Summer access to facilities and services in Denali remains altered due to the Pretty Rocks Landslide and the associated closure of the Park Road at Mile 43. Check here for more information on what to expect. More
In 2017, Denali National Park and Preserve celebrated its Centennial. During Labor Day weekend, StoryCorps came to the Park and facilitated interviews with longtime area residents and current and former employees. The recordings capture different perspectives on Denali and what the Park means to people closely connected to it.
Mike Alexia (left) and Erik Johnson (right)
NPS Photo
Mike Alexia and Erik Johnson
Mike Alexia is Athabascan and was born and raised near the western boundary of Denali National Park. Mike is one of only a few Upper Kuskokwim language speakers remaining. He tells historian Erik Johnson about life far away from the road system, and offers several phrases in his native language.
“There were no stores back then. We lived off the land mostly. Caught fish in the summer, hunt moose and sheep and caribou in the fall. We learned how to process what you catch and don’t throw anything away.”
—Mike Alexia
StoryCorps Interview with Mike Alexia
Video Player is loading.
Current Time 0:00
/
Duration -:-
Loaded: 0%
Stream Type LIVE
Remaining Time -0:00
Â
1x
Chapters
descriptions off, selected
captions settings, opens captions settings dialog
captions off, selected
This is a modal window.
Beginning of dialog window. Escape will cancel and close the window.
End of dialog window.
Mike Alexia is Athabascan and was born and raised near the western boundary of Denali National Park. Mike is one of only a few Upper Kuskokwim language speakers remaining. He tells historian Erik Johnson about life far away from the road system, and offers several phrases in his native language.
EJ: Can you tell me a little bit about what it was like growing up in Nikolai?
MA: There was no stores back then. We lived off the land mostly. Caught fish in the summer, hunt moose and sheep and caribou in the fall. We learned how to process what you catch and don’t throw anything away, you know. When we caught a moose we just eat the guts and eat the head and cut all the meat off of it.
EJ: [00:28] Do you remember how many people lived there when you were growing up?
MA: There was maybe up to ten. For a while there, there was hardly anybody in Nikolai. One or two tents and one cabin. And then after the school came in, everybody moved in from their fish camps and stuff and brought the population up to fifty or something.
EJ: Do you remember when you were growing up, knowing about the park? I know you used the land for subsistence purposes but were you aware of the national park and the tourists that came here and things like that?
MA: [00:59] No, I had no idea what it was like. We just lived out there without any borders or anything and so we used the land.
EJ: And you grew up speaking Upper Kuskokwim?
MA: Yes, I grew up listening to elders talk, you know, back in the seventies. Since then, elders passed away so can’t hear those stories anymore.
EJ: How often do you use it anymore?
MA: Hardly anymore. Just once in a while I say a few words to my boys and try to teach them. Do enta which is “how are you?” Dran de rune—“the day is good.”
EJ: [01:39] Have they shown an interest in learning the language?
MA: Yeah, I guess they tell me to repeat what I say sometimes but other than that it’s just one or two words a week.
EJ: Are there other people around Nikolai that you can speak with when you’re there?
MA: Yeah, there’s three old ladies left, that’s about it. The youngsters usually understand if I’m speaking my language but other than that they don’t speak, they just listen. I can’t carry any conversation with them in my language. I used to but I’m starting to lose it, too, I think.
EJ: [02:13] How do you say the word for Denali?
MA: Tsa chough. It’s just “big rock,” you know.
EJ: Do you worry about the language going away?
MA: Yeah, I worry quite a bit about it but there’s nothing I can do about it because I don’t really know it anymore, too, you know. It has gone away fast.
[Music outro 02:33]
[00:02:48] END
Ana Brease (left) and Ellen Devine (right)
NPS Photo
Ana Brease and Ellen Devine
Ana Brease grew up in Denali as a daughter of two park employees. In a conversation with her friend, Ellen Devine, she shares what it is like to grow up in Denali. She discusses wildlife encounters, meeting different types of professionals, and the magic of the winter season. She also reflects on eventually becoming a Denali park ranger herself.
“We didn’t have a lot of toys, there weren’t a lot of material items so we played in the woods all the time. Climbed trees—did everything we could outside.”
—Ana Brease
StoryCorps Interview with Ana Brease
Video Player is loading.
Current Time 0:00
/
Duration -:-
Loaded: 0%
Stream Type LIVE
Remaining Time -0:00
Â
1x
Chapters
descriptions off, selected
captions settings, opens captions settings dialog
captions off, selected
This is a modal window.
Beginning of dialog window. Escape will cancel and close the window.
End of dialog window.
Ana Brease grew up in Denali as a daughter of two park employees. In a conversation with her friend, Ellen Devine, she shares what it is like to grow up in Denali. She discusses wildlife encounters, meeting different types of professionals, and the magic of the winter season. She also reflects on eventually becoming a Denali park ranger herself.
AB: I was on Denali, at base camp, at two months old. And so that feels very important to me. The mountain is part of my childhood and my life overall.
