Part VII, Alaska—Its Resources and Development

(Washington, GPO), 1938.

Norris, Frank, Alaska Subsistence: A National Park Service Management History (Anchorage, NPS), 

September 2002.
Selected Bibliography 301

Norris, Frank, Isolated Paradise: An Administrative History of the Katmai and Aniakchak National Park 

Units (Anchorage, NPS), 1996.

Norris, Frank, Legacy of the Gold Rush: An Administrative History of Klondike Gold Rush National 

Historical Park (Anchorage, NPS), 1996.

Orth, Donald, Dictionary of Alaska Place Names, USGS Professional Paper 567 (Washington, D.C., 

GPO), 1967.

Paige, John C., The Civilian Conservation Corps and the National Park Service, 1933-1942: An Administrative History (Washington, NPS), 1985.

Pearson, Grant H., A History of Mt. McKinley National Park (n.p., NPS), 1953.

Peterson, Charles L., Mount McKinley National Park Development Outline, November 15, 1946, in Box 

3, Bill Brown Collection, DENA.

Snow, Dave, Gail Evans, Robert L. Spude, and Paul Gleeson, Historic Structure Report, Mt. McKinley 

Park Headquarters Historic District and Wonder Lake, three volumes (Anchorage?, NPS-ARO), January 1, 1987.

Stroud, George S., History of the Concession at Denali National Park (formerly Mount McKinley National Park), unpub. mss. (Anchorage, NPS), March 1985.

U.S. Department of the Interior, Budget Estimates [or Budget Justifications], National Park Service, Fiscal Years 1923 to present, NPS Budget/Files Room, WASO.

U.S. Department of the Interior, Alaska: A Reconnaissance Report on the Potential Development of Water Resources in the Territory of Alaska for Irrigation, Power Production and Other Beneficial Uses, 82nd

Congress, 1st Session, House Document 197, January 1952.

U.S. Senate, Committee on Interior and Insular Affairs, Hydroelectric Requirements and Resources in 

Alaska (Washington, GPO), 1961.

Unrau, Harlan D. and G. Frank Williss, Administrative History: Expansion of the National Park Service 

in the 1930s (Denver, NPS), September 1983.

Wahrhaftig, Clyde, Physiographic Divisions of Alaska, USGS Professional Paper 482 (Washington, D.C., 

GPO), 1965.

White, Donald E., Antimony Deposits of the Stampede Creek Area, Kantishna District, Alaska, U.S. Geological Survey Bulletin 936-N (Washington, GPO, 1942), 331-46.

Williss, G. Frank, “Do Things Right the First Time:” The National Park Service and the Alaska National 

Interest Lands Conservation Act of 1980 (Denver, NPS), September 1985; revised edition published by 

the NPS in Anchorage in February 2005.

Yates, Frank L., Report on Survey and Review of the Operations of the Alaska Railroad for the Fiscal Year 

Ended June 30, 1952, 83rd Congress, 1st Session, House Document No. 95 (Washington, GPO), 1953.

IIb. Federal Contract Reports and Other Unpublished Studies

Cresap, McCormick and Paget, A Program for Increasing the Contribution of Tourism to the Alaskan 

Economy, December 1968.

Curran, Michelle, United States Board on Geographic Names: The Impact of Controversy, 1890-Present, 

unpublished Ph.D. Dissertation, Arizona State University, 2005.

Evans, Gail E. H., From Myth to Reality: Travel Experiences and Landscape Perceptions in the Shadow of 
302 Crown Jewel of the North: An Administrative History of Denali National Park and Preserve

Mount McKinley, Alaska, 1876-1938, unpublished M.A. Thesis, U.C. Santa Barbara, February 1987.

Gordon S. Harrison, Research Study of the Public Reaction to the Mount McKinley National Park Public 

Transportation System, Institute of Social, Economic, and Government Research, Univ. of Alaska, June 

25, 1973, 1-2; Study 184/D50, TIC Collection. 

Kain, Ann Bischoff, Cultural Resource Management in Denali National Park and Preserve, Alaska, 

unpublished M.A. Thesis, Antioch University, March 2001.

Robert T. Timlin, Mt. McKinley Hotel, Mount McKinley, Alaska, Fire Investigation Report, ca. 1972, in 

Box 6, File 6-24, Bill Brown Collection (#6857), DENA Archives.

Tracy, Diane, “Human-Wildlife Interactions Along Mt. McKinley Road,” in Alaska Cooperative Park 

Studies Unit, Final Report: Fiscal Year 1975 (Fairbanks, UAF, ca. 1975), T-1 through T-85.

Womble, Peter, Survey of Backcountry Users in Mount McKinley National Park, Alaska; a Report for 

Management (Seattle, Univ. of Washington Cooperative Park Studies Unit), December 1979.

IIc. Government Reports (Federal-State Partnerships)

Alaska Department of Natural Resources, Division of State Parks and U.S. Dept. of the Interior, National Park Service, Environmental Investigation and Site Analysis, Tokositna Study Area, Denali State 

Park, Alaska, July 1980, at ARLIS.

Joint Federal-State Land Use Planning Commission for Alaska, The D-2 Book; Lands of National Interest in Alaska (Anchorage, the author), May 1977.

Joint Federal-State Land Use Planning Commission for Alaska, Land Planning and Policy in Alaska, 

“Preliminary Land Use Recommendations” (typescript), July 1973.

IId. Government Reports (Territorial and State)

Alaska Department of Natural Resources, Division of Parks, Denali State Park, a Master Plan, 1975.

Board of Road Commissioners for Alaska, Annual Report of the Alaska Road Commission, various 

fiscal years, 1919 through 1955. (These are also known as ARC, Annual Report, or ARC, Report of 

Operations.)

Division of Planning and Research, State of Alaska, “The State’s Response to the Draft Environmental 

Impact Statements for Lands Withdrawn Under Section 17(d)(2) of the Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act,” ca. April 1974, at ARLIS.

HKS Associates, Tokositna, A Development Study for the State of Alaska, February 1981.

Heiner, Virginia Doyle, Alaska Mining History, A Source Document (OHA Series #17), July 1977.

Kari, James, Native Place Names Mapping in Denali National Park and Preserve, draft final report (Fairbanks, UAF Alaska and Polar Regions Dept.), December 1999.

Krauss, Michael E., comp., Native Peoples and Languages of Alaska (map), UAF, revised edition, 1982.

Legislative Reporting Service, Report for the Sixth Alaska Legislature, 2nd Session, 1970.

Lensink, Calvin J., “Predator Control with the Bounty System,” in Alaska Department of Fish and 

Game, Annual Report for 1958 (Juneau, the author), 94-104.

Naske, Claus-M., Paving Alaska’s Trails: The Work of the Alaska Road Commission, Alaska Historical 

Commission Studies in History No. 152 (Anchorage, the Commission), ca. 1985.

Norris, Frank, Gawking at the Midnight Sun; The Tourist in Early Alaska, Alaska Historical Commission 
Selected Bibliography 303

Studies in History No. 170 (Anchorage, the Commission), June 1985.

Rakestraw, Lawrence W., A History of the United States Forest Service in Alaska (Anchorage, Alaska 

Historical Commission), 1981.

III. Public Documents

Federal (listed chronologically):

64th Congress, 1st Session, Senate Report No. 440, May 15, 1916.

64th Congress, 2nd Session, House Report No. 1273, January 10, 1917.

United States Statutes at Large 39 (February 26, 1917), 938-39.

64th Congress, 2nd Session, Senate Report No. 742, March 2, 1917.

Executive Order 3617, January 13, 1922.

Executive Order 3800, March 2, 1923. 

Executive Order 3946, January 21, 1924.

70th Congress, 1st Session, Senate Report No. 552, March 16, 1928.

71st Congress, 2nd Session, House Report No. 1387, May 6, 1930.

71st Congress, 1st Session, Senate Report No. 385, April 11, 1930.

73rd Congress, 2nd Session, Senate Report No. 1019, May 17, 1934.

76th Congress, 1st Session, House Report No. 567, May 8, 1939.

76th Congress, 1st Session, Senate Report No. 448, May 18, 1939.

77th Congress, 1st Session, House Report No. 189, March 10, 1941.

77th Congress, 1st Session, Senate Report No. 265, May 8, 1941.

Federal Register 17 (April 19, 1952), 3495.

Federal Register 18 (October 16, 1953), 6592.

83rd Congress, 2nd Session, Senate Committee on Interior and Insular Affairs, Alaska 

Statehood: Hearings ... on S. 50, a Bill to Provide for the Admission of Alaska 

into the Union, conducted January 20 to February 24, 1954 (Washington, GPO), 

1954.

84th Congress, 1st Session, House Committee on Interior and Insular Affairs, Alaska, 

1955, Part 2; Hearings Before the Subcommittee on Territorial and Insular 

Affairs Pursuant to H. Res. 30..., conducted September 20 to September 23, 1955 

(Washington, GPO, 1956); pages 1-15 pertain to Mount McKinley N.P.

Federal Register 23 (February 21, 1958), 1124.

United States Statutes at Large 72 (July 7, 1958), 339-52.

Federal Register 30 (May 13, 1965), 6593.

Federal Register 41 (May 10, 1976), 19146.

95th Congress, 1st Session, House Committee on Interior and Insular Affairs, “Inclusion 

of Alaska Lands in National Park, Forest, Wildlife Refuge and Wild and Scenic 

River Systems,” September 15, 1977, Part XVI of Hearings Before the 

Subcommittee on General Oversight and Alaska Lands, Serial No. 95-16 

(Washington, GPO), 1977. In Vol. XIX of ANILCA Legislative History.

Federal Register 43 (December 5, 1978), 57035-41.

96th Congress, 1st Session, Senate Committee on Energy and Natural Resources, National 

Park Service Concessions Policy; Hearings on Oversight – Concessions Policy 

Act of 1965, conducted March 29 to April 27, 1979, Senate Publication 96-33 

(Washington, GPO), 1979. 

96th Congress, 1st Session, Senate Committee on Energy and Natural Resources, Alaska 

National Interest Lands, Senate Report 96-413, November 14, 1979 (Washington, 

GPO), 1979. 

