Road section removed at Alaska’s Katmai National Park to protect archaeological sites

A section of road that was improperly built in 2014 is seen in this photo. The 200-foot section was removed this summer to allow restoration of natural conditions and protect two known archaeological features. (Photo by Matt Johnson/National Park Service)

A 200-foot piece of dirt road that was punched into Katmai National Park and Preserve 10 years ago has been removed so the site can be revert to its natural state, protecting archaeological features there.

The small bit of road near Lake Brooks was built by mistake, without proper consultation with regional Native tribes and Native organizations, the National Park Service said. It wound up covering parts of two underground sod homes, sites known in Alutiiq culture as ciqluaqs and in Russian as barabaras.

Originally intended as tool to shorten an existing service road and help keep vehicles from getting too close to an historic cabin that had been hit a couple of times by buses, the road section was never actually used, said Mark Sturm, Katmai’s superintendent. The problems it caused became apparent shortly after it was built in the summer of 2014, he said.

“It was not appropriate for us to have done that, and certainly not to have done it in the absence of having done our due diligence,” said Sturm, who was not at Katmai at the time. Construction of the road section “upset a bunch of people,” he said.

“The biggest thing that we did wrong was to have done that work without having done proper consultation and without having done proper historic preservation,” he said.

The removal, which was completed last week, required some delicate work, including some hand digging around the two barabara sites, Sturm said. It was also the subject of an agreement between several Native organizations and the park, and a tribal representative monitored the work, according to the park.

Beyond this bit of road, the park has reformed its practices to ensure proper tribal consultation and prevent any similar problems in the future, Sturm said. “We have our ducks in our row,” he said. “We’re doing it right now.”

Katmai National Park and Preserve, which sprawls over 4 million acres, is known for its salmon-eating bears, its lakes and its volcanic landscapes. It is the setting for an annual online event called Fat Bear Week , which has drawn global audiences of people casting their votes for the bears considered to have been most successful at packing on weight in preparation for winter hibernation.

Katmai has been part of the U.S. national park system for more than a century. It was established as a national preserve in 1918, then expanded several times later until it was established in its present form through the 1980 Alaska National Interest Lands Conservation Act.

SUBSCRIBE: GET THE MORNING HEADLINES DELIVERED TO YOUR INBOX