This Day in Alaska History-August 23rd, 1914

By 1914, the war in Europe’s far reach began affecting the goings-on in Alaska.

That war affected copper mining operations and several would close down in the winter of 1914. The closures were the result of labor shortages. Many of the miners were European immigrants, and those immigrants returned to Europe to fight in the war.

On August 23rd, 1914, “The Alaska Citizen” would headline those closures in their paper. They reported that the Copper River and Northwestern Railroads were closing down as winter approached.

The initial concerns were short-lived, however; by 1915, mining had rebounded, and massive amounts of copper were pulled from the mountains, and Alaska would stand out as a major producer that would supply the nation’s copper needs for the war effort.

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