Page 160 - Vacation Country Travel Guide

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Wrangell - St. Elias National Park
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VC TRAVEL GUIDE

of a telegraph line along the trail in 1903 made the Edgerton Highway/McCarthy
Valdez-to-Eagle route one of the most important
access routes to the interior, so the Alaska Road Road
Commission upgraded it to a wagon road in 1910. The paved Edgerton Highway begins at mile
In addition to regular construction workers, the 82.6 of Richardson Highway 4 South and travels
government hired failed gold prospectors, many of 33 miles southeast, through Kenny Lake to Chitina. Root Glacier and Blackburn
whom subsequently made enough money to leave The Edgerton skirts the Copper River, legendary for photos by:
Alaska. Several roadhouses now on the National its world-class red salmon fishery, which forms the Kennicott Glacier Lodge
Register of Historic Places were constructed along western boundary of Wrangell-St. Elias National
the route at this time. Park.
The first car traveled the route from Valdez to The Chitina Ranger Station can provide park
Eagle in 1913. An increase in motorized travel led to and road information. Kenny Lake is home to a
upgrading the road in the 1920s. To finance continued mercantile and an RV Park, offering a pleasant respite
maintenance and road construction, the Alaska Road for adventurous visitors, while shops, services and
Commission instituted tolls for commercial vehicles accommodations are available in Chitina, also home
in 1933 of up to $175 per trip, which were collected to the last gas station for sixty miles.
at the Tanana River ferry crossing at Big Delta. When Running 60 miles from Chitina to the historic
the tolls were further increased in 1941 to boost mining towns of Kennecott and McCarthy within
business for the Alaska Railroad, disgruntled truckers Wrangell St. Elias National Park, the McCarthy
started a ferry service in order to evade the toll. Road was long considered one of America’s most
Copper Center primitive wilderness roads. Substantial upgrades
have been performed in recent years and the
Copper Center is located on Richardson Highway first third is now paved. The road is laid over the
4 South on the west bank of the Copper River original railway bed; coupled with extreme Alaskan
at the confluence with the Klutina River; about temperatures and permafrost, the result is a narrow,
16 miles southeast of Glennallen (at the junction pot hole filled, washboard surface, which can be
with Glenn Highway 1) and 100 miles north of very hard on vehicles. Not all car rental companies
Valdez. Considered the gateway to Wrangell- in Anchorage and Fairbanks allow for travel on the
St.Elias National Park and Preserve, which McCarthy Road.
maintains a headquarters with a Visitor Center
and bookstore in Copper Center. Population: Kennecott/McCarthy
370. Location: At the end of the McCarthy Road into
In 1896, Ringwald Blix built a roadhouse which Wrangell-St. Elias National Park.
offered much needed services along the Trail of ‘98
from Valdez, which joined at this spot with the Eagle The ghost towns of Kennecott and McCarthy
Trail to the Forty-mile area and Dawson. Historically, sprang up in the early 1900s in response to one of
Alaskan roadhouses were founded as havens for the world’s richest copper discoveries. Kennecott
weary gold miners, trappers and travelers, providing quickly became the most modern city in Alaska,
food and lodging, mail and medical help. As services boasting running water and a hospital at a time when
were needed, roadhouse owners responded; stores and Anchorage was populated with tents. Abandoned in
gas stations were added and warehouses were built. 1938, many of the mines, buildings and equipment
Eventually, small communities developed around stand as they were on that last day, leaving a living
established roadhouses, which became community history of those rugged days of high adventure. The
centers. The Copper Center Lodge was built in 1932 National Park Service has purchased the property
and was placed on the National Register of Historic to stabilize the structures, and tours of many of the
Roadhouses. The George Ashby Memorial Museum is impressive mine buildings are available.
housed in two rustic log cabins located next to the Old The Kennicott Glacier Lodge is located near the
Town Copper Center Inn and Restaurant. center of the 40 remaining structures in Kennecott,
overlooking 25 miles of glacier and surrounded by
JCT. RICHARDSON HWY 4 many of the highest mountain peaks on the continent.
& EDGERTON HWY 10 TO KENNY LAKE The lodge offers gracious hospitality and breathtaking
& CHITINA & McCARTHY ROAD views, and can help arrange for easy glacier hiking,
TO KENNICOTT / McCARTHY ice climbing and instruction, alpine hiking, mountain
biking, rafting and spectacular flightseeing.
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