50 Fun Facts About Wrangell-St. Elias National Park

Wrangell-St. Elias National Park is in which U.S. state?

It sits in the south-central part of the state, reachable by highway from Anchorage.

What superlative does the park hold among all U.S. national parks?

At more than 13 million acres it is bigger than nine U.S. states and about the size of Croatia.

Roughly how many acres do the park and preserve cover together?

The park portion alone is larger than the 47 smallest national parks combined.

What is the park's high point, the second-tallest mountain in both the U.S. and Canada?

At 18,008 feet it straddles the border with a Canadian national park.

How tall is the park's highest peak?

Only Denali stands taller on the continent, and the peak rises that high within about 10 miles of tidewater.

Which Italian nobleman led the first ascent of Mount St. Elias on July 31, 1897?

Photographer Vittorio Sella went along; the first winter ascent did not come until February 1996.

Which Danish-born Russian explorer's expedition made the first European sighting of Mount St. Elias?

Whether Bering named it or later mapmakers borrowed the cape's name is still argued.

Which is the only volcano in the park's western range still considered active?

Its ice-filled summit caldera vents steam, and small eruptions were reported in 1784, 1884-85 and 1900.

What 16,390-foot peak is the highest in the Wrangell Mountains?

It is also the oldest volcano in the range, active between 4.2 and 3.4 million years ago.

Most of the peaks in the western Wrangells are of which unusually large, gently sloped volcanic type?

Unusually for subduction volcanoes they erupted quietly, and glaciers have since carved most of them into sharper shapes.

Which glacier in the park is the largest piedmont glacier in North America?

It spills out onto the coastal plain by Yakutat Bay and is now stagnant or retreating.

Which 75-mile glacier is Alaska's longest tidewater glacier and a cruise favourite in Yakutat Bay?

Unlike most of the park's ice it has been advancing since 1894 and has twice dammed Russell Fjord.

Which glacier in the park is the world's longest valley glacier, at more than 53 miles?

It flows off the highest peak in the Wrangells toward the gravel road that shares its name.

Roughly what share of the state's glacier ice lies within the park's mountain ranges?

The Bagley Icefield, North America's largest subpolar icefield, covers much of the interior.

Which abandoned copper boomtown at the centre of the park is a National Historic Landmark district?

Its name is a misspelling of the neighbouring Kennicott Glacier that stuck; the mill buildings were landmarked in 1986.

Roughly what grade of copper did the ore at the park's famous mine assay at when first found, among the richest ever?

Prospectors Jack Smith and Clarence Warner reportedly spotted a green stain on the hillside that turned out to be the lode.

Which two financiers backed engineer Stephen Birch's mine as a syndicate?

They put in more than $30 million for a railway, a steamship line and the mines.

How long was the railway built to haul the mine's ore to the coast at Cordova?

It took five years and $23.5 million, and two towns grew up along the line.

In what year did the great copper operation finally shut down?

It had produced 600,000 tons of copper and a $100 million net profit for the investors.

Uniquely, the copper miners recovered some ore by digging it out of what?

The glacier had scraped ore off the surface deposit and locked it in the ice.

Which president proclaimed Wrangell-St. Elias a national monument in December 1978?

He proclaimed 17 monuments in the state at once after a home-state senator threatened to filibuster the lands bill.

Which 1980 law formally established the park and preserve?

Rep. Morris Udall's first version in 1977 had proposed a 14-million-acre park.

What is the chief activity allowed on preserve land but banned on park land?

Subsistence hunting by local rural residents is allowed in both.

Which Canadian park adjoins Wrangell-St. Elias on its eastern border?

Together with Glacier Bay and Tatshenshini-Alsek they form a single UNESCO listing.

Roughly how many visitors did the park receive in 2018?

For the largest park in the country, that is a tiny number; Great Smoky Mountains gets more in two days.

Which two rough gravel roads are the only significant routes into the park's interior?

Some rental-car agencies still ban their vehicles from the 60-mile McCarthy Road.

How do visitors reach the old mill town from the end of the McCarthy Road?

