Video
Stephen T. Mather Film Collection: Isle Royale (1925) and Mount McKinley (1926)
Descriptive Transcript
Although not identified in the film, these first scenes are at Isle Royale in 1925. A man in a suit and hat smiles and laughs at the camera. The scene changes to houses on an island. View of the island receding in the distance as a boat moves away from it. Views along the coast and of islands from a boat. Other houses and boats are filmed. Stephen T. Mather and two other men come into view. One holds a camera.
Mather and other men come out of a log cabin. One man brings a chair with him, sits in it, and smokes a pipe. Mather and three men walk outside the cabin. They stop and one of the men hands over a large, freshly caught fish and one of the men pays him for it. A fourth man appears dressed in a suit. They all admire the fish.
Close-up of the man sitting in the chair smoking his pipe as he talks and nods his head. Mather on the boat pushes a wooden lever repeatedly as one of the other men works the anchor chain. The scene shifts again to scenes of the islands and coast from the boat. Various buildings on shore. The boat is at the dock.
The film shifts to Mt. McKinley National Park (now Denali National Park) in 1926. A truck drives on a dirt road through a large timber entrance. Several cars are lined up as people mill around. At least two men and a woman can be seen. Although not identified in the film, they could be Mr. and Mrs. D.W. Roper and Clarence H. Norwood who are known to have accompanied Mather on this trip.
Sled dogs in their kennels. A boy approaches one dog and pets it. Although not identified in the film, this is Eugene Karstens, son of Superintendent Harry Karstens. A park ranger in uniform tends to the dogs. Two dogs are tied to a spinning log; for exercise they run in circles around the dog houses. One dog stands on his hind legs on the ranger’s chest. His tail wags and he tries to lick the ranger’s face. The ranger pets and plays with him. All the dogs are very excited.
A man who might be Stephen Mather is seen petting one of the dogs. Eugene Kastens pets a very large dog tied to the exerciser. In this front view, he appears to be wearing a mini ranger uniform (but with a different hat). A man comes and places pans of food on the ground in front of the dogs who eagerly eat. A black dog tied to a tree jumps playfully as the man approaches him with food.
At least five dogs sit outside six doghouses. A dog in the foreground is eating from a dish while those behind him look intently at someone offscreen, awaiting their dinner.
A park ranger in uniform stands outside a wooden building with a woman wearing a dress and Eugene. Although not identified in the film, the adults are probably Harry Karstens and his wife Louise. Logs are stacked on the porch.
Louise Karstens, now wearing a quasi NPS uniform, unloads a big fur coat from the bed of a truck. Eugune helps her put the coat on then takes another fur coat from the car and puts it on himself. They walk away from the camera past a large white tent. Large pairs of antlers can be seen resting against the platform base of a large tent in the background.
The US flag flies on a pole high above an area with large white tents. Rangers confer at the base of the flagpole. One of them points into the distance. Although not identified in the film, they are probably Superintendent Harry Karstens, Chief Ranger Fritz Nyberg, and the park’s clerk, Ralph Mackie.
Eugene feeds a bear as a little girl looks on. The bear stands on its hind legs straining to get to the food in Eugene’s hand but cannot, due to a collar and chain keeping him from moving closer.
Eugene feeds two chained bears by hand. An adult offscreen hands him more food. Wagons and carts can be seen in the background.
A small girl in a fur coat is watched from a distance by her mother. The tent buildings can be seen in the background.
The chains of the two bears are connected to the same end of a rotary exerciser. They play fight. One bear tries to climb the middle post then chases the other bear. They tumble together. On bear tries to climb to the top of the exerciser as the other chases it. It falls off and the two fight playfully together.
Two women and two children stand next to a cooking fire. The girl in the fur coat is one of the children. The other appears to be a teenage boy. The woman, who may be Mrs. Roper, adjusts a large handkerchief. The other may be Louise Karstens.
People sitting on the ground eating. The woman, eating a sandwich, is probably Mrs. Roper. A man sitting next to her, probably D.W. Roper, uses a saltshaker to salt a hard-boiled egg and eats it. Eugene and the unidentified girl are seen in the background. A wider shot reveals almost a dozen people, most park rangers in uniform, sitting on the ground. Stephen Mather can be seen.