[00:10] One of my earliest memories is walking with my mom and sister, and we come around a corner and there’s a bear a couple yards away. And it stood on its hind legs—I think just to smell us, it didn’t “rawr” or look like it was trying to get at us. So we slowly backed up and kept walking and eventually we were able to walk away and leave. We didn’t have a lot of toys, there weren’t a lot of material items so we played in the woods all the time. Climbed trees—did everything we could outside.
[00:40] Every night, our family took a walk or a ski and we were able to go out and be in wilderness immediately. Just to have that wildness so close made life nice because if you could be outside so often. But I also love the people that I was surrounded by, growing up, because there were always scientists or mountaineers—all these interesting people always coming through the house and I was always able to learn things from all these people around me.
ED: [01:09] Do you have a favorite wildlife experience?
AB: Mostly experiences with wolves—just eye contact. It’s so powerful. The expression behind the eyes. I’ve had so many bear encounters where it worked to just stand my ground and show the bear that I’m human and not something that it would want to eat. But I’ve also had quite a few times where I’ve been charged by bears. While absolutely terrifying, those times have been always more calm than I expected. Because, again, the eye contact with the bears is fascinating as it’s trying to figure you out and you’re trying to communicate to another species that things are fine and you don’t need to interact with each other. You can both go your separate ways and respect each other.
ED: [01:51] Do you have any favorite winter experiences here in the park?
AB: Yes, skiing out especially at night and being miles away from anybody—with my family though, and lying down in the snow and staring at stars and the aurora. Just being able to appreciate the silence. Winter time is so quiet and the light is so beautiful and there is contrast in the snow, which is always surprising. There’s so much beauty in it.
ED: [02:19] I know you dad, Phil, he was the Park Geologist, what did your mom do in the park?
AB: She started as a Park Interpreter, was an Archeology Technician, and a Museum Technician here in the park. And now, is a Science Educator.
ED: When did you actually know that you wanted to work for Denali?
AB: [02:36] Oh my goodness, embarrassingly young [laughter]. Whenever we went out for our evening walks, my parents would always share their knowledge and have my sister and I explore as much as we could. So being exposed to that type of science education from my mom and then, specifically geology, from my dad made me fascinated learning about these things outside. So, I thought being an interpreter for a park was the ultimate dream professionally so I always wanted to do that knowing that my mom was one.
And I was able to do Park Service interpretative programs in the same campgrounds, the exact same amphitheaters—same places that my mom did these programs which is really, really special. And share a lot of information that my dad had taught me. I didn’t think I wanted to be a geologist early on but I ended up getting my degree in Geomorphology so it ended up influencing me anyway. It’s nice to have that combination to share and spread with the rest of the world.
[Music outro 03:38]
[03:52] END
Vernon (right) and Kiana Carlson
NPS Photo
Vernon and Kiana Carlson
Longtime Cantwell resident Vernon Carlson speaks to his daughter about how his lifestyle was negatively affected by park expansion. After ANILCA [Alaska National Interest Land Conservation Act] was passed in 1980, many local Alaskans felt they lost a way of life, this includes Vernon.
“Anybody that had any sort of angst about the park expansion would have been there and my family had the angst because we’re like, ‘we’re not going to be able to hunt back here anymore.’”
—Vern Carlson
StoryCorps Interview with Vern Carlson
Video Player is loading.
Current Time 0:00
/
Duration -:-
Loaded: 0%
Stream Type LIVE
Remaining Time -0:00
Â
1x
Chapters
descriptions off, selected
captions settings, opens captions settings dialog
captions off, selected
This is a modal window.
Beginning of dialog window. Escape will cancel and close the window.
End of dialog window.
Longtime Cantwell resident Vernon Carlson speaks to his daughter about how his lifestyle was negatively affected by park expansion. After ANILCA [Alaska National Interest Land Conservation Act] was passed in 1980, many local Alaskans felt they lost a way of life, this includes Vernon.
VC: I looked across the valley and I’m like, “That’s an interesting stick.” And what it was, was his antlers were so big I just saw one side and I thought it was a tree. Then I looked over like, “Ah, symmetrical.” And I look and it was like, “oh my God, that’s a sixty-five inch moose bull—
KC: [00:15] It was a sixty-five?
VC: Yeah. So I went and shot him. I was overwhelmed with the sheer mass of meat that was there [laughter]. So I went back and got Uncle Gordon and his four-wheeler and it took us all day, you know, two trips each to get that moose back to Cantwell.
KC: Oh my goodness! With the Great Denali Trespass, how did you hear about that?
VC: [00:36] I would have been sixteen.
KC: Uh-huh.
VC: I remember just being told that we’re going to the Great Denali Trepass—
KC: Like Grandpa told you?
VC: He didn’t tell us that we were going, what he told us is we could go, which means “you’re going.”
KC: Yeah [laughter].
VC: Anybody that had any sort of angst about the park expansion would have been there and my family had the angst because we’re like, “we’re not going to be able to hunt back here anymore.”
KC: Yeah.
VC: Because we’ve been hunting back there my entire life.
KC: [01:01] So there was about 3,000 people?
VC: Yep—
KC: I’ve only seen pictures of it, but how far was like the car line out?
