Denali A History of the Denali - Mount McKinley, Region, Alaska Historic Resource Study of Denali National Park and Preserve

1. Harry Karstens ltr to Horace Albright of 7/25/18, National Archives, Record Group 79, Entry 6, Mount McKinley Corres., Box 382.

2. Gov. Riggs ltr to Director Mather of 2/19/21, Alaska State Archives, Juneau, Record Group 101, Ser. 130, Box 195.

3. Mather ltr to Sheldon of 1/27/21, Univ. of Alaska, Fairbanks, Archives, Sheldon Collection, Box 2.

4. Mather ltr to Riggs of 2/5/21, Alaska State Archives, Juneau, Record Group 101, Ser. 130, Box 195.

5. Mather ltr to Karstens of 4/12/21, National Archives, Record Group 79, Entry 6, Box 381.

6. Ibid.

7. Horace Albright, The Birth of the National Park Service: The Founding Years, 1913-33 (Salt Lake City: Howe Brothers, 1985), 68-73; see also the Service's 1925 "comprehensive policy" update issued as a press release by the Department of the Interior on March 13, 1925, Alaska State Archives, Record Group 101, Box 246.

8. National Park Service, Director's Annual Report. 1919 (Washington, DC: GPO, 1920), 109.

9. This summary impression derived from Karstens ltr and report files in National Archives, Record Group 79, Entry 6, Boxes 369, 379, and 382, and from his ltrs to Charles Sheldon in Sheldon Collection, Univ. of Alaska, Fairbanks, Archives, Box 1. Lands Records from the Denali NP&P archive give details on Morino and Lynch homesteads and administrative determinations thereon.

10. Karstens' report to the Governor of Alaska, July 22, 1922, copy in National Archives, Record Group 79, Entry 6, Box 384.

11. Ibid.

12. The Superintendent's Monthly Reports record the building pressures on the new park.

13. Steese ltr to Mather of 4/20/22, Denali NP&P archive.

14. Gail Evans, "From Myth to Reality," 242-43.

15. ARC Annual Reports, 1924-25.

16. George S. Stroud, "History of the Concession at Denali National Park (formerly Mount McKinley National Park)," typescript report for the National Park Service (Anchorage: 1985), 1-6.

17. Address to Womens' Club of Anchorage, July 24, National Archives, Record Group 79, Entry 6, Box 384.

18. Karstens ltr to Director of 2/15,24, National Archives, Record Group 79, Entry 6, Box 384.

19. Cammerer ltr to Karstens of 2/5/25, National Archives, Record Group 79, Entry 6, Box 381.

20. Grant H. Pearson, "A History of Mount McKinley National Park, Alaska, typescript administrative history prepared by the superintendent in 1953, 42-43; Mount McKinley NP "Building Inventory," prepared for the superintendent by Historical Architect Harold LaFleur, 9/16/75, in Denali NP&P archive; abstract of Mount McKinley NP "Headquarters Building Development," from Superintendent's Monthly Reports, 9/25 through 10/43, in Denali NP&P archive; Dave Snow, Gail Evans, Robert Spude, and Paul Gleeson, Historic Structure Report, Mt. McKinley Park Headquarters District & Wonder Lake, 3 vols. (Anchorage: NPS, Alaska Regional Office, 1987).

21. Albright ltr to Vint of 8/18/31, Denali NP&P archive.

22. Mount McKinley National Park Act of 2/26/17 (39 Stat. 938), Sec. 6.

23. Burnham ltr to Cammerer of 12/18/20, National Archives, Record Group 79, Entry 6, Box 384; Burnham ltr to Mather of 2/1/21, National Archives . . . Box 384.