McCarthy itself had 107 residents in the 2020 census, up from 28 in 2010.

Which town at the McCarthy Road and Edgerton Highway junction is the park's gateway on the Copper River?

The park headquarters and main visitor centre are at Copper Center, mile 106.8 of the Edgerton Highway.

Which is the only Park Service-managed campground in the entire park?

Backcountry camping needs no permit, and there are fourteen public-use cabins, most reachable only by air.

Roughly what share of the park and preserve is designated wilderness, the largest single wilderness in the US?

That is just over 9 million acres.

Which people settled along the Copper River as the main Native residents of the park interior?

The Eyak lived at the river's mouth and the Tlingit along the coast at Yakutat Bay.

Which Army lieutenant explored the Copper River in 1885 and reached the Bering Sea?

His expedition also noted the native peoples' use of copper, which later sent the USGS looking for the source.

Which USGS geologist reported copper ore in the Kennicott Glacier shortly before prospectors found the lode?

Jack Smith and Clarence Warner then spotted the green hillside that became the Bonanza mine.

Which St. Elias Range volcano is the highest volcano in the United States, at 16,421 feet?

Its neighbour produced the White River Ash that blanketed the region around AD 100 and 700.

Which volcano is the source of the White River Ash that fell across Alaska and northwest Canada around AD 100 and 700?

It is often treated as a subsidiary peak of its higher neighbour.

Of Alaska's 70 tallest mountains, how many are inside Denali National Park?

That includes seven of the state's top ten, and climbing them takes full expeditions.

A 1983 shooting in McCarthy that killed six of the town's 22 residents was an attempt to disrupt what?

Louis Hastings was caught fleeing by snowmobile and sentenced to 634 years.

Which small coastal oilfield, producing from 1903 to 1933, helped keep that stretch of coast out of the park?

Its refinery burned in 1933; test wells were drilled offshore as late as the early 1980s.

Which Russian trading firm set up the first permanent post near the mouth of the Copper River in 1793?

A rival Shelikov post at Yakutat Bay followed in 1796; the Tlingit and Eyak destroyed it in 1805.

Which 1979 UNESCO designation covers Wrangell-St. Elias and three neighbouring parks in the U.S. and Canada?

The John Birch Society claimed the listing was a UN plot to take over America's parks.

Which large plate slides under Alaska's southern coast at 2 to 2.5 inches a year, building the park's mountains?

Six terranes and one sedimentary belt have been rafted in and welded onto the coast here.

Which year's magnitude-9.2 earthquake was the strongest of the region's many big quakes?

Four quakes between magnitude 7 and 8 struck in 1899 alone.

Which senator's filibuster threat killed the 1978 lands bill, prompting Carter's monument proclamations?

Local hostility followed; a Park Service plane was burned in August 1979.

Which two towns grew up along the railway line to the copper mines?

McCarthy sits about 120 miles northeast of Cordova at the foot of the Wrangells.

Which two months are summer in the park's interior, with highs near 80 F and biting insects?

Winter lows can hit minus 50 F, and the first snows fall in September.

How many of the 16 highest peaks on US soil lie within Wrangell-St. Elias?

The park also holds North America's largest subpolar icefield, an active volcano and the historic Kennecott copper mines.

Which ice mass covers much of the park's interior, holding 60% of Alaska's permanent ice cover?

Broad glacial rivers such as the Chitina, Chisana and Nabesna run between the ranges below the ice.

Which two Native peoples attacked and destroyed the Russian post at Yakutat in 1805?

The Eyak had settled near the mouth of the Copper River, while the Tlingit dispersed along the coast to Yakutat Bay.

Which is the westernmost of the Wrangell volcanoes, dominating the local landscape at 12,010 feet?

Explosive activity 250,000 to 150,000 years ago may have destroyed a summit that once stood 14,000 to 16,000 feet high.

The park's headquarters and main visitor centre sit at mile 106.8, near which settlement?

Additional ranger stations operate at Slana, Chitina and Yakutat, the last shared with Glacier Bay National Park.