Spirit houses, dollhouse-sized structures that blend Dena'ina tradition and the Russian Orthodox faith, are seen on Oct. 16, 2025, at the church cemetary in Eklutna. The houses are part of a tradition to honor and shelter the spirits of the dead. In the background current St. Nicholas Orthodox Church and, to its left, the original Orthodox church that was built in the 1870s and is being restored. Eklutna has hundreds of years of history that predates the Anchorage's founding. A new grant could support more preservation work in the Native community on the municipality's edge. (Photo by Yereth Rosen/Alaska Beacon)
Before Alaska’s largest city was founded, there were well-established small communities in the area.
Now the municipality of Anchorage has received a $500,000 grant from the U.S. National Park Service for historic preservation, tourism development and economic revitalization in three distinctive communities within its sprawling borders: The Dena’ina village of Eklutna, which has several centuries of history, and the communities of Girdwood and Indian, which have histories of mining.
The money is from a program called the Paul Bruhn Historic Revitalization Grant Program, administered by the Park Service. The program promotes rural economic development through the preservation and restoration of historic buildings.
With money from the grant, announced Oct. 14, municipal officials will make awards for projects that fit the program’s purpose, said Michelle Nelson, Anchorage’s director of grant development.
“Our focus is on finding those sites that support job growth and heritage tourism,” Nelson said.
At first glance, Anchorage – home to 4 out of 10 Alaskans – would not seem to qualify for a rural development program, she said. “I knew going into it that we were ineligible just looking at the map,” she said.
But municipal officials were able to convince the Park Service that the three outlying communities – each located at least 25 miles from the downtown core, each with fewer than 3,000 residents and each with distinctive histories and characteristics – qualify for the rural grant, she said.
A key part of the message was explaining the municipality’s vast size, which sprawls over forested areas, mountains and glaciers as well as the heavily populated Anchorage Bowl. At nearly 2,000 square miles, Anchorage is the nation’s fourth-largest municipality by geography, after the boroughs of Juneau, Sitka and Wrangell.
The program is expected to run over three to four years, Nelson said.
The first year will be devoted to developing the program, preparatory work, which will include establishing guidelines and educating and outreach potential recipients, she said.
In the second year, the municipality expects to select two projects for grant awards, she said. The year after, another three to five projects are expected to be selected for grant awards, she said.
The selection process will be guided by experts from the Anchorage Community Development Authority, the Anchorage Chamber of Commerce, Museums Alaska and Preservation Alaska, she said.
Eklutna has the distinction of having the only federally recognized tribal government within Anchorage municipal borders. Girdwood, site of the Alyeska ski resort and the year-round tourism centered at that site, was originally a support community for a gold rush that brought thousands of miners to Turnagain Arm during the 1890s. It was initially called Glacier City but was renamed after a local prospector who discovered gold. Indian was also established as a mining settlement. Indian’s history is linked to a quartz mine that operated in the early 20th century.
Nelson said projects need not be in Eklutna, Girdwood or Indian to qualify for awards. But they must meet the qualifications like those in the three communities, including distance of at least 25 miles from downtown Anchorage and eligibility for listing on the National Register of Historic Places, she said.
In Eklutna, there is already some restoration work underway. The St. Nicholas Church, a Russian Orthodox church built in the 1870s, is the subject of a three-year project funded by the Park Service. The church is the oldest building in the municipality.
There could be some urgency to other, yet-to-be-funded projects.
For example, at Indian Valley Mine, which is listed on the National Register of Historic Places, Nelson and other municipal officials noticed that a blacksmith’s house that was also listed was nowhere to be found.
“It’s not there anymore. Because by the time the property owner acquired the site, it had already been reduced to rubble,” she said.
“Making sure that those sites can stay preserved is just so hard to do in Alaska because of the elements. And if we don’t get resources to those areas, then we can continue to see sites disappear,” she said.
