Copper Center Sightseeing Tours and Activities

Copper Center is located in Southcentral Alaska, on the Old Richardson Highway. Since the establishment of the Wrangell-St. Elias National Park and Preserve in 1980, Copper Center has been a starting point for this vast national park. With 13.2 million acres of virtually untouched wilderness, there’s a lot to explore. Strategically located at the confluence of the Klutina and Copper Rivers, Copper Center originally served as a large winter home for the Ahtna Athabascan indigenous families who have settled here for over 5,000 years. The first lodge in the Copper River area was built in 1896; it had a soft bed and a hot meal for transients, most of them gold diggers, who travelled the Valdez - Fairbanks Trail during the 1897-98 gold rush.