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History of Cordova, Alaska
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| The Great Alaskan
Past... |
The
area has historically been the home to Aleuts, with the addition of
migrating Athabascan and Tlingit natives who called themselves Eyaks.
Alaskan Natives of other descents also settled in Cordova. Orca Inlet
was originally named "Puerto Cordova" by Don Salvador Fidalgo in 1790.
One
of the first producing oil fields in Alaska was discovered at Katalla,
47 miles southeast of Cordova, in 1902. The town of Cordova was named
in 1906 by Michael Heney, builder of the Copper River and Northwestern
Railroad. Cordova became the railroad terminus and ocean shipping port
for copper ore from the Kennecott Mine up the Copper River.
The
first trainload of ore was loaded onto the steamship "Northwestern,"
bound for a smelter in Tacoma, Washington, in April 1911. The
Bonanza-Kennecott Mines operated until 1938 and yielded over $200
million in copper, silver and gold. The Katalla oil field produced
until 1933, when it was destroyed by fire. Fishing became the economic
base in the early 1940s.
*information provided by
ilovealaska.com
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