Last updated: March 4, 2023
Article
The McKinley Park Hotel

Photo courtesy of Wally Cole
1972 Hotel Fire
As seen in the 2019 fire that damaged Notre Dame Cathedral, fire often destroys important pieces of history. Denali witnessed such an event when its own important piece of history burned down in 1972.Just after 7pm on September 3, 1972, a fire was reported at the McKinley Park Hotel. Healy and National Park Service firefighters arrived to suppress the fire but not before the 84-room main section of the hotel was destroyed. A 1970 wing addition, with 48 rooms, sustained heavy smoke and water damage. Hotel staff safely evacuated the 265 hotel guests as well as 200 other visitors.
An investigation into the fire determined that faulty wiring started the fire in a false ceiling above the basement tavern and it slowly spread. Fire alarms went off several hours earlier but no fire was located and previous false fire alarms made hotel staff think there was nothing wrong.

DENA Museum Collection 12-26
History
In July 1937, Interior Secretary Harold Ickes used Works Progress Administration funds to begin building the McKinley Park Hotel. The hotel facility was located about 300 yards west of the train station and opened on June 1, 1939. The new hotel could accommodate up to 200 overnight guests and contained a large lobby, dining room, cocktail lounge, snack bar, facilities for rangers to conduct programs, an employee dormitory, and a power plant.[1]
Initially, the government-owned Alaska Railroad was in charge of managing the hotel, but from 1942 until 1945, the Army took over and used the facility as a year-round rest and recreation center. After World War II, the hotel continued to operate year-round. During the Korean War in the early 1950s, the Army and then the Air Force helped manage the hotel and again used it as a year-round rest camp [2]

USGS Library hca00205

DENA Museum Collection 30-22

DENA Museum Collection 30-13
Footnotes
[1] The Works Progress Administration (WPA) was a part of President Franklin Roosevelt’s New Deal program that carried out public works projects and employed millions of people. The hotel was located where the Denali Visitor Center parking lot is today.
[2] By the winter of 1950-51, an ice skating rink was built adjacent to the hotel, and a ski tow rope near the hotel pulled skiers up the south side of Mount Healy.
[3] Visitation went from 5,205 in 1956 to 25,906 in 1958. The George Parks Highway, which connected Anchorage and Fairbanks, was completed in the fall of 1971 and it cut the drive time to the park considerably. Between 1971 and 1973 visitation jumped from 44,528 to 137,300.
[4] The Hotel Powerhouse is also visible from the Park Road if you look southeast from the Murie Science and Learning Center crosswalk.