Glaciers of Prince William Sound - Ports & Places

Fairbanks is referred to as the Golden Heart City. With 30,000 people, Fairbanks is the hub of the interior, the second largest city in the state. The area has been home to Koyukon Athabascan for thousands of years. The founding of the city is a story of luck. In 1901, E.T. Barnette established a trading post on the bank of the Chena River after his steamboat ran aground and his hired steamboat captain refused to travel any further up the shallow river. Barnette had fortunate timing, as gold was discovered a year later by Felix Pedro, just 16 miles north of the trading post. The town was named after Indiana Senator Charles Fairbanks, who later became vice-president. The town's population increased with the addition of government offices, a jail, district court, a post office, and various private companies. Other booms in the economy include the construction of Ladd Airfield in 1938, the construction of the Alaskan Highway in the 1940's, and building of the Trans- Alaska oil pipeline in the 1970's. The town's economy is currently driven by federal, state and local government services, communication, and financial and medical services.
You will have a full day of sightseeing and fun in Fairbanks. Your day will include a trip to the Trans-Alaska pipeline, a visit to the University of Alaska Fairbanks Museum, a river boat ride along the Chena River, and a city tour of downtown Fairbanks and its surrounding residential areas.

Denali National Park and Preserve -  See majestic Mt. McKinley, "The Great One," in Denali National Park.

Adventurous men and women of all ages set their sights on the peak of Mt. McKinley, hoping to scale its 20,320 foot incline. It is a climb that takes serious determination, strong physical and mental strength, and above all the ability to reason and make safe decisions during expeditions. If dangerous weather is setting in, and the summit is a mere hour trek away, climbers have to decide if they should push ahead, possibly suffering dire consequences, or retreat, leaving the summit for another year.
Many climbers will tell you that it is the journey that is the most memorable and rewarding aspect of their climb. Roughly half of those who climb Denali do not reach the summit, yet take pride in their success of challenging their mind and body, gaining personal growth. Other adventurers may choose to go on a back-country trek within the park. These individuals must obtain a permit through the Park Service and select a unit in which to explore, providing personal descriptions and outdoor gear color so officials can track the hikers if necessary.
Open fires are not allowed in the Park, nor are open food canisters, and any material that an animal might find tasty, such as toothpaste, or lotion. These items, along with all food, stove fuel, and trash, must be stored in bear-resistant canisters. This system has allowed for a safe coexistence between humans and wildlife, and there has never been a fatal encounter between a human and animal in Denali. Backpackers enjoy the solitude and peaceful scenery as they visit a region that truly belongs to the wildlife.

Anchorage - Discover the "Big City" pleasures of Anchorage

Anchorage is the largest community in Alaska with 270,000 residents. The town was founded in 1914, and within one year, the Alaska Railroad made Anchorage its hub. In 1915, Anchorage became a tent city of 2,000 people following the ‘Great Anchorage Lot Sale.’ The land auction sold lots for an average of $225 each. The city of Anchorage became officially incorporated in 1920. Major military impact allowed for the growth of Anchorage between 1939 and 1957. Roads were built and airports were constructed, allowing for continual growth of the city, and the port of Anchorage was completed in the early 1960s. In 1964, the Good Friday Earthquake demolished a large part of the town. The quake registered 9.2 on the Richter Scale, killing 131 people. Downtown Anchorage and residential areas suffered massive land slide damage. During the 1970s, Anchorage experienced another major economic boom with the construction of the Trans-Alaska Pipeline. The economy continues to thrive on natural resource production, along with finance and real estate, government agencies, tourism and transportation. Downtown Anchorage offers a variety of shops and enjoyable cafes and restaurants. You will enjoy your day of sightseeing, traveling south along the Turnagain Arm, a beautiful trip by motorcoach to view Cook Inlet, and looking for mountain goats along the Chugach Mountain Range. You will visit the Alyeska Resort and partake in a scenic tram ride to the summit. Later in the day you will travel northeast to the Alaska Native Heritage Center and have the wonderful opportunity to learn about the various native cultures in Alaska. Members of different tribes conduct education workshops, discussing their history, customs, and way of life.

