The day started out as a chilly, yet sunny day with the temperature at 32 degrees which got to 67 degrees before the end of the day. We left the Slana River rest stop where we spent the overnight, and headed toward the Kenny Lake area where we planned to stay at the RV park.
We passed Porcupine Creek, as well as the turnoff for Nabesna and Slana.
Slana has a population of 139 and stretches along the Nabesna Road, which runs
south of the Tok Cutoff at mile 63. It lies at the junction of the Slana and
Copper Rivers, 53 miles southwest of Tok. Slana is an Indian village
name that derived from the river's name. The Nabesna Mine opened in 1923, which
employed 60 people at its height. Over thirty different minerals were extracted
from this site, although gold was the primary source of profit. It operated
sporadically through the late 1940s.
We then crossed the Christochina River.
Chistochina,
at an elevation of 1,850 feet is a traditional Copper River Athabascan Indian village
of around 88 people with a subsistence lifestyle. It is located near MP 35 of
the Tok Cutoff. The village of Chistochina has grown up around the Chistochina
fish camps, where people use fish wheels to harvest Copper River salmon. It’s
home to the Ahtna Cheesh’na Tribe. In 1887, the village access trail became
part of the Valdez-Eagle Trail, which was constructed by miners during the gold
rush. A trading post was established in the early 1900s.
And then we turned heading toward Valdez and went past the Gulkana River access point.
The village
of Gulkana has a population of 108 and is located just south of the Tok Cutoff,
on the banks of the Gulkana River. Gulkana was established as a telegraph
station in 1903 and named “Kulkana” after the river. The Gulkana is a
clearwater stream that starts in Summit and Paxson Lakes. Gulkana is an ancient
historic area where settlements date back at least a thousand years. Native
villages were built at the confluence of the Copper River and its tributaries,
where fish camps were constructed to catch and preserve salmon. Gulkana is one
of many river villages that sought to preserve Ahtna Athabascan tradition and
culture and have taught their local children subsistence skills and the Ahtna
language and traditions.
We ended up stopping to get gas at the Tesoro Gas station in the Glennallen area and as luck would have it, right next door was the Greater Copper Valley Chamber of Commerce Visitor Center. So while Mel was getting gas, I thought I would stop over and see what information they had, but no such luck though as they were not open yet.
Back on the road again, it wasn't long before we came to the Wrangell St. Elias National Park & Preserve Visitor Center.
The Exhibits building had a lot of great information about the Ahtna and other Native people that inhabited the Copper River Basin for thousands of years.
They were explorers: being the first to explore the Wrangell St. Elias Mountains before the first Europeans arrived. They located productive food sources, and selected village sites.
And then the prospectors came with the international publicity surrounding the Klondike gold discovery luring them to the north. While most headed for the Yukon River, some traveled to Prince William Sound, where many entered the Copper River Basin. However, few prospectors actually struck it rich.
Air travel came relatively late to the Copper River Basin, with the first planes arriving in the early 1920s.
And with the creation of the Wrangell St. Elias National Park and Preserve access to the park's resources could be used by everyone.
There was information on mining efforts including the copper lode mine in Kennecott, and in particular the process that removed or extracted the mineral deposits that were still contained in the veins of rocks. This usually occurred underground and required the digging and supporting of tunnels, the removal of large volumes of rock and the contruction of milling facilities.
And then there were the placer mines, where a small group of miners would locate a moving stream, then loosen the gravel, shovel it into a sluice box and then washed stream water through the box to sort the heavier gold from the rocks.
There were four different Native American groups identified in Alaska. The Ahtna and the Upper Tanana lived in the northern and interior areas of the park and the Tlingit and Eyak lived on the coast.
We then watched the 22-minute movie being shown, "Crown of the Continent," which had breathtaking scenery of Wrangell-St. Elias National Park and Preserve, including spectacular mountain vistas, enormous glaciers, wild rivers and location inaccessible by vehicle.
Outside they had fishwheel on display.
There was also a small elevated hunting hut.
Visible from the short walking path were the two mountains -- Mount Drum and Mount Wrangell. Both are volcanoes, but their silhouettes suggest a difference in their eruptive histories.
(Mount Drum)
(Mount Wrangell)
After leaving the Wrangell-St. Elias National Park & Preserve, we headed to Copper Center.
Copper
Center has a population of 312 and an elevation of 1,000 feet. It is on the
loop road off the Richardson Highway and was founded as an agricultural
experiment camp. The village’s original name is Kluti-Kaah. Today, Copper
Center is known for great access to fishing the Gulkana, Tonsiana and Klutina
Rivers. It was also on the Trail of '98 used by gold stampeders headed for the Klondike and later gold strikes in the Interior. 300 miners, destitute and lonely, spent the winter here. Many suffered with scurvy and died.
Strategically
located at the confluence of the Klutina and Copper Rivers, Copper Center was
originally a large, winter village for Ahtna Athabascan families
who have lived in the region for more than 5,000 years. The first lodge in the Copper
River Basin was built in 1896 and provided a soft bed and a hot meal to
travelers, most of them miners following the Valdez-Fairbanks Trail during the
gold rushes of 1897-98. Eventually, Copper Center evolved into the principal
supply center for miners in the Nelchina-Susitna region, adding a telegraph
station and post office in 1901 and a school four years later.
The Copper
River got its name from the enormous copper deposits in this region. Native
Americans have traded copper for other goods for centuries. In the 20th Century
one of the largest copper mines in the country, Kennecott, was located in what
is now part of Wrangell-St. Elias National Park.
