Aniakchak National Monument and Preserve

Aniakchak National Monument and Preserve is located about southwest of Anchorage, Alaska, on the Alaska Peninsula. It is not accessible by road, except from Port Heiden, a nearby village, and then only to the outer flanks of the caldera. The only ways to reach the monument are by floatplane to lakes, particularly Surprise Lake, or sheltered coastal waters, or by boat or airplane to coastal towns near preserve lands followed by overland or overwater traverse. Notoriously bad weather makes access to Aniakchak unpredictable. Drop-offs and pick-ups may be significantly delayed. There are no permanent facilities in the monument and the NPS does not require visitor registration. Visitor services are provided by the interagency King Salmon Visitor Center in King Salmon, Alaska, shared with Lake Clark National Park, Katmai National Park and Preserve, and other National Park Service and U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service units and Alaska local and state agencies. The monument adjoins the Alaska Peninsula National Wildlife Refuge on its northeast and southwest sides. Monument lands amount to , and preserve lands . The national monument is centered on the diameter crater of ancient Mount Aniakchak, which was destroyed and the resulting crater formed during a caldera collapse event about 3,700 years ago. The original mountain, about tall, collapsed into its magma chamber, leaving an approximate deep summit crater. (The elevation of the high point on the crater rim, Aniakchak Peak, is approximately 4,380 feet. The elevation of the low point of the caldera floor, at the mouth of Surprise Lake and the beginning of the Aniakchak River, is approximately 1,055 feet.) The monument and surrounding preserve include the volcanic feature, the wild Aniakchak River, the Bristol Bay coastal habitat, and portions of the coast of the Pacific Ocean. Prominent features within Aniakchak crater include Surprise Lake and the Gates (the cleft in the caldera rim through which the Aniakchak River flows from Surprise lake to the Pacific Ocean) and Vent Mountain. The Aniakchak River flows 30 miles to Aniakchak Bay on the coast and can be navigated by inflatable raft or kayak. Upper stretches of the river drop as much as 75 feet per mile and narrow to as little as 15 feet. Lower sections widen into meandering oxbows at sections within view of Cape Horn. Geology The monument and preserve include four major physiographic regions. The monument is centered on the mountains of the Aleutian Range and Aniakchak Crater. The volcano's caldera presents an active volcanic and geothermal landscape and Surprise Lake, the source of the Aniakchak River. Extending outward from the mountains are the glacially altered river valleys. The coastline region extends for along the southeastern side of the peninsula where it faces the Pacific Ocean. The mountain spine of the Aleutian Range consists of uplifted mountains of moderate height, reaching . The mountain environment is predominantly alpine tundra. Superimposed on the mountain chain are a series of volcanoes, the largest of which is the remnant of Mount Aniakchak, now largely collapsed into its caldera, the floor of which lies about above sea level. The caldera was once partly filled by a crater lake that covered about 50% of the crater. The caldera wall was eventually breached, leading to a catastrophic flood as the lake drained. Its remnant is Surprise Lake, the source of the Aniakchak River. The river valley zones are subdivided into southeastern and northwestern areas. On the southeast side, the rivers fall steeply through volcanic ash deposits where vegetation has largely recolonized the areas devastated by the volcano's eruption. On the northwest side, the rivers are more gently sloped and the land is boggy with lush vegetation. The southeast coastal region is deeply indented, with coastal cliffs, headlands and islands. Three large bays are the remnants of earlier volcanic craters. The two larger bays are Aniakchak and Amber Bays, and the smaller is Kejulik Bay. All have cinder-covered beaches between the sea and large freshwater lagoons. ==Ecology==

The Alaska Peninsula climate is cool and wet. Regular Pacific Ocean storms produce estimated annual precipitation exceeding along the coast, with more precipitation probable in the mountains. The weather is typically cloudy and windy, producing low ceilings and rough waters that make both aviation and boating hazardous. Encompassing coastal and mountain habitats, Aniakchak is home to a wide variety of plants and animals. Large terrestrial animals include caribou, Alaskan moose, brown bears, wolf packs and wolverines. Marine mammals include harbor seals, sea lions and sea otters. The 1931 volcanic eruption at Vent Mountain within the crater disrupted plant communities around the volcano, which are now recovering and which are the subject of scientific research. ==History==

