38 Fun Facts About Katmai National Park

Katmai's headquarters town lies about 290 miles southwest of which Alaskan city?

The park's headquarters town sits about 290 air miles southwest of Anchorage and has no road link to Alaska's main highway system.

Russian fur traders in the Katmai area mainly sought the pelts of which animal?

Sea otters were the backbone of Russia's Alaska fur trade, and as they grew scarce around Katmai, the trade there dried up.

What colour do the bodies of Katmai's sockeye salmon turn as they return upriver to spawn?

Sockeye bodies turn bright red and their heads green as they near their spawning grounds, which is why Alaskans call them red salmon.

About how tall is the famous waterfall where Katmai's bears catch leaping salmon?

The falls drop only about 6 feet, just enough to make sockeye leap on their way to spawning grounds upstream while bears wait on the lip.

Fat Bear Week voters watch Katmai's bears on live webcams run in partnership with which organisation?

Explore.org runs the cams with the park, and in July as many as 25 bears have been seen fishing the falls at once.

Fat Bear Week began in 2014 as a one-day Facebook vote under what name?

Former ranger Mike Fitz launched Fat Bear Tuesday in 2014 with before-and-after bear photos; in 2015 it moved online and grew into a week.

Which patient, conflict-avoiding bear, number 480, won Katmai's fat-bruin vote four times by 2025?

Otis, bear 480, won in 2014, 2016, 2017 and 2021 by waiting patiently for fish to come to him rather than chasing them; he was first identified in 2001.

Which vent produced the 20th century's largest eruption, in 1912, in what is now Katmai?

Novarupta erupted for about 60 hours in June 1912 from a vent about six miles west of Mount Katmai.

The 1912 eruption released how many times the magma of Mount St. Helens in 1980?

The 60-hour eruption expelled about 13 cubic kilometres of magma, 30 times as much as Mount St. Helens did in 1980.

What happened to Mount Katmai during the 1912 eruption?

Its summit collapsed into a caldera as magma withdrew from beneath it; a crater lake and small glaciers have since formed inside.

The ash-filled valley left by the 1912 eruption became known as the Valley of what?

The Valley of Ten Thousand Smokes got its name in 1916 from the steam rising off its cooling ash; most of it had died away by the 1930s, and streams have since cut deep gorges.

Which botanist led the National Geographic expeditions that named the steaming ash valley?

Robert Griggs campaigned to protect the valley, and in 1956 the volcano Knife Peak was renamed Mount Griggs in his honour.

Which president signed the proclamation creating Katmai National Monument in September 1918?

Woodrow Wilson proclaimed Katmai National Monument on 24 September 1918, protecting about 1,080,000 acres of country devastated by the 1912 eruption.

Which president's 1931 proclamation more than doubled Katmai National Monument, making it the largest Park Service unit?

Herbert Hoover's April 1931 proclamation took the monument to 2,697,590 acres, citing the protection of brown bears, moose and other wild animals.

Under which 1980 law did Katmai gain its present park-and-preserve status?

The Alaska National Interest Lands Conservation Act of 2 December 1980 made Katmai a national park and preserve, after Jimmy Carter had added 1.37 million acres by proclamation in 1978.

Most of Katmai National Park is also designated as what under federal law?

Wilderness covers about 3.4 million of Katmai's acres, set aside by the 1980 act that made it a national park and preserve.

Katmai's chain of volcanoes forms part of which mountain range?

The Aleutian Range crosses the park's coastal southeast as a chain of about fifteen volcanic mountains, part of the larger Aleutian Arc.

Katmai's volcanoes form where which tectonic plate dives beneath the North American Plate?

The Pacific Plate sinks beneath the North American Plate at about 2.5 inches a year, the subduction behind Katmai's volcanoes.

Which town on the Naknek River is home to Katmai's headquarters?

King Salmon got an Army air base during World War II, and the Park Service later chose it for Katmai's headquarters for quick access to its airport.