VC: They had cars parked all up and down the air strip and campsites. Then they had cars all the way up and down the road—we went on snow machines. They wanted to show the federal government we can use this land without harming the land. So the goal was to get a whole bunch of people to go camping, hunting of whatever season at the time—bear hunting would have been the only open season—
KC: [01:27] Yeah.
VC: And then build fires and, you know, cut fire wood down and everything else without harming the land because that was what we were going to lose was our hunting and camping—I can still hunt there, you know, because it’s legal, but what I can’t do is retrieve the game like I did in the past and that’s why I stopped going there.
KC: It seems like you’ve been snow machining back there since you were a kid.
VC: Yeah, well, back in about 1998—
KC: Uh-huh.
VC: Probably about the time you were born they issued the new rule that we couldn’t use motorized vehicles to recover our game—
KC: Yeah.
VC: [01:58] And then I just kind of spent my political aspects of life there trying to convince them that I’m going to use the motorized vehicle to recover game for years. And when they stopped that I just kind of reached the point of I don’t want to be here anymore. And I just kind of quit going there.
KC: Yeah.
VC: I really wanted to show you what my life was growing up inside Denali National Park and I kind of opted not to because they basically said, “You can’t use your snow machines.” And I’m like, “This is how I did this.”
KC: [02:27] I’m really glad that we decided to take the time out today to come do this because it was a lot of fun.
VC: Well, you’re welcome. I like put my political angst against the federal government kind of at rest because I really appreciate your career path that you’re taking with this, you know, because it’s actually bringing back a lot of fine memories.
[Music outro 02:42]
[03:02] END
Land (right) and Oliver Cole
NPS Photo
Land and Oliver Cole
Long-time resident and Denali employee Land Cole speaks to his son Oliver about growing up in the area. They discuss a wildlife encounter, Land’s work as a Special Projects Lead, and the change Land has seen in his lifetime.
“[The park entrance sign is] something that hundreds of thousands of people take their picture in front of, so when I pull in the park entrance to work or I’m leaving and there’s people out there taking pictures of the sign—that’s kind of neat. Makes me feel pretty good.”
— Land Cole
StoryCorps Interview with Land Cole
Video Player is loading.
Current Time 0:00
/
Duration -:-
Loaded: 0%
Stream Type LIVE
Remaining Time -0:00
Â
1x
Chapters
descriptions off, selected
captions settings, opens captions settings dialog
captions off, selected
This is a modal window.
Beginning of dialog window. Escape will cancel and close the window.
End of dialog window.
Long-time resident and Denali employee Land Cole speaks to his son Oliver about growing up in the area. They discuss a wildlife encounter, Land’s work as a Special Projects Lead, and the change Land has seen in his lifetime.
LC: Growing up at Denali, we talk about the rest of America, and not having to deal with, you know, the traffic and lots of people. It’s kind of a pretty precious experience—kind of unique.
OC: [00:15] What was being out there in the middle of winter like?
LC: Well, super quiet. I mean it is quiet here during the winter at the park entrance, but out at Camp Denali you have the whole park to yourself. There were several times my family would be the only ones out there for a hundred miles in any direction it would seem.
OC: [00:34] Have you ever had a scary experience in the park?
LC: There was one time—I was probably like fourteen years old—I looked out the window and like four feet away from the window was a black bear. What we always used to do whenever a bear would come around, we’d get a bunch of us and we’d kind of chase the bear off. But for some reason I thought I could do it on my own, and so I ran outside the back door and I got out to where I thought the bear had been and I couldn’t see it anywhere.
But there’s this ditch between the side of the building and the driveway that I was standing on and I looked down and like two-and-a-half—three feet away from me was the black bear kind of looking up at me like, “What are you doing?” [laughter] And I turned and I ran back inside, then I called my dad. We wind up chasing the bear and as the bear is taking off down the hillside, there was some outhouses and the bear knocked the outhouse over and thank goodness there wasn’t anybody in the outhouse [laughter].
OC: [01:31] So how do you and your family fit into the history of the park?
LC: How do we fit in? Certainly my parents being involved with Camp Denali for thirty-five years. That’s a pretty unique place to grow up, for sure, like right in the shadow of the mountain. There’s nothing between you and the base of Mount Denali. Great place to—I feel like—have you grow up too. You’re the first second generation kid in our community. It’s pretty special and five years ago I started working for the Park Service.
The most visible thing that I’ve done is the building of the new park entrance sign.
OC: [02:16] It looks like traditional depiction of the park. There’s kind of a line mountain range, some caribou.
LC: Yeah, so that mountain outline—I spent, I think, seven hours on my belly laying on the sign, free-handing all the lines on there. And then my friend carved the caribou and then we took the letters off the old sign that are brass letters. So, I don’t know, turned out pretty sharp.
OC: [02:45] I think it’s definitely an improvement over the last sign [laughter].
LC: Yeah, the old one looked like a retirement community sign, you know. And that’s something that hundreds of thousands of people take their picture in front of, so when I pull in the park entrance to work or I’m leaving and there’s people out there taking pictures of the sign—that’s kind of neat. Makes me feel pretty good.
OC: [03:11] What has been the biggest change over the park from when you started off here until now?
