The Aleutian World War II Visitor Center is part of the Aleutian Islands World War II National Historic Area, an unusual National Park Service affiliated area owned and operated locally. It occupies a wartime aerology building, which already makes the setting feel right.
The exhibits cover both the Aleutian campaign and the forced removal of Alaska Native residents from the Aleutian and Pribilof Islands. That second story is what gives the visit its weight: this was not only a remote military outpost, but a place where war tore through local lives.