Nestled between Hawkins Island and Lake Eyak and overshadowed by Mt. Eccles, Cordova is a hardworking fishing community on the east coast of Prince William Sound. Travelers who make the extra effort to reach the community of 2,121 residents — accessible only by boat or small plane — are well rewarded with a visit to a quaint coastal town in a dramatic natural setting with an intriguing history, great seafood and a wide range of outdoor adventures lying at its doorstep.
The 50-mile Copper River Hwy is for the most part a gravel road that serves as the gateway to the Copper River Delta, a wildlife-rich wilderness with numerous opportunities for hiking, fishing and birding. Millions of birds and waterfowl stop and rest along the delta during the spring and fall, including seven million western sandpipers and the entire population of West Coast dunlins. Birding activity peaks the first weekend of May when the Copper River Delta Shorebird Festival is staged and birders from around the world arrive to enjoy the largest migration in the U.S.
Equally impressive are the twin wonders at the end of the highway: breathtaking Childs Glacier and the Million Dollar Bridge. Childs is one of the most active glaciers in Alaska, advancing some 500 feet a year, dumping icebergs into the Copper River with thunderous calving just 1,200 feet away from an observation deck. Just beyond the glacier is the Million Dollar Bridge, a four-span trestle completed in 1910 and put out of commission by the 1964 earthquake. The bridge has since been rehabilitated and you can now drive or walk to the view from the middle where just downstream is Childs Glacier and upstream lies Miles Glacier, the source of those icebergs floating beneath you.
To appreciate Cordova’s long and colorful history, a visit to the Cordova Historical Museum is almost mandatory. The Ilanka Cultural Center Museum preserves and exhibits a collection of prehistoric, historic and contemporary tribal artifacts from the Prince William Sound and Copper River Delta. A complete Orca whale skeleton, one of five on display in the world, hangs in Ilanka's lobby. The area was first settled by nomadic Eyak Indians, providing a trade center for the various tribes occupying the wide-flung region. Commercial fisherman built the first cannery here as early as 1889, but modern-day Cordova was born when the sleepy seaside village was chosen as the terminus for a railway line from the Kennecott copper mines near McCarthy. One of the most impressive engineering feats of the time, the $23 million Copper River & Northwest Railway was completed in 1911. Within five years, Cordova was a boomtown, with more than $32 million worth of copper ore passing through its docks on the way to the smelters in Tacoma.
After the mines closed in 1938, Cordova turned to fishing, its main economic base today and the reason its Small Boat Harbor, one of the five largest in the state, is the heart and soul of the town. Throughout the summer wharfs hum with activity with salmon seiners and gillnetters frantically trying to meet their quota before the runs are closed. Extending up the slopes from the docks is Cordova’s commercial district, an area of restaurants, shops and attractions that is easy to explore on foot. One of the streets, Railroad Avenue, departs town as the Copper River Highway and the route to spectacular scenery and great adventures that lie out the road.