Guest speakers, James Edward Mills and Dr. Carolyn Finney, joined us once again this past July, this time to celebrate the 10th anniversaries of their respective books: The Adventure Gap and Black Faces, White Spaces. The timing of their visit also happened to be the 60th anniversaries of two landmark pieces of federal legislation, the Civil Rights Act and the Wilderness Act, and 60 years since the first African American, Dr. Charles Crenchaw, summited Denali. As scholars of racial equity and inclusion in the history of land stewardship in the U.S., James and Carolyn shared important and too often untold perspectives on how Black Americans have figured into the history of land conservation and how essential access and inclusion in the outdoors is for all people. Below is James’ lovely reflection on his and Carolyn's week spent at Camp Denali.
Camp Denali ~ An Inclusive Backcountry Lodge Since 1952
In the summer of 2024, I spent more than a week traveling through Alaska’s Denali National Park with my long-time friend and colleague, Dr. Carolyn Finney. Our careers as scholars of racial diversity, equity and inclusion in the history and management of public land, sometime afford us the opportunity to have an all-expenses paid excursion through exquisitely beautiful spaces in the United States and around the world. Our work aims to share our research, reporting and personal experiences to help others understand the urgency of making our natural recreation areas accessible to everyone. On this occasion, our hosts were the owners and staff of Camp Denali.
Founded in 1952 by Celia Hunter, Ginny Wood, and Morton “Woody” Wood, this backcountry resort aims to provide its guests with an immersive wilderness experience. Set deep within the park boundaries but on privately managed land, Camp Denali is just two miles from Wonder Lake with a captivating view of the mountain that the Native Athabascan people call “The Great One.” Over several days, we enjoyed a variety of delicious meals, and rigorous hiking excursions, along the trails of a magnificent landscape.
This stunning site in the Alaskan wilderness has special meaning for me. It was near this location, in 1964, where Dr. Charles Madison Crenchaw began his ascent of Mount McKinley today called Denali – to become the first Black climber to reach the summit of the highest peak in North America.
As guests of Camp Denali, Carolyn and I are among a series of featured storytellers who are invited each year to share our work. Other authors who have visited here include our friends Dr. Drew Lanham, a McArthur Genius Grant recipient, and Yosemite National Park Ranger, Shelton Johnson. By shear coincidence this year was the 10th anniversary of the publication of both my and Carolyn’s books, respectively, The Adventure Gap and Black Faces/White Spaces. Presenting as a team for the first time, we gave informative talks and led discussions on the importance of creating an environmental ethos that includes the interests and cultural contributions of all people. As an expansion of the Land Ethic – proposed in the last century by Aldo Leopold, a professor of environmental studies at the University of Wisconsin Madison (where I also teach) – this idea reflects the values and traditions of Native Americans whose stewardship of the natural world dates back more than 10 millennia.
In our talks to the Alaska Roads Scholars at the Denali Education Center and the visitors of Camp Denali, Carolyn and I made a compelling case for the preservation of public land as prescribed by the founding principles of the National Park Service: “for benefit and enjoyment of the people.” And we mean all people.
For more than 70 years, the owners of Camp Denali have worked diligently to make this corner of Alaska as accessible as possible. Near the village of Kantishna, at the end of the Park Road, and 90 miles from the park entrance in Healy, the camp is extremely remote. Still, our hosts, the current owners and operators, Simon and Jenna Hamm, provide amenities of food and lodging that seem luxurious in this rustic setting. Prepared by talented chefs, the meals are comprised of locally sourced ingredients that include organic greens and vegetables from their own greenhouse, as well as fish, meat and poultry from Alaska. The fresh baked bread and deserts are especially decadent with everything from homemade ice cream to a moist and rich Tiramisu.
Each day, guests are invited to enjoy scenic hikes of varying lengths and degrees of intensity. My favorite is a steep climb up a rugged trail along the ridge above the compound of rustic cabins. On a clear day, from the top, you can get a fully unobstructed view of the entire Alaska Range. Other guided hikes, with trained naturalists, offer sojourns into the park, out on the tundra, at stops easily accessible from the single-lane road.
Sadly, since the Pretty Rocks Landslide of 2021, the road into the park has become impassible from the entrance after about mile 45. The only way to make it this far into Denali is by private airplane. When such a remote location is made even more difficult to reach, it is a critical time to discover new ways to ease the limitations of accessibility. The disparities of visitation to Denali National Park, along racial and socio-economic lines as well as accessible transportation, are exacerbated by the collapse of this vital public highway.
In addition to the expense of air travel and lodging, access to our national parks is encumbered by the cost of camp site reservations and a complicated system of booking backcountry permits. These barriers disproportionately impact of those modest means regardless of race or ethnicity. It is under these circumstances that we must reflect upon how we can bring these majestic places into the lives of those who need them most. I am grateful that Carolyn and I can inspire others to visit through the power of our stories. If we learn more about how these disparities of access to the outdoors came to be, perhaps we can find ways to remove them.
