page_title: Harry Karstens
section_title: Career
hierarchical_section_title: Harry Karstens / Career
caption_attribution_description: Miners and prospectors climb the Chilkoot Trail during the Klondike Gold Rush.
context_page_description: Henry Peter "Harry" Karstens was the first superintendent of Mount McKinley National Park, from 1921 to 1928. He was the guide and climbing leader of the first complete ascent of Denali in 1913, with expedition members Hudson Stuck, Episcopal Archdeacon of the Yukon and Arctic; Walter Harper and Robert Tatum. John Fredson was one of two young Gwich'in Alaska Natives who supported the party.
context_section_description: Like many young men, Karstens went North for adventure to Dawson City, Canada during the Klondike Gold Rush in 1897; he was nineteen. There, he mined on Seventymile Creek and helped lay out the town of Eagle, Alaska. He also carried freight and mail with Charles McGonagall via dog teams among the frontier towns of Fairbanks, Valdez and Kantishna, being paid $75 per month. He gained his nickname as the "Seventymile Kid" after working for the post office.
  He also worked as a packer, hauling miners' supplies over the Chilkoot Pass on his back, usually in 50-pound packs. In winter, the ice leading to the summit was cut into 1500 steps, which travelers climbed in single file. Authorities required each "stampeder" (the persons intending to stay and mine) to bring in two tons of supplies to provide for himself for a year in the camps.
  Karstens ran dog teams on the frontier, as well as riverboats when the rivers were navigable.
  Drawing on his skills developed on the frontier, from 1906 to 1908, Karstens accompanied Charles Sheldon, a hunter, conservationist, and naturalist, on hunting trips into the Toklat River region. Sheldon, the chairman of the influential Boone and Crockett Club, successfully campaigned with Congress to have the area set aside as a national park. In 1917, Denali National Park was established as Mount McKinley National Park.
caption: Miners and packers climb 1500 ice steps at Chilkoot Pass, September 1898
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