Denali National Park gets peaceful procession of patriots bearing flags, smiles, and water bottles

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A good time was had by all on Sunday at Denali National Park, which some Alaskans are now jokingly referring to as “Denial National Park,” after the National Park Service denied ordering construction workers to remove American flags from their vehicles as they transit the park to and from the Pretty Rocks Landslide bridge project.

The workers stand by their statements that they were ordered to remove their American flags. The order came by a message relayed through the Federal Highway Administration project manager at the bridge construction site but was from Park Superintendent Brooke Merrell, who said there had been a complaint about a truck flying the American flag as it transited the Park Road.

About 100 Alaska cars and trucks, decorated with American flags, converged on Denali National Park on Sunday to complete their mission of sending a community message to the National Park Service: An American flag mounted on a truck does not detract from the park experience.

The hastily organized convoy left Fairbanks at about 1 p.m., made a couple of stops along the way, and met up with about 20 cars and trucks that had arrived from Wasilla, Palmer, and Anchorage. The vehicles entered the park and spent a couple of hours driving the Park Road with their American flags aloft in different groups, not as one long caravan.

Spirits were good and the mood was festive, said Keith Fons of North Pole, organizer of the event. He only had 24 hours to publicize it and yet the news about the opportunity for patriotic fellowship went viral on his Facebook page. Fons was pleased with the turnout.

Fons said they encountered several Alaska State Troopers, starting with the gathering location at the Walmart parking lot in Fairbanks, where two Troopers stopped by to wish everyone well. There were no incidents, other than one driver being scolded by a park ranger when one of the convoy trucks went into the parking area near the park employee housing.

One member of the convoy reported, “When they got down to the administrative building the flagpole that always has the U.S. flag on it had no flag on it. Apparently the maintenance crew takes it down every night and put it up every morning. Our team leaders asked them to put the flag back up. They went to the box that it’s always in and the flag was not there. They were very embarrassed and apologetic. They said they couldn’t believe this was happening. They had no idea what happened to the flag that goes up every morning.”

The flagpole at the administrative offices at Denali National Park was not flying the American flag on Sunday in the afternoon.

The convoy participants brought water bottles with a patriotic message to hand to park employees: “Our flag does not fly because the wind moves it. It flies with the last breath of each soldier who died protecting it.”

Water bottles with a patriotic message were bought along to hand out on Sunday to park staff.

73 COMMENTS

    • None of this woke agenda by the National Park Service should come as a surprise. The NPS is the Joe Biden agency of the federal government that tore down all of our historic monuments and statues across the country and moved to change the names of our military bases and posts. All done because Biden put his flock of communists into power. Taking the American flag down at Denali National Park is only because some woke NPS employees were offended by it being flown by conservative, rough construction workers building the bridge at Pretty Rocks. To these Joe Biden government employees, the American flag represents oppression, racism, and colonialism. These idiots can’t help their hate for America. They were already indoctrinated before they got their little jobs at the Park. They believe that Mt. Denali is theirs. The Superintendent can’t help herself either because she is as indoctrinated as all of her little subordinated.
      It made me so proud to see Alaskan patriots stand up to these communists who call themselves educated.

      • Joe Biden never built anything in his lifetime, not even a birdhouse. All Biden did was tear down what others had already built. He’s the creepiest, commie president ever to hold office in US history……..illigetimately, I might ad. A spurious president.

    • Yes, Ronald Reagan.. the only American president to triple the national debt in peace time

      • During Ronald Reagan’s tenure, the Democrats controlled the House of Representatives, the body from which all budgets arise. The President does not have a line item veto or Reagan would have used it.

      • AP; The arms build up was necessary to win the Cold War with the soviets and to repair the damage Jimmy Carter did to the nation, plus Reagan proved large deficits don’t matter.
        You may be too young to understand 😉

        • These ignorant kids don’t know anything about the Iran hostage crisis nothing about the Cuban missile crises nothing. Thank you public school teachers. Ignorance of history will repeat it.

        • You must be unders a rock, the House is responsible for taxes and revenue, the House Majority Speaker is a Republican

          • Keep up Frank, in the Reagan years house speakers were Tip O’Neil and Jim Wright both democrats.

      • Yes, Reagan spent lots on defense and guess what? No wars on his watch of 8 years. Why do all the wars occur under Democrat presidents?

          • Actually Frank, that isn’t the whole story. Our Marines were there as part of a peace-keeping force with French forces. 241 Marines, 58 French military personnel and 6 civilians were killed in suicide truck bombings.
            Unlike your fearless leader, who absolved himself from any blame in Afghanistan, Ronald Reagan took responsibility for this attack and dramatically shifted foreign policy towards terrorism.

      • Do you suppose you could just go to a website that actually likes you? Because the rest of us are pretty tired of your nonsense and would prefer that you just go lay down by your dish for the rest of this conversation. Don’t you have some parked cars to chase anyway?

      • Ever have to repair a rental property after renting to a loathsome degenerate?
        Figure that every time an adult is steering the ship ( President Reagan)
        – the petroleum reserve hast to refilled
        – military need re outfitted ( by that I don’t mean berets for everyone) resupplied after budget being stripped

        All the while till funding all the new socialist programs added under the previous tenant.
        Par for the course though. You parrot as good as the rest.

      • Yes and Reagan won a major war without losing one life, or firing a shot.
        The Cold War, that threatened us w/ annihilation.
        Unlike JFK ….. LBJ & now Joe Biden, who all wasted tons of money and lives in their Global Wars about nothing.
        Consequently Reagan won 49! of 50 states in his re-election.
        Except Humphrey’s lib Minnesota, people in EVERY state voted in the majority for Reagan

        Doesn’t history just make you want to cry Don?

  1. Great story. A big shout out to these Patriotic Alaskans who changed their weekend plans to push back against the
    NPS. The arrogance of this Federal agency is worse than any other. Just ask John Sturgeon. Rangers told him on the banks of the Yukon “Go ahead and sue us.. we have rooms full of attorneys”.
    And how does a lib from Pa that became an urban planner in Portland become the Super for the largest wilderness park in the US ?
    Hey Dan Sullivan. I think a review if the NPS budget is long overdue.

    • It really doesn’t happen to all of us, only idiots are motivated by a random Facebook post! At the end of the day, they all went for a Sunday drive with flags out, not the worst thing. However I’d like to see that group get excited about anything else than perceived slights. We have homeless elders and teens. Elders that need rides and meals. Do they care to step up, or is it just the easy outrage?

      • Jan, how do you know that these individuals are not already helping?
        You are prejudiced to assume attributes of people you know absolutely nothing about.
        In my experience, it isn’t convenient or easy to drop everything to stand up for our basic rights and freedoms.
        So what did you do with your Sunday? Did you help the elders and teens? Did you respond to calls for action? Or is yours just easy outrage?

      • Where do you want the diapers sent?

        Curious Jan: What do you do for the (insert usual liberal crying point here)?

    • So. You are believing the NPS over hard working Alaskan contractors?

      Tell us you’re not from here without coming out and admitting it.

  2. Good job!!! Denial nat’l park shall be it’s new name until the superintendent has been replaced

  3. During Ronald Reagan’s tenure, the Democrats controlled the House of Representatives, the body from which all budgets arise. The President does not have a line item veto or Reagan would have used it.

  4. Superb reporting, Suzanne. If the organizers of this event had three more days to plan it, thousands would have shown up. Congratulations to these patriots.

  5. So you National Park Service people are saying the workers are liars! Doubtful! The park is in damage control! Rather than fess up for the mistake. TYPICAL! You believe the establishment way too easily!

  6. This would be a good time to write an article remembering the Great Denali Trespass of 1979.

  7. Let’s see…. should we believe a blue-collar worker with nothing to gain or lose? Or the official statement of a government land mgt agency with a long record of lying to Alaskans about a plethora of subjects?

    Hmmmmmmmmm…..! Who should we believe?

  8. Democrats are Liars, Cheaters, and Deviants. They are so deviant that that Democrats run as Republicans.
    That park superintendent is a Bald Faced Liar and will be exposed as such.

  9. Actual the park is named McKinley Park, not Denali Park
    The largest North American peak is Denali Mountain
    I say Fire the Superintendent

  10. “They had no idea what happened to the flag that goes up every morning.”

    Yeah, right!

  11. Of course the superintendent lied. I experienced a total lack of integrity with the Park Service 25 years ago when I was helping miners with their property being taken within the Kantishna Mining District. One of my best days in Denali was meeting a number of Fairbanks protesters that drove the road without permits and the lead car had two small American flags attached to the hood, they called it their staff car. Glad Fairbanks still has patriots. Steve Hicks, Montana resident

  12. Thank you to all who made the drive!
    It seems the plot thickens as they say….now there is a neutral new party involved in the project manager of the Federal Highway administration. This person certainly can confirm the account of the workers. It also sheds new light on the statement the NPS put out, as their request to a non-NPS individual to relay the order of the superintendent, seems to them to give them “plausible deniability”…..

  13. How many of these flag waving patriots will vote for a man who called people serving our country “suckers and losers”

    • Oh, Frank, You are perpetuating your own confirmation bias. Even Snopes can find no evidence this occurred. It appeared first in the Atlantic magazine, which you probably have a copy of on your nightstand, being the leftist you are.
      Here’s Snopes, which is a Trump-hating organization, looking as hard as it can to confirm it, but yet cannot: ‘ ‘https://www.snopes.com/news/2023/10/04/donald-trump-call-troops-suckers-losers/

      Can’t believe MRAK let’s you post this rubbish, and on Memorial Day. You should be ashamed, Frank.

    • Oh “Frank”…

      Besides your favorite talking point having been repeatedly debunked, you go there anyway.

      Irony is, if you vote for Grandpa Bloodstains the biggest loser and fool will be

      You.

  14. No broken glass. No blocked roads. No one hiding their faces with masks. Why don’t we have any of those things when conservatives demonstrate?

    • Anonymous trolls call Charlottsville fake news. Saw plenty of idiots wearing masks and carrying Tiki torches at the Unite the Right rally

  15. Everytime I travel the Parks Highway between Fairbanks and Anchorage, from here on, I will put up two US flags on my truck and parade around the Park, just to get in the little commies’ faces.

  16. Conservatives don’t have a lock on Patriotism, as much as they try to convince you that they do. On this Memorial Day, remember that there are many, many Liberal soldiers buried there alongside of their Conservative brothers.

    • Actually Hans, we remember all our fallen and the sacrifices they made for us. We do NOT divide them into “a class”, “a political persuasion” like you just did.
      They are Americans! Plain and simple!
      We thank them and honor their steadfast commitment to this nation!

  17. A bunch of morons trolled by an anonymous source on a blog that devotes a significant amount of time debunking evolution.

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