The Copper Center Lodge, a roadhouse
built in 1896 that is still in use today, and the Copper Center Museum with
several century-old log buildings showcasing memorabilia from the great Copper
Valley Gold Rush of 1898 -- "there isn't any gold in them thar hills," the
prospectors discovered to their dismay.
We drove by the Olde Village Shop and then past the Copper River Cash Store.
The historic
Chapel on the Hill has long been a pretty little place perched over the
Richardson Highway in Copper Center on a small knoll. It's now more easily
viewed, down on the flats across from the Copper River in front of the
traditional cemetery in Copper Center. The Chapel was built in 1942.
Inside the log church, Mel sits down to play the piano.
History about the chapel on the hill as well as the cemetery behind it.
Copper Center has a unique blend of Russian Orthodox and Native Alaskan cultures. The small log church, with the oldest cemetery in the area right behind it, with colorful painted fencing and traditional "spirit houses."
Next we turned on Brenwick-Craig Road.
We then drove by the Edgerton Cutoff, and on toward Kenny Lake and Chitina.
When we arrived at Kenny Lake. Kenny Lake has
a population of 284 and was homesteaded in the 1960s. The Ahtna
people were the area’s first inhabitants. We pulled into the Kenny Lake Mercantile RV Park where we had planned to stay for the night. But after Mel found out that they did not have their water on yet, and virtually had no place for us to fill our fresh water tank, we knew we had to find some place else to stay.
So now with no place to fill our fresh water tank or dump our gray water, we continued on.
We passed Liberty Creek.
We then came to Wrangell View RV Park that said there was full hookups. When we pulled in, no one was there and the water was not on yet either. However, Mel was able to dump the gray water there.
And we were back on our way once again trying to find a place to stay for the night that had water turned on.
Soon we were passing through Chitina (pronounced CHIT-na). Chitina is located on the west bank of the Copper River at its confluence with the Chitina River. Chitina is nestled between two of the largest mountain ranges in North America -- the Chugach Range, which stretches along the South Central Coast of Alaska and the Wrangell Mountains which are home to some of the tallest peaks and largest glaciers in the world.
Chitina has a population of 123 residents, and has been a ghost town since the 1930s. This railroad town sprang
to life in 1910. Chitina was once bustling as the major stopover and service
point for the trains that carried ore from Kennecott to ships in Cordova. The
railroad is gone, but residents living in the town support themselves largely with salmon from the river, produce from their gardens, berries from the forests and the few tourists that stop.
While we were still trying to figure out where to get water, Mel went over to the Chitina Liquor Store. There he found Wayne, the owner, and after explaining our predicament to him, he said he could help us out with the water if we had a long enough hose. Of course, Mel jumped at the opportunity.
While Mel was filling with fresh water, Wayne went inside his store and came back out with his Trump outfit. How interesting!
After Mel was finished, Wayne wanted Mel to see his "social club" -- his private bar with pool table that he built a little ways up the hill from his store. Mel went and looked at it and then as we were wanting to get on down the road, he asked Wayne if he knew if there was a campground around here.
The Chitina Wayside is the start of the McCarthy Road. It is a paved pull-out with vault toilets and exhibit panels.
Of course Wayne again was able to help us out and told us about the little campground just over the bridge about one mile out of Chitina.
Just beyond the wayside, the road goes through a deep narrow gap known locally as the "railroad cut." Actually, it was originally a tunnel and was later altered into an open roadcut. The rocks exposed here are schist and phyllite typical of the Chugach Range.
So this unofficial start on the McCarthy Road, an all-gravel road would give us a little head start on our journey to McCarthy tomorrow. We continued along the winding gravel road until we came to the bridge.
There are several small pullouts along the way with some great views of the confluence
of the mighty Copper and Chitina Rivers. The Copper River is the only waterway that
cuts through the Chugach Mountains, which extend for about 200 miles in a great
arc across south-central Alaska. At the confluence, the Copper River is
actually smaller than the Chitina River which is considered its tributary. At
this point the Copper River is about 1/2 mile wide, while the width of the Chitina River is
over one mile!
At mile 1.4 on the McCarthy Road, we crossed the Copper River Bridge. The large snow covered mountain visible to the north is volcanic Mount Drum (12,010 feet), part of the Wrangell Mountain Range. Suspended sediment loads of the Copper and Chitina Rivers are high, but the dissolved sediment loads are low; these rivers are dirty -- but not polluted. Millions of tons of natural sediment, mostly silt and clay are carried downstream each year.
The muddy waters that result from all this suspended sediment create and aquatic environment that is not very favorable as a permanent home for most fish. Therefore the Copper and Chitina Rivers have a rather small resident fish population. They do, however have fantastic populations of migrating fish during the times that mature salmon "run" up to clear-water spawning beds and juveniles run down to the ocean each year. The muddy waters of the Copper allow successful salmon fishing by the use of dip nets and fishwheels; neither of these methods would work in clearwater streams.
Right after we crossed the Copper River Bridge, on our right was the small campground that we were waiting for -- a non-Park Service primitive campground with 12 sites, picnic tables, fire pits and vault toilets. And the best part was it was "free."
On the north or left side of the road was the Copper River and Kotsina River delta. The National Park Service has an easement here where you can access and view the Copper River. An easement is an area of land where visitors are granted the right to cross private property. This is usually an excellent place to view the river and witness Alaskans catching red, silver and king salmon with dipnets and fishwheels. But the river is still mostly frozen.
After getting set up, I walked across to the private area and took a few pictures.
And then I looked ahead at the road we would be taking tomorrow morning to McCarthy.
Tomorrow's journey will be slow going -- they are telling us the 60 mile trip will take 3-1/2 hours. But we are sure the journey to McCarthy will be well worth it!
Shirley & Mel
