Copper Country Alliance Annual Meeting
Image from Karolina Zákravská’s North American Place Project. Courtesy of the artist.
by Michelle McAfee
On November 23, the Copper Country Alliance (CCA) held its annual meeting at the Kenny Lake Community Hall. Karolína Zákravská was the guest presenter, sharing her work: “The North American Place Project: Wrangell Volcanic Field.” Twenty-two people attended in person, with four people on Zoom. Attendees enjoyed a dessert potluck, and Janelle Eklund's rhubarb creation won the People's Choice Dessert Award.
Robin Mayo acknowledged the service of board members Riedel, Linda Rutledge, David Wellman, and Danny Rosenkrans. She gave the Treasurer's Report, substituting for treasurer Rosenkrans. CCA reported its total bank balance is $6,922.67, with an income of $629 and $33 in operating costs in 2024.
In his annual report, Wellman said CCA is in flux, with some supporters and board members transitioning out. Due to these changes, the organization's activity level was lower this year than in previous years. Still, Wellman said they focused on speaking with relevant agencies about environmental concerns affecting the Copper Basin.
This year, the organization spoke out to BLM in favor of retaining protections for 28 million acres of D-1 lands in Alaska, to the National Park Service regarding trapping where residential dogs are present, and to the Alaska Department of Transportation (Alaska DOT) to express concerns about roadway pesticide use.
Image from Karolina Zákravská’s North American Place Project. Courtesy of the artist.
CCA communicated with the University of Alaska Land Management program regarding their selection of federal land in the Tangle Lakes area, a place of considerable use by Copper Basin residents. They also spoke with BLM, Alaska DOT, Ahtna, and the National Park Service to advocate for precautions against introducing invasive species in the new development of the Gulkana River Access (Wellman clarified in a later email that CCA supports this development overall). In addition, they participated in public comment processes on heliskiing, mining, and other public lands issues.
Mayo followed, saying, "We are looking for people who want to be involved in this organization. We can do more if we have more people." Potential members or volunteers can email cca@coppervalleyak.net.
Riedel introduced guest artist Karolina Zákravská, saying, “I have always admired Karolina. She loves the outdoors, is funny, hard-working, and dogs love her. I appreciated the work Karolina did for the Community College and the Copper Basin 300 Sled Dog Race."
Karolina Zákravská took the floor to a warm round of applause and showed the first slide of her presentation: a towering, jagged sawtooth mountain with a steep snow field falling down the face.
Image from Karolina Zákravská’s North American Place Project. Courtesy of the artist.
The genesis of the North American Place Project came when Zákravská was teaching classes in Chistochina. She and Cheesh’na Tribal Council Board Member Evelyn Beeter talked about the Ahtna language, including how acknowledgments of names and places could be used more in publications. Zákravská became interested in pairing mountains in the region with place names she learned.
She started by sketching simple illustrations of Hwniindi K’ełt‘aeni (meaning Upstream from The One): Mt. Sanford.
Last summer, Zákravská was accepted to an exhibit opportunity that opened up in Kennecott through the Wrangell Mountains Center called Stories of Our Landscapes. She had two months to create her project. She spent one month thinking about it.
At first, Zákravská didn't know the theme would be volcanoes. She traveled to McCarthy frequently from Eagle River, where she lives, and began reading and learning about the mountains that captured her attention—all of which were volcanoes.
“Suddenly, I had a giant pile of books, was talking to scientists, and telling people about these mountains,” said Zákravská. She took a lot of notes and met with Nabesna Elder Wilson Justin to try to comprehend the cultural significance of the mountains to the Ahtna people. He gave Zákravská the blessing to share factual information about the Ahtna place names she was learning.
Image from Karolina Zákravská’s North American Place Project. Courtesy of the artist.
A month before her exhibit, Zákravská posted on social media that she needed to fly to see these mountains. Copper Valley Air responded, polished the windows of the plane, and flew her and her camera around the peaks. Three hours and forty photos later, she was grateful to touch down on terra firma, woozy from getting airsick. But she got the images she needed.
Zákravská started illustrating the mountains from photographs. She wanted to tell the stories of these volcanoes in a way that people could understand and enlisted her friend Bryson Corbett to help with the writing.
North American Place Project: Wrangell Volcanic Field, was exhibited in the Kennecott Recreation Hall on July 27. It is the first in what Zákravská hopes will be an ongoing series in a continuous project she anticipates working on for the rest of her life.
Her presentation shifted from black and white photographs of massive peaks in the Wrangells like Mt. Wrangell, Mt. Sanford, and Mt. Bona - all of which are volcanoes, to colorful illustrations of the same mountains, containing easy-to-read information with the placename, type of volcano, age, last known eruption, elevation, GPS coordinates, geological records, and any other tidbits of interest about the mountain.
Zákravská is just getting started and hopes to collaborate with other artists in the future as her project expands. To see more of her work, visit https://www.karolinastudios.com/. Follow @northamericanplaceproject on Facebook and Instagram for updates on the project.