|
|
ABOUT
NELCHINA
(nell-CHEE-nuh) ALASKA
Nelchina is located between Milepost 137.5 and 150.5 of
the Glenn Highway, at the junction of the Little Nelchina
River and Crooked Creek. It is about 30 miles west of Glennallen
and Mendeltna, just east of the Mat-Su Borough boundary.
It lies at approximately 61.990520° North Latitude and
-146.7704° West Longitude. (Sec. 6, T002N, R008W, Copper
River Meridian.) Nelchina is located in the Chitina Recording
District. The area encompasses 46.0 sq. miles of land and
0.7 sq. miles of water. It is located in the continental
climate zone. Temperature extremes range from -74 to 96.
Snowfall averages 39 inches, with total precipitation of
9 inches per year.
Prospecting
for gold |
Nelchina is an Athabascan Indian name.
Gold in the creeks draining from the Chugach Mountains brought prospectors
to this area in the late 1800s. Nelchina area offered several trails
into the mountains. Nelchina was a mining settlement established
around 1913. It was first reported by Theodore Chapin in a 1915
USGS publication. |
|
|
