Chitina AK

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Chitina AK, located at the confluence of the Copper and Chitina Rivers, has two reasons for being. First, it is a gateway to McCarthy, the Kennecott copper mines and Wrangell-St. Elias National Park. Second, it provides access to the Copper River and the famous "Copper River Red" salmon. Downtown Chitina is very quaint and scenic, with several beautiful historical structures.

We arrived at Chitina after driving about 35 miles down the Edgerton Highway. We stopped at the Golden Spruce Lodge on the way in, where the proprietors were holding a few un-skinned diamond willow sticks for us. Our friend Bob had asked us to bring some un-skinned diamond willow sticks back to NC, and we have had a very difficult time finding any. We then parked for two nights at a paved pull-out on the shore of Three-mile Lake, three miles out the Edgerton Highway from Chitina. It is a wonderful place to park. The fish were jumping and moose visited the lake to check us out. While walking Matilda at camp, I discovered a path that led up the hill to a grove of diamond willows in a small clearing. I managed to poach a few more sticks before we left.

We drove out to the Copper River and watched the fish wheels and watched folks dip netting for Copper River reds. We drove about 6 miles out the McCarthy Road, but dared venture no further. The McCarthy Road lies on the road bed of the former Copper River and North Western (CR&NW) railroad and continues about 60 miles to the town of McCarthy and Kennecott, in the Wrangell-St-Elias National Park. The railroad was built in 1908 to haul copper ore out from the Kennecott mines. Locals were skeptical the railroad would ever be completed and called the CR&NW "Can't Run & Never Will". Today the road is pretty rough, even by Alaskan standards. It is severally wash-boarded and occasionally spikes and nails will rise to the surface of the road and destroy tires. We really wanted to visit the Kennecott Mills, but were reluctant to venture too far down the road. Today the Kennecott Mills are owned by the National Park Service and many of the historical structures can be toured. The Kennecott mine had extremely rich ore, over 70% pure copper. Over $200 million worth of ore was hauled down the CR&NW to Cordova on the coast before the ore ran out and the mines closed in 1938.