A small cabin is visible down the embankment on the south side of the road.
Common Question: Who lives in that cabin?
Answer: No one. This is an historical cabin, the same structure used in the 1930s by famous biologist Adolf Murie.(he used many others too) Sometimes park rangers or researchers stay there while studying wildlife in the park. This year, the park’s artists-in-residence will spend a number of weeks based out of this cabin.
Research Then: Adolf Murie came to Denali to study the sheep-wolf relationship. Murie ended up doing all the baseline research on park animals, both prey and predators and their interrelationships. To do this, he spent months watching wild animals, taking notes. Consequently much of his research centered on behavior.
Research Now: These days, research is a bit more invasive. Animals are tranquilized and radio-collared. Researchers take blood samples and check for disease, sex, age. Then they track the animal with a mobile radio. They concentrate on populations, mortality, fertility.
Many of the cabins throughout the park were either built by the National Park Service, or by the Alaska Road Commision when the park road was built in 1923-1939. Some of the cabins were used as cook shacks during road construction. These days, they are used during winter months when rangers are patrolling the park by dog team.
