Copper Center Day Tours & Attractions

Explor­ing the rivers of Cop­per Cen­ter, around 4 hours from Anchor­age and right on the edge of gor­geous Wrangell-St. Elias Nation­al Park, brings oppor­tu­ni­ties for every­thing from mild floats to Class III and IV rapids. Since the Cop­per Riv­er Basin is a lit­tle more remote than oth­er areas, you’ll be able to tru­ly appre­ci­ate the wilder­ness as you enjoy a relax­ing day on the water.

The Cop­per Riv­er Val­ley offers some of the best king salmon fish­ing in all of Alas­ka. In fact, each salmon up here aver­ages a whop­ping 40 pounds! Don’t miss your chance to fish these waters for salmon and oth­er species on a float trip with AK Fish Charters.

Expe­ri­ence a full- or half-day sport-fish­ing trip the way it was meant to be: with a relax­ing vis­it to an uncrowd­ed fish­ing hole. Depend­ing on the sea­son, you can try for kings, sock­eye, trout, or Arc­tic grayling, as you angle with fish­ing guides who know the ins and outs of these cold, glacial drainages.

Get a taste of ear­ly 19^th-cen­tu­ry Alas­ka in Cop­per Cen­ter. This small com­mu­ni­ty locat­ed at the con­flu­ence of the Kluti­na and Cop­per Rivers, was estab­lished in 1898 as a camp for prospect­ing gold min­ers. After the Richard­son High­way route opened in 1900, road­hous­es sprung up every 15 to 20 miles, pro­vid­ing ser­vices for trav­el­ers between Valdez and Fair­banks. You could get meals, lodg­ing, mail ser­vice, med­ical help, hay for your horse, gasoline…  ...more

The muse­ums are housed in his­tor­i­cal cab­ins at the Cop­per Cen­ter Lodge. They con­tain ear­ly Russ­ian reli­gious arti­cles, Athabas­can bas­kets, tele­graph equip­ment, min­er­al dis­plays, cop­per and gold min­ing mem­o­ra­bil­ia and trap­ping arti­cles from the ear­ly-day Cop­per Val­ley. A short walk takes you to the Stam­ped­ers Cemetery.

Housed in rus­tic log cab­ins, the muse­um offers the vis­i­tor a unique look at the var­ied past of the Cop­per Riv­er Val­ley area. Exhibits include ear­ly min­ing of gold and cop­per, and Russ­ian artifacts.

This 17b Ease­ment pro­vides access to pub­lic lands around Kluti­na Lake across pri­vate­ly owned Native land. A 60-foot wide ease­ment pro­ceeds approx­i­mate­ly 23 miles along the Kluti­na Riv­er and bluffs and ter­mi­nates at a one-acre site ease­ment where vis­i­tors can camp and park for up to 24 hours. It is rec­om­mend­ed for high clear­ance or 4‑wheel dri­ve vehi­cles only. This ease­ment extends about 7 miles through pri­vate lands, so camp­ing or parking…  ...more

His­toric Cop­per Cen­ter is one of the old­est non-native com­mu­ni­ties in Alaska’s Inte­ri­or. Found­ed as a gov­ern­ment agri­cul­tur­al exper­i­men­tal sta­tion, it lat­er served as a trans­porta­tion cen­ter for gold rush prospec­tors. Also find the inter­pre­tive sign where you’ll learn about the local fish species that make their home in dif­fer­ent habi­tat nich­es of Cop­per Riv­er water­shed creeks and rivers.