Glacier Creek Historic Mining Landscape: Cultural Landscapes Inventory, Wrangell-St. Elias National Park and Preserve

Region 11 Park Cultural Landscapes Program

Inventory Unit Description: The Glacier Creek Historic Mining Landscape is located within the boundaries of Wrangell-St. Elias National Park and Preserve. Glacier Creek is fed by several large glaciers and is a tributary of the Chitistone river, which drains into the Nizina river, which drains into the Chitina River, which drains into the Copper River, which drains into the Gulf of Alaska. The inventory unit boundary is represented by an irregular polygon encompassing an area of approximately 9470 acres. The landscape boundaries include all known historic sites and relevant landscape characteristics within the drainage associated with mineral exploration and development. The main historic sites include the Charles Nelson Camp (XMC-072), the Charles Nelson Prospect (XMC-072), the Radovan Camp (XMC-141), the Radovan ‘Greenstone’ Prospect, the Radovan ‘Binocular’ Prospect, the Radovan ‘Low-Contact’ Prospect, and the McGavock/Erickson Prospect. Circulation features of the landscape include numerous road traces, the remains of a hand tram across Glacier Creek, several foot-trail traces, and an airstrip. The historic sites represent a period of significance from the early days of prospecting in the drainage (1906) to when the owners gave up on mineral exploration for good and donated their claims to the Department of the Interior (1985). The landscape is significant under criteria A, for its contributions to the broad trends of history, it is of local significance, and its area of significance is exploration/settlement. Criteria G applies, as its period of significance extends well beyond the 50 year mark to 1985, when Geneva Pacific Corporation finally gave up its mineral interests in the region by donating all its lands to the Department of the Interior. The landscape satisfies the criteria for its property type as detailed in “Historic Properties Associated with Mineral Development in Wrangell-St. Elias National Park and Preserve, Alaska, 1898-1942”, a multiple property nomination to the National Register of Historic Places (Bleakley, 2000). Together the sites represent a mining landscape that spans over seven decades of historic activity. While not every site maintains individual integrity, they all contribute in unique ways to the integrity of the landscape. The landscape maintains integrity of location, design, workmanship, materials, feeling association and setting. The Radovan Camp and Nelson Camp/Prospect sites are sufficiently sophisticated to warrant further investigation, and as such are dealt with in more detail as component landscapes with their own associated inventories.

Glacier Creek Historic Mining Landscape: Cultural Landscapes Inventory, Wrangell-St. Elias National Park and Preserve

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