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50 free Wrangell-St. Elias National Park trivia questions with answers — geography quiz, new questions added Aug 2026.
This Wrangell-St. Elias National Park trivia quiz covers the biggest national park in the United States, a 13-million-acre slab of Alaska larger than nine states that runs from tidewater to the second-highest peak in North America. It ranges across the volcanoes of the Wrangells, the record-setting Malaspina, Hubbard and Nabesna glaciers, the Bagley Icefield, the McCarthy and Nabesna roads, and the Ahtna, Eyak and Tlingit peoples who lived here first. There is plenty of history too: Vitus Bering's 1741 landfall, the Russian copper hunters, Lieutenant Allen's 1885 expedition, the green hillside that became the Kennecott mines and the Alaska Syndicate of Morgan and Guggenheim, the 195-mile railway to Cordova, the ghost-town years, Jimmy Carter's 1978 monument and the bitter fight over the 1980 lands act, plus the World Heritage listing shared with Canada's Kluane. Questions run from easy to expert with the difficulty shown on each one, so it works for a long drive down the McCarthy Road or a serious park-nerd challenge. Every answer was checked against a reference page and each question carries its citation. If you enjoy it, try our Denali, Glacier Bay and US National Parks quizzes next.
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Q 01Wrangell-St. Elias National Park is in which U.S. state?
Alaska
It sits in the south-central part of the state, reachable by highway from Anchorage.
Q 02What superlative does the park hold among all U.S. national parks?
Greatest area
At more than 13 million acres it is bigger than nine U.S. states and about the size of Croatia.
Q 03Roughly how many acres do the park and preserve cover together?
About 13.2 million
The park portion alone is larger than the 47 smallest national parks combined.
Q 04What is the park's high point, the second-tallest mountain in both the U.S. and Canada?
Mount St. Elias
At 18,008 feet it straddles the border with a Canadian national park.
Q 05How tall is the park's highest peak?
18,008 feet
Only Denali stands taller on the continent, and the peak rises that high within about 10 miles of tidewater.
Q 06Which Italian nobleman led the first ascent of Mount St. Elias on July 31, 1897?
The Duke of the Abruzzi
Photographer Vittorio Sella went along; the first winter ascent did not come until February 1996.
Q 07Which Danish-born Russian explorer's expedition made the first European sighting of Mount St. Elias?
Vitus Bering
Whether Bering named it or later mapmakers borrowed the cape's name is still argued.
Q 08Which is the only volcano in the park's western range still considered active?
Mount Wrangell
Its ice-filled summit caldera vents steam, and small eruptions were reported in 1784, 1884-85 and 1900.
Q 09What 16,390-foot peak is the highest in the Wrangell Mountains?
Mount Blackburn
It is also the oldest volcano in the range, active between 4.2 and 3.4 million years ago.
Q 10Most of the peaks in the western Wrangells are of which unusually large, gently sloped volcanic type?
Shield volcanoes
Unusually for subduction volcanoes they erupted quietly, and glaciers have since carved most of them into sharper shapes.
Q 11Which glacier in the park is the largest piedmont glacier in North America?
Malaspina
It spills out onto the coastal plain by Yakutat Bay and is now stagnant or retreating.
Q 12Which 75-mile glacier is Alaska's longest tidewater glacier and a cruise favourite in Yakutat Bay?
Hubbard
Unlike most of the park's ice it has been advancing since 1894 and has twice dammed Russell Fjord.
Q 13Which glacier in the park is the world's longest valley glacier, at more than 53 miles?
Nabesna
It flows off the highest peak in the Wrangells toward the gravel road that shares its name.
Q 21Which president proclaimed Wrangell-St. Elias a national monument in December 1978?
Jimmy Carter
He proclaimed 17 monuments in the state at once after a home-state senator threatened to filibuster the lands bill.
Q 22Which 1980 law formally established the park and preserve?
Alaska National Interest Lands Conservation Act
Rep. Morris Udall's first version in 1977 had proposed a 14-million-acre park.
Q 23What is the chief activity allowed on preserve land but banned on park land?
Sport hunting
Q 14Roughly what share of the state's glacier ice lies within the park's mountain ranges?
About 60%
The Bagley Icefield, North America's largest subpolar icefield, covers much of the interior.
Q 15Which abandoned copper boomtown at the centre of the park is a National Historic Landmark district?
Kennecott
Its name is a misspelling of the neighbouring Kennicott Glacier that stuck; the mill buildings were landmarked in 1986.
Q 16Roughly what grade of copper did the ore at the park's famous mine assay at when first found, among the richest ever?
70%
Prospectors Jack Smith and Clarence Warner reportedly spotted a green stain on the hillside that turned out to be the lode.
Q 17Which two financiers backed engineer Stephen Birch's mine as a syndicate?
J. P. Morgan and the Guggenheims
They put in more than $30 million for a railway, a steamship line and the mines.
Q 18How long was the railway built to haul the mine's ore to the coast at Cordova?
195 miles
It took five years and $23.5 million, and two towns grew up along the line.
Q 19In what year did the great copper operation finally shut down?
1938
It had produced 600,000 tons of copper and a $100 million net profit for the investors.
Q 20Uniquely, the copper miners recovered some ore by digging it out of what?
Glacial ice
The glacier had scraped ore off the surface deposit and locked it in the ice.
Subsistence hunting by local rural residents is allowed in both.
Q 24Which Canadian park adjoins Wrangell-St. Elias on its eastern border?
Kluane
Together with Glacier Bay and Tatshenshini-Alsek they form a single UNESCO listing.
Q 25Roughly how many visitors did the park receive in 2018?
About 79,000
For the largest park in the country, that is a tiny number; Great Smoky Mountains gets more in two days.
Q 26Which two rough gravel roads are the only significant routes into the park's interior?
McCarthy Road and Nabesna Road
Some rental-car agencies still ban their vehicles from the 60-mile McCarthy Road.
Q 27How do visitors reach the old mill town from the end of the McCarthy Road?
By footbridge
McCarthy itself had 107 residents in the 2020 census, up from 28 in 2010.
Q 28Which town at the McCarthy Road and Edgerton Highway junction is the park's gateway on the Copper River?
Chitina
The park headquarters and main visitor centre are at Copper Center, mile 106.8 of the Edgerton Highway.
Q 29Which is the only Park Service-managed campground in the entire park?
Kendesnii
Backcountry camping needs no permit, and there are fourteen public-use cabins, most reachable only by air.
Q 30Roughly what share of the park and preserve is designated wilderness, the largest single wilderness in the US?
About two-thirds
That is just over 9 million acres.