Denali's 90th Anniversary Summer Speaker Series Premiers on May 15

Date: May 9, 2007
Contact: Kris Fister, 907-683-9583

The National Park Service and its partners are hosting a special 90th Anniversary Summer Speaker Series as part of the year-long celebration of this significant milestone in Denali National Park and Preserve’s history. The series will feature seven Alaskan authors who have written about Denali’s cultural heritage and natural history from a variety of viewpoints. The presentations will take place in the Denali Visitor Center’s Karstens Theater approximately every two weeks and are free of charge.

Frank Norris, National Park Service historian and author of Crown Jewel of the North: An Administrative History of Denali National Park and Preserve, Volume I, will open this special series on Tuesday, May 15 at 7:30 p.m. His program, entitled “Managing Denali – 90 Years of Challenge and Hard Work”, is a broad overview of the park’s history, spotlighting key decisions and themes that have brought the park to its present day status.

The highly acclaimed first volume of Norris’ meticulously researched administrative history, published in 2006, examines how the park was conceived, established, and managed up to the passage of the Alaska National Lands Conservation Act (ANILCA) in 1980. A limited number of copies will be available for distribution and signing after the presentation. Volume Two will cover park management from the passage of ANILCA to the present, and is scheduled to be published in late 2007.

Norris works in the National Park Service's regional office in Anchorage. He's been an Alaska resident since 1983 and has written books and articles about homesteading, Alaska movies, gardening, and the Klondike gold rush.

The schedule for the rest of the speaker series is being finalized, and will be posted on the park’s website at www.nps.gov/dena, along with additional information on the park’s anniversary. The legislation creating the original Mount McKinley National Park was signed into law on February 26, 1917.

General information on the park and other activities is also available on the web site, or by calling the park headquarters at [phone] from 8:00 a.m. – 4:30 p.m. daily.

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