Trace the history of the Denali region and the park from prehistory through the 1980 park expansion in this definitive history. Early park explorers, the challenges of the mountain, mining history, Charles Sheldon and the park movement, preparing for tourism, and protecting six million acres is all here at your fingertips, in this encyclopedic reference that is also highly readable. This book sets the standard for all that follow: the accuracy, attention to detail, classic historical photographs, and readable text all combine to make this a book worth having in your collection.

Bill Brown served as historian for the National Park Service for thirty years. His assignments as survey and field historian took him on long tours of the Southwest and Alaska, where he wrote major histories for Gates of the Arctic and Denali national parks. Still active with the park service, Brown writes and volunteers from his home in Gustavus, Alaska near the mouth of Glacier Bay.