Noel Bond of Kempton, spent his summer interning at the Gates of the Arctic National Park and Preserve in the interior of Alaska.

Through the Student Conservation Association, people can choose 20 places they would like to work.

He chose from the National Parks and Forests segment.

Bond was asked by the Albany Township Historical Society to talk about his experiences to a gathering Oct. 20 at New Bethel Church, Kempton.

When historical society President Lucy Muth introduced Bond, she said he was always adventurous.

As a 4-year-old, he dressed as Indiana Jones for Halloween, she explained.

A graduate of Penn State where he studied parks and tourism management, Bond said he wanted to get field experience as he is looking forward to applying for a job with the National Park Service.

Some of his desire to go to Alaska came from reading the book “Alaska Wilderness: Exploring the Brooks Range” by Bob Marshall, who helped get the Wilderness Act passed in 1964.

The act states “Wilderness is an area where the earth and its community of life are untrammeled by man, where man himself is a visitor who does not remain.”

“I learned a lot and got to see some of the most pristine landscapes in the Brooks Range, which is the northernmost part of the Rocky Mountains,” Bond said.

Among others, he saw caribou, moose, grizzly and black bears and raptors. He was able to identify most of the raptors.

He lived in a park service house in the town of Bettles, Alaska.

Obtaining food was an adventure, Bond explained. Supplies could be ordered through Amazon or from a store in Fairbanks where there was an extra fee for packaging and mailing.

In summer the only way in to the area is to fly, walk or boat. In the winter, an ice road is built.

Bettles is one of the communities on the Ice Road television show, Bond said.

Other parks were created abutting Gates of the Arctic creating the longest stretch of contiguously preserved land, encompassing 8.4 million acres.

Before entering the park, visitors check in with the rangers so they know a car left outside the boundary will be reclaimed or if not that the owner may need help.

People go to Gates of the Arctic to do ecological research on plants and animals, to rock climb, to cross-country ski, or to float wild rivers of which there are six in the park.

Natives are allowed to do subsistence hunting and fishing. They stock up with food during the summer because it is difficult to get in winter. They have lived in the area for 14,000 years.

Walker Lake was formed when glaciers followed a path between two peaks, and then retreated. The lake eventually created is 10 miles wide and 25 miles long.

The Arrigetch Peaks’ name means the “fingers of an outstretched hand” because of its shape.

Flora provides immense beauty with lichens, roses, fireweed, black and white spruce, and many kinds of fungus.

Bond said there are tons of migratory birds, Dall sheep. lynx, grizzly and black bears, caribou and moose.

Food has to be stored in bear canisters which, though bears can smell the food, they cannot get to. The usual method of putting food up a tree does not work here because there are no trees.

Bettles has 27 year round residents and 60 in summer.

Menus need to be planned for a year at a time because of the difficulty of getting food. The town served gold miners.

Nearby Evansville is tribal land. There are 8.6 miles of roads with a fire department, health clinic and post office.

The postmaster works behind a wall of post boxes. The town is run by generators. The natives came across a land bridge. They had a hard life but they thrived. Prehistoric, historic and modern artifacts are found.

Inneksuk were rocks propped on end to appear to be a man from a distance and helped drive caribou to a hunting ground. Tent rings of stones were placed around a tent to keep it from blowing. The circles are still there.

Bond said he met people from Lancaster County.

Bond, who took corn pie and potato filling when he went, said potluck dinners are frequent social occasions.

While there he did a lot of visitor services, bear safety orientations and trip planning.

He went on patrol with a ranger for eight river miles from Walker Lake on the Kabuk River.

A collapsible canoe was used because of weight. They stopped at a cabin and heard thudding.

A bird had gotten in and could not get out. They helped and then released the Common Goldeneye.

“I like to think there are some ducklings somewhere that owe me,” Bond said.

At the end of the trip, Bond and the park ranger were picked up by plane.

Bond finished his presentation by saying, “I urge you to become conservationists.”