THE COPPER RIVER CENSUS AREA LAND BRIEF
Land in the
Wrangell Mountains setting.
Copper River Census Area has 24,647.4 square miles of land in Alaska. 4 mapped landscape regions meet across Copper River Census Area: Wrangell Mountains, Pacific Coastal Mountains, Copper Plateau, among others.
Steep volcanic mountains are extensively glaciated in the Wrangell Range. Rock, ice and sparse alpine vegetation dominate much of this rugged high-elevation region.
Regional context: Wrangell Mountains ↗ · Regional mapping across the county footprint
Where the landscape changes
Copper River Census Area intersects 4 mapped regional units. The largest mapped shares are:
- Wrangell Mountains38.2%
- Pacific Coastal Mountains26.7%
- Copper Plateau23.3%
- Alaska Range11.7%
Pacific Coastal Mountains in Copper River Census Area
Coastal Alaska's steep, wet mountains include large areas of glacial terrain. Rocky slopes and ice-covered highlands contrast with lower shrub-covered settings where vegetation can establish.
Read the regional source ↗Copper Plateau in Copper River Census Area
An old glacial lake basin forms a nearly level to rolling plateau with numerous lakes and wetlands. Silty and clayey deposits support black spruce, shrubs and wetland vegetation.
Read the regional source ↗Finding your parcel within Copper River Census Area
The atlas lists 20 cities, towns, townships, and Census communities associated with Copper River Census Area, including Mendeltna, Chistochina, Paxson. The list includes overlapping geography types and does not divide the county into exclusive service areas.
Copper River Census Area by land and water
The Census records 470 square miles of water within Copper River Census Area, or 1.9% of its total area. That share is close to Copper River Census Area’s 1.9%. This is geographic context; waterfront status and usable land must be checked at the parcel.
For scale, Copper River Census Area has 291 times the land area of nearby Chitina CDP (84.7 square miles). These areas describe boundaries, not comparable property prices.
The Census boundary meets Chugach Census Area, Matanuska-Susitna Borough, Southeast Fairbanks Census Area, Yakutat City and Borough within Alaska. A tract near one of these lines should be matched to the county identifier on its own records.