Wrangell–St. Elias National Park and Preserve
Largest U.S. national park, with high peaks, glaciers, and volcanoes.
Wrangell–St. Elias National Park and Preserve is a United States national park and preserve in south central Alaska. It is the largest national park in the United States, covering the Wrangell Mountains and a large portion of the Saint Elias Mountains, which include most of the highest peaks in the United States and Canada. The park is notable for its extreme relief, with peaks rising within 10 miles of tidewater, and for being part of the Kluane/Wrangell–St. Elias/Glacier Bay/Tatshenshini-Alsek UNESCO World Heritage Site.
Quick Facts
- Iucn Category
- II
- Location
- Chugach Census Area, Copper River Census Area, Southeast Fairbanks Census Area and Yakutat City and Borough, Alaska, United States
- Nearest City
- Copper Center, Alaska
- Area Acre
- 13175799
- Area Ref
- 8,323,147.59 acre (Park only) · 4,852,652.14 acre (preserve only)
- Established
- 1980-12-02 / (park & preserve) / 1978-12-01 / (national monument)
- Visitation Num
- 108,840
- Visitation Year
- 2025
- Governing Body
- National Park Service
Facts from the source article.
Lore & Background
The park and preserve were established in 1980 by the Alaska National Interest Lands Conservation Act, following its designation as Wrangell–St. Elias National Monument on December 1, 1978, by President Jimmy Carter using the Antiquities Act. The protected areas are included in an International Biosphere Reserve and are part of the Kluane/Wrangell–St. Elias/Glacier Bay/Tatshenshini-Alsek UNESCO World Heritage Site, which includes Canada's Kluane National Park and Reserve to the east and Glacier Bay National Park to the south. The park has been shaped by the competing forces of volcanism and glaciation, with its tall mountains uplifted by plate tectonics. Mount Wrangell and Mount Churchill are among major volcanoes in these ranges. The park's glacial features include Malaspina Glacier, the largest piedmont glacier in North America, Hubbard Glacier, the longest tidewater glacier in Alaska, and Nabesna Glacier, the world's longest valley glacier. The Bagley Icefield covers much of the park's interior, which includes 60% of the permanently ice-covered terrain in Alaska.
Reader's Guide
Wrangell–St. Elias National Park and Preserve is significant as the largest area managed by the National Park Service, with a total of 13,175,799.07 acres, an expanse larger than nine U.S. states and around the same size as Croatia. The area designated as the national park alone is larger than the 47 smallest American national parks combined. Nearly 66 percent of park and preserve land is designated as the Wrangell–St. Elias Wilderness, the largest single wilderness area in the United States. The park's purpose, as stated in its foundation document, is to maintain the natural scenic beauty of its diverse geologic, glacial, and riparian landscapes, protect wildlife populations and their habitats, ensure continued access for wilderness-based recreation, and provide continued opportunities for subsistence use. The park includes the historic Kennecott copper mines, which exploited one of the world's richest deposits of copper from 1903 to 1938, and the abandoned mine buildings and mills comprise a National Historic Landmark district. The park is accessible by highway from Anchorage, with two rough gravel roads (the McCarthy Road and the Nabesna Road) winding through the park, and chartered aircraft also fly into the park.
More in World Heritage Sites in the United States 1-24
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