MILEPOST 71 on the COPPER RIVER HIGHWAY

About the Book

At the turn of the century, little was known of the Alaskan interior. Even though miners had prospected and staked claims throughout the vast interior region, there was little or no production from those mines because no affordable transportation system was available to service them when and if they did start producing ore in paying quantities. In 1905, Congress authorized the U.S. Army to explore and develop transportation routes from coastal cities to the interior. One such undertaking completed in 1908, resulted in a wagon trail from Valdez to Fairbanks. That route is now known as the Richardson Highway.

While the U.S. Army was busy searching for other viable inland routes, a railroad builder, Michael J. Heney, was exploring the possibility of building a railroad up the Copper River Valley from Cordova to the mines at Chitina. As a result of his entrepreneurship, the Copper River & Northwestern Railway came into being. The railway operated from 1911 to 1938.

Following the shut down, the community of Cordova, acting in concert with the Federal Government, made several attempts to convert the railbed to a highway.

In his own words, taken from his daily journal, the author describes a short period in history of one such attempt. Milepost 71 permits the reader to share with the author, that summer's experience, on a day-to-day basis, 50 years ago.

About the Author

Dale Hamilton was born and grew up in the Ozark mountains of southern Missouri. He graduated from the University of Missouri in 1956 with a Bachelor of Science in Civil Engineering. As a Professional Engineer, licensed to practice in Wyoming, Colorado, and Texas, the Authors? long and varied career included; Sales Engineer with the Linde Company??the industrial gases Division of Union Carbide; Assistant Engineering Manager of the Homestake Project??a trans-mountain water diversion project for Aurora and Colorado Springs, CO; City Engineer, Aurora, CO; County Engineer, Elbert County, CO; Founder and President of Soils Technology of Texas??a soils engineering company dedicated to the chemical treatment of expansive clay soils??San Antonio, TX; Founder and President of Hamilton Enterprises, Ltd.??an engineering and land surveying company engaged in the planning, design, and construction of numerous residential projects, primarily along the front range and in the mountains of Colorado.