Katmai Building in an Ashen Land: Historic Resource Study

John A. Hussey's 1971 book, Embattled Katmai: A History of Katmai National Monument laid the groundwork for this study. The task then was to identify historic contexts, the related built properties, and to gather site specific information as well as additional literature made available since that time. The Alaska Heritage Resource Survey listings from the Office of History and Archaeology provided a baseline of knowledge. The National Park Service-Alaska Support Office provided more detailed survey information through the Katmai Cultural Survey Inventory and the List of Classified Structures files. There have been a few key surveys done in the park. Wilbur E. Davis and Don Dumond conducted the most extensive archeological surveys of the former settlement sites during the 1950s and 1960s. These investigations provided information that led to the listing of several sites on the National Register. The surveys, however, were primarily focused on the prehistoric and not the historic time periods. NPS coastal surveys occurring in 1984 and 1985 documented several cabins and former cannery sites. More recent archeological surveys took place as a result of the oil spill investigations and revealed remains possibly tied to sea mammal hunting camps in the Cape Douglas area. In 1975, NPS historical architect Robert L. Carper conducted the first List of Classified Structures inventory at Katmai. Mike Tollefson, Katmai Ranger, prepared a 1977 cabin inventory that provided a great deal of information about former trappers and their cabins. Additional cabin files became available at the NPS-LAKA Studies Center when the Katmai Park collection was transferred from the King Salmon headquarters into Anchorage.

Valuable source material that was drawn on included the NPS publications by Frank B. Norris, Tourism in Katmai Country and Isolated Paradise: An Administrative History of Katmai and Aniakchak National Park Units. Archival documents were accessed at both of the University of Alaska campus.' The Fairbanks staff provided assistance with the Alaska Commercial Company Douglas Station records. The University of Alaska Anchorage, Archives and Manuscripts Department, staff of Dennis Walle, Katherine Hertel, and Jeff Sinnott, provided essential assistance with the National Geographic Society's Katmai expeditions collection, providing photographic copies, the Russian Orthodox American Messenger index and articles. Richard Bland provided the greatly appreciated translations for several of these articles and in an accelerated time frame. Katherine Arndt's knowledge and expertise about the Russian-American time period were invaluable and generously shared in a flurry of e-mails. A thank you goes to Mike Burwell, for his enthusiastic sharing of Alaska shipwreck history and for information about the Moran fleet and the Golden Forest. The assistance of several NPS staff members is appreciated including the Lake Clark/Katmai personnel of Jeanne Schaaf, Chief Cultural Resources and Dale Vinson, 106 compliance archeologist. A thank you goes to John Branson, Lake Clark Historian, for sharing information and for providing photographs for the trapping chapter. Also a note of appreciation to Mary Tidlow, NPS-AKSO Architect, for her review of the Determination of Eligibility documents. Thank you to Sandra Anderson, NPS-AKSO Senior Historian, for her unwavering support of this project. The final product came together with the assistance of Frank Broderick's talented graphic abilities.

Brooks Camp Historic Resources. (click image for an enlargement in a new window)

Historic Contexts and Associated Sites

Sources: George Stroud and Lynn Fuller, NPS, Katmai Coast Field Season Report, 1984; Michael J. Tollefson, NPS Katmai Ranger Memo, Old Cabins 3/21/77; Frank B. Norris, Old Trapper Cabins map compiled; Frank Norris, Isolated Paradise, NPS 1996 and Tourism Katmai Country, NPS 1992; Robert F. Griggs, The Valley of Ten Thousand Smokes, 1922; The National Geographic Society, 1917-1919 Katmai expeditions map; Alaska Heritage Resources Survey, State Office of History and Archaeology; NPS-AKSO LCS files.

	Native/Russian/Early American Main Settlements			Clam and Salmon Canning
	Native/Russian/Early American Other Sites			Trapping Cabin and Subsistence Sites
	Scientific Exploration and Research			Reindeer Herding and Fox Farming
	Transportation			Fisheries Research and Management
	Mining			Tourism and Early Park Management

Map of Katmai National Park and Preserve (click on image for an enlargement in a new window, ~500kb)