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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. |
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