Eklutna Historical Park

Cool place to visit even just for a few minutes. Its interesting walking around seeing all the different grave covering constructions and memories to others loved ones.

Really interesting grave markers. Little houses! Apparently, these are built to give the spirits a place to haunt for the first 40 days after death.

This is a really unusual and unique little place, initially it appears completely abandoned but there are some people still living in the area and a number of the graves are recent. It’s a quick excursion but it’s worth taking the time to visit if you happen to be in the area.

We stopped here in Eklutna will in Alaska. I've been here many time even when younger much younger. The place as aged and so have a lot of houses over the graves. The front grave sites have seen better days but keep walking through and you'll see newer houses. It's a great little historical sight just off the Glen Highway in Eklutna. It's free so that good but donate to help out, there is a collection station. Will I go back? Of course just don't know when.

visited early morning after a hike at thunderbird falls. we were the only living souls present. super cool place to stop, walk around, honor the dead. wish it was more taken care of, it was overgrown and a lot of the spirit houses were decaying. still beautiful and moving to witness.

We stopped at the Eklutna Historical Park and were so glad we did. It’s a beautiful and peaceful spot with a rich cultural history. The colorful spirit houses make it a truly unique and thoughtful place to visit. Very easy to access — just a quick stop off the highway, but well worth the time. Highly recommend if you’re passing through the area.

The Eklutna Historical Park is located very short drive from Anchorage Alaska though the great Chiefs of Alaska, like Simeon Ezi and his son is a William Ezi and I believe Chief Nikolai are buried in Anchorage they felt "At large that Anchorage" was their land, it was Dena'ina Land. they did not want to be buried in a Eklutna ... ....they wanted to be buried on their land. Deni'ena Land is Anchorage, Ship Creek and Eklutna Village, including this historical Park. The relocation of Alaska natives was so complete that they relocated the church and forcibly moved multiple tribes to the location of Eklutna, and eventually there was a boarding school not too far away from that church. Children from all across the state were relocated to that boarding school during genocidal times and colonization of Anchorage was included, with the relocation of this church apart of that genocidal timeline.

We loved this tour. The tour guide was extremely knowledgeable about the history of the Eastern Orthodox church. He obviously has a lot of pride in this church and cemetery. The spirit houses were something I had never heard of and his excitement transferred to us when he was talking about several of the houses in this cemetery. I would recommend this tour to anyone. We even brought of 6 year old granddaughter with us and she enjoyed the experience as well.

Small but loaded with lots of history! I highly recommend you either do a tour with the docent or speak with someone who knows the area and the stories here. If you just go on your own and don't know anything about it, you may not get much out of it. We stopped here as part of an organized tour. It was interesting to hear how the Athabaskan tribe and the eastern orthodox church combined their cultures, beliefs and ways. The old log church is still there. The "new" church is next to it. Because we were on a tour, we walked through the graveyard around the spirit houses and learned bit of information and history about some specific spirit houses and who was buried there. I enjoyed it, but then I'm an odd duck and like cemeteries. Why? I don't know since I don't like creepy, scary movies and am scared of my own shadow.

I drove over to the Including a village historical site I wasn't too impressed there's not much they are really I may have come at the wrong time of year! But even if I was there at the right time of year there's not much there at all except for the church couple buildings and a cemetery I don't think I'll go back ! If anybody has more information on this let me know because there is just not much there I'm not sure it's even a a tourist site or a place to visit even if you live here like I said not much there a little disappointing!

Cute little stop with a great personalized tour of this village and church. It's home to the oldest building in greater Anchorage. It's very interesting because you get a chance to learn a little bit about the infusion of the Russian Orthodox Church into Alaskan life. There is a $5 cash entry fee required - but well worth it for the history lesson. We were there about 45 minutes.

This is a bit of a tourist trap. My wife kind of gets suckered into these things when she starts feeling bad for small organizations and wants to support them and I get suckered into making my wife happy so here we are. We wanted to spend a day exploring the outskirts of Anchorage and Eagle River and Eklutna are about 30 miles outside of the city. One can see from just parking at the historical park that this probably won't be worth the $5 they charge at the door. Unless you are very very into Russian Orthodox culture, there is not much to see that you cannot see from the parking lot. The girl at the door never mentioned a tour so there may or may not be one available. We wandered around ourselves to the old church and then the new church. There are a number of spirit boxes which we found interesting as well as some of the information available in the old church about the marriage of the Athabascan and Russian Orthodox culture. You can probably get in and out in less than half an hour but like I said, only go if you are REALLY into Athabascan or Russian Orthodox culture.

This is a real graveyard. Until about 10 years ago, you could drive up to it and see it for free. You could even take pictures although there was a sign up, that asked you not to. It asked you to respect the dead and not walk amongst the graves. Alas, as more people came to Alaska as tourists, the graves were being destroyed with vandalism and of course, everyone wanted pictures. Native Village of Eklutna did the only smart thing to do - they now hire someone to stand watch and they charge a fee. They even set up some paintings and so forth in the old church. It didn't start out as a tourist trap - it was real. If you have relatives buried there, it's still a graveyard. They've done what they can.