1960 Map of Taku River C-6

About this map

The Taku River corridor defines this remote stretch of the Alaska-Canada border, where the massive ice fields of the Tongass National Forest meet the drainage of the coastal range. This 1960 survey, based on aerial photography from 1948, documents a landscape dominated by active glacial systems including the Bacon Glacier, West Twin Glacier, and the aptly named Hades Highway. The presence of several cabins along the river banks and on Canyon Island points to a specialized economy of trapping or seasonal fishing in an otherwise uninhabited wilderness. Notable landmarks such as Devils Paw and Frostbite Peak line the indefinite international boundary, while the Twin Glacier Lake serves as the terminus for converging ice flows. This map preserves the mid-century extent of these glaciers before decades of significant retreat altered the geography of the Taku watershed.