The scene shifts to three men on horseback crossing a river. Another man on a horse leads two heavily laden with supplies. Although not identified in the film, this is probably the Toklat River.
The scene shifts to Mrs. and Mrs. Roper and a ranger standing at a campsite with several tents. The tents have log frames and chimneys from stoves inside the tents go through the roofs. Although not identified in the film, this is the Savage River Camp run by the McKinley Park Tourist and Transportation Company.
A couple, believed to be Mr. and Mrs. D.W. Roper, come out of a tent with binoculars. Another woman comes out of the dining tent carry a plate and waves at the camera. Not identified in the film, she may be Mrs. Bobby Sheldon who helped take care of tourists for the company. The scene shifts again, and she stands outside the tent entrance banging a metal basin with a utensil, creating a makeshift dinner gong. Outside the tent, a man in front of the tent packs a wooden crate. A row of four tents are seen and at least five people, including Stephen Mather, come running out of them in response to the dinner gong. The couple believed to be Mr. and Mrs. D.W. Roper come out of the same tent. They make their way quickly to the dining tent and enter. The man sitting outside continues to pack the wooden crate. The woman with the wash basin comes out holding a coffee pot and pancakes on a fork as a man rushes up to her, grabs the pancakes, and goes into the tent.
The scene shifts to a herd of mountain sheep on a hillside. Although not identified in the film, this is believed to be the slopes of Sable Pass.
Scene shifts again to mountain vistas revealing a snow-capped Denali (Mount McKinley). Although not identified in the film, this is believed to have been taken in Sable Pass, 35 miles from the mountain peak.
Several men work around a campfire to get it to light, adding wood shavings and kindling. A coffee pot is set up over the fire. Although not identified in the film, this was probably a camp along the Toklat River.
The scene shifts to a golden eagle on the side of a rocky mountain. Although grown, the bird is not yet ready to fly. A ranger tries to catch it, but it tries to fly away. Close-up views of the eagle. Two birds, probably white-tailed ptarmigans, are seen near a leafless tree.
A porcupine climbs a tree at the campsite on the Toklat River. The scene shifts to packing up camp as packers wrap blankets in canvas. A woman, probably Mrs. Roper, and a man stride into the dining tent. A ranger carries a large pile of branches on his shoulder.
The scene shifts to two men sitting outside a log cabin with a sod roof. Although not identified in the film, the men are probably Superintendent Harry Karstens and Chief Ranger Fritz Nyberg, and this is the cabin Charles Sheldon built in 1907 on the Toklat River. Karstens appears to be demonstrating how to pan for gold, without water. He stands up and grabs a sled that was leaning up against the cabin and shows it to Nyberg. As the two men walk away from the house, the river can be seen behind it. They approach a log platform nearby which has a horse tied to it. Although not identified in the film, this is probably the remains of a food cache. The men walk around many very low log structures. Although not identified in the film, these are the remains of dog houses which have been largely covered in gravel from the changing river course. Views of the cabin from the other side shows the partially collapsed sod roof. Karstens cleans up around the cabin.
A small log cabin, with collapsed entrance, has sheep skulls on the roof.
Description
Silent black-and-white home movies taken at Isle Royale and Mount McKinley (now Denali National Park). Isle Royale islands and buildings. Scenes at Mount McKinley include park rangers in uniform; family of rangers; sled dogs in their kennels; feeding bears; park headquarters area; Savage River Camp run by the McKinley Park Tourist and Transportation Company; and the cabin Charles Sheldon built on the Toklat River. Stephen Mather is in both films. Copyright transferred to the NPS.
Duration
16 minutes, 53 seconds
Credit
NPS History Collection (HFCA 1883)
Date Created
11/21/2024
Copyright and Usage Info
Tags
- harpers ferry center
- nps history collection
- nps history
- hfc
- historic film
- museum collection
- museum archives
- isle royale national park
- denali national park
- sled dogs
- toklat
- nps uniforms
- alaska wildlife
- golden eagle
- porcupine
- white-tailed ptarmigan
- bear
- feeding wildlife
- harry karstens
- stephen t. mather