Ever wondered which of America’s national parks is the largest? That would be Wrangell-St. Elias National Park & Preserve, a 13.2-million-acre expanse of mountains, glaciers and untamed wilderness in Southcentral Alaska. Despite the park’s massive size — which is roughly the same as Croatia’s and twice that of Massachusetts — many Americans don’t know it exists. Nor are they aware of its fascinating history, or the pressures from climate change and the Trump administration that threaten its future.

Wrangell-St. Elias is a hard place to reach, and draws only about 80,000 visitors a year. Technically you can drive in via the town of McCarthy (population 107), but the route involves almost 60 miles of gravel and it’s easy to blow a tire. More common options include flying in, hiking in or arriving by riverboat. And once you’re there, it’s mostly empty: There are a few tiny settlements and areas that cater to visitors, but otherwise, it’s a place where people like to disappear into the vastness of nature.

Stunningly beautiful, the park is defined by steep mountain ranges, including the Wrangell, the St. Elias, and the Chugach, and it contains the second-tallest mountain in North America, St. Elias. Want to see glaciers? The park’s Malaspina Glacier is bigger than the state of Rhode Island. There are tidewater glaciers at its southern tip and an active volcano at Mount Wrangell, which still occasionally vents steam. Dall sheep roam the mountainous areas and there are black and brown bears throughout. On the Copper River, wild salmon runs make for some of the best fishing in the United States.

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Wrangell-St. Elias National Park in Alaska.

Wrangell-St. Elias National Park & Preserve in Alaska is known for its mountain scenery.

Wrangell-St. Elias was inhabited at different times by the Ahtna, Upper Tanana, Tlingit and Eyak peoples. Populations were small because the region’s terrain did not support large amounts of game, so Indigenous groups tended to live in settlements by rivers where they could fish. Russians were the earliest Europeans to visit the area, drawn first by furs and then following rumors of copper. After the United States purchased Alaska in 1867, the area was further explored by U.S. army expeditions. Gold strikes elsewhere in Alaska brought plenty of hopeful prospectors.

While a few people found gold, the real bonanza was in fact copper. In 1900, prospectors noticed a green rocky outcropping and its assayed ore turned out to be 70% pure copper, making it one of the richest copper veins ever discovered. In such a remote area, transporting it out was........

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