Kantishna Roadhouse History

The Kantishna Roadhouse, located in what was once the downtown area of the gold mining town of Kantishna near the end of the Park Road, is the oldest standing building in Denali National Park and Preserve. The Kantishna Roadhouse represents the social history of Kantishna’s 1920s revival as a mining community and is one of the few intact buildings remaining from the historic mining era (1903–1942). In August 2018, the Roadhouse was placed on the National Register of Historic Places.

While the Kantishna region experienced a mining stampede in 1905–06, the region’s riches were not exhausted. Miners in larger numbers started returning to the Kantishna area in 1919 as a part of a substantial investment by Thomas Aitken in lode mining along Mineral Ridge (now known as Quigley Ridge). The lode claims were just north of the Roadhouse’s “downtown” Kantishna location, which was the hub of the Kantishna mining community. Many laborers came to Kantishna during this time to build the Kantishna dam and ditch as a part of a large hydraulic mining operation administered by James “Doc” Sutherland and the Kantishna Hydraulic Mining Company (KHMC).

Kantishna Post Office (circa 1921)

James Gordon Steese Papers, Archives and Special Collections, Dickinson College, Carlisle, PA

The two-story log Roadhouse (near mile 91 of the Denali Park Road) was constructed by Kantishna Mining Commissioner C. Herbert Wilson circa 1920, prior to the construction of the Park Road. The building is historically significant for its connection to Kantishna’s mining history. Wilson originally constructed the building to serve as his residence, but almost immediately, Wilson began operating a post office out of the building while serving as Postmaster of the Kantishna District from 1919 to 1922.

In the 1920s and 1930s, the Roadhouse also served as the central community building in the area and informally accommodated travelers and visitors if they needed a place to rest. Many of the mining reports produced by the territorial government and federal government during the 1920s used the “Kantishna Post Office” as a reference point when explaining the distance between Roosevelt and Kantishna—two substantial settlements that catered to miners as they navigated to claims in the Kantishna Hills from Nenana or Fairbanks.

The Kantishna Roadhouse, built in 1919 or 1920.

NPS/Erik Johnson, 2018

Everything changed in Kantishna in 1942 when Federal Order L-208 forced most of the gold mining industry to shut down during World War II to free up resources for the war effort. The order resulted in most large-scale mining in Kantishna to halt. The Roadhouse and the Kantishna settlement functioned differently following the War in part due to increased access to the area with the completion of the Park Road. Following the war commercial mining operations resumed in the area and the building continued to find use by local miners as living quarters and storage space until the 1980s. Following the passage of the Alaska National Interest Lands (ANILCA), the National Park Service acquired the Liberty Number One Mining Claim and the Kantishna Roadhouse. In 2020 the Roadhouse was exchanged out of Federal ownership and placed under stewardship with Doyon Limited, an ANCSA Corporation.