Copper River Princess Wilderness Lodge: This facility, scheduled to be completed in May of 2002, will cater to those visiting the Wrangell-St. Elias area.

• Author: Saunders, Stacey
• Position: Brief Article

Twelve years and four wilderness lodges later, Princess Cruises, also known as Princess Tours, took a cue from a baseball film: "if you build it, they will come." Construction of the Copper River Princess Wilderness Lodge began in the summer of 2001.

Set on a scenic bluff in the Glenallen/Copper River area, it joins the Kenai Princess Wilderness Lodge, Mt. McKinley Princess Wilderness Lodge, Denali Princess Wilderness Lodge and Fairbanks Princess Wilderness Lodge.

CRPWL is the Wrangell-St. Elias area's first major tourism project. It will be four miles from a visitor center scheduled to open in July 2002. Edmond Roberts, chief of interpretations for the Wrangell-St. Elias National Park and Preserve, reports that 30,000 visitors enter the park for recreation or subsistence each year.

"With the Princess lodge and the new park visitor complex ... it's going to be a nice area to take a break on the way to or from Valdez," says Roberts. Even before its May 2002 opening, the $10 million lodge is generating economic benefits--inside the Copper Valley and beyond.

Princess Tours Construction built CRPWL's support and service buildings, but contracted the main lodge to Fairbanks corporation Alcan Construction Inc. "Ninety-nine percent of the construction employees are Alaska residents," states Alcan President Jeff Ailing.

Dave Soderlund, P.E., who oversees design and construction of the project adds, "All of the Princess Tours employees on the job are Alaskans." Subcontractors include local companies Fullford Electric Inc., Patrick Mechanical Inc. and Superior Roofing. Regional Native corporation Ahtna entered a land agreement with Princess and rented earthwork equipment to the project. Soderlund counts CRPWL's other economic benefits: Construction employees stay in local hotels--the Copper Center Lodge and Caribou Inn in Glenallen...