The National Park Service is seeking to negotiate a potential collaboration on a long-term lease of the Pullen Tract with the municipality and the current private landowner in the hopes of cleaning up the property and restoring its historic landscape.

Klondike Gold Rush National Historical Park Superintendent Mike Tranel expressed the Park’s interest in obtaining such a lease to turn the land into a public park during an assembly meeting on May 19.

“So we know that the children of Skagway play there, and so my simple explanation of this idea is that it’s a way to turn our young trespassers into children happily playing in a park,” Tranel said.

The next phase of the Pullen Creek StreamWalk would go directly through the land in question, which presents a unique opportunity for a partnership with the park service, Tranel said.

“The way the streamwalk would go through [the tract] is the historic boardwalk alignment along the stream, right through the middle of the property,” Tranel said. “So if you construct the stream walk as designed, that matches the historic plans you see from 1910 to 1920 for that property, so building that stream walk is a substantial step towards restoring that historic landscape there,”