97th Congress, 1st Session, House Committee on Interior and Insular Affairs, Providing 

for the Retention of the Name of Mount McKinley, House Report 97-207, July 29, 

1981.

Public Law 96-487, Alaska National Interest Lands Conservation Act, Legislative History

[abbreviated as ANILCA Legislative History] (Anchorage, Alaska Department of 

Fish and Game, Fall 1981), 41 volumes.

Federal Register 59 (March 10, 1994), 11196.

State:
304 Crown Jewel of the North: An Administrative History of Denali National Park and Preserve

Alaska House Journal, 1972.

Alaska Senate Journal, 1970, 1972, 1975, 1979, 1981.

Alaska State Legislature, House Bill History, 1975 through 1982 editions.

Alaska State Legislature, Senate Bill History, 1975 through 1982 editions.

Session Laws of Alaska, 1970, Chapter No. 233.

Session Laws of Alaska, 1978, Chapter 146.

IV. Newspapers

Alaska Daily Press (Juneau), 1937.

Alaska Weekly, 1929 to 1935.

Anchorage Daily News, 1946 to 1980.

Anchorage Daily Times, 1916 to 1980.

Daily Alaska Empire (Juneau), 1926 to 1964.

Fairbanks Daily News-Miner, 1934 to 1980.

Jessen’s Weekly, 1942 to 1957.

Juneau Alaska Empire, 1964 to 1968.

Juneau Empire, 1980.

Nenana Daily News, 1920.

New York Times, 1913 to 1980.

Nome Nugget, 1942.

Seattle Post-Intelligencer, 1978.

Seward Daily Gateway, 1923 to 1927.

Southeast Alaska Empire (Juneau), 1968 to 1980.

Washington Times, 1937.

V. Books

Alaska Northwest, The Milepost (Anchorage, the author), issues of 1960 through 2004.

Albright, Horace and Marian Albright Schenck, Creating the National Park Service; the Missing Years

(Norman, Univ. of Oklahoma Press), 1999.

Anderson, Michael F., Polishing the Jewel; an Administrative History of Grand Canyon National Park, 

Monograph #11 (Grand Canyon, Ariz., Grand Canyon Association), 2000.

Atwood, Evangeline and Robert N. DeArmond, comp., Who’s Who in Alaskan Politics (Portland, Binford & Mort), 1977.

Barry, Mary J., A History of Mining on the Kenai Peninsula (Anchorage, Alaska Northwest), 1973.

Barry, Mary J., Seward, Alaska; A History of the Gateway City, Vol. I: Prehistory to 1914 (Anchorage, the 

author), 1986.

Barry, Mary J., Seward, Alaska; a History of the Gateway City; Vol. II, the Alaska Railroad Construction 

Years, 1914-1923 (Anchorage, the author), 1993.

Bartlett, John, Bartlett’s Familiar Quotations, fifteenth edition (Boston, Little Brown), 1980.

Borneman, Walter R., Alaska, Saga of a Bold Land (New York, HarperCollins), 2003.

Brooks, Alfred Hulse, Blazing Alaska’s Trails, second edition (Fairbanks, Univ. of Alaska Press), 1973.

Carey, Mary, An Auto Trip to Alaska’s Shangri-La (n.p., Tex-Alaska Press), 1989.

Carson, Donald W. and James W. Johnson, Mo; the Life and Times of Morris K. Udall (Tucson, Univ. of 

Arizona Press), 2001.

Gates, Michael, Gold at Fortymile Creek; Early Days in the Yukon (Vancouver, UBC Press), 1994.
Selected Bibliography 305

Hawley, Charles Caldwell, Wesley Earl Dunkle; Alaska’s Flying Miner (Boulder, University Press of 

Colorado), 2003.

Hendee, John C., George H. Stankey, and Robert C. Lucas, Wilderness Management, second edition 

(Golden, Colo., North American Press), 1990.

Henretta, James A., et al., America’s History, third edition (New York, Worth Publishers), 1997.

Hulley, Clarence, Alaska: Past and Present (Portland, Binfords and Mort), 1953; third edition, 1970.

Hummel, Don, Stealing the National Parks (Bellevue, Wash., Free Enterprise Press), 1987.

Ise, John, Our National Park Policy (Baltimore, Johns Hopkins Univ. Press), 1961.

Janson, Lone, The Copper Strike (Anchorage, Alaska Northwest), 1975. 

Kogl, Sandy, Sled Dogs of Denali (Anchorage, Alaska Natural History Association), 1981.

McDonald, Lucile, “Alaska Steam; a Pictorial History of the Alaska Steamship Company,” Alaska 

Geographic 11:4, 1984.

Moore, Terris, Mt. McKinley: The Pioneer Climbs (Fairbanks, University of Alaska Press), 1967.

Nash, Roderick, Wilderness and the American Mind, revised edition (New Haven, Yale University 

Press), 1967.

Naske, Claus-M. and Herman E. Slotnick, Alaska, A History of the 49th State (Grand Rapids, MI, Eerdmans), 1979.

Pearson, Grant, with Philip Newill, My Life of High Adventure (New York, Ballantine Books), 1962.

Pearson, Grant, The Seventy Mile Kid; Wilderness Superintendent of Mount McKinley National Park

(Los Altos, Calif., Signal Press), 1957.

Rawson, Timothy, Changing Tracks; Predators and Politics in Mt. McKinley National Park (Fairbanks, 

University of Alaska Press), 2001.

Rettie, Dwight F., Our National Park System (Urbana, Univ. of Illinois Press), 1995.

Rollins, Alden M., Census Alaska; Number of Inhabitants, 1792-1970 (Anchorage, UAA Library), 1978.

Ross, Sherwood, Gruening of Alaska (New York, Best Books), 1968.

Rudeen, Marlys, comp., The Civilian Conservation Corps Camp Papers: a Guide (Chicago, Center for 

Research Libraries), 1991.

Roy Sanborn, Malamutes of Mount McKinley National Park (Anchorage, Alaska National Parks and 

Monuments Association), 1971.

Schulte, Steven C., Wayne Aspinall and the Shaping of the American West (Boulder, Univ. Press of Colorado), 2002.

Sellars, Richard West, Preserving Nature in the National Parks; A History (New Haven, Yale University 

Press), 1997.

Sfraga, Michael, Bradford Washburn: A Life of Exploration (Corvallis, Oregon State University), 2004.

Sheldon, Charles, The Wilderness of Denali (New York, Charles Scribner’s), 1930.

Sheldon, Charles, Wilderness of the Upper Yukon; a Hunter’s Exploration for Wild Sheep in Sub-Arctic 
306 Crown Jewel of the North: An Administrative History of Denali National Park and Preserve

Mountains (New York, C. Scribner’s Sons), 1911.

Sherwood, Morgan, Big Game in Alaska; a History of Wildlife and People (New Haven, Yale), 1981.

Sherwood, Morgan, The Exploration of Alaska, 1865-1900 (New Haven, Yale), 1965.

Stevens, Robert W., Alaskan Aviation History, vol. 1, 1897-1928, and vol. 2, 1929-1930 (Des Moines, 

Wash., Polynyas Press), 1990.

Stuck, Hudson, The Ascent of Denali (New York, Scribner’s), 1914.

Trefethen, James B., An American Crusade for Wildlife (Alexandria, Va., Boone and Crockett Club), 

1975.

Walker, Tom, Kantishna: Mushers, Miners, and Mountaineers (Missoula, MT, Pictorial Histories Publishing Co.), 2005.

Washburn, Barbara with Lew Freedman, The Accidental Adventurer (Fairbanks, Epicenter Press), 

2001. 

Watkins, T.H., Righteous Pilgrim: the Life and Times of Harold L. Ickes, 1874-1952 (New York, Henry 

Holt), 1990.

Wayburn, Edgar, with Allison Alsup, Your Land and Mine: Evolution of a Conservationist (San Francisco, Sierra Club Books), 2004.

Wilson, William H., Railroad in the Clouds; the Alaska Railroad in the Age of Steam, 1914-1945 (Boulder, Colo., Pruett Publishing), 1977.

Woodman, Lyman L., Duty Station Northwest; The U.S. Army in Alaska and Western Canada, 1867-

1987; Volume Two, 1918-1945 and Vol. Three, 1945-1987 (Anchorage, Alaska Historical Society), 1997.

World Almanac and Book of Facts, 2002 edition.

VI. Legal References

Federal Reporter, 2nd Series, vol. 278, pp. 121-27.

Federal Supplement 160 (1958), pp. 30-34.

Federal Supplement 162 (1958), pp. 939-42.

VII. Articles

“Army’s Expedition to Mount McKinley, The” Quartermaster Review 22 (January-February 1943), 

27-29, 140-43.

Booth, Harold E., “Discovery of Mount McKinley,” National Parks Magazine 23 (January-March 

1949), 20-24, 35.

Brandley, Kent, “Charles J. Ott, McKinley’s Personal Cameraman,” Alaska Sportsman 30 (August 

1964), 30-31, 45.

Browne, Belmore, “Hitting the Home Trail from Mount McKinley,” Outing 62 (July 1913), 387-404.

Capps, Stephen R., “A Game Country Without Rival in America; the Proposed Mount McKinley 

National Park,” National Geographic Magazine 31 (January 1917), 69-84.

“Caribou, Tundra, Whitewater, Mount McKinley ... Alaska Adventures,” Sunset Magazine 178 (June 

1987), 72-74, 78.

Chambers, Kenneth A., “Mount McKinley National Park,” National Parks Magazine 42 (September 
Selected Bibliography 307

1968), 4-9.

“Changing the National Parks to Cope With People – and Cars,” U.S. News and World Report 72 (January 24, 1972), 52-55.

“Charles Sheldon,” in Who Was Who in America; Vol. 1, 1897-1942 (Chicago, A. N. Marquis), 1943, 

1113.

Courtney, W.B., “Christmas Zoo,” Collier’s 100 (December 25, 1937), 12-13. 

Francis, Henry S., Jr., “Some Views Concerning the Development of Mount McKinley National Park,” 

National Parks Magazine 37 (September 1963), 18-19.

