Collections

NPS photo

Denbigh projectile point from the Matcherak Lake archaeological site

Archaeology | History | Museum Collections | Subsistence

The museum collections for Gates of the Arctic serve to document the cultural and natural history of the Central Brooks Range and are used for research, interpretation, and resource management purposes. The largest of the collections are in archaeology and archives, followed by smaller collections in biology, paleontology, history, and ethnology. The majority of the collections are stored in a state of the art curation facility in the Fairbanks Administrative Center, while others are curated in partner repositories such as the University of Alaska Museum of the North (UAMN).

Gates of the Arctic has been described as a living landscape and the museum collections reflect this unique attribute. The cultural materials housed in the museum illuminate the details of human occupation of the central Brooks Range from modern times stretching back for over ten thousand years. The limited paleontological collections reach back even further. The biological collections, housed primarily at UAMN, provide a record of the combined arctic and sub-arctic ecology of the region. The extensive archive documents the creation and early years of the park and preserve as well as years worth of administrative activity including numerous resource management undertakings within the park.

Experience the Collections

Learn more about the collections here.