History

Lake Clark National Park and Preserve, was established on December 1st of 1978, by President Carter, and designed as a National monument. It became a park and preserve on December 2 of 1980, and enlarged through the Alaska National Park Interest Lands Convention Act. Lake clark was established to protect a region of dynamic geologic and ecological processes that create a scenic mountain landscape. The Athabascan people known as Dena’ina, had lived in the Lake Clark region for thousands of years. In 1903, the first permanent white resident arrived in Lake Clark. Like many who would follow him, Brown Carlson was a trapper and jack-of-all-trades who built a cabin and cultivated an impressive garden. During the first half of the twentieth century, people in the Lake Clark area continued to live on subsistence, mining, and trapping.