Alaska Central

Company History: Alaska Central was established in 1902 to build from a new port to be constructed on Resurrection Bay (now the city of Seward, Alaska) to farming and timber lands along the Susitna and Tanana Rivers. They built 45 miles into the Placer River Valley and the company started to run out of money. New financiers were brought in pushing construction another 52 miles into the wilderness. They too ran out of money. That was it for the Alaska Central. The newly organized Alaska Northern took over the property in 1910.

Successor/Parent History: Alaska Northern was established to take over the failed Alaska Central Railroad. They took over the property in 1910 but ANRR quickly became a pawn of greater forces. Guggenheim interests owned the Copper River & Northwestern, which ran northeast from the port of Cordova to the copper mines. They were possibly concerned that ANRR might stumble across a copper deposit and dilute the value of their holdings. They maneuvered to prevent any substantive work on the Alaska Northern right of way. Anxious to have a railroad from the coast to the Alaskan interior, the federal government bought the Alaska Northern for a quarter of its cost of construction in 1916. At the time of the purchase, Alaska Northern had 71 miles of line, three locomotives plus a steam dummy, a rotary snow plow, five coaches, an observation car, 24 flats, three boxcars, two tank cars, and two cabooses. In 1923 the AN was merged with the Tanana Valley Railroad to form the Alaska Railroad.

Brief History: The U.S. is a country of 50 states covering a vast swath of North America, with Alaska in the northwest and Hawaii extending the nation’s presence into the Pacific Ocean. Major Atlantic Coast cities are New York, a global finance and culture center, and capital Washington, DC. Midwestern metropolis Chicago is known for influential architecture and on the west coast, Los Angeles' Hollywood is famed for filmmaking.