49 Fun Facts About Katmai National Park

Katmai's headquarters town lies about 290 miles southwest of which Alaskan city?

The park's headquarters town sits about 290 air miles southwest of Anchorage on the Alaska Peninsula; with no road link to the rest of Alaska, nearly every visitor arrives by air from Anchorage.

Katmai protects about 2,200 of which animal, one of the world's largest protected populations?

Katmai's roughly 2,200 brown bears form one of the largest protected brown bear populations on Earth; strict food-storage rules keep them from learning to associate people with food.

Which fish draws the bears to Katmai's rivers each summer?

Sockeye salmon, the reds, enter the Naknek drainage in June and July and spawn from August to October; bears, eagles and anglers all feed on the run.

At which waterfall, a mile and a half from Naknek Lake, do bears famously catch leaping salmon?

Brooks Falls, on the short Brooks River between Brooks Lake and Naknek Lake, is where bears line the lip to snatch leaping sockeye; a dozen or more may gather in July, the peak month.

How high is the waterfall the salmon must leap on the Brooks River?

Brooks Falls drops only about 6 feet, yet that is enough to make sockeye leap and to let bears line its lip; the best viewing months are July and September.

What is the annual online contest in which the public votes for Katmai's fattest bruin?

Fat Bear Week, run each autumn with Explore.org's live webcams, pits Brooks River bears in a bracket; voters pick the bear that bulked up best for winter, and it has drawn over a million votes in a year.

The park's fat-bruin contest began in 2014 as what?

Ranger Mike Fitz launched it in 2014 as Fat Bear Tuesday, a one-day Facebook vote comparing before-and-after photos of a few bears; it grew into the week-long bracket in 2015.

Which patient, conflict-avoiding bear, number 480, won the park's fat-bruin vote four times?

Otis, bear 480, won in 2014, 2016, 2017 and 2021 by sitting patiently in his favourite 'office' below the falls and letting fish come to him; he was first identified in 2001.

A Katmai bear can eat as much as how much salmon in a single day during hyperphagia?

A Katmai bear in hyperphagia can eat up to 120 pounds of salmon, roughly 30 sockeye, in a day and gain several pounds daily; big males can top 1,000 pounds by autumn.

Roughly what fraction of its body weight can a bear lose during hibernation?

A hibernating bear can lose up to a third of its body weight, since it neither eats nor drinks until spring; that is why autumn fat matters so much, especially for pregnant females.

The 1912 eruption in what is now Katmai was the largest of the 20th century; which vent produced it?

Novarupta, a vent that opened six miles from Mount Katmai, produced the 1912 eruption; Mount Katmai got the credit for decades until Garniss Curtis's 1950s fieldwork traced the ash to the new vent.

The 1912 eruption released how many times the magma of Mount St. Helens in 1980?

Rated VEI 6, the 60-hour eruption threw out 3.1 to 3.6 cubic miles of ash; only Pinatubo and Santa María came close last century.

What happened to Mount Katmai during the 1912 eruption, even though the magma came out six miles away?

Magma drained from beneath it, leaving a caldera 2,000 feet deep; a glacier has since formed inside, one of the few born in historic times.

The ash-filled valley left by the 1912 eruption became known as the Valley of what?

The Valley of Ten Thousand Smokes got its name in 1916 from the countless fumaroles steaming from the cooling ash; most had died by the 1930s, and streams have since cut narrow gorges into the deposit.

How thick, at most, is the 1912 ash flow filling the Valley of Ten Thousand Smokes?

The 1912 ash flow buried about 40 square miles of the valley to depths from 100 feet up to about 700 feet, welding into tuff that streams have since cut into deep, narrow gorges.

The noise of the June 6, 1912 eruption was heard as far off as which city, 750 miles distant?

The blast was heard in Juneau, 750 miles away; ash fell about a foot deep on Kodiak, 100 miles off, collapsing roofs and turning day to night there for nearly three days.

Which botanist led the National Geographic expeditions that named the steaming ash valley?

He had come to study how plants recolonised the ash; a 7,602-foot volcano in the park is now named for him.

Which president signed the proclamation creating Katmai National Monument in September 1918?

Woodrow Wilson proclaimed Katmai National Monument on 24 September 1918 under the Antiquities Act, at Griggs's urging; its roughly 1 million acres were already half the size of Yellowstone.

Herbert Hoover's 1931 expansion more than doubled the monument and, crucially, added what?

Hoover's 1931 proclamation took the monument to about 2.7 million acres and, crucially, added the falls at Brooks Camp and the surrounding Naknek Lake country, protecting the bears' richest fishing grounds.

Under which 1980 law did Katmai gain its present park-and-preserve status?

The Alaska National Interest Lands Conservation Act of 2 December 1980 made Katmai a national park and preserve, after Jimmy Carter had added 1.37 million acres by proclamation in 1978.

How big are the park and preserve combined?

The park and preserve together cover about 4.1 million acres (4,093,077), roughly 6,400 square miles, most of it designated wilderness.

How many volcanoes does the park contain, seven of them active since 1900?

Katmai holds 18 volcanoes, seven of them active since 1900; Mount Martin and Mount Mageik carry persistent fumaroles that steam on clear days.

What is the tallest point in the park, at 7,605 feet?

Mount Denison, a 7,605-foot stratovolcano in the park's north-east, tops Mount Griggs by a few feet; Mount Katmai itself is only 6,716 feet after its summit collapsed in 1912.

Which volcanic complex in the park erupted from 1953 to 1974, adding a new southwestern peak?

Trident's eruptions from 1953 to 1974 built a new cone, Southwest Trident, on the flank of the older complex, which stands between Mount Mageik and Mount Katmai.

Where is the park's headquarters, about five miles down the Naknek River from the entrance?

