Mile 0: Cordova Wharf

I haven't been able to find good track diagrams for most of the railroad, so I'm relying mainly on photos to get an idea of what was on the line. If anyone can point me in the direction of things like Sanborn insurance maps (if these were done at all in Alaska for this period), valuation drawings, and the like, it will be most appreciated. According to the 1913 Alaska Railroad Commission report, “The company’s terminals include a substantial pile and timber wharf, 700 feet by 80 feet, located about a mile north of the present [Cordova] town center." The vast majority of the CR&NW's traffic was copper concentrates from the Kennecott mill, shipped via this wharf to the Guggenheim smelter in Tacoma, Wash. Here is a photo of this wharf from about 1911:

Here's a slightly wider, and slightly later, view, with ships at the dock. It looks as if there's a cut of cars on the runaround track in this view as well:

Here's a tinted stereo view on the dock itself of a ship loading at the dock:

Here's an example, first, of how most of the copper concentrate was ahipped -- bagged, on steel flat cars. The bags are being unloaded on the Cordova dock here, about 1920:

In this case, the bags of concentrate are being sent down a chute, I think to a smaller vessel below the level of the dock. In the two views above, the sign on the shed reads optimistically "CORDOVA THE 'GOLDEN GATE' OF ALASKA". This sign, and possibly the shed on which it's located, appears to have been added some years after the railroad was finished.

In other cases, the bags were loaded onto nets and hoisted onto larger vessels:


A wider view of the dock and a ship from the opposite direction:

Again, we see the most common piece of CR&NW rolling stock, the steel flat car. Since there was only a single track on the wharf itself, it appears that trains of concentrate, which could be 35 cars or more, were pulled onto the runaround track visible in the first two photos. Then the loco ran around the train and shoved it the final distance onto the wharf.

Here is a shot of Mrs Warren G Harding being lowered from the USS Henderson to the Cordova wharf during President Harding's 1923 tour of Alaska:

The presidential party rode to the Million Dollar Bridge and back via the /cr7nw.