National Park Service Talkeetna Ranger Station, Alaska Exhibit Size: 9,000 square feet Designer: Aldrich Pears Services Performed: Exhibit Fabrication, Hand-Painted Murals, Dioramas, Historical Vignettes, Casework, Final Graphic Layouts and Production, Interactives, Installation In 2004 Split Rock Studios was contracted by the National Park Service to provide complete exhibit fabrication and installation services for the new permanent exhibits at Denali National Park. The two level space presents information about the history of the park, pioneers and native cultures, and the science of park and wildlife management and research. It also introduces visitors to the park’s natural systems and provides trip-planning guidelines for those intending to travel further into the park on hiking trails and road ways. The exhibit plan includes numerous interpretive graphics and touchable artifacts, and provides a number of small immersive environments to help give the visitor the feeling of living in Alaska before the park was founded. The focal point of the exhibits, however, is the dioramas. Using startlingly realistic models of plants, animals and rock formations, with stunning hand-painted mural backdrops, the visitor is given an up-close and personal view of the inhabitants of this diverse and wild habitat. Impressionistic topographic groundforms provide a base for the models and exhibit cases, and also surprise visitors with pull-out drawers and cross-sections, revealing burrowing and hibernating native species.