Tourism is increasingly promoted worldwide by public and private agencies as a means of achieving sustainable community development. Rare are the economic windfalls that come without social costs, however, and marketing rural communities as tourist ''products'' inevitably forces upon their residents a social transfiguration. Yet, concerns about local places have largely been marginalized in the regionalization and commodification of tourist spaces. As a result, important questions remain unanswered. In response, this study uses the cognitive images of visitors and residents of the twin Alaska ''ghost'' towns of Kennicott and McCarthy to describe the evolving landscape of tourism in a protected wilderness community. Specifically, it poses two questions. First, how might disparate perceptions of the tourism landscape serve to define the boundaries of ''place'' experience for those who live in or visit Kennicott-McCarthy? Second, can this geographic perspective encourage a proactive planning process more cognizant of the effects on – and responsive to the concerns of – the destination community? A preliminary analysis of the results is presented with a focus on tourism as both agent and process in the structure, identity, and meaning of local places, embedded within larger regions and economies.