24. Cammerer ltr to Karstens of 4/12/21, National Archives, Record Group 79, Entry 6, Box 384.

25. Karstens ltr to Director of 4/23/21, National Archives, Record Group 79, Entry 6, Box 384.

26. Mount McKinley NP Rules and Regulations of 6/21/21, National Archives, Record Group 79, Entry 6, Box 384.

27. See Cammerer ltr to Beard of 11/1/21, National Archives, Record Group 79, Entry 6, Box 385.

28. Bureau of Mines corres. with Mather under cover of 10/15/21, National Archives, Record Group 79, Entry 6, Box 384.

29. National Parks Committee Minutes of 4/17/23, National Archives, Record Group 79, Entry 6, Box 384.

30. Secretary of the Interior, Annual Report of the Secretary of the Interior, 1923 (Washington, DC: GPO, 1924), 82.

31. The Pathfinder of Alaska, Vol. 5, No. 3 (Jan. 1924), 13.

32. Interior Department Solicitor's opinion to Secretary of the Interior of 7/5/23, National Archives, Record Group 79, Entry 6, box 384, 11-12.

33. See Cammerer ltr to Congressman Cramton of 1/5/28, National Archives, Record Group 79, Entry 6, Box 370; Gov. of Alaska corres. w/NPS, State Archives, Record Group 101, Boxes 277 and 291 (1927-29).

34. See corres. in reference to Frank Dufrensne ltr to H.W. Terhune of 11/9/27, National Archives, Record Group 79, Entry 6, Box 370.

35. Nelson ltr to Acting Director Cammerer of 1/24/24, National Archives, Record Group 79, Entry 6, Box 370.

36. Karstens ltr to Director of 1/4/24, National Archives, Record Group 79, Entry 6, Box 385.

37. Cammerer Memorandum for the Files of 2/6/24, National Archives, Record Group 79, Entry 6, Box 385.

38. U.S. Code, Title 16 (1982 edition), 198.

39. 46 Stat. 1043.

40. 90 Stat. 1342.

41. Grant Pearson, My Life of High Adventure (Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice Hall, Inc., 1962), 23.

42. Grant Pearson, "The Seventy Mile Kid" (Los Altos, CA: author, 1957), 7.

43. Ibid 9.

44. Ibid 10.

45. The importance of dogteam patrols and freighting permeates superintendent and ranger reports in the park archive, with Karstens' Nov. 1925 Monthly Report, setting up remote-area patrols a good example; see also the writings of Grant Pearson ("Seventy Mile Kid" and My Life of High Adventure), and the article by the late, lamented McKinley ranger-interpreter Jim Shives, "The Sled Dogs of McKinley," Alaska Magazine, Vol. 44 (Oct. 1978), 6-8.

46. Karstens telegram to Director of 7/17/24, National Archives, Record Group 79, Entry 6, Box 381.

47. Cammerer ltr to Karstens of 7/1/25, National Archives, Record Group 79, Entry 6, Box 381.

48. Mount McKinley NP lands files in General Records, Alaska Regional Office; see particularly Morino and Stubbs files.

49. Rand McNally Guide to Alaska and Yukon (New York: Rand McNally Co., 1922), 8-9.

50. Alaska Steamship Company interview with Robert Rose (10/8/85), conducted by William Schneider, Univ. of Alaska Oral History files.

51. ARR Circular Ltr to All Agents of 7/12/24, National Archives, Record Group 79, Entry 6, Box 382.

52. Superintendent's Monthly Reports for May and June 1924.

53. Karstens ltr to Oastler of 4/4/24, Denali NP&P archive.

54. Steese ltr to Cammerer of 7/12/24, National Archives, Record Group 79, Entry 6, Roads.

55. Superintendent's Monthly Report for May 1923.

56. Superintendent's Monthly Report for June 1923.

57. Steese ltr to Karstens of 6/11/23, Denali NP&P archive.

58. Brooklyn Eagle ltr to Gov. of Alaska, State Archives, Record Group 101, Box 219; Superintendent's Monthly Report for July 1923; NPS Director's Annual Report for 1923, 167.

59. Alaska Railroad "Presidential Special" brochure, July 13-19, 1923, Denali NP&P archive; National Park Service, Director's Annual Report for 1923 (Washington, DC: GPO, 1924); Superintendent's Monthly Report for July 1923.

