The bridge existed for one reason: copper. In the early 1900s some of the richest copper ore on earth was found in the mountains at Kennecott, and the Alaska Syndicate — J.P. Morgan and the Guggenheim family — set out to haul it to tidewater. They hired Michael Heney, the “Irish Prince” who had helped build the White Pass railroad, to run a line 196 miles down the Copper River to an ice-free port. Heney chose the spot, named it Cordova in 1906 after an old Spanish name for the harbor, and the town was founded in 1908 as the railroad’s ocean terminus. From 1911 to 1938, Kennecott copper rolled down the rails and onto ships bound south.
People were here long before the copper. The Eyak made the Copper River Delta and this corner of Prince William Sound their home, fishing the same runs that feed the town today and trading along the coast between their Tlingit and Alutiiq neighbors. The first cannery opened on Orca Inlet in 1889 — before the railroad, before the town — proof that the fish came first and have stayed longest. Cordova’s deepest story is not copper but salmon, and the people who have always known it.
Why People Visit Cordova
Cordova rewards travelers who want the real, working edge of Alaska: a fishing fleet at the dock, glaciers and a great river delta within reach, world-class birding and salmon, and a town you have to make an effort to reach. Bring rain gear and time.
