McCarthy Alaska Map

About McCarthy, Alaska

McCarthy is a locality in Copper River, Alaska, United States. It is a small community with a population of 107. The population density is 0.3 people per km². McCarthy is located at 61.4540°N, 142.8647°W. It observes the Alaska Time (America/Anchorage) timezone. ZIP code: 99566.

McCarthy endures as a rugged threshold where the persistent rush of McCarthy Creek carves through the earth, marking the pulse of a landscape defined by immense, silent scale. It lies 210.5 miles east of North Lakes, AK (from North Lakes, AK: bearing 91°T), and is situated 115.7 miles east-northeast of Valdez. The air here holds a crisp, subarctic clarity, thinning as the land rises toward the distant, jagged silhouette of the Wrangell Mountains. Within the vast expanse of the Wrangell-St. Elias National Preserve, the ground is a tapestry of taiga and tundra, where the low-slung light of late afternoon turns the gray gravel bars into streaks of tarnished silver. Thirteen miles upstream, the ancient ice of McCarthy Creek Glacier anchors the horizon, a frozen sentinel overlooking the deep, quiet basins like Fivemile Gulch that fracture the surrounding wilderness.

McCarthy retains the weathered ghost-wood architecture of a copper-boom era, standing as a defiant relic of a time when the ground was torn open for its mineral wealth. Today, the economy has shifted from the extraction of ore to a slow, deliberate stewardship of the wilderness, where the passage of time is measured by the seasonal shift of shadows rather than the ticking of a clock. Life in McCarthy remains tethered to the bush plane and the fundamental necessity of self-reliance, with the local character shaped by those who prefer the company of raven and grizzly to the noise of the modern world. The remnants of heavy machinery and rusted tracks lie half-submerged in the tall grasses, artifacts of a frantic past now surrendered to the slow, relentless reclamation of the northern woods.

About This McCarthy Map Page

This page provides an embedded street and satellite map of McCarthy, Alaska. Coordinates: 61.453957, -142.864693. Live weather conditions are sourced directly from the National Weather Service. Real-time local and world news feeds keep the page current.

Detailed location data for McCarthy includes the ZIP code (99566), telephone area code (907), county seat of Copper River, and school district assignment (Copper River School District).

Location data is drawn from the USGS Geographic Names Information System (GNIS) and cross-verified against 2020 US Census records by coordinate proximity. Population figures are sourced from the 2020 US Census.