Though known formally since 1917 as Mount McKinley, this snow-capped range was reaffirmed to its original Athabascan name, Denali, in 2016 by President Barack Obama. Designated the year following the creation of the National Park Service in 1916, we must recognize that this land in the Alaskan wilderness, stolen from Native people, was being managed by an institution that was racially segregated. Under the discriminatory policies established by then President Woodrow Wilson, at the dawn of the Jim Crow Era, Black Americans would be ineligible to serve as National Park Rangers until 1953. Moreover, many parks denied people of color access to public land for activities such as camping or backpacking. Even after the Brown V.S. Board of Education decision by the U.S. Supreme Court ended legal discrimination in public accommodation in 1954, many of the communities near national parks, and other recreation areas, would prohibit Black Americans from visiting these sites until the passage of the Civil Rights Act on July 2, 1964.
Our visit this month to Denali is particularly fortuitous because it coincides with the 60th anniversary of the first Black American Ascent of Mt McKinley. On July 9, 1964, Dr. Charles Madison Crenchaw reached the summit seven days after the Civil Rights Act was signed into law by President Lyndon Johnson. A historical moment witnessed by Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. It was less than a year earlier, on August 28, 1963, at the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom, that King defined his dream of a great American nation in which we might, “Let freedom ring from every mountainside.”
Here, not far from Camp Denali, Crenchaw, and a team of 14 fellow climbers, began their ascent of the mountain. From Wonder Lake, with packs of equipment weighing over 80 pounds, they walked across the tundra and over the McKinley River to the Muldrow Glacier. During our hikes into the park, I traversed with Carolyn and the other guests along the same path, now a well-established system of trails and a lengthy boardwalk. Here, at the height of the Jim Crow era, Crenchaw overcame the limitations of bigotry and the resistance he likely faced to become the personification of King’s mountain-inspired dream.
The founders of Camp Denali, Celia Hunter and Ginny Wood, served in World War II as Women Airforce Service Pilots (the WASPs). They faced a variety of obstacles because of their gender, but these two women persisted in their efforts to create a community where everyone could feel welcome. “When they established this place, they didn’t care if you were a man or woman or what color you were,” said the current co-owner, Simon Hamm. “If you could get here, you were welcome to be here. That’s all that mattered.”
Camp Denali was established shortly after the National Parks Service was formally desegregated. Even during the Jim Crow era all people were invited to spend time there. Two photographs taken in 1961 indicate that at least one visitor to the Camp was a Black man. Unfortunately, the image is uncaptioned, so we don’t know his name, who he was or why he was there. From the photograph, standing with co-founder Morton Wood, it’s not clear if he was there as part of the construction crew or as a visitor enjoying the landscape within an inclusive community. The impression you get from the photograph, however, is that he belonged there. Wearing a fur-collared fleece bomber jacket at the Kantishna airfield, the man might have also been a pilot. Like Charles Crenchaw, he could have been a member of the Tuskegee Airmen during the war and came to Alaska to enjoy the peace and freedom of an arctic wilderness. For whatever reason he was there the man was welcomed. Three years later in 1964, Crenchaw himself might have visited this place following his return from the summit of Denali.
In sharing our stories, Carolyn and I hope to show that people of color have always found our place in the outdoors. Despite the challenges imposed by the limitations of time and money, as well as the indignities of past discrimination, it’s worth the effort to visit these spaces of natural beauty preserved for each of us to enjoy. At the core of our relationship with the outdoors is our ability to make one another feel safe and welcome. Hospitality at Camp Denali is expressed through good food, warm beds and thoughtfully guided explorations of a true wilderness.
Co-owner Jenna Hamm says the first step toward protecting the natural environment she loves is ensuring everyone can experience it. “For those of us who live in these beautiful places,” she said, “we have an obligation to share it.”
Since I first visited this wonderful place in 2013, the Hamm Family has been exceptionally supportive of my work. As a freelance writer of humble means, I can’t afford the asking price of even a single night’s stay at this amazing facility. But as a scholar of various topics they are eager to share with their guests, I can offer a great deal of value in exchange for my services. Not unlike the naturalists, chefs and housekeeping staff who earn a living wage while performing their duties in this gorgeous setting, as guest speakers for the week, Carolyn and give back to this community by sharing our knowledge and expertise.
That first summer Simon and Jenna hosted me and several of the support team members of Expedition Denali for a week. From this inspiring place I was able to write several online accounts of that historic climb as well as the first few chapters of the Adventure Gap. In the summer of 2021, they welcomed me back with my wife Shamane to share stories from my book with their guests as well as a screening of our documentary film An American Ascent. This year, to mark the anniversary of the 1964 climb of Denali by Charles Crenchaw, they received as a gift from me a reproduction of the painting by Lamont Joseph White commissioned by the Joy Trip Project and funded by Outdoor Research. Now on permanent display in the Camp Denali reference library, this is the first placement of a commemorative display dedicated to Crenchaw anywhere in the park. At this most inclusive backcountry lodge, it is only fitting that this work of art should find a home just a few miles from where this great adventure began.
- Written by James Edward Mills
