Here's the information I found on the Copper River and
Northwestern. My source is
"The White Pass" by Roy Minter,University of Alaska Press
1988.
I bought this book in Skagway and completed it after returning
home. In the epilogue the author states that ...........
M.J. Heney, who had been one of the major driving forces in
building the White Pass,if not the largest,by chance in 1905 read a report of RR
undertaking at Valdez backed by the Morgan and Guggenheim interest to reach
copper claims. He surveyed a route on his own,met with and showed the
Guggenheims that their Valdez/Katalla route was a bad one but they rejected his
offer. They tried their route and gave it up and bought Heneys Copper River
route survey for $250k and hired him as the contractor to build the 131 mile
route from Cordova to Chitina with a 65 mile branch to a Kennecott coal
discovery.
There is no mention of any other RRs supporting the project.
Another great book I bought in Skagway and finished reading is
"The Klondike Fever" by Pierre Berton,1958. He actually grew up in
Dawson.
Leo Phillipp