How do most visitors arrive at Katmai's main bear-viewing camp?

By floatplane: most visitors land at a seaplane base beside the camp, since Katmai is reached almost only by plane or boat.

Which body of water separates the park from Kodiak Island?

Shelikof Strait separates Kodiak and Afognak islands from the mainland, and Katmai's deeply indented coast lines its western shore.

Which state bear sanctuary, closed to hunting, adjoins the park at Kamishak Bay?

McNeil River State Game Sanctuary, created in 1967 and enlarged in 1993, adjoins Katmai's northern boundary and can draw 60 or more bears to its falls at once.

Which bear enthusiast and his girlfriend were killed by a bear in Katmai in 2003?

Timothy Treadwell, who had spent 13 summers among Katmai's bears, had stayed past his usual season with Amie Huguenard when a bear killed them in October 2003.

Which director made Grizzly Man, the 2005 documentary about a bear enthusiast's life and death in Katmai?

Werner Herzog built the film from more than 100 hours of the enthusiast's own video and chose not to play the recorded audio of the fatal attack.

Which 1989 disaster sent oil onto Katmai's coast, reaching Cape Douglas on April 26?

The Exxon Valdez struck Bligh Reef in Prince William Sound on March 24, 1989, spilling nearly 11 million gallons of crude that drifted as far as Katmai.

Katmai National Park and Preserve lies on which peninsula?

The Alaska Peninsula, across from Kodiak Island, also holds Aniakchak National Monument and several national wildlife refuges.

Which Jesuit 'Glacier Priest' visited Katmai's ash-filled valley?

Bernard Hubbard, a Santa Clara geology professor, led a 1930 expedition into Aniakchak's crater and returned in 1931 just after it erupted.

Which famous photograph of a Katmai bear snapping at a leaping salmon was taken by Thomas Mangelsen?

Thomas Mangelsen's 'Catch of the Day', shot in 1988, froze a sockeye an instant from a bear's open jaws and became one of the best-known wildlife photographs.

Why did Katmai National Park delay revealing its 2024 Fat Bear Week bracket?

A fatal fight caught on webcam: bear 469 killed bear 402, so the organisers first discussed it with viewers on a livestream.

Which activity is permitted in Katmai's 418,548-acre preserve but banned in the national park?

Sport and subsistence hunting are allowed in the 418,548-acre preserve but not in the park; moose and brown bears are the species hunted most often.

Which Katmai bear won Fat Bear Week in both 2023 and 2024?

Grazer fought the far bigger male Chunk to save one of her young in summer 2024, then beat him in that autumn's vote.

The 1912 eruption ended with what plugging the vent?

A rhyolite lava dome about 295 feet high and 1,180 feet wide plugged the vent, and today the dome itself carries the vent's name.

Which traders replaced the Russians in the Katmai area in the late 19th century?

The Alaska Commercial Company grew out of the firm that bought the Russian-American Company's assets after the 1867 Alaska Purchase.

Katmai National Monument's original 1918 area was about half that of which famous national park?

Yellowstone National Park spans about 2.2 million acres, roughly twice the 1,080,000 acres first protected at Katmai, and is widely called the world's first national park.

In early summer, which plants do coastal Katmai bears graze before the salmon arrive?

Coastal bears graze sedges in spring before the salmon runs, part of why places like Hallo Bay and Geographic Harbor hold very high bear densities.

Katmai's area falls between those of which two US states?

Katmai's 4,093,077 acres fall between the land areas of Connecticut and New Jersey, and its headquarters sits outside the park in a nearby town.

Katmai's 1912 eruption is an example of which eruption style?

Plinian eruptions are named after Pliny the Younger, whose letters described the Vesuvius eruption that killed his uncle, Pliny the Elder.

Russian fur traders met the Aglegmuit people on the shores of which body of water?

Russian traders met the Yup'ik Aglegmuit on Bristol Bay, where the Naknek River enters the sea.