LC: The middle of the park really hasn’t changed. The scenic beauty and everything—that’s all pretty much the same, which is pretty cool. But when I was in grade school driving through the canyon there was two gravel paths on either side of the road where all the hotels and all the boardwalk and everything are now. And to remember what that was like, to what it looks like now, that’s pretty astounding. Growing up I feel like I was kind of here at that unique bridge between the founding days of the park and how it started to evolve, and now here we are kind of helping to write the next chapter.
[Music outro 04:03]
[04:26] END
Clare Curtis (right) and Jori Welchans
NPS Photo
Clare Curtis was a long time Denali employee and became a mentor to many, including Jori Welchans. Welchans talks to Curtis about the challenges she faced as an employee at Denali and about the change she saw over the years.
“Keep it as that sanctuary where people can come in and get away from human-caused chaos and can understand the natural chaos.”
— Clare Curtis
StoryCorps Interview with Clare Curtis
Video Player is loading.
Current Time 0:00
/
Duration -:-
Loaded: 0%
Stream Type LIVE
Remaining Time -0:00
Â
1x
Chapters
descriptions off, selected
captions settings, opens captions settings dialog
captions off, selected
This is a modal window.
Beginning of dialog window. Escape will cancel and close the window.
End of dialog window.
Clare Curtis was a long time Denali employee and became a mentor to many, including Jori Welchans. Welchans talks to Curtis about the challenges she faced as an employee at Denali and about the change she saw over the years.
JW: You worked here for thirty years, and you started in 1982. Coming in pretty much after the park expanded its boundaries, which angered lots of Alaskans—
CC [00:10] Yes it did, and we had a great time.
JW: Tell me more [laughter].
CC: It was a time in the park’s life that there was just so much happening and there were so few people that we—coming in as rangers—had all of this great opportunity to do so many different things. When my husband and I came all the way across the ALCAN [Alaska Highway or Alaska-Canadian Highway] we were driving in a one-ton pickup truck and we were sleeping in the back end. We drove right by the entrance to the park. It was broad daylight, we just drove right on by.
The snow plows the previous winter had knocked down the sign. There wasn’t anybody there yet to put it back up so we ended down on the south side of the park in a pull-out for the night and when we woke the following morning it was gorgeous. It was beautiful and my husband looked out and said, “You know, if I had had enough money last night to turn around and go home, we would have, but now, with the mountains standing out there we’re going to stay here for a little while.” And we turned around and we passed the entrance again! Turned around and finally found it.
JW: [01:19] So you started out as a seasonal ranger?
CC: Yes.
JW: Did you have good relationships with a lot of the park neighbors who were, you know, a little uneasy about the park expanding its borders?
CC: [01:29] It was a touch-and-go time. It was a time, in which, they didn’t know us, we didn’t know them but we were just kind of riding this fine line and the writing was on the wall, but both sides were trying to erase pieces of the writing [laughter]. But we really tried hard to make the transition. There was always the roughness in between but there was always a try for a partnership in it as well.
JW: [01:55] What do you think is like the biggest change you’ve seen since 1982, in the park?
CC: Of course the number of people.
JW: Uh-huh.
CC: We have opened up the first fifteen miles of the Park Road. We have offered a certain portion of the park to be given to those who cannot travel ninety miles or fifty miles. We’ve given them an opportunity to see what the park offers, but those who really want to explore and experience it from Mile 15, we have kept it that way for them and that’s the most valuable part of Denali—is protecting what it was originally protected for and so far we have done that.
JW: So, after thirty years, if you could look back at when you first came here, in 1982, is there anything you would have done differently?
CC: [02:47] No. Because I was given every opportunity to grow in whatever way I could possibly be as a park ranger. In those days, there were so few in the State of Alaska and we had so much land—we did everything. If there was a medical, anybody with any first aid went out and helped because there weren’t enough people to send in a specialized team.
JW: Uh-huh.
CC: There weren’t any. If a toilet needed to be cleaned, and there wasn’t another maintenance man—they were off doing something else—you cleaned the toilet. It was just the nature of the game there and I was given so great an opportunity to develop so many different skills—I wouldn’t have changed that for anything.
JW: [03:33] You did a great job with me, of being a great mentor and guiding us because you were kind of like the consummate boss for everyone. The great supervisor.
CC: My hopes were that I gave you enough, as we grew up together, that you could take the reins and take it far more places than we had ever imagined that it could go.
JW: Is there anything you wish you could tell management in the future to never change about Denali?
CC: [04:03] It’s a sanctuary. Keep it as that sanctuary where people can come in and get away from human-caused chaos and can understand the natural chaos.
JW: Uh-huh.
CC: And flow into it and become one with it. Never ever give up that sanctuary.
[Outro music 04:24]
[04:38] END
Tim & Nancy Russell
NPS Photo
Tim and Nancy Russell
Longtime Denali employees/area-residents Nancy and Tim Russell discuss how the Park’s allure kept them in the area much longer than they originally anticipated. The couple talks about learning to live in this remote area. Nancy reflects on important lessons from her old boss about National Park standards, the changing values of Denali visitors, and shares a story of helping to evacuate Kantishna after a surprise season-end snow storm.
