Fourth Grade
Worksheets
Gates of the Arctic National Park and Preserve
In 1929, a United States forester named Bob Marshall came to Alaska. He was looking for "blank spaces on the map." He traveled to some isolated places in Alaska. Marshall wrote a book called Arctic Village. He thought the area was wonderful. He described it as a utopia, a perfect place. He called the area, guarded by two side-by-side mountains in the Brooks Range, "the Gates of the Arctic."
In the following years, people began to look for oil in Alaska. Some people who lived in Alaska were afraid that drilling for oil would spoil Alaska's beauty. They wanted to save Alaska's wilderness. In 1978, President Carter preserved the land as a national monument. Gates of the Arctic became a national park and preserve in 1980.