Frome, Michael, “Disneyland North,” National Parks and Conservation Magazine 54 (February 1980), 

4-6.

Frome, Michael, “Why Not ‘Denali National Wilderness’?” Defenders 61 (July/August 1986), 18-19, 44.

Goebel, Ted, “Recent Research at Teklanika West: Site Stratigraphy and Dating,” in Frederick Hadleigh West, ed., American Beginnings; the Prehistory and Paleoecology of Beringia (Chicago, University of 

Chicago Press, 1996), 341-43.

Harrison, Gordon S., “The People and the Park: Reactions to a System of Public Transportation in Mt. 

McKinley National Park, Alaska,” Journal of Leisure Research 7:1 (1975), 6-15.

Humphrey, Hubert H., “The Wilderness Bill,” Living Wilderness 21 (Winter 1956-Spring 1957), 13-36.

Johnson, A. Stephen, “McKinley, New Freedom to Enjoy,” National Parks and Conservation Magazine

46 (December 1972), 19-23.

Joint Federal-State Land Use Planning Commission for Alaska, People Planning Today for a Better 

Alaska Tomorrow (newsletter), vol. 1 (March-April 1973), 2.

Knight, Carleton, III, “The Park Service as Client: II,” Architecture 73 (December 1984), 48-55.

Larsen, Laura, with Sandy Kogl, “Dog Teams on Mount McKinley,” Alaska Magazine 41 (March 

1975), 33-36.

“McKinley Isn’t Denali, Thanks to Ohio Politico,” Alaska 65 (May/June 1999), 15.

“Mount McKinley Again Will Get Record Visitors,” Sunset (Central Edition), May 1973, 58-59.

Morgan, Donald, “Above the Northern Trail,” Farthest North Collegian III:1 (1925), 7-9, 11.

“Mt. McKinley Quartermaster Corps Expedition Tests Winter Equipment Here,” Life 14 (March 22, 

1943), 69-73. 

Murie, Adoph, “Roadbuilding in Mount McKinley National Park,” National Parks Magazine 39 (July 

1965), 4-8.

Murie, Olaus J., “Mount McKinley: Wilderness Park of the North Country,” National Parks Magazine

37 (April 1963), 4-7.

Murie, Olaus J., “Our Farthest North National Park,” National Parks Magazine 33 (December 1959), 

8-10.

Murie, Olaus J., “Return to Denali,” Sierra Club Bulletin 38 (October 1953), 29-34.

“New Road to Mount McKinley, A” Sunset 118 (June 1957), 50-52.
308 Crown Jewel of the North: An Administrative History of Denali National Park and Preserve

Prochnau, Bill, “The Home of the Sun,” Americas 11 (February 1959), 16-20.

Saylor, John P., “Wilderness: The Outlook from Capitol Hill,” in David Brower, ed., Wilderness, 

America’s Living Heritage (San Francisco, Sierra Club, 1961), 147-51.

Sherwood, Morgan, “Polly’s Denali,” Alaska History 8 (Fall 1993), 36-41.

Sik, Carol, “The ‘59’ers Prove Up!” Alaska Sportsman 33 (September 1967), 6-8.

Smith, Anthony Wayne, “Implications of McKinley,” National Parks Magazine 37 (June 1963), 2.

Sorensen, W. Conner, “The Civilian Conservation Corps in Alaska (1933-1942) and Military Preparedness,” in Fern Chandonnet, ed., Alaska at War, 1941-1945, the Forgotten War Remembered

(Anchorage, Alaska at War Committee, 1995), 235-40.

Stone, Kirk H., “Geographical Record,” Geographical Review 42 (January 1952), 151-52.

Tilden, Paul M. and Nancy L. Machler, “The Development of Mount McKinley National Park,” National Parks Magazine 37 (May 1963), 10-15.

Walker, Tom, “Affair of the Heart,” Alaska Magazine 70 (July 2004), 30-35.

West, Frederick H., “Teklanika West,” in F.H. West, ed., American Beginnings; the Prehistory and Paleoecology of Beringia (Chicago, University of Chicago Press, 1996), 332-41.

Wood, Ginny Hill, “The Building of Camp Denali,” Sierra Club Bulletin 39 (June 1954), 39-44.

Wood, Ginny Hill, “In the Alaska Wilderness, the Park Service Confronts and Turns Back Motorized 

Tourism,” Audubon 75 (July 1973), 108-09.

Wood, Ginny Hill, “Wilderness Camp,” Alaska Sportsman 19 (November 1953), 20-24. 

VIII. Interviews (in-person with author except as noted):

Betts, Frank, October 15, 2004.

Brease, Phil (by telephone), June 6-7, 2004.

Carwile, Steve, various times, 2005 and 2006.

Dick, Jan (by telephone), October 27, 2004. 

Hall, George, December 13, 1996 and February 4, 1997.

Hartzog, George (by telephone), December 21, 2005.

Howard, Lena, by unknown interviewer, August 4, 1972, Tape #506, DENA Archives. 

Kuehn, Daniel, October 11, 2004.

Nancarrow, William J., by Jane Bryant, October 8, 2002. 

Ruesch, Scott (by telephone), October 21, 2004.

Wayburn, Edgar, July 29, 2003. 
Selected Bibliography 309
310 Crown Jewel of the North: An Administrative History of Denali National Park and Preserve

Index

- A -

A & G Construction Co. – 171

ARA Services, Inc. – 245-47, 276

Abbey, Woodbury – 28, 31, 37

Accidents, auto and bus – 246-47, 276

Adams, Sen. Alva B. – 195

Adirondack shelters – 106

Advisory Board on National Parks, Historic Sites, Buildings, and Monuments – 178, 181, 184

Aerial patrols, park – 102, 110, 119, 201, 245

Afognak Forest and Fish Culture Reserve – 13

Ahtna Indians – 3

Airfields – see Aviation

Alaska, State of – 178, 184, 189, 229, 234-35, 255

Alaska, Territory of – 128, 165

Alaska Air Command – 123

Alaska Airlines – 110, 134-35, 165-66

Alaska Area Office (NPS) – 265

Alaska Bankers’ Convention – 163

Alaska Central Railroad – 7

Alaska Chamber of Commerce – 159

Alaska congressional delegation – 179, 187, 271

Alaska Conservation Society – 177, 208, 247

Alaska Defense Command – 106, 109, 118

Alaska Department of Fish and Game – 182

Alaska Department of Natural Resources – 183-84, 188, 190, 238, 261, 264, 266

Alaska Department of Transportation and Public Facilities – 261

Alaska Division of Highways – 205

Alaska Division of Parks – 236, 238-39, 260, 262-66

Alaska Engineering Commission – 16, 18, 27, 29-30, 39

Alaska Field Office (NPS) – 197

Alaska Flight Information Manual – 140

Alaska Game Commission – 102, 110

Alaska Geographic Names Board – 267

Alaska Group Office (NPS) – 197. 231

Alaska Highway – 121, 128-29, 132

Alaska Legislature – 188-90, 219, 239, 253, 261-67, 270

Alaska National Interest Lands Conservation Act – 258-59, 270

Alaska National Lands concept – 254

Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act – 226, 228, 230-31, 233, 242

Alaska Planning Group – 232-35, 253

Alaska Power Administration – 176

Alaska Railroad – 28, 38-39, 41, 45, 47-49, 51, 56-57, 67, 75, 77, 79, 87-91, 94-95, 107, 114, 121-46, 

159- 60, 163, 166, 191-93, 204-06, 227-28

Alaska Railroad Act – 16, 90

Alaska Railroad Commission – 16

Alaska Road Commission – 32-41, 49-50, 53, 61, 65-66, 71-73, 77, 87, 95-98, 105, 110, 129-33, 157, 

159- 61, 169-70, 202, 208-09, 222

Alaska Road Commission cabins – see Cabins, ARC

Alaska Science Conference – 124, 149, 276

Alaska State Office (NPS) – 246

Alaska statehood, impacts of – 158, 167, 204, 232

Alaska Statehood bills (1954, 1958) – 146-47, 177-78, 232

Alaska Steamship Co. – 41, 121

Alaska Task Force (NPS, 1960s) – 179, 197
Index 311

Alaska Task Force (NPS, 1970s) – 231-32, 235

Alaska Visitor Association – 220, 226

Alaska-Canada Boundary Survey – 29

Alaskan Airways, Inc. – 66

Alaskan Department Winter Maneuver (1943-44) – 110

Alatna-Kobuk park proposal – 184

Albright, Horace – 18, 21, 24, 63, 67-69, 72-73, 83, 174

Albright, Stanley – 225-27, 246

Alcan Highway – see Alaska Highway

Aleutian Islands – 108-09, 121, 259

Alexander Archipelago Forest Reserve – 13

Allred Roadhouse – 70

American Game Protective and Propagation Association – 18

Anchorage – 17, 37, 43, 58, 65-66, 93, 99, 110, 112, 124, 127, 129, 165, 193, 221, 224, 226, 235, 262, 264

Anchorage (NPS office) – 117, 197, 249

Anchorage Chamber of Commerce – 261

Anchorage Daily News – 219

Anchorage (Daily) Times – 157, 168, 219, 222, 225-26

Anchorage-Fairbanks highway – see Parks Highway

Anderson, Sen. Clinton P. – 147

Anderson, John – 72

Anderson, Rep. John – 257

Anderson, Paula “Polly” – 72-73, 100-01, 116, 195

Anderson, Wallace – 77

Anderson Pass – 111, 239

Andrus, Cecil – 254, 268, 278

Antiquities Act – 13, 186, 188, 211-12

Arch, entrance – 40, 47, 51, 87, 114

Archeological sites – 2-3

Architects Collaborative, The (TAC) – 264-65

Arctic Alaska Travel Service – 127

Arctic National Wildlife Range/Refuge – 177

Arctic Science Conference – 149

Army Corps of Engineers – 158

Army Transport Command – 110-11, 200

Arup and Partners, Ove – 264

Aspinall, Rep. Wayne – 174, 187-88

Aufeis (glaciering) – 96, 133, 160-61, 202-03, 215, 252-53

Aurora (train) – 122

Automobile traffic – 45, 53, 83, 132, 157-59, 219-22, 249-50, 271

Avery, Slim – 55

Aviation – 66, 73-76, 110, 165-66

Ayers, Raye Ann – 105

- B -

Babler Brothers Construction Co. – 173

Backcountry management in the park – 222, 239-42, 275

Backcountry Use and Operations Plan (1975) – 241-42

Bagoy, Peter – 131

Bailey Bridge, Denali Highway – 130-31

Baker, W.A. – 100, 116

Baldy, Mount – 266

Banjo gold mine – 95

Barrill, Robert – 15

Bartlett, E.L. (delegate and U.S. Senator) – 180, 195

Beach, William N. – 55-56

Bear, black – 143

Bear, grizzly – 2, 13, 143, 219, 241

Bearpaw River – 7, 66
312 Crown Jewel of the North: An Administrative History of Denali National Park and Preserve

