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17-577: Draining parts of the Alaska Range that lie within Lake Clark National Park and Preserve , the Chakachatna and McArthur rivers and their tributaries originate mainly on glaciers. Heavy silt loads limit sportfishing to small clear-water tributaries such as the Chakachatna's Straight Creek. The main game fish on these streams are Chinook , Coho , and sockeye salmon. This article about

34-537: A location in the Kenai Peninsula Borough, Alaska is a stub . You can help Misplaced Pages by expanding it . This article related to a river in Alaska is a stub . You can help Misplaced Pages by expanding it . Alaska Range The Alaska Range is a relatively narrow, 600-mile-long (950 km) mountain range in the southcentral region of the U.S. state of Alaska , from Lake Clark at its southwest end to

51-624: Is a state highway in the southern part of the U.S. state of Alaska . It runs from Homer northeast and east to Tok by way of Anchorage . It is one of two routes in Alaska to contain significant portions of freeway : the Seward Highway in south Anchorage and the Glenn Highway between Anchorage and Palmer. AK-1 is also known by the named highways it traverses: AK-1 begins at the Alaska Marine Highway 's Homer Ferry Terminal at

68-683: Is part of the Interstate Highway System ; only the route between Homer and Soldotna does not carry an unsigned Interstate designation. The entire length of A-3 follows AK-1 from the Kenai Spur Highway in Soldotna to the turn in downtown Anchorage ; there A-1 begins, running to Tok along AK-1. (A-1 continues to the Yukon border along AK-2, the Alaska Highway .) Only a short portion of

85-559: The Alaska Highway which had been constructed from Montana through Calgary, Alberta , through Whitehorse, Canada by Army engineers to move supplies and equipment, and to build airbases, to service the requirements of the Pacific theater, including transport of Lend Lease aircraft to the Soviet Union after its invasion by Germany. The road was built in the 1940s through challenging terrain, largely by battalions of Black engineers, including

102-793: The Alaska Peninsula and the Aleutian Islands , and trending southeast into British Columbia and the Pacific Coast Ranges . The mountains act as a high barrier to the flow of moist air from the Gulf of Alaska northwards, and thus have some of the harshest weather in the world. The heavy snowfall also contributes to a number of large glaciers , including the Cantwell , Castner , Black Rapids, Susitna , Yanert , Muldrow , Eldridge , Ruth , Tokositna , and Kahiltna Glaciers. Four major rivers cross

119-640: The Tok Cut-Off from Gulkana Junction to Tok, Alaska via Mentasta Pass . The Alaska Pipeline parallels the Richardson Highway . A part of the Alaska Highway is situated on the northern slopes of the eastern section of the range. The name "Alaskan Range" appears to have been first applied to these mountains in 1869 by naturalist W. H. Dall . The name eventually became "Alaska Range" through local use. In 1849 Constantin Grewingk  [ de ] applied

136-787: The White River in Canada 's Yukon Territory in the southeast. Denali , the highest mountain in North America , is in the Alaska Range. The range is part of the American Cordillera . The Alaska Range is one of the higher ranges in the world after the Himalayas and the Andes . The range forms a generally east–west arc with its northernmost part in the center, and from there trending southwest towards

153-482: The 97th Engineer Battalion. in order to facilitate transport of World War II material in particular from ports such as Valdez and Anchorage to the interior. It was upgraded in the 1950s to better connect the Richardson Highway more directly with Tok. It was called a "cut-off" because it allowed motor traffic coming to and from Canada on the Alaska Highway , to drive directly northeast or southwest connect to or from Southcentral Alaska communities without driving all

170-677: The Alaska Range, including the Delta and Nenana Rivers in the center of the range and the Nabesna and Chisana Rivers to the east. The range is part of the Pacific Ring of Fire , and the Denali Fault that runs along its southern edge is responsible for many major earthquakes . Mount Spurr is a stratovolcano located at the northeastern end of the Aleutian Volcanic Arc which has two vents,

187-616: The Alaska Range. The first recorded expedition was in the Eastern Alaska Range led by H. T. Allen in 1885. His team went from Suslota Lake to Tetlin Lake and unto the Tanana River via Miles Pass. He noted that it would be possible to build a road from Prince William Sound to the Yukon River . Six years later, Frederick Schwatka and Charles W. Hayes crossed the extreme eastern end of

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204-448: The Seward Highway south of downtown Anchorage and a longer portion of the Glenn Highway northeast to AK-3 are built to freeway standards; the proposed Highway to Highway Connection would link these through downtown. All exits are unnumbered. The Tok Cut-Off is a highway in the U.S. state of Alaska , running 125 miles (201 km) from Gakona (on the Richardson Highway , 14 miles (23 km) north of Glennallen ), to Tok on

221-528: The beginning of the Glenn Highway . AK-1 follows the entire length of the Glenn Highway , passing the south end of the George Parks Highway ( AK-3 ) near Wasilla and meeting the Richardson Highway ( AK-4 ) near Glennallen . A short concurrency north along AK-4 takes AK-1 to the Tok Cut-Off , which it follows northeast to its end at the Alaska Highway ( AK-2 ) at Tok . The majority of AK-1

238-602: The name "Tschigmit" to this mountain range. A map made by the United States General Land Office in 1869 calls the southwestern part of the Alaska Range the "Chigmit Mountains" and the northeastern part the "Beaver Mountains". However, the Chigmit Mountains are now considered part of the Aleutian Range . Starting in the mid 1880s to early 1900s, early non-native explorers traversed various sections of

255-632: The range via the White River and into the Copper River basin through Skolai Pass in what is now called Saint Elias Mountains . In 1898, W. C. Mendenhall and E. F. Glenn traversed Isabel Pass and were within 15-20 miles of the Tanana River before turning around. Separately, that same year, Robert Muldrow and George Homans Eldridge crossed Broad Pass then Windy Pass into the Nenana River valley. Tok Cut-Off Alaska Route 1 ( AK-1 )

272-473: The summit and nearby Crater Peak. Parts of the Alaska Range are protected within Wrangell-St. Elias National Park and Preserve , Denali National Park and Preserve , and Lake Clark National Park and Preserve . Several highways cross through the passes of the range: the George Parks Highway from Anchorage to Fairbanks via Windy Pass, the Richardson Highway from Valdez to Fairbanks via Isabel Pass , and

289-652: The tip of Homer Spit just south of the end of the Sterling Highway in Homer . It follows the entire Sterling Highway through Soldotna to the junction with the Seward Highway north of Seward , where it meets the north end of AK-9 . There it turns north and follows the Seward Highway to its end in Anchorage , and follows the one-way pairs of Ingra and Gambell Streets and 6th and 5th Avenues, continuing east on 5th Avenue to

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