Denali Park Road Historic District: Cultural Landscapes Inventory, Denali National Park and Preserve

Region 11 Park Cultural Landscapes Program

Inventory Unit Description: The Denali Park Road has served as the backbone of the park’s circulation system since construction began in 1922. The Alaska Road Commission (ARC), a pioneer in road construction through arctic and sub-arctic terrain, constructed the road. Although the ARC possessed specialized construction skills to build roads in interior Alaska, its managers had to adapt to meet the aesthetic design standards of the National Park Service. The road became a hybrid of a rugged pioneer trail through a remote area and a scenic NPS tour road. The ARC took 16 years to complete the road from its starting point at the Alaska Railroad to the end of the road at the Kantishna airstrip. While the road conformed to many NPS aesthetic principles, the ten foot gravel road with wooden bridges and ford sites possessed a rusticity that reflected its location on the remote permafrost of Alaska. The road experienced two major advancements in its connection to the larger road system in 1957 with the opening of the Denali Highway and in 1971 with the opening of the George Parks Highway. The greater connectivity led to increases in traffic and subsequent improvements to the roadway. In anticipation of traffic increases resulting from the opening of George Parks Highway (which connects Fairbanks and Anchorage directly) and also as a result of the controversy over road expansion during Mission 66, in 1972 NPS made a proactive decision to institute a shuttle bus system and provide strict limits on vehicle use. Except for the paved stretch of road between the railroad/road junction and the Savage River Bridge, visitors (with some exceptions) were no longer allowed to drive their own cars into the park. The NPS contracted with a concessionaire to run daily bus shuttles between the entrance area and various points along the road. The shuttle system effectively controlled the number of vehicle trips per day, mitigating some of the impacts to natural resources associated with road use. The road is historically significant for its association with the period of scenic road development in national parks in the 1920s and 1930s and with the Mission 66 park development program in the 1950s and 1960s (Criterion A). The road is also a rustic example of landscape engineering combining NPS aesthetic road design principles with the ARC’s experience constructing roads in harsh environments (Criterion C). The areas of significance are Entertainment/Recreation and Transportation for its relation to automobile tourism and Landscape Architecture for its aesthetically oriented design. The period of significance extends from 1922, when the route was originally brushed, to 1972, the year the NPS instituted the Shuttle Bus System beyond Savage River.

Denali Park Road Historic District: Cultural Landscapes Inventory, Denali National Park and Preserve

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