Whittier - Visit the community of Whittier, gateway to the Prince William Sound wilderness

Whittier, Alaska is located at the northern end of glacier-lined Passage Canal in Prince William Sound, 65 miles southeast of Anchorage. This tiny, remote community was established as a strategic military facility during World War II. Whittier’s ice-free port has served various marine activities from freight transfers of sea-train barges heading to Southcentral Alaska to a fishing and tourism port. In 1941, the U.S. Congress appropriated $5 million to construct a 2.5 mile tunnel to penetrate the mountains to connect Whittier to Anchorage. This tunnel would be one of the largest in the world, and two years and two tunnels later, the first train arrived in Whittier on June 1, 1943, forever linking this Alaskan outpost by sea and land. By the year 2000, the tunnel began to serve both vehicles and the train. Two of the largest buildings in Alaska were also constructed in Whittier during the war, with the unique concept of housing all residents under one roof. To this day, most of the population of 185 lives in one of these tall buildings, and its tiny boat harbor remains the gateway to the pristine wonders of the beautiful Prince William Sound wilderness.

In the summer of 1899, railroad magnate Edward H. Harriman, president of the Union Pacific Railroad and the Washington Academy of Sciences upon advice from his physician to take a sea voyage as an antidote to stress, funded a scientific expedition along the Alaskan coast. The two-month expedition, intended initially as a family vacation, eventually gathered an illustrious group of scientists, naturalists, writers, and artists, and combined scientific research with leisure activities.It was the Harriman Expedition party who named College Fjord as well as the glaciers that line it. The dozen or so glaciers lining this fjord were named for the Ivy League schools that members of the party attended. On the northwest side of the fjord, the glaciers were named after the women's colleges, such as Smith, Bryn Mawr, Vassar, Wellesley, Barnard, and Holyoke. On the southeast side, the glaciers are named after men's colleges Harvard, Yale, Amherst, and Dartmouth.
Some of these glaciers have retreated since the original Harriman Expedition, but not the largest of them, Harvard.  Harvard Glacier is 1-1/2 miles wide, approximately 225 feet high at its terminal face, stretches below the waterline up to about 120 feet, and reaches back to the Chugach Icefield nearly 24 miles away. This giant of College Fjord is slowly advancing, calving literally tons of ice into the fjord each day. These glaciers parade down from the steep mountains. Nowhere else is there such a density of tidal glaciers.
There are often harbor seals hauled out on the ice floes in front of Harvard Glacier throughout the summer. It’s also not unusual to see large rafts of sea otters together, grooming their luxuriously dense fur, slipping beneath the surface to dine on crab, or simply floating with their babies nestled on their chests watching with curiosity as we pass by.

Cordova - Discover the rich copper heritage of Cordova.

The eastern area of Prince William Sound has a rich and varied cultural heritage. It is believed that early cultures were originally land-based hunters eking out their livelihood up to the very edge of the glaciers and saltwater. With time, other groups adapted a maritime way of life. Before the “discovery” of this area by Europeans and the subsequent saturation with western culture, both Indian and Eskimo groups populated the area. The Eyak Indians occupied the present site of Cordova and often acted as middlemen for trade between the Chugach and Copper River tribes. The sea provided access for raiding Eskimo tribes and for the Tlingits who had moved as far north as Yakutat.
During the late 1800's, this area had become a popular commercial fishing area because of the seemingly inexhaustible runs of salmon. Several canneries popped up and the natives became employees of this new endeavor. But Cordova was a town built because of copper. In the summer of 1900, Clarence Warner and “Tarantula Jack” Smith were prospecting about 200 miles up the Copper River on its tributary, the Chitna River. They spotted what they thought to be a rich green patch of grass on a hillside. Deciding it would be a great grazing opportunity for their mules, they set off to inspect the area. What they discovered turned out to be one of the richest copper deposits in the world.
Once back to civilization they made their claim and within the year were bought out by a young and ambitious mining engineer, Stephen Birch. Birch was backed by some of the most influential families of the time, including the J.P. Morgans and the Guggenheims. Originally called the Alaska Syndicate, it became the Kennecott Copper Corporation in 1915. Kennecott's high-grade copper ore was previously known and used by the region's Ahtna native population. In order to get the ore to the coast and then down to Tacoma, Washington, for smelting, the Alaska Syndicate contracted with Michael Heney, builder of the White Pass & Yukon Railroad near Skagway, to build the Copper River and Northwestern Railroad.
Heney had his headquarters in an abandoned cannery near the coast, and with the hiring of labor to build the railroad, founded the town of Cordova in 1906, taking the name Lieutenant Salvador Fidalgo, a Spanish cartographer, gave the area in 1790. Cordova became the railroad terminus and shipping port for copper ore from the Kennecott Mine up the Copper River. The Bonanza-Kennecott Mines operated until 1938 and yielded over $200 million in copper, silver and gold. The falling price of copper spelled the end for the industry.
Fishing became the economic base in the early 1940's. From 1916 until the late 1950's, the area supported a large commercial razor clam fishery and proclaimed itself as the “Razor Clam Capital of the World.” Historic commercial harvests in this area were as much as 3 million pounds. By the early 1960's, the razor clam fishery began to decline due to reduced clam populations. In 1964, the earthquake caused significant uplift in the Copper River Delta and the eastern and southern areas of the Prince William Sound by as much as 34 feet, disrupting what was left of the clam beds.  Today, Cordova's "Copper River Salmon" is a prized catch in Alaska.

