Page 183 - (DK Eyewitness) Travel Guide 2017 - Alaska

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EASTERN INTERIOR

ALASKA

The heart of the Klondike Gold Rush of 1898, the wild
Eastern Interior reflects the popular image of Alaska for
most outsiders. This “great, big, broad land ’way up yonder,”
so evocatively extolled in the poetry of Robert Service, is
typified by hills laced with the gold-bearing streams that
were the destinations of hopeful prospec tors, and the
icy peaks and glacial valleys that barred their way.
During the Gold Rush, towns sprang 1942, and the road not only opened up
up in remote areas along the Yukon an access route through the Interior, but
River and its tributaries. Dawson City, also boosted the economy of the region.
lying at the confluence of the Yukon In the 1970s, the area experienced a
and Klondike Rivers in Canada’s Yukon new boom – a black gold rush – as
Territory, became the com mercial the Richardson Highway became the
heart of the region. After most of the corridor for the Trans-Alaska Pipeline
claims had been staked and the readily that connected the Prudhoe Bay oilfields
accessible gold had been extracted, with the Valdez terminal.
many penniless prospectors opted With the creation of Wrangell-St. Elias
to stay to home stead and pursue National Park in 1980, a thriving tourist
frontier lifestyles. industry took shape in the region. The
Shortly after the Gold Rush ended, park, a UNESCO World Heritage Site, is
copper was discovered at the turn of the now on the itinerary of an increasing
century near Kennicott in the Wrangell number of visitors. Visitors are also drawn
Mountains, and the Copper River and by the numer ous wildlife refuges and
Northwestern Railway was built from the mighty Yukon River, which flows
Cordova to export ore to the outside across the northern part of the region,
world. World War II necessitated the as well as by adventure activities, scenic
construction of the Alaska Highway in drives, and historic towns.

An oil pipeline going through the forest at Copper Center
Abandoned buildings at Kennicott within Wrangell-St. Elias National Park

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