Beaver (game animal) – 102

Bedour, Marguerite – 197

Been, Frank – 94-95, 99, 102-07, 110, 117, 122, 129, 133-34, 137, 142-45, 192, 197, 243

Been, Lorraine – 104

Begich, Nick – 226-27

Bench, Gus – 55

Benson, Harvey – 208

Berlin, Leonard M. – 76

Betts, Floyd G. – 76

Betts, Frank – 245, 248, 256

Bible, Sen. Alan – 230, 273

“Big Game Drive” – 53, 73

Biosphere reserves – 258-59

Birch Creek (NE of Fairbanks) – 3

Birch Creek (W of Kantishna) – 55, 102

Bland, Rep. Schuyler – 92

Blessing, Robert – 256

Board of Road Commissioners, Alaska – 33

Bogart, Dave – 202

Bone, Sen. Homer – 91

Boone and Crockett Club – 15, 17-18, 24

Booth, Harold – 44, 141

Borgman, Ernest – 197

Bottom of the Barrel (tavern) – 225

Boundary change proposals – 144-48, 154, 177-88, 229-35, 253-58, 273

Boundary Creek – 76

Boundary expansion (1922) – 31, 56

Boundary expansion (1932) – 56-57, 67-72, 75, 101

Boundary patrols – see Game enforcement

Boundary surveys – 28, 31, 37, 68, 76

Bounties – 75

Braund, Inc. – 173

Bray, Lt. Col. William – 106

Breaux, Rep. John B. – 257, 278

Breedlove, Craig – 197

Bridges, construction and replacement of park – 35, 39, 50, 53, 65, 79, 95, 132-34, 152

Broad Pass – 5-7, 9, 16, 231, 234

Broadaway, William – 253

Brooklyn Daily Eagle – 37-38

Brooks, Alfred H. – 6-7, 13

Brooks Glacier – 111

Brown, Gary – 241, 245, 249

Browne, Belmore – 15-16, 18, 23

Buckner, Gen. Simon Bolivar – 106

Budge, Charles A. – 248-49

Budget limitation, park – 20, 58-59, 80-81

Buhmann, Gustavus S. – 38-39

Burdick, Charles F. – 97

Bureau of Biological Survey – 27

Bureau of Land Management – 136, 178-84, 229, 235, 258

Bureau of Outdoor Recreation – 228

Bureau of Public Roads – 158, 161, 169-71, 173, 202, 215

Bureau of Reclamation – 158, 174

Bureau of the Budget – 186

Burlew, E.K. – 195

Burnham, John B. – 18, 27-28

Burr, Donald – 193

Burton, Rep. Philip – 258

Buses in the park – see Tour Buses, Park or Shuttle Buses, Park

Busia, Johnny – 158
Index 313

Buskirk, Steve – 240-41, 275

Butler, Gen. William O. – 107

Byers Lake – 235-36, 238, 260-61, 266, 274

- C -

C-Camp Area – 98-100, 252

Cabin Creek – 14

Cabins, Alaska Road Commission – 49-50, 53, 76, 79, 119, 198

Cabins, prospecting and trapping – 36, 50, 54

Cache Creek – 16, 235

Cahalane, Victor – 147-48, 154, 181, 183

Cahill, Russell – 261

Cain, Stanley – 181

California State Parks Commission – 203

Cammerer, Arno – 40, 47, 58, 70, 73, 137, 191

Camp Denali (Mile 66) – 72-73, 89 Also see Camp Eielson

Camp Denali (N of Wonder Lake) – 135-37, 146, 158, 177-81, 220, 247

Camp Eielson – 90-94, 106, 108-09, 124, 132, 136, 151-52, 161, 208 Also see Camp Denali (Mile 66)

Camp Fire Club of America – 18

Campground development – 95, 131-32, 159-60, 199-200, 219-21, 249-50

Campground reservation system – 222

Canadian military – 106

Canton, Ohio – 267

Cantwell – 41, 110, 128-31, 144, 166, 196, 206, 221, 234-35, 252, 256, 258

Cantwell Creek – 56, 68

Canyon Creek (near Tokositna Glacier) – 238

Canyon Creek Bridge (E of Cantwell) – 131

“Canyon Road House Cabins” – 70

Capps, Stephen – 20, 68

Caribou, barren ground – 2, 13, 17, 57, 59, 147, 178-79, 231, 234

Caribou Camp – 53

Carlisle, H.K. – 70

Carlo (railroad station) – 130, 176

Carlo Creek – 3

Carlo Creek Lodge – 206, 215-16, 273

“Carlo Pass” – 130

Carlson, Hjalmar “Slim” – 55

Carter, Jimmy – 249, 253-56, 258, 269-70

Cathedral Spires – 230, 254

Chandler, W.F. – 37, 39, 45

Chapman, Oscar – 138, 140, 145

Cheechakos, The (1924) – 138

Chelatna Lake – 187, 231-33, 238

Chicago (NPS office) – 105

Chickaloon coal fields – see Matanuska coal fields

Chinn, Stanley – 127

Chitsia Creek/Peak – 7

Chugach National Forest – 97

Chulitna Pass – 28, 189, 226, 233, 235-36

Chulitna River – 7, 111, 178, 205, 237, 266

Churchill Peaks – 267, 280

Circle City – 3

Civil Aeronautics Authority/Administration – 130, 140, 165

Civil Service Commission – 144

Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) – 96-102, 104, 110, 115, 142 Also see C-Camp Area

Clear, Alaska – 215

Clearwater Creek – 33, 55, 118, 134, 239

Clearwater Fork – 75

“Clearwater Lakes” – 73, 83
314 Crown Jewel of the North: An Administrative History of Denali National Park and Preserve

Coal – 13, 16, 61, 63, 143, 153, 160, 202

Coe, Darrell – 202

Cole, Jerryne – 247-48

Cole, Wallace – 165, 203-04, 247-48

Collier’s Magazine – 87

Collins, Frank – 184

Collins, George – 150, 196, 210

Colorado (ARR station) – 111

Colorado River Storage Project bill (1956) – 174

Commercial Use Licenses – 245, 248

Community hall (McKinley Park Station) – 39, 45, 47

Concessioner camps – 53 Also see Savage River Camp

Concessioners, park – 36-39, 48-51, 53, 65, 73-74, 90-95, 124-26, 163-65, 167, 202-03, 245-47

Concessions, role of government in park – 87, 91-92, 94

Cook, Dr. Frederick – 7, 13, 15

Cook Inlet – 1, 5, 7

Coolidge, Calvin – 47

Cooperative management proposals – 232-34, 279

Cooperative Park Studies Unit – 222

Cooperative Planning and Management Zone (1973-75) – 234-35, 243, 274

Copper Mountain (mining district) – 37, 45, 49, 53, 57-59, 65-66, 72, 75, 80

Copper Mountain relief cabin – 54, 65

Copper River – 3

Copper River and Northwestern R.R. – 16-17, 41

Corbley, Louis – 77, 97, 103, 110, 143

Cornell, Doug – 242

Cosna River – 6

Coyotes – 75, 143

Crabb, Gary and Linda – 216, 229, 248, 273

Cramton, Rep. Louis – 59

Crater Lake National Park – 144

Crooked Creek – 7, 34, 75, 166

Crosson, Joe – 66, 210

Cruden, Ray – 76

Culverts, installation of – 95, 133, 171

Cunningham, Robert C. (Clay) – 249

Curry (railroad stop) – 79, 89, 185

Curry, Rep. Charles – 59

Curry Ridge (hotel site) – 183, 185-86, 226-27, 235-36, 266

Cushman, Faith – 141

Cvijanovic, Alex – 264

- D -

Dall, Mount – 73

Dall, William – 3

Dalton, Joe – 7

Dams, proposed – 176, 210, 274, 279

Dancing in the park – 39, 45, 99, 108, 124

Davenport, Joan – 268-69

Davidson, Ernest A. – 73, 95

Davis, Hughes, and Thorsness – 193-94

Davos, Switzerland – 236

Dawson City – 14, 128

Dearfan, Chief – 6

Deception, Mount – 110, 112, 119

Degen, Robert H. – 60

Demaray, Arthur E. – 31, 134, 192

Dena’ina Indians – 3

Denali Citizens Council – 234, 247, 266-67
Index 315

“Denali City” proposal – 261-63

Denali Development Corporation – 238, 261

Denali Dog Tours (and Wilderness Freighters) – 245

Denali earthquake fault – 16

Denali Highway – 128-31, 147, 151, 156-58, 239

Denali mining district – see Valdez Creek mining district 

Denali National Monument, proclamation of – 255-56, 258, 269, 278

Denali National Park and Preserve, establishment of – 258

Denali Recreational Area Commission – 265-66

Denali Region National Recreational Complex – 233

Denali State Park – 189-90, 211, 230, 232-33, 235, 238-39, 261-64, 266-67, 274

Denali Wilderness Area (proposed) – 177, 242

Deneki Lakes – 234, 247

Densmore, Frank – 5, 9

Denver Service Center (NPS) – 226, 228, 242-43, 265

DeWitt, John L. – 105

DeYonge, Jack – 157-58

Diamond City – 7

Dick, Oscar – 125, 140, 144, 167-68, 171, 179-80, 183, 196-97, 200

Dickey, William A. – 5, 267

Dill, Sen. Clarence – 71

Dimond, Anthony – 70-71, 91-92, 100-01, 104, 116, 191-92, 195

Dingell, Rep. John – 257

Dinosaur National Monument – 174

Dogs at the park – 33, 45, 50, 60-62, 98-99, 103, 108-09, 117, 124, 149, 200-02, 214, 243-45

