KATMAI NATIONAL PARK AND PRESERVE

formerly Katmai National Monument, national park and preserve in southwestern Alaska, U.S., at the head of the Alaska Peninsula, on Shelikof Strait. Katmai was proclaimed a national monument in 1918 after the violent eruption there in 1912 of Novarupta. The park's boundaries were changed in 1931, 1942, 1969, 1978, and in 1980, when the name was altered. Its area covers 4,090,000 acres (1,655,000 hectares). The 1912 eruption converted a green valley into a wasteland known as the Valley of Ten Thousand Smokes, and the volcanic crater later became a lake. The park's lakes, wild rivers, forests, mountains, and marshlands abound in wildlife, including large numbers of brown and grizzly bears. Its scenic coastline includes fjords, cliffs, bays, and waterfalls. See also Ten Thousand Smokes, Valley of.