Chitina (Alaska)

Valdez - Cordova Census Area

02-14110

Chitina is a census -designated place in the Valdez - Cordova Census Area, Alaska. The village is situated on Edgerton Highway at the mouth of the Chitina River into the Copper River. Copper Center is located 85 km and 106 km north-west of Glennallen. To the east, on the opposite side of the Copper River, adjacent to the Wrangell-St Elias National Park. The McCarthy Road, one of two roads in the park, begins at Chitina.

History

Athabaskan live for up to 7,000 years in the region. South and east of the settlement, there are archaeological sites. End of the 19th century led copper discoveries in the northern valley of the Chitina River miners in the area. The construction of the Copper River and Northwestern Railway Chitina made ​​in 1914 to a thriving village. Almost all of Chitina was owned by Otto Adrian Nelson, a surveying engineer of the Kennicott mines. He supplied the town with water by force much electrical energy.

After the closure of the copper mines in 1938 almost all the inhabitants left the place. Chitina degenerated into almost a ghost town. The route of the railway was in 1945 in a road, the Copper River Highway, reconstructed. The work was, however, set in 1964 after the collapse of the Million Dollar Bridge before the highway had reached Chitina. The McCarthy Road, also built on the former railway line, leading from Chitina in the National Park to Kennicott. Today it is a popular place for salmon anglers.