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Copper Center is located between Mile 100 and 105 of the Old Richardson
Highway. This "loop" was created when the Richardson Highway was
straightened in 1988. Copper Center is located at the confluence of the
Klutina and Copper Rivers. Copper Center is a very historic area. Like
most of the communities in the Copper Basin, it began as a native village
with a large population.
Copper Center - one of the first "tent cities" located in the Copper River
Region was built by miners looking for a short cut to the Klondike. Around
1896, Ringwald Blix built a roadhouse where the Copper Center Lodge is
presently standing. Blix was well-known throughout south-central Alaska. One
local newspaper reporter commented, "Ringwald Blix is known as the Poo-Bah
of Copper Center, in the Copper River Valley. He's the whole thing in that
region. Besides being U.S. Commissioner, he is postmaster, notary public,
hotel proprietor, farmer and miner..." |