Chitina Points of Interest
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Points of Interest
Eight signs will guide you through the Copper River watershed landscape. See if you can visit all eight signs on your tour through this upriver basin formed by the ancient, glacial Lake Atna!
Chitina (pop. 105) came to life almost overnight with arrival of the Copper River & Northwestern Railway on September 11, 1910. The railway was built to haul ore from Kennicott Copper Mines at McCarthy to Cordova for shipment to Seattle. Chitina became a supply town for both the railway and the mine. When the mine closed in 1938, Chitina became a ghost town almost overnight. In the 1950s and 1970s, ghosts were painted on some of the old ...more
How do you fish in a river full of glacial silt? The easiest way is to use the iconic fish wheel — long associated with Alaska Native subsistence. See them in action in the Copper River near Chitina.
There’s a story about a local pioneer who in the 1950’s walked the entire way to McCarthy from Cordova. Across the Copper River was a steel cable, the current bridge having not been built until 1973.