Archives West Finding Aid

The Alaska Syndicate was formed by the Guggenheims, J.P. Morgan, and two other banking firms to develop the copper resources in the Wrangell Mountain range of southeastern Alaska. The Copper River and Northwestern Railway was constructed along the Copper River from 1906-1911 to provide access to the Kennecott copper mine, owned by the Kennecott Mines Company, the predecessor of the Kennecott Copper Corporation. Originally, the railway construction terminus was to be at the seaside town of Katalla because of its proximity to the Bering River coal fields, which could provide fuel for smeltering the ore. Katalla, though, had no wharf, and difficult seas prohibited the construction of an effective breakwater for ships' moorage. As a result, the construction effort was often in short supply as tugboats could not meet the off-shore steamers' deliveries. The Alaska Syndicate headquarters moved to Cordova in 1908, 75 miles away by water. Cordova saw the regular arrival of steamships from the lower 48 states to its docks. Several miles of railway already existed to Eyak Lake, built by railroad contractor Michael Heney. Heney was subsequently hired by the Alaska Syndicate to complete the Copper River and Northwestern Railway, and his first contract required the completion of the first fifty miles of track to Ambercrombie Landing by the end of 1908.

The railway stretched 200 miles inland to the Kennecott coal deposits. Often the severity of seasonal elements challenged construction. Building the bridge across the Copper River from the Miles to the Childs Glaciers required rapid construction to take advantage of the winter months, before chunks of ice floated downstream during heavy spring run-off. At times the elements proved too difficult to conquer, as in the case of the trestle built across the river at milepost 133. The plans showed that a high, permanent bridge was to be constructed, but lengthy time and high cost persuaded the engineers to design a lower, disposable trestle that was allowed to wash out yearly and then be rebuilt. The Miles Glacier Bridge, with four spans and five million tons of steel, was touted as the "million-dollar" bridge, completed in 1910 at the price of $1.4 million.

The final spike of the railway was driven into the ground at the town of Kennicott on March 29, 1911 (the mine and company are spelled "Kennecott," while the town is spelled "Kennicott"). The final cost of the railway, which took a peak crew of 6,000 men nearly five years to construct, was $23,500,000. A week after its completion, the first train of ore moved toward Cordova. The deposit was so rich that the ore averaged 70 percent pure copper. The Alaska Syndicate enjoyed handsome profits for copper during the World War I years, but by 1938, the mine was depleted and the Copper River and Northwestern Railway abandoned.