The prehistory of the Aniakchak area is only beginning to come to light as a result of recent archaeological surveys funded by the National Park Service. Present-day native residents consider themselves to be of Aleut ancestry, but linguistic studies indicate that they are related to the similarly named Alutiiq people of Peninsula Yup'ik ancestry. Currently, there is no evidence to suggest when Alutiiq-speaking people first arrived in the region. Archaeological data reveal that the entire central Alaska Peninsula was occupied, abandoned, and re-colonized numerous times, perhaps in response to recurrent catastrophic volcanism and subsequent processes of ecological succession. Nothing is known of the people who lived in the area prior to the 3,700 BP eruption of the Aniakchak volcano. Because there is ample evidence for human habitation in areas nearby, prior to the caldera-forming eruption, it is unlikely that the Aniakchak region was uninhabited. However, the eruption fundamentally altered the landscape, and likely buried the pre-eruption evidence for human activity under many meters of volcanic debris. Lands nearest the caldera were largely uninhabited for millennia: the Pacific Coast was re-colonized by approximately 2000 years ago while the Meshik River drainage was re-colonized approximately 1700 years ago. The cultural affiliations of these colonists have not yet been determined, however it is likely that different people moved into the area at different times. Russian exploration of Alaska began in the mid-18th century, with fur traders arriving shortly afterwards to take advantage of the sea otters that populated the coast. Traders and native trappers took sea otters along both sides of the Aleutian peninsula. The first recorded mention of the Aniachak region appears in an 1827 atlas, which notes "Baie Amah-chak" and "Cap Kumlik". In 1831 the coast was mapped by the Russian Navy and followed up by two more expeditions in the 1840s. The region was mostly avoided through the rest of the 19th century, apart from a few fur trappers who did not prosper. A follow-up article by Barrett Willoughby in the Saturday Evening Post entitled "The Moon Craters of Alaska" discussed Hubbard's expedition to Aniakchak and nearby Mount Veniaminof in greater detail. National Park Service director Horace M. Albright and his then-assistant Arno B. Cammerer saw the stories and started preparation of documents to proclaim a national monument under the Antiquities Act. After the proposed boundary was altered to exclude regions thought by the USGS to be potential oil sources, the proposed monument was circulated among other federal and territorial agencies for comment. Although there was no particular objection to the monument, there was no strong push for the designation, and the Aniakchak project was shunted aside in favor of a proclamation expanding Katmai National Monument. The proposal for a national recreation area was in part a response to concerns that national monument designation would prohibit sport hunting. An early version of the Alaska National Interest Lands Conservation Act (ANILCA), introduced in 1977, addressed the hunting issue by proposing a national monument in the core of the area around the caldera and a national preserve, which would allow sport hunting, in adjacent areas. By late 1978 the bill had become stalled in Congress. With a deadline approaching for the disposition of the lands, President Jimmy Carter was compelled to act. Aniakchak National Monument was proclaimed on December 1, 1978, by Carter using his authority under the Antiquities Act. The monument covered , excluding the area between the caldera and the coast. In 1980 the Alaska National Interest Lands Conservation Act (ANILCA) was finally passed, establishing the unit as a national monument surrounded by a larger national preserve that extended to the coast on the south side of the peninsula. The monument allows subsistence hunting by local residents in most areas and the preserve allows both subsistence and sport hunting. In 1989 the Exxon Valdez oil spill brought oil contamination to the Aniakchak coast. The spill took place on March 24, but oil did not reach the coast of the preserve until July 2. Roughly two thirds of the of coast were oiled, but not heavily. Cleanup continued from 1989 into 1990. Aniakchak has the lowest visitor total of any publicly open national park unit in the United States. The number of people actually entering the area is certainly higher, the result of subsistence hunting policies which do not count subsistence hunters, and a few commercial hunting guides hold commercial use permits in the preserve. The National Park Service manages Aniakchak through Katmai National Park and its superintendent. Historic structures The Aniakchak Bay Historic Landscape District, also known as the Aniakchak Bay House Pits, surrounds the Aniakchak River from Aniakchak Crater to Aniakchak Bay. It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1997. The site includes the former Columbia River Packers Association cabin at the mouth of the river and surrounding lands, for a total of 10 contributing properties. Archaeological surveys of the area have turned up evidence of native occupation over the last 2000 years. File:Ania surprise lake 20060809205205.JPG|Surprise Lake within the Aniakchak Caldera. File:Aniakchak National Monument and Preserve.jpg|Natural-colour satellite image of Aniakchak National Monument and Preserve. ==See also==