Denali Depot

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Denali Park Depot (formerly McKinley Park Station) is a seasonal passenger railroad station located within Denali National Park. It is adjacent to the visitor center and McKinley National Park Airport located in Denali Park. The station offers service for the Alaska Railroad's Denali Star route betw

een mid-May and Mid-September and the Aurora Winter Train in winter as a flag stop. Development of the area where the station would be began in 1914 as gold prospectors passed through going north. Mount McKinley National Park was established in 1917, and in 1921, the Alaska Engineering Commission selected the site near the intended park entrance at Riley Creek to become McKinley Park Station. The railroad to Fairbanks was completed in 1923. The railroad was the only way to reach the national park and the community known as McKinley Station or McKinley Park Station until the Denali Highway was completed in 1957. The first depot was a converted rail box car and was also the post office. President Warren G. Harding became the only sitting president to visit the national park when he briefly stopped at the station in July 1923. A rustic building was constructed to be the train depot in 1925...

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