Copper River

No economics degree is required.

And the copper part of the story is a little personal for me because my people are Athabaskan from the Copper River region of Alaska.

My great-grandfather was Chief Nikolai.

Long before Americans developed the great Kennecott mines, native people knew that copper was there they used it they traded it my brother ron wrote a book about it called legacy of the chief the americans didn't discover copper in an empty wilderness they entered a place where people already knew about the copper The Americans just had bigger plans for that hole.

No road grid threading through the interior.

No highway system connecting the coastal towns to the Copper River country, to the Kenai Peninsula, to the villages strung out across the lower Yukon.

The communities of the territory were scattered across a land mass.

More than twice the width of Texas, separated by mountain ranges and river valleys and coastal inlets that made ground travel.

Rain showers and lower temperatures have helped firefighters make progress on the Mukluk Fire, but with hunting season underway, fire managers are warning hunters to stay out of the burned areas near the western edge of the fire.

The fire season has been extended through Monday in the Toke, Delta, and Copper River protection areas.

That means burn permits are still required in those areas.

The Alaska Volcano Observatory lowered the alert level this week for Cooper and Odd Volcano on the Alaska Peninsula.

We're closer to the ocean, so our temperatures are moderated a little bit more there, so Gianna, you don't have to worry about that.

But speaking of snow, Terrence, it started, you know, making me think of winter, blizzards, Frozen, and I found this video from over the weekend, this is Copper River, Alaska, of those northern lights.

Isn't that cool?

cool?Oh, that is beautiful.

So the utility started in 1907 due to copper mining.

There's a river called the Copper River and Then the copper ran out and then it became a big clam processing facility.

Then there was an earthquake and the ocean floor dropped like eight feet or something and wiped out all the clams.

was gone, and then eventually what happened was salmon.

So if you go to a Costco and you see Copper River salmon, that's coming from Cordova.

But what makes Cordova interesting in a lot of these, what we call off-grid microgrids, is that there is no other grid.

There's not even a road to Cordova.

We had crossed the divide and in a short time were off the ice and camped on a stream flowing into the Pacific.

This was the Nizina, a tributary of the Chitina or eastern branch of Copper River.

The next four days we continued our journey down the narrow canyon which this stream has cut through the mountain range and encountered the most difficult traveling we had yet found.

The vegetation on the southern side of this range rivals in luxuriance that of the coast.

Twice more the canyon wall was scaled, but the river could be seen only a short distance ahead.

Several times we came uncomfortably near disaster and that we got through in safety is largely due to the coolness and skill with which Mark Russell navigated our craft.

Continuing down the Chitina about forty miles to its confluence with Copper River, we reached Taral a few miles below the confluence, August 12th, just fourteen days after the natives left us on White River.

We had come through exactly on schedule time with three pounds of flour and a handful of tea remaining of the provisions with which we left Selkirk.

He was quiet, almost eerily calm, the kind of man who didn't waste words and didn't waste motion.

He built his reputation in the Copper River country and the Wrangell Mountains, flying the routes nobody else wanted.

Now here's where it gets interesting.

Most pilots had weather limits.

Answer the question, jerk.

Wagyu steak or American or fresh properly handled Copper River salmon? Steak.

A Copper River salmon.

Steak.

Copper River steak.

You're wrong.

One is seasonal.

One's year-round.

The Chilkats made a great deal of money by trading tobacco with the Athapascans.

Afterward, Raven went beyond Copper River to Yukatat.

There he showed the people how to make canoes out of skins.

End of chapter nine.