Exploring the famous Copper valley and Wrangell-St. Elias
Scott McMurren -- Jan. 2005
Visitors to the remote Copper River area of Alaska may be surprised to learn the
river valley was one of the busiest transportation routes at the beginning of the 20th century.
After the Klondike Gold Rush, copper was discovered in the Chitina River Valley
near McCarthy. A massive building boom ensued, with Wall Street bankers financing
the Copper River Railway from Cordova's port, up the river to the Kennicott Mine.
During the 30 years the mine was operational, it was both the largest and richest
copper mine in the world. In fact, the entire investment in developing the mine,
building the railroad and the fleet of ships to carry the copper was paid off in
the first trainload of ore which left the mine!
Today, the railroad is gone and there is a gravel road which runs over what's
left of the rail bed between Chitina and McCarthy.
Your first stop while exploring the area should be Princess' Copper River
Wilderness Lodge, which sits on a point overlooking the confluence of the Klutina
and Copper Rivers. Look to the south and you can see the Trans-Alaska Pipeline
snaking over the hills on its way to the ice-free port of Valdez. Look to the east
and you'll see three of the tallest peaks in Wrangell-St. Elias National Park framed
in the lodge's floor-to-ceiling windows: Mt. Drum, Mt. Wrangell and Mt. Blackburn.
You're making a mistake if you come to the Copper River Valley and you miss going
into the park. Wrangell-St. Elias National Park is the nation's largest national park
and there are many ways to explore the area. One of the most popular is an air tour
of the mountains, glaciers and river valleys. Kelly and Natalie Bay are the
husband-and-wife owners of Wrangell Mountain Air. The couple offers a number of
air tours of the park. Naturally, the longer the tour, the more it costs. Don't be
surprised, though, if you see mountain goats or bears from the air, along with rock
glaciers, remnants of the Kennicott Copper mine and much more.
Just up the road from the Princess lodge is the historic community of Copper Center.
Local tour guides can give you an Alaskan perspective on the community's strategic
location for miners and travelers in the early 1900s. Copper Center was the main
supply center for miners in the region. The trail to gold fields in interior Alaska
passed through Copper Center from Valdez--and roadhouses were constructed for
accommodations, meals and supplies.
Naturally, the fishing is great along several of the rivers in the area. The
Klutina River, which flows right by the Copper River Princess Wilderness Lodge,
boasts a great King Salmon run in June and July. And the Copper River has a famous
run of red salmon. In fact, some restaurants hire helicopters near Cordova so they
can be the first to whisk the "Copper River Reds" from the river to the dinner tables
in Seattle, San Francisco and New York. Don't worry, though. There are plenty of red
salmon who swim all the way up to the river around Copper Center. Local guides know
all the hot spots and they provide rods, reels and everything you'll need to land a
lunker. All you need to do is purchase a local fishing license!
Even if you're not an avid angler, sign up for a jetboat tour of the Copper River
Canyon. Whitewater enthusiasts come from far away to float the canyon or take a jetboat
tour. The jetboat option definitely is quicker! Folks who float the river from Chitina
to Cordova should budget at least a week!
If you have not seen the mining town of McCarthy, make plans to take a tour of
the town and the adjacent Kennicott mine. When the Kennicott mine was constructed
in the early 1900s, it included many modern amenities, such as electric power,
telephones, a school with an interior tennis court and a dance hall. These amenities
were developed exclusively for mine managers and visiting dignitaries, though. The bulk
of the mine's workforce lived high in the mountains at the entrance to the mine shafts.
These mountainside camps held hundreds of miners that typically worked for up to a year
at a time without any days off. And the town of Kennicott wasn't all dances and parties,
either. The 14-story processing mill operated 24 hours a day, crushing and pulverizing
the copper ore in a deafening symphony of water blasting the rocks through ever-smaller
screens until the ore was loaded into 50-pound bags on the train for shipment to Cordova.
Don't miss the chance to take a walking tour of the mill building.
From the lodge, it's an easy drive to Valdez for sea kayaking or a Columbia Glacier
cruise. On the way from the Copper River Princess Wilderness Lodge to Valdez, you'll
drive over Thompson Pass and past a number of beautiful water falls on the way. It's
worth stopping at Horse Tail Falls and Bridal Veil Falls for pictures. Valdez local
Stan Stephens operates the Columbia Glacier cruise and reminds guests that Valdez sits
in the midst of the world's furthest-north rain forest. It's a much different climate
than the lodge's at Copper Center. But it's what makes the beautiful water falls--and
it also makes for colorful glacial viewing. Stephens will profess--and others will concur--that
glaciers are prettier when it's rainy or cloudy. Why? Because the cloudy weather allows
the blue inside the glacier to shine through much more dramatically than when it's sunny.
So have your camera ready--along with your raincoat!
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