TODAY
| Serving 45 public lands and facilities representing six agency partners.
Total direct aid and services contributed to education in Alaska’s parks, forests, refuges and recreational lands since 1959: $20 million.
Bookstores in 48 locations with 14,000 different items available; retail sales $4.6 million.
Twenty-seven hands-on accredited classes offered through the Institute in Alaska’s parks, forests, and refuges.
Total membership 3,000 members; basic annual dues $30.
Publications available to the public include a hundred books, map and guides, films, non-book materials and free publications. Discover Alaska Collector Series offers a dozen product lines showcasing 40 public lands.
Distributed 285,000 copies of four different tour booklets generating over $900,000.
In partnership with the National Park Service, fourth year of operation of the Murie Science and Learning Center, featuring research and education in America’s eight northernmost national parks.
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| 1951 | Park service employees begin activity to form a cooperating association for Alaska’s national parks based out of Mount McKinley National Park. |
| 1959 | Mount McKinley Natural History Association incorporates February 16, 1959 serving Mt. McKinley National Park and becomes the 49th cooperating association serving America’s national parks. Original grizzly bear and totem pole logo designed by well known Alaskan artist Bill Berry. Estate gift from New York resident, James William Walsh, Jr. funds the new organization and its early operations. |
| 1960 | Sales area opens in Sitka National Monument offering slide sets to the public. |
| 1961 | Gross sales $993.52. Aid to the National Park Service $563: wildlife film$200; slide duplication$200; books donated to park library $105; school donation $6; unknown $52. Life membership $1. |
| 1962 | First book published, “Mammals of Mount McKinley” by Adolph Murie, followed by “Birds of Mount McKinley” also by Adolph Murie in 1963. Eighteen items available in Mount McKinley sales area. Gross sales $2,688. |
| 1967 | Purchased and donated to NPS a nine-acre private inholding in Glacier Bay National Monument where the old Dundas Bay cannery was located.
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| 1968 | Sales area opens in Glacier Bay National Monument. |
| 1970 | Name changed to Alaska National Parks and Monuments Association to reflect the service provided beyond McKinley to Sitka, Glacier Bay, and Katmai national mounuments—at that time, all the national park units in Alaska. |
| 1971 | Sales area opens in Katmai National Monument. Total sales exceed $18,000 for all four sites. |
| 1973 | Gross sales for the four national park sites in Alaska top $30,000. |
| 1974 | Tax-exempt status granted under Section 501 (c) (3) of the Internal Revenue Code. |
| 1976 | Thirty-eight items available in the Mount McKinley sales area; gross receipts of $46,000. Statewide gross sales $81,815. Aid to NPS $5,485. |
| 1977 | Wilma Mercer, a high school graduate from Healy, is the first full-time seasonal employee hired at Mount McKinley National Park. She works three days a week at the sales counter in the Riley Creek Visitor Center and two days in the offices. A seasonal employee is also hired at Glacier Bay National Monument. By-laws changed and board membership limited to non-National Park Service employees. |
| 1979 | Anticipating the settlement of the Alaska lands issue and increased interest by other federal agencies in the organization, the name is changed to Alaska Natural History Association to reflect these developing relationships. First business manager hired and central office opens in Anchorage. Cooperating agreement signed with US Fish and Wildlife Service. Additional areas served: Arctic National Wildlife Range, Kenai National Moose Range, and Aleutian Islands National Wildlife Refuge. |
| 1980 | President Jimmy Carter signs the Alaska National Interest Lands Conservation Act (ANILCA) into law adding 100 million acres into federal protection and public access as national parks, forests, refuges, wildernesses, scenic rivers and recreation lands.
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| 1980 | Agreement signed with USDA Forest Service. Nine total sales areas gross $163,245. Aid to agencies $25,012. Membership program begins in earnest with 80 members; annual dues $3. |
| 1981 | New sales areas open in Chugach National Forest, and in Kotzebue serving the Western Arctic National Parklands. |
| 1982 | Alaska National Parklands: This Last Treasure by William E. Brown published with financial help from seven other cooperating associations. This signature book, the first hardback released, celebrates the national parks established or expanded under ANILCA. |
| 1983 | Agreement signed with Alaska Public Lands Information Centers.
New sales areas open in Kenai Fjords National Park and Yukon-Charley Rivers National Preserve and one in Juneau serving the Tongass National Forest.
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| 1984 | Lake Clark National Park adds a sales area. Eighteen sales areas statewide. Gross sales $298, 704. Total membership 487 members; annual dues still $3. |
| 1985 | Agreement signed with Alaska State Parks. New public lands served: Tetlin and Kodiak national wildlife refuges. Tongass National Forest’s new visitor center at Mendenhall Glacier opens a sales area. Twenty bookstores operating across Alaska at parks, forests, refuges and public information centers. Gross income: $376, 256. |
| 1990 | Twenty-seven public lands served. Gross income from sales and donations $1,233,971. Total aid and services $278,571 |
| 1991 | Agreement signed with the Bureau of Land Management. New caribou logo. |
| 1996 | Thirty-two parks, forests, and refuges served; aid and services to public land management agencies $575,342. Thirty-six publication projects completed includes three new book publications, reprints, visitor guides, postcards, bookmarks, pins, and videos. Forty-five sales areas with 3,120 different items available; gross sales $2,272,000. |
| 1998 | First website launched.
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| 2000 | Service to the National Park Service increases with signing of a five-year cooperating agreement. Over the life of the agreement 50 plus educational projects completed valued at more than one million dollars. |
| 2001 | Discover Alaska Collector Series launched representing Alaska’s parks, forests and refuges with the first six logo designs. |
| 2002 | Tour booklet program launched with Denali National Park. Two interpretive publications created exclusively for us concessionaire operating interpretive tours along the Park Road. Income from booklets fund educational programs at the new Murie Science and Learning Center. |
| 2003 | Denali Institute, offering experiential education programs in Denali National Park, merges with the Alaska Natural History Association to provide educational programs in the first year of the Murie Science and Learning Center located in the park.
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| 2004 | New partnership with US Geological Survey to operate map sales area in Anchorage. Direct aid and services to Alaska’s public lands $1.2 million. |
| 2005 | This Last Treasure by William E. Brown, re-released in celebration of the 25th anniversary of the passage of ANILCA, the landmark legislation, includes a preface from President Jimmy Carter. New raven-bear logo. Denali Institute changes its name to the Alaska Natural History Institutes, offering nine field seminars, three teacher trainings, and a variety of other education programs for families, Alaskans, and visitors. New 2,500 square foot bookstore opens in Denali National Park. Gross sales exceed 1 million dollars. |
| 2006 | Institutes’ experiential education programs expand beyond Denali National Park to the Tongass and Chugach National Forests in partnership with the USDA Forest Service, beginning with five accredited teacher trainings. |
| 2007 | Institutes launches week-long accredited course exploring the Aleutian Arc’s five national wildlife refuges, in partnership with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. Eight free visitor guides produced; 324,000 distributed. Projected services and direct aid to Alaska’s public lands: $2.7 million. |
| 2008 | Name changed to Alaska Geographic Association. New website launched. |
