The Gates of the Arctic

Frigid Crags and Boreal Mountain form the Gates of the Arctic, the iconic passage to the Gates of the Arctic National Park, as described by Robert Marshall.

The early inspiration for the creation of a vast northern national park can be traced back to a US Forest Service forester named Bob Marshall who arrived in Alaska in 1929 looking for what he called “blank spaces on maps.” When Marshall arrived along the North Fork of the Koyukuk River, he found what he was looking for—what he called the “wild sublimity” of a largely untouched mountain realm. His wilderness philosophy defined such wild places as essential not only for ecological health, but for human happiness. During the 1930s, Marshall returned to Alaska three more times to live in Wiseman and explore the rugged terrain of the Koyukuk watershed and beyond to the continental divide. He used northern forest research as a pretext for mountain climbing, mapping uncharted waterways, and mingling with the Alaska Native people and gold mining sourdoughs of the Koyukuk. In his 1933 book about daily life in the town of Wiseman (titled Arctic Village), Marshall advertised to the world that he had discovered a kind of Arctic utopia. Marshall was no less enthusiastic when describing the mountains, rivers, and valleys of the Brooks Range, particularly the stretch along the North Fork of the Koyukuk, where he named two adjacent peaks the Gates of the Arctic. Marshall’s writings, including Alaska Wilderness (1956) published after his death, inspired later wilderness enthusiasts to push for preservation of a vast section of the Brooks Range as Gates of the Arctic National Park and Preserve.