Dome city idea – 260-63, 279

Domestic Names Committee – 267-70

Donau, Al – 164, 203

Donnelly, Jack – 55

Double Mountain – 239

Douglas – 3

Drashner Airport – 166

Drury, Newton – 105, 108, 117-18, 137, 144, 195

Dry Creek – 2

Dunn, Robert – 15

Dworshak, Rep. Henry – 93

- E -

ERA/FMC (consulting firm) – 265, 280

Eagle, Alaska – 256

Early human activity – 2-3

Earthquakes – 16, 205-06

East Fork of Toklat River – 44, 176

Easy Pass – 7

Echo Park Dam – 174, 209

Economic Development Administration – 189

Economic Research Associates (ERA) – 263-65

Edmunds, Chris and Betty – 46

Egan, William A. – 179, 190-91, 238

Eielson, Carl Ben – 66

Eielson, Mount – 66-67

Eielson, Mount (tourist site) – 72-73, 102, 135

Eielson Bluffs – 71

Eielson Visitor Center – 161-63, 167, 170, 173, 198, 220, 246-47, 251

Eisenhower, Dwight – 158, 169, 177

Eldridge, George H. – 5, 9, 13

Eldridge Glacier – 258

Elmendorf Field – 111

Emergency Conservation Work Organization – 96
316 Crown Jewel of the North: An Administrative History of Denali National Park and Preserve

Empire State Building – 141

Engle, Clark – 256, 278

Entrance stations – see Information Centers

Environmental statements, draft and final – 232-35, 252-53, 255

Equipment testing in park, winter – 106-07, 110-11

Establishment proposals, park (1906-17) – 14, 17-22

Eureka (camp) – 7

Eureka Creek – 7, 32

Everett, Washington – 137

Everett Daily Herald – 213

Everglades National Park – 219

Ewe Creek Ranger Station – 82, 160

Executive orders, 1922-1924 – 32, 34, 44, 47-48, 69

- F -

Fairbanks – 6-7, 13-18, 56, 66, 72-73, 75, 89, 93, 99, 101, 110, 121, 126-28, 144, 158-59, 179, 193, 197, 

224, 256, 262

Fairbanks (NPS office) – 117

Fairbanks Chamber of Commerce – 44

Fairbanks Daily News-Miner – 157, 220

Fairbanks Environmental Center – 272-73

Fall, Albert B. – 56

Fall park-road management – 223-24

Fannin, Sen. Paul – 253

Fanning, Ken – 256, 278

Farleigh, John – 215

Farley, Jack – 165

Fechner, Robert – 96-97

Federal Aid Highway Act (1956) – 169

Fees, park – 250, 277

Ferry, Alaska – 102, 176

Films, interpretive – 149

Firburn, Mrs. Dave – 39

Fires, structural – 104, 139, 142-43, 224-25

Fires, wildland – 48

First Creek – see Rock Creek

Fishing in the park – 2, 68, 73, 108, 241

Fitzpatrick, Rep. James M. – 138

Fleharty, George – 203-04, 222, 225-29, 245-47, 272, 276

Flory, Charles – 97

Foggy Pass – 239

Foraker, Mount – 1 

Foraker River – 55

Ford, Gerald – 253

Forest Hills, Inc. – 215

Forsburg, Will – 245

Fort Gibbon – 6

Fort Richardson – 106, 108, 122

Fortymile River – 3

Fox, Franklin G. – 97-99, 115-16

Fox farming – 70-71, 73, 83, 100-01

Franklin, Harold – 165

Friesen, Rosalie J. – 146

Frison, Melinda – 241

Funding, initial – 27-28, 43

- G -

Galen, James L. – 49, 65-66, 72-73
Index 317

Game law, Alaska (1908) – 17

Game protection – 29, 36, 53-58, 69, 75, 80, 101-02

Garbage dumps in the park – 61, 127, 143-44, 153-54, 221, 252

Garry, William – 249

Gas stations in the park – 160, 164-65, 167

Gastineau Channel – 3

Gates of the Arctic park proposal – 186

Gateway businesses – 206, 228, 247, 273

General Accounting Office – 140, 144

General Land Office, U.S. – 28, 31, 37, 47, 70, 76, 95, 100, 191

“Gentleman’s agreement” (1924) – 41

Ghemm Construction Co. – 171

Giersdorf, Robert – 264

Gila Primitive Area – 173

Gillette, Major D.H. – 65, 135

Glacier Bay National Monument – 177, 242

Glacier Bay (World Heritage Site) - 260

Glacier Bay-Admiralty Island biosphere reserve – 259

Glacier City – 7, 34

Glacier Creek – 7, 65

Glacier National Park – 203, 222

Glassberg, A.M. – 192, 213

Glazunov, Andrei – 3

Glen Canyon Dam – 209

Glen Creek (airstrip) – 166

“Glitter Gulch” – see Gateway businesses

Godley, George – 55

Gold Creek – 28

Gold Pan, The (newspaper) – 99

Golden North Airfield – 166

Golden Valley Electric Association – 176, 252

Goldie, Mount – 274

Good, Rep. James – 27

Goodwin, Francis M. – 28

Gotwals, Major John C. – 33-34

Graham Co., John – 227

Grand Canyon National Park – 17, 197, 219, 248

Grant, Madison – 17, 27

Grant Creek – 54

Gravel, Sen. Mike – 235-38, 255, 260-66, 279

“Great Denali Trespass” – 256-57

Green, Rep. Robert – 91-93

Green Construction Co. – 169

Grinnell, George Bird – 27, 58

Grizzly Bear Camper Park – 229

Gruening, Clark – 266

Gruening, Ernest – 87-88, 95, 99, 106, 108, 114, 129, 133, 135, 145

Guggenheim-Morgan Syndicate – 17

Gutterson, Alston – 87-88, 114

- H -

HKS Associates – 266

Haber, Gordon – 240

Hadley’s Camp – 62

Hall, Capt. George – 107

Hall, Supt. George – 167-68, 197, 219, 235

Hamley, Frederick G. – 194

Hammond, Jay – 238-39, 261-62, 264-67

Hankins, Joe – 251, 277
318 Crown Jewel of the North: An Administrative History of Denali National Park and Preserve

Hansen, Arthur – 164

Hansen, Garner – 125-26

Harding, Warren – 31-32, 38

Hardy, Willis – 215

Harper, Walter – 16

Harrington, Charles – 269

Harris, Chalon – 247, 273

Hartzog, George – 167-68, 179-81, 184, 186-87, 197, 219-20, 226, 230, 250, 273

Hawaii National Park – 20, 43, 60

Hayden, Sen. Carl – 91

Haydon, Jack – 14

Headquarters, park (1921-1925) – 29-31, 33, 38, 41, 44, 47

Headquarters, park (1925-present) – 47-48, 61-63, 77-78, 81, 98-99, 104-05, 109, 141-42, 153, 160, 

198, 242-43, 252

Healy – 28-29, 37, 55, 206, 224, 229, 235, 252

Healy Hotel – 127

Healy River – 30, 160

Heart Mountain – 235

Hebert, Jack and Beth – 241

Heid, C.C. – 102

Henson, Albert – 231

Herkenham, Norm – 184

Herning, Harold – 77

Herron, Lt. Joseph – 6, 9, 13

Hertz rental cars – 166

Hickel, Walter – 168, 184, 186, 188, 190, 204, 230

Hines Creek – 30, 33, 44

Hinman, Elroy F. – 125, 140

Historic preservation proposals – 138, 161, 252

Hodge, Walter H. – 193-94

Hohman, Sen. George – 265-66

Holmes, Loren G. – 197

Holmes, Luro M. – 195

Honolulu Creek – 235

Hood, Col. John – 106, 118

Hoover, Herbert – 59, 66, 69

Hope – 3

Hopkins, Harry – 87

Horn, Jack – 7

Hornet Creek – 206

Horses, NPS use of – 35, 47, 60, 63-65, 72, 81, 107

Horseshoe Lake – 102, 105, 108, 205-06, 247

Hosler, Maud – 117, 140

Hotels, proposed – 37, 47, 52, 65-66, 69, 71-73, 79, 87, 134-35, 159-62, 179-80 Also see Wonder Lake 

