Katalla Update

Since my major effort on this blog in 2015, I've revisited other possible sources on the web, and new information and photos have come to light. However, the previous posts were made under an older version of Blogger and HTML, and I find I can't easily update existing posts without reloading photos. In some cases, this would be a major task. As a result, i'll be doing updates with new posts unless circumstances require a more complete re-edit.

This cropped version of a 1917 USGS map shows what is probably the completed line of the Katalla project as of 1907. Some of the track and equipment appears to have been in some type of operation at the time as the Alaska Anthracite Railroad:

Here is a map of th 1906 survery:

Although much of the equipment used to start the original Copper River and Northwestern project in Katalla was moved to Cordova after the 1907 storms by the Morgan-Guggenheim syndicate, some was left in Katalla. This included at least some wooden coal or gravel dump cars and at least one locomotive. According to Wikipedia,

The Alaska Anthracite Railroad Company was formed about 1907 by several people to exploit the Bering River coal fields after the Alaska Syndicate that consisted of M. Guggenheim & Sons and J.P. Morgan & Co. left the area for the Copper River copper. It was after the 1907 winter storm destroyed their Copper River and Northwestern Railway (CR&NW) in the Katalla - Palm Point area and access to the Bering River coal fields.

However, since the US government had withdrawn the coal leases in the Bering River fields, getting access required effort, and the new group made progress only by 1916.

It appears that in 1916 the Alaska Anthracite Railroad Company began building their railroad from the Controller Bay area to the coal fields about 20 miles to the north. The railroad actually began at a place called Goose City on the Bering River. There were plans to extend it south to Controller Bay, but it never happened.

The Wikipedia entry says the railroad lasted in some form until 1922. Here are two photos I've found of equipment that was left behind by the Katalla Company on the south side of the Copper River before construction of the Copper River and Northwestern began on the north side in Cordova, which seems to have had some continued use by the later project. The larger cars in the left rear appear to be Hart ballast cars.

Above is a 1922 photo of a Dickson loco and other equipment that was left behind at Katalla.

Here is a later photo from the air of the same equipment, much deteriorated. A more complete discussion of the Katalla project appears in this post.