Copper Harbor is an embayment on Prince of Wales Island on the eastern shore of Hetta Inlet, near the historical Coppermount mine, about 38 miles (61 km) west-southwest of Ketchikan and 8.6 miles (14 km) east-northeast of Hydaburg, Alaska. The harbor and mine are named after Copper Mountain, which forms the northern shore and rises to an elevation of 3,816 feet (1,163 m). Hetta Inlet is named after the abandoned village of Hetta, historically situated in Hetta Cove, about 3.5 miles (6 km) south-southeast of Copper Harbor. The name was first reported by Jefferson F. Moser in 1897, who commanded the U.S. Fish Commission steamer Albatross. Prince of Wales Island is part of the Alexander terrane, a fragment of an accretionary wedge underlying much of southeastern Alaska, the Saint Elias Mountains of eastern Alaska, Yukon, and British Columbia, as well as part of west-central British Columbia’s coastal region. Copper Mountain is a granodiorite pluton that intruded the local rocks of the Descon Formation and Wales Group about 102 million years ago during the Cretaceous period. The Wales Group, approximately 11,000 feet (3,400 m) thick, consists of varying amounts of marble, schist, and phyllite formed during the Precambrian. At the head of Copper Harbor, the Wales Group is in fault contact with the Descon Formation’s marine sediments. These rocks comprise 26,000 feet (8,000 m) of turbidite, graywacke, mudstone, and basalt, dating to the Middle to Late Ordovician. During the Pleistocene, an ice sheet covered the area. Wisconsin-age valley glaciers carved classic U-shaped depressions, now mostly covered by glacial till. The region is renowned for its mineral deposits, formed where the Copper Mountain pluton intruded calcareous rocks of the Wales Group, resulting in mineralizations of copper, zinc, molybdenum, and gold.

Before the Haida emigrated to Southeast Alaska in the early 1700s, the Tlingit had three major settlements on Prince of Wales Island: Shakan, Tuxekan, and Klawock. The Tlingit lived in permanent villages during winter, from November to May, and moved to seasonal sites from May or June to October. When the Kaigani Haida migrated north from Haida Gwaii to the Alexander Archipelago, they displaced the Tlingit, who moved farther north. The Haida discovered sockeye salmon streams in Hetta Inlet and established a village or seasonal camp at Hetta Cove. In 1774, Spanish explorer Juan José Pérez Hernández likely made first contact with the Haida at Cape Muzon on Dall Island. Subsequently, the Spanish, Russians, French, and Americans conducted maritime fur trading expeditions along the northwest coast. Despite these encounters, the indigenous peoples of the northwest coast retained substantial autonomy and control over their land, preserving their traditional culture and activities, including trading. The economy of the Tlingit and Haida people evolved from subsistence and trade to bartering, and eventually to employment to afford European manufactured goods. Commercial salmon fishing began in the Prince of Wales Island area a few years after the Alaska Purchase in 1867. In 1878, the North Pacific Trading and Packing Company built the first salmon cannery in Klawock, about 29 miles (47 km) northwest of Copper Harbor. The Kaigani Haida, employed in these salteries and canneries, entered into rent or lease agreements with the operators for access to sockeye streams traditionally owned by house lineages. However, these agreements were soon neglected, leading to intensive overfishing of local sockeye stocks. For instance, at Hetta Cove, 24,022 sockeye were harvested in 1886, increasing to 47,769 in 1894 and 201,299 in 1896. Initially, Kaigani Haida were employed to seine and process fish, but they were later replaced by floating fish traps operated by companies that hired immigrant laborers. Consequently, some Haida men turned to mining jobs, which proliferated in the late 1800s.

Two of the largest copper-producing mines in Alaska were at Hetta Inlet on the west side of Prince of Wales Island and Kasaan on the east side. The largest known deposit yielded 10,194,264 pounds (4.6 million kg) of copper, 87,778 ounces (2,490 kg) of silver, and 7,676 ounces (218 kg) of gold in the early 20th century. The Copper Mountain property comprised 15 to 20 claims located north of and adjacent to Copper Harbor. A gravity cable tramway connected mining claims at the top of the mountain to the stamp mill and wharf at Coppermount on Copper Harbor’s north shore. A sawmill and several substantial buildings were also near the wharf. The facility used a Pelton wheel to generate electricity for the sawmill. The New York claim, a mine at the mountain’s summit, was an open cut about 40 feet (12 m) deep, following a copper vein 3 to 30 feet (1-9 m) wide. A 60-foot (18 m) tunnel eventually accessed the vein. Alaska’s first copper smelter was built in 1905 at Coppermount by the Alaska Copper Company. Five months later, a second smelter was built at Hadley on the Kasaan Peninsula. The copper produced by these smelters was shipped elsewhere, with profits dependent on fluctuations in the global market. Prices rose from 12 cents per pound in 1904 to 24 cents per pound in 1906, leading to a local industry boom and the opening of several new mines. Communities such as Hadley and Coppermount grew rapidly, adding stores and hotels. However, the main supplier and shipping point for these towns was still Ketchikan. The Coppermount post office was established in 1900, and by 1905, the town had over 200 residents. In 1907, copper prices dropped back to pre-1904 levels. The Prince of Wales copper was not as high-grade as copper from other areas, requiring excessive effort to process the ore. Coppermount closed, and Hadley struggled on for a few more years. The high-grade Kennecott Mine northeast of Cordova opened in 1911, ending most efforts to extract high-grade copper from Southeast Alaska, including Coppermount. In 1921, the Hetta Packing Company built a salmon cannery at the old wharf site, but it closed in 1930. Read more here and here. Explore more of Copper Harbor and Hetta Inlet here: