The Klutina River ( Tl’atii Na’ in Ahtna ) is a 63-mile (101 km) tributary of the Copper River in the U.S. state of Alaska . Beginning at Klutina Glacier in the Chugach Mountains , the river flows generally northeast, passing through Klutina Lake , to meet the larger river at the community of Copper Center . The river mouth is 66 miles (106 km) northeast of Valdez .
31-538: Accessible from the Richardson Highway , which passes through Copper Center, the Klutina River and its tributaries are a major fishery for sockeye salmon and trophy-sized king salmon , the latter sometimes weighing between 50 and 90 pounds (23 and 41 kg). Floatplanes and jet boats, trails, and an unimproved four-wheel-drive road between Copper Center and Klutina Lake provide additional access to game fish in
62-537: A central road was built. In early 1904, Congress passed legislation to build roads throughout Alaska. After surveys by the Army Corps of Engineers during the summer of that year, President Theodore Roosevelt appointed Major Wilds Richardson as the head of the Alaska Road Commission to supervise the construction of a wagon road from Valdez to Fairbanks starting in 1905. Richardson suggested dividing
93-426: A household in the city was $ 36,042, and the median income for a family was $ 44,375. Males had a median income of $ 30,000 versus $ 20,000 for females. The per capita income for the city was $ 20,221. There were 2.6% of families and 16.5% of the population living below the poverty line , including 40.0% of under eighteens and none of those over 64. In the 1970s high school-aged children took correspondence courses from
124-511: A military road from Valdez to Copper Center then onto Eagle . Before winter of 1899, they had completed a 93 mile trail suitable for packhorses through Keystone Canyon and past Thompson Pass to the Tonsina River. By 1901, the pack trail was completed, and provided an "all-American" route to the Klondike gold fields. The total distance of the road was about 409 miles (660 km). After
155-529: A road between Eagle to the Tanana River crossing, near Tok , then onto the Chena River confluence with the Tanana River. He suggested a route from Copper Center to the Tanana River crossing would be more cost effective. The senatorial party also met with Judge James Wickersham and Fairbanks resident Abraham Spring, both pushing for government led roadbuilding, opining that the miners could build feeder roads if
186-577: A small population that is about 50 percent Han . The town enjoyed some notoriety, as the setting of John McPhee 's book Coming into the Country , first published in 1977 and becoming quite popular. Many of the buildings from the Gold Rush years are preserved as part of the Eagle Historic District , a National Historic Landmark district. The Eagle area also is one of the locales featured on
217-572: The Alaska Railroad , disgruntled truckers nicknamed "gypsies" started a rogue ferry service in order to evade the toll. The Alaska and Glenn highways, built during World War II , connected the rest of the continent and Anchorage to the Richardson Highway at Delta Junction and Glennallen respectively, allowing motor access to the new military bases built in the Territory just prior to
248-613: The National Geographic Channel series Life Below Zero . Eagle first appeared on the 1900 U.S. Census as Eagle City, although it was not incorporated until the following year. It was shortened to Eagle in the following census. As of the census of 2000, there were 129 people, 58 households, and 37 families residing in the city. The population density was 127.9/sq mi (49.4/km ). There were 137 housing units at an average density of 135.8 units per square mile (52.4 units/km ). The racial makeup of
279-614: The Northwest Passage to the rest of the world. The ensuing gold rushes in Nome and Fairbanks eventually lured people away from Eagle. In 1903, Judge James Wickersham moved the Third Division court from Eagle to Fairbanks. By 1910, Eagle's population had declined to its present-day level, below 200 people. Fort Egbert was abandoned in 1911. Present-day Eagle is home to (mostly) people of European descent; nearby Eagle Village has
310-866: The Tok Cut-Off Highway to the international border. Only a short piece of the Richardson Highway in Fairbanks is built to freeway standards. [REDACTED] Media related to Richardson Highway at Wikimedia Commons Eagle, Alaska Eagle ( Tthee T’äwdlenn in Hän Athabascan ) is a village on the south bank of the Yukon River , near the Canada–US border in the Southeast Fairbanks Census Area in Alaska, United States . It includes
341-572: The U.S. state of Alaska , running 368 miles (562 km) and connecting Valdez to Fairbanks . It is marked as Alaska Route 4 from Valdez to Delta Junction and as Alaska Route 2 from there to Fairbanks. It also connects segments of Alaska Route 1 between the Glenn Highway and the Tok Cut-Off . The Richardson Highway was the first major road built in Alaska. Indigenous trade routes existed in
SECTION 10
#1733085705185372-698: The USGS . They would eventually cross Isabel Pass , who were also the first recorded non-natives through that route, but fell short 15-20 miles from the Tanana River. This pass received very little attention at the time. Concurrently, Captain William Abercrombie was ordered to explore from Valdez northward to the Copper River and tributaries of the Tanana River. By 1899, the Army ordered Captain Abercrombie to build
403-618: The University of Nebraska-Lincoln , with a local resident supervising their work. Eagle is now part of the Alaska Gateway School District . Eagle School, a K–12 campus, serves city students. The Eagle Historic District is a well-preserved example of the historic development in Northern Alaska. Fort Egbert was built in 1889 to serve a central governmental role for the area. Over 100 buildings from this era survive including
434-490: The Eagle Historic District, a U.S. National Historic Landmark . The population was 86 at the 2010 census . Every February, Eagle hosts a checkpoint for the long-distance Yukon Quest sled dog race. Eagle is located at 64°47′10″N 141°12′0″W / 64.78611°N 141.20000°W / 64.78611; -141.20000 (64.786022, -141.199917), in a straight line about 5.9 miles (9.5 km) west of
465-518: The Eagle area was home to many indigenous peoples , including the Han . The first known American-built structure in Eagle was a log trading post called "Belle Isle", erected around 1874. Subsequently, in the late 1800s, Eagle became a supply and trading center for miners working the upper Yukon River and its tributaries. By the year 1898, Eagle's population had exceeded 1,700 persons; many newcomers journeyed to
496-585: The Klondike region, drawing prospectors to Fairbanks. These new travelers would follow the established Valdez-Eagle Trail until the Gakona River , and then utilize Ahtna trading trails through Isabel Pass to the Tanana Valley and finally unto Fairbanks. Most traffic using this route was during the winter with pack trains or sled dogs, since animals would tear up moss if it wasn't frozen, hampering travel. Travel to
527-429: The absence of chinook moderation, winter temperatures can be dangerously cold: in the notoriously cold month of December 1917, the temperature did not rise above −25 °F (−31.7 °C) and it averaged −46 °F (−43.3 °C). When chinooks occur, winter temperatures can get above 32 °F (0.0 °C), doing so on an average of five days per winter. For thousands of years prior to Europeans arriving in Alaska,
558-547: The area during the summer was via riverboats. The new traffic also enticed many to build roadhouses along the route, although many faced difficulty keeping them profitable. Along with the previous gold discoveries, the Fairbanks Gold Rush prompted the US Congress to send a senatorial party in 1903 to Alaska to hear testimony. At Eagle, Lieutenant William Mitchell told the party his estimated $ 2 million cost of building
589-520: The area with word of the Klondike Gold Rush . In 1901, Eagle became the first incorporated city of the Alaska Interior . It was named for the many eagles that nested on nearby Eagle Bluff. A United States Army camp, Fort Egbert , was built at Eagle in 1900. A telegraph line between Eagle and Valdez was completed in 1903. In 1905, Roald Amundsen arrived in Eagle and telegraphed the news of
620-764: The border between Alaska and the Yukon Territory of Canada at the 141st meridian west . Eagle is on the southern bank of the Yukon River at the end of the Taylor Highway , near Yukon–Charley Rivers National Preserve . According to the United States Census Bureau , the city has a total area of 1.0-square-mile (2.6 km ), all land. Like most of Alaska, Eagle has a subarctic climate ( Köppen Dwc ) with long, severely cold, dry winters occasionally moderated by chinook winds , and short, warm summers. In
651-454: The city was 93.02% White , 6.20% Native American , and 0.78% from two or more races. 0.78% of the population were Hispanic or Latino of any race. Of the 58 households, 20.7% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 55.2% were married couples living together, 6.9% had a female householder with no husband present, and 36.2% were non-families. 34.5% of all households were made up of individuals, and 5.2% had someone living alone who