The local highway links Naknek Lake to the town and to Naknek but not to the state road system.

What is the name of the developed area where the vast majority of Katmai visitors go?

Brooks Camp, on the shore of Naknek Lake at the mouth of the Brooks River, has the lodge, campground and the bear-viewing platforms that draw most of the park's visitors, many on day trips by floatplane.

Which body of water separates the park from Kodiak Island?

Shelikof Strait, the stormy channel between the Alaska Peninsula and Kodiak Island, bounds Katmai's coast, which runs some 497 miles from Kamishak Bay south to Cape Kubugakli.

Which state bear sanctuary, closed to hunting, adjoins the park at Kamishak Bay?

McNeil River State Game Sanctuary, created in 1967 and expanded in 1993, adjoins Katmai's northern boundary; its falls draw dozens of brown bears in July, viewed by permit lottery only.

Which bear enthusiast and his girlfriend were killed and partly eaten by a bear at Kaflia Bay, Katmai, in 2003?

Timothy Treadwell, who had spent 13 summers among Katmai's bears, and Amie Huguenard were killed at Kaflia Bay in October 2003; an audio recording captured the attack.

Which director made Grizzly Man, the 2005 documentary about a bear enthusiast's life and death in Katmai?

He speculated in the film about whether Treadwell had filmed the very bear that killed him.

Which 1989 disaster sent oil onto Katmai's coast, reaching Cape Douglas on April 26?

The tanker grounded in Prince William Sound on March 24; skimmers were working the strait by early May.

Which village on Naknek Lake's upper arm was abandoned after the 1912 ash fall?

Savonoski, on the Iliuk Arm of Naknek Lake, was buried in ash in 1912; its people fled downriver and founded New Savonoski near South Naknek, leaving the old site an archaeological ruin.

Which Jesuit 'Glacier Priest' filmed Katmai's steaming ash valley and lectured about it until the 1950s?

He was among the first tourists in 1928, when a few dozen visitors a year found their way to the unstaffed monument.

In which year did the park finally get a full-time, on-site superintendent?

The first ranger, in 1937, spent most of June getting there and one day in the monument before heading back to Mount McKinley.

Which famous photograph of a Katmai bear catching a salmon in mid-air was taken by Thomas Mangelsen?

Thomas Mangelsen's 'Catch of the Day', shot at Brooks Falls in 1988, froze a sockeye an instant from a bear's open jaws and became one of the best-known wildlife photographs.

Which fault divides the peninsula's foundation rocks in the park?

The Bruin Bay fault crosses the park: Jurassic and Cretaceous sedimentary rocks lie east of it, older metamorphic and igneous rocks west, with the granite Aleutian Range batholith intruded through both.

Which wild river, designated under federal law, originates at Kukaklek Lake in the preserve?

The Alagnak, designated a Wild River in 1980 under ANILCA, leaves Kukaklek Lake in the preserve and runs west to join the Kvichak River; its braided lower reaches earned it the nickname Branch River.

Which activity is permitted in Katmai's 418,548-acre preserve but banned in the national park?

Sport and subsistence hunting are allowed in the 418,548-acre preserve under ANILCA but not in the park; brown bears and moose are hunted there, raising concern for the preserve's small bear numbers.

Which Katmai bear, number 128, won Fat Bear Week in both 2023 and 2024?

Grazer, bear 128, a fiercely protective mother, took back-to-back Fat Bear Week titles in 2023 and 2024, beating bear 32 Chunk in both finals.

The 1912 eruption ended with what plugging the vent?

The dome is about 295 feet high and 1,180 feet across, sitting inside a 1.2-mile-wide funnel-shaped crater.

Which traders replaced the Russians in the park area in the late 19th century?

The Alaska Commercial Company took over the Russian-American Company's posts after the 1867 purchase and ran the Katmai Village trading station until the village was abandoned after 1912.

Which National Park Service director commissioned the 1960s report Operation Great Land, which urged expanding Katmai?

George Hartzog, director from 1964 to 1972, commissioned the 1965 study Operation Great Land, which urged new and larger Alaskan parks; Lyndon Johnson added 94,547 acres to Katmai by proclamation in January 1969.

In early summer, which plants do coastal Katmai bears graze before the salmon arrive?

Coastal bears at Hallo Bay and Geographic Harbor spend June grazing sedges, whose protein-rich spring growth tides them over until the sockeye arrive; they also dig razor clams on the tidal flats.

Katmai's area falls between those of which two US states?

The park and preserve cover 4,093,077 acres, most of it designated wilderness.

Which Katmai volcano's steam explosions in September 2006 were its first in about 10,000 years?

Fourpeaked Mountain, near the park's northern coast, broke a silence of some 10,000 years with steam-and-ash explosions on 17 September 2006, its first eruption in recorded history.

In which year was the 4,500-year-old Brooks Camp archaeological site made a National Historic Landmark?

The Brooks River Archeological District, with house pits going back about 4,500 years, was listed on the National Register in 1977 and designated a National Historic Landmark in 1993.

How much rain can fall annually near Katmai's coast, where precipitation is heaviest?

Annual precipitation reaches about 60 inches along Katmai's Shelikof Strait coast, far more than the roughly 20 inches at King Salmon on the drier Bristol Bay side; summer highs average about 63 °F.

Russian fur traders met the Aglegmuit people on the shores of which body of water?

Russian traders met the Yup'ik Aglegmuit on Bristol Bay, where the Naknek River enters the sea, while on the Shelikof Strait side they dealt with the Alutiiq (Koniag) at Katmai Village.

How wide is the largest of Mount Griggs's three concentric craters?

The flat-topped 7,602-foot stratovolcano sits off the park's otherwise straight line of volcanoes and has a distinct geochemistry.