“I came here from upstate New York and I planned to work here for four months and ended up falling in love with the place and I didn’t leave.”
—Nancy Russell
StoryCorps Interview with Tim and Nancy Russell
Video Player is loading.
Current Time 0:00
/
Duration -:-
Loaded: 0%
Stream Type LIVE
Remaining Time -0:00
Â
1x
Chapters
descriptions off, selected
captions settings, opens captions settings dialog
captions off, selected
This is a modal window.
Beginning of dialog window. Escape will cancel and close the window.
End of dialog window.
Longtime Denali employees/area-residents Nancy and Tim Russell discuss how the Park’s allure kept them in the area much longer than they originally anticipated. The couple talks about learning to live in this remote area.
NR: I came here from upstate New York and I planned to work here for four months and ended up falling in love with the place and I didn’t leave. And I found a little cabin—no electricity, no running water—that somebody was willing to rent to me.
TR: You taught me the ropes of living here, you know, living without power and water, and a slot bucket and how to deal with all that stuff, and it was—
NR: No telephones—
TR: There was way more community—
NR: [00:30] In the winter time we only get mail twice a week and it came by rail. And we used to have potlucks and square dances on mail day in the railroad depot.
TR: Yeah.
NR: And we would walk or ski from wherever the cabin was to the post office. And we were almost all seasonal employees so we had all winter to be—
TR: Hippies—
NR: Hippies, yeah [laughter]. To just be foot loose and fancy free and then we’d start our seasonal jobs.
TR: You know I came here and my eyes kind of opened up to the seasonal lifestyle. How—wow! You just work like crazy in the summer and then you can have some time off and go do cool stuff instead of just working all year round. I came to work one summer and stayed thirty-five years.
You worked on roads and trails?
NR: [01:16] My boss was Jim Rogers and he would continuously preach that yes we’re a road crew but we do this job in a national park. You will not leave any sign that you were there after you’ve done the job. And as we widened the road, there were these big rocks that would roll down over the edge and he made us get out in the middle of the tundra and manually roll those rocks back up so that you couldn’t see them out in the middle of the tundra—
TR: I remember you coming home from work soaking wet and, “I had to roll rocks all day [in crying voice].”
NR: [01:58] Yeah, it was hard work and now I appreciate what he did, and how much he cared.
TR: And nowadays it doesn’t seem like that same level of caring is there.
NR: There’s a change. There’s a change in the attitude of everyone. Back then, the concessionaire was a private man and his partner—it wasn’t big business. The people coming into the park have changed dramatically. People used to get into like seeing everything out there, and now, it’s almost like, “okay we saw a bear, we saw a moose, we saw a caribou, we saw a Dall sheep, when do we go back?” [Laughter] “When do we turn around?”
This is a special place and it’s not going to stay special if we don’t protect it.
TR: [02:43] Your Park Service story is your big rescue out at Kantishna one year.
NR: I think it was 1989. It started snowing on September 5th—your birthday. And we thought, “Oh, this will be over; this is no big deal.” But it kept snowing and it kept snowing and it had snowed so much that the Park Service equipment wasn’t sufficient and they had abandoned vehicles out there—all along the Park Road. So, Jim Rogers put a bunch of us in a four-wheel drive van and sent us out behind a grader. They had rented this D-10 Cat [type of bulldozer]—the snow was going over the top of it.
So then we went all the way out to Kantishna and they had everybody lined up. There was a guy with a trailer and horses because he’d done wagon rides out there. We met them all and then we drove back and we got back at two o’clock in the morning, the next morning, with all these people behind us and it was dark-dark-dark-dark. And we came down Thorofare Pass and Brad Ebel was sitting up on Stony Hill and he gets on the radio and says, “Oh my gosh, you guys look so cool. It’s like a diamond necklace—all the headlights coming down.” It was wild.
[Music Outro 03:59]
[04:18] END
Dave Schirokauer (right) and Charlie Loeb
NPS Photo
Dave Schirokauer and Charlie Loeb
Denali National Park’s Chief of Resources Dave Schirokauer shares some stories with longtime friend and former Denali employee Charlie Loeb. Schirokauer discusses one of the most memorable and influential trips of his life that involved mushing 85 miles with Denali’s sled dogs. He also ties in the park’s historic use of sled dogs going all the way back to the park’s first Superintendent Harry Karstens.
“It's really remarkable that that is still happening a hundred years later here in Denali National Park. I mean, Harry Karstens and the kennels staff back in those days might've been packing different food, but really the operation is basically exactly the same”
—Dave Schirokauer
StoryCorps Interview with Dave Schirokauer & Charlie Loeb
Video Player is loading.
Current Time 0:00
/
Duration -:-
Loaded: 0%
Stream Type LIVE
Remaining Time -0:00
Â
1x
Chapters
descriptions off, selected
captions settings, opens captions settings dialog
captions off, selected
This is a modal window.
Beginning of dialog window. Escape will cancel and close the window.
End of dialog window.
Denali National Park’s Chief of Resources Dave Schirokauer shares some stories with longtime friend and former Denali employee Charlie Loeb.