60. Alaska Railroad "McKinley Park Route" brochure, 1924, Denali NP&P archive.

61. Karstens-Beach corres. of May-June 1922, Denali NP&P archive; Nelson ltr to Sheldon of 1/10/23, National Archives, Record Group 79, Entry 6, Box 385.

62. Cammerer ltr to Sec. Interior of 4/10/23, National Archives, Record Group 79, Entry 6, Box 385; Karstens ltr to Director of 10/3/23, Denali NP&P archive; Karstens ltr to Gov. of Alaska of 2/5/24, National Archives, . . . Box 385; Dir. Mather ltr to Del. Sutherland of 2/25/24, National Archives, . . . Box 385.

63. Leslie Marchand, "Mount McKinley," Farthest-North Collegian, Vol. 5, No. 1 (1927), 5-6, Univ. of Alaska, Fairbanks, Archives.

64. Frank Norris, "Showing Off Alaska: the Northern Tourist Trade, 1878-1941," Alaska History, Vol. 2, No. 2 (Fall 1987), 8-9.

65. See Norris Ibid.; Dorothy E. Haley, "The Steel Trail into the Heart of Alaska," The Pathfinder of Alaska, Vol. 6, No. 6 (April 1924), 19-20; Roderick Nash, "Tourism, Parks, and the Wilderness Idea in the History of Alaska," Alaska in Perspective, Vol. 4, No. 1 (1981), 12-15; William H. Wilson, "The Alaska Railroad and Tourism, 1924-1941," Alaska Journal, Vol. 7, No. 1 (Winter 1977), 18-24.

66. Olaus J. Murie, Memorandum for Dr. Nelson of 12/11/25 in O. Murie Collection, University of Alaska, Fairbanks, Archives, Box 4; O. Murie field notes and draft reports re: Mount McKinley work, 1920-22, O. Murie Collection, Boxes 2, 4, 7.

67. E.W. Nelson ltr to Mather of 4/13/22, National Archives, Record Group 79, Entry 6, Box 385; associated corres. in this file records Karsten's assistance to Nelson in gathering various mammalian specimens for Biological Survey analysis beginning 1921.

68. O. Murie, Savage River Camp report, 5 pages, with map of upper Savage River camp and corral, O. Murie Collection, Univ. of Alaska, Fairbanks, Archives, Box 2; O. Murie daily log, 6/26/22-10/24/22, O. Murie Collection, Box 7; Jule Loftus, "Corralling Caribou—a Wilder West Sport, "Farthest-North Collegian, Vol. 2, No. 1 (1924), 20-21.

69. George M. Wright, Joseph S. Dixon, Ben H. Thompson, Fauna of the National Parks of the United States, National Park Service Fauna Series, No. 1 (Washington: GPO, 1933), 4.

70. Ibid., 9-19.

71. Joseph S. Dixon, Birds & Mammals of Mount McKinley National Park, Alaska, National Park Service Fauna Series, No. 3 (Washington: GPO, 1938). ix.

72. Stowe ltr to Cammerer of 3/23/25, National Archives, Record Group 79, Entry 6, Box 381.

73. Report on charges against Mr. H.P. Karstens to Chief Inspector, Post Office Department, of 6/29/25, National Archives, Record Group 79, Entry 6, Box 381.

74. See correspondence re: Karstens' resignation and replacement in National Archives, Record Group 79, Entry 6, Box 369.

75. Pearson, "Seventy Mile Kid," 10.

76. Superintendent's Monthly Reports, 1926-28; various ltr and memorandum reports to Director, including Karstens ltr to Mather of 2/26/26, National Archives, Record Group 79, Entry 6, Box 369.

77. Pearson, "Seventy Mile Kid," 13.

78. Albright memorandum to Washington Office of 8/18/31, National Archives, Record Group 79, Entry 6, Box 201.