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DENALI NATIONAL PARK - Thousands of visitors from all over the world will come this summer to the new Eielson Visitor Center, with a spectacular view of North America's highest mountain, deep inside Denali National Park and Preserve.

The official grand opening is set for Aug. 12, but several thousand visitors had already visited the new center by late June, enjoying interior exhibits about the park, walking on adjacent trails, and photographing each other with 20,320-foot Denali, also known as Mount McKinley, in the background.

"From the very start, the park wanted the new visitor center to be sustainable and set the goal to earn the highest possible rating under the LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) Green Building Rating System," wrote acting park superintendent Elwood Lynn in a park brochure completed before the visitor center opened June 8.

With the LEED certification process now completed, the building is rated as platinum, the highest ever achieved in the National Park Service. Features contributing to the certification include skylights to bring natural light into the building and use of hydroelectric power and photovoltaic panels to provide the power for the building.

Use of local, regional, recycled and rapidly renewable materials made construction of the building more sustainable as well, Lynn said.

Eielson, at Mile 66 of the park's road, is off the power grid, so powering the remote site in an earth-friendly way required creative thinking.

The earth surrounding the building acts as a natural insulating blanket, reducing heating and cooling needs. Large windows and the skylights allow sunshine to reach the darkest areas of the building, reducing the need for electric lights. South-facing windows and a concrete floor in the viewing area capture heat from the sun, helping to warm the building.

For power, building designers took a three-pronged approach. A small hydroelectric generator in a nearby creek provides electricity, and solar panels capture any available sunlight. These renewable energy sources are augmented by use of a propane-fired generator - a clean-burning fossil fuel. Energy from these three sources is stores in batteries until power is needed.

The original Eielson Visitor Center, constructed in 1958 and 1959, was opened to the public in 1960, with an addition in 1976, but there were chronic maintenance issues, said Kris Fister, public affairs officer for Denali. Viewing areas were cramped, exhibit spaces minimal and bathroom facilities were inadequate, she said.

Still, the visitors kept coming. By 2004, there were 120,000 visitor stops, including passengers on the visitor transportation system shuttle buses and buses from private lodges in Kantishna, about 30 miles deeper into the park.

The contract for the new construction was awarded to Dawson Construction Inc., of Bellingham, Wash., in July 2005. The original building was demolished and soils remediation began in August 2005.

Construction of the replacement facility began in earnest in June 2006. Contractors used recycled materials from the original building, including steel beams and wood lathes from the old handrail and observation deck.

They also used rock harvested from the Fairbanks area, Alaskan birch for the building interior, and low-emitting materials for the adhesives and sealants, paints, carpet and composite wood products.

The new facility will better meet visitor needs with increased viewing area, exhibit space, access to interpretive rangers and increased bathroom and support areas for staff, Fister said.

Financing for the new Eielson center is a combination of line item construction funding and concessions franchise fees, totaling $9 million. The National Park Service received $467,000 for pre-design in fiscal 2002-03; $665,000 for the design development and construction documents in fiscal 2003-05; $496,000 for construction management; and nearly $8.2 million for construction in fiscal 2006-07, Fister said.

The National Park Service is receiving $600,000 for exhibit fabrication in fiscal 2007-08. The total cost of the 8,000-square-foot project came to nearly $10.4 million.

The Denali Visitor Center, near the park entrance is also a popular visitor stop, and earned a silver LEEDcertification in 2005. Park officials said by mid-June of this year, more than 57,000 people had visited the Denali center.

The region that lies within Denali National Park and Preserve was once occupied by five groups of northern Athabascan Indians, with the Alaska Range separating the territories of the Dena'ina and Ahtna to the south and east from the Lower Tanana, Koyukon and Upper Kuskokwim to the north.

The Athabascans, undeterred by the rugged terrain, carried out trade via mountain passes and sometimes over glaciers. Remains of their villages, fish camps and trails attest to their presence during historic times, when 20th century explorers, trappers and miners first came into the Denali area.

Archeologists have found evidence of far more ancient occupation at campsites where hunters produced and sometimes discarded stone tools. One of the earliest sites in Interior Alaska, the Dry Creek site, is located just outside park boundaries. Archeologists have determined that the cultural level at Dry creek dates back some 12,000 years.

In the early 1900s the gold rush brought people to the Kantishna Hills, deep inside the current park. Gold was discovered there in 1905 and several thousand prospectors flocked to the area, but the shallow, easily accessible gold deposits were quickly mined and the population of miners dwindled to about 50 by fall.

Mountaineering is another important part of Denali's history and present-day activity. Since the park was established in 1917, thousands of people have attempted to climb Denali each year.

Others come simply to enjoy the park's vast panorama of wilderness and wildlife, from Toklat grizzly bears, wolves, fox, caribou, moose and Dall sheep to thousands of hares and ground squirrels, all visible from shuttle buses and tour buses that travel through the park daily from mid-May through early September.

For information on Denali National Park facilities and reservations for campgrounds and bus tours, log on to www.nps.gov/dena.