 Hotel and Southside Development Proposals listings

Houston, Aubrey – 77

Howard, Lena – 52

Huckaby, Rep. Jerry – 257

Hughes, Philip S. – 186

Hulick, Ray – 268

Hummel, Don – 125, 150, 164, 203-04, 222-23

Hummel, Edward – 200

Humphrey, Sen. Hubert – 174, 210

Hunter, Celia – 135-37, 152, 208, 247-48

Hunter and Burkett Mine – 166

Hunting, regulation of – 18, 20-21, 41, 57-59, 69

Hunting outside the park – 41, 73, 157, 201-02

Hurricane – 234

Hurricane Gulch – 29, 205-06, 235
Index 319

- I -

Ickes, Harold – 71, 73, 87-88, 90-91, 108, 122, 133, 166, 174, 195

Ickes, Jane – 88

Iditarod River – 16

Iditarod Sled Dog Race – 243

Igloo cabin – 76, 79

Igloo Campground – 132, 199-200, 221, 246, 250-51

Iliamna Lake – 106

Indian River Park (Sitka) – 13

Information centers – 198, 221, 242, 251-52

Inholder issues – 47, 69-71, 100-01, 137-41, 191-97

Interim Development Concept Plan (1976) – 243, 252

Interior Design and Structures (contractor) – 227

International Council on Monuments and Sites (ICOMOS) – 259

International Highway Association – 128

Interpretive literature – 98, 116

Irvin and Co. – 227-28

- J -

Jack River – 176

Jackson, Henry M. “Scoop” (Rep. and Sen.) – 192-93, 253-55, 257

Jacobs, Duane D. – 126, 157, 159, 175, 177, 197

Janes, Gerald and Lacie – 104

Jeffrey Glacier – 7

Jenny Creek – 33

Jensen, Johannes (Joe) – 172

Jere-A-Tad Lodge – 206, 215-16, 273

Jertberg, Gilbert H. – 194

Jessen’s Weekly – 109

Johem, Mr. and Mrs. P.B. – 157

Johnson, Col. John P. – 121-22, 140, 192

Johnson, Linda – 245

Johnson, Lyndon – 177, 186-89, 203, 230, 267, 280

Johnson Plumbing and Heating Co., Gordon – 199

Joint Federal-State Land Use Planning Commission – 233-36, 238, 247, 254-55, 274

Jones, Rep. Robert – 91-92

Jones, Stephen E. – 247, 273, 276

Juneau – 3, 76, 184

Junge, Carl – 159

- K -

Kalkwarf, Paul – 265

Kantishna (camp) – 7, 32-35, 66, 95, 157-58

Kantishna airfields – 66, 75, 82, 95, 136, 166, 179, 208

Kantishna gold rush – 7-8, 13

Kantishna Hills – 1, 7, 18, 32, 68, 146, 148

Kantishna Mining District – 7, 18, 58, 95, 102, 253

Kantishna River – 7, 33

Kantishna State Recreation Area (proposed) – 253

Kantishna withdrawal (1965) – 178-82

Karstens, Harry – 14-16, 22, 28-42, 44-45, 47-65, 81-82, 96, 134, 144, 159, 252

Karstens family – 31, 159

Karstens Ridge – 16

Katmai National Monument – 147, 177, 184, 186-88, 242, 253

Keene, Rep. Frank – 92

Kenai Peninsula – 97

Kennedy, Dan T. – 37-39, 41, 48-49, 87, 100, 116, 141, 146, 191-95, 213
320 Crown Jewel of the North: An Administrative History of Denali National Park and Preserve

Kennedy, Robert F. – 197

Ketchikan – 159

Kichatna River – 6

Kiewit Sons Construction Co., Peter – 169

King, Samuel A. – 166-67, 197

Kings Canyon National Park – 174

Kittredge, Frank – 103

Kleppe, Thomas – 267

Klondike gold rush – 5-6, 14, 16, 19

Koelsch, Montgomery O. – 194

Kogl, Dennis – 245

Kogl, Sandra L. – 244-45

Kolchan Indians – 3

Korean War – 123-25

Koyukon Indians – 3

Krueger, Charles – 173

Kuehl, Alfred – 121, 167

Kuehn, Daniel – 240-41, 245, 248-50, 252

Kuskokwim River – 1, 5-6, 16, 178

- L -

Ladd Field – 106, 119

Lake Minchumina – 1, 3, 6, 66, 231, 234

Landis, Col. Lee – 47

Lane, Franklin – 17, 21, 24, 27

Larson Lake – 266

Lassen Volcanic National Park – 20, 43, 60, 164-65, 203-04, 222

Lathrop, Austin “Cap” – 138

Lauesen, E.W. – 124-26

La Voy, Merle – 16

Lee, Ronald – 147

Lenferink, John – 157

Lenroot, Rep. Irvine – 20, 24, 27

Leopold Report (1963) – 179, 208

LeResche, Robert – 264-65

Lewis, Orme – 140

Liek, Harry – 46, 63-65, 69-70, 72, 74, 76, 84, 88, 96-98, 101, 103-04, 114-15, 128, 137

Liek, Mary Wahl – 137-38, 152

Life Magazine – 106-07

Lignite – 33-34, 160, 205

Limestone – 144-46

Lingo, George (Lingo Airstrip) – 165-66

Liquor issues – 39, 67, 69, 103, 108, 115-17

Little Mountain – 235

Little Windy Creek – 146

Long Creek/Point – 238

Lookout Mountain – 258

Los Altos, Calif. – 144

Lottsfeldt, Carl – 77

Lower Savage Ranger Station – see Ewe Creek R.S.

Lower Tanana Indians – 3

Lynch, Pat (roadhouse) – 30, 34, 39

- M -

Mackie, Ralph – 60

Maclaren River Bridge – 131, 157

Magnuson, Rep. Warren – 90, 92

Malamutes of Mount McKinley National Park – 244
Index 321

Man and the Biosphere program – 258-59

Mann, Rep. James R. – 20

Marchman, Lt. Col. Frank – 106

Market hunting – 15, 17, 27, 56

Marks, Lt. Jack – 106

Marquam, Thomas – 41, 49

Marshall, Robert – 174

Martin, Pete – 234

Martin, Steve – 117

Master planning process, NPS – 168, 176-77, 181-86, 228-29, 232, 234

Matanuska (town) – 27, 43

Matanuska Bus Lines – 124

Matanuska coal fields – 16, 43

Matanuska-Susitna Borough – 236, 262

Mather, Stephen T. – 17-18, 23, 28-29, 31, 35, 63, 65, 174

Mattes, Merrill – 185-86

Maupin, Louis – 141

Mauser (rifle) – 55

McAdoo, William G. – 27

McClintic, Rep. James V. – 20-21

McDannel, Casey – 36-37

McDonald, M.J. – 89

McFadden, Katherine – 246

McFarland, Ernest – 45, 59-60

McGehee, Rep. Daniel – 195

McGonagall Pass – 73, 106, 111, 161, 239

McGrath – 66, 232

McGrath, J. Howard – 192

McKay, Douglas – 124-25, 158

McKinley, Mount: climbs – 7, 9, 15-16, 53, 107, 134

McKinley, Mount: name variations – 1, 3, 5, 9, 23, 254, 267-70

McKinley, William – 5, 267-68

McKinley Bar – 239

McKinley Bar cabin (Kantishna R.S.) – 54-55, 72, 76

McKinley Chalets – 247, 276

McKinley Fork – see Swift Fork

McKinley Park Hotel – 86-94, 98-99, 112, 114, 121, 126-27, 149, 163-65, 203-04, 215, 223-29, 242-43, 

 272-73

McKinley Park Recreational Rest Camp – 123-24

McKinley Park Services, Inc. – 124-26, 135, 140, 150

McKinley Park Station – 7, 30, 32, 38-41, 48, 60, 62, 67, 69, 72-73, 87, 126, 137-41, 176

McKinley Park Station airstrip – 73-74, 106, 110, 130, 140, 166, 245

McKinley River – 1, 13, 33-34, 106

McLeod Creek – 54, 61

McWilliams, Terry – 264

Mealy, John – 104

Mears, Frederick – 29, 56-57

Meeds, Rep. Lloyd – 254, 278

Meier’s Roadhouse – 129

Merchandise Mart – 105

Merdes, Sen. Ed – 220

Merriam, C. Hart – 14

Merriam, Lawrence C. – 164, 167, 170

Merry, Wayne – 196

Mesa Verde National Park – 245, 259

Mileur, A. Donald – 194

Miller, Ivan – 221, 243, 249

Miller, Keith – 189-90

Miller Brothers Construction Co. – 169

Mining, regulation of – 17-18, 21, 57-59, 68, 80, 118
322 Crown Jewel of the North: An Administrative History of Denali National Park and Preserve

Mission 66 (NPS program) – 158-63, 166-67, 169, 171, 174-75, 199, 239

Moffit, Fred – 68

Mondell, Rep. Franklin W. – 21

Montana Creek – 205

Moody – 70, 76, 206

Moody Bridge (Fourth Crossing Bridge) – 206

Moore, Terris – 107

Moose – 2, 13, 147, 234

Moose Creek – 2, 7, 65-66, 75-76, 102, 136, 146, 158, 177-78, 240, 248

Moose Creek Ranger Station – 75, 84, 101-02

Morges, Switzerland – 259

Morino, Maurice – 30, 39, 47, 57, 70, 74, 87, 110, 116, 137

Morino Campground – 132, 139, 151, 199-200, 250, 277

Morino Roadhouse fire – 139

Morino tract – 30, 67, 70, 74, 100, 137-39, 152, 195

Morris Creek – see Hines Creek

Morton, Ann – 273

Morton, Rogers C.B. – 227, 231, 233, 237, 253-54, 267, 273

Motor vehicles, park-owned – 64, 82, 99, 117, 252

“Mt. McKinley City” proposal – 237, 261

Mount McKinley Cooperative Planning and Management Zone Committee – 235

Mount McKinley Management Overview Committee – 235

Mount McKinley National Park Company – 164-65, 203-04

“Mount McKinley Route” – 41, 51, 77

Mount McKinley Tourist and Transportation Co. – 41, 45, 49-51, 74, 77, 80, 89-91, 165

Mount McKinley U.S. Army Recreation Camp – 108-12

Mount McKinley Village – 216, 229, 248, 252

Mount McKinley-Lassen National Parks Company – 204

Mount Rainier National Park – 94

Mountain House (at Ruth Glacier) – 185

Muddy River – 33

Muldrow, Robert – 5, 9, 13

Muldrow Glacier – 33-34, 54, 73, 106, 111, 161

Murie, Adolph – 171-72, 175, 177-78, 181-84, 231

Murie, Olaus – 53, 57, 170, 208

Murphy, Rep. John M. – 254, 278

Museum, park – 109, 124, 149, 198

- N -

Nancarrow, Bill – 103, 144-45, 215, 247

Nanuk (ship) – 66

National Aviation Show – 134

National Geographic Magazine – 20

National Park Concessions, Inc. – 125-27, 163

National Park Foundation – 137-38, 251, 277

National Park Trust Fund Board – 137-38

National Parks Act (1916 Organic Act) – 170

National Parks Association – 170-72, 247

National Parks Committee (1923) – 58

National Parks Magazine – 170-72

National Preserve, Denali – 254-58, 269-70

National Wilderness Preservation System – 177, 254

Native Alaskans – 2-4, 6, 56

Nelson, Edward W. – 14, 27

Nelson, Marvin – 142-43

Nenana – 29-30, 36-37, 102, 159-60, 205, 253

Nenana Canyon commercial development – see Gateway businesses

Nenana River – 5, 7, 9, 16-17, 29, 38, 57, 67, 69, 72, 129-31, 146, 160-63, 176, 196, 205-06, 215, 252

