Explorations in Alaska, 1899: route from Lynn Canal via headwaters of White and Tanana Rivers to Eagle City (U.S. Geological Survey, 21st…

The Geological Survey’s map of its 1899 route from Pyramid Harbor on Lynn Canal by the Dalton Trail — the old Chilkat trading trail into the interior — past Kluane Lake and over to the headwaters of the White and Tanana rivers, with the Chilkoot and White Pass trails, Native villages and the camps day by day.

Open full-screen map

Advertisement

Source

MapExplorations in Alaska, 1899 : route from Lynn Canal via headwaters of White and Tanana Rivers to Eagle City.
AuthorU.S. Geological Survey (W. J. Peters), 1900
ArchiveAlaska’s Digital Archives
RightsPublic domain. Published 1900 — before 1931, so public domain in the United States. Evidence
AccuracyAbout 31 km (RMS 3.5 km at 11 control points). Placed by hand in a map-queue session and approved by a person. If something sits in the wrong place, members can fix it with Fix placement on the map.
MethodPlaced by hand: a smoothing thin-plate spline through 11 places read from the scan and matched to their positions today. See the methodology.
Version1.0.1, updated 2026-10-06
CoversAlaska

Downloads

Project Homeland

This map is open for tracing into Project Homeland, one map of the trail network melded from every traced source. Members trace a trail by clicking along it: Trace a trail on the map.

Changelog

  • 1.0.1 (2026-10-06): Fix: place names re-placed where the map draws them (they had been set by an approximation of the warp: median 5.4 km, up to 6 km off).
  • 1.0.0 (2026-10-01): First release: placed by hand at 11 places. From the Native Routes sources register; Alaska’s Digital Archives (University of Alaska Fairbanks).

Credits

  • From the Native Routes sources register; Alaska’s Digital Archives (University of Alaska Fairbanks)
  • Georeferencing: Native Routes
  • Scan: Alaska’s Digital Archives

Control points

The full list of control points with residuals is in control-points.geojson. Historic names indexed for search: names.geojson.

Something on this map sits in the wrong place? Members can show where with Fix placement on the map — confirmed fixes are tested against the map’s other control points each night and credited here. For anything else, report a problem.

Talk about this map

Discussion board for AK

Start a thread All discussions

Know this map? Join free to add field notes, fix where a place sits on the map, and help find more maps.Join free

Sources from readers

Know a county history, a survey record or an article that bears on this? Add a source — it’s credited to you.

Advertisement