• The Valley of Ten Thousand Smokes at Sunset, from the Griggs Visitor Center

    Katmai

    National Park & Preserve Alaska

Collections

The seal bone pictured here is an otolith, or ear bone.
This bone harpoon and seal ear bone are more than
6,000 years old. Fragile items like these must be
carefully conserved.
 

The Katmai National Park and Preserve museum collection consists of more than 400,000 objects—from an paleontological samples to 9,000-year-old artifacts. Collections staff also care for historic photographs, tapes and transcripts of oral history interviews, park archives, preserved small mammals, and other items reflecting the cultural and natural history of this unique place.

As of 2006, items in the collection are:
Archeological artifacts: 330,606
Ethnographic items: 64
Historical photos, artifacts, and documents: 3,181
Documents in the park archives: 82,795
Biological specimens: 2,050
Paleontological specimens: 133
Geological samples: 484
Total: 419,313

Many of these items are fragile and require special conservation. The museum specialists at Katmai National Park and Preserve ensure that these irreplaceable pieces of the past will be available to future generations.

Did You Know?

Novarupta

Katmai's Novarupta eruption was the largest eruption in the 20th century and is one of the five largest volcanic eruptions in recorded history (from Alaska Volcano Observatory, 2001).