New York Sun – 5, 267
Index 323

New York Times – 72

Nieminen, Matt – 66

Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals – 194

Nixon, Richard – 188, 190, 230

Noatak biosphere reserve – 259

Nome – 6, 243

North Face Lodge – 82, 248, 276

North Star (ship) – 97-98

Northern Electric Co. – 199

Nugget Pond – 136

Nyberg, Fritz – 50, 60-61

- O -

Oakland Seals hockey team – 222

O’Brien, Rep. Leo – 126

O’Brien, Robert – 104

Ogston, Edward (Ted) – 77

O’Hara, Dave – 165

Ohlson, Col. Otto – 73, 89, 107, 112, 134

Oil – 17, 143

Olson, Sigurd F. – 178, 183-84

Olympic Prefab Inc. – 227

Operation Great Land (1965) – 179, 197

Orth, Donald – 267, 270

Ott, Charles – 126, 150, 252

Otto Lake – 229

Outdoor World, Ltd. – 204, 221-24, 227-28, 245-47

Outer Range – 1-2, 9, 181, 239

- P -

Page, Dorothy – 243

Palmer – 129

Palmer, Col. Ivan – 110

Panguingue Creek – 3 

Paris, France – 258-59

Parker, Herschel – 15-16

Parks, George – 37, 47-48, 57, 66-68

Parks Highway, planning and construction – 129, 150, 159-63, 173, 185, 188, 204-06, 216, 219, 229, 

235, 240, 248

Paxson (Paxsons Roadhouse) – 129-31, 150, 157-58, 196

Pearl Harbor – 105-06, 133

Pearson, Grant – 48, 50, 54, 60-61, 72, 77, 104, 107-11, 116-17, 119, 126-27, 134-46, 150-51, 160, 181, 

183, 195-97, 200, 210, 248

Pederson, Pete and Gretchen – 241

Pegues, Rod – 272

Pelican Island, Florida – 13

Peters Glacier – 7, 65

Petersville – 239, 261, 264

Photographers, access to park road by – 220-21

Pilgrim, Earl – 75

Pioneers of Alaska – 181, 183

Pittman, Key – 18-19, 21, 24, 27

Point Long – see Long Point

Pollock Flying Service – 110, 119

Polychrome Pass – 44, 65, 115, 160-61

Post, Wiley – 84

Post, William Schuyler – 5-6

Prasil, Richard G. – 126, 183, 197
324 Crown Jewel of the North: An Administrative History of Denali National Park and Preserve

Presidential party (1923) – 37-39

Primacord – 253

Prince George, B.C. – 128

Prince William Sound – 97

Pritchett, Donna – 241

Prohibition – see Liquor Issues

Promacs, Inc. – 199

Public Works Administration – 101, 114

Purkeypile Airstrip – 278

- Q -

Quigley, Fannie – 46, 95

Quigley, Joe – 7, 46, 95

Quigley Airstrip – see Kantishna airfields

- R -

Radio communication – 102-03, 117

Radosevich, Vincent – 265

Railroad depot, McKinley Park Station – 29, 33, 38-40, 48, 87, 107

Rainy Pass – 5-6

Rampart – 7, 10

Rampart Dam – 176

Ranger stations, adjacent to park road – 50, 53, 109

Ranger stations, eastern boundary – 65, 75, 77

Ranger stations, northern boundary – 36, 54, 64-65, 75, 77, 82, 245

Rankin, Rep. John – 115

Rapp, Harold – 141

Rawson, Timothy – 84

Reaburn, De Witt Lee – 6-7

Reaburn, W.B. – 29

Reagan, Ronald – 258, 270

Real Alaska Coalition – 256

Redding, Calif. – 203

Redington, Joe – 243

Redwood National Park – 168

Reeves, Ford – 245

Reflection Pond – 71

Regula, Rep. Ralph – 267-70

Reisland, Jack – 229, 273

Religious services at the park – 108

Resurrection Creek – 3

Rex, Alaska – 205

Reynolds, John – 231

Rich, Rep. Robert – 92

Richardson Highway – 16, 23, 93, 128-31, 157

Richardson Highway Transportation Co. – 49

Richmond, C.E. – 77

Riggs, Thomas B. – 18, 23, 27, 29

Riley Creek – 29, 33, 57, 67, 129, 146, 196, 205-06

Riley Creek campground – 200, 219-20, 251-52

Riley Creek Information Center – see Information Centers

Riley Creek railroad bridge – 30, 36, 39

Ritter, Tom – 275

Road capacity studies, park – 219, 222, 271

Road construction, park – 39-42, 49, 53, 65, 71, 95

Road design standards, park – 40, 45

Road improvements (widening and paving), park – 133, 159-62, 169-73, 219-20

Road maintenance, park – 95, 115, 133
Index 325

Road planning, park, – 32-36, 49, 219

Road to Savage River, alternate (1922) – 35

Roads, proposed west-end – 106, 134

Rock Creek (near park headquarters) – 39, 47-48, 142-43, 199

Rock Creek Bridge (W of Paxson) – 131

Rockefeller, Laurence – 166

Rocky Mountain National Park – 17, 20, 248

Rodey, Sen. Patrick – 261-66, 279

Rogers, Jim – 253

Rogers, Will – 84

Rogers Construction Co. – 173

Roosevelt (camp) – 7, 32-33

Roosevelt, Franklin D. – 71, 96-97, 101, 138

Roosevelt, Theodore – 13-15, 24

Roth, Sen. William – 257

Rozansky, Carl – 102

Ruesch, Vernon – 197, 248-49

Ruesch, Walter – 197

Rumohr, John – 77, 102-03, 105, 141, 144

Rumohr, Mrs. Luella – 144

Russell, Fred – 190-91

Russell, Mount – 76, 235

Russians – 3

Ruth Glacier – 185, 237

Rutter, John – 168, 219-20, 223, 226, 252, 272

- S -

Sable Pass – 102, 220, 242

Sackett, John – 267

St. Lawrence Island park proposal – 186-87

Salt Lake City, Utah – 269

San Francisco (NPS office) – 77, 103, 121, 135, 164, 183

Sanborn, Roy – 244

Sanctuary River – 169-70, 176, 240

Sanctuary Campground – 199-200, 221-22

Sanders, Claude – 126, 150

Savage Camp aviation field – 66-67, 73-75, 84

Savage River area: proposed road, lodge and visitor center – 159-63, 227

Savage River area: role in park bus operations – 219-21

Savage River campground – 132, 165, 198-200, 223, 246

Savage River concessions camp – 38, 41, 50-51, 53, 66, 89-90, 93, 106, 108, 132, 141, 149

Savage River valley, upper – 53, 239

Saylor, Rep. John P. – 174, 188, 191, 210, 230-31

Schafer, Rep. John – 115

School (McKinley Park Station) – 39, 45, 87, 160

Schwellenbach, Sen. Lewis – 71

Seaton, Fred – 177

Seattle – 97, 121, 192, 224, 226, 241-42, 248

Second Organic Act (1912) – 16

Seiberling, Rep. John – 254, 258

Sequoia National Park – 17, 103

Sesui, Chief – 6

Sewage facilities – 252

Seward – 16-18, 38, 43, 97

Seward Daily Gateway – 96

Shannon, Edward – 100, 116

Sheep, Dall – 2, 13-14, 17, 20, 55, 59, 147, 251

Sheldon, Charles – 14-23, 27-29, 31-32, 53, 62, 65, 81-82, 134, 267, 280

Sheldon, Don – 183, 185
326 Crown Jewel of the North: An Administrative History of Denali National Park and Preserve

Sheldon, Robert E. (Bobby) – 53, 93

Sheldon Cabin – 161, 239

Sheldon Creek – 14

Shelton, Jessie – 139

Shenandoah National Park – 245

Sheppard, Ken – 188

Ship Creek – 17

Shuttle Buses, Park – 219-23, 246-47, 250-51, 271

Sierra Club – 137, 167-68, 186, 233, 247

Silverthrone, Mt. – 111

Simpson, H. Stephen – 195-97

Simpson, Minnie – 195, 197

Simpson Pass – 6, 9

Sitka – 3, 13, 197, 248

Skagway – 53, 184

Skwentna River – 5

Sled Dogs of Denali – 245

Slippery Creek – 102

Smith, Brown and Root, Inc. – 129

Smith, Rep. Frederick – 92

Smith, Harry – 214

Smith, Noel – 48

Smith, Soapy – 53

Smith, Rep. Theodore G. – 239

Smoot, Reed – 19

Sno-Engineering, Inc. – 263

Snow tractors, NPS use of – 64, 110, 200-03

Snowmachines, for patrol – 200-01, 245

“Sourdough Expedition” (1910) – 15

Southside development proposals – 106, 168, 183, 185, 188-89, 226, 235-39, 260-66

Special use permits – see Commercial Use Licenses

Spokane, Wash. – 204

Spring road opening – 95-96, 133, 202-03, 252-53

Spurr, Josiah Edward – 5-6

Staff, permanent – 29-30, 41, 59-60, 62-63, 76-77, 81, 103-05, 141, 144, 146, 197, 248-50

