Earth & climate

Establishment of Wrangell–St. Elias National Park and Preserve

1980

Wrangell–St. Elias National Park and Preserve in southeastern Alaska is the largest national park in the United States, larger than Switzerland, and includes a wilderness of mountains, volcanoes and glaciers. Nine of the sixteen highest peaks in the country are found there, including Mount St. Elias, and it holds the Malaspina Glacier, one of the largest piedmont glaciers in the world. The area was once important for copper mining, and the ghost town of Kennecott with its mill buildings is preserved. The park was established by the Alaska National Interest Lands Conservation Act, signed by President Carter. It forms, with Kluane in Canada, part of a vast World Heritage Site.

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