Nature
Wrangell–St. Elias National Park and Preserve in south-central Alaska is the largest unit managed by the National Park Service and the largest national park and preserve in the United States, encompassing major mountain ranges, immense icefields, river valleys, and remote coast. Nearly two-thirds of it is designated wilderness, and the area contains towering peaks, vast glaciers, and about 60 percent of Alaska’s permanently ice-covered terrain. Its dramatic landscape was formed by volcanism, glaciation, and ongoing tectonic uplift. Human history is centered at Kennecott, where a major copper deposit was mined from 1903 to 1938. Protected first as a national monument in 1978, it became a park and preserve in 1980.
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McCarthy, Alaska · United States