Staff, seasonal – 100, 104, 141-42, 144, 197-98, 224, 242, 249

Stafford, Rep. William – 20-21

Stampede Creek/Mine – 75

Standard Oil of California – 164-65

Steese, James – 35, 38, 40

Stenmark, Richard – 178, 230

Sterling, Hawley – 33, 40

Stephens, John (parcel) – 70, 100, 116, 141, 191, 195-97

Stephens, Nettie – 195

Stevens, Sen. Ted – 220, 222, 226-27, 250, 254-55, 257

Stoddard, Carl – 228-29

Stoddard, Charles H. – 168, 179, 273

Stony Creek – 58

Stony Creek Ranger Station – 54, 56

Stony Hill – 171, 173

Stony River – 3

Stowe, Vermont – 236

Stratton, A. Clark – 170-71, 209

Strikes, maritime – 73, 121

Stubbs, Duke E. – 69-71, 83, 87, 100-01, 141, 146, 191-92

Stubbs, Elizabeth S. – 71, 191-93

Stuck, Hudson – 16, 23, 267, 280

Stuttgart, Germany – 264

Subsistence – 18

Summit Airfield – 130, 140, 165, 206
Index 327

Sunday Creek cabin – 82

Sundry Civil Bill (1921) – 28

Sunflower Basin – 231

Sung, Vicky – 263

Sunrise – 3

Sunset Magazine – 158

Sunshine – 205

Superintendents’ conferences, NPS – 81

Sushana River – 258

Susitna Dam – 176, 261

Susitna River – 1, 5-7, 16, 129, 131, 157, 205, 267

Sutherland, Dan – 31, 37, 56, 58-59

Swanson, Leslie “Red” – 219, 253

Swem, Theodor – 183-84, 186, 231

Swift Fork of Kuskokwim River – 178

Swisher, Lee – 50

Switzerland resort industry – 264

- T -

Taber, Rep. John – 114-15

Taft, William Howard – 15-17

Talkeetna – 5, 106, 185, 215, 262, 266

Tanana River – 1, 3, 5-7, 16, 30, 36-37, 43, 45, 62

Tanana Valley Railroad – 36-37, 39, 43-44

Tatum, Robert – 16

Teklanika (archeological site) – 2, 3, 9

Teklanika campground area – 108, 116, 132, 160, 199-200, 222, 246

Teklanika Flat – 170

Teklanika River (bridge) – 17, 34, 166, 171-73, 175, 219

Telephone communication – 65, 99, 102, 106, 109, 116, 241

Telida – 6

Teller – 66

Tenada Campground – 229, 247

Thomas, Paul – 168

Thompson, Mary – 30

Thoreau, Henry David – 173

Thorofare Pass – 115

Thorofare River – 65

Timlin, Robert – 224-25

Toklat campground – 160, 199-200, 221-22, 250, 271

Toklat Glacier – 161, 207

Toklat maintenance camp – 133, 222

Toklat Relief Cabin – 50, 53-54, 79

Toklat River – 7, 14, 17, 28, 57-58, 76, 239-40, 245, 258

Toklat Village – 206, 215-16, 273

Toklat Wilderness Area (proposed) – 177, 242

Tokosha group – 266

Tokositna Committee – 264-65

Tokositna Glacier (development site) – 189, 235-38, 260-66, 279

Tokositna River – 237, 279

Tokotna – 66

Tolson, Hillory – 138, 196

Tongass National Forest – 13, 97

Tour Buses, Park – 90-93, 105-06, 108, 115, 124, 126-27, 132, 149, 160-61, 164-65, 170, 173, 218, 223, 

246- 47, 251

Tractors – see Snow Tractors

Tracy, Diane M. – 222

Trail to Kantishna (1922) – 34-36, 39, 49-50

Trailers, as NPS residences – 142
328 Crown Jewel of the North: An Administrative History of Denali National Park and Preserve

Trails, park – 105, 159, 161-62, 176, 219, 239-40, 275

Transmission lines in the park, electrical – 226, 252

Trapper Creek – 205, 235, 266

Trapping – 29, 36, 54-56, 59, 69, 75, 102, 202

Travers, Charles M. – 247, 273, 276

Triple Lakes – 105

Truesdell, William – 249

Truman, Harry – 123

Tsongas, Sen. Paul – 257

Turnagain Arm – 3, 16

Tyler, Marcus V. – 31

- U -

Udall, Rep. Morris – 254, 256-58, 268-69

Udall, Stewart – 178, 186-88

United Nations – 258-60

United Nations Educational, Social, and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) – 258-60

U.S. Air Force – 123-24, 215

U.S. Army – 5-6, 9, 13, 103, 105-12, 117, 119, 121-23, 149, 200

U.S. Army Air Corps – 106, 110-11

U.S. Army Alaskan Testing Expedition (1942) – 106-07

U.S. Attorney – 101, 126, 193

U.S. Biological Survey – 53

U.S. Board on Geographic Names – 267-70

U.S. Coast and Geodetic Survey – 166

U.S. Commerce Department – 169, 189

U.S. Commissioner – 56, 102

U.S. Congress – 16-22, 27-28, 31, 37-39, 49, 53, 58-59, 66, 68-69, 72-73, 91-95, 101, 104, 112, 124, 126-

28, 134-35, 138, 140, 144, 164, 166, 174, 176-77, 188, 190-91, 195, 230-31, 253-58

U.S. Court of Claims – 71, 101, 191-92, 195-96

U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development – 203

U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service – 175, 177, 269

U.S. Forest Service – 13, 96-97, 173, 177, 269, 278

U.S. Geological Survey – 5-6, 9, 13, 20, 67-68, 176

U.S. House of Representatives – 18-21, 31, 59, 71, 125-26, 174, 254-58

U.S. Interior Department – 18-19, 27, 32, 37-38, 43, 47, 57, 63, 67-68, 70-71, 79, 83, 87, 93, 101, 104, 

114, 124, 127-28, 134-35, 140, 145, 150, 159, 168, 187, 189-91, 194-95, 204, 222, 

232, 254, 260, 269

U.S. Justice Department – 126, 192, 194

U.S. Maritime Commission – 121

U.S. Natural Resources, Inc. – 203-04, 222-23

U.S. Navy – 107

U.S. News and World Report – 219

U.S.O. – 108

U.S.S. Missouri – 121

U.S. Senate – 18-21, 31, 59, 66, 71, 220, 254-58, 262

U.S. Supreme Court – 71

U.S. Treasury – 93

U.S. War Department – 32, 43, 96, 105

University of Alaska – 137, 222

Upper Kuskokwim Indians – 3

Utilities at headquarters – 61, 63, 99, 109, 142-44, 153, 198-99

Utilities at the hotel – 114, 126-27, 150, 252

- V -

Valdez Creek mining district – 128-29

Valdez-Fairbanks Wagon Road – see Richardson Highway

Van Kirk, I.E. – 37

 
Index 329

Van Schoonhoven, Pvt. George – 6

Varnell, Logan – 100, 116

Vaughan, Robert – 165

Victoria Station (restaurant chain) – 227

Vietnam War – 168, 190

Vint, Thomas C. – 62, 65-68, 71-72, 87-88, 140, 145

Visitation – 14, 17-18, 37, 41, 45, 50-51, 61-62, 73, 81, 83, 105, 112, 118-19, 121-25, 158, 222, 242, 271, 

275

Vogt, Deborah – 272-73

Volunteers in parks (VIPs) – 249

- W -

Walker, Ron – 228

Walker Road – 2

Walper, James – 215

Walthers, Lt. Col. – 110

Warrack Construction Co., J.B. – 162, 198

Warren, Henry – 249

Washburn, Barbara – 134, 264

Washburn, Bradford – 106-07, 110-11, 118-19, 134-35, 189, 210, 212, 235, 237-39, 261, 264

Wasilla – 204, 243

Watana Dam – 261

Wayburn, Edgar – 167-68, 186

Wayside exhibits – 159-60, 171-72

West, Chuck – 127

West Fork Glacier – 111

Western Defense Command – 105

Western Equipment and Supply Co. – 199

Western Union Telegraph Expedition – 3

White, Col. John – 103

White, Mastin – 192-93

White Pass and Yukon Route – 41

Whitman, Horace S. – 71

Wickersham, James – 7, 9, 13-15, 17-18, 20-21, 23, 57, 68, 83

Wickersham Dome – 183

Wickersham Wall – 7

Wien, Noel – 66

Weiss, Mary E. – 193

Wilbur, Ray – 68

Wilderness – 83, 147, 162, 170-71, 173-77, 208, 210, 242, 254-58

Wilderness Act (1964) – 174, 176-77, 210, 242

Wilderness Society – 167, 173-74, 177-78, 247

Willis, Sen. Frank B. – 58-59

Willow – 204

Wilson, Woodrow – 17, 21, 27

Wind Cave National Park – 83, 103, 152

Windy City post office – see Windy railroad station

Windy Creek – 56-57, 75, 129, 144-45, 183, 196

Windy Pass – see Gateway businesses

Windy railroad station – 70, 100, 130, 176, 195

Winter sports – 88, 108, 114, 120, 122-24

Wirth, Conrad – 97, 125, 135, 145-47, 158, 167, 171, 179, 193

Wolcott, Rep. Jesse – 91

“Wolf townships” – 235, 258

Wolf-sheep controversy – 146

Wolff, Rep. Lester – 253

Wolves – 2, 75, 143, 178-79, 240

Women’s Club, McKinley Park Station – 117

Wonder Lake – 13-14, 18, 28, 34, 71, 92, 110-11, 147, 247
330 Crown Jewel of the North: An Administrative History of Denali National Park and Preserve

Wonder Lake campground – 109, 132, 151, 160, 199-200, 250

Wonder Lake Hotel, proposed – 67-68, 71-73, 95, 112, 128, 133-36, 159-61, 166-69, 179, 185, 208, 226-

28

Wonder Lake Ranger Station – 101-02

Wood, Ginny Hill – 135-37, 208, 247-48

Wood, Morton “Woody” – 136-37, 215

Wood River – 73

Wood-Tikchik Lakes park proposal – 184, 186

Work, Hubert – 58-59

Works Progress Administration – 87

World Heritage Site program – 259-60

World War I – 17, 20-21, 27, 43

World War II – 105-12, 117, 129

Wrangell Island, Siberia – 66

Wrangell-St. Elias National Park and Preserve – 249, 260

Wreck Room Ramble – 198

Wright Field, Ohio – 110-11

- Y -

Yanert, Sgt. William – 5, 9

Yanert Crossing – 130-31

Yanert Fork – 7

Yanert Lakes – see Triple Lakes

Yellowstone National Park – 60, 63, 197, 259

Yentna River – 5-6

Yosemite National Park – 17, 60, 106, 203-04, 219, 222, 248

Yosemite Park and Curry Company – 203

Young, Rep. Don – 254

Youth Conservation Corps – 249

Youth hostel – 228, 273

Yukon River – 14

Yukon Services, Inc. – 200

- Z -
Index 331