Cooper Landing
Alaska
•EST. 1884 • Population: 231
A hub of outdoor adventure, Cooper Landing is nestled in the majestic Kenai Mountains along the turquoise waters of Kenai Lake and the upper Kenai River. It’s no wonder the community is known as the “Gem of the Kenai Peninsula.”
Most of the community straddles the Sterling Highway at the west end of Kenai Lake. The town swells into the thousands every summer as anglers, campers, hikers, and other outdoor enthusiasts flock here to enjoy the famed upper Kenai River region. All visitor facilities are available in Cooper Landing.
You’ll find everything from cozy accommodations, wilderness lodges, motels, B&B's, and charming campgrounds...to excellent restaurants and food trucks. Convenience stores, tackle shops, a post office, emergency services, and two gas stations. All these amenities make living, playing, and visiting here easy.
Photo: Best Route Productions
Location
Cooper Landing is centrally located on the Kenai Peninsula. The community sits in a glacial valley that spans a total area of 69.8 square miles. The main part of town lies at Mile 48.7 of the Sterling Highway within a national historic district, where information on the community's origins and historical artifacts can be found.
Photo: Cooper Landing Museum Achieves
Community History
Because it is rich in Native and pioneer history, Cooper Landing is a Kenai Mountains- Turnagain Arm (KMTA) National Heritage Area. Community Native Heritage areas are places whose collective stories are important to telling the story of our nation. Pieces of Cooper Landing's history can be seen at the museum at Mile 48.7 on the Sterling Highway. On site are a school house, built in 1955, and Jack Lean's Cabin, built in the late 1920's, which became the home of the Cooper Landing Post Office for almost 40 years. The museum is operated by volunteers and is open from Memorial Day until Labor Day.
Native Heritage
Cooper Landing is the traditional, seasonal home of the Alaska Native Kenaitze Indian Tribe. Their ancestry is tied to the Dena’ina, some of whom likely migrated here from north of the Alaska Range.
The Kenaitze Tribe remains here to this day and partners with Chugach National Forest to help showcase their heritage at two interpretive sites. The K’Beq archaeological site at MP 52.6 features short, guided tours on a wheelchair-accessible boardwalk and offers visitors a view of a Dena’ina house pit and cold storage pits. "Footprints" is a self-guided interpretive nature trail at MP 52.1.
Photo: Best Route Productions
Gold Rush History
Photo: Cooper Landing Museum Achieves
Community residents who started the town in the early days.
In 1884, gold miner, Joseph Cooper, and his crew traveled up the Kenai River from Cook Inlet. Ten years later he discovered gold near what is now known as Cooper Creek and Cooper Landing was born. The discovery brought an influx of people and when the gold dried up around 1910, many chose to stay on and either subsist on the hunting, fishing, and gardening, or became guides, trappers, and fur farmers. A school and post office opened in the 1920's. Cooper Landing was eventually connected to the town of Kenai by road in 1948, and to Anchorage in 1951.
Photo: Cooper Landing Museum Achieves
Visit History
Then
Now
Alaska trailblazer, John Potts “Jack” Lean, came to Alaska with his brother Charlie in 1910 to work for the Copper River Railroad. They came to the Cooper Landing area that fall on a whim, hoping to hunt for moose and decided to stay. In the early 1920s, Jack built a log cabin that he used for a store and an unofficial post office for many years.
In 1949, you knew you had reached Cooper Landing when you caught a glimpse of Jack Lean’s store. Crossing over the wooden Civilian Conservation Corps bridge, built in 1935, you were greeted by the log cabin store on the right and the Towle’s garden on the left.
Visit Jack Lean's store at the Cooper Landing Museum.
