Hatcher Pass

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Hatcher Pass
Elevation	3886 ft./1148 m.
Location	Alaska,  United States
Range	Talkeetna Mountains

Hatcher Pass (3886 ft./1148 m.) is a high mountain pass in the Talkeetna Mountains. The nearest incorporated communities are Palmer, approximately 12 miles (19 km) to the south, and Willow, approximately 26 miles (42 km) to the west. Both communities are at an elevation of approximately (250 ft).

Contents 1 Overview 2 Skiing 3 Mining 4 Geography 5 Geology 6 References

[edit] Overview

The road over the pass is not maintained during the winter and is generally closed by snow from late September to July.

There are no known historical native settlements in the area, although Tanaina Indians hunted for caribou, sheep, and moose in the western Talkeetna Mountains until the 1930s. Human development in the area, including the road over the pass, is almost entirely due to gold mining.^[1]

It is a much-frequented recreation area, popular for skiing, snowmobiling, hiking, camping, hunting, white-water kayaking, berry-picking, parapenting, climbing, recreational gold-mining, mountain biking, etc. Independence Mine State Historical Park consists of 271 acres (1.10 km²), with well-preserved mine buildings, and a mining museum which offers underground mine tours, in Independence Valley, an alpine valley just below the pass.^[2][3] A large tract of land organized as the Hatcher Pass State Management area includes and surrounds the State Park and the pass.^[4] Private patented mining claims are scattered throughout the area, many with picturesque ruins of mining operations from the first half of the 20th century.

Food and lodging is available at The Hatcher Pass Lodge in Independence Valley, and at the Motherlode Lodge at the foot of the pass on the Palmer side. In the 1970s the Independence Mine managers house (the current museum) was open as a bar and lodge.

[edit] Skiing

The area has a rich skiing heritage. Historic photos show miners recreating on skis. In the 1930s Anchorage skiers were bused to the Fishhook Inn to use the rope tow there. ^[5] That was only one of several small rope-tow ski lifts that have operated near the pass over the years up to the 1960s, although only traces of them can be found now.^[6]

The pass is one of the most popular road-accessible back-country skiing areas in the state. Usually it is the first urban-accessible area of Alaska to get skiable snow in the fall. The backcountry skiing season generally extends from late September to late April. Near the Hatcher Pass Lodge and the museum area trails are groomed for skate and diagonal skiing, with a season that typically extends from October to April.

Snowmobiles are prohibited within large areas of the Hatcher Pass State Management Area that are frequented by skiiers. There are several back-country huts in the area, a wilderness loop can be travelled over the mountain passes and glaciers, linking these huts.

Many proposals to build a modern ski area have been advanced over the years. In 2005 the Mat-Su Borough extended the electric grid and built a short access road to the proposed site of a base lodge.^[7]

[edit] Mining

Hatcher Pass is in the Willow Creek mining district. Over 500,000 ounces of gold has been produced from the district.^[8] The first mining claims were staked in the Hatcher Pass area in 1906. Although the first mining efforts were placer mining of stream gravels, and placer mining in the area has continued sporadically to this day, underground hard-rock mining of gold from quartz veins accounts for most of the mineral wealth extracted from the Hatcher Pass area. The first mill in the area started operating in 1908. Underground mining continued at a variety of locations around the pass until 1951. In the 1980s one of the area's hard-rock mines was briefly re-opened. At least one mining company is actively exploring for gold in the area now.^[9]

[edit] Geography

The Hatcher Pass road crosses the extreme southwestern corner of the Talkeetna Mountains. The area has been heavily glaciated. Steep-walled cirques, jagged aretes, and hanging valleys above U-shaped valleys characterize the terrain. Trees grow only in the lowest valley bottoms. Brush, often dense, grows on lower mountain slopes, yielding to open tundra as elevation increases. Small glaciers (>2square miles) exist in the headwaters of major streams. Some peaks are over 6,000 feet (1,800 m) tall.^[10]

[edit] Geology

At Hatcher Pass the southwestern margin of the Tertiary-Cretaceous-age Talkeetna Mountains batholith abuts an older pelitic schist unit. The Talkeetna Mountains batholith in this area consists of a 74ma-old tonalite body to the east and a 67ma-old quartz monzonite to the west. The schist consists mainly of metamorphosed and deformed sedimentary rocks, probably of Jurassic age. Plutonic bodies and dikes of Jurassic age are found within the schist, some are deformed, some postdate deformation. Undeformed Tertiary terrastial sediments of the Chickaloon and Arkose Ridge Formations lie to the south of the Jurassic schists and intrusives.^[11]

Gold-bearing (+/- Ag, W, Sb, As, Cu, Mo, Pb, Te, Zn, Hg) veins occur in the 74ma-old tonalite, the schist, and the Jurassic intrusives, but not in the 67ma-old quartz monzonite or in the Tertiary sediments.^[12]

The Castle Mountain Fault is a major tectonic feature. It strikes ENE and passes a few miles south of Hatcher Pass. It can be clearly seen crossing the Hatcher Pass road where concrete barriers and fencing protect the road from landslides of the incompetent rocks on the fault trace. Studies show that magnitude 7 earthquakes can be expected to occur on this fault on approximately a 700-year cycle. The last big earthquake was probably 650 years ago.^[13][14][15]

[edit] References

Cegory:Mountain passes of Alaska