DS: One year I showed up a little bit early, in my seasonal career when I was still and interpreter, and one Friday my boss came up to me and said, “Hey Schiro, are you ready to go? Here’s a chance for you to fly out to Wonder Lake and spend a weekend with a dog team.” And I was just—“Of course, I’ll do that. I can be ready in ten minutes.”
[00:19] So I ran back to my cabin, got my pack all packed up with some winter gear, strapped my skis on to my backpack, and got in this little tiny airplane that the park had. And we flew out to Kantishna and I hooked up with two of the park mushers that were out there with about twenty-two of the park dogs.
So the next morning I woke up and I hooked myself up to a rope behind a team of eleven dogs and I was in ski tow behind, and they toured me around Kantishna. It was really fun and the first thing I asked, of course, when I got out there is if I could go all the way back to Park Headquarters with them and they said probably not. But by the end of the weekend, when I was about to have to call for the plane to come get me they said, “Okay, you can come all the way back.” And that was really a true highlight of my life to this moment.
[01:09] So the next day we packed up all the gear, loaded the sleds up with all sorts of food and sleeping bags and winter gear, and took off from Wonder Lake which is about eighty-five miles from Park Headquarters. It was spring time so the snow pack was good, the conditions were good, and the sun was out. And I asked, you know, how do the dogs know where to go? I couldn’t really see the trail, and he was like, “Well these dogs have been out there many times and they know where to go.” And that just blew me away that these dogs had such a sense of geography that they can basically do this stuff with very little human intervention.
From that moment on I actually wanted to be a dog musher and have my own team so I could do that myself.
CL [01:50] And that has happened I believe?
DS: Yes, it has. I have a team now at home. I’ve got ten sled dogs and they pull me around the neighborhood enthusiastically all winter long. I haven’t made it out to Wonder Lake with my own dog team, but I would say it’s within the realm of possibilities that I’ll pull that off before I am unable to do so [laughter].
CL: Because there’s no mechanized traffic in the backcountry, it’s all done by dog teams as it would have been done historically, it’s pretty impressive. I really find the dogs to be the ultimate emblem of Denali as an Alaskan wilderness park.
DS: [02:29] Yeah, it really is. I was just up at Headquarters, and in the original cabin that the first Superintendent Harry Karstens built, right now the kennels’ staff is getting all the food together. The whole place is littered with boxes of food being organized for the winter operations. It's really remarkable that that is still happening a hundred years later here in Denali National Park. I mean, Harry Karstens and the kennels staff back in those days might've been packing different food, but really the operation is basically exactly the same.
[03:04] My first season here and getting involved in giving the summertime dog demos. Going into the kennels building, the historic building that's been used for a little less than a century, and getting the harnesses out and stuff—the smell of the kennels was something, you know, I just got used to and took for granted and didn't think that much about. But when I came back here in my current incarnation about five years ago and walked back into the kennels and smelled that, and it's exactly the same smell, it totally flashed back to me to my earlier career and I believe that smell, wet dog and dog food—which is a good smell—was probably present when Harry Karstens was messing around getting his dogs ready to head out into the park.
[Music outro 03:48]
[04:05] END
Charlie Sheldon (right) and Willie Karidis
NPS Photo
Charlie Sheldon and Willie Karidis
Charlie Sheldon is the grandson of the person credited with Denali National Park and Preserve’s creation, Charles Sheldon. Charlie, Willie Karidis, and Charlie’s son, Oscar Sheldon, spent the last few days of August 2017 retracing Charles Sheldon’s footsteps. In this conversation, Charlie and Willie reflect on their trip into the Denali Wilderness and the legacy of Charles Sheldon.
“The fact that Sheldon, my grandfather, had the vision 110 years ago to set aside some of this country—I mean it was just amazing. The power of that vision and that beauty just really came home to me. It was a trip of a lifetime.”
—Charlie Sheldon
StoryCorps Interview with Charlie Sheldon & Willie Karidis
Video Player is loading.
Current Time 0:00
/
Duration -:-
Loaded: 0%
Stream Type LIVE
Remaining Time -0:00
Â
1x
Chapters
descriptions off, selected
captions settings, opens captions settings dialog
captions off, selected
This is a modal window.
Beginning of dialog window. Escape will cancel and close the window.
End of dialog window.
Charlie Sheldon is the grandson of the person credited with Denali National Park and Preserve’s creation, Charles Sheldon. Charlie, Willie Karidis, and Charlie’s son, Oscar Sheldon, spent the last few days of August 2017 retracing Charles Sheldon’s footsteps.
WK: Your grandfather, Charles Sheldon, he was credited as the founder of Denali National Park.
CS: [00:06] I knew as a kid that in his circle of hunters and naturalists he was pretty famous, but he died when my father was fifteen, and he’d talk about him. You know, he was a big force in everything we did. My dad spent his whole life in conservation and got me in the woods and I’m trying to do that with my boys, you know, take them hiking. And I read his book and studied him, but it’s hard to know a person from their writing.
I knew that at the 100th anniversary of the park, I wanted to be somewhere nearby this place. See the cabin where he wintered, and maybe make a try at climbing the mountain that’s named after him across the river. Somehow we got in touch with each other and you agreed to do this!
WK: Yeah, I mean, literally, we are here right now because of him and we really had a pretty remarkable time kind of walking in his footsteps.
CS: [01:06] It was a pleasure with you because you knew so much. You carried his book—the book he wrote, you know [laughter]. It has all these photographs in it, and we’d be hiking along and you’d say, “Stop here! Now look, here’s the photograph—and now here’s view!” And there we are 110 years later in the very same spot. That’s pretty neat.
WK: Yeah, it was cool.
CS: You know, we walked and camped and had breakfast probably in the very places where he walked and camped and had breakfast, and probably where ancient peoples of hundreds or thousands of years before did the same thing. Just knowing that we were walking in the footsteps of where he was over a century ago gave me a better understanding of who he was, but of course it maybe further intimidated me too because he was one tough cookie, but you had to be back then. It was a different period, it was a different kind of world.
WK: I’m so glad that you were able to experience it because it kind of completes the circle a little bit, you know, with you.
CS: [02:09] I think being in the wilderness forces you to understand what the word humble means. When you have humility you can listen and you can learn. I think with all of our technological skills which have made life vastly better for many people but it also breeds a kind of assumption of arrogance that we can do it all, you know, we can do anything. And you lose humility when you get to that point. So being out there to me was listening and learning about what my grandfather saw, and you and your love for this place—that kind of humility I think is something to be treasured and kept.
[Music begins] The fact that Sheldon, my grandfather, had the vision 110 years ago to set aside some of this country—I mean it was just amazing. The power of that vision and that beauty just really came home to me. It was a trip of a lifetime.
[Music outro 03:16]
[03:41] END
Gretchen and Don Striker
NPS Photo
Don and Gretchen Striker
Park Superintendent Don Striker and his wife Gretchen discuss the things that make Denali special. Don shares being awestruck at Wonder Lake; Gretchen talks about how special it is to share the park with new guests. They both talk about how special Denali is during different times of the year. Don also talks about the challenges of connecting with neighbors and how he wants to bridge the divide that exists.
“You know, the first time I saw the mountain I almost cried—it’s so magical.”
—Don Striker
StoryCorps Interview with Don & Gretchen Striker
Video Player is loading.
Current Time 0:00
/
Duration -:-
Loaded: 0%
Stream Type LIVE
Remaining Time -0:00
Â
1x
Chapters
descriptions off, selected
captions settings, opens captions settings dialog
captions off, selected
This is a modal window.
Beginning of dialog window. Escape will cancel and close the window.
End of dialog window.
Park Superintendent Don Striker and his wife Gretchen discuss the things that make Denali special. Don shares being awestruck at Wonder Lake; Gretchen talks about how special it is to share the park with new guests. They both talk about how special Denali is during different times of the year. Don also talks about the challenges of connecting with neighbors and how he wants to bridge the divide that exists.
GS: Denali is one of my favorite places to be and I’ve had experiences I never would have had anywhere else. I had the chance to go up in an airplane and fly around and count moose which was incredible, and I had the chance to get on the back of a dog sled and learn how to mush, so what did you think about the time that you got to mush in Denali National Park for ten days with your own dog team?
DS: [00:27] Among park experiences I’d say that’s probably my favorite. Each season is very different but there’s something about the magic of March as the days are coming back, you know, there’s sort of new life. The light is so phenomenal. That experience started at Wonder Lake, which is amazing. You know, the first time I saw the mountain I almost cried—it’s so magical. And think the juxtaposition of a place like that with experience like the dog sleds—when you put that combination together and it was definitely a defining moment.
GS: [01:07] When you talked about being at Wonder Lake, that touched on my memories of taking people on tours of the park, and I think what is so amazing for me to show people Denali for their very first time is I get to relive that awe-inspiring moment and it does bring some people to tears when they see Denali for the first time or when they see their first grizzly bear in the wild and I get to relive that excitement every time I take somebody new into the park.
[01:47] One thing I wanted to touch on is one of your main focuses is being relevant to your neighbors. How do you think you’re doing on that?
DS: [01:58] Well, Alaska is certainly the biggest challenge that I’ve ever had. Usually it takes one or two generations for people to get over the initial formation of a park and to sort of pivot towards “What do we want to be when we grow up?” And here in Alaska the people really are still angry about A.N.I.L.C.A. [Alaska National Interest Lands Conservation Act]
GS: Uh-huh.
DS: [02:20] So it’s been incredibly difficult to make the kind of connections that were easy for me in every other park, right?
GS: Right.
DS: And I think that’s because the Park Service is in the center of the bullseye of this notion of federal overreach. Other places it might be E.P.A. [Environmental Protection Act].
GS: Uh-huh [laughter].
DS: Right? Or the I.R.S. [Internal Revenue Service]
GS: [laughter]
DS: It’s definitely not the Park Service.
GS: Right.
DS: [02:40] There are many, many of our neighbors that don’t visit Denali.
GS: Right.
DS: They’re proud of it.
GS: Right.
DS: But they don’t consider this to be their park.
GS: Uh-huh.
DS: And so that is our greatest challenge here, as in so many other places, is to make sure that you are relevant to your neighbors.
GS: [02:57] But I think that’s changing, now that we have a winter solstice ski—Alaskans want to get out and do something—
DS: Right—
GS: For solstice, right?
DS: The darkest day of the year—
GS: Yeah, it has been so exciting to see our Alaskan neighbors coming the park for the solstice ski or more people coming to the park for Winter Fest when we are the ones that are holding down the fort in the winter time. I love to see people excited about discovering Denali, and I think that’s happening.
[Music outro 03:30]
[03:44] END
Jane Bryant (left) and Denise Taylor
NPS Photo
Jane Bryant and Denise Taylor
Working in a remote Interior Alaska makes it difficult for Denali employees and local communities to get fresh produce. For 21 years, Denise Taylor provided a fresh fruit delivery service to the area and in doing so created lots of fond memories for community members. Denise and her long-time friend Jane Bryant reminisce about Denali’s “Fruit Lady.”
“If you wanted to know what was going on in the community, you would ask the Fruit Lady.”
—Jane Bryant
StoryCorps Interview with Denise Taylor & Jane Bryant
Video Player is loading.
Current Time 0:00
/
Duration -:-
Loaded: 0%
Stream Type LIVE
Remaining Time -0:00
Â
1x
Chapters
descriptions off, selected
captions settings, opens captions settings dialog
captions off, selected
This is a modal window.
Beginning of dialog window. Escape will cancel and close the window.
End of dialog window.
Working in a remote Interior Alaska makes it difficult for Denali employees and local communities to get fresh produce. For 21 years, Denise Taylor provided a fresh fruit delivery service to the area and in doing so created lots of fond memories for community members. Denise and her long-time friend Jane Bryant reminisce about Denali’s “Fruit Lady.”
DT: In 1980, my husband Tim Taylor got a job at Denali National Park. At that time, I was working down in Palmer. I was managing a small fruit stand and Tim would come home every weekend. I would stock him up with all kinds of fruits and veggies and he would then take them back to the park for his week of work and all his friends and coworkers at the time would say, “Wow, this is some beautiful produce. Sure wish we had something like this available in the area.” And that kind of got the seed going in our brains of starting a new little business and that’s how the fruit truck started.
JB: [00:43] Describe a typical week in your summer business life.
DT: Usually on a Monday morning, bright and early, I would take my truck and drive 229 miles down to Anchorage to the produce suppliers. I wanted to have the best and the freshest and the ripest and sweetest tasting fruit I could find. Jane, you were the first employee I had. Of course, you ate a lot more than you worked off.
JS: [01:12] You know, somebody had to do the sampling.
DT: Well, it’s true, quality control.
JS: Yeah!
DT: And I had a schedule to be in Cantwell on certain days, at the park area on certain days, and in Healy at certain times. And the focus of my selling was to the locals that lived there because I knew the locals weren’t able to get any produce because there weren’t really any stores in the area.
I had an ahooga horn that I would always hit and so that everyone would know that the fruit truck is here and open and ready for business. I always had music going on the fruit truck and it was a very social, fun time.
JB: [01:54] People were ecstatic to have this opportunity to buy fresh food. They would come pouring over to your truck and enjoy the experience.
DT: It was just a real fun, interesting business. It was a great way to get to meet a lot of people in the community.
JB: And if you wanted to know what was going on in the community, you would ask the Fruit Lady.
DT: [laughter]
JB: [02:22] So you were known as the “Fruit Lady.” When did that start?
DT: Well, even though I had a name for the business of “Denali Fruit Express,” people just always seem to call me the Fruit Lady. “Oh the Fruit Lady is going to be in town today, we’ve got to be sure to be back from whatever we’re doing so we can get our local fresh produce.” It just stuck and so I finally changed the name of the business to the “Fruit Lady.”
JB: [02:47] I don’t remember what was the first year that the t-shirt idea was hatched.
DT: Eighty-seven, maybe ’86. I had always loved fruit labels and so we thought it would be fun to design some t-shirts and make it look like a fruit label and use place names in the park. Several of us got together and you designed the first t-shirt, “The Toklat Tomatoes.”
JB: [03:13] Oh it was the big highlight of the summer. Everybody would come and get their new seasonal fruit t-shirt.
DT: I believe “Polychrome Peas” was a second one.
JB: We had “Savage Cabbage.”
DT: “Teklanika Turnips.”
JB: “Wonder Lake Watermelon.”
DT: “Glacier City Grapefruit.”
JB: “Mount Brooks Blueberries.”
DT: Yeah, I believe that was the last one in 2001.
JB: How long total did you do this?
DT: For twenty-one summers.
JB: Well, Denise, that was a fun fruit truck run.
DT: Well, it really was and it was really fun having you on the fruit truck with me and helping and it brought back lots of good memories.
[Music outro 03:55]
[04:10] END
Last updated: April 11, 2018
Park footer
Contact Info
Mailing Address:
PO Box 9
Denali Park,
AK
99755
Phone:
907 683-9532
A ranger is available 9 am to 4 pm daily (except on major holidays). If you reach the voicemail, please leave a message and we'll call you back as soon as we finish with the previous caller.