Knight Island - Visit the remote wilderness of Knight Island.

Knight Island, 25 miles long and two to nine miles wide, is located in the remote southwestern portion of Prince William Sound, 40 miles southeast of Whittier. Spectacular coves, inlets, and steep rocky cliffs surround the island, and the waterways of Knight Island Passage and Montague Straits support an extraordinary abundance of marine mammals including humpback whales, orcas, sea otters, harbor seals, and sea lions.In the early 1900's (1903-09) 42 mining claims were staked along most of Knight Island, but only two claims in Drier Bay and the Pandora Mine on Knight Island ever produced any copper ore, with its southern neighbor of Latouche Island producing the richest claims. Unsuccessful miners turned to fox farming and fishing on and around these remote islands; however, Knight Island has remained relatively uninhabited since the copper mining heyday.
Unfortunately, all the islands in this southwestern portion of Prince William Sound were in the path of the 1989 Exxon Valdez Oil Spill, with Knight Island being heavily affected. Today, the devastated ecosystem and wildlife habitat is recovering and it is difficult to notice any harm along the surface of this rugged and remote landscape.

Prince William Sound is a must-see if you believe that “big things come in small packages.”  Roughly the size of Puget Sound and three times the size of San Francisco Bay, Prince William Sound stretches nearly 70 miles both across and from top to bottom. Sailing the Sound brings visitors up-close and personal with centuries-old glacial ice, from small cirque glaciers(shallow bowls on high mountain peaks) to large tidewater glaciers (glaciers that end with their faces in water). It’s exciting to watch these large rivers of ice drop huge pieces into the water right in front of you!  Listen for the sound of the mass moving along; large fissures crack like rifle shots as the plummeting chunks of ice smack the water. As the glacier calves, it creates a chain reaction in the water, moving ice bits, bergs, and the sea life with it.
One of the shaping forces of Alaska is out in the Sound, the collision deep in the earth of the Pacific Plate with the North American Plate. It has lifted up the world's greatest coastal mountains, the Chugach. The highest peak in the Chugach Range, 13,176-foot Mount Marcus Baker, towers above Harvard Glacier in College Fjord. It’s no wonder that copper, gold, and silver ores, among others, were found aplenty.
The incredible scenery -- narrow waterways, forest-covered islands, sea caves, marine mammals, and sea birds -- keeps visitors busy photographing, and with a maximum 19 hours of daylight around the summer solstice, there is plenty of time in which to do it. This is definitely color photography at its best. The color of the water changes from an eye-popping copper sulfate blue to the violet blue of the deep ocean. Close to glaciers the water turns a turbid gray from the glacier “flour” or silt that occurs as glaciers grind the rock on which they slide. We are able to get very close to these spectacles, making the experience richer, more poignant, and the photographs more spectacular: like being in a movie instead of just watching it. This is one place you shouldn’t forget to bring plenty of film.