Wood-Tikchik State Park is a state park in the U.S. state of Alaska north of Dillingham. Over (6,500 km2) in area—about the size of the state of Delaware—, comprising more than half of all state park land in Alaska and 15% of the total state park land in the country. Despite being the largest state park in the nation, the park had no staff whatsoever for its first five years, and even now at times only a single ranger is in charge of patrolling the entire park, usually by aircraft. History Yup'ik people inhabited the area that is now the park for centuries before contact with Europeans. In 1818 a Russian expedition explored the area and its rivers and established a fur trading post in the area that remained active until the Alaska Purchase in 1867. The National Park Service at one point considered managing the area, but the Alaska State Legislature voted in 1978 to make it a state park. Access Due to its remote location, the park is not accessible from the contiguous road system. The only road access is from Dillingham, which has an airport with regularly scheduled flights. Many visitors to the park arrive by charted floatplane and land on one of the many lakes, all of which are open to floatplane landings. Marine access to the Wood River lake system is via the Wood River itself. There are a few privately owned remote lodges within the park, by reservation only. The entire park is open to camping, but a few areas do require a permit. Leave No Trace camping is heavily emphasized by the park managers and fires are only permitted on beaches or gravel bars, or one of the few provided fire pits. Conservation The park is deliberately mostly undeveloped wilderness, with various conservation groups working to purchase publicly available parcels within the park, either to hold in trust or to sell back to the park system. This has created some friction with pro-development groups, including Yupik natives who would like to develop on land claims they have that predate the establishment of the park. The park is bounded on the west by Togiak National Wildlife Refuge and on the northwest by the Yukon Delta National Wildlife Refuge, providing an extremely large area of remote wilderness on public lands. Fish and wildlife The park is considered a critical habitat for a variety of wildlife,