SECTION 20
#1733085705185682-617: The eastern Alaska Range from the mouth of the Copper River to the Tanana River via Suslota Pass, the first non-natives to do so. In his report, he noted that it would be possible to build a road between Prince William Sound to the Yukon River . Shortly after his expedition, gold discoveries in the late 1880s to mid 1890s north of the Alaska Range, such as in the Fortymile Mining District , at Birch Creek near Circle , and in
713-498: The prospectors to leave Alaska. The rise of motorized travel led the road to be upgraded to automobile standards in the 1920s. To finance continued maintenance and road construction, the Alaska Road Commission instituted tolls for commercial vehicles in 1933 of up to $ 175 per trip, which were collected at the Tanana River ferry crossing at Big Delta . When the tolls were further increased in 1941 to boost business for
744-707: The region going from Prince William Sound to the north of the Alaska Range into the Alaskan Interior starting at least 5000 years ago. The majority of the trade was facilitated by the Ahtna , but also included the Eyak and Sugpiaq to the south, and the Tanana Athabaskans to the north. The route of the Richardson Highway primarily follows part of this old trade network. In 1885, Lieutenant Henry Allen's party crossed
775-719: The rush ended, the Army kept the trail open in order to connect its posts for communication at Fort Liscum , in Valdez, and Fort Egbert , in Eagle. One way message times were generally around 6 months from the Yukon to Washington, D.C. By 1904, the completion of the WAMCATS allowed near instantaneous communication from Fort Egbert to the US Capitol using an all American telegraph system. The Fairbanks Gold Rush in July of 1902 drew attention away from
806-538: The trail into 3 sections, the first from Valdez to Copper Center along Abercrombie's route, the second from the mouth of the Delta River to Fairbanks, and the third connecting the two from Copper Center to Isabel Pass. Although Richardson contended with low funds and difficult construction, the road was finished in 1910. During the construction, the government hired failed gold prospectors as well as regular construction workers. The income from this work allowed many of
837-532: The war: Fort Richardson in Anchorage, and Fort Wainwright adjacent to Fairbanks. The bridge at Big Delta, the last remaining gap, was built as part of the Alaska Highway project. The southern end was only open during summers until 1950, when a freight company foreman who lived near the treacherous Thompson Pass plowed the snow himself for an entire season to prove the route could be used year-round. The highway
868-472: The watershed. In addition to salmon, the main species are Dolly Varden and Arctic grayling . This article related to a river in Alaska is a stub . You can help Misplaced Pages by expanding it . This article about a location in the Copper River Census Area, Alaska is a stub . You can help Misplaced Pages by expanding it . Richardson Highway The Richardson Highway is a highway in
899-632: The western Yukon , put pressure on the US Congress to explore Alaska. In March of 1898, the US Department of War funded three expeditions to explore Southcentral Alaska. Edwin Glenn led the expedition ordered to explore from Prince William Sound to Cook Inlet for routes between the Susitna and Copper rivers then northward to the Tanana River . Attached to the expedition was geologist Walter Mendenhall from
930-481: Was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.22 and the average family size was 2.86. In the city the population was spread out, with 24.8% under the age of 18, 3.1% from 18 to 24, 24.0% from 25 to 44, 44.2% from 45 to 64, and 3.9% who were 65 years of age or older. The median age was 44 years. For every 100 females there were 95.5 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 98.0 males. The median income for
961-550: Was paved in 1957. The Trans-Alaska Pipeline System , built in 1973-1977, mostly parallels the highway from Fairbanks to Valdez. Richardson Highway is part of the unsigned part of the Interstate Highway System east of Fairbanks. The entire length of Interstate A-2 follows Route 2 from the George Parks Highway ( Interstate A-4 ) junction in Fairbanks to Tok, east of which